creating and sustaining a professional learning community

DISTRICT PLC HANDBOOK

Creating and Sustaining a Professional Learning Community

“The most promising strategy for sustained, substantive school improvement is developing the ability for school personnel to function as Professional Learning Communities.”

-DeFour & Eaker, 1998, “PLC at Work”

7965 Artcraft | El Paso, TX 79932 915.877.7400 | www.canutillo-isd.org

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What are Professional Learning Communities? Professional Learning Communities are teacher teams, who meet regularly to:

analyze current levels of student achievement;

set learning goals;

identify essential knowledge to be taught;

develop common formative and summative assessments;

share strategies, and research best practices.

By focusing on these five essential expectations, continuous student improvement will be

evident throughout the year.

Why collaborate with Professional Learning Communities? The purpose of the PLC is for teachers to develop new understanding and apply it to their classroom to raise student achievement. Below, Blanchard (2007) describes the intrinsic and vital role teams, or in this case the PLC, play in the organization: “A team can make better decisions, solve more complex problems, and do more to enhance creativity and build skills than individuals working alone...They have become the vehicle for moving organizations into the future...Teams are not just nice to have. They are hard-core units of the production.”

Increased student achievement is the

indicator of a successful PLC.

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Key Questions for a PLC In order achieve the goal of increased student achievement, members of the PLC need to define and answer the following key questions:

How will we know if they’ve learned

it?

What do we want students to learn?

What will we do it they already know

it?

What will we do if they didn’t learn it?

If teachers are NOT focused on these questions,

it is NOT a PLC!

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The Teaching and Learning Progression To answer the four questions in a manageable way, the PLC should begin with a small focus. For example, the PLC may decide it will improve student achievement on a particular benchmark or standard. At first this may seem like a small focus, but in reality there are still many parts that make up the benchmark or standard. Some break the standard or benchmark down even further. Is the PLC interested in whether the students can use the vocabulary of the standard or benchmark? Are they looking to see if the students can apply critical thinking skills? By narrowing the focus, the Professional Learning Community will be able to manage its work and see student results faster.

The Canutillo ISD Handbook was created to show the work that Professional Learning Communities could do. It was not created to overwhelm the PLC; instead it should be used as a resource to show how a PLC should work. It may be that the PLC will spend more or less time working with one particular section of the teaching and learning progression because of where the PLC team is in the continuous improvement process.

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Question 1: What do we want all students to learn? What should happen first?

The PLC should first review the UNIT TEKS & SEs, the Instructional Focus Document (IFD), Year at a Glance (YAG), and any other curriculum documents.

Through discussing these documents, the PLC will build shared knowledge and understanding of what all students should learn.

As the PLC determines its focus, it is important to answer the focus question based on their area of greatest need. What does a high functioning PLC look like during question 1? Analyze Curriculum

Teachers collaborate to review state standards and content/grade level TEKS and SEs for current courses as well as vertically articulated courses.

Teachers write and communicate learning goals to students.

Teachers demonstrate high level of commitment to the curriculum, to students, and to PLC members.

Determine Pacing

After using the YAG to determine total days of instruction, the team agrees on an appropriate pacing guide.

Discuss and Share Instructional Strategies

All teachers systematically share evidence-based effective instructional strategies and utilize newly learned strategies in their own classrooms.

Remember, TRS, IFD, and the YAG

are District Guarantees!

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Question 2: How will we know if all students have learned it? The PLC collectively creates and aligns common assessments to measure student progress toward meeting the team goal. Both formative and summative assessments should be used. The formative assessments inform the teacher of student progress as the learning is happening. The formative assessments also provide students with feedback about their progress toward the goal. The summative assessments give the teacher and students a summary of the student learning.

What does a high functioning PLC look like during question 2? Create and Administer Common Assessments

The PLC has collaborated to develop a series of common, formative and summative assessments.

Teachers are assessing student learning on a consistent basis.

Every teacher agrees to administer common formative and summative assessments.

Align Assessments

Common Assessment Blueprints (CABs) are entirely aligned with state standards (Readiness, Supporting, and Process).

All assessments administered are consistent in format and rigor within the PLC.

Use Data to Evaluate Student Performance and Adjust Instruction

Collaboratively create a common scoring system and consistently use it to measure proficiency.

Every teacher regularly uses results from CABs to guide real-time instruction.

Teachers use results from CABs to make decisions for future changes in content, instruction, and assessment.

Teachers assign grades to all summative assessments.

Without common assessments, we are just

hoping and guessing that the students have learned the content.

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Question 3: What will we do if students don’t learn it? The PLC uses the results of the common assessments to determine which students need additional time and support in learning the essential skills. Collectively, the team develops a plan to support those students who are not making progress toward the goal. What does a high functioning PLC look like during question 3? Determine Appropriate Intervention and Differentiation

The PLC has a highly coordinated system of interventions in place.

The PLC identifies and makes plans for students to receive extra support even before they fail.

Student achievement is monitored on a daily basis.

Students who experience difficulty are required, rather than invited, to put in extra time and utilize extra support.

If the current level of support is not sufficient, there is an increased amount of time and support provided.

All students are guaranteed access to this systematic intervention regardless of the teacher to whom they are assigned.

Teachers consistently differentiate curriculum components within each unit of study.

TEACHERS, not PROGRAMS, should lead the

intervention process. The most successful schools have

teachers leading the discussions.

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Question 4: What will we do if they already know it? Just as important as providing additional time and support for those not learning the material, the PLC needs to engage the top students as well. What does a high functioning PLC look like during question 4? Determine appropriate enrichment and differentiation

The PLC has developed rigorous enrichment activities in their lesson planning using appropriate supplementary material i.e., College Board, SpringBoard, NMSI, etc.

The PLC has aligned activities with vertically articulated courses.

All students are guaranteed access to this enrichment regardless of the teacher to whom they are assigned.

Teachers consistently differentiate curriculum components within each unit of study.

77% of teachers agree that “getting

underachieved students to reach proficiency has

become so important that the needs of

advanced students take a back seat.”

APPENDIX

PLC Planning Process

Getting Started

▪ Determine a facilitator for the PLC to type the agenda and facilitate the meetings for the semester or year.

▪ Determine a recorder to type the minutes and send them to the team after each PLC meeting.

▪ Establish norms for your groups. ▪ Set meeting dates and locations. ▪ Submit PLC planning form to your administrator(s). ▪ Create agenda for the first meeting.

Expectations

✓ PLC teams are required by the district to meet twice a week. ✓ PLC teams are required to create 3 SMART goals and action plans

based on student needs that align with campus and district goals. ✓ PLC teams focus on improving achievement for all students. PLCs

use student work, formative assessments, summative assessments and standardized achievement data as evidence of student learning.

✓ PLCs report progress made towards their goals at the end of the year to campus administrator(s)

✓ PLCs will report progress by submitting meeting agendas and minutes to their campus administrator(s).

Key Questions for Establishing Norms

Consideration Proposed Norm

Time • When do we meet? • Will we set a beginning and ending time? • Will we start and end on time?

Listening

• How will we encourage listening? • How will we discourage interrupting?

Confidentiality

• Will the meetings be open? • Will what we say in the meeting be held in

confidence? • What can be said after the meeting?

Decision Making • How will we make a decision? • Are we an advisory or a decision

making body? • Will we reach decisions by consensus? • How will we deal with conflicts?

Participation

• How will we encourage everyone’s participation?

• Will we have an attendance policy?

Expectations

• What do we expect from members? • Are there requirements for

participation?

Setting SMART Goals Rationale: SMART goals set the direction for educators to improve student achievement in a targeted area.

Definition: A SMART goal clarifies exactly what students should learn, the standard of learning expected and the measure used to determine if students have achieved the standard. Goals should focus on the results rather than the process or task.

A SMART goal is:

✓ Strategic and Specific – Focuses on specific student learning. It answers the questions – Who will learn? What will they improve on?

✓ Measureable – The success toward meeting the goal can be measured in student achievement. It answers the question – How will you know you have achieved the goal?

✓ Attainable – The goal is set to be achieved in a specific amount of time, with increased teacher effectiveness. It should be a stretch form current achievement data. It answers the question – Is this realistic yet a stretch?

✓ Results Oriented – The goal is measured on the basis of specific evidence.

✓ Time-bound – The goal has clearly defined time frame including a target date. It answers the question- When will the final assessment of the goal occur?

Data Analysis Guide

Steps to analyze:

1. Review Data: Identify Hot Spots (standards that are low or not mastered)● Action Plan

o Reteacho Spiral-in (warm-up review, mini –lesson)o Small group instructiono Other

2. As you analyze:● Think about the following questions:

o Is it a Readiness and Supporting TEKS?o What Reporting Category is it coming from?o Why was it a low scoring TEKS?o Is it Dual-Coded Question?o If it is a Dual-Coded questions- is it a stimulus or thinking?o What type of error was made (conceptual, procedural,

misconception or individual)?

3. Use the guiding questions in the HOW section to guide you to figure outhow to re-teach the identified TEKS.

4. Consider necessary academic vocabulary.**Note Remember-if our students did not master the TEKS the first time, different teaching (lessons) strategies (approach) needs to be implemented.

Things to reflect on:

The “What”:

1. What was the intended learning? Unpack the TEKS and think about thedepth and complexity of them.

2. What Conceptual difficulties did students have?● Look at the way the question was worded.

● Look at the type of work our students showed. Causal Factors:

1. What is keeping students from mastering the concept? ● Do students have a misconception? ● The TEKS were not taught the way they are going to be tested. ● Did the language used in the question/graphics create confusion? ● Was there sufficient scaffolding for ELLs?

2. Which TEKS need to be revisited? Which TEKS do not? 3. What prior knowledge could have been helpful?

The “How”:

1. How will you teach the TEKS differently from the first time the concept was introduced?

2. Math/Science: How will you use concrete models to solidify conceptual understanding? How will you move from concrete, to pictorial, to abstract?

3. How will students build their knowledge/ skills and be engaged in the lesson?

4. How will your questions guide student learning throughout the lesson? 5. How will you formally assess mastery of the TEKS? 6. How will students be grouped instructionally? 7. How will students make their thinking public? 8. How will you connect testing language to core instruction? 9. How will you teach vocabulary? 10. How will you support students who have already mastered TEKS? 11. How will you implement: Differentiated strategies, Guided math, Guided

Reading, Writing Academy, Writing to Learn, science labs, SIOP/ELPS and other researched based best practices provided to you either by your campus or district.

Data to analyze: STAAR/EOC, ACT/SAT, Campus and District common assessments, summative and formative assessment, and student work samples.

C&I Mission: We value quality education for all students. We build capacity and provide instructional support for teachers. Our work is centered on research, grounded in best practice, and focused on student achievement.

Date:

Question 1: What do we want students to learn?

PLC : Team members:

Unit:

Learning Goal:

TEKS:

Sequence of instruction: (Pacing) day-by-day plan

Instructional Strategies:

Resources:

Teacher Reflective Thoughts


Date:

Question 2: How will we know they have learned it?

PLC : Team members:

Unit:

Learning Goal:

TEKS:

Date of assessment administration:

CBA-Common Assessment Blue Print

Resources:



Date:

Question 3: What will we do if they do not learn it?

PLC : Team members:

Unit:

Learning Goal:

Power TEKS: TEKS needed to be retaught

Action Plan

Students:

Instructional Strategies: (differentiated from First teach approach)

Resources:



Date:

Question 4: What will we do if they already know it?

PLC : Team members:

Unit:

Learning Goal:

Mastered TEKS:

Enrichment Plan

Students:

Instructional Strategies: (differentiated from/ First teach approach)

Resources:



Date:

PLC : Team members:

Unit: What do we want students to learn?

Learning Goal:

TEKS:

Sequence of Instruction: (Pacing) day-by-day

Instructional Strategies:

Date of common assessment:

How will we know if they have learned it?

Common Assessment Blue-print: CAB

Resources:

What will we do if they do not learn it? Power TEKS (TEKS needed to be retaught)

Action Plan /Students


What will we do if they already know it?

Mastered TEKS

Enrichment Plan/ Students



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