Professional Learning Communities (PLC)

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Professional Learning Communities (PLC)

• Where do we begin?
• (Adapted from Professional Learning Communities
  at Work
• Designed by DuFour, DuFour and Eaker)

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What does PLC mean?

• An on going- process in which educators work
  collaboratively in recurring cycles of collective
  inquiry and action research to achieve better
  results for the student they serve.
• PLCs operate under the assumption that the key
  to improved learning for students is continuous,
  job embedded learning for educators.
• DuFour, DuFour, Eaker and Many (2010)

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PLC Big Ideas Core Values

• Ensuring that students learn
• Learning for all
• A Culture of Collaboration
• Teamwork
• Focus on Results
• Data-Driven Decisions

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The PLC Big Ideas 1

• Learning-
• We accept learning as the fundamental purpose of
  our school and therefore are willing to examine
  all practices in light of their impact on
  learning.
• the fundamental purpose of the school is to
  ensure that all students learn rather than see to
  it that all students are taught-an enormous
  distinction. from Raising the Bar and Closing
  the Gap-Whatever it Takes

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Critical Questions of Learning

1. What is it that we expect them to learn?
2. How will we know when they have learned it?
3. How will we respond when they dont learn?
4. How will we respond when they already know it?

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The PLC Big Ideas 2

• Collaboration- To co labor
• We are committed to working together to achieve
  our collective purpose. We cultivate a
  collaborative culture through development of
  high-performing teams.
• A systematic process in which we work together,
  interdependently, to analyze and impact
  professional practice in order to improve our
  individual and collective results.
• DuFour, Dufour Eaker

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Why Collaborate?

• Gains in student achievement
• Higher quality solutions to problems
• Increased confidence among all staff
• Teachers able to support one anothers strengths
  and accommodate weaknesses
• Ability to test new ideas
• More support for new teachers
• Expanded pool of ideas, materials, and methods
• Judith Warren Little (1990)

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• Wide ranging researchshows it is impossible for
  even the most talented people to do competent,
  let alone brilliant, work in a flawed system. Yet
  a well-designed system filled with ordinary-but
  well trained-people can consistently achieve
  stunning performance levels
• Pfeffer and Sutton (2006)

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Lucky Number 7

• Seven Keys to Collaboration in a PLC
• Embed collaboration with a FOCUS ON LEARNING in
  routine practices of the school.
• Schedule time for collaboration in the school day
  and school calendar.
• Focus teams on critical questions.
• Make products of collaboration explicit.
• Establish team norms to guide collaboration (See
  next slide.)
• Pursue specific and measurable team performance
  goals.
• Provide teams with frequent access to relevant
  information.

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Why Norms?

• When all is said and done, the norms of a group
  help determine whether it functions as
  high-performing team or becomes simply a loose
  collection of people working together.
• Positive norms will stick only if the group puts
  them into practice over and over again. Being
  explicit about norms raises the level of
  effectiveness, maximizes emotional intelligence,
  produces a positive experience for group members
  and helps to socialize newcomers into the group
  quickly.

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TIPS for Team Norms

• Each team establishes its own norms.
• Norms are stated as commitments to act or behave
  in certain ways.
• Norms are reviewed at the beginning and end of
  each meeting until they are internalized.
• One norm requires team to assess its
  effectiveness every six months. This assessment
  should include review of adherence to norms and
  the need to identify new norms.
• Less is more. A few key norms are better than a
  laundry list.
• Violations of norms must be addressed.

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The Big Ideas of PLC 3

• Results-
• We assess our effectiveness on the basis of
  results rather than intentions. Individuals,
  teams, and schools seek relevant data and
  information and use that information to promote
  continuous improvement.

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How Should We Determine what is the right work?-
Best available evidence of positive impact on
student learning

• Keys to Formative Assessment
• It is used to identify students who are
  experiencing difficulty in their learning?
• Are students who are having difficulty provided
  with an additional time and support for learning?
• Are students given an additional opportunity to
  demonstrate their learning?

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If We Implemented What We Know to be Best Practice

• Common Curriculum -Learn What? Teachers must come
  together to agree on the Learn What
• Common Pacing -Implementing the Common Curriculum
  collaboratively
• Common Assessment -Formative Assessments designed
  around the common curriculum to monitor student
  learning

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Are PLCs an Option?

• Loose vs. Tight-
• Effective school cultures dont simply encourage
  individuals to go off and do whatever they want,
  but rather establish clear parameters and
  priorities that enable individuals to work within
  established boundaries in a creative and
  autonomous way.
• Procedures are tight
• Agreement on what is to be taught, not how it is
  to be taught

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Changing the Focus

• Old Focus
• Every student can learn
• Focus on teaching
• Isolation
• Assessment OF learning (Summative)
• Failure is an option

• New Focus
• Every student will learn
• Focus on learning
• Collaboration
• Assessment FOR learning (Formative)
• Failure is not and option

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Culture Shifts in a PLC

• Shift in Fundamental Purpose From teaching to
  learning
• Shift in Use of Assessments
• From summative to frequent formative
• Shift in the Work of Teachers
• .. From isolation to collaboration
• Shift in Response When Students Dont Learn
• .. From remediation to intervention

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Resources

• www.allthingsplc.info
• www.allthingsassessment.info
• http//go.solution-tree.com/PLCbooks
• http//quality.cr.k12.ia.us/PLC/indexPLC.html
• AEA staff