SPE/578 Learning Team A Final Group Presentation for Week 6 Promoting Student Learning Through Collaboration

1. Promoting Student Learning
SPE/578 Models, Theories, and Instructional Strategies
William Hoover
Jennifer Bearden
Meshalette Atkins
Tabatha Avery
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2. Promoting Student Learning
Classroom Management:
•Creating a positive learning environment is a key component to establishing the foundation for
student learning. In order for this to happen the teacher must practice effective classroom
management. This begins with establishing a proper positive rapport with the students. Develop
a sense of who they are by being aware of their likes and dislikes and providing them with the
respect they need in order to gain and maintain their attention. Secondly, establish rules,
expectations and consequences and implement them with consistency so that the students are
aware of behavioral expectations.
Best Practices:
•Know your students. Be aware of home environment and outside influences that may affect their
behavior.
•Encourage the success of the child.
Resources:
•www. teachingchannel.org. Classroom Management Tips.
•The first days of school: How to be an effective teacher. Wong and Wong.
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3. Promoting Student Learning
Teacher Collaboration:
•Collaboration is members of a group working together in order to achieve a common goal. When applied to the
field of education, it basically means the members of a learning setting working together, as equals, to assist
students in succeeding on the classroom. The collaborative educational environment builds a community of caring
individuals who are working toward increasing the student’s positive outcomes. In teacher collaboration, the
teacher works hand in hand with each other, whether it be general educational teachers or special educational
teachers, to develop lessons and instructions with the necessary accommodations to meet the individual needs of
all students. Effective teacher collaboration is based on shared mutual goals, shared responsibility for participation
and decision making, and shared accountability of the outcomes.
Best Practices:
•Common Planning Time – Establishing a common planning time for teacher is essential in order for the planning
of the lesson and for making necessary accommodations.
•Communication – Communication between members is necessary. Discuss different perspectives each individual
teacher may have concerning classroom management, grading, and other issues that may affect the effectiveness
of the learning environment.
Resources:
•Land, S. Effective Teaching Practices for Students in Inclusive Classrooms. Training and Technical Assistance
Center. 2013. William and Mary, School of Education.
•Transforming Teaching: Connecting Professional Responsibility with Student Learning: A report to the NEA,
2013. Commission on Effective Techniques and Teaching.
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4. Promoting Student Learning
Student Relationships:
•When students work together, they learn from each other, they learn to cooperate with each other, and they share
the responsibilities for assignments.
•Student relationships foster positive interdependence, face-to-face interaction, group processing and individual
and group accountability. Positive interdependence emphasizes the importance and uniqueness of each group
member’s efforts while important cognitive activities and interpersonal dynamics are quietly at work. As students
communicate with one another, they inevitably assume leadership roles, acquire conflict-managing skills, discuss
and clarify concepts, and unravel the complexities of human relationships within a given context; this process
enhances their learning outcomes and thus promotes student learning.
Best Practices:
•Collaborative learning stations - One of the best ways to set up collaborative projects and activities is to have
student teams work at learning stations. Each learning station has supplies and materials that work well together
and give students the tools to complete an activity or project. With learning stations, students get an opportunity to
use the computer while making use of other school and classroom resources.
•Developing collaborative models, students connecting through educational social networking and mobile
learning, open educational resources that engage students and encourage student success.
Resourses:
•Wiggio – Wiggio is a web site where students can collaborate on projects, case studies, labs, study groups and
class initiatives Groups are entirely private and secure. Students can share files without sending bulky
attachments, schedule due dates, meetings, events, and deadlines, and keep track of who is doing which tasks.
www http://wiggio.com/academic.html.
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5. Promoting Student Learning
Family Relationships:
•Intentional and ongoing relationships between school and family enhance student learning and address
any obstacles that may impede it.
•The more the relationship between families and the school is a real partnership, the more student
achievement increases. When schools engage families in ways that are linked to improve student
learning, students make greater gains. When families are engaged in positive ways, rather than labeled as
problems, schools can be transformed from places where only certain students prosper to one where all
children do well. (Mapp, 2007)
Best practices:
•Family centered grade-level standards nights and/or informational question and answer night relating to
graduation and other standardized tests.
•Parent/Teacher created and directed network information or classes, articles in the newsletter and/or fact
sheets on strategies to help your child academically.
Resource:
•Parent Mentors Program -Parent Mentors assist families and educators in locating information and
resources, provide workshops for parents and educators, provide confidential support for parental
concerns and questions, and provide a parent's perspective to educators and an educator’s perspective to
parents in a collaborative effort to promote student growth.
http://www.dekalb.k12.ga.us/special-education/parent-mentors
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6. Promoting Student Learning
School Relationships:
• One way schools and students collaborate to promote learning is through students attending school every day it is in
session, while following school rules of behavior and conduct. Teachers are employees of the school, and are
therefore extensions of the school, overseeing, directing and guiding the students’ learning and conduct. Without the
collaboration of the students and school during a regular school day, no learning would take place and chaos might
ensue.
•Another way students and schools collaborate is through extracurricular activities sponsored by the school. Students
participate in sports, clubs and music programs sponsored by the schools on a daily basis, usually after the regular school
day ends, as well as occasionally on weekends or during school breaks. Schools usually provide facilities, coaches and
directors, uniforms, and sometimes equipment for these activities. Without the collaboration of the schools and students
during these extracurricular activities, student learning would be lacking in the individual strengths gained by many of
the students through these activities.
Best practices:
•Students should always attend school on time on any day it is in session if possible, and conduct themselves
appropriately at all times. Attending school, eager to learn, will assist a student’s capacity to expand their knowledge base
and absorb information more readily.
•Students should be encouraged to participate in extracurricular activities if possible and feasible, to gain the varied
perspective, as well as the individual strengths, that can only be gained through this participation. The knowledge and
personal strengths’ students will gain through this collaboration will not only help them through their time in school, but
will follow them throughout life.
Resource:
•A School System calendar, often found on the school system website, usually always notes when standardized testing
will be taking place in which schools or grade levels, when end-of-course testing, midterms or finals will be held, when
progress reports or report cards will be going home, and where extracurricular activities will be taking place, as well as
other pertinent information about the calendar item, as appropriate.
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7. Promoting Student Learning
Community Relationships:
•One of the ways communities and students collaborate to promote student learning is by local businesses opening their
doors to the students. This may be for field trips or other educational experiences, allowing for internships or work-study
programs with older students, or sponsoring school activities for many different ages and grades. Communities need
places for their recreational, social and educational pursuits, which schools and by extension, its students, provide. Upon
graduation, students provide skilled, educated employees to many of the businesses in the community, while the
community members support students by funding school facilities and operational expenses.
•Another way communities collaborate with the students to promote student learning is by community members serving
on the local school board to ensure the money allocated for each student’s learning needs is not squandered, but put to its
best use, and rules and regulations are established and maintained to promote a healthy and safe learning environment for
all. School board members are chosen by their communities, and must determine many things that directly affect each
student in the school system. They must determine which teachers are hired, days the school will be in operation, as well
as the facility buildings to be built and maintained. The collaboration of communities and students to promote student
learning through the community school board is a very important function of that collaboration that should never be
downplayed, but respected by all.
Best practices:
•Bring a local newspaper to class and have students look through it to find different items of educational interest in their
community. Whether it be local politics, reports on community events, or editorials on government happenings, something
of educational interest can usually always be found in every issue.
•Another best practice would be to point out and discuss regularly the ways the local community interacts and
collaborates with students in their education. What benefits the community provides the students, what activities it
sponsors, what services it maintains. The answers to all these questions will illustrate to students how their local
community collaborates to promote student learning for the betterment of everyone involved.
Resource:
•Most communities have websites promoting the different activities in and around that community, as well as local
meetings that may be of interest to its citizens. These websites often promote activities that may be of particular
educational interest to students. The wealth of information that can be found on these websites is amazing, informative,
and often very educational in itself.
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8. Resources
•
Dunbar, C. Best Practices in Classroom management, 2004. College of Education, Michigan State
University.
•
Daniel R., Oliver, R. Effective Classroom Management: Teacher Preparation and Professional
Development, 2007. National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality, Vanderbilt University.
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•
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Powell, W. Chapter 5: Collaboration. U.S. Department of Senate: Diplomacy in action.
•
Mapp, K. L. (2003). Having their say: Parents describe why and how they are engaged in their
children’s learning. The School-Community Journal, 13(1), 35-64.
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Mapp, K. L. (2007, June 13) The why, what and how of effective school, family and community
partnerships.
Cooperative Teaching. The University of Kansas.
Christudason, A. (2003). Successful learning, peer learning. 37,
http://www.cdtl.nus.edu.sg/success/sl37.htm accessed December 1, 2013
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