ORGANIZATION OF THE BOOK

The book is divided into four parts plus an epilogue. Part introductions contain opening poems, connections to theory, and discussions to prompt readers to think about upcoming topics in the section.

Part One: Why Support Collaborative Research? introduces collaborative learning communities such as teacher research groups as a form of professional development by describing the rationale, connected literature, the power and possibilities of collaboration, and evidence of emerging support groups. This part describes what groups do, their benefits, and several model communities in which collaborative practices have lead to improvement in teaching and student learning. It will be helpful in providing background definitions and information for readers to use as rationale to gain support and advocate for their endeavors in initiating and supporting learning communities.

Part Two: Building a Professional Learning Community talks about organizing groups and conducting research projects. This part begins with the specific steps and protocols involved in conducting research and the stages of group development, and provides explicit strategies so readers can apply the information to their situations. We include voices from experts working in collaborative groups at various levels and for a range of reasons and objectives.

Part Three: Collaborating Effectively includes chapters on improving group dynamics by considering ethical issues and on leadership success strategies. We suggest guidelines for each and provide rich case examples and scenarios. We discuss challenges of participating in learning communities, along with potential conflicts and ethical dilemmas that might arise.

Part Four: Model Learning Communities in Action looks at school-based communities, school-university partnerships, and networking and online groups. The final chapter in this part describes a districtwide model learning community called the Fairfax County Public Schools Teacher Researcher Network written by our guest chapter author Gail V. Ritchie.

The final chapter, the Epilogue, highlights methods for encouraging longevity through professional reflection and collaborative ways of thinking to increase success. The Epilogue ends with final parting thoughts about how communities can find their pathway to success and how school leaders can support them.

At the end of the book you will find wonderful resources in the Appendixes. Valuable resources are listed, and reproducible forms are yours to copy and use with your study group or learning community in your school district. Also, there are questions to help you reflect upon each chapter and exercises to try if you are reading this book as part of an organized study group. These resources will help you promote, manage, and organize your collaboration. Feel free to adapt them to fit the context of your group.

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

Think of each chapter as a unique resource. You do not have to read the chapters in the order they appear in the book. You might read the part openers first to determine their contents, then decide which parts best suit your needs. Begin with topics that are priorities for your situation. Another way you might use this book is to begin to collect resources from the list of resources in Appendix D right away. Gathering these resources as you begin your journey will ensure they are at your fingertips when members need them at critical points in their research.

A final suggestion for how to use this book is as a reference during the collaborative process. Read each chapter at strategic points in the process. For example, Chapter One can be used as rationale to administrators to gain their support for your group. Chapter Two can be shared to look at and gather ideas from successful models as your work begins. Chapter Three can be read to learn about the steps of the teacher research process. Then, Chapters Four, Five, and Seven can be studied when approval to proceed is imminent and you begin to form the group. Chapter Six can be used to troubleshoot problems as they arise. Chapters Eight through Ten can be used to determine what type of collaboration you want to pursue. Finally, the Epilogue can be read when your group is considering future directions.

ORGANIZING A STUDY GROUP

This book is ideal for use as a common reading for professional study groups interested in embarking upon collaborative teacher research learning projects. There is much to do before starting a teacher research project, especially if it is going to involve several researchers in collaboration. Being well organized with a plan for action will make the process efficient. Therefore, we recommend that the collaborative group spend time learning about teacher research and the collaboration process well in advance.

The group leaders might find it helpful to review the book carefully first so you know its contents and how it is set up. Then, decide how to proceed based on the personalities and knowledge base of the intended group. You know your group best. What do you think would help them understand the process?

Appendixes B and C provide suggestions for preparing before reading and responding to chapters after reading them. Even if you are not reading and discussing this book in a study group, the strategies listed in Appendix C will help you reflect on and think critically about your reading and the process of setting up and managing your collaboration.

THE TONE OF THE BOOK

Written in an informal yet insightful style, this book is readily accessible as a guide to scholars, classroom teachers, reading and special education specialists, literacy coaches, and curriculum coordinators. Administrators interested in promoting such learning communities in their schools may also learn from this book and pass it on to teachers in their districts to initiate relevant projects. Readers with varying levels of knowledge and experience with collaboration, teacher research, or research in general will find the book easy to follow yet full of practical information.

Special features are scattered throughout the book:

• How to Use This Chapter: Each chapter begins with a description of its purpose and use. This feature guides you through the process of setting up and managing an effective collaboration.

• Thinking Together: This feature includes recommendations on research connections, special tips, advice, or examples from educators in the fields of teacher research and collaboration. Thinking Together features show how concepts and theories presented in the chapters play out in real-life collaborations, and encourage readers to think about what they would do in a certain situation.

• Collaboration at Work: This feature shares recommendations about collaborations from experienced, practicing groups. You will read about successful endeavors as well as those that began less successfully. You will learn how groups and their leaders worked together to overcome challenges.

MOVING FORWARD

As you move forward in your work and in reading this book, we wish you success in finding answers to your questions through teacher research collaboration. We think you will find it the most engaging, meaningful, and long-lasting form of professional development in which you could ever participate. We certainly have.

Acknowledgments

First and foremost, we would like to thank Jossey-Bass Publishers, especially our editor, Christie Hakim, for recognizing the need for this book in the field of education and supporting the development of our manuscript. We also appreciate the time and hard work of Julia Parmer, Kate Bradford, Pamela Berkman, Donna Cohn, Elizabeth Forsaith, and Sharon Duffy. Also, Jossey-Bass’s anonymous reviewers provided rich suggestions for improving our manuscript drafts.

We would also like to extend a warm thank-you to these folks:

Colleagues and friends who contributed their voices and stories to our book. Their contributions have truly made this book a collaborative effort.

Taffy Raphael, for helping us shape our survey.

The Mt. Markham Professional Development Panel: Lynne Byrnes, Casey Barduhn, Terri Stile, Julie Reader, Ruth Malowicki, Christine Maine, and Elaine Ruigrok.

All of the educators who responded to our survey, including Alan Amtzis, Gail Ritchie, Anita Long, Derin Atay, Cindy Ballenger, Bill Bigelow, Emily Van Zee, Paula Costello, Ann Dutton Ewbank, Carole Edelsky, Deb Eldridge, Fran Falk-Ross, Jacqueline Delong, Nancy Fichtman Dana, Becky Rogers, Todd Wanerman, Mary Linville, Linda May Fitzgerald, Rebecca K. Fox, Jane Hansen, K. E. Hones, Pegeen Jensen, Marilyn Johnston-Parsons, Barbara Kawulich, Andrea Levy, Robin Marion, Judith McBride, Daniel Meier, Kathleen A. Paciga, Diane W. Painter, Adam Renner, Leo C. Rigsby, Karen Blake Ruffner, Frances Rust, Jaci Webb-Dempsey, Neal Shambaugh, Sue Stephenitch, Ann Taylor, Debra Wellman, Jane Zeni, and Amika Kemmler Ernst.

The Authors

Cynthia A. Lassonde, PhD, is associate professor in the Elementary Education and Reading Department at the State University of New York College at Oneonta. Throughout her career as an educator she has valued and participated in teacher research and collaborations in various contexts. She is past chair and longtime member of the International Reading Association’s Teacher as Researcher Subcommittee and initiated the New York State English Council’s Standing Committee on Teacher Inquiry with Tim Fredrick. She also works with local schools to promote learning communities and literacy coaching.

Susan E. Israel, PhD, has worked in education and reading since 1989. During her elementary teaching days, she discovered how teaching reading comprehension strategies and higher-level thinking motivated readers and increased their self-efficacy about learning to read and write. She has worked with the Alliance for Catholic Education at the University of Notre Dame. She was awarded the 2005 Panhellenic Council Outstanding Professor Award at the University of Dayton.

Cynthia and Susan have collaborated on other books. They invite you to read these titles, which are strongly connected to teacher research and collaboration:

Israel, S. E., & Lassonde, C. A. (Eds.). (2008). The ethical educator: Integrating ethics within the context of teaching and teacher research. New York: Peter Lang.

Lassonde, C. A., & Israel, S. E. (Eds.). (2008). Teachers taking action: A comprehensive guide to teacher research. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

The Contributors

Janice F. Almasi is a Carol Lee Robertson Endowed Professor of Literacy at the University of Kentucky. She has been actively involved as a teacher researcher and has collaborated with elementary classroom teachers for over fifteen years. Her collaborations have examined social, cognitive, and motivational aspects of peer discussions of text with children in grades K-4. She has also collaborated with classroom teachers to engage in book studies of classroom practice related to strategies instruction and peer discussion. As a result of her collaborations, she has coauthored the text Teaching Literacy in Third Grade, published by Guilford Press, with Keli Garas-York and Leigh-Ann Hildreth.

Leanne Avery is an assistant professor of science education in the Department of Elementary Education and Reading at the State University of New York (SUNY) College at Oneonta. Her research focuses on rural children’s local science and engineering knowledge, place-based teacher professional development as a means of valuing and utilizing local rural knowledge in classroom practice, and the barriers rural children in poverty face in the era of No Child Left Behind. She was a public school science teacher for eleven years in a rural district in upstate New York, and she now uses this experience to inform her teacher professional development endeavors.

L. Kelly Escueta Ayers works as a fifth-grade teacher at Providence Elementary and has been employed with Fairfax County Public Schools since 1990. She is a project lead teacher-trained employee of Fairfax County Public Schools. She is currently a clinical faculty member with George Mason University’s Graduate School of Education and works with professional development students. In 2006 Kelly was recognized by the Association of Teacher Educators-Virginia (ATE-VA) for outstanding research in a Virginia elementary school.

Lynne M. Burns has worked since 2006 as the P-12 literacy coach at Mt. Markham Central School in West Winfield, New York. Over the previous thirty-two years, she taught middle school as a reading teacher in grades 5-8, as a social studies teacher in grades 7-8, and as a self-contained teacher grades 5-6—always focused on helping students use reading and writing to deepen their thinking. Lynne’s current special interests include coaching content-area teachers in strategies that support their students’ reading comprehension and the use of storytelling as a literacy tool.

Carolyn Chryst is an assistant professor in the Department of Elementary Education and Reading at SUNY College at Oneonta in upstate New York. She has had a varied career path (actress and director, zoo curator, exhibit designer, college educator), which has lead her to focus on education reform efforts that improve teaching practices (kindergarten through college) and that support the learner’s curiosity and innate love of learning. She has presented a workshop on “Infusing Theater Across the Curriculum” and coauthored a play for science discovery centers.

Lisa Corcoran moved to Albany, New York, in 1989 to begin her teaching career as a primary teacher in the South Colonie Central School District.

Michelle Crabill is a school-based technology specialist at Kings Park Elementary School in Springfield, Virginia. Prior to becoming a technology specialist, she taught third grade in Maryland and Virginia. She earned her bachelor’s degree in elementary education from University of Maryland and her master’s degree in instructional technology from George Mason University. She has participated in teacher research for seven years.

Lisa DeStaso-Jones has been a fourth-grade teacher in the South Colonie Central School District in Colonie, New York, for sixteen years. Her current professional interests include writing workshop and New York State history.

Cheryl Dozier, a former elementary classroom teacher, is an assistant professor in the Department of Reading at the University at Albany where she teaches literacy courses. She presents nationally and internationally on teacher preparation and has written two books, Critical Literacy and Critical Teaching: Tools for Preparing Responsive Teachers (Teachers College Press) with Peter Johnston and Rebecca Rogers and Responsive Literacy Coaching (Stenhouse). Cheryl collaborates with school districts as they redesign their literacy instruction.

Molly Fanning and Brigid Schmidt collaborate as teaching consultants for the Capital District Writing Project (a local site of the National Writing Project). Brigid and Molly were colleagues teaching English language arts for seven years at Farnsworth Middle School in Guilderland, New York, where Molly currently teaches seventh grade. At the time of the writing of this book, Brigid is taking time off from teaching to write.

Constance Feldt-Golden is an associate professor in education at SUNY College at Oneonta. She currently teaches graduate-level courses in mathematics education and action research.

Tim Fredrick is a doctoral candidate in English education at New York University Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development and the cochair of New York State English Council’s Standing Committee on Teacher Inquiry. Before starting his doctoral degree, he was a New York City high school English teacher and conducted teacher research studies on increasing boys’ engagement in his class and increasing students’ reflectiveness during their portfolio presentations.

Ginny Goatley is vice dean in the School of Education and an associate professor in the Department of Reading at the University at Albany. She currently teaches graduate courses on literacy instruction and theoretical foundations for current practice. She has worked with several groups of teachers in connection with her work on Goals 2000 and the Center for English Learning and Achievement. Currently, she is extending these collaborations to teachers applying for National Board Certification.

Susan R. Goldman is a distinguished professor of psychology and education at the University of Illinois at Chicago and codirector of the Learning Sciences Research Institute. For the past fifteen years she has been collaborating with educational practitioners to bridge research and practice. Dr. Goldman is widely published in discourse, psychology, and education journals and is presently associate editor for Cognition & Instruction, Discourse Processes, and Journal of Educational Psychology.

Jane Hansen has been a professor in the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia since 2000, and previously she was a professor at the University of New Hampshire. For more than two decades, as a researcher, she has studied students of all ages, focusing on them as readers and writers, as self-evaluators, and currently as writers across the curriculum. Her most recent book, Powerful Little Voices: Young Children Redefine Writing Across the Curriculum, coauthored with five members of her research team (Holly Conti, Robyn Davis, Jenesse Evertson, Tena Freeman, and Dorothy Suskind), is published by Scholastic.

Pegeen Jensen has been a primary teacher in the South Colonie Central School District in Colonie, New York, for twenty years. Her current professional interests include writing workshop, current practices in Response to Intervention, and the influence of teacher language on children’s lives.

Donna Killiany has taught in the South Colonie Central School District in Colonie, New York, for ten years. She is passionate about writer’s workshops and teaching her students to be caring members of society and their classroom community.

Mary Ann Kramer is a program coordinator for adult literacy education in the city of St. Louis.

Susan Davis Lenski is a professor at Portland State University. Before becoming a professor, Susan taught school for twenty years. Susan currently teaches graduate courses in literacy, leadership, and teacher research. Susan has published more than sixty-five articles and fourteen books, including Reading and Learning Strategies: Middle Grades Through High School, Reading Strategies for Spanish Speakers, and Reading Success for Struggling Adolescent Learners.

Jennifer Lucius knows the value of actively engaging children. She’s been a music teacher at Kings Park Elementary in Fairfax County, Virginia, for the past six years. During that time, she has worked heavily with integration of classroom content. Jennifer has created many curriculum-based songs and continues to share her music and passion for integration with colleagues across the county.

Christine Mallozzi is a PhD candidate in the reading education program at the University of Georgia. Her research interests and practices are influenced by her years as a fifth- and sixth-grade teacher. Christine has coauthored works on policy and adolescent literacy, reading curricula, policy-driven professional development, content-area literacy, and global reading practices.

Zanna D. McKay is an assistant professor in the Department of Elementary Education and Reading at the SUNY College at Oneonta, where she teaches Diversity in Education and History and Philosophy of Education. McKay has taught in Africa and recently completed a two-year sabbatical teaching in Vietnam. She has had articles published in the field’s esteemed journals.

Barbara O’Donnell is an associate professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. She was a public school teacher at a variety of grade levels for thirteen years before teaching in higher education. Her current research includes teaching mathematics through the lens of problem solving and the use of dialogue in mathematical learning. She directs action research projects in the master’s program and Illinois Math and Science Partnership (IMSP) Lesson Study Projects.

Taffy E. Raphael is on the Literacy, Language, and Culture faculty at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She directs Partnership READ, a school-university partnership funded by the Chicago Community Trust to improve literacy instruction through professional development, recognized by the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education’s 2006 Best Practices Award for Effective Partnerships. Dr. Raphael has published nine books and three edited volumes, and over one hundred articles and chapters. She has been a fellow of the National Council of Research in Language and Literacy since 1996 and member of the Reading Hall of Fame since 2002.

Gail V. Ritchie is in her third year as coleader of the Fairfax County Public Schools Teacher-Researcher Network. A national board-certified early childhood generalist, she recently returned to the school level as an instructional coach, after two years as a resource teacher for Fairfax County Public Schools’ Department of Professional Learning and Training. Gail completed her doctorate with a dissertation study entitled “Teacher Research as a Habit of Mind.”

Rebecca Rogers is a university professor and teacher educator. Before becoming a professor, Rebecca was a reading specialist in an elementary school and in an adult learning center.

Ilene Rutten is an assistant professor of literacy in the Department of Teacher Development at St. Cloud State University where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in literacy, children’s literature, and teacher education. Her research interests include teacher education and grandparent-grandchild literacy connections. In collaboration with Cheryl Dozier, she recently published “Responsive Teaching Toward Responsive Teachers: Mediating Transfer Through Intentionality, Enactment, and Articulation” (Journal of Literacy Research).

Ann Taylor is an associate professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, where she is the director of the Elementary Education program. She has been a teacher researcher since her own public school teaching days in the United Kingdom. She is currently working with two second-grade public school teachers and teacher educator colleagues on the use of dialogue in mathematical learning. She is also studying how action research and lesson study support educators in researching their practice.

Melissa Wadsworth-Miller has been teaching English for the past fourteen years at Tonawanda Middle School in the city of Tonawanda, New York. She received the New York State English Council 2005 Educator of Excellence Award, as well as the Western New York Educational Service Council’s Award for Excellence in Education. In 2007 she received the New York State English Council’s Program of Excellence Award for a unit she created with colleagues that was based on teacher research.

Dawn Wheeler is the director of operations at Newmeadow Saratoga School in Malta, New York. She has been at the core of the school’s development for the past twenty-six years and values the daily collaboration with other administrators and instructional staff to provide special education services to preschool children with disabilities. The success of the school’s signature program, “Bridges,” for children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders, is testimony to the value of a team approach to education relying on the stability of experienced staff as well as the inspiration of young educators who join the team.

Jane Zeni has been in the English Education program at the University of Missouri-St. Louis for thirty years. She has been able to help teachers develop throughout their careers, from preservice through doctoral studies. As founding director of the Gateway Writing Project, Jane has collaborated and published with many teacher-led inquiry groups. She also worked to incorporate action research in her university courses to empower teachers.

We would like to dedicate this book to educators who have committed to trying teacher collaboration on for size. We hope it’s a good fit!

PART 1

Why Support Collaborative Research?

INTRODUCTION

AN N¹ OF ONE NO MORE
By C. F. Chryst
(in collaboration with Norm Parry)

From random thought, a burning question grew.
Gathered books around me searching reams of other people’s work.
But still the question burned, a fire blown from place to place, igniting thought.
Deep conversations with paper people just wouldn’t do.

I needed to know; I had to share.
Urgency built then bubbled out, bursting on friends and family.
Some nodded; some smiled; some derided.
Some cared as best they could with conversations, leaving both unsatisfied.
Silence crept into shared space.

In a moment of bravery, the question leapt from my lips.
As I bounced my thoughts to a colleague, silence shattered;
Joy and excitement bubbled—a deep conversation ensued.
An invitation to her home to talk, to share, to think.
We explored a question that mattered to us both.

I, an N of one, once alone, gathered courage, strength, insight
With my now-friend peer. We, in a moment of bravery,
Invited another to join this quest to uncover.
New worlds of thinking evolved from deep conversation.
Surprised it did not feel like work, felt like breathing in fresh air.

Conversations in an airy kitchen around an oak table
Fed the burning question with ideas we, now three, cherished.
New questions rose, filling the silent spaces within this N of one,
Filling the spaces between each of us with energy.

No longer isolated in a sea of other people’s words,
My voice is being heard. Another remarks, “Who wrote this? It’s brilliant!”
None of us recognize the insight, but all of us hear the whisper
Of a new partner at the table—Our Voice—
Emerging clear and distinct, delivering forged insights from each of us
Born in fires of deep conversation fed by questions that matter.

The author of this poem is talking about forming a community of practice (Wenger, 1998) with her colleagues. This means that her colleagues and she become members in a group that is held together by their common pursuit of a shared learning experience. They develop practices—resources, frameworks, and perspectives—that help sustain their mutual engagement in the work or activity. Their community learns by “engaging in and contributing to the practices of their communities” (p. 7). By engaging in meaningful practices, they become involved in discussions and actions that make a difference to the communities they value.

The chapters in Part One provide insight into taking the first steps to open conversations that lead to improved student learning through collaborative learning communities that facilitate study, research, and inquiry and build teacher expertise. As you read these chapters, reflect on how the lines in “An N of One No More” connect to the approaches and research in these chapters. Also, the Reflection Questions and Study Group Exercises found in Appendixes B and C will help all readers focus on the main points of the chapters.

Improving Teacher Professional Learning

How to Use This Chapter

If you are reading this book, you are obviously interested in learning more about how to work collaboratively to support teacher research or how to set up collaborative study groups as a form of professional development in your school. You see its value; however, you may need further knowledge, information, and resources to substantiate its worth or to rally support from others. As a member of a group of classroom teachers, you may need to provide rationale and resources to administrators. As an administrator, you may hope to inform teachers and generate interest.

The purpose of this chapter is to provide background definitions and information for you to use as a rationale to gain support for your endeavor. When you are advocating for your project, you may want to provide specific examples, studies, and rationales from this chapter to inform others, such as administrators or funding organizations, of the value of teacher collaboration for professional learning. Consider creating a short presentation or a pamphlet that illustrates this approach for distribution to key people.

INTRODUCTION

One of the most frequent remarks we hear from teachers when we work with schools and organizations to set up collaborative learning communities, such as collaborative teacher research groups, is “We just don’t have the time!” It is true that teachers are often overwhelmed with the day-to-day work of teaching and the many responsibilities that go along with it. How can teachers possibly fit even one more task into their days?

Collaborative learning communities can inspire and energize teachers to commit to this type of professional development—to become part of a community of practice—as a priority in their work. Consequently, they begin to make time in their schedules to become members in these communities. They find the experience and the resultant learning valuable and the process intrinsically rewarding and enriching. Most important, they see how students’ learning is affected.

We hope you will agree that one of our most important responsibilities as educators is to teach effectively. This involves staying updated on scientifically based research and teaching methods. We regularly attend conferences and workshops and take classes to develop as educators. As you will learn in this chapter, one of the most effective types of professional development is sustained, on-site learning such as that experienced through site-based collaborative communities. These communities can empower educators to seek out and prioritize professional development and can help members find and strengthen their voices as educators whose knowledge and experiences are valued. This newfound empowerment helps to perpetuate teachers’ membership and commitment as it motivates them, focuses them, and encourages them to develop a voice.

We do have the ability and desire to improve student learning and to develop as professionals through collaboration. As the author of the poem that opens Part One describes, silence can be shattered when we are brave enough to share our questions with colleagues and have conversations that fill us with energy. We can and must make collaborative learning a priority in our professional development. Collaboration with interested colleagues can help us overcome those not-enough-time feelings. WE can do it!

WHAT IS TEACHER RESEARCH?

Teacher research is becoming a popular means for educators—classroom teachers, special education consultants, administrators, school media personnel, university faculty, and others—to improve classroom instruction and students’ learning. Cochran-Smith and Lytle (1993) define teacher research as “systematic and intentional inquiry carried out by teachers” (p. 7). By methodically examining daily classroom practices, educators portray an insider’s view of how learning happens.