Expeditions in Collaborative Practices: The Collaboration Tool and Multilingual Learners

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is proud to sponsor the course Expeditions in Collaborative Practices: The Collaboration Tool and Multilingual Learners. This is a hybrid course with a combination of face-to-face, online, and in district application components.

Course Description:

This course provides an in-depth exploration of the theoretical and practical uses of the Department’s evidence-based Collaboration Tool. This tool was designed by educators to support content and ESL teachers who are collectively responsible for curriculum, assessment, and instruction of English Learners, as well as for the coordination, common assessment, and planning across roles within the larger English Learner Education program. Central to this course is the practical application of the Tool that a) supports meaningful collaborative practice between teachers, and b) provides a mechanism for leveraging shared responsibility and expertise necessary for EL program coherence.

The course will first address the content and structure of the tool including disciplinary content standards and practices emphasized within the tool, key uses of academic language embedded in grade-level content, and academic language development at different English language proficiency levels. Participants will explore the structure and collaborative thinking spaces within the tool, promoting curricular goal-setting, assessment, and instructional design considerations across classrooms and teacher roles. These thinking spaces prompt collaborative planning for content and language curriculum that is intentionally built from the shared expertise and daily experiences of teachers who may be in different instructional roles or classrooms. After analyzing the purpose and content of the Collaboration Tool, participants will explore and engage in collaborative use of the tool within the context of their own classroom and school planning structures. Teams will leave the workshop with access to additional tools and resources to support the longer-term implementation of collaborative practices, models, and structures supporting their ELs.

This course is conceived as part of a larger series of coherent professional learning offerings focused on Next Generation curriculum, assessment, instruction, and standards with ELs.

Learning Objectives: Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:

• Identify and explain the theory behind the Collaboration Tool and each of the components of the tool.

• Use the Collaboration Tool and its interactive guide to support meaningful collaborative processes of planning, instruction, and assessment between teams of teachers (such as teams of content and ESL teachers, classroom and ESL teachers, instructional coaches, and co-teaching teams).

• Discuss instructional goals, asset-based evidence of student learning in relation to stated goals, and analyze the evidence to inform next moves for teaching and learning in instruction and assessment design.

• Analyze aspects of the Collaboration Tool “thinking spaces” and the collaborative practices inherent in curriculum planning, assessment, and instruction.

• Analyze promising practices and structures for co-teaching and/or collaboration and determine which models are most applicable and appropriate for their respective contexts. Participants will also work toward implementing these models into practice.

Audience: This course is designed to support establishing collaborative practices and structures between school-based teams of content teachers and ESL teachers. Acknowledging that both content and ESL teachers share overlapping responsibility for student success in developing both content and language, each team may be comprised of two teachers – e.g., co-teaching teams of classroom and ESL teacher, content-language teacher teams comprised of an elementary classroom teacher and the ESL teacher, or a secondary content teacher and ESL teacher who share common English learners within their buildings. This course also applies to partner teachers in Dual Language programs responsible for both content and language development. To get the most from this course, it is important that both teachers share responsibility for some of the same students who are English language learners.

EL directors, Curriculum Coordinators/Directors, Department Chairs, Principals and/or instructional coaches may register to join a content-ESL teacher team as additional participants, if they hold a role in directly supporting instructional practices and curriculum/lesson planning on a consistent basis through systematic school structures. Preference will be provided to teachers in the classroom who register as teams.

NOTE: Individual registrations will not be processed, you must register as a team.

Download the course flyer here.

Dates, Times, and Location:

DESE is offering various sessions of the training in four different regions of the state:

• Expeditions in Collaborative Practice 1 Location: Fitchburg State University

Before we meet- Pre- reading and pre-assessment will be provided upon course registration.

Face to face sessions: Wednesday March 6 (4-7) & Wednesday March 20 (4-7)

Virtual meeting (using Zoom Meeting): May 15 (4- 5 pm)

NOTE: There will be an online module and in district application sessions in between the face to face session and the virtual meeting.

• Expeditions in Collaborative Practice 2 Location: Holyoke- Mass Green High Performance Computing Center, 100 Bigelow Street, Holyoke, MA, 01040

Before we meet- Pre- reading and pre-assessment will be provided upon course registration.

Face to face session: Saturday March 30 (8:30-3:30)

Virtual meetings (using Zoom Meeting): Tuesday June 4 (4- 5 pm)

NOTE: There will be an online module and in district application session in between the face to face session and the virtual meeting.

• Expeditions in Collaborative Practice 3 Location: Waltham Public Schools

Before we meet- Pre- reading and pre-assessment will be provided upon course registration.

Face to face sessions: Thursday April 4 (4-7) & Thursday April 11 (4-7)

Virtual meetings (using Zoom Meeting): Thursday June 6 (4-5 pm)

NOTE: There will be an online module and in district application session in between the face to face sessions and the virtual meeting.

• Expeditions in Collaborative Practice 4 – Location: Brockton Public Schools- Brockton High School Red IRC. 470 Forest Avenue, Brockton, MA 02301

Before we meet- Pre- reading and pre-assessment will be provided upon course registration.

Face to face sessions: Saturday April 6 (8:30- 3:30)

Virtual meetings (using Zoom Meeting): Wednesday June 5 (4- 5 PM)

NOTE: There will be an online module and in district application session in between the face to face session and the virtual meeting.

INCLEMENT WEATHER POLICY: In the event of inclement weather our policy is as follows: If the school district in which this workshop is being held is CLOSED then the workshop will be rescheduled, we will not be cancelling or rescheduling if other school districts are closed.

Registration Process

• Registrations must be submitted no later than February 25, 2019.
• All registrations will be reviewed for statements of assurance and to ensure that participants are registered as a team.

This course is in high demand and has limited DESE-sponsored spaces. Please register immediately since seats will fill very quickly. The Transformative Learning Collaborative will begin a waitlist once all seats are taken.

Registration & Attendance Policy

This is a DESE-sponsored course offered at NO COST to Massachusetts educators. However, participation is not FREE. The State is sponsoring the course, and therefore the application and registration require a participant’s FULL COMMITMENT TO EVERY DATE, ALL TIMES, and ALL COURSE REQUIREMENTS of the course including online, face to face, virtual, and in district application components. There are no exceptions to the commitment to 100% attendance. There are no make up sessions, even in cases of emergency. If a session is missed, a Certificate of Attendance will be given in lieu of a PDP Certificate. The Transformative Learning Collaborative can only register participants who make written commitment in their application to attend and all dates and times.

Graduate Credit

A 1 credit graduate credit option will be available for this course with Fitchburg State University. More information to follow, once registration for the course is complete.

Registration

Please have one team member register on behalf of the team. At the time of registration please have the following information for BOTH team members ready for the online application:

· Full name (First Name, Middle Initial, Last Name)

· Job title/role in district

· School district

· School or department

· Grades you serve

· Work and personal phone number (to reach you after school)

· Preferred email for course communications and preferred email for learning management access (you will need to provide a Gmail or Google enterprise email at the time of registration to access course materials)

· Name(s) of each team member applying with you to attend the training

· Are you currently co-teaching and/or co-planning?

· You will also be asked to provide a commitment that all individuals can attend the course for all dates and times (including virtual meetings and modules). No individual registrations will be processed.

Registration Links:

• Expeditions in Collaborative Practices 1- Fitchburg State University: CLOSED (Please add your name to the waitlist)
• Expeditions in Collaborative Practices 2- Holyoke: http://www.matsol.org/expeditions_2_holyoke
• Expeditions in Collaborative Practices 3 - Waltham: CLOSED (Please add your name to the waitlist)
• Expeditions in Collaborative Practices 4 - Brockton: CLOSED (Please add your name to the waitlist)

• If the courses are full please add your name to the wait list: http://www.matsol.org/expeditions_waitlist

For more information contact The Transformative Learning Collaborative at PD@tlcforeducation.org.

For more information regarding course registration contact the MATSOL Registration Coordinator at registration@matsol.org Include your name, email address, phone number, and the course name/section. Please allow 1-2 days business days for a response.