Professional Learning Communities (PLC) Tighten what we do!

1. Professional Learning Communities (PLC)Tighten what we do! (Adapted from Professional Learning Communities at Work Designed by DuFour, DuFour and Eaker)

2. What is “good teaching” Mike Mattos (Conference) • What practices are proven to be the most effective? • Impact Exercise: Choose three that you feel are the most effective. No wrong answers.

3. Big Impact(Circle 3) Corrective feed back Rigorous goals Improved teacher strategies Co-teaching Writing Teacher content knowledge Retention Para support Class size School size Charter school More money Essential academic vocabulary Phonics instruction Reading comprehension Whole language Program fidelity With in classroom groupings Ability groupings Better individual teaching training Greater teacher content knowledge Common formative assessment Social skills Improved teacher strategies

4. John Hattie: Visible Learning • A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta Analyses Relating to Achievement • Comprising over 50,000 individual studies • Representing the student achievement of over 80 million students worldwide.

5. John Hattie: Visible Learning A 1.0 standard deviation equals: • Two to four grade equivalents of growth • Six ACT score points

6. John Hattie: Visible Learning The “Typical Effect” • One year of student maturation =.10 • One year of teacher instruction =.30 In other words, we expect the average student to improve .40 if he/she stays alive and attends school for a school year.

7. “Bang for our Buck” If .40 equals year older and coming to school. What should we be working on?

8. Big Impact Rankings .9 Common Formative Assessment .72 Corrective Feedback .67 Essential Academic Vocabulary .67 Strong Program Fidelity .6 Reading Comprehension .6 Phonics Instruction .56 Rigorous Learning Targets .55 Peer Tutoring .44 Writing .41 Improved Teaching Strategies .37 Para Support .27 Social Skills .23 More Money .21 Class Size .2 Charter School .19Co-Teaching .17 Grouping in the Classroom .12 Ability Grouping .11 Individual Teacher Training .09 Teacher Content Knowledge .06 Weak Program Fidelity .06 Whole Language -.16 Retention

9. “Bang for our Buck”

10. HMS Team Approach • .56=Rigorous learning targets • .67=Essential academic vocabulary • .72=Corrective feedback • .90=Common formative assessment

11. HMS Team Approach • Rigorous Learning Targets • Measureable goal for a student achievement over a given period of time. • Driven by data • Aligned with standards • Common and align with common formative assessment • Student should know, understand and see. • Corrective Feedback • The formal or informal feedback given to a student by the teacher. • Meant to lead to positive change

12. HMS Team Approach • Common Formative Assessment • All students assessed the same way using information that measures student learning and progress. • Formative used to immediately determine weather students have learned what the instructor intended. • Results need to be analyzed and used to improve learning and teaching. • Essential Vocabulary • Vocabulary that all students need to know to have success in a class, grade level, school, and career. • This vocabulary will assist a student in performing and understanding educational tasks.

13. Based on research Hattie asserts that : • Teachers must work collaboratively rather than in isolation. • Teachers must agree on the essential learning all students must acquire. • Teachers must agree on how students are to demonstrate their learning. • Teachers must assess their individual and collective effectiveness on the basis of student learning.

14. What does PLC mean? • An on going- process in which educators work collaboratively in recurring cycles of collective inquiry and action research to achieve better results for the student they serve. • PLC’s operate under the assumption that the key to improved learning for students is continuous, job embedded learning for educators. DuFour, DuFour, Eaker and Many (2010)

15. PLC Big Ideas & Core Values • Ensuring that students learn • All students learn. • A Culture of Collaboration • Relationships are essential to student success. • Focus on Results • Meaningful and challenging curriculum is vital. • A culture of high expectations is critical

16. We have started to Implement What We Know to be Best Practice • Common Curriculum -Learn What? Teachers must come together to agree on the “Learn What” • Common Pacing -Implementing the Common Curriculum collaboratively • Common Assessment -Formative Assessments designed around the common curriculum to monitor student learning

17. Are PLC’s an Option? • Loose vs. Tight- • Effective school cultures don’t simply encourage individuals to go off and do whatever they want, but rather establish clear parameters and priorities that enable individuals to work within established boundaries in a creative and autonomous way. • Procedures are “tight” • Agreement on what is to be taught, not how it is to be taught

18. What does this mean for HMS? • Required to meet at least 45 minute per week • PLC make up will be your department • Tight: • Required to meet for 45 minutes/ week • Meet Wednesday from 7:00 – 7:30 • Meet with grade level partner once per week during prep.

19. What does this mean for HMS? • Tight cont. • PLC’s will establish a SMART Goal • PLC’s will establish group norms • PLC’s will establish agendas • Loose: • PLC specific norms • S.M.A.R.T goal

20. Get Started?NORMS • When all is said and done, the norms of a group help determine whether it functions as high-performing team or becomes simply a loose collection of people working together. • Positive norms will stick only if the group puts them into practice over and over again. Being explicit about norms raises the level of effectiveness, maximizes emotional intelligence, produces a positive experience for group members and helps to socialize newcomers into the group quickly.

21. TIPS for Team Norms • Each team establishes its own norms. • Norms are stated as commitments to act or behave in certain ways. • Norms are reviewed at the beginning and end of each meeting until they are internalized. • One norm requires team to assess its effectiveness every trimester. This assessment should include review of adherence to norms and the need to identify new norms. • Less is more. A few key norms are better than a laundry list. • Violations of norms must be addressed.

22. Get Started?SMART GOAL • Specific- • Measureable • Achievable • Relevant/Results • Timely

23. SMART GOAL Consider these “Big Impact” approaches: • Rigorous Learning Targets • Corrective Feedback • Common Formative Assessment • Essential Academic Vocabulary

24. Old Focus Every student can learn Focus on teaching Isolation Assessment OFlearning (Summative) Failure is an option New Focus Every student will learn Focus on learning Collaboration Assessment FORlearning (Formative) Failure is not an option Changing the Focus

25. “Wide ranging research…shows it is impossible for even the most talented people to do competent, let alone brilliant, work in a flawed system. Yet a well-designed system filled with ordinary-but well trained-people can consistently achieve stunning performance levels” Pfeffer and Sutton (2006)

26. Resources • www.allthingsplc.info • www.Web.mac.com/mikemattos • John Hattie, Visible Learning • www.allthingsassessment.info • http://go.solution-tree.com/PLCbooks • http://quality.cr.k12.ia.us/PLC/indexPLC.html • www.aea10.k12.ia.us/index