During our
instruction, Mrs. Hodges and I constantly referred back to our prior
experiences when we initially utilized the concept diagram for written
expression / mechanics. Since both of us had prior experiences with this
instructional strategy, we were able to anticipate questions or concerns that
Mrs. Ferrell might have. Another success is that Mrs. Hodges and I both see the
validity of this tool, and we were excited to see Mrs. Ferrell working with her
students in the classroom to benefit their reading comprehension abilities. One
challenge was finding a common planning time for all of us to meet initially in
addition to follow-up classroom observation. Overall, Mrs. Hodges and I enjoyed
working with another colleague in such a collaborative manner. Often times as
educators, we worked in our individual classrooms, but this was an opportunity
to strengthen our professional learning communities.
