FACULTY and STAFF
PARTNERSHIP for INQUIRY LEARNING By Dr. Susan Adamson
20 YEARS and COUNTING… It’s May 15, 2020 and I am working from home where I have been now for the past seven weeks. It’s impossible not to be reflective, as the COVID-19 pandemic is raging and life seems especially precarious. I am also on sabbatical, releasing me from my University responsibilities so I can redirect most of my energy to the work of the Partnership for Inquiry Learning (Partnership). In the almost twenty years that I have served as director, the Partnership has changed a lot. We have been diligent in strategically planning for growth and responding to the demands of our profession. But, the force of this crisis means we will need to be nimble in ways we have never been before to stay present and relevant in the professional lives of teachers.
REAL READING, WRITING and MATHEMATIZING
To affect long-term impact on student performance, the Partnership focuses its resources on professional development and support for teachers, helping them integrate knowledge about curriculum development and learning, with the habits and authentic processes that experienced readers, professional writers, and expert mathematicians use. The Partnership typically relies on face-to-face meetings with teachers to do this work in a variety of contexts – and this year (at least the start of this year) was no exception. We hosted six full-day workshops inviting national literacy scholars, Kate Roberts (@teachkate), A Novel Approach for teaching reading grades 3-8; Matt Glover (@Mattglover123), Craft and Process Studies for teaching writing grades K-5; 18
and Tasha Laman (@TashaLaman), Growing Literate Identities – Strategies for Multilingual Learners for teaching literacy in the primary grades. We also hosted a Math Summer Institute with regional math scholars and Butler University alumni Ryan Flessner (@ryanflessner) and Courtney Flessner (@CFless). In three consecutive days of professional development K-5 teachers could choose to attend any or all of these workshops: Introduction to Balanced Mathematics; Math Workshop & Creating a Mathematical Environment; and The First 20 Days. The Flessners extended their support to teachers into the school year with Math Fest and Math Textbook Infusion workshops. To engage smaller groups of teachers across Indiana in teacher-research, the Partnership convenes Math Leadership and Literacy Leadership groups. In these monthly meetings (September – May), we work together with teachers to deepen pedagogical understandings through readings, discussions, and critical analysis of practice. Ryan Flessner facilitates the Math Leadership Group; Libby Duggan (@DugganLibby) Partnership Coach and Program Manager and I (@scadamso) facilitate the Literacy Leadership Group. In these think tank-like settings, teachers can pursue their own professional growth in meaningful ways, and the Partnership benefits by coming to know directly from teachers how we can best support them in the work they wish to do. We also provide tailored on-site coaching to five IPS Partnership schools: Butler Lab Schools #60 and #55, and Center for Inquiry Schools #2, #84, and #70. This targeted coaching made possible: grade-level support in planning reading and writing curriculum in PLC meetings; mentoring individual teachers through in-classroom demonstration teaching and co-planning sessions; and guidance in grappling with school-wide reform initiatives such as assessment and grading during discussions at whole school staff meetings.
FALLING IN LOVE WITH BOOKS Importantly, the work of the Partnership complements the teacher education program in the College of Education (COE), in effect functioning as a professional development arm. For example, as a faculty member I authored the COE proposal to re-establish an early childhood/mild intervention licensure program—embracing the spirit of our College vision to ‘challenge the status quo and advocate for the rights of (even the littlest) students.”
