Dedicated to Learning A professional learning community at work

1. Dedicated to Learning A professional learning community at work

2. Principals need to focus on creating… • an environment in which people are working toward a shared vision and honoring collective commitments, an environment in which the structures and supports foster collaborative efforts and continuous professional growth, an environment in which each teacher has someone to turn to and talk to when confronted with challenges.

3. Principals need to… • become students of the teaching-learning process. PLC’s require shared vision and collective commitments. Principals need to prioritize and focus on continuous improvement. • encourage the hearts of those with who they work. They need to participate in servant leadership.

4. “Deep reform will requiresupportandpressure” Learning by Doing, Dufour, Dufour, Eaker, Many (2006)

5. Implementation Dip Consciously skilled Awkward Growth Beginning Awareness Practice over time Fullan, (2001)

6. How do you build a collaborative culture? • Unlock potential by empowering others • Encourage experimentation and create the opportunities for teachers to lead • Develop established norms and practices and defend those norms • Expect bumpiness and difficulties as people learn • Create opportunities for and celebrate small successes (Quick Wins)!

7. Collaboration is Key • Provide time for collaboration in the school day and the school year. • Identify critical questions to guide the work of collaborative teams. • Ask teams to create products as a result of their collaboration. (TLL) • Insist that teams identify and pursue specific achievement goals. • Provide teams with relevant data and information.

8. How did we get there? • Teachers need to know the intended outcomes • Common planning in disciplines • Use of rubrics to assist our learners • Provide descriptive feedback to students • Focused professional development

9. Olympic View’s Evolution To Becoming A PLC Learning By Doing “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.”

10. Empower your teacher leaders Build relationships… How do you continue to motivate staff? Create common vision Book study Start a tradition Honor previous work Set up expectations Take a midyear pulse Assessment Training Institute Year One

11. Questions that drive our instruction • What is it we want students to learn? • How will we know when they’ve learned it? • How will we respond when they don’t? • What if they already know it?

12. Professional Development • Teachers attended the Assessment Training Institute (ATI) ~ Staff development needs to provide teachers with research-based instructional strategies that assist our students. It needs to prepare teachers to use various types of classroom assessments appropriately.

13. Year Two • Interdisciplinary teams • Developed common summative assessments/assessment buffet • Professional Development: Raise the bar • Team building: ROPES • Continue with a tradition • Begin to address instructional issues • Assessment Training Institute (new group of teachers)

14. Assessment FOR Learning“Formative Assessment”

15. Your experiences Think about a poor assessment experience. • What did the assessor do to make it counterproductive? • What impact did the experience have on you? • What affect does this have on your subsequent work? Stiggins, (2004)

16. Think about a positive experience with assessment. • Specifically, what did the assessor do to make it positive? • What impact did this have on you?

17. Creating hope: Assessment FOR Learning (Stiggins 2005) Expected Benefits • PROFOUND ACHIEVEMENT GAINS FOR ALL • LARGEST GAINS FOR LOW ACHIEVERS • SOLID FOUNDATION FOR LIFE-LONG LEARNING • EQUAL OPPORTUNITY TO SUCCEED

18. Assessment FOR Learning OF vs. FOR Summative Formative Research: Largest effects for lowest achievers. Wiliam & Black

19. 5 Keys to Quality Assessments 1. Clear Purpose 2. Clear Target 3. Sound Design Accurate assessment Effectively Used 4. Effective Communication 5. Student Involvement Stiggins, (2004)

20. Assessment Buffet • Begin with teacher leaders/department chairs • Look at student work and criteria with rubrics Questioning, descriptive feedback, peer and self-assessment • Discuss four driving questions: -What is it we expect students to learn? -How will we know when they’ve learned it? -How will we respond when they don’t learn? -What if they already know it?

21. Assessment buffet  • Teachers sharing examples of student work with corresponding rubrics. • Students presenting

22. Assessment Buffet May 2, 2007 7:30-8:00 AM

23. Rubric Development • Teachers were unsure as the difference between a rubric and a scoring guide. • Mini lesson created using leadership capacity within the school.

24. Rubrics can help you • Grade objectively and consistently • Clarify your instructional goals • Improve student performance • Assist in peer and self-assessments • Tool to inform instruction • Eliminate questions regarding grades

25. Refrigerator 4 Entire refrigerator is sparkling and smells clean. All items are fresh, in proper containers (original or Tupperware, with lids), and organized into categories. 3 Refrigerator is generally wiped clean. All items are relatively fresh, in some type of container (some Tupperware lids are missing or don’t fit) and are sitting upright. Marzano, (2003)

26. 2 Some of the shelves are wiped clean, although there are some crusty spots. There are some suspicious smells. Items are in containers, but there seems to be some green stuff growing in some of the Tupperware 1 Items stick to the shelves when they are picked up. The smells linger long after the refrigerator door is closed. Several items need to be thrown out—Tupperware and all

27. Rubrics for PLC’s • As teachers work in disciplines, have them identify where they are on a PLC continuum. • Enclosed rubrics for teams

28. Year Three • Common plan for content teams/team norms/ feedback from teams/expectations (packet) • Fine tune common assessments with corresponding rubrics • Implementation of Team Learning Log • Focus on results • Continue with ATI (Sending 3rd group) • Assessment Buffet • Grading (SBR) • Get the right people on the bus and in the right seat

29. Year Three Continued… • Book Studies ~ How to Grade for Learning Ken O’Connor ~ Learning by Doing Dufour, Dufour, Eaker, & Many ~ Assessment for Leaders Rick Stiggins

31. Planning • Use data to inform your instruction. • Team Learning Log: Focused/intentional collaboration with content teams

32. Second Order Change “Deep reform will require both support and pressure” (Dufour, Dufour, Eaker, Many) Can create discourse Change is uncomfortable for some Can question leadership

33. Push on… Stay the course… Be persistent…

34. Questions?