Why Michigan School and District Leaders Adopted Collaborative Literacy 

Why Leaders Chose Collaborative Literacy

Kim Still

What was it that led you to select Collaborative Literacy?

Brenda Said-Wright

When I was at Riverview, an English Language Arts (ELA) committee worked together to dig into the data. This committee included teachers from all grade levels, a special education teacher, and a representative from our county.

We needed a systematic phonics program. Additionally, our teachers wanted a ready-to-use, vertically-aligned program that supported them.

We could quickly see that Collaborative Literacy meets the students where they are, through systematic phonics instruction using small groups. It supports educators as well as students. That was important for us because our elementary teachers are really passionate about teaching reading, and not everyone received a reading specialist degree in college.

We wanted something that would support our teachers and coaches while strengthening the program and ensure we’re teaching with fidelity. 

We also wanted a program that was accessible and diverse enough to meet all of the learners within our classrooms.

During whole-group instruction, everyone can access the lessons, and we are able to support students individually through small groups. 

Time is a common concern for most educators, and teachers said that they were taking a lot of time to stop and assess. As we learned more about Collaborative Literacy, we saw that assessment happens authentically through the instruction. It doesn’t require teachers to stop teaching to assess. 

Finally, social-emotional learning is built into Being a Reader and Being a Writer. It’s a way of doing business. After the first year of implementation, the teachers were able to dispose of tier one SEL lessons, gaining an extra 10 to 15 minutes a day. It was spilling into other subject areas, and it ended up being our tier one program for the entire school. 

Jan Douglas

After reviewing several different resources, we decided on two groups, each piloting a different program. The response to Collaborative Literacy was overwhelming. The teachers on the curriculum team were coming to meetings reporting that the kids were incredibly engaged. They were asking to read and write more, saying that they felt represented through the diversity of the books. They’re not the same books that kids have seen again and again.

An additional priority for us was finding something with a strong language comprehension component that would align with Scarborough’s language comprehension portion of the rope. We found that Collaborative Classroom lessons are explicit and supportive, offering an educative curriculum for teachers. We’re getting some great responses. And we’re very, very happy with our adoption.

What Elements are Helping Districts Succeed

Jeremy Hyler

Regarding the implementation of Collaborative Literacy, what features or supports have set your district up for success? 

Amber Kowatch

Our literacy coach played a huge part in ensuring that everyone was adopting with fidelity. We worked across grade levels and throughout our buildings, with some vertical pieces around the non-negotiables. It takes time to learn a brand new curriculum.

Right out of the gate we committed to certain portions of the program. As we became more efficient and productive in implementing those certain pieces, we slowly started adding additional components. Our literacy coach helped us navigate those conversations and get assurances in writing, so that everyone understood the expectations.

Now, as we walk through classrooms having conversations, we can see that we are all on the same page. 

The alignment across the grades using built-in routines and a balance of whole-group, small-group, and independent pieces, along with clear instructional design for our teachers, has been wonderful. 

We could not have done this without support from our literacy coach. We’re a professional learning communities district, and that collaborative time for our teachers has been well-utilized to ensure fidelity. I know that’s kind of a buzzword, but it’s really important when you’re adopting a new curriculum.

Along with collaborative time through our PLC work, we’re able to look at our data and make decisions about the components of Collaborative Literacy that we want to ensure are being utilized. Literacy coaching and time for those data conversations are truly important, along with establishing those non-negotiables right out the gate.

How Educators and Leaders are Succeeding

Jeremy Hyler

What features and supports have set you up for success?

Jan Douglas

Our Collaborative Classroom professional learning leads have been responsive any time that we’ve had questions. I really appreciated their willingness to listen. They understood our literacy vision and how we were leaning on Collaborative Literacy as a language comprehension piece. They didn’t try to sell us things that didn’t align with our goals.

The lessons are very high quality. Teachers have everything they need clearly articulated in the teachers’ manuals. 

As you know, it’s not as easy as giving an end of unit assessment anymore. There’s a lot of formative assessment that has to go into determining the type of instruction that a student needs and where they are on their journey to mastery of specific skills. So we appreciate that there are many opportunities for building teacher capacity around formative assessment. 

We also have literacy coaches in the buildings, and we’re very happy with that model. 

Last year was our first year of implementation and we received virtual training through our Collaborative Classroom PL lead. She and I met ahead of time to determine our needs and make a plan. Then she delivered professional learning to the coaching group, who took it back to support teachers with job-embedded professional development.

What Impact Collaborative Literacy has on Students and Teachers

Kim Still

We know that a program is only as good as the quality of its implementation. You’ve highlighted many important elements including the involvement of literacy coaches and the presence of PLCs. 

Knowing that these kinds of solid plans are in place, what impacts are you seeing on your students and teachers?

Keturah Godfrey

We are in our third year of implementing Being a Reader, and our second year of Being a Writer. In the last two years, we have seen increases across the board in our NWEA and our M-STEP scores.

This year we had increases across the district in all those grade levels. Classroom teachers have reported that their students are talking off-the-cuff about what they read that morning in their whole-group reading lesson. They’ll hear students chattering excitedly with a friend about what they had just read, or what they’re currently reading and their ideas.

Students are genuinely excited about reading. Kids can see themselves in the diverse selection of texts. There are interesting things that spark their curiosity and drive conversations. We know that creating fluency and comprehension is crucial to getting kids engaged. 

It’s been exciting to go in the classrooms and hear students talking authentically in meaningful ways about reading.

Additionally, I will echo what Jan was saying about the program being educative. Many of our districts have veteran and seasoned staff that are nearing retirement. We’re bringing in a lot of new teachers. Having an educative program from which they can learn best practices for delivering reading instruction has been helpful.

Kim Still

Amber, would you talk a little bit about the impact that you’re seeing?

Amber Kowatch

We, too, are hearing our kids involved in deeper comprehension conversations, and seeing overall increased engagement around reading conversation. The strategies and structures that Collaborative Classroom has built in for that to take place in the classroom is great. 

We have done an extensive amount of work aligning our curricular resources across grade levels through our PLC work. Because of the way Collaborative Classroom has crafted their programs, it is easy to do that with ELA. It is a natural alignment for us.

Kim Still

Brenda, how did the program support new teachers in your district?

Brenda Said-Wright

We’ve been using Collaborative Literacy for four years, and during that time we’ve had several teachers retire somewhat unexpectedly. We were bringing in new teachers, sometimes mid-year.

We sat down with our coaches and said, “Okay, when somebody comes on and they’re jumping into the program, what steps will we take to support them?” Feedback from our teachers was that they felt supported by the Being a Reader and Being a Writer programs because they are scripted and easy to follow.

Because we’ve done the PLC work for pacing and assessments, they know what they need to get to by a certain date. They’re engaging in those conversations with their PLCs so instructional decisions are made together.

It’s really the perfect program, especially when you have PLCs. The fact that it is so aligned means that even if you start talking to the grade level below or the grade level above you, it’s clear to see the connections and where your piece of the puzzle fits. That was really helpful for our new teachers—to see the big picture of the district and our literacy goals.

How to Learn More about Collaborative Literacy

Jeremy Hyler

What advice would you give to a district or to a district leader who is interested in learning more about Collaborative Literacy? 

Keturah Godfrey

I believe getting into a building and observing the program in practice is incredibly important to the decision-making process. I was able to partner with Brenda in her elementary building and bring our curriculum review team to observe Collaborative Literacy in action. 

From there, we gathered evidence and information about the priorities that we had set forth for our district. We were able to curate questions regarding the program that perhaps we didn’t see happening in the classroom.

It can be a paradigm shift if your teachers have been utilizing a basal approach for quite some time. You have to till that soil. 

The educative nature of Collaborative Literacy is super for new teachers, but can be somewhat uncomfortable for seasoned and veteran teachers. Having to read and plan and prepare ahead of time according to what is in the lesson can bring up some insecurities. They’ve been teaching for so many years and may say, “Well, I already know these things.” 

So, once our early adopters were using the program, we created classroom learning laboratories where teachers within the district could observe stellar teachers implementing it in their classroom.

We’ve conducted lesson plan studies where we sit down and go through the lessons, what they contain, and the intentionality of questions. We look into the margins to see what’s available. And we were able to have some very meaningful conversations around the tool itself.

We’ve also done peer-to-peer observations. This year, we took it to the next level and created a system so our new teachers participate in a peer-to-peer learning lab, as well as a lesson plan study.

Last year, we did something really creative where we brought our dynamic coaching team in to train the principals. Our elementary principals sat alongside one of our master reading coaches and took part in the small-group instruction to see how it was led. They participated as a student so they knew what they should be looking for when they went into classrooms to observe instruction.

How to Learn More about Piloting Collaborative Literacy

Jeremy Hyler

What advice would you give someone who is interested in a pilot?

Jan Douglas

I agree with what Keturah said about the importance of observing a program in practice before making a decision. In our case, we, too, were fortunate to partner with Brenda in her elementary building. Our teachers were able to see how engaged the students were during whole-class and small-group lessons—that was really impressive. Our district literacy coach and I had an opportunity to debrief with some teachers and ask questions of their literacy coach. That was very helpful.

We adopted Being a Reader and Being a Writer at the same time. We focused on professional development for Being a Reader because we knew that would be the biggest change in practice that our teachers would have to make and would require a lot of training and coaching. 

I am disappointed we couldn’t provide training for Being a Writer that first year, but we did have training this year with our Collaborative Classroom PL lead, and I think that teachers were in a better place to engage in that professional learning because they were already familiar with Being a Reader.

Amber Kowatch

We’ve been utilizing this curriculum for long enough to see and understand the trends in our data. We’ve been able to say to Collaborative Classroom, “This piece seems like it might not be working right, or this other piece seems as if something might be missing.”

It speaks to the responsive nature of Collaborative Classroom that they follow up with those inquiries and are willing to make updates along the way. We have been using Being a Writer for a while. The most recent update to that program answered all of the questions we had. It was a great response to the things that weren’t feeling quite right for us.

I’m grateful for how well Collaborative Classroom listens and continues to refine their resources and programs, making them better and better over time.

Brenda Said-Wright

I’ll reiterate something that multiple people have said in different ways today. A program is only as good as the support provided to teachers for implementation. From a district leader perspective, I think it’s important to know that this is a three-to-five year process, and teachers need support throughout.

We need to be able to support new teachers when they come in so there is consistency in teaching the program and nothing falls through the cracks along the way. Using grant money, we wrote in professional learning for a three-year plan when we started. Just as Jan mentioned, we focused on Being a Reader first because that was the heaviest lift, and then we went to Being a Writer. 

We also surveyed our teachers. When they asked for something, we wanted to respond right away. Something that they really enjoyed were lesson demonstrations, so every year we use grant money for those, changing our focus based on what our teachers say they want at the time. Along with the money we put aside for professional learning, we take advantage of the free resources on Collaborative Classroom’s Learning Portal. 

I think staying ahead of your teachers in the process is important—making sure everyone knows that it’s a multi-year initiative.

Final Thoughts on Professional Learning

Kim Still

Is there anything more to add about professional learning?

Jan Douglas

We really appreciated the ability to customize the professional learning based on our needs. In the event we hadn’t clearly communicated what we wanted, our Collaborative Classroom lead would make revisions. She was incredibly responsive in terms of delivery for teachers and answering questions.

Our coaches would gather all the teacher’s questions and meet with our CC PL lead to elevate our biggest concerns. After the training, coaches would go back into their buildings feeling more at peace with their answers and able to move forward to continue supporting teachers.

Related Reading:

Collaborative Literacy meets criteria for Michigan’s Tier 1 Early Literacy evaluation and is eligible for Section 35m funding

How North Rose-Wolcott Central School District Is Succeeding with SIPPS and Collaborative Literacy