Professional Development Works Best Through Collaboration

By Jason Harper

Wyoming Excellence in Higher Education Endowed Chairs in Literacy Education in the University of Wyoming School of Teacher Education Leigh Hall and Cynthia Brock, Big Piney High School (BPHS) Principal Jeff Makelky and UW School of Counseling, Leadership, Advocacy and Design Assistant Professor William Holmes published an article describing a collaborative professional development process UW undertook with Makelky and his staff at BPHS in the April 2020 edition of Principal Leadership Magazine.

The project was initiated when Makelky sought out the expertise of Hall and Brock through the University of Wyoming’s Literacy Research Center and Clinic (LRCC), hoping they could help improve the abilities of the students in his school to read and comprehend informational text. He understood that he and his staff would need to learn new techniques to help them foster a participatory culture of reading in their school, and he knew the UW professors could provide the expertise that would be required to implement these new teaching practices.

“The LRCC led a professional development session with our district staff the spring prior to my contacting them,” says Makelky. “I was intrigued and thought by relying on the expertise of the LRCC, we could work together to improve our reading proficiency levels, which have historically been below the state average on standardized assessments.”

“A central aspect of our mission at the UW LRCC is to meet the specific needs of each school we work with and to collaboratively construct the framework we develop with the educators and administrators at each school,” says Brock. “The focus for this project was determined by the teachers and principal, and the implementation plan for the work was co-constructed between BPHS and UW.”

The LRCC group first collected information from students and teachers to assess how reading was taught at the school. Online micro-courses designed by Hall guided the professional learning for the educators and served as the backbone of the project. Courses were crafted to be completed in one to three weeks, and each course was aligned with the professional learning needs of the teachers at the school. “Micro-courses are short, focused courses on a very narrow topic. They can be completed in 5-15 hours,” says Hall. “Teachers did a pre- and post-survey for each course. They also had optional challenges they could complete, which allowed them to apply what they were learning to their instruction. They could then share what they learned and experienced with their colleagues as part of that work.”

The teachers had access to 15 courses, titles included: Disciplinary Literacy, Vocabulary Instruction, Instagram for Literacy Development: Participatory Culture, Relationships for Literacy Development, and Introduction to Dialogic Teaching. Each course presented the teachers with new methods and ideas to incorporate a participatory culture of reading into their classrooms.

Over the course of two years, Makelky and his staff worked as a team to improve their collective abilities utilizing the courses and professional learning plans Hall and Brock co-developed with Makelky and BPHS teachers. Undertaking the project as a school allowed the educators to discuss the successes and challenges they faced and to adjust

their plans as the project unfolded and the group’s goals became more focused.

“The teachers shared what was working in their instruction with one another during staff PD sessions,” says Brock. “The group collaboratively determined what was working and not working in order to make adjustments to the overall professional development plan as needed.”

The pace of the learning enabled teachers to continuously build off knowledge from previous courses and quickly grow in their skills. Teachers were empowered to utilize their classrooms as living laboratories and were able to immediately implement the new methods they were learning in their daily teaching practice.

As principal, Makelky’s charismatic and team-oriented leadership style played a huge role in the success of the collaborative work. Not only did he take the courses alongside his staff, he set aside time to meet with the teachers and discuss their learning. This helped him connect with his staff in meaningful ways when observing and providing feedback, and it allowed the staff to start building a shared knowledge for effectively providing informational text-reading approaches across the school.

“To bring about the change we were looking for, we had to employ all hands-on deck. I am a huge proponent of setting common goals and then working with each other to achieve those goals. I felt it was important to learn along with our teachers, as I had not received any formal training in literacy practices and strategies. And of course, if I wanted to assist and give my teachers feedback, it was important for me to understand what I should be looking for,” says Makelky.

Makelky was recently named the 2020 Wyoming State Principal of the Year by the Wyoming Association of Secondary School Principals. The organization cited Makelky’s collaborative work with the LRCC as one of the reasons for his winning the award.

“It’s hard work, it takes time to see results, but the Literacy Center is a great resource to employ if you truly want to improve literacy education amongst your staff and, in the end, improve the literacy skills of your students” says Makelky. “Cynthia and Leigh are super to work with in developing a plan that works for your individual situation.”