Plc ppt

The Power of Professional Learning Communities at Work™: Bringing the Big Ideas to Life Featuring Richard DuFour, Robert Eaker, and Rebecca DuFour

Session One: What Is a Professional Learning Community? The purposes of this session are: 1) To introduce the professional learning community concept, and 2) To show the cultural shifts that must occur when a school decides to take action to ensure all kids learn by becoming a PLC.

“ Schools have traditionally operated from the premise that educators have a responsibility to provide students with the opportunity to learn. Whether or not students actually learn depends on factors educators cannot influence, such as innate ability, student motivation, a home environment that supports and encourages learning, student work habits, and so on.”

“ A professional learning community is an ethos that influences every single aspect of a school’s operation. When a school becomes a professional learning community, everything in the school looks different than it did before.” —Andy Hargreaves

“ Some students will always choose to fail, regardless of what we do in our schools and classrooms. It is impossible to help all students learn if students refuse to learn.” “ We could help more of our students be successful if we were willing to work together to implement more effective practices.”

Session Two: A Focus on Learning This session shows how focusing on learning (instead of teaching) can change everything about the way a school and all of its classrooms are run— from the way teachers select their subject matter, to the way they assess learning, to the way they respond when students do not learn.

The Charles Darwin School “ We believe all kids can learn . . . based on their ability. ” The Pontius Pilate School “ We believe all kids can learn . . . if they take advantage of the opportunity we give them to learn .” The Chicago Cub Fan School “ We believe all kids can learn . . . something, and we will help all students experience academic growth in a warm and nurturing environment .” The Henry Higgins School “ We believe all kids can learn . . . and we will work to help all students achieve high standards of learning .”

A Shift in the Response When Students Don’t Learn From individual teachers determining the appropriate response . . . to a systematic response that ensures support for every student From fixed time and support for learning . . . to time and support for learning as variables From remediation . . . to intervention From invitational support outside of the school day . . . to directed (that is, required) support occurring during the school day From one opportunity to demonstrate learning . . . to multiple opportunities to demonstrate learning

A Shift in the Work of Teachers From isolation . . . to collaboration From each teacher clarifying what students must learn . . . to collaborative teams building shared knowledge and understanding about essential learning From each teacher assigning priority to different learning standards . . . to collaborative teams establishing the priority of respective learning standards From each teacher determining the pacing of the curriculum . . . to collaborative teams of teachers agreeing on common pacing

A Shift in the Work of Teachers From individual teachers attempting to discover ways to improve results . . . to collaborative teams of teachers helping each other improve From privatization of practice . . . to open sharing of practice From decisions made on the basis of individual preferences . . . to decisions made collectively by building shared knowledge of best practice From “collaboration lite” on matters unrelated to student achievement . . . to collaboration explicitly focused on issues and questions that most impact student achievement From an assumption that these are “my kids, those are your kids” . . . to an assumption that these are “our kids”

Session Three: A Culture of Collaboration The purpose of this session is to clarify how teams work in a professional learning community: how they are organized, what their purpose is, and what steps will help a group of teachers become a collaborative team.

Collaboration or Coblaboration?

Collaborative team: A group of people working interdependently to achieve a common goal for which members are mutually accountable. “ These are my kids, my room, and I am the ruler of my room.”

Horizontal teams: Teachers who teach the same course or grade level (content-specific or interdisciplinary teams) Vertical teams: Teachers who teach the same content over different grade levels (perhaps including teachers from other schools in the district) Logical links: Teachers who are pursuing the same learning outcomes (including teachers in special education or specialist subjects such as music, art, physical education, and so on) Electronic teams: Teachers who seek connection with colleagues across the district, state, or world ( Learning by Doing, DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, & Many, 2006, pp. 93-95)

Parameters for Creating Time for Collaboration Students must remain on campus during collaboration. It can’t increase costs. It won’t result in significant loss of instructional time.

Strategies to Create Time for Collaboration Provide common preparation time. Use parallel scheduling. Adjust start and end times. Share classes. Schedule group activities, events, and testing. Bank time. Use in-service and faculty meeting time wisely. ( Learning by Doing, DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, & Many, 2006, p. 97)

The fact that teachers collaborate will do nothing to improve a school. The pertinent question is not, “Are they collaborating?” but rather, “What are they collaborating about?” Building a collaborative culture is a means to an end, not the end itself. The purpose of collaboration—to help more students achieve at higher levels—can only be accomplished if the professionals engaged in collaboration are focused on the right things.

Team norms: Protocols or commitments developed by each team to guide members in working together. Norms help team members clarify expectations regarding how they will work together to achieve their shared goals.

A clear definition of norms Examples of norms Research on why norms are important Research on the norms of the most effective teams Templates for writing norms Parameters to help a team assess the quality of norms

Session Four: A Focus on Results The purposes of this session are: 1) To establish that the most powerful strategy for helping a school move forward as a PLC is to engage teachers in writing common assessments and using the data to respond to students, inform teaching practice, and fuel continuous improvement; 2) To stress the significance of SMART goals in helping a group become a team and creating a results orientation; and 3) To establish the significance of celebration in sustaining momentum.

SMART Goals S trategic and S pecific M easurable A ttainable R esults-Oriented T ime-Bound

Common assessment: An assessment created collaboratively by a team of teachers responsible for the same grade level or course and administered to all students in that grade level or course. Formative assessment: An assessment used to advance and not merely grade learning. A formative assessment is an assessment FOR learning (that is, used as part of the teaching and learning process) as opposed to a summative assessment, an assessment OF learning (used to determine if the student achieved the intended outcome by the deadline).

Common formative assessments are used frequently throughout the year to identify: Individual students who need additional time and support for learning The teaching strategies most effective in helping students acquire the intended knowledge and skills Program concerns—areas in which students generally are having difficulty in achieving the intended standard Improvement goals for individual teachers and the team (adapted from Learning by Doing , DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, & Many, 2006, pp. 214-215)

To determine if an assessment is formative, ask: Is one of the reasons we give the assessment to identify students who are having difficulty in their learning? Do we require those students to devote additional time and utilize additional support to help them acquire the intended knowledge or skill? Do we then give those students an additional opportunity to demonstrate that they have learned?

A Shift in the Use of Assessments From infrequent summative assessments . . . to frequent common formative assessments From assessments to determine which students failed to learn by the deadline . . . to assessments to identify students who need additional time and support From assessments used to reward and punish students . . . to assessments used to inform and motivate students From assessing many things infrequently . . . to assessing a few things frequently

A Shift in the Use of Assessments From individual teacher assessments . . . to assessments developed jointly by collaborative teams From each teacher determining the criteria to be used in assessing student work . . . to collaborative teams clarifying the criteria and ensuring consistency among team members when assessing student work From an over-reliance on one kind of assessment . . . to balanced assessments From focusing on average scores . . . to monitoring each student’s proficiency in every essential skill

Harvard sociologist Henry Louis Gates contends, “ Collecting data is only the first step toward wisdom. Sharing data is the first step toward community.” The goal of a learning community is ultimately to make data easily accessible and openly shared among members of a team so that team members can use it to inform and improve their practice and better meet the needs of their students.

The 3Rs advocate that every teacher should have the benefit of: 1. Regular and timely feedback on his or her student’s progress . . . 2. . . . in achieving an agreed-upon essential standard 3. . . . as measured on a valid, team-developed common assessment 4. . . . in comparison to the other students in the school who are attempting to achieve that same standard.

Tips for Incorporating Celebration Into Your School Culture 1. Explicitly state the purpose of celebration. 2. Make celebration everyone’s responsibility. 3. Establish a clear link between the recognition and the behavior or commitment you are attempting to encourage or reinforce. 4. Create opportunities for many winners. ( Learning by Doing, DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, & Many, 2006, p. 31)

A Shift in School Culture From independence . . . to interdependence From a language of complaint . . . to a language of commitment From long-term strategic planning . . . to planning for short-term wins From infrequent generic recognition . . . to frequent specific recognition and a culture of celebration that creates many winners

Plc ppt

More Related Content

Viewers also liked

Similar to Plc ppt

Recently uploaded

Plc ppt