Running Head: COLLABORATION AND COMMUNICATION 1

Effective Collaboration and Communication

Hannah Wissmann
Regent University

In partial fulfillment of UED 495/496 Student Teaching ePortfolio, Spring 2017.

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Introduction

Communication is key in education. A teacher should be able to communicate ideas and

material clearly to students, parents, and other faculty. Part of this communication is knowing

what prior knowledge the students have and connecting new information to this knowledge to

form a new understanding. In doing so, I have found it necessary to collaborate with my

cooperating teacher, inclusion teacher, and the math specialist at the school. I have included

evidence of this communication and collaboration along with an explanation and reflection of

how I have seen these in use at my school.

Rationale for Selection of Artifacts

The first artifact I have included is a letter I sent home with the students introducing

myself and providing a little personal information to get to know me. The importance of

communicating with parents was stressed in Classroom Management (UED 406) and in Methods

of Teaching of Math (UED 489). From the first day of school, sending home such a letter starts a

reputation with the parents. It communicates organization, professionalism, and thought. This

reputation is what precedes a teacher in every phone call home, whether good or bad. In The

First Days of School, Harry and Rosemary Wong strongly suggest sending home a letter before

the first day of school (Wong & Wong, 1991). Even though this is not the first day of school, it is

mine as student teacher, and I want the parents of my students to know who I am from my letter

first, then from my students.

The second artifact I have included is a lesson plan and email correspondence about the

Math 8 class. The class period before this lesson I had covered percent change and received

feedback from the students about not understanding the material. This brought on collaboration

with my cooperating teacher, the inclusion teacher, and the math specialist. We created a lesson
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that would differentiate the percent change material, while allowing students to continue to learn

new material, simple interest. My cooperating teacher and I discussed who would teach the

material, the inclusion teacher was brought in to teach a third small group, and the math

specialist was contacted for clarification of the SOL and material we needed to cover.

Reflection on Theory and Practice

I have found it necessary to collaborate with my cooperating teacher in relation to Math

8, as I am the least familiar with the material. This also included a communication between the

math specialist and myself . There are wonderful resources out there covering the topics on the

SOL. Even with consulting the curriculum framework, there were questions over exactly what

would be covered on the test. For percent change, only questions about finding the increase or

decrease will be asked, not ones for finding the new or original using the percent change

formula. Instead, such questions would be asked in a discount, markup, tax and tip setting.

Students are also not required to set up proportions to solve percent change. Students do not

understand percentages because they are uncomfortable or insecure with fractions. Students who

do not understand percentages as a special ration or proportion will struggle with division and

solving equations with fractional coefficients. In part, it is the word problems that cause some

confusion, knowing the vocabulary and matching it with a logic or operational symbol. This is

why small group instruction is so essential.

In a class of 30 students, there are only so many who are truly advanced enough to work

independently and there are too many students who need individualized instruction to teach a

class lecture style. We have tried to do small group rotations and differentiate based on need, but

there are students in other groups who need direction to stay on task. Instead, following the

example of Laney Sammons in Guided Math (2010), we have split the class into two, sometimes
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three groups. We complete whole group instruction in a smaller group style, and then switch

teachers. This provides the teachers with better feedback from the students, while allowing them

to attend to their needs better. It also allows the teacher to manage the students behavior better.

The students are not as distracted and must work to pay attention to the teacher. At the end of

class, there is a brief concept check to see what the students learned just from instruction. The

next class is group work, or a mixture of Sammons Small groups and Math Workshop

(2010).

Without collaboration, this small group instruction would not have happened. I would

have continued to labor under whole group instruction, lecture style. The students could have

become frustrated, regardless of my efforts to communicate differently. I am very fortunate to be

involved in the Guided Math book study through my cooperating teacher. I have been able to

attend one meeting where we discussed what this could look like in our classrooms. All of these

new ideas can only benefit math instruction.

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References
Sammons, L. (2010). Guided Math: A framework for mathematics instruction. Hunington Beach,
CA: Shell Education.
Wong, H. K., & Wong, R. T. (1991). The First Days of School. Sunnyvale, CA: Harry K. Wong
Publications.