Chula Vista Partnership: Building a Community of Practice

History

During the 2004-2005 school year, the six schools that represented the Chula Vista Elementary School District (CVESD) at the October 2004 Partnership Learning Network (PLN) meeting started to build a community of practice around independent reading as a component of a comprehensive literacy program.

More than fifty teachers and principals from Casillas, Chula Vista Hills, Chula Vista Learning Community Charter, Feaster-Edison, Harborside, and Tiffany schools attended all-day community meetings on November 1, 2004, December 7, 2004, February 9, 2005, April 13, 2005, and May 25, 2005. These meetings, designed by Chula Vista practitioners with Ball Foundation staff and consultants, featured a blend of building community within and across schools, introducing new literacy content, and dialoguing around how to implement independent reading practices.

A primer, "The Practice of Communities of Practice in School Districts," can be found here.

Sections of the reports of these meetings have been archived here.

Year 2

For the 2005-2006 school year, the Chula Vista Community of Practice has expanded to ten schools, those in the original two cohorts of the Ball community of schools. The kickoff for the newly expanded community took place on November 8, 2005. Artifacts from this and future meetings can be viewed below. You need to have Adobe Reader installed to view or print these reports. Visit the Adobe web site to download Adobe Reader.

November 8, 2005

The first meeting of the year re-formed the community with the addition of four new schools. The desired outcomes of the event were to form the community, develop a shared direction and purpose, share practices (bounded by literacy and instructional focus), develop a shared understanding of standards, generate a sense of possibilities, and leave with practical applications, plans and commitments.

During the morning, teachers participated in a grade-level practice exchange. See below for artifacts from each grade's practices as well as sections of the meeting report created by Mary Corrigan, graphic recorder.

Right-click this link to download Kick-off Slide Show: [PowerPoint file 20MB]

Part 1 [view this section of the report]

• Agenda
• Desired outcomes
• Welcome
• Conditions for Learning
• Storytelling
• Learning questions

Part 2 - The Practice Exchange

• Kindergarten promising practices
• First grade promising practices
• Second grade promising practices
• Third grade promising practices
• Fourth grade promising practices
• Fifth grade promising practices
• Sixth grade promising practices

Part 3 [view this section of the report]

• What did we learn from each grade level's promising practices?
• Grade-level reflection: What are we trying to do? How are we doing it? How do we know we're doing it?

Part 4 [view this section of the report]

• School team plans and commitments
• "Name the Community"
• The new design team
• Closing

December 6, 2005

The second meeting of the continued the work of the first meeting, with a focus on English language learners. Some of the desired outcomes of the event were to continue to form the community, explore literacy practices that focus on the needs of English language learners, develop a shared understanding of standards (as they relate to English language learners), generate a sense of possibilities, and leave with practical applications, plans and commitments.

Use the links below to view charts and artifacts from this meeting.

Part 1 [view this section]

• Desired outcomes
• Agenda, learning questions, and web site information
• School action plans: share-out on what has happened since November

Part 2 [view this section]

• World Café conversation: How can Chula Vista Elementary Schools be the best schools for teaching and learning for English Language Learner students?
• Café table artifacts

World Café Photos [click to enlarge]

Part 3 [view this section]

• World Café home team conversation: What is the most important question you have, which if explored, would allow you to move forward with your role with English Language Learners?

Part 4 [view this section]

• Grade-level teams' discussion on English Language Learners
• Shared reading lesson in Spanish - debrief
• School teams: Action plans for now through February

February 1, 2006

The third meeting deepened the community's focus on English language learners. Practitioners explored and modeled practices that focus on the needs of English language learners. They also deepened understanding of the English Language Development (ELD) standards and how they connect to the English Language Arts (ELA) standards.

Use the links below to view charts and artifacts from this meeting.

Part 1 [view this section]

• Desired outcomes and agenda
• Building community: home team conversations ("What have you done in the area of ELD since our last meeting?")
• Learning matrix tool (track learning over time, inventory of shared knowledge)
• Developing understanding of ELD standards:
  • Grade level conversations (Identify connecting ELD standards for each proficiency level)
  • Grade-span conversations (fishbowl) - What do I need from the grade level below? What can I give to the grade level above?
  • Principals' fishbowl - What did you hear this morning that people need relative to ELD standards? What are you going to do to support these needs

Part 2 [view this section]

• Developing a standards-based lesson using the gradual release method in literacy
• Tools or processes from today that can be used within buildings, classrooms
• School team reflection and action plans
• Design team and focus group volunteers

Home Team and Grade Level Team Photos [click to enlarge]

Grade-span Fishbowl Photos [click to enlarge]

Principals' Fishbowl Photos [click to enlarge]