Keeping the Conversation Fresh:

Shine a Spotlight on Curriculum

• Round Robin on High-Perfoming, Inclusive Classrooms
• Explore One Teaching Strategy In-Depth
• Admire the Facets of a "Gem" of an Idea
• Form a Literature Circle
• Delve into UDL
• Debate an Idea
• Showcase a Curriculum Topic
• Invite a Technology Tool to a Meeting

Round Robin on High-Performing, Inclusive Classrooms

The goal of the STAR Tech program is to help teachers create high-performing, inclusive classrooms. Review the overview of high-performing, inclusive classrooms that can be found on this web site. There you will find a graphic depiction of all the components of high-performing, inclusive classrooms accompanied by explanatory text. Print out materials for your team. Conduct a Round Robin discussion where each team member chooses one aspect of the graphic and responds to the following questions:

1. What does it mean?
2. How is it connected to the whole concept of high-performing, inclusive classrooms?
3. How does this translate into practice in your own situation?

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Explore One Teaching Strategy In-Depth

We have seen two common problems occur during team meetings. One is that teachers share strategies with each other using a “shorthand.” They name a strategy and provide a few descriptors but rarely have the time to explain in detail how an instructional strategy really works. A second common problem is that teachers repeat the same strategies from one team meeting to the next. For example, we cannot think of a single team meeting where we have not heard teachers recommend “use of graphic organizers.”

We recommend that facilitators help teams dig more deeply into the teaching strategy. Let’s use graphic organizers as the example, since they are so ubiquitous. Here are two ways the facilitator can help the team focus on graphic organizers:

1. The facilitator can ask each team member to draw his or her favorite graphic organizer. Then going around the team, each person describes the graphic organizer in terms of what it is, why is it used, which students it helps, and how it works. One person can collect the information, make photocopies, and hand it out later to all the team members.

2. The facilitator can introduce resource materials. These might be handouts from a book on visual tools (e.g., Hyerle, A Field Guide to Using Visual Tools, 2000), printouts from a website (e.g., http://www.graphic.org), or materials from textbooks. Teachers can discuss how different graphic organizers can be used depending on the curriculum goals, students’ abilities and needs, and instructional process.

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Admire the Facets of a"Gem" of an Idea

The purpose of this strategy is to introduce teachers to a novel teaching idea that we call a “gem” of an idea. The facilitator can take a small box (e.g., shoe box), and rename it the Treasure Chest. Over time, teachers use the box to save short write-ups of “gems” that they find in books, hear at conferences, see in presentations, and locate on web sites, etc. During a team meeting, the facilitator can ask teachers to reach into the Treasure Chest to select a “gem” of an idea. This idea can become the basis of a discussion: What is it? How can it be used? Which students can it help? etc. This can be done during the time when the team is generating instructional ideas or even at the end of a meeting. When one facilitator heard about this idea she said, “I will use this if the presenting teacher is unexpectedly absent.”

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Form a Literature Circle

The literature we are talking about in this strategy is the professional literature found in journals, in books, and on websites that deals with curriculum and instruction, technology, special education, bilingual education, and assessment. Once in a while it might be refreshing to turn a STAR Cycle team meeting into a literature circle where teachers discuss ideas in an article that everyone has read in advance. Obviously this takes preparation, e.g., agreeing on an upcoming date for the literature circle, finding a good article, and generating some discussion questions. What makes an article “good” is that it is short, relevant, and provocative in some way. (Go to list of relevant articles)

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Delve Into UDL

The goals of the STAR Tech model emphasize Universal Design for Learning (UDL) as part of creating high-performing, inclusive classrooms. The STAR Tech website includes several articles on UDL downloaded from the CAST website. We recommend that the facilitator use one of these articles (or others) and explore UDL. This can be done as a literature circle (see above).

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Debate an Idea

Debate is a healthy way to examine an issue from two or more perspectives. Holding a mini-debate during a team meeting can serve two purposes. First, it can deflect possible tensions in a group that does not always agree on teaching strategies. It helps team members discuss topics in a depersonalized way. Second, it can help teams that are so polite that there is virtually no difference of opinion expressed.

One strategy a facilitator can use to set up a mini-debate is to present the team with two, short, written pieces, each expressing a different point of view. By having printed material, the conversation is taken out of the subjective and into the objective realm. This gets teachers talking in a professional manner.

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Showcase a Curriculum Topic

During a team meeting, the facilitator can focus the discussion on one curriculum-based topic, e.g., writer’s workshop. Each teacher can bring in the best-of-the-best strategies to discuss their goals, what they do, and what the results are. This is a real “show and tell” experience that everyone can participate in. Teachers can be encouraged to bring copies of materials to distribute to their team members.

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Invite a Technology Tool to a Meeting

Once in a while, the team meeting can become a context for a mini-workshop on a particular technology tool that is “invited” to the meeting. To ensure that this is a relevant experience, the technology tool must be something that the teachers have access to and can use after the team meeting. The agenda would include demonstration, brainstorming, and action planning for use.

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