Productive Partnerships: New Professional Learning

Barb Novak contributed today's post. Click here for more of Barb's thinking.

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction recognizes that improving literacy outcomes for all students depends upon collaboration between adults, who often bring different areas of expertise and varied beliefs about reading. While this could ensure that the team is able to select or design an intervention that matches a student’s exact needs, this variety in knowledge and understanding can also pose interpersonal challenges that impact the team’s ability to serve students.

Productive Partnerships Learning Module

Productive Partnerships: Collaboration Strategies to Improve Outcomes is a collection of online resources to build and maintain a healthy team focusing on improving literacy outcomes for all students. The materials include preventative and maintenance tools about trust, individual strengths in collaboration, and norms; an overview of a variety of theories about literacy; and a process a team can use for writing beliefs about literacy.

The materials also include strategies to apply when team members are experiencing interpersonal conflict. Individuals can apply these strategies to examine and change their behavior or to prepare for talking with a colleague about a difficult topic. Strategies include assuming positive intent, listening, diagramming interpersonal conflict, and scripting hard conversations.

The resources include a ready-to-use slide deck with speaker notes, a facilitator’s guide, handouts, and video explanations. Users are encouraged to modify the materials to best meet the needs of the team(s) they serve.

The materials - developed by experts representing literacy, Title I, and special education - can be accessed at http://dpi.wi.gov/reading/professional-learning/productive-partnerships.