This series of blogs will summarize and highlight important portions of our recent white paper, The New York City DOE/CUNY Library Collaborative: Bridging the Gap Between High School and College, which you can view here.
The whitepaper presents the progression and processes of the New York Collaborative Curriculum Revision Project (CCRP), a collaborative of high school teachers, college faculty, and librarians formed to build upon the new Common Core State Standards and better prepare students for post-secondary success. The posts will include sections quoted from the white paper as well as our own editorial.
Part 7: Working Session Facilitator & Community Assessment
Sounding board. Traffic cop. Task-master. Subject matter expert. The role of session facilitator is varied and important one. During the first series, the Collective used a professional facilitator, while in the second series a CUNY librarian was used.
The Collective sought a facilitator with three traits
- Familiarity with the day-to-day life of education, including issues to the college transition
- Strong understanding of the details and requirements of Common Core for both school and colleges
- Is knowledgeable about the requirements of librarians on fostering college readiness
Working with their facilitator, the Collaborative held a “work in progress” mentality about this project from the start. Working sessions were assessed. Participants were encouraged to provide feedback in “real time”, allowing for adjustments to be made quickly if needed, and were surveyed at the end of the session to provide a greater look back and what worked and what did not.The final survey was sent several months following the final working session, to allow for feedback on application as well.
Beyond looking at each other, an important part of evaluating is looking within. The Collaborative met following each session to take stock of that meeting and plan for the next. This kept them on task, and on point.
To learn more about the Collaborative and the CCRP, access the full whitepaper here. Read other entries in this blog series here. Please watch for new posts in this series to resume in 2015. Have a safe and joyous holiday.
[alert-info]
About the Author
Michelle is an “anytime!” traveler and language enthusiast. She has degrees in talking from Central Michigan and Michigan State University. She is currently becoming a runner and used to play golf in high school.
[/alert-info]Air Jordan 1