Laying the Groundwork for Effective PLCs ESEA/Odyssey Conference

1. Laying the Groundwork for Effective PLCsESEA/Odyssey Conference Facilitated by: Liz Durant Dianne Greif School Improvement Specialist Principal InterMountain ESD Stella Mayfield Elementary Elgin School District

2. PLC Lite or PLC Right? • Meeting as time allows • Meeting during scheduled, sacred time • Picking and choosing PLC practices you’re most comfortable doing • Analyzing student work • Discussions about upcoming field trips, assemblies, computer lab schedule, Oriental Trading catalog • Discussions about effective instructional practices • No one is “in charge” • Team leader facilitates the meeting

3. PLC time is a significant investment How can the time be used most effectively?

4. The Four PLC Questions 1. What do we expect students to learn? Essential outcomes, power standards, learning targets, pacing 2. How will we know if they learn it? Common assessments, quick checks for understanding, results analysis 3. How do we respond when students experience difficulty in learning? Differentiated instruction, targeted interventions, RTI, and PBIS 4. How do we respond when students do learn? Differentiated instruction, enrichment

5. Highly Effective Teams How? • Collaboration is embedded into routine practices. • Time for collaboration is built into the school day and school calendar. • Products of collaboration are made explicit. • Team norms guide collaboration. • Teams pursue specific and measurable goals. • Teams focus on key questions associated with learning. • Teams have access to relevant information.

6. Build Shared Knowledge As a Team All teams need to: • Examine state standards and engage in dialogue about what students should learn. • Analyze data to make decisions. • Clarify essential common outcomes by course/content area. • Develop and administer common formative assessments. • Analyze results. • Establish specific measurable standards or goals. • Identify and implement improvement strategies.

7. Happy PLC Meetings • Willingness to consider matters from another’s perspective • Accurate understanding of spoken and unspoken feeling and concerns of members • Willingness to confront a team member who does not participate/contribute • Communicate positive regard, caring and respect • Willingness and ability to evaluate the team’s own effectiveness

8. Happy PLC Meetings - Continued • Seeking feedback about and evidence of team effectiveness from internal and external sources • Maintaining a positive attitude and outlook • Solving problems -be proactive • Awareness of how group contributes to the purpose and goals of the larger organization • Establishes own protocols-reviews and addresses violations

9. The BIGGEST Idea Are all kids learning? We don’t know if all kids are learning unless we work together and talk about the evidence of their understanding. “My students” become “Our students”

10. On a collaborative team, EVERYONE plays an important role.

11. Team Member Responsibilities Come prepared to meeting Assume a role Participate honestly, respectfully, constructively Be punctual Engage fully In the process

12. Team Leaders • Plan and distribute the team meeting agenda • Facilitate the process and meetings • Meet with principal and other team leaders

13. Limits of Team Leaders’ Responsibilities PLC Team Leaders should not be expected to: • Serve as pseudo-administrators • Shoulder the responsibilities of the whole team • Address peers and colleagues who do not want to cooperate • Evaluate colleagues’ performance

14. Roles of Team Members

15. Non-negotiables • Norms • Assigned roles • PLC Agenda and Minutes form • SMART goals • Common Formative Assessments

16. Data Driven Conversation within your PLC Q: What do we mean by data? A: Evidence of student learning (a.k.a. assessment data) You should spend most of your time analyzing teacher -generatedcommon formative assessment data that indicates students’ understanding of power standards.

17. Common Formative Assessments “An assessment typically created collaboratively by a team of teachers responsible for the same grade level or course.  CFAs are frequently administered throughout the year to identify (1) individual students who need additional time and support for learning, (2) the teaching strategies most effective in helping students acquire the intended knowledge and skills, (3) program concerns – areas in which students generally are having difficulty achieving the intended standard – and (4) improvement goals for individual teachers and the team.”  – Learning by Doing, p 214

18. Parameters for Designing CFAs • Align each item on the assessment to a power standard • Assess the level of cognitive demand (Bloom’s taxonomy) listed in the power standard • Specify proficiency (what will the student’s work look like? What must students score?) • Clarify the conditions for administering the test consistently • Assess a few key concepts frequently rather than many concepts infrequently

19. Options for CFA items • Selected response questions (multiple choice, True/False, matching) • Construction response questions (short answer, essay) • Performance assessment with rubric (real world task) • Personal communication (interview, individual reading inventory)

20. Use of a Data Analysis Protocol • Why is it important to have some type of protocol when looking at data? - To remind us of the minimum necessary steps and make them explicit - To instill a discipline of higher performance - To keep us on track • Adapted from The Checklist Manifesto by Gawande • Data Analysis Example

21. Resources • www.allthingsplc.info • http://plc.sdcoe.net/Resources/PLC-Rubric_041712_v2.pdf or google “San Diego PLC rubric” • http://www.rti4success.org/ • http://www.interventioncentral.org/