the right work of the plc in rutherford county august 3, 2015 ces teacher training

The Right Work of the PLC in Rutherford County

August 3, 2015

CES Teacher

Training

Today’s Goals and Agenda

GoalsEmphasize PLCs remain a priority for Rutherford County Schools.

Provide clarity on the right work of the PLC in Rutherford County.

Provide specific examples of PLC work administrators can monitor as we transition to TNReady.

Provide a tool for you to use as you revisit school trainings to ensure new staff understand the purpose and work of the PLC.

AgendaReview the three “Big Ideas” of PLC

work.

Identify the three elements that make up the right work of the PLC in RCS.

Review changes in TNReady and howPLCS will be affected.

Review PLC documents schools will be asked to provide in August 2015.

PLCs – A Continued Priority for RCS

The most promising strategy for sustained, substantive school improvement is building the capacity of school personnel to function as a professional learning community.

The path to change in the classroom lies within and through professional learning communities.

Transitioning to TNReady

The work of the PLC is not new for our district

Implementation since the late 90s with Mr. Watson

Every school has attended the Solution Tree PLC Summit

Dr. Eaker and Mike Mattos have both worked extensively with our district

Schools have submitted PLC guarantees at the beginning of each year

The transition to TNReady provides a unique opportunity for us to revisit our school’s PLC practices and ensure PLCS are focused on the right work.

Transitioning fully to the new TN State Standards, preparing for a new technology enhanced assessment, and implementing RTI2 K-12th grade will make the work of each PLC more important than ever if we hope to truly succeed.

The Three BIG IDEAS of a PLC

We accept learning as the fundamental purpose of our school and therefore arewilling to examine all practices in light of their impact on learning.

We are committed to working together to achieve our collective purpose. Wecultivate a collaborative culture through development of high-performing teams.

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.

Undermining the PLC Process

We take the seductive shortcut and settle when we:

Allow collaboration by invitation and allow people to opt out of the team process.

Allow teams to function as a group rather than a team. There is not a collective responsibility for student achievement.

Collaboration lite - Meetings donot center around the right work.

When we implement what weknow to be best practice we:Assign educators to meaningfulteams.

Work interdependently to achieve common SMART goals and hold each other accountable.

Provide time for collaboration

Provide resources and support to promote success.

Be clear on the right work

What is the Right Work of the PLC inRutherford County?

1. Teams create and implement a guaranteed and viable curriculum

Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum

Creating unit by unit ESSENTIAL LEARNINGS ensures all students have access to the same knowledge and skills, regardless of the teacher to whom they are assigned.

Guaranteed: Assures specific content is taught in specific courses/grades

– regardless of teacher

Viable: There is enough instructional time available to actually teach the identified content.

The Question that Never Goes Away

“Why doesn’t the district just give us the essential learning for each

grade level and subject area?”

Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum

Guaranteed and viable curriculums only happens when teachers—who are called upon to deliver

the curriculum— work collaboratively to:

Study the intended curriculum and agree on priorities within the curriculum.

Clarify how the curriculum translates into specific student knowledge and skills.

Establish pacing guidelines for delivering the curriculum.

Commit to one another that they will actually teach the curriculum(DuFour & Marzano, 2011).

Undermining Guaranteed/ViableCurriculums and Essential Learnings

We undermine essential learnings when we merely distribute documents to individual teachers, pretending that documents create a guaranteed and viable curriculum.

Documents guarantee NOTHING. Enron had documents, agendas and meeting notes!

Monitoring Essential Learnings for TNReady

How many essential learnings has each team identified?Is the number viable (doable)?

Is there enough time to teach, assess, and provide remediation on this number?

Is there a correlation between the essential standards and the TNReady Blueprints and frameworks?

Monitoring Essential Learnings for TNReady

The Tennessee Academic Standards for English Language Arts (ELA) are recursive in their design and implementation. The standards remain consistent while the instruction varies based on the texts and tasks that are used during instruction. As the texts become more complex, the standards become more challenging to master.

The same standards appear in each quarter. The skills imbedded within the standards should drive the instructional decisions the teachers make.

The PLC should work collaboratively to develop strong instructional units based on both (Power) and Supporting standards.

ELA Essential Learnings

Write the essential learnings based on the skillsfound within the ELA standards.

Use student friendly language that showsdesired outcomes.

Align the essential learnings with the TNReady Blueprints.

ELA Standard(s)

W.4.1. Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information.a.Introduce a topic or text clearly, state an opinion, and create an organizational structure in whichrelated ideas are grouped to support the writer’s purpose.•Provide reasons that are supported by facts and details.•Link opinion and reasons using words and phrases (e.g., for instance, in order to, in addition).a.Provide a concluding statement or section related to the opinion presented.

W.4.2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas andinformation clearly.b.Introduce a topic clearly and group related information in paragraphs and sections; include formatting (e.g., headings), illustrations, and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension.c.Develop the topic with facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples related to the topic.d.Link ideas within categories of information using words and phrases (e.g., another, forexample, also, because).b.Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic.c.Provide a concluding statement or section related to the information or explanation presented.

Essential Learning – Good examples

Write an essay using supporting evidence from at least two sources to share an opinion or explain information.

Write an essay with a beginning, middle, and

end.

(This Essential Learning ties back to WritingStandards 1 and 2).

Weak Examples

Recognize the sounds of language(alliteration, rhyme, and repetition)

Logically complete analogies using synonyms and antonyms

ELA Standard

W.8.1. Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence.

a. Introduce claim(s), acknowledge and distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and organize the reasons and evidence logically.

b. Support claim(s) with logical reasoning and relevant evidence, using accurate, credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text.

c. Use words, phrases, and clauses to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence.

d.

e.

Establish and maintain a formal style.

Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports theargument

presented.

Essential Learning – Good example

Write an essay grounded in textual evidence that supports a claim, using logical reasoning and relevant details and following the conventions of standard English.

(This Essential Learning ties back to Writing Standards 1, 2, and 3)

Weak Examples

Engage in collaborative discussions.

Analyze the structure of a paragraph.

Conduct short research.

Monitoring Essential Learnings for TNReady MathMajor Content

Elementary: 75-80% ofTNReady Questions

Middle School: 65-70% of the TNReady Questions

High School: Around 50% of the TNReady questions

Monitoring

TNReady

Blueprints For

all tested gradelevels



2. Teams create and implement common formative assessments to monitor student learning of the guaranteed and viable curriculum.

Common Formative Assessments

Not every assessment is a common assessment. They are only required for assessments covering the selected essential learnings.

Assessment will always drive instruction. Just as with essential learnings, common assessments should be team created.

Teachers should create prior to teaching not afterwards.

We Undermine Common FormativeAssessments When We

Substitute textbook assessments, commercial assessments, or occasional district assessments for team- developed common assessments

Team development of assessments fosters clarity of

standards.

Use common assessment results merely to assign grades

Call them formative but treat them as summative by doing nothing with common assessments results to help students gain a better understanding of the standards.

Monitoring Common Assessments forTNReady

Do CFAs match the selected essential learnings?

Is there a schedule in place to ensure material can by taught,assessed, and intervened on by phase 1 and phase 2 of TNReady?

How does the schedule correlate with county pacing guides?

Are students experiencing a variety of item types in their assessments and during daily instruction?

District Benchmarks

This year the TNReady Practice Test will serve as our district benchmark.

Practice test will be on the MIST platform and mirror the actual TNReady assessment.

Non machine-scorable items will be graded by the PLC

All 3rd – 8th grade and EOC students will take the practice test in the following timeframe:

Sept 28th – October 30th (Part 1 and Part II) *Fall Break 10/5- 10/9

March 7th – April 8th (Part II only)

January 4th – February 6th (Part 1 and Part II) **Optional

What is the goal of the district benchmark this year?

Each teacher should experience the TNReady

practice test.

Creating Formative Assessments

MICA will only allow teachers to create assessments with the questions already in the system. They can not create their own questions in MICA.

Remember: MICA is a FREE tool provided by the state that will serve as the delivery system for TNReady item samplers that are aligned to TN Academic Standards. Teachers can use the questions found here to create practice student assessments. They can NOT use this tool to create their own technology enhanced items. MICA is the best resource we have on what actual TNReady questions should look like. The state will release a TNReady practice test with questions similar to that found on MICA. It will be delivered through the MIST platform, and it will serve as our district benchmarks this year.


Edulastic will allow teachers to create their own technology enhanced items to use in class or on assessments. Edulastic is a New FREE program teachers can use to create technology enhanced items for students to practice. Since it is a new program, features are being updated regularly. Our next district conference call is scheduled Friday, August 14 and we will send updated information then. Share the information below with your teachers during training:


Firefox is the best browser to use with Edulastic at this time. Teachers should NOT upload or have students join their classes or the program at this time

(8/1/2015). We spoke with the program developers yesterday, and they are making sure all schools are joined in RCS. We will send out information on the best way to upload students so they don’t have multiple logins. The program is designed for students to be shared.

As you play with the program there is a Report Issue button at the bottom left in the Teacher Account for you to send in any issue you may have. We have been in contact with them, and they are working to ensure we have a smooth rollout.


Mastery Connect is a FREE program that can be used to track student mastery by standard. Student responses can be collected using Grade Cam bubble sheets.

InspireData is a program we have in each school that can be used to track an analyze student data as well as compare to TVAAS projections. As previously communicated, we will have another train the trainer session on this program on August 6th for all new technology coaches and anyone needing a refresher .




3. Use the evidence of student learning from common formative assessments to: Improve individual practice

Improve the team’s ability to achieve SMART goals

Intervene on behalf of individual students

Using Data as Evidence

The heart of work in a PLC is when educators collectively analyze evidence of student learning.

The other steps on the PLC journey are designed to help teams engage in this essential work.

Selecting essential learnings, having a common planning time, and giving common assessments do

nothing for student learning. They only provide avenues for us to help student learning by choosing

to collectively RESPOND when students aren’t learning.

We Undermine the Use of Student EvidenceWhen We

Assess students with no intention of using the assessment data to address student needs or classroom instruction.

Include items on formative assessments that have not been taught.

Do not provide additional time and support for learning when data indicates they did not learn it.

Do not provide opportunities for extension and enrichment when students have shown mastery.

Treat data as the end product instead of a tool for studentlearning.

Monitoring Use of Data

Ensure standards-based intervention groups arefocused on the essential learnings.

Ensure intervention times are a non-negotiable part of the day.

Use of action plan protocol forms to ensure teams aremoving past looking at data to making plans.

Consider completing required 15 minute walk-thoughevaluations during school-wide intervention time.

fe Please complete for e-ach l:ssEntial Learning As.sssmtnt. A copy for •acll. team should bE kept. in the PLC aotebook.




3. Use the evidence of student learning from common formative assessments to: Improve individual practice

Improve the team’s ability to achieve SMART goals

Intervene on behalf of individual students

PLC Instructional Cycle

Teachers should be instructing

on and assessing every standard.

However, we guarantee that we

will collectively do this as a PLC

for our essential standards.

the right work of the plc in rutherford county august 3, 2015 ces teacher training

Documents

right work slide

plc process

big ideas of plc work

plc guarantees

schools plc practices

review plc documents

rutherford county schools

solution tree plc summit