professional learning communities

1
professional learning communities

• TCAPS Elementary School Staff Meeting Discussions
• 2005-2006

2
understanding goals for this meeting

• Where are we in the process of establishing our
  PLC teams?
• What PLC team facilitator skills do we need and
  how can we get them?
• What are SMART goals and how can they help us?
• What support and resources do we need to make our
  PLCs work?

3
patience and persistence wins the race

• We need to take the time in our PLC teams to
• Develop our group norms.
• Learn to facilitate our own teams.
• Write and pursue our own SMART goals.
• Seek out and test best practices.
• Listen and learn from each other.
• Dont shortcut the process. Richard DuFour

4

• Where have we been?
• Staffs have identified PLC team goal areas.
• Teams have been formed and have started meeting.
• Group norms and meeting schedules have been set.
• All teachers and principals have received some
  training in starting PLCs.

• Where are we going?
• Team facilitators will be trained.
• Teams will identify SMART goals.
• Well take a closer look at formative and
  summative assessments.
• Additional resources and support will be sought
  to support PLC work.

5
opening questions

• Whats working?
• So far, whats the most satisfying or interesting
  aspect of your PLC work?
• What challenges do we face?
• What resources and support do you need to make
  the most of the PLC opportunity?

6
Critical Attributes of 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

7
According to the DuFours

•  
• A PLC team is a group of people working
  interdependently toward a common goal for which
  they are mutually accountable.

8
Tips on Facilitating a PLC team

• Before the meetingremind others of meeting date,
  time and place, get familiar with the meeting
  protocol, get the room and materials set.
• During the meetinglaunch the meeting, listen and
  reflect, keep focus on protocol and group norms,
  summarize, plan next meeting topic.
• After the meetingbrief principal, distribute
  recorders notes to all on team.

9
A Preview of District Facilitator Training
(half-day at Boardman in January for two teachers
per school)

• Basics of PLC meeting leadership before, during,
  and after meetings.
• Writing SMART goals.
• Background on three basic meeting protocols the
  Tuning Protocol, the Collaborative Assessment
  Conference, and Collaborative Assessment of
  Student Learning (CASL.)
• Input on simplifying the TCAPS PLC Team Meeting
  form.

10
SMART Goals

• Be sure to differentiate being action steps or
  strategies and student achievement goals.
  Richard DuFour
• Strategic and specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Results-oriented does it have the language of
  student learning embedded in the goal? Ask why
  teacher practice shifts are being done? How will
  these shifts impact student achievement?
• Time Bound when will we complete this goal.

11
Are These Smart Goals?

• We will create a literacy library by June 2006.
• Well increase cooperative learning activities by
  25.
• By next year, 100 of students will write a brief
  personal narrative and a brief informal piece
  using pictures and words scoring a 3 in ideas and
  organization on the Analytical K Rubric or the
  Six-Traits Primary Rubric.
• Our new laptop classroom sets will be used in all
  classrooms at least 3x a month during second
  semester.
• 95 of our seventh graders will score within
  grade-level on the DRP by the time they are in
  ninth grade (spring, 2008)

12
Examples of SMART goals

• Within the next two years, increase by 50 the
  number of students scoring at met expectations
  or exceeds expectations on the MEAP writing
  test.
• Within the next semester, increase by 20 the
  number of students we score as having a 4 to 6 on
  the Six Trait Writing rubric in the area of
  ideas.
• Within this school year, collect examples of
  student work that show a how use of a Thinking
  Routine (or other instructional strategy)
  satisfied a particular Michigan Standard,
  Benchmark, or GLCE. Ideally, show how this was
  not occurring previous to your using the new
  strategy.

13
Developmental Milestones of Collaborative
Inquiry

• Finding the right questions. Questions often
  start out too narrow or too general or in ways
  that cant be investigated with empirical data.
  Refining questions as SMART goals keeps focus on
  student results. Time and support for question
  finding is needed.
• Going Public with Classroom Artifacts. Conscious
  attention to building trust is essential. Each
  step in this process is an appreciable milestone.
• Taking ownership to shape and monitor your own
  inquiry processwhen teacher inquirers see how to
  take the tools of inquiry and apply them to their
  unique questions and circumstances.

14
More PLC Developmental Milestones

• Addressing issues of equity through inquiry. A
  groups willingness to bring less successful work
  to the PLC team signals increased trust, but also
  raises the important question, How can we meet
  the needs of students who are particularly
  struggling?
• Closing the loop between what happens around the
  PLC table and what happens in the classroom. The
  moment teachers see the impact of their inquiry
  on their practice (or on the practice of the
  whole school) is a major milestone, indeed!

15
PLC Inquiry Milestones
Going public with classroom artifacts
Finding the right questions
Taking ownership to shape and monitor your own
inquiry process
Addressing issues of equity through inquiry
Closing the loop between what happens around the
PLC table and what happens in the classroom
16
Constructing a PLC Synthesis Model

• Student Achievement
• Focus
• Subject matter PLC Teams
• CAAP revision
• SMART goals
• GLCEs/MEAP
• 8-10 Essential
• standards/course outcomes
• Standardized testing/performance-
• based assessment
• School Improvement work

• Instructional
• Improvement Focus
• Essential questions
• Visible Thinking Projects
• TfU Triads
• Lesson Study
• CASL Groups
• Classroom action research
• Present and future partnerships
• with universities and MDE

Improved teacher practice and achievement for
all students.
17
PLC Work to Do

• Integrate SMART Goals into PLC team focus topics
  (by end of 1st semester, 2006)
• Reinforce developing PLC team group norms
• Develop and reinforce PLC facilitator skills
• Teachers to identify existing or write new
  formative assessments
• Continue to be creative at finding time for PLC
  work.

18
Works Cited

• DuFour, Richard, et.al. On Common Ground.
  National Education Service. 2005
• Weinbaum, Alexandra, et. Al. Teaching as Inquiry
  Asking Hard Questions to Improve Practice and
  Student Achievement. Teachers College Press. 2004
• DuFour, Richard and Eaker, Robert. Professional
  Learning Communities at Work. NES. 1999
• Facilitators Guide to Professional Learning
  Teams. SERVE, Institute of Education Sciences.
  2005

19
Thank-you for your hard work.