Putting Together Action-Packed Action Plans ACT Meeting October 15, 2003

We’re growing!!

A little history…  Administrator meetings Shift from “Laundry List” to Learning  Staff development  Modeled learning-based meetings Active and collaborative Shared leadership  Embedded support for site activities Expanded attendance beyond principals  Assistant Principals  ETAP/STAP  Resource Teachers  Department Chairs and Grade level leads

Today’s Goals: Participants will…  Understand the importance of action plans within the context of school improvement and teachers’ Individual Performance Goal (IPG) process  Understand the elements of effective action plans  Develop strategies to facilitate the action planning process

A little about planning… “Have a plan. Follow the plan, and you'll be surprised how successful you can be. Most people don't have a plan. That's why it's is easy to beat most folks.” - Paul "Bear" Bryant, football coach, University of Alabama's Crimson Tide

Planning within the context of high stakes…  Planning is a process of choosing among those many options. If we do not choose to plan, then we choose to have others plan for us. Richard I. Winwood

The purpose of action planning in CUSD  To more narrowly define a specific area for growth in teaching and student learning Manageable Manageable Do-able Do-able Measureable Measureable  To frame the year’s work/efforts  It’s all about student achievement

Random Acts of Improvement Aligned Acts of Improvement (integrated and results oriented) Learning Goals

The Process… Set Goals (IPG’s) Develop Actions Implement and Monitor Reflect and Revise Instruction Learnin g Team Examines data from: CST CORE Common Assessments SMART Goals S pecific M easurable A ttainable R esults-oriented T ime Specific

What are our guiding questions? What is our goal for student learning? Why do we think the gap exists between our current reality and our goal? What can we do to close the gap? (IPG) What are the steps that we can take in this effort (action plan)? What do we want students to learn? How do we know they are learning? What do we do when they’re not learning?

Getting from reality to our goal: Example 1 Standards 3.2 and 3.3 “I will use my knowledge of the subject to plan units and instructional activities that demonstrate key concepts and their interrelationships so that 95% of advanced students and 75% of students (overall) in regular science demonstrate mastery on a department- designed common assessment. Standards 3.2 and 3.3 “I will use my knowledge of the subject to plan units and instructional activities that demonstrate key concepts and their interrelationships so that 95% of advanced students and 75% of students (overall) in regular science demonstrate mastery on a department- designed common assessment. Standards 3 and 4 Is the curriculum we teach truly aligned to the standards? Are we ordering and prioritizing our instruction effectively?

Breaking it into steps…  Action Steps: As a team, we will examine the content standards and the blueprints to determine the critical standards that students need to know We will research strategies for organizing curriculum (e.g. book study, research articles, professional journals, Teacher Support Network) We will complete training in Understanding by Design offered by the district We will develop three units based on the UBD template We will develop a common assessment utilizing concepts from UBD We will collectively examine student work completed following the units of instruction

Example 2 Are we using effective teaching strategies? Are we meeting the needs of our struggling students? Standard 1.2 “I will use a variety of instructional strategies and resources to respond to students’ diverse needs so that 75% of my students in the lowest quartile (as identified through the language usage portion of the CORE test) show improvement in at least three features as measured by the Developmental Spelling Analysis by June ‘04 Standard 1.2 “I will use a variety of instructional strategies and resources to respond to students’ diverse needs so that 75% of my students in the lowest quartile (as identified through the language usage portion of the CORE test) show improvement in at least three features as measured by the Developmental Spelling Analysis by June ‘04 Standards 1 and 4 Are the tools/ materials we use effective in delivering our instruction?

Breaking it into steps…  Action Steps: I will attend Word Study training offered through the district As a team, we will utilize the Developmental Spelling Analysis (DSA) to establish a baseline for instruction We will implement Word Study strategies and materials for 20% of our total literacy block We will examine student writing samples as a team to determine the transfer of word knowledge We will use the DSA at least two times per year

School Team Huddle Choose one action plan example to discuss… What characteristics make this an effective action plan? What other things might we consider as we create our own action plans?

Getting ready for the meeting  Gathering Tools Data Guiding Questions/flowchart CSTP “placemats” Research/articles  Formal and informal (e.g. “success stories”)

Starting with the end in mind…we want to develop action plans that…  Link directly to goals focused on improving student learning (based on data)  Provide methods for going beyond what we have already done  Have some basis in research/best practice  Embed ongoing reflection  Seem reasonable in terms of time and resources

Planning Meeting Process  Establishing the Group’s Goal  Establishing Norms

Group Norms  Use existing norms  “Can we agree on the following:” Be on time Be “here” Listen actively Participation for all Be aware of your “talk time” Stay focused on our goal

Planning Meeting Process  Establishing the Group’s Goal  Establishing Norms  Gathering Input Discussion Group Brainstorming Affinity Process  Reaching Consensus Fist to Five Check

 5 fingers All for it…I can be a leader for this decision  4 fingers All for it…you can count on me to support this no matter what  3 fingers For the idea…I will support it in concept, but may not be out in front of the gang leading its implementation  2 fingers I’m not sure…but I trust the group’s opinion and will not sabotage the decision  1 finger I’m not sure…can we talk some more?  Fist No…we need to find an alternative

Looking back at our goals…did we develop action plans that…  Link directly to goals focused on improving student learning?  Provide methods for going beyond what we have already done?  Have some basis in research/best practice?  Embed ongoing reflection?  Seem reasonable in terms of time and resources?

Now that you have your plan…

Implementing the plan…  Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work. Peter Drucker

Ongoing review and revision of plan based on student data…  I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work. Thomas Edison, inventor

Sometimes, we just need to rethink things…  'Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs, now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head behind Christopher Robin. It is as far as he knows the only way of coming downstairs, but somewhere he feels there is another way, if only he could stop for a moment and think of it.' A A Milne

End of Year Reflection…  It's what you learn after you know it all that counts." John Wooden

We’re in the end zone…