Preparing for Student Achievement Through Vertical Teaming

Semester grades have been entered, rooms have been decluttered for summer, and all that’s left are final exams: the end of the school year is nigh. The last thing on a teacher’s mind right now is a deep dive into data. However, now might be the best time to set aside time to share information and gather feedback from your colleagues.

My former district held vertical team alignment meetings within each feeder pattern. English teachers from sixth-grade elementary schools met with seventh-grade middle school teachers, and eighth-grade teachers met with ninth-grade high school teachers. During these sessions, educators shared reading and writing deficiencies, discussed successful instructional strategies, compared common learning gaps, and exchanged writing portfolios before digital storage and transfer made the process more efficient.

Face-to-face conversations, paired with shared experiences, made these professional meetings meaningful. The feedback, impromptu lesson planning, epiphanies, and notes from my colleagues helped me prepare for my incoming students. The district specialists facilitated these meetings but allowed information to flow organically. Nonetheless, vertical team meetings became less of a priority and eventually faded as more stringent data analysis and professional learning communities took their place.

Although the importance of vertical alignment was discussed during PLCs, exclusive grade-level meetings were limited to what teachers shared on their own campuses. If your district does not facilitate vertical teaming sessions, and you believe this could positively impact your instruction, the first step is to seek assistance from the instructional coach on your campus. If this is not an option, consider emailing the department chair at the school in your feeder pattern to start a dialogue. Suggest meeting at your campus or, if summer vacation has already started, online or even at a coffee shop. Also, some public libraries have meeting or study spaces. Our vertical team meeting typically occurred during the first week of summer vacation or late summer, around the time many of us begin thinking about back-to-school week anyway.

Although some teachers might be open to meeting the week before in-service training, others might be out of town or preparing their own children for the new school year. Regardless, collaborating to capture shared information that can help set your lesson planning and instruction on the right track at the start of the year makes it well worth the effort.

If vertical teaming has had a positive impact on your instruction, please share your experience with other teachers who read this blog by emailing ms.witt@outlook.com. You will be contacted if your response is chosen to appear in our newsletter, which you can subscribe to on our community page.

MW