Re-Thinking Collaborative Planning - The WIlde Lake Way!

This past Friday morning, members of the WLMS leadership team helped me introduce the Classroom-Focused Improvement Process (CFIP) to the entire faculty here at WLMS. CFIP is our school's major improvement initiative this year.

What is the CFIP? 
It is a question-based protocol for data dialogue to be carried out by collaborative teams as they focus on planning their next instructional unit, leaving the daily lesson planning to the creativity of individual teachers. 

CFIP is a six-step process for increasing student achievement that is planned and carried out by teachers meeting in grade level, content, and vertical teams as a part of their regular lesson planning cycle. (Source mdk12.org/process/cip/index.html)

Our staff is re-thinking collaboration and more specifically how we can provide more time for teachers to plan engaging lessons, develop formative and summative assessments that inform instruction and develop strategies to re-teach students when they don't understand a particular skill or content the first time it is taught.

Here's how we plan to implement CFIP:

Using CFIP in Disciplinary (Content) Meetings (Steps 1-3): 

• Analyze Quarterly Assessment Data and other content specific data sources using the CFIP protocol
• Review content/course standards; identify essential content/skills for each course; and share ways that grade levels in the same subject can support each other
• Align objectives, develop common assessments and share exemplary lessons and units
• Develop re-teaching and enrichment strategies for each course

Using CFIP in Interdisciplinary (Grade Level) Meetings (Steps 5 &6): 

• Conduct interdisciplinary data conversations focusing on student needs found in the grade level group (Example: “In English, the students are having trouble with subject-verb agreement. If you have a chance during your content area instruction, please highlight this concept.”)
• Share what each content area is teaching on a monthly basis (Curriculum Mapping)
• Collaborate on ways to teach common skills and content among disciplines
• Share best instructional practices and assessments
• Examine student work samples
• Support the reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills in the MCCSC
• Establish grade-level standards
• Coordinate homework, project and testing schedules
• Create and implement exemplary lessons and cross-curricular units 
• Review Team Improvement Plans and update plans at least once a year

Using CFIP to transform Kid Talk (Steps 4-6):

CFIP Collaborative Planning  (2 times a month) (Steps 4-6)

• Content partners will share exemplary lessons, align unit objectives and develop common formative assessments to inform their instruction. 
• Use student data from common formative assessments developed collaboratively to answer questions like: What did the students, as a whole, do well? What are their current academic needs?  What in-class enrichments and interventions will we put in place for individual students?  How will we improve our future instruction?
• Use the Draft CFIP Reporting Form to document the objective, assessment and outcomes.
• The Draft CFIP Reporting Form will be shared with entire interdisciplinary team.

                                

CFIP Reporting (2 times a month)  (Step 5)

• A collaborative meeting where the Draft CFIP Reporting Form  will be used to share student concerns, celebrations, interventions and enrichments that are being implemented.

• Staff will continue to discuss behavioral/attendance data, provide FYIs and updates about students, analyze D's and E's list, develop action plans and make referrals to appropriate supports and interventions.

This is an update from an earlier post http://lessonslearnedinthemiddle.blogspot.com/2011/09/re-thinkng-school-improvementthe-cfip.html.

Re-Thinking School Improvement:The CFIP Way!

This past Thursday and Friday, I had the opportunity to attend a two-day training session about the Classroom-Focused Improvement Process (CFIP) developed by Dr. Hickey and Dr. Thomas.

Along with several members of the WLMS staff, we learned about how we can use this process to improve data conversations, use common formative and summative assessments to determine the strengths and weaknesses of all students and develop enrichments and interventions based on collaborative analysis and dialogue. Teachers are asked to rethink their use of collaborative planning time to ensure conversations are centered around the review of common formative and summative assessments and that teachers reflect on their own teaching strategies to ensure that best practices are shared and intentionally used in every classroom.This is hard work, but the type of work that has the potential to transform a school from being good to being truly great!

What is CFIP? It is a six-step process for increasing student achievement that is planned and carried out by teachers meeting in grade level, content, or vertical teams as a part of their regular lesson planning cycle.

The flow of the model is intuitive and responds to the overall question, "What do we know from available data about current levels of student performance and how will we respond to these data?" The CFIP model has six steps, each one based on one or more focus questions to direct the team's inquiry. In these steps, team members identify the:

Source: Mdk12.org website. Here is a link to an online introduction: http://mdk12.org/process/cfip/resources/Rethinking.html 

Over the next few months, we will begin the implementation of this process and study its impact on student achievement and the improvement of instructional practices that result from more focused data dialogues between teachers.