THE VERTICAL TEAM
WHAT IS IT?
A Vertical Team is a group of teachers from a specific high school and middle school curricular area who come together on a regular basis to develop and share strategies that teach the knowledge base and critical thinking skills inherent in college prepared students as exhibited in the Advanced Prep Program.
WHY IS IT?
Vertical teaming gives program continuity. Teams develop a continuum of skill building from one grade level to the next. Team communication leads to a greater understanding of what has been taught in the preceding years, helping teachers organize strategies and heading off potential insistence from students that they have never been introduced to a particular concept before. This knowledge serves to reduce the amount of time spent on repetition and allows teachers to encourage students to apply past instruction to new curricula with more challenging concepts. Collaboration also leads to greater ownership and accountability in team goals and objectives. An added benefit is that more students will be prepared to excel in an Advanced Prep course.
HOW DO WE FORM A TEAM?
An ideal team is between 7 and 14 members representing all grades 6 through 12 who volunteer to come together to improve the quality of instruction collaboratively. It is important that the team have at least one representative from each grade and that they are collegial and compatible. The team may be assembled by an interested administrator, a department chair, or an Advanced Prep teacher. Leadership may begin with one of these three, but could evolve as the group evolves. Leadership might also be shared by a middle and a high school member. Schools with large faculty groups may want to form more that one team.
WHEN AND WHERE DO WE MEET?
Meetings should be regular and pre-scheduled with the team setting an agenda for each meeting. Six or eight well planned meetings a year might be optimum, with meetings held after school or during district staff development days. Common prep periods are recommended when possible.
Meetings should be held at both middle school and high school as well as off campus. One vertical team has dinner meetings at a leader’s home.
WHAT DO WE DISCUSS?
The team chooses its own topics for discussion based upon its perception and analysis of the instructional needs of the departments. Curriculum should remain the prerogative of the individual teachers once parameters and scope and sequences are developed. It's important that teams focus on skills, sample curricula, and student work from all levels, 6th through 12th, and develop strategies to teach these skills at the appropriate maturity level of the students.
HOW DO WE DISCUSS?
Ideally individuals or pairs of teachers will volunteer to teach one or more of the strategies during the year. Often each meeting focuses on a specific skill taught in tandem by a middle school and high school teacher. Teachers should bring in samples from their own grade level curriculum to apply the skills and teaching strategies.
HOW DO WE KNOW WE ARE SUCCESSFUL?
Merely coming together and staying together collegially is a success. But student achievement can be measured through many national, state, district, and school assessments developed by the group. Students can keep portfolios which follow them and create exhibitions which demonstrate mastery. Plan an annual assessment at the end of each year.