William+Penn+Charter+School

**Action Research Project - Template**
//We want to be able to share and post your Action Research Projects on the PLP website so that others may learn from you. We want to brag on you! We will be making web pages from these projects, so to make the projects a little more uniform and easier to flip through we are asking that you fill out this form. Don't worry - it's not nearly as daunting as it looks. This is meant to be a snapshot of your project with artifacts and links should a reader wish to dig deeper into your research.//

//For your convenience we have copied and pasted this information into your school's team page. Please delete the directions that are *in asterisks* once you are finished.//

**Team Name**
Penn Charter Collaborative Cohort

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**Team members** =====
 * Ruth Aichenbaum, 5th Grade Language Arts
 * Sheila Ruen, Upper School Visual Arts, Department Chair
 * Vicki Miles, Lower School Technology Coordinator
 * Judith Hill, Director of Libraries
 * Lorre Gifford, Upper School Physics Teacher
 * Carol Sukoneck, Middle School Technology Coordinator
 * Michael Moulton, Director of Technology, US Computer Science & Religion Teacher, Fellow for the team

**School**
William Penn Charter School

**Abstract**
We envisioned creating a professional development model where each PLP cohort member works one-on-one with a teacher interested in incorporating 21st century skills into a lesson that would enhance student learning. We called this project **the C3 Model-a Culture of Curricular Coaches. Our focus question was: How do you use 1:1 mentoring as a professional development tool to 21st-centurize Penn Charter?** Nine faculty members were selected to partner with a member of the cohort to develop and execute a project or lesson and then Pay It Forward by sharing what was learned with at least one other colleague. Lessons would foster development of students' 21st century skills such as inquiry, collaboration and critical thinking. We employed the Critical Friends Group (CFG) model to receive feedback and suggestions on our project by presenting it to Penn Charter's Committee on Teaching and Learning. We also solicited comments from our "mentees" and created a video summarzing our work that was presented at an all-school faculty and staff meeting in April as the individual projects were finishing up.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">**Problem, Issue, or Possibility**
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Many of our team members also serve on Penn Charter's Technology Advisory Group and the Teaching and Learning Committee. In both of these groups, there has been on-going discussions about what would be the most successful model for meaningful professional development at Penn Charter. We seized upon the idea of working with individuals who were not necessarily strong in technology but who might be interested in 21st-centurizing their teaching, with a "coach" or mentor to guide them. We envisioned a grass-roots type of professional development, where those mentored would agree that they would Pay It Forward, coaching another colleague on how to 21st-centurize a lesson using what that they learned.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">**Objectives and Assessment** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">We wanted to work with 7 faculty members on a 1:1 basis, with each team member serving as a mentor/coach as the faculty member "21st-centurized" a lesson. The goal was for that faculty member to then "Pay it Forward" by sharing what they had learned with another faculty member. We would measure success by seeing whether the mentored teacher did indeed share what they'd learned with another.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">**Implementation Plan** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">The cohort presented its C3 model to Penn Charter's administration, including a request for release time. With approval of the proposed program, faculty members were solicited in December and projects were approved by January 2011. Team members began working individually with their partner faculty members in January and continued working through April 2011. The cohort felt it would be useful to use the CFG protocols to present the program and solicit feedback and suggestions; a CFG meeting was scheduled for March. The cohort was requested to present the collaborative projects to the entire faculty in April.

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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;">**Evaluation and Results** ===== <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;"> All of the current PLP cohort are interested in participating in Year Two at this point, which speaks to the value of the PLP model. We really enjoyed being together and felt that we, both individually and as a group, learned from the experience and found it to be energizing and rewarding. C ollaboration across divisions and departments highlighted the value of relationships in developing the C3 model.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;">Although release time was approved for both the cohort members and their partners, it was not used as most partners found they could take advantage of free periods in their schedules. Nonetheless, finding face-to-face time for the cohort to meet and to meet with their respective "mentees" was one of the the more challenging aspects of the project. The collaborative projects turned out to be very organic, developing over time. While most of this year's projects will conclude during this last trimester, some of the projects involving Skype and contact with students in other countries will not be completed this year. We hope to fully implement the lessons next year. One of the most important findings to come out of this project was the need to better define expectations, establish rubrics, and have the "mentees" provide some sort of final review or assessment.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Team member Sheila Ruen represented the PLP cohort in the CFG meeting and members of Penn Charter's Committee for Teaching & Learning provided thought feedback and suggestions for enriching the C3 model. The PLP Cohort, working with the Committee for Teaching & Learning, will continue to look for ways to broaden and strengthen the C3 model. The cohort presented the C3 collaborative projects to the entire faculty in March and a number of faculty members expressed interest in participating next year as part of a Penn Charter Cohort. Since then, other faculty have also expressed an interest in also participating as a Pay It Forward "mentee."

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">We will not know if our Pay It Forward model will be successful until some time in the coming year; however, interest in next year's PLP program seems to be a good indicator that this kind of "grassroots" professional development model could be successful.

<span style="font-size: 1.033em; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;">**Artifacts and Documentation**
Article describing our project

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<span style="font-size: 1.033em; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;">Sheila's notes from her Critical Friends Group exercise ======
 * Sheila's outline notes for the CFG
 * Sheila's notes during the feedback portion of the CFG


 * Sheila and Erin's Biography Project for 10th grade **
 * Erin's Zeitoun Page in her class website
 * Interview with Kathy and Zeitoun
 * <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; cursor: pointer; padding-right: 10px;">Link to sample interview (Erin interviews Sheila about an experience of prejudice)

**Judith & Josh's Modern India e-Portfolio Project for 6th grade**

 * The assignment
 * **Modern India project site**
 * Josh's sample site for students


 * Carol & Cassandra's Country Report & President's Projects for 7th & 8th Grade**
 * **[|The assignments]**
 * Country Reports
 * [|President's Project]

**Vicki, Linda & Marcy's 5th grade Skills classes**

 * media type="youtube" key="a2xAKLMUieM" height="312" width="381"
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">[|5th Grade Course Presentation]
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">[|Graphic Organizer (First])
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">[|Final Organizer]

Judith and Carol [|talk] about challenges the group encountered


 * Lorre & Nora's Arabidopsis Biology Project Using Google Docs**
 * The assignment.
 * Example of collaborative work (student).

<span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;">**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bob and Michael's "BobsList" project **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - to <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">create a shared, organized list of high-quality mathematics weblinks organized by sub-topics as they are taught in classes <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. A presentation of project photos and screen shots is available [|here]. His goals were...


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">**Research Link Sharing Methods** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Try-out, and choose a method for sharing web links (He chose Google Docs after evaluating Delicious, Google Book Marks, and Google Docs)
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">**Add links to his list** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- Find high-quality math links and add them to his shared list ordered by topic
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">**Make original material for his list** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- Learn how to publish his own, original mathematics documents so they can also be added to his link list. He made the documents using equation editor and we worked together on how he could save them to PDF files, upload them to Google Docs, share them to get a published URL and add the URL to his Docs list.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">**Share his list in the school** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Bob presented his work at his April Mathematics PK-12 Department meeting and got positive feedback and interest from colleagues with a strong interest coming from our lower school teachers to grow the list to include elementary mathematics links.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Goal for the future - <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">**Share his list with the world** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Bob applied for and was granted a multi-part statical to work on his project with outside Mathematics groups to prepare it for sharing with Mathematics teachers from all over. One of the outside organizations he will be working with is the <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[|__Math Forum__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, a leading center for mathematics and mathematics education on the Internet operating under Drexel's School of Education.

<span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: normal; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Some lessons learned doing the project...


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">**Progress isn’t linear:** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My partner and I would have a string of meetings where we focused on the same part of his project taking the time needed to learn skills needed to make it work. There were times where one meeting would jump us way forward in how the project was shaped.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">**Presenting focuses attention and leads to sharing** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- My work with Bob got added focus when we knew that the PLP team was presenting to the full faculty and when he was getting ready for a Math Dept meeting.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">**Web shifts can be a barrier to progress and stability is a support** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: A leading web tool looked liked the best one to use for our project but news about it possibly being shut down spooked my partner and we ended up taking us a different direction that was less innovative but more likely to stay working over time.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">**Partnering over time made a safe and ongoing space for learning skills** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: My partner didn’t have to be self-conscious about asking the same question the number of times he needed to learn a skill. He knew I would answer and be around to answer again if needed. This way key to the way he was able to master difficuly, multi-step techniques key to making his project work.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">**My own ideas for solving problems can inform my partner but need to take a back-seat to his ideas to be a productive partnership.:** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It took careful listening and asking clarifying questions to make sure the project met my partner’s needs rather that be something built the way I would build it. The more it met his needs, the more motivating it was for my partner to continue with it.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">**Success leads to more success:** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As my partner found success with his project, it led to him applying for and getting sabbatical time to continue his work.

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<span style="font-size: 1.033em; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;">//*Please share any and all materials developed throughout the project. Artifacts can include videos, meeting notes, surveys used, presentations, pictures, supporting documents, URLs, slide sets, etc.*// =====

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