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=__**Literacy Mentor Project 2011**__=

__**What to include:**__

Think pieces - for key moments during the year. Document conversations

**Chris and Anneliese to meet fortnightly** = = __**Reflection Term 2 Week 2 2011 - Anneliese Shadowing Chris**__ On May 4th, I went to shadow Chris on one of her planning days. The day was a great opportunity for me to not only see how Chris' days are organised but also for me to reflect on and discuss with her my own methods and routines. I was able to sit in on a planning session with Chris, see a PLT in progress and also see Chris helping a staff member one on one. It was also really good to see how Chris works alongide other members of her leadership team and her methods of analysing data. Through our discussions and through Chris' coaching questioning I was able to identify several areas for contemplation. These included:


 * My relationship with staff : How do staff see me?
 * What my role as Literacy leader entails: Where is the primary focus? eg. on staff? children? intervention? leadership?
 * What is the next step that will make the biggest difference at my school?
 * Value of intervention programs in the school - how to establish a reading intervention strategy at year 1 as a preventative measure
 * PLT time: When is best to schedule PLTs - outside of school hours or during planning
 * Facilitated planning - is it necessary for me to be in planning with the staff?
 * Data - showing staff their data (percentages of students reaching benchmark) - show and discuss their own class percentages as compared to other classes in their year level, as a school etc.

At this stage I feel that the step that will make the most difference at my school is a focus on effective data analysis__**.**__ I intend to work with Chris to look our data and look at setting up Year 1 intervention (similar to how she has done this) at my school, in my context.
 * Goals:**

Anneliese to call and chat with Chris in week 4 or 5 Anneliese to arrange for the next meeting whereby Chris will shadow Anneliese on one of her planning days.
 * Future meeting/ interactions:**

__**Chris's Reflection**__ Anneliese shadowed Chris on a 'typical' day. Observed Chris in acton in converstaion with teaching & learning team (3-6 Lit Leader & Director of Learning), intervention staff as well as a Yr 1 PLT/planning meeting. Conversations around observations including 'in place' interventions and the use of student acievement data were also conducted.

We also spent time reflecting on and talking about the multi faceted nature of Literacy Leadership, Anneliese's perceptions, concerns and realities of the role, her relationships with staff and leadership team members and her goals for future learnings/actions.

It was agreed that time was needed in order for effective coaching/mentoring to occur (every fortnight). Although this is high on the agenda, the 'busy-ness' of school life has been a hinderance. We have now established contact and commited to 2 dates- These have been established with the aim of formulating achievable short term goals, leading to long term goals as well as affording me the opportunity to observe Anneliese in action in order to ascertain (in partnership) how best I might serve her in achieving her goals.
 * 1) Thurs 2 June
 * 2) Thurs 16 June

We have also agreed that in addition to physically meeting with each other, that regular phone/skype contact in between sessions need to happen.

__**Reflection, Thurs 2 June - re Chris meeting with Anneleise**__ Chris met with Anneleise to narrow down goals for 2011


 * How to work with teachers on data
 * How to respond to and work with teachers at point of need - individually, team, whole staff
 * Work towards the creation of self managing teams (long term goal)
 * Letting go some control - feeling secure about doing this and prioritising - what do I actually need to control and what do I want to control?
 * Yr 1 intervention groups - 2012 goal-work with Principal on how to enable this to happen
 * Skilling up teachers-what's the best way to do this?
 * PLT's-possibility of building into planning time to enable more focussed discussion on student needs. Refine planning process

Action Plan


 * Chris to observe a 'typical day' with Anneliese - provide feedback
 * Continue discussions about 'control' and how much is needed
 * Yr 1 interevention - need to work with Principal in terms of staffing allocation/suitability-looking at setting up ground work for possible implementation in 2012
 * Working with teachers on data - how much is too much and what is appropriate?
 * Prioritising PLT's in planning for teacher's needs and the use of data

Next meeting - Thurs 16 June

__**Anneliese Reflection Thursday June 2nd**__ It was really beneficial working with Chris during this last meeting as it really enabled me to prioritise my areas of need and sort out a starting point for action. Through our discussion I was able to see which goals fit together and which goals I could tackle separately. I am keen for Chris to see a typical planning day at St Thomas More and get some feedback about where I may be able to tweak/ change/ add / remove things. I am keen to further discuss with Chris the must dos vs the can dos of the role and start to develop a plan of action for how I can determine what I can/can't relinquish control of. I am really keen to work with Chris on strategies that will help me skill up teachers to become a self managing team and I am keen to begin working on the intervention side of things at my school.

__**Anneliese's reflection June 23rd**__

Chris came to shadow Anneliese on a planning day. Chris observed 2 planning sessions. One with year 3 & 4 teachers and one with Prep teachers. Planning was slightly different to normal in that it was the last planning session of the term and involved more retrospective auditing than forward planning. The session was also predominantly facilitated by Anneliese where as normally, they would have been combined with Inquiry planning and also facilitated by the Learning and Teaching leader.

Over the last couple of weeks, in response to PD, leadership began to explore processes which would assist in helping the staff feel more empowered. In the 2 days prior to the planning session attended by Chris, the staff had worked through collaborative goal setting and also a reflective staff meeting which provided the staff the opportunity to form critical appraisals and suggestions of where the school was succeeding and needing improvement. Chris was able to see the suggestions offered by staff as to what their needs regarding planning and what they saw as the components of an ideal planning session. There will be a process now regarding the prioritisation of areas of need for future action.

After the planning sessions, Chris and Anneliese were able to engage in a feedback session where Chris fed back her observations about the amount/content of documentation, the presence of leadership in planning, the knowledge of the staff and the general gist of what the staff were seeking from planning. During the feedback session, Chris and Anneliese explored what the most important next step would be. It was decided that the first things that could be tackled would be the introduction of PLT structure to planning and talking about how to set up PLMs with the school Principal and Deputy. Chris talked of coming back to see another planning session early in term 3.

After the feedback session Chris and Anneliese held a meeting with Anneliese's Principal and deputy and discussed the potential for reorganising the current meeting/ planning session structure so that: a) planning would like more like a PLT and provide teachers with more personal planning time b) the current PLTs would be renamed PLMs (Professional Learning Meetings) and would be more whole staff where professional learning/ planning/ auditing for the whole staff would occur

__**Future action:**__
 * Chris to come and sit in on another planning session with Anneliese in week 3 of term 3 (To be confirmed)
 * Anneliese, her Principal (Marcy) and her Deputy (Kate) to come and sit in on one of Chris' planning sessions around week 4 of term 3
 * Anneliese to unpack/ prioritise the suggestions about planning gained from this last session with the staff
 * In light of the suggestions/ trends offered by staff about where to go with planning, introduce a PLT agenda to her current planning structure and address their need for focus on students etc.

I spent the day shadowing Anneliese leading two planning sessions - year 3/4 & prep. Both sessions were very productive where retrospective auditing of the curriculum and suggestions regarding future directions for planning sessions were conducted. Throughout both sessions, teacher's "voice" emerged where although they felt that instructional leadership was necessary in linking pedagogy to practice at a team level, there was also an equally important need for greater trust where teachers could collaboratively engage in professional conversations, independent of leadership input. During our conversations around feedback, Anneliese articulated her interest in meeting the needs of teachers on a team basis and implementing a model similar to that which operates in my context.
 * __Chris - Reflection - June 23__**

My thoughts? I view my role as coach & mentor as a relationship with Anneliese facilitated through conversation based on trust. My purpose in shadowing for both myself and Anneliese was to begin that relationship based on an understanding of each other's contexts. My intent from that point was to facilitate ongoing conversations which could, based on Anneliese's lead/needs, bring about reflection and thinking around her leadership capacity and capability with a view to implementing any desired and needed change naturally, without any pressure to transpose models from other contexts. With this in mind, if and when any further observations take place, I feel that I now need to continue to build upon my relationship with Anneliese through further conversations about how she feels about her role, her context and where she feels she would like to go next, removing any pressure to change for change sake. I will contact Anneliese during week 3 to organise an off site meeting for an informal chat with a view to re-prioritising.

__**Anneliese Reflection - July 22nd**__

Met with Chris Rintoul to discuss progress in the mentoring project thus far and to clarify the expectations of the project. I was able to share with Chris the steps I had taken in response to assistance from Chris' mentoring and advice. I was able to show how I had been able to adapt ideas from conversations with Chris / my visit to her school context to improve our school's PLT and planning structures. It was clarified that Chris was specifically my mentor who would focus on my personal pedagogical development and understanding and that any bigger leadership advice / interactions would need to be conducted separately to my mentor context.

__**Phone Conversation - July 25th**__ As discussed with Chris Rintoul, it is important to establish a rapport with Chris M as a mentor whereby I can communicate successes and achievements as well as seeking advice. I rang Chris to tell her about how successfully the changes to the PLT and planning structure had gone and was able to share just how her advice had helped shape our new practices. In response to some timely pd and to chris' mentoring, myself and the leadership team at my school have systematically being trying to empower the staff and release some control from the top down. As a result we are now basing PLTs on staff needs as identified by them through reflective practice. As my mentoring is focused on my own pedagogical knowledge development, I discussed with Chris changing my goals a little and we talked about where I felt I needed pedagogical support. We decided that a natural starting point for chris to start helping me was for her to help me investigate and become more skilled in the topics brought up by each PLT team. This way she would be able to support me in supporting them. We also arranged to catch up over coffee and discuss where to from here etc. We arranged to meet up on August 9th.

__**August 9th meeting**__

Was able to catch up with Chris and explain our new planning and PLT structure in detail. We reset my goals to be focused on knowledge building ( glossary of terms, spelling, reading recovery strategies and knowledge around the reciprocity of reading and writing) and literacy strategies for building teacher knowledge. I was able to talk t Chris about how the staff has reflected on their data an identified that they needed to explore spelling. It was really beneficial to discuss with Chris how I might tackle this best with the staff and she was able to give me great support in nutting out the direction of future PLTs, assisting me with resources and exploring strategies for building shared knowledge on spelling with the staff. We also were able to discuss strategic leadership tips. I will keep in contact with Chris though phone, email and this wiki to keep her abreast with how I am going putting our discussed ideas in place. I will, also see her at the next literacy cluster.

__**Chris - reflection 18 August**__ The last 3 conversations with Anneliese have been very positive and fruitful where I feel much progress has been made in terms of developing and establishing a great rapport between us. This has been the basis for moving beyond the awkwardness of positioning ourselves within this situation to a relationship that is mutually trusting between two equals. Anneleise was keen to reset her goals where I have been able to assist her in breaking down what she would like to achieve into managable "chunks" where success experiences would be the result. I am happy to say that this is well underway and the sucess that Anneleise has experienced in her work with teachers in PLT meetings is to her credit. After meeting with her again on August 16, Anneleise was able to share what she was able to achieve and we talked about where she wanted to go next. Through our conversation we reset goals ensuring that the next few steps would be managable, optimising the learning and success opportunities for both Anneliese and her team. We agreed to keep in touch regularly over the next few weeks in order to maintain momentum.

__**Anneliese Reflection after Literacy Cluster August 18 2011**__ As identified through our discussions together, Chris and myself were able to establish a starting point for me to tackle the needs of my staff. Through the new PLT structure that had been established it came about that all levels identified spelling as their area of need. Through consultation with the staff it was decided that the school would redevelop its spelling policy and focus on an in depth exploration of how spelling would be tackled holistically from P-6. Chris was amazingly supportive of this and in the breaks at the cluster, we were able to look through and discuss the resources and PLT plans she had implemented on spelling in her context. This sparked a great professional discussions about how I may be able to tackle this in my context. She also brought other resources for other goals that I had set and I was able to establish courses of action from that also. Since then I have been systematically working through these goals. I am now ready to set further goals and am very pleased with how things have evolved in my context. The re-development of our school's spelling policy has been extremely successful and I have just run some successful parent seminars on this also. I have kept in general contact over email and phone with Chris and have let her know how things have gone. I am very grateful for all her assistance and support. We will attempt another catch up session this term so I can relay how things have gone in more detail and think about further goals, especially in relation to my Literacy role in 2012.

__**Conversation 21/3/12**__ __Goal: To reset Anneliese's 2012 goals__

Anneliese and Chris discussed how Anneliese needed to reset her 2012 goals. These are relatively in line with the information Chris has so the mentoring relationship will function more as a partnership rather than coach and coachee. The goals are as follows:

Reading comphension (3-6) -focus on this long term (post review - LAP?) Writing - short term goal ( spin off from spelling) - to develop a scope and sequence in line with Ausvels and an appropriate format for analysis.

Anneliese spoke to Chris about coaching strategies and her plan for formalising and establishing a more formalised approach coaching across the staff for 2012. Anneliese to provide staff with opportunities to define their focus and provide feedback on what they see and hear initially and build on from there. Start simple and then get more focused on that through plts etc. (Chris to email state government documecoach coaching for teacher effectiveness).

__**Meeting 15/6/12**__ In this meeting we unpacked the 2012 goals set for Anneliese. Some of the goal aspects between the needs at Chris and Anneliese's school linked and so discussion circled around addressing these areas of need with the suport of each other. Reflection on the spelling work completed by Anneliese occurred and we talked about tackling grammar in light of AusVels. Discussion about how to implement Ausvels at our respective schools.

__**Meeting 24/8/12**__ Throughout each meeting we have addressed each of Anneliese's goals. Spelling, Grammar & comprehension were all addressed and explored in detail and a thorough breakdown and investigation of AusVels was initiated. We have been discussing how to handle the delivery of information to and with staff so that it is manageable and doable. Chris provided Anneliese with a significant range of resources to support teachers in their reflective process, their planning and their teaching. Chris and Anneliese also discussed the demands of their roles and did some trouble shooting around how to handle the demands of the job, how to prioritise and how to implement coaching techniques effectively.

Chris & Anneliese spoke of how to skill up teachers in planning and implementing effective guided reading for the development of comprehension strategies. Practical ways of leading that with staff (through a reflective process) will be explored further in addition to maintaining and utilising appropriate resources.
 * For the next meeting:**


 * Anneliese's reflection** - The professional conversations held between Chris and myself around the areas noted above have been in depth and have required me to evaluate and question my practice. Tips and strategies brainstormed have been incredibly helpful and have helped me map out where to go next with my staff and my own personal development.


 * Chris' reflection** - Chris Agrees ;-) Anneliese has not only developed her knowledge of Literacy content but also her ability to see possiblities in her ability to lead and deliver content to staff with an emphasis on reflective practice. This has had a positive effect on her confidence and her ability to strategise, prioritise and differentiate the support needed, timing and content. It has been a positive and rewarding experience to be involved in Anneliese's "evolution" and to work through what it is to be an effective coach and mentor.


 * __Meeting 29/11/12__**
 * **__Achievements 2012__** - User friendly definitions of AusVELS grammar (collegial project).
 * Thorough understanding of AusVELS-(national curriculum) English document.
 * Coaching approach initiated at St.T's.
 * Begun Writing/Spelling Analysis document in line withAusVels (collegial project).


 * **__2013 forward plan__** - Reading Comprehension -LAP approach at ST.T"s 2013. PLT's firmly established at ST.T's. Look at what testing is currently used and how is this analysed.
 * Literacy Mentor Project 2013 (Anneliese) - Where to start? How to establish relationship? (Chris to coach Anneliese to get her started).
 * Continue working on effective writing analysis (collegial project).
 * Spelling - refine current document - 2013 to take back to staff at ST.T's & ST. F"s.


 * __Reflection__ - Chris -**The past 2 years have been a journey of growth and discovery for both of us. We have developed such a posititve professional and personal relationship that we both have benefitted from in so many ways. It has enriched my capacity in my work at St F's and helped me to be a more effective leader and coach. We have found it such a positive and profound experience that we decided to continue worrking together beyond the 2 years given for this project. My thanks to Kris, Pierina and the CEOM Literacy Team for both the opportunity and support given to me, and to Anneliese for her faith in me and her willingness to embark on this journey.