Abstract:

Bill Ferriter, a North Carolina NBCT, describes how Jolly outlines action steps based on her research: build the foundation, preview the process, organize the teams, define team expections, analyze the data, plan for learning and action, conduct successful meetings, maintain the momentum, etc.

Citation: Jolly, A. (2005). A facilitator’s guide to professional learning teams: Creating on-the-job opportunities for teachers to continually learn and grow. Oxford, OH: SERVE.

Author: Anne Jolly

Full Text:

By Anne Jolly
2005 (192 pp./paperback)
SERVE
Call 800-755-3277 to inquire about paper copies
Available from the National Staff Development Council

Reviewed by Bill Ferriter
Salem Middle School
Wake County Public School System

Establishing schools that function as professional learning communities is currently recognized as a reform strategy with great potential. Professional learning communities empower teachers to look reflectively at their practice in teams, focusing on student achievement. Teachers working in professional learning teams engage in powerful conversations about "best practices," opening the door to school improvement and personal growth.

But working in professional learning teams does not come naturally to teachers. The structure of schools naturally promotes isolation, as teachers have little time or opportunity during the day to interact as professionals. What's more, the culture of schooling has encouraged self-reliance. Teachers tend to believe that collaboration may expose personal weaknesses that they are unwilling to reveal. Isolation is profoundly embedded in the way schools work.

So, how does a school promote a collaborative environment where powerful conversations flourish? How can an interested administrator or teacher leader establish a structure for professional learning within a building where isolation is long-standing characteristic of adult interactions? Downloading a copy of Anne Jolly's Facilitator's Guide to Professional Learning Teams would be a great first step!

Jolly, a former Alabama Teacher of the Year, is currently a Senior Education Program Specialist at SERVE, which she supports schools interested in developing professional learning teams. Jolly has been interested in the potential of teacher collaboration throughout her teaching career. As she describes, "I wondered what it would be like to work in an environment that encourages teacher collaboration, support and personal growth. What would happen if teachers worked collectively to increase our expertise and change our teaching practices? Together, could we break the chains of tradition and forge a new way of doing business?"

Jolly received grants from the SERVE Regional Educational Laboratory and the Mobile (AL) Area Education Foundation to study teacher collaboration. Completing an action research project with two area middle schools, Jolly found that professional learning teams could have an impact on student achievement. Excited by these results, she began to "develop, establish, support and document a process of teacher collaboration."

A Facilitator's Guide to Professional Learning Teams is the end result of that documentation. As Jolly writes, "What I offer the reader are the results of my own search for professional community and my work with committed teachers and principals.... We learned as many of you are learning—out of a need and by trial and experiment. I share these tools...in the hope that you will become accomplished in transforming schools into a place where teachers can continually learn and grow."

The process of establishing professional learning teams is broken into four areas by Jolly: Prepare to Do the Work, Do the Work, Examine the Results, and Sustain the Teams. Each of these areas is further divided into ten action steps. These action steps are:

• Build the Foundation
• Preview the Process
• Organize the Teams
• Define Team Expectations
• Analyze the Data
• Plan for Learning and Action
• Conduct Successful Meetings
• Maintain the Momentum
• Assess Team Progress
• Facilitation 101

Each step begins with a review of the research supporting the action. Jolly has drawn from the work of leading learning community experts like Richard Dufour, Robert Eaker, Carlene Murphy, Robert Garmston, Bruce Wellman and Shirley Hord to introduce the concept of professional collaboration. Then, Jolly provides a facilitation guide and practical tools for each step. These tools are all "ready-to-use" and range from surveys and data collection records to learning team log sheets and norm setting protocols.

Researchers have been promoting teacher collaboration as a means to school reform for many years. Consider that Jolly was influenced by the work of Linda Darling Hammond and her colleagues, who, in 1996, recommended to the National Commission on Teaching for America's Future that school structures be changed to encourage collective effort on the part of teachers. Since that time, professional literature has continued to focus on the "why" behind learning communities, but little has been written to lead educators through the daunting process of making collaboration a regular part of school culture.

A Facilitator's Guide to Professional Learning Teams makes that concept practical and approachable. As Dr. Shirley Hoard, Scholar Emerita at the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, writes, "Anne has taken the essentials of an improvement or reform process and translated them ever so well into the activities of a learning community of professionals in the school." This facilitator's guide is a starting point for school leaders interested in exploring the potential for reform that exists within their own building, and it is a significant contribution to the professional learning community movement.

Tools and resources are designed to complement and update information in A Facilitator's Guide to Professional Learning Teams are available at this SERVE webpage.

Getting Results with Curriculum Mapping
Edited by Heidi Hayes Jacobs
2004 (182 pp./paperback)
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
ISBN: 0-87120-999-3
$25.95 (non-members)

Reviewed by Cossondra George
Middle School Math
Newberry, Michigan

When this book was offered for review, I was excited to get it since our school is in the midst of a curriculum mapping initiative, and I had missed the initial training on this topic. I thought I could get the book, read it, and know exactly what curriculum mapping was, and how I could best accomplish this mapping with my math curriculum.

The book was not a "how-to" guide though. Instead it is comprised of 10 chapters, each addressing some different aspect of curriculum mapping. I was initially disappointed, thinking I would not gain from reading this type of book.

However, as I read the chapters, I gained much valuable insight into not only how to best attack mapping our curriculum, but more importantly I came to understand why mapping is important, and how it can make an impact on teaching and learning when districts map their curriculum and utilize this tool to make decisions about how to best serve their students.

The chapters can be approached as stand alones, so I have tried to briefly outline each chapter individually. Some I found particularly useful, while others did not apply to my own situation.

Chapter One: Development of a Prologue addresses the need for setting the stage before undertaking the task of mapping a district's curriculum. One point that was made which really hit home with me was the idea of the Empty Chair at a district meeting. The chair represents a student and is actually addressed by the name of a student in that district. This is intended to keep the focus always on the student, and what decisions are in the best interests of that student.

Other key points in this first chapter suggest basic ideas for a successful curriculum mapping in a district. The mapping should be done electronically, with everyone having access for easy revision and communication. Providing a template for staff to use instead of having them develop their own saves time and frustration. Also, planning for long term support of the mapping process will ensure success.

Chapter Two: Use of Curriculum Mapping to Build a Learning Community opens with a powerful statement:
Learning communities don't just magically appear. They must be built with a vision for how individual educators can support the achievement of each student through an articulated, seamless curriculum.
This chapter goes on to compare curriculum mapping to a tool belt — with the belt being the calendar that organizes the tools, the essential questions "drilling" for authentic learning, and the measuring tape assessing student learning. The entire chapter draws parallels between curriculum mapping and building, which really laid the groundwork for me to understand the components of this process and their importance and interconnectivity.

Chapter Three: Development of a Consensus Map gives practical strategies for each discipline and how to best approach their mapping. One important aspect touched on was the need for mixed-group review so all faculty members look at not only their area of expertise, but at other curriculums they may be less familiar with.

Chapters Four and Five each look at particular districts and how they worked through the process in their district. Samples of maps are given, coaching questions, and other practical ideas easily adapted to most any school district. I found it particularly useful to see actual maps and how schools actually use these for curriculum decisions.

Chapter Six: Principal's Role in the Curriculum Mapping Process was one I found especially helpful. This chapter offers some step by step how to's, do's and don'ts, and other practical advice for setting the stage to make curriculum mapping a reality in a district.

Chapters Seven and Eight addressed curriculum mapping software, and mapping in alternative education settings. These chapters, while full of information, did not apply to my personal situation and therefore, I did not glean much useful here.

Chapter Nine: Creation of Benchmarks on the Building Map tackles our ever-frightful experience with state testing. This chapter gives advice for looking at benchmarks, analyzing data, and finding ways to break down information on testing results to best make curriculum decisions.

Chapter 10: Curriculum Mapping as a Hub addresses the issue of who actually has control over curriculum decisions in a school, and how curriculum mapping may provide an avenue for change but unless control of decisions is cumulative among those with stakes in the outcome, real change is unlikely. Different group types for making decisions are suggested, as well as ideas for setting timelines and developing professional development to support decisions.

The Appendixes were full of useful tools to help a school undertake a curriculum mapping project. Examples of curriculum maps, professional development models, checklists, and resources are all provided.

Overall, I was impressed with the amount of information crammed into this book. While it was not the easy how-to manual I had originally hoped it to be, I came away with a clear understanding of curriculum mapping, why it is important, and more importantly, how I can best use it to improve my teaching, and ultimately the learning in my classroom.

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