Professional Learning Communities

What are the BIG ideas in a PLC?

Learning For All Collaboration

Collective Inquiry

SmartGoals

Action Orientation

Intervention

Continuous

Improvement

How do we embed PLCs in an already crowded field of expectations?

The Driving Force

• The driving force behind PLC’s should be student achievement– If PLC’s are not focused on the students, they will

not continue over time.– Whatever you do and how you do it, if you

connect it to something specific about student achievement, it is more powerful.

– It is not about the entire school. Look at the individual faces.

Rick Dufour – Why PLCs? Why now?

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnWDJFxfAKE&feature=youtube_gdata_player

A PLC is an environment of capacity building that goes beyond simply attending professional development workshops. A PLC incorporates the a daily habit of working together in collaborative teams to achieve shared SMART goals, analyzing student results, and using those results to revamp instructional practices.

Leave Me Alone…

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlJcFW9qMiI

The “Mythological” Heroic Teacher

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69nk527y_io

Critical Questions

PLC Focus on the Critical Questions of Learning1. What do we expect them

to learn?2. How will we know when

they have learned it?3. How will we respond

when they don’t?4. How will they respond

when they already know it?

Team reflections:What did we notice about the student’s response to today’s

lesson in math?

Self-reflection:One third of the class could not identify the main idea. Which one of my team members can best assist me to overcome this gap?Group think time:

After looking at our MAP scores for our lower SES students, what trends do you see and what

should be our response?

Team talk and analysis time are embedded in every successful PLC

After every conversation, the team should leave with strategies and a plan of where to go next. After the plan is completed, the teams check data to determine if the goal was reached as well as what was successful and what was not.

“Mirror checks” hold PLC’s accountable and

reflect the stated goals.

Learning focused

Shared planning times critically affect the organization of a PLC.

Team focused on the critical questions of what will we learn, how to measure what is taught, how to revise instruction when targets are not met & what to do we extend learning when the target is reached.

Expectations are explicit.

Solid team norms established as tight agreements.

SMART goals are developed and always incorporated into analyses.

Frequent access to relevant data.

TEKS of PLC’s

Questions Regarding Collaborative Teams

• How should they be organized?• What about the singletons? Small schools?• How do we find time to collaborate?• How do we make sure teachers use the time well?

How can we help teams establish effective team processes?

• How do we know if any of this is making a difference?

• What is the best single strategy for moving forward?

Team Norms • Establish Team Norms to Guide Collaboration• 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 teams to assess its effectiveness every 6

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. “God only needed ten to guide life. We can have less.”

• Establish a process for addressing violations of norms.

Video link to a PLC conversationamong a group or duo of practicing educators

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrPI-q6w72Y&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Where would I

begin?Who would be included?When would they meet?

Why did I want to start PLCs?

My experience with PLCs so far…

Student success..Teacher ownership/ passion for

topic

Student focused conversations

Vertical and

grade level

teaming.Developing experts/ building

Capacity

Differentiation

for Teachers

Student intervention meetings Grade Level Team meetings Vertical TeamsTeam Leader meetingsCMITRTISBICESOL, SpEd, PACE

Areas where PLCs have impacted.

PLCs focus on areas for specific student achievement rather than a one size fits all program.

What will you do next?

Data supports that very few (only 1/9 attendees) will use the information provided in a workshop as intended. We all know why.

Return parents’ calls

Cyber bullying SPED allocation

Purchase ordersSTAAR manual

Planting the Tree

Administrative reflections:>18 students (30%) performed below level in either reading (PP1) &/or math in September>20% of the students have special education IEPs>LOW PES scores for 2 prior years in 2nd grade>Change of team leadership 2011-12

DEVELOP SMART GOALS

MATHStudents will develop number sense as evidenced by using number lines, touch points or memory retrieval to solve math problems rather than using finger counting.

READINGStudents will read at or above the 2/1 reading level as evidenced by monitoring and self correcting errors detected at the teacher table at a 90% accuracy rate. The 100 basic sight word vocabulary will be a resource for self correction and detecting miscues.

TIGHT on GOALS:>teacher table for all of the lower reading & math groups 4/5 school days>texts/lessons chosen strategically & with advice from campus instructional specialist>embed 2 hours/ week where SMART goals are discussed and monitored

Mirror Check:>Did we reflect and then discuss how the week’s lessons developed?>What changes in number sense and reading levels were observed?>Which types of lessons were most successful? Why?

Mirror Check Your SAS Demographic Summary

What do you immediately notice about the data?

What are your top 2 concerns about student achievement in this group?

What are formative and summative assessments telling you about the rate of expected improvement vs. the rate of actual improvement?

The Pathway to PLCs

PLC Game Reflections

• What did you notice about the “miss turn” spaces and/or the “lose a turn” cards in relation to DuFour’s PLC process?

• How do you see about DuFour’s PLC process being implemented in the “roll again” and “move forward” chance cards.

How Will You Use PLCs?

• The beauty is, it is up to you!• Differentiation works, so why not practice the

expectations we have for our own teachers? Differentiated PLCs, driven by highly motivated staff members with a common goal to increase student learning. Interesting idea… Sounds like a great way to explore PLCs.

Just The Facts, Ma’am…..

• Raised academic standards with more rigor and cognitive demands – NCLB, College and Career Readiness Standards, STAAR

• Continued gaps between minority and white counterparts (graduation rates, test scores and advanced proficiency)

• Increase in eligible free and reduced lunch students – “are roughly two years of learning behind the average better off student of the same age” (DuFour and Marzano, 2011).

To Top It Off

• Public schools are being asked to do more with less for an increasingly more needy clientele.– Larry Lezotte

“If you always do what you always did, you always get what you always got”

The PLC Journey

• It is not…..– A one-time event– A program– A once a week meeting

It is a process of continuous learning where collective inquiry takes place and then there is a coming together to share the data and strategies that produce high levels of learning

• Shift the focus from teaching to learning

• Be involved in “Reflective Practice”• Interventions can literally save a kid’s

life….focus on results, skill by skill

• In order for PLCs to be effective, we have to be disciplined enough to look at EVERYTHING we do through the lens of student achievement

Student Achievement

Are You Willing To…

• Recognize the difference between a group and a team?– Build that collaborative team working

interdependently to be mutually accountable as they look for evidence that what they are doing is producing high levels of student learning

Vs.

Are You Willing To….

• Restructure your teams in order to provide them time to collaborate?– Grade level teams– Vertical teams– Review use of staff meeting time– Review use of PDH time

Are You Willing To…

• Ensure your teams are focusing on the right work?– Be willing to examine the brutal question…..If I

teach it and they don’t learn it…..is it a deficiency on the part of the child?

– Be willing to challenge the status quo of “This Is the Way We Do Things Around Here”

– Be willing to reframe and say…I taught it, but he didn’t learn it so what do I need to do to fix it?

Are You Willing To….

• Focus on the four critical questions:– What is it we want our students to know?– How will we know if they are learning?– How will we respond when individual students do

not learn?– How will we enrich and extend the learning for

students who are proficient?

Are You Willing To…

• Use existing resources, time, people, materials and money to provide additional support for ALL students to learn at higher levels than ever before?

• Research says to have laser like focus on 6 or fewer goals – limit the number of initiatives undertaken (pg.40)

Are You Willing To….

• Monitor the work, providing direction and support

• Celebrate the wins, while confronting those who do not contribute?

Are You Willing To…

• As an administrator, do a mirror check too.• Research supports “powerful school leadership

on the part of the principal has a positive effect on student achievement” (DuFour and Marzano,

2011, pg. 48) and the most powerful strategy for having a positive impact on that learning is to facilitate the learning of the educators who serve those students through the PLC process” (p. 63)

Are You Willing To?

• Do a mirror check?

If So,

• You are well on your way in your journey with the PLC process.

District Support of the PLC Process

• Like campus groupings– Collaborative, interdependent groups– Created team norms– Laser like focus on shared goals– Susan Dantzler monitors the implementation

process as we produce artifacts to demonstrate our team effectiveness

– Share out effective strategies and outcomes

As Leaders of Learning

• You must be the change you want to see in the world.– Mahatma Gandhi

Recommit to…

• Make Learning our Fundamental Purpose• Build and Maintain a Collaborative Culture

Through High Performing Teams• Focus on Results