1. Coming together is a BEGINNING
Keeping together is PROGRESS
Working together is SUCCESS

2. Fallsmead Preservice August 2017
Building Strong Professional Learning Communities
Mike

3. Outcomes By the end of the session, participants will:
Articulate and understand the three big ideas of a Professional Learning Community (PLC)
Use the 4 critical questions to drive the work of a PLC.
Reflect on next steps for how to further strengthen the professional learning communities process at your school.
Context for 3 schools
Where they are
Personal Relationship with each of the three schools
Studied on national level
All on PLC.Info
All are Title I schools
None have had boundary changes
None have experienced major turnover in staff
All have among the highest job satisfaction data in the system.
Using 3 big ideas of a PLC as a way to highlight
Each of these three schools do all three things very well.
Will spend most time on Broad Acres….less time on others, because BAES angle looks heavily at culture- and I think it exemplifies the true work of a PLC, common mission vision values and goals….
Hopefully video will show as well.

4. Strategic Priorities

5. The Case for PLCs
“The use of PLCs is the best, least expensive, most professionally rewarding way to improve schools. … Such communities hold out immense, unprecedented hope for schools and the improvement of teaching.”
—Schmoker, in DuFour, Eaker, & DuFour (Eds.), “No Turning Back,” On Common Ground: The Power of Professional Learning Communities (2005), p. 137
Single most successful school improvement strategy out there, bar none. It doesn’t cost anything and is applicable at the elementary, middle, and high school level.

6. PLC
Flash cards or chart paper………list words or phrases that come to mind.

7. Three Big Ideas of the PLC Process
These are the 3 pure elements that a PLC works around.
That we are focusing on student learning and ensuring that it happens for ALL students.
That in order to do that, the adults in the building need to work collaboratively and interdependently in order to make it happen. In a PLC, student learning isn’t left to chance and isn’t purely on the shoulders of the teacher.
And, that we are monitoring student data and using student results to evaluate success.

8. The 4 Critical Questions of a PLC
What do we want students to know and be able to do?
How will we know if they know it?
What will we do if they don’t know it?
What will we do if they already know it?
So often our focus in on teaching not learning. We evaluate our days as educators by how well we “think” something went. In reality, our bottom line is whether students learned and made progress. So we MUST clarify and agree on these 4 critical questions to move forward.
These really do guide the work….
Question 1- What are the essential indicators and outcomes that are essential? ALL students. And how tight are we on all curriculum vs. identified objectives.
Q2- how will we assess? Will it be timely? And for what purpose is the assessment? For reporting purposes or for teaching purposes.
Q3- How will we intervene? And will the intervention be on the back of the teacher, or is it the collective responsibility of the school?
Q4- if we are talking about all students, then we are talking about all students- how will we ensure all students make that progress?

9. A Common Goal/The Big Picture
And so, if your school is really going to be a PLC, it starts with a common goal- and that common goal is learning for all students on identified curricula.
You don’t start working on a jigsaw puzzle together until you see the picture on the top of the box. From there, you strategize.

10. PLC
Mission
Vision
Values
Goals

11. Our MISSION Statement:
Leading for equity and cultural competence, as well as success for every student starts with a vision to ensure that all students reach their full potential. This often involves changing beliefs and putting new actions and policies and procedures into play to make the changes we seek.
Our VISION Statement:
At Fallsmead we believe in and are committed to the highest level of academic, social and emotional achievement of all students.
Our MISSION Statement:
As a collaborative community of students, staff and parents, we will foster a learning environment driven by high expectations which provide opportunities for learning that ensure engagement, excitement and enrichment through respect for all cultures and build relationships between the community, staff and students.

12. What characteristics make this a high functioning team?
Discussion
What characteristics make this a high functioning team?
HZ2dVKbAUIs

13. If ALL means ALL then you CAN’T do it ALONE!
What is a Team?
A group of people working interdependently to achieve a common goal for which members are held mutually accountable.
Collaborative teams are the fundamental building blocks of PLCs.
If ALL means ALL then you CAN’T do it ALONE!

14. Collaborate About What?
“The pertinent question is not, ‘Are they collaborating?’ but rather, `What are they collaborating about?’ Collaboration is not a virtue in itself, and building a collaborative culture is simply 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 work.”
—DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, & Many, Learning by Doing: A Handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work (2010), p. 119
2nd Big Idea- Collaboration- Not about getting along……
But what is the work of a team in a PLC…..
VM captures the very spirit…..because the teachers have those common values

15. The Challenge Teachers Face
“It is impossible for American teachers … to address adequately all the state and national standards they have been urged to teach.
“Ultimately, the problem of too much content and too little time forces teachers to either rush through content or to exercise judgment regarding which standards are the most significant and essential.”
—DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, & Many, Learning by Doing (2010), p. 65

16. Schools Rarely Do the Math
14 Months needed (420 days)
-112 for weekends
-28 for holidays (and weather)
280 school days per year
x 6 for six years (K-5)
1,680 days (K-5 curriculum )
No curriculum found less that 14 months
1,680 Days needed to deliver intended curriculum

17. What We Have to Work With
12 Months (180 day school year)
x 6 for six years (K-5)
1,080 days available
600 days short
Loss of 3 years of curriculum
No curriculum found less that 14 months
420 days–112dys wkds/28 holidays+snow☺
280 days for 6 yrs K-5 =
1,680 Days needed to deliver intended curric
Our reality:
Only 12 months in year 10 in school yr
180 (100 days short each grade) days per school year for 6 yrs K-5 =
1,080 Days available (600 days short 3+ years of curriculum lost)
How does your school determine what to teach and what to cut? TNT

18. Curriculum Being Prioritized Now
The question is …
Individually, in private, with fear and guilt or
Systematically, in public, with confidence and clear conscience

19. Crosswalking Collaboration and the 4 Critical Questions: The Work of School Teams
What do we want our students to learn?
(essential, guaranteed, and viable curriculum)
(INTENDED VS TAUGHT VS LEARNED)
2. How will we know they are learning?
(frequent, team-developed, common formative assessments)
3. How will we respond when they don’t learn?
(timely, directive, systematic intervention)
4. How will we respond when they do learn?
(timely enrichment and extension)

20. Critical Issues for Team Consideration

21. 3RD Big Idea of the PLC Process
Focus On Results
Results
Never start a jigsaw puzzle without seeing the picture on the top of the box. Do we all have the same picture for what it looks like when its done?

22. Assessment Types FORMATIVE SUMMATIVE FOR Learning Leading Data
Offers rich data to inform instruction
Analogy: Physical Exam
OF Learning
Lagging Data
Offers little data to inform future instruction
Analogy: Autopsy

23. The Benefits of Team-Developed Common Formative Assessments
Support for a Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum
Better Assessments
Greater Equity for Students
Diminished Likelihood of Blaming Poor Performance on the Test
Data That Are Turned Into Information
Results Vital to Providing Students With Access to Interventions

24. STAGES OF DATA MONITORING
Compartmentalizing type of monitoring and areas of focus

25. Mining Communicating Analyzing Using
Collecting data from online platforms
Communicating
Talking about data
Analyzing
Summarizing and drawing meaning from data
Using
Acting on data to make changes or decisions
When you have time, pull up this slide and think about where you are from most to least comfortable.
Where is your strength? How can OSSI support you?
We need tools to be able to do this; intro for PM trainer
I am comfortable collecting data. (Mining)
I am comfortable talking about data with staff. (Communicating)
I am comfortable manipulating my school/student data. (Analyzing)
I am comfortable acting on data to make SIP or school programmatic decisions. (Using)

27. Ideal vs. Current State
HOW TO SET A VISION FOR WHERE YOU WANT TO GO AND HOW TO GET THERE

28. Current State: Unpacking Data Monitoring Practices
Consider the ideal state and the current state of your practice for examining data and discussing it with your team and administration.
As we close the gap between where we are and where we want to be, What is the most important thing you want to see happen.
Talk with your same group of 4….
What is working?
What is getting in the way?
Facilitate share out.

29. Used to Think….. Now I Think
I USED to think PLCs were about……
NOW I think PLCs are really about…..
What is one thing you can start doing?