Revised Proposal for Implementing the
Collins Writing Program
in the
Middletown City Schools
High School Staff
2013-2014 Academic Year
Introduction
As educators know, changing the way teachers approach writing in their classrooms requires training, sustained support, and time for teachers to re-calibrate their teaching practice. As the Middletown Schools enter the era of Common Core State Standards, a focus on cross-curricular literacy is essential. Collins Education Associates partners with school districts—in Ohio and around the country—to implement a practical and sustainable cross-curricular writing and thinking program. While narrative writing is valued, the Collins Writing Program places a special focus on informational and opinion/argument writing and the development of academic vocabulary—key shifts required by the Core.
Central to Collins work for the past 25 years is the belief that writing enhances the learning process of any subject at any level. To achieve this, CEA has created a “writing to learn/writing across the curriculum” model that is built around five types of writing assignments. The goal is for writing to be so ingrained in instruction that teachers naturally integrate writing into their lessons and that students become comfortable with writing about what they know. Doing this is not only sound, research-based practice, it is also an effective way to prepare students for future PARCC assessments. Changing the school culture around writing and accomplishing Middletown’s cross-curricular literacy goals will take a long-term strategy. A quick fix is simply not possible.
With a longer-term strategy in mind, this proposal focuses on the activities, costs, and timelines for the all-important kick-off in the 2013-2014 school year.
Implementation Goals
The goal of the Collins Writing Program is to provide a consistent and effective approach for writing across the curriculum, K-12. It is an approach that helps English and language arts teachers teach writing and makes it possible for non-language arts teachers to use writing effectively in their instruction. The Collins Writing Program is based on the research (see that emphasizes three factors that have significant impact on student writing improvement:
-Frequency of Writing
-Focus of Writing Instruction
-Strategic Feedback on Writing
Collins Writing is organized around a framework called the Five Types of Writing which includes all the formal and informal writing assignments teachers use in their classrooms. This framework, which can be used by teachers in all grades and subjects, gives an entire staff a common language for describing and utilizing best-practice writing strategies.
2013-2014: Year One Program Goals and Activities
The aim of this first year is to get the high school staffinvolved in the Collins program and begin integrating it into their instruction. Therefore, the major goals of the implementation in Year One are to:
-Provide high school teachers training in the basics of Collins Writing
-Supply teachers with the needed Collins Writing resources
-Support teachers in using the Five Types of Writing routinely in instruction to meet the demands of the Common Core Standards
-Provide in-class demonstration lessons for teachers to observe and use in order to increase their comfort with Collins Writing
-Promote communication among teachers about what they are emphasizing in their writing instruction and about successful strategies
-Provide more in-depth training for Academic Support Specialists and/or a cadre of writing “advocates” so that they can serve as writing coaches and advocates in their buildings
-Initiate an ongoing process of reflecting on practice and setting future goals
Program Introduction
What: A full-day introductory session is planned for the entire high school staff.
Goals: This introductory session will present the core strategies of the Collins program and establish common language for a district-wide writing across the curriculum program; best practice strategies will be introduced and modeled for teachers in the session with an emphasis on practical, sustainable management techniques; focus on improving students’ compositional skills as well as their ability to respond to the constructed response questions on OAA and PARCC assessments; goals will be set for writing frequency; and “getting started” guidelines will be provided.
When: November 5, 2013
Costs: Training Day—1 Collins consultant day@$1,700/day + travel-related expenses (approximately $2,100-2,250/day)
Essential Materials—Each teacher should get theintroductory Collins book (Improving Student Performance -- $20 each)
-Teacher Implementation Folder—The implementation folder is a management tool maintained by each teacher in which they keep selected examples of writing samples from students. It takes a minimum of time to maintain but provides teachers and instructional leaders with classroom artifactsthat can be used to reflect on program implementation and set goals for the future.
-(Implementation Folders--$.80 per teacher)
Recommended Materials—In addition, it is recommended that each high school student have a copyCheck Matefor Essential Conventions, which establishes a school-wide “style guide” for applying essential conventions to all writing:
-Check Mate Level C (high school) – student folders package of 25 for $20 ($.80 per student); classroom poster $5.
If budget permits, it is recommended that teachers have a “strategy book” (High School Writing Projects/$15). These books provide teachers with an abundant supply of ready-to-use writing prompts and well-thought out writing assignments.
For math teachers, it is recommended they be provided with How Did You Get That? Seven Strategies for Improving Written Responses in Math ($30) by Bill Atwood, CEA Associate.
Implementation Support
To support the staff’s implementation of the program, six days of support will be provided during the 2013-14 academic year. After the November introduction, building leaders will determine which of the following activities, or combination of activities, will most benefit the staff.
In-Class Support
What: In-class demonstration lessons by the Collins consultant enable teachers to observe how the strategies are applied in everyday teaching scenarios. The lessons serve both as a validationof what the teachers are doing and a review of best practice strategies. Built into these classroom visits is time for debriefings on the demonstrations.
Goals: The in-class demonstrations give teachers a chance to see key strategies from the Collins Program used, confirming and enriching their use of the program.
—OR—
Coaching and Consultation
What: Another form of support may be small group (team or department) or individual consultations to provide technical assistance on the program implementation to date. Another possibility is to do classroom observations and give teachers feedback on their use of the program strategies.
Goal: The intent here is to provide teachers with constructive feedback on their use of the program.
—OR—
Mid-Year Training for a Cadre of Teacher Leaders
What: This mid-year training focuses on selected classroom teachers—writing advocates—who will provide an important support and advocacy role in their buildings. The major thrust of this training is on advanced technical assistance (questions and issues that might arise after further implementation), designing effective, Common Core-consistent writing tasks, and facilitating folder review and goal-setting meetings with teachers.
Goals: The over-arching goal here is to build capacity within the school to sustain a high-quality implementation of the Collins Writing Program. The writing advocates should develop into essential support, leadership, and planning roles within their schools. An important planning dimension is to conduct informal folder reviews with teachers to identify those aspects of the program that are being effectively implemented and setting goals for the future. It is hoped that an ongoing goal-setting/reviewing/refining goalsprocess will become part of the professional learning community.
—OR—
Spring Folder Reviews
What: Folder reviews, either in groups or individually, provide teachers with feedback on their implementation of the Collins Program by looking at artifacts of their activities in the classroom. The folder review is also intended to give teachers a chance to reflect on their professional practice and set goals for the future.
Goal: The goal of folder reviews is to create an ongoing process of goal-setting, reflecting on how those goals are accomplished, and refining goals for the future.
• • •
When: The follow-up will be done in three two-day visits:
December 4-5, 2013
February 5-6, 2014
May 7-8, 2014
Costs: 6 Training/Consulting days @$1,700/day + travel-related expenses (approximately $2,100-2,250/day)
Prepared by Gary Chadwell, Senior Consultant, Collins Education Associates. July 2013.