Developing School-College Teams

1. Developing School-College Teams Driving Alignment and Student Achievement

2. WHAT IS YOUR SCHOOL’S FOCUS? Reflection on Conversations Faculty meetings Department meetings Faculty room Parking lot

3. FOCUS on Sharing Knowledge About STUDENT LEARNING Is Everyone Focused on the Same Destination? PWright 2009

4. “Relationships and organizational success are closely interrelated.” “Knowledge sharing fuels relationships” Michael Fullan

5. ROADBLOCKS A culture of isolation. A focus on teaching rather than learning. Disconnected professional development Initiative Fatigue Emphasis on state assessments

6. CHOOSE A NEW DIRECTION Sustained connected movement toward a common goal – COHERENCE Professional learning that directly impacts student learning A culture of collaboration Focus on student learning Use of on-going formative/summative assessment data

7. HOW DO WE GET THERE? THE CONNECTED ACTION ROADMAP

8. Connections are Crucial PWright 2009

9. “FOCUS ON THE DESTINATION” PWright 2009 1. What do we want students to know? 2.      What strategies do students need in order to master the objectives? 3.      What instructional activities will help teach students the strategies they need? 4.      How do we know when they know it? 5.      What do we do if they don’t? 6.      How can we best address these questions in order to build knowledge and skills effectively and consistently across grade levels and content areas?

10. The Job of the PLC is to Answer the Guiding Questions The answers continually strengthen the foundation creating a cycle of continuous school improvement

11. A Definition Educators committed to working together using processes of inquiry, problem-solving and reflection upon their practice become a professional learning community. A professional learning community is a team or group of teams working interdependently to achieve a common goal for which members hold themselves mutually accountable. (DuFour 2006)

12. WHAT DO WE WANT STUDENTS TO KNOW?NEEDED: A VIABLE CURRICULUM VIABLE - capable of living or developing under favorable conditions; capable of success or ongoing effectiveness Make Your Curriculum a “Living” Document • Contains the current answers to the guiding questions • Provides a framework for team dialogue • Is continuously revised based on the work of the teams • Directly connected to daily lesson plans PWright 2009

13. ASSESSMENT: HOW DO WE KNOW WHEN THEY KNOW IT? • Are we assessing the learning goals? • Have we identified formative, summative, performance assessments? • How do we use the data from these assessments? • How do we differentiate based on the data? PWright 2009

14. Curriculum Template: Drives the Conversations of the PLC Learning Goals (Skills, Knowledge and Understandings) that link directly to standards How we assess progress toward meeting those learning goals – Formative/summative assessments What strategies we teach students to use to successfully achieve the goals What lesson activities allow us to teach those strategies How we differentiate: Revisit, reteach, reinforce, ready, reach How we integrate 21t century skills

15. Formative Assessment PWright 2009 Little “d” - The Heart of Meaningful Instructional Change Enables teachers/students to collect information about student learning… • To inform the teacher about their own lessons’ effectiveness • To inform the teacher about their students’ learning • To inform the students about their own learning and encourage responsibility for learning • Allow teams to troubleshoot through sharing, reflection and revision

16. The PLC Working collaboratively to develop common assessments, ensure that assessments assess stated learning goals and using “little d” data to make decisions related to instruction, differentiation and intervention

17. Needs assessment: Climate, Curriculum, Professional Development Climate for student learning Literacy - Common language – common strategies – formative assessment – UbD Formative Assessment – connection to literacy – FA and student strategies – every content - embedded in curriculum template Development of Interdisciplinary Projects Literacy, PBL and 21st Century Skills ONE JOURNEY: Collaboration by Invitation

18. Collaboration by Invitation Becomes Collaboration by Expectation

19. Literacy • Project-based learning • 21st Century Skills • Formative Assessment • I & R S • Climate Pathways to getting there • Subject-area specific

20. A MISSION SUPPORTED BY BELIEFS AND VALUES A vision and a mission are meaningful only if they are constructed collaboratively and are supported by actions and agreed upon expectations

21. “You Cannot Change What You Do Not Acknowledge” Dr. Phil

22. PLC Survey Reflection Your School’s Foundation

23. WHAT IS YOUR CURRENT LOCATION ? PWright 2009 What are the strengths and weaknesses in the foundation? Can you and your faculty answer the guiding questions? Do you have a culture that supports student and adult learning? How do you maintain a focus on student learning? Does your curriculum drive daily instruction? What are your current initiatives/school goals? What connections will create coherence and a sense of focus on the destination? What leadership? How is it shared? What teams? What time? What tools? Who needs to be part of the conversation?

24. The Decision-Making ProcessLinear vs Messy Leadership Creates Coherence and Sustainability by Maintaining the Direction By Consistently Communicating Connections • Adapt/adopt guiding questions • Assess the current context • Choose an entry point • Choose an action • Communicate the connections to the stakeholders • Taking action • Reflecting on the outcomes • Communicating the outcomes to ensure support of the connectedness and sustainability • Choosing the next action – Return to Step 5 PWright 2009

25. WHEN WE WILL GET THERE? “Stop asking me if we’re almost there! We’re nomads, for crying out loud!” PWright 2009 Never! The more we understand the more we can move to even higher levels of student learning.

26. The journey is a process, not an event. You cannot get to the destination overnight, but you can change direction overnight. PWright 2009