Clinical Forum: Implementing Collaborative Consultation Collaboration

Full Steam Ahead With No Prior Experience!

Donna Brandel
Fairbanks North Star Borough School District, Alaska
Language Speech Hearing Services in Schools, Oct 1992; Vol 23: pg 369-370

Attention has been focused on the increased need for a transition from a traditional pullout treatment approach to a collaborative-consultative model. This article describes experiences encountered initiating a collaborative model with no prior experience. The two factors that were trey to the success of the program were flexibility and perseverance.

Keywords: transition, collaborative, implementing

"I want all speech-language services at this school integrated into the regular classroom!" This was the initial statement made by my principal during the inservice meetings in August 1990. Overnight I needed to change from using a traditional, pull-out service delivery model to a collaborative model. Having received such a strong directive, I was concerned! It was my first year as the speech-language pathologist at this K-2 elementary school, and I had no prior experience with collaboration. I was assigned a caseload of 45 students with the specific mandate to integrate services to students into all six kindergarten classrooms, and to integrate services as much as possible at the first and second grade levels.

Because of the short notice, there was no time to discuss philosophies of teaching or to get to know the faculty on a personal level to build a working rapport. The classroom teachers were skeptical about this collaborative model, and I was unfamiliar with the curriculum and had no training in classroom management. There was no time to ease into this new model.

In addition to the six kindergarten classrooms, I targeted two first and two second grade classes in which to integrate my speech-language services. The specific services I provided varied from class to class, depending on student needs and teacher flexibility. For example, in one second grade classroom, I served as consultant to the teacher to help build general language activities into the class lesson plans. I also consulted with the teacher on an as-needed basis to provide specific support for.speech-language students. This plan was selected because this was the teachers first year teaching. In other second grade classrooms, I was a team teacher with the special education and regular classroom teachers. We planned the lessons together, but rotated subjects to teach each week. Targeted language areas included vocabulary, verbal reasoning, sequencing, and syntax The teachers not instructing on a particular day provided support with classroom management and student assistance. Being in the classroom and teaching several different content areas allowed me to interpret how functional the targeted language skills were and to observe their carryover into classroom work.

Specific experiences I gained in two of the classrooms exemplify the need for flexibility in implementing integrated services. Some of the teachers with whom I worked were excited and willing to try new ideas; others were hesitant In one first grade classroom, the teacher and I decided to begin slowly, increasing the level of collaboration as we both became more comfortable with my presence in the room. With my own lack of knowledge regarding the curriculum and how to incorporate speech and language goals into the class lessons, beginning slowly helped to reduce some of my own anxiety. Initially, I selected an appropriate language objective. and the classroom teacher would suggest the curriculum activity in which to teach the objective. Before long, she was requesting information from me about how to generalize language activities to other topic areas, and I was asking her about classroom management techniques.

Although we soon became comfortable planning the lessons together and team teaching, we were somewhat frustrated with our difficulty in effectively completing the necessary activities to meet student needs in the same classroom. We explored alternative ways to teach language arts collaboratively and decided to teach groups of students in separate classrooms. I worked with all of the speech-language students and with a random group of six regular education students while she taught the rest of the class. We continued to collaborate during our weekly planning sessions to develop the lessons and determine student progress. I was very encouraged that the adapted approach was successful.

The experience in the second classroom was somewhat different. The classroom teacher was skeptical about having another adult in the classroom, and she voiced concerns about sharing the responsibility for teaching the students even for brief periods of time. As a solution to her level of discomfort I suggested that we try collaborating for one 2-week social studies unit. At the end of the trial unit, we could assess the potential for farther collaboration. I suggested methods for providing individual attention to students with significant needs and further discussed the benefit to the remaining students in the classroom from small group interaction. I was able to begin interjecting ideas for developing speech-language skills during the lessons. Through observation I learned classroom management skills and improved teaching techniques.

Because I was only providing support in the classroom as the teacher needed, I felt somewhat like a glorified aide. However, I was buying time in her class, so I persevered. Problems with implementation had to be worked through slowly one step at a time. The teacher's attitude and our working relationship changed after I let her know more clearly my objectives for her classroom. Soon thereafter I started teaching with her instead of for her. An advantage she recognized was that I was able to circulate to the children who needed more individual help. Although it was shaky at first, our collaborative effort finally became a positive working relationship. At the end of the school year, plans were made to continue working together the following year.

The primary concern with implementation of a collaborative model was in determining how to go into the classroom without prior training or time to prepare with the classroom teachers. The teachers and I found that we did not have to have all the answers in the beginning. we discovered that flexibility and a willingness to persevere were the key ingredients needed to make it work.