Each RIFLI site boasts a team of hardworking, dedicated teachers determined to do the very best they can for their students. The Lead Teacher, Children’s Teacher, and ESL Computer Teacher each bring critical skills and perspective to our family literacy classes. Incredible things happen when these talented teachers work together to plan curriculum, to collaborate on strategies to help students achieve their goals,  and to use their collective wisdom and experience to problem solve and brainstorm. This is the ideal.

In reality, with the many priorities and circumstances that our teachers  juggle, this team planning does not always happen as smoothly and effectively as it could. So, what  really works well and what are some of the struggles for our site teams? We asked teachers to weigh in on this topic. Read on to see what they had to say.

What works:

·          Regular team communication.

We always meet by 5:00 (for evening classes) for at least a half hour of informal planning. General strategies, specific materials, group levels, and coordinator of family activities are typical discussion topics.—Ed, Lead Teacher, Providence

My first year at RIFLI we were told to meet at 5:30 to go over lessons with staff and tutors, but I quickly found this wasn’t too feasible. With a multi-level class, tutors who couldn’t come in until 6, and students coming in early with questions, I had to create other means of working together. With tutors this meant talking to them on the phone before and after lessons. The tutors were also given the responsibility of constantly giving feedback on students goals and lesson ideas, and then presenting me with those ideas. E-mail with tutors helped as well. It started a great “feedback loop” for us. Tutors and I are in contact all the time; even if it is just to say hi. The bonds created by this system and the improvement in lessons, was fantastic. With my co-teachers, the  best team building ingredient is time. We are in contact a lot of the time by phone and e-mail and we make a point to all meet with the site librarian after class to talk about what happened that night and to finalize what we are doing the next class. It is valuable time because it is right after class and things are fresh in our minds. We also meet socially once in a while and this helps create a team bond.—Chris, Lead Teacher, Cranston

It is important to consider different styles of teaching and preparation when scheduling team meetings. More experienced teacher s will need little time to prepare and can more easily meet before class. Others need more time and I would meet with them, say monthly, to talk about the upcoming weeks so that they could prepare well in advance. —Sherry, Lead Teacher, Providence

·          All team members sharing responsibility for bringing ideas and issues to the group’s attention.

Although Lead Teachers are ultimately responsible for a site, all teachers at each site work best when they work as collaborators. Each teacher should be recognized for their unique experiences that they bring to the program. As much as possible, all site specific issues and decisions should be addressed by the entire team, including volunteers. —Larry, Lead Teacher, Providence

Team planning has worked best when each staff member is fully prepared and also when each person is looking both to contribute new ideas and to gather new ideas. This creates group dynamics that are stimulating to all and constructive input and output are the outcomes. —Sherry

·          A routine for each team member so that class planning time can focus on larger issues.

What has worked well has been for each team member to have an established class routine so that less time is needed to establish how the class will play out each day. The routine also sets clear expectations for each of us. —Sherry

·          Planning ahead.

I gave my team a draft of themes taken from the student goal setting which we did early in the semester. That way, if the teachers needed to order LARK kits or gather other special resources they had plenty of time.—Ed

In general, I have found that when a team is able to do advanced class planning, whole group activities emerge with a sense of true meaning for the adult and child students.—Larry

·          A collaborative approach to planning family activities.

When planning family activities, the children’s teacher has clear ideas on how to engage parents with their children. For preschooler, this is easier because she knows how to engage young children. I don’t have an early childhood education background and can come up with activities but they are often too difficult for preschoolers. —Sherry

The Lead Teacher was flexible and helped to make necessary changes to help the children's program run as smoothly as possible.  For example, we moved family activities to the beginning of class so the children were not late because of clean-up time at the end of class.  We also brainstormed different ways to accommodate the needs of particular students during each family activity.  Often times we will plan an activity and then find different ways to include a literacy student who may struggle with writing, an advanced adult student who does not have children and mentioned they did not feel family activity time is useful, a 10 year old who has lived in the U.S. his whole life and complains that an activity is too easy, or a 4 year old who cannot write and read on her own yet.  Also, making sure the children are sitting together with adults at the front of the classroom was important so that the kids did not sit in the back and become isolated from the adults during family time.—Bryn, Children’s Teacher, Pawtucket

Challenges:

·          Multiple priorities compete with team planning time.

We have always needed the 30 minutes before class time to physically set up the room for teaching. Sometimes we have also struggled with staff members arriving late or unprepared or using the planning time to talk about non-work related issues. What works well is when staff members are well-prepared and don’t need the 30 minutes before class to make copies, etc., but can actually sit down and talk.—Sherry

 ·          Factors beyond our control interfere with our carefully laid plans.

Due to the current open enrollment policy, the mix of the class constantly changes. Without revisiting goals on a periodic basis, the original themes may no longer be useful toward the middle or end of a semester.—Ed

Given the many variables that impact what we do, all teachers need to approach each session (and each class!) with a mindset that says: “I will be flexible.”—Larry