WholeFaculty Study Groups

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Whole-Faculty Study Groups

• As developed by Carlene Murphy
• Murphy, C. and Lick, D. (2001) Whole-Faculty
  Study Groups Creating Student Based
  Professional Development. Corwin Press.
• Beginners Workshop
• Designed for Principals and Teachers Who Have NOT
  Implemented WFSGs
• Dr. Marci Winston
• Coordinator of Counseling
• Springfield Public Schools
• 417.864.3874
• mwinston_at_spsmail.org

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• Take Care of Yourself

• Please make and wear a nametag
• Please sign in
• Breaks
• Power point in handout and on SPS Staff
  Development website
• We will end on time

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Our Goal

• To understand the components of effective
  collaborative teams in a Professional Learning
  Community
• To understand how the WFSG model can address our
  School Improvement Plans goals and objectives
• To understand how you might present this model to
  your staff as a possible action step in your SIP
  and a professional development option

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A Thought

• This process is NOT perfect, but research tells
  us that it provides the best hope for real
  results in school improvement!

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Reconnect

• Name/role
• A success at my school for the 2001-02 school
  year
• In reference to the Whole Faculty Study Group
  process, we have .

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What is WFSG? (Whole Faculty Study Group)

• Organizing teachers into small groups or study
  groups is not a new idea
• Organizing the ENTIRE school faculty into study
  groups to bring about school wide improvement is
  a new idea in our district
• Whole means ALL - all classroom, teachers, all
  resource teachers, all special teachers,
  librarian, counselor , and anyone else holding
  professional certification

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Why Whole Faculty Study Groups ?

• WFSGs allow teachers more personal flexibility in
  site PD schedule
• WFSGs allow teachers to use the study group
  action plan as their own individual staff
  development plan
• WFSGs can address most, if not all, or our SIP
  goals and objectives
• WFSGs can allow for fewer staff meetings (if you
  donate some traditional staff meeting time for
  study groups)
• WFSGs reduce teacher isolation
• WFSGs allow teachers to substitute required
  workshop times
• WFSGs encourage teachers to experiment. In
  groups, teachers try new materials, new
  techniques, new strategies, new technologies.
  Teachers reflect on what works and does not work.

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WFSG A Model for Teacher Collaboration

• Why do we need teacher collaboration?
• Throughout our ten-year study, whenever we found
  an effective school or an effective department
  within a school, without exception, that school
  or department has been a part of a collaborative
  professional learning community
• Milbrey McLaughlin

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Need for a Collaborative Culture

• Creating a collaborative culture is the single
  most important factor for successful school
  improvement initiatives and the first order of
  business for those seeking to enhance the
  effectiveness of their schools
• Eastwood and Lewis

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Need for a Collaborative Culture

• If schools want to enhance their capacity to
  boost student learning, they should work on
  building a collaborative cultureWhen groups,
  rather than individuals, are seen as the main
  units for implementing curriculum, instruction,
  and assessment, they facilitate development of
  shared purposes for student learning and
  collective responsibility to achieve it.
• Fred Newmann

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Need for a Collaborative Culture

• Improving schools require collaborative
  culturesWithout collaborative skills and
  relationships, it is not possible to learn and to
  continue to learn as much as you need to know to
  improve.
• Michael Fullan

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Group IQ

• There is such a thing as group IQ. While a group
  can be no smarter than the sum total of the
  knowledge and skills of its members, it can be
  much dumber (the group) if its internal
  workings dont allow people to share their
  talents.
• Sternberg

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Assumptions

• If schools are to improve, they must develop a
  collaborative culture
• If schools are to develop a collaborative
  culture, they must overcome a tradition of
  teacher isolation
• If schools are to overcome their tradition of
  teacher isolation, teachers must learn to work in
  effective, high performing teams
• WFSGs help teachers learn to work in effective,
  high performing teams

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Where Do We Begin ?

• To be successful, groups need
• TIME
• Recommendation A minimum of 1 hour every other
  week
• An EXPLICIT PURPOSE
• SIP objectives and each groups action plan
• An understanding of HOW TO COLLABORATE
• Group norms, guidelines for meeting and use of
  protocols
• To ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY for working
  collaboratively
• Agreement to begin and develop action plans

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Brainstorm At Your Table

• What ideas do you have for how your school could
  create time for study groups to meet 1 hour every
  other week?
• What ideas do you have for helping your staff
  accept responsibility for working collaboratively
  ?

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What Will Guide the Work ?

• Questions
• What do students need for US to do ?
• What are students learning and achieving as a
  result of what teachers are learning and doing in
  study groups ?

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Whole Faculty Study Group Principles

• Students are first
• Leadership is shared
• Everyone participates
• Responsibility is equal
• The work is public
• Murphys Whole-Faculty Study Groups

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WFSGRoles Responsibilities

• Principal
• Focus Team
• Study Group Leader
• Individual Study Group Member
• Instructional Council

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Roles and Responsibilities in WFSGs cont

• Principal
• is the most important factor in the successful
  initiation, implementation, and continuation of
  WFSGs
• is an active participant in the training and
  planning sessions
• receives action plans and responds to them
• receives the study group logs and responds to
  them (see pg. 80-81for comments to study groups)
  
• may assign some responsibilities to assistant
  principals for responding to logs
• is a participant at all IC meetings

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Roles and Responsibilities in WFSGs cont

• Focus Team
• composed of the principal and a representative
  group of teachers
• attends local or regional training or reads
  materials on how to design and lead the whole
  faculty through a WFSG orientation
• leads the whole faculty though the WFSG
  orientation
• leads the whole faculty through the
  decision-making cycle, resulting in the
  establishment of study groups and what they will
  do
• decides which 3 members will be standing
  members of and rotating facilitators for the IC
  for one school year

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Roles and Responsibilities in WFSGs cont

• The Study Group Leader
• rotates every meeting so that leadership is a
  shared responsibility among all study group
  members
• confirms logistics of meetings with study group
  members (e.g., date, time, location, and
  resources needed)
• checks log from last meeting to confirm what the
  focus of the meeting will be and if it is time to
  revisit the action plan and the group norms and
  takes appropriate action
• starts ends meeting on time
• reminds members that stray from the focus of the
  meeting to refocus
• sees that the study group log is completed and
  that the members and the principal receive a copy

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Roles and Responsibilities in WFSGs cont

• Individual Study Group Members
• respect norms established by the study group
• take turns serving as leader, recognizing that
  leadership is a shared responsibility
• take turns representing the study group at an IC
  meeting and bring back to the study group what he
  or she learned
• participate in the development of the study group
  action plan and commits to its actions
• take responsibility for his or her own learning
  and for seeking resources for the study group
• take responsibility for regularly bringing
  student work to the study group meeting
• bring back to the study group what he or she has
  done in the classroom as a result of the study
  group work

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Roles and Responsibilities in WFSGs cont

• Instructional Council
• represent each study group (one representative
  per study group)
• rotate membership, except for the principal and
  3 members of the focus team
• meet once every 4-6 weeks (dates are on school
  calendar), with the first meeting held
  immediately after the study groups have met twice
• review action plans
• share what each study group is doing, including
  successes and challenges
• plan celebrations and whole-faculty sharing times
• is facilitated by one of the 3 members of the IC
  from the focus team

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WFSG 15 Guidelines

• Keep the size of the study group between
  three
• and six

2. Determine study group membership by who
wants to address an identified student need
(SIP goal/objective)
3. Establish and keep a regular schedule,
meeting every two weeks.
4. Establish group norms and routinely revisit
the norms.
5. Establish a pattern of study group
leadership, rotating among members.
6. Develop a Study Group Action Plan by the end
of the second study group meeting.
7. Complete a Study Group Log after each study
group meeting.
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WFSG 15 Guidelines, cont.

• 8. Have a curriculum and instructional focus that
  requires members to routinely examine student
  work and to observe students in classrooms
  engaged in instructional tasks.

9. Make a comprehensive list of learning
resources, both material and human.
10. Use multiple professional development
strategies, such strategies as
training, to accomplish the
study groups intended results.
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WFSG 15 Guidelines cont.

• 11. Reflect on the study groups work by keeping
  a private journal.
• 12. Recognize all study group members as equals.
• 13. Expect and plan for transitions.
• 14. Assess the progress of the study group
  according to the Student Performance Goals
  specified on the Study Group Action Plan.
• 15. Establish a variety of communication networks
  and strategies.
  Murphys Whole-Faculty Study Groups

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Process Overview. . .

• Highly structured meetingsexplicit expectations!

• Common elements include
• Focus on mission and student results
• Action Plans drive the interaction
• Logs required and posted for each meeting

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1.

Collect and analyze data.

• Decision-Making Cycle

7.
Whole faculty evaluates
2.

impact of study groups on
State student needs

student learning
6.

Each group implements
3.

a cycle of
Categorize and
Adjusting plan

prioritize student
Taking action

needs.

Collecting data

Reflecting

Todays Focus
4.

5.
Organize groups around

Each group designs an action
same category or


plan that specifies the
different categories of

content (what and how) of
students needs.

the study.
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Step 1 Analyze Data

• Each table group in the large meeting room (all
  faculty) should have a set of data in a folder in
  the middle of the table (each table group has the
  same set of data)
• MAP content item analysis from 2000-01 Math,
  Science, Social Studies, Comm. Arts
• School Improvement Plan
• Reminder Color code pieces of data

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Step 2 State Student Needs

• Write the specific student needs reflected in the
  data. Each person is to use the form DATA
  ANALYSIS Stating Specific Student Needs.
  Refer to page 11 12. Do individually using the
  data you were given.
• Give each table a piece of chart paper and a
  marker. At the top of each piece of chart paper,
  write Students need to
• Each group is to consolidate the individual lists
  onto the chart paper, making a list of all the
  student needs identified and listed by each
  member. Be sure to number each need and to start
  each need with a VERB (see page 12)
• Tape all charts to a wall.
• Take the chart with the greatest number of
  student needs. This becomes the master list of
  student needs. Ask each table to add student
  needs that are not listed on this master list.
• Special note As soon as the master list is
  approved by everyone, quickly print a copy of
  this list for each person.

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Step 3 Categorize the Student Needs

• Distribute the master list of student needs
  that was developed in Step 2 to each faculty
  member.
• Ask each person to categorize, or put into
  groups, the student needs on the list, giving
  each category a name and the s that form the
  category. WORK ALONE ! (see page 13)
• Category Name of needs
• Reading 2,4,5,8,11,20
• Writing 2,5,7,16,20
• Problem Solving 1,3,4,6,11
• Remember a need may fit into more than one
  category

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Step 3 ContinuedCategorizing the Student Needs

• Have individuals share their categories as the
  categories are written on chart paper.
• Category Name of needs
• Reading 2,4,5,8,11,20
• Writing 2,5,7,16,20
• Problem Solving 1,3,4,6,11
• Remember a need may fit into more than one
  category
• Write as responses are given. Ask for another
  category. Write. Ask for another. Write.
  Keep doing this until you have several. Dont
  argue about any of the responses ! Take what
  they give you !

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Step 4 Writing an Individual Action Plan and
Forming Groups

• Part 1 Writing the Individual Action Plan
• (pg. 14 15)
• Ask each person to pull a blank action plan out
  of the notebook and complete the action plan as
  the leader directs the faculty through this
  activity, by saying
• A. Select the category YOU want to address in a
  study group. Refer to categories formed in STEP
  3. Write it.
• In the top, left quadrant, write 3 of the student
  needs you would want to address in a study group
  IN THE CATEGORY OF YOUR CHOICE. Refer to master
  list of student needs.
• Write an essential question that you want
  answered. REFER TO EXAMPLES on page 16.
• In the top, right quadrant, write the actions you
  want to take when the study group meets to
  address needs (pg. 18, 19, 20)
• In the bottom, left quadrant, write the resources
  or expert voices the study group will use. (pgs.
  21 22)
• In the bottom, right quadrant, write the Student
  Performance Goals that the members will use to
  assess the groups progress (pg. 23 24)

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Step 4 Writing an Individual Action Plan and
Forming Groups

• Part 2 Forming Study Groups
• The principal/leader describes the procedure for
  forming the study groups, such as
• Everyone who chose Category ____stand up and go
  to Room____
• Everyone who chose Category ____stand up and go
  to Room ____
• And so on until all priority categories are
  covered.
• Remember No less than 3 and no more than 6 in
  any group. If ten teachers chose the same
  category, they need to form two (2) groups.
  Members of a group write their names on one piece
  of paper and give the paper to the principal.
  When the groups are formed, members share the
  individual plans that were written. This sharing
  will provide ideas that will go into the one
  action plan for that study group.

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Checklist for the First Three (3) Study Group
Meetings

• At this point, groups are ready to begin their
  work !!!
• Refer each group to pages 27-30.
• First Meeting
• Second Meeting
• Third Meeting

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Decision Making Cycle Step 5
Each group or team develops an action plan based
on the selected category The study group or team
action plan drives the meetings and helps
maintain the focus on the mission and student
results!
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The Study Group Plan Log

• Where in the Action Plan and log do you see
  evidence of the following principles?
• 1. Students are first
• 2. Leadership is shared
• 3. Everyone participates
• 4. Responsibility is equal
• 5. The work is public

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Developmental Stages of Study Groups

• Forming (eager, high expectations, anxiety, fear)
• Storming (dissatisfaction, frustration, feel
  stuck)
• Norming (harmony, trust, support, respect)
• Performing (empowered, committed, motivated)

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Keep asking

• What do MY students need for ME to do?
• What are MY students learning and achieving in MY
  classroom as a result of what I am learning and
  doing in MY study group?
• Murphys Whole-Faculty Study Groups

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Everyones Big Question
Q Will WFSGs increase student achievement?
A It depends on what teachers do.
It is what teachers do in the study groups and
in their classrooms that will increase student
achievement
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What Teachers Do
Demonstrate lessons Practice
new teaching skills Design rubrics,
lessons, tools, etc. Examine student
work
Without intellectually rigorous work, the
process is boring and can be a waste of time.
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How to Get Started

• Present It

• Sell It

• Seek Agreement to Begin

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What Will Guide the Work ?

• Present It

• QUESTIONS
• What do students needs for us to do?
• What are students learning and achieving as a
  result of what teachers are learning and doing in
  study groups?

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WFSG Basic Steps

• Present It

• Student needs are used as topics for study
  groups
• Staff members select a study group topic
• Study groups are organized with 3-6 people per
  group
• Each groups develops norms and a meeting schedule
• Each group develops an Action Plan
• Each group meets 2x per month and logs meetings
• Results are shared and POSTED
• Progress is measured as part of SIP process

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• Sell IT

• How much marketing will my staff need?
• What selling points will have the greatest
  influence on my staff ?
• Remember the levels of concern What does this
  mean for me ? For my students ?

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Possible selling points

• More personal flexibility in site PD schedule
• More input and groups set their own meeting
  schedule
• More direct focus on what my students need
• Can use the study group action plan as your
  individual staff development plan
• WFSG can address most, if not all, of our SIP
  goals and objectives
• Evidence of results for students
• WFSGs encourage teachers to experiment. In
  groups, teachers try new materials, new
  techniques, new strategies, and new technologies.
  Teachers reflect together on what works and does
  not work.

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Possible selling points continued

• Fewer staff meetings (if you donate some
  traditional staff meeting time for study groups)
• Provides contract time to work on required
  initiatives related to student performance
• Reduces teacher isolation
• Omits a one size fits all model for PD

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• Get Agreement to Begin

• Recommendation 75 agree to begin
• Do they need more information or processing time
  ?
• How can we best address questions ?

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Get Agreement to Begin

• What are my options if 75 do not agree to
  begin this process as presented ?
• Expect research-based recommendations for
  alternative professional development options for
  addressing identified student needs
• Consider organizing a willing group to study
  the process more deeply and bring it back at a
  later date with answers to concerns, etc.

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How will I know if 75 of our staff agree to
begin ?

• Provide your staff with an overview of the WFSG
  process..feel free to use any of these slides
  for your presentation. This can be done in small
  groups during conference periods, or with the
  faculty as a whole.
• Allow time for clarification and questions
• Ask staff for fist to five or some other
  method for assessing the 75 ready to begin
• Have materials ready to present the
  Decision-Making Cycle

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How do we know what our study group topics will
be ?

• Groups will be formed using the Decision-Making
  Cycle.
• Group topics will be based on student needs
  identified through data analysis

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After faculty members are in groups, how do they
know what to do ?

• The principal along with the focus team should do
  a 15 20 minute orientation.
• Faculty members should sit at tables with their
  group for the orientation
• Each faculty member should be given a WFSG
  notebook.
• Notebook should include the following
• School Improvement Plan
• Enough BLANK Study Group Logs for the entire
  school year
• Two or three BLANK Study Group Action Plans
• Pages 10 30 (see example)

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What comes after the WFSG orientation ?

• Groups should meet for at least 30 minutes after
  the orientation to
• choose a group leader for this first meeting
• choose a group member to record the first
  meeting activities on the log
• decide future meeting dates
• decide on beginning and ending times for each
  meeting
• count the approximate number of hours the group
  will be meeting until the end of the school year
• decide where the group will meet
• decide on the schedule for the leadership
  rotation
• decide on the schedule for the rotation for
  recorder
• leader should make copies of the first meeting
  log for the group members, the group notebook,
  and the principal
• principal should respond to and post all logs
  within a couple of days

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SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT IS NEVER QUICK AND EASY

• Even the grandest design eventually degenerates
  into hard work
• Richard DuFour

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At your table

• My feelings about the WFSG model
• My next steps include
• Sponge What questions do you have ?
• Please dont forget to sign for your
  stipend.
  

• Thank You !!

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GOOD LUCK !!!Whole-Faculty Study Groups

• As developed by Carlene Murphy
• Murphy, C. and Lick, D. (2001) Whole-Faculty
  Study Groups Creating Student Based
  Professional Development. Corwin Press.