Systems of Collaboration: Part 3 of 3 Part Series: Looking Back to Look Forward with Care, Communication, and Collaboration

Systems of Collaboration

Systems of collaboration are an important part of healthy school communities of professional growth and learning. Today, I’d like to offer you just three ways in which healthy schools use systems thinking to design their collaborative study.

1. Divide and Conquer System of Collaboration

In this system, each member of the grade-level team takes a leadership role in a specific area. Each attends professional development in their area, reads current research, writes curriculum, and shares it with the whole team during common grade-level planning meetings.

Here’s an example of a divide and conquer grade-level system chart used to organize the year.

Some teams design their grade-level meetings to run efficiently so that in every meeting, team leads share and disperse valuable information so that it builds throughout the year. 

An example of a grade-level meeting might be:

Sample Divide and Conquer Team Meeting Agenda (60 minutes)

(8:00 – 8:10) Mindful Movement (10)

(8:10 – 8:15) Quick Wins & Celebrations (5)

(8:15 – 8:20) Reading Update (5)

(8:20 – 8:25) Writing Update (5)

(8:25 – 8:30) Mathematics Update (5)

(8:30 – 8:35) Technology Update (5)

(8:35 – 8:40) Social Studies Update (5)

(8:45 – 8:50) Science Update (5)

(8:50 – 8:55) Next Steps & Reminders (5)

(8:55 – 9:00) Calendar Next Meeting with Goals

When grade levels divide the content area leadership (especially in an elementary school community), everyone can tap into their inner leader in ways that honor their unique identity.

2. Month-at-a-Glance Team Meeting System of Collaboration

Here’s another example of how to effectively use time in a collaborative way. This example accounts for a shorter meeting time. In this example, the team is studying the same topic together, but they divide the month into weekly focus areas to ensure they are studying, discussing, and preparing consistently for multiple content areas throughout the year. This example might work best for teachers in grades who teach multiple subjects (K-5). If you teach one specific subject, you might imagine shifting the focus to an element of that focus such as designing success criteria or threading collaborative conversations throughout the day. 

3. Thinking-Partner System of Collaboration

In a thinking-partner system of collaboration, educators partner together with a colleague who is interested in studying the same topic. Say a kindergarten teacher and a 4th grade teacher are both interested in differentiated teaching by conferring with readers. They partner together all year to design and grow their professional learning.

Note: I highly recommend this system for all principals, too! Principals are valuable resources. In many schools I work with, we design thinking partners with teachers and principals. They meet throughout the year in just 10-minutes meetings.

Your turn!

Keep those collaborative conversations going! Which system would work best in your learning community?

Tag us on Instagram @readwritethinkrenee with #RWTCollaborate to share how your team is collaborating and how you will use these systems.