Planning for the Hard Work of Implementation

Here we are at the end of May, the end of another school year. It's a good time to look back and reflect on successes and challenges during the year, as well as look ahead to the work that needs to be done next year. At our May department meeting, the middle school English Language Arts and Social Studies teachers did just that, especially thinking ahead to next year and implementing the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).

Over the past four months, we participated in a book study of Pathways to the Common Core (Calkins, Ehrenworth, & Lehmann. Heinemann, 2012). We read the overview chapters, laying them alongside the middle school standards, to get a sense of what the CCSS was asking learners to do in reading, writing, listening, and speaking. We congratulated ourselves on already having a solid program in place, with many of the expectations already embedded in our units. We deemed the changes do-able and not intimidating or frightening. The discussion turned to the practical: How do we do this? When will we have time?

The last chapter of Pathways focused on strategies for implementing the CCSS in a way that fueled "whole school reform". The authors listed three targeted suggestions which we took to heart. First, don't try to add the CCSS onto an already full curriculum. We acknowledged that we will need to closely examine our units in a vertical way, noticing areas that we can release because another grade level is accountable for them or because they just don't fit the new standards. Only by creating space in our units will we be able to add the new pieces from the CCSS.

Second, look at your current program and decide where your strengths lie. This is the best place to start making modifications. We recognized that we will not be able to implement all areas of the English standards at once, and after a very quick discussion, turned our attention to our writing program, our area of strength. We decided that we will read the corresponding Pathways chapter and examine the standards about the upcoming mode before we start a unit of writing. We will work as a team to look at what we have that can continue as is, and identify places needing adjustments. Doing this work on an already strong program will teach us how to do it and get us ready for the next year's work: reading.

Finally, work fully and deeply to make lasting, significant changes. In order to reap the benefits of these challenging standards, a band-aid approach won't work. It will take planning, purposeful implementation, and reflection. We will need to look cross-curricularly to ensure we are finding time to teaching writing in all three modes and identify resources to use. We will need to focus on our formative and summative assessments to reflect on areas of strength and areas of needs. We will need to revise our rubrics and gather anchor papers. We will need to observe each other while teaching to lift the level of our practice. This is the hard work of implementation.

Fortunately, I have a team that knows how to roll up their sleeves and get down to work (after an initial bit of whining). We have supportive administrators. We have the new middle school Units of Study in Writing (Heinemann, 2014) coming during the summer and a consultant lined up to work with us next year. Some choices will be hard to make, especially releasing those lessons that feel so comfortable and taking on lessons that are totally new to us. I know that in the end, our students will be more challenged and our teaching stronger. We just need the courage to go for it!