Grade Level Team Meetings: Use Effective Procedures for Decision Making
Key Concepts
Ensure clear focus and visible goals at each meeting.
The team’s vision and specific goals should guide each meeting. All team members should clearly understand the goals and expectations of the meeting. Teachers should be clear about their role and duties (including what they must do to prepare for the meeting).
Provide meeting structure and clarify roles.
Agendas and role clarification help determine the predictable procedures that will organize the team’s work and decide who does what. All teachers want to know what they are responsible for, what they can count on others to do, and exactly what their homework is—just like the students they teach.
Maintain norms for working together and using time.
Norms help ensure a safe and productive environment for discussion. Develop norms that reflect standards for how team members agree to operate within the group. These norms should be jointly developed and used by all team members. Use meeting time well to maximize efficiency.
Plan before meetings and follow up after meetings.
Keeping all staff members “in the loop” in a timely fashion will help the team reach its goals. Well-constructed agendas and meeting notes will make this a natural process as long as the information gets to those who need it exactly when they need it. Consider questions such as, “What actions are needed in the classroom, for the next meeting, and for other staff members?” “Is everyone who needs to take action aware of what that action is?” and “Is there a clear timeline for completion of tasks?”
Include research-based professional development and celebration of accomplishments in meetings.
A high-quality meeting always brings research into the discussion. Professional conversations within team meetings should center around “best practices” that are proven to work. Also, teams should continuously recognize and celebrate short-term accomplishments that bring the team closer to its goals.
Professional Development Presentation
- Part 1 (10:40)
Just as classrooms function more efficiently and effectively with established procedures, so will your school’s Grade Level Team Meetings. This presentation focuses on five key concepts to apply in organizing Grade Level Team Meetings. These proven routines and strategies are key elements in a successful schoolwide reading model. Practice activities provide ideas for using meeting time effectively, using meeting norms with a problem scenario and a self-assessment tool to guide your school in looking at your current procedures.
Apply the Concepts
Practice Activities
1. A Sample of Norms and Problem Solving Scenario
Review the sample of group norms. Reflect on the problem scenario and answer the question below. As a leader of a grade level team, how would you apply group norms to the problem described?
2. Ideas for Using Time/Reflection on Current Practice
Review the eight ideas for using time. Reflect on your use of time within grade level team meetings. Answer the two questions below. Which of the ideas for using time will help improve the effectiveness of your grade level team meetings? What are your next steps in making this happen?
3. Using Powerful Procedures for Team Meetings: A Self-Assessment
Reflect on your own Grade Level Team Meeting procedures using the "Powerful Procedures Self Assessment" template.
Resources
1. Powerful Procedures: Getting the Most from Grade Level Team Meeting Agendas
This planning tool provides a means of sampling effective agendas using a tool that highlights four key elements for improving the results of grade level team meetings. As teams develop and refine their meeting procedures, they can review the information individually and then meet as a team to discuss and come to consensus on the most effective agenda structures for reaching their goals.
2. Team Meeting – Reporting Form
The team meeting reporting form represents a rather complete reporting template including explicit student performance data, lesson planning and pacing information, differentiation of strategies by level of need, and planning for next steps. Grade level teams working to improve their specificity of follow-up and focus may review this sample for useful ideas.
