Authors: Cathy Doggett and Leslie Gaar de Ostrovich, School Ready Specialists
Pre-K teachers often use team meetings to share activity ideas for upcoming themes and to plan field trips and special events. As the demands for school readiness increase, it’s necessary to shift the focus on team meetings to improving lesson quality and linking data to instruction.
Teachers who use team meeting time effectively work at least 45 minutes per week together on clear, measurable goals to increase student learning. Team members come prepared to reflect on and plan lessons, discuss assessment data, and discover new strategies to support student learning. Each team member reviews the Teacher’s Edition (TE) and/or scope and sequence of the curriculum ahead of time and is prepared to assume a role in planning process.
Team members begin the meeting by discussing what went well during the week. One teacher serves as a facilitator, leading the team through a pre-determined agenda. Teachers share lesson details that will help each other. For example, Teacher A explains changes/improvements that she will make to the math lessons from the TE and additional math lessons she will teach. She also shares materials she created for these lessons, ideas for extending math lessons into centers, and strategies for gathering data to assess math competencies on the Pre-K report card.
Teachers B and C discuss details for read-aloud lessons and centers related to the new theme. As the recorder, Teacher C uses an action plan list for each task, listing who is responsible and by when they will complete it. For example, Teacher A may need to e-mail shape cards to her team members by Thursday.
Teachers take time to identify opportunities to collect data to assess student understanding by using checklists, work samples, etc. They plan time to teach key Pre-K guidelines/competencies. Occasionally they use team meetings to analyze assessment data and consider how they’ll need to alter RtI Tier I and Tier II instruction for struggling students.
Please use these School Ready website resources to help your Pre-K team maximize meeting time to improve school readiness:
- Pre-K Team Meeting Frequently Asked Questions
- Pre-K Team Meeting Outline
- Pre-K Team Meeting Norms
- Key Components of Collaborative Team Meetings
Professional collaboration requires a sophisticated skill set for open communication and conflict resolution. Without administrative support for teachers to develop and use these skills, collaboration is unlikely to be effective or sustained.
Questions to Consider:
- What is really happening during your Pre-K Team Meetings? How much meeting time is spent on deep reflective discussion about improving lessons and tying lessons to student data?
- What is one small step you can take to support your teachers to use meeting time to make more data-driven planning choices?