Professional Learning Communities

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Professional Learning Communities

• Traverse City Area Public Schools
• Elementary Staff Meeting Discussion
• 2006-2007 School Year

Jim Linsell
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• "It is virtually impossible to create and
  sustain over timeconditions for productive
  learning for students when they do notexist for
  teachers."Seymour Sarason, Yale Universityfrom
  The Culture of the School and the Problem of
  Change

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Understanding Goals

• How are PLCs working in your school? What
  resources or support do you need?
• What are the big goals with TCAPS PLC work this
  year?
• What is formative assessment and how can we use
  it to support our students learning and the
  work of our PLC teams?

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What About Our PLC Work Has Been Successful?

• At the PLC level?
• At the school level?
• At the district level?

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What about our PLC work needs improvement?

• At the PLC level?
• At the school level?
• At the district level?

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Six Characteristics of High Performing Schools

• Common Mission, Vision, Values, Goals.
• High expectations and a strategic process of
  prevention and intervention.
• All teachers engaged across time in Professional
  Learning Communities oriented around three
  fundamental questions.
• Use of data to guide continuous improvement.
• Active participation from family and community.
• Leadership capacity at all levels (strategic,
  instructional, organizational, public,
  technology)

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All teachers engaged across time in Professional
Learning Community teams oriented around the
fundamental questions
What do we expect all students to learn? How will
we know they are learning? Which
instruction/assessment practices work best? What
will we do to support students who are not
learning?
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Critical Attributes of TCAPS PLCs

• Shared vision
• Shared leadership and decision making
• Reflective practice
• Collaborative faculty groups to examine teacher
  and student work
• Focus on understanding and results

• Planning and following through for students who
  do not learn
• Deepening student understanding of the essential
  questions of each subject area discipline.
• Encouraging a broader vision of the kinds of
  instruction and types of learners we want in our
  schools.

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TCAPS PLC Priorities for 2006-2007

• Continue to develop and refine PLC team norms,
  logistics, and structures.
• Continue to refine SMART goals to reflect
  essential questions and big curricular ideas.
• Develop and deepen assessment literacy for
  principals and teachers.
• Develop and implement Hierarchies of Prevention
  and Intervention.

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Beginning a professional conversation about
assessment
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A Need for Balanced Assessment as a Means of
Monitoring Student Progress

• Assessment for Learning
• Occur frequently during learning
• The audience is primarily the students
  themselves.
• Provide lots of descriptive feedback.
• Are low-stakes
• Provide many opportunities for incremental
  improvement over time.
• May actually provide new learning in doing the
  assessment task.

• Assessments of Learning
• Come at the end of learning.
• The audiences are usually parents,
  administrators, curriculum leaders, government
  leaders.
• Can be high-stakes.
• When these assessments occur its too late to
  impact learning.
• Provide no chance for students to learn from the
  assessment itself.

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Creating Comprehensive Assessment Systems

• Formative Assessments
• Common Formative Assessments
• Interim Assessments Running Records, Periodic
  Writing Samples, End-of-Unit tests, CAAP.
• Summative Assessments
• Common Summative Assessments Standardized
  Assessments, MEAP, PLAN.

As we do our PLC work, how can we start and end
with student results?
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Getting Beyond Standardized Tests

• How can we see assessment through new eyes? How
  can out students?
• How can assessment experiences provide students
  hope, confidence, and belief in themselves?
• How can we turn the emotions associated with
  assessment on its head?
• What assessments can you conduct that your
  students would not want to miss?

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Critical Attributes of Formative Assessment

• Feedback to students is frequent and descriptive
  and from multiple sources.
• Students have multiple chances to act on
  feedback, revise, and improve their performances
• The focus is on the work not on the attributes of
  the students.
• Students can describe in detail what the targets
  are.
• Students believe the target is within reach if
  they keep trying.

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More Qualities of Formative Assessment

• Students engage in frequent self-assessment over
  time.
• The most recent assessment information is
  considered most heavily in determining a
  summative grade. Replace out-of-date evidence
  with more recent evidence.

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Possible Types of Formative Assessments

• Selected response questions
• Short answer response questions
• Extended response questions
• Rubric-based performances
• Personal Communication (Informal teacher
  questioning of individuals and groups in class)
• Criteria-based teacher observation in class.

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A Sample Unit Assessment Plan

• Informal pre-assessment
• Formative assessment
• Formative assessment
• Formative assessment
• Formative assessment
• Summative assessment

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How Do You Use Formative Assessment?

• In what ways are you already using formative
  assessment?
• In what ways could you use it more?
• How could your PLC team begin to explore and
  apply the principles of formative assessment to
  impact your SMART goal?
• (See Figure 2.3 Determining Where I Am Now
  Assessment for Learning Self Checklist.)

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How to decide which type of formative assessment
to use in a particular situation?

• Type of Target
• Knowledge Mastery
• Reasoning Proficiency
• Skills
• Ability to Create Products
• Dispositions

• Assessment Method
• Selected response
• Extended written response
• Performance assessment
• Personal Communication
• Criteria-based teacher observation

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A Preview of Facilitator Training

• A Quick Review of SMART goals, norm setting, and
  logistics.
• In depth practice of leading three PLC meeting
  formats Looking at Student Work, Looking at
  Formative Assessments, Looking at Achievement
  Data to Revise or Replace a SMART goal.

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Works Cited

• Sarason, Seymour. RevisitingThe Culture of the
  School and the Problem of Change. Teachers
  College Press. 1996.
• Dufour, Richard, et. Al. Learning by Doing.
  Solution Tree. 2006.
• Stiggins, Rick, et. al. Assessment for Learning
  An Action Guide for School Leaders. ATI. 2005
• Stiggins, Rick. Classroom Assessment for
  Learning Doing It Right Using It Well. ATI.
  2005
• Conzemius and ONeill. The Handbook for SMART
  School Teams. Solution Tree. 2002

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Thanks for your hard work.
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Old Mission K 80 of the children will be able
to express their ideas in writing by June 1.
1-2 80 of the children will
be able to organize their ideas around main ideas
and supporting details by June 1 3-4 80 of the
children will use graphic organizers to organize
their writing around main ideas and supporting
details by June 1. 5-6 80 of the children
will expand and organize their written work
around main ideas and supporting details
utilizing multiple strategies.