PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES: A STUDY GROUP APPROACH DEFINING A PLC

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PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITIESA STUDY
GROUP APPROACH
DEFINING A PLC

• Teacher Development, HRD
• The School Board of Broward County, Florida,
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WHATS IN IT FOR ME

• Deepens professional practice
• Provides opportunities for collaboration
• Grassroots professional development

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OBJECTIVES

• Define PLCs
• Identify a topic of study
• Identify PLC membership
• Incorporate technologies into PLCs

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SCOPE AND SEQUENCE..

• Getting on the same page
• A commitment to continuous improvement
• Gathering evidence of current levels of student
  learning
• Developing strategies and ideas to build on
  strengths and address weaknesses in that learning
• Implementing those strategies and ideas
• Analyzing the impact of the changes to discover
  what was effective and what was not
• Applying new knowledge in the next cycle of
  continuous improvement

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Inherent to a PLC is a constant search for a
better way to achieve goals and accomplish the
purpose of the organization.--Rick DuFour
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COURSE REQUIREMENTS.

• Attend each session of your PLC (if an emergency
  arises provisions for make-up
• will be offered)
• Portfolio that includes
• -Agenda, minutes for all meetings
• -Communications (emails sent, received from
• their participants)
• -Artifacts documenting their journey
• Rubric

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WHAT IS A PLC?

• Think about what a PLC is and what it entails.
• Discuss with a partner or table group.
• Share out whole group

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THE DEFINITION OF A PLC.

• Educators committed to working collaboratively
• in the ongoing processes
• of collective inquiry to achieve
• better results for the students they serve
• operating under the assumption
• that the key to improved student learning
• is continuous job-embedded
• learning for educators.
• Learning By Doing, Dufour, et.al. 2006

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THE 6 CHARACTERISTICS OF A PLC..

• Focus on learning
• Collaborative culture
• Collective inquiry into best practice and the
  current reality
• Action orientation
• Commitment to continuous improvement
• Results orientation

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Activity 1 Use Tool 1.2 to think about your
professional development. Each of these
statements is characteristic of quality
professional development and when properly
implemented, PLCs can address all of these areas.
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YOU HAVE A PLC WHEN A TEAM OF EDUCATORS.

• Draw on expertise
• Engage in reciprocal learning
• Share leadership
• Hold themselves accountable
• Are facilitated by a coach
• Continuously challenge one another
• Employ an action research cycle of inquiry

• Place improving student learning at the center
• Meet regularly for a sustained and focused time
• Observe each others practice and give feedback
• Build Trust
• Make their work public
• Value diversity

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http//www.broward.k12.fl.us/hrd/podcasts/video/20
06/mp4/PD11.DeliveryPLC.mov
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Activity 2 Prof Design Team Will collaboration
work for us? What barriers might need to be
addressed? How will we arrive at consensus?
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• Arriving at consensus
• All of us can embrace the proposal
• All of us can endorse the proposal
• All of us can live with the proposal
• All of us can agree not to sabotage the proposal
• We have a majority--at least 51--in support of
  the proposal.

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SELECTING A TOPIC FOR STUDY..

• YOURS
• Based on data
• Begin with the end in mind recognizing that
  action must be taken
• Must be of such significant interest to the
  membership that they will be able and willing to
  study the topic for the school year.
• Use the school name and topic to name the PLC,
  e.g., Happy Dale School-Using High Yield
  Strategies to Address the Needs of the ESE
  Subgroup

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GROUP REFLECTION (MINUTES)..

• 1 per meeting
• Use as a template for the minutes
• Completed at the meeting as a team
• Share electronically with team members

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TECHNOLOGY THAT ASSISTS IN PLCS.

• CAB is the best way to communicate in between
  sessions
• Wiki-you will have your own page
• http//seagullhigh.pds-hrd.wikispaces.net/
• PowerPoint
• Try Elluminate or Twitter

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DO YOU WIKI?

• WIKIs are an online journal and can also be used
  for updates and information sharing
• Have you visited our wiki?
• http//seagullhigh.pds-hrd.wikispaces.net/

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Check out topics around the room. Find one that
speaks to you or one that with a little tweaking,
youd like to explore. A PLC should have no more
than 10 participants.
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WEBSITES THAT WILL ASSIST

• www.allthingsplc.info
• www.ncpublicschools.org/profdev/resources/proflear
  n/
• www.sedl.org
• Google professional learning communities and you
  will get about 50,000,000 hits!!!

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REFERENCES.

• Conzemius and ONeill
• DuFour, Eaker, Many
• Marzano
• Reeves
• Schmoker

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FOR SESSION 2

• Scheduled PLC meeting is 10/28/09
• Follow up--Visit our wiki. Hit Discussion. Make
  a comment about your PLC and what you hope to
  discover.

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For now Follow up is due for Critical
Thinking. You were suppose to write one question
using Blooms higher order thinking. Remember
to use three documents
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Q AND A..
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SELF REFLECTIONS..

• Use the guiding questions
• to think about PLCs and their ramifications on
  your
• practice and student achievement
• How do/should PLCs impact my daily practice? Why?
• What parts of my daily practice should be
  addressed next in a PLC?
• Which of the 6 characteristics/13 elements
  are/are not evident? What do I do about it?