Building the Collaborative Culture of a PLC

Collaboration: Session 1PLC Professional Development for Teams

Learning Council, Elementary Leadership Teams, and Secondary Leadership Teams

LEARNING COLLABORATION RESULTS

What am I doing here?

What did we accomplish?

1. Work in small groups.

2. Think about the meeting experiences that you’ve had. Write down the reasons why they were satisfying using one idea per post-it note.

3. Go around the table, each person sharing one idea.

4. Look for commonalities. In the middle of table, on paper, create “clusters” of ideas that are similar.

5. Repeat for frustrating experiences.

Meeting Experiences Activity The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Activity: Trust Busters & Builders

BustersTalk, talk, talkDisengagedPessimisticBut….

BuildersFollow throughConsistentAgree to

disagreeListens to others

“Trust is …cultivated through speech, conversation, communication and action.”

Five Dysfunctions of a TeamFive Dysfunctions of a Team

Lencioni, Patrick. Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Field Guide for Leaders, Managers, and Facilitators. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

DuFour, Richard, et. al. Learning by Doing. Bloomington: Solution Tree, 2006. (p. 210-211)

Team Norm ActivityIn your small group develop team norms by: Brainstorming norms Group like ideas - affinity diagram Create short list of group norms - not a laundry list Review the six areas to consider

If your team has already written group norms: Do your norms cover some of the common

challenges that occur in teams? Do you need to add anything after looking at the six

areas to consider?

Additional Tips for Creating Norms Each team creates its own norms Stated as commitments to act or behave in

certain ways rather than as beliefs Reviewed at the beginning and end of each

meeting for at least 6 months Teams formally evaluate effectiveness at least

twice a year Teams focus on a few essential norms rather

than extensive laundry list. Violations of team norms must be addressed

DuFour, Richard, et. al. Learning by Doing. Bloomington: Solution Tree, 2006. (p.106)

Are you looking in the mirror or out the window?

Pausing Paraphrasing Probing for

specificity Putting ideas on

the table

Paying attention to self and others

Presuming positive intentions

Pursuing a balance between advocacy and inquiry

Seven Norms of Collaboration

DuFour, Richard, et. al. Learning by Doing. Bloomington: Solution Tree, 2006. (p. 104)

Seven Factors to Influencing Reluctant Staff

1. Reason2. Research3. Resonance4. Representational

Re-descriptions5. Resources and Reward6. Real-World EventsThe greatest opportunity for change

comes from the first six factors.

7. Confrontation

Gardner, Howard. Changing Minds: The Art and Science of Changing Our Own and Other People’s Minds. Boston: Harvard Business School, 2004.

DuFour, Richard, et. al. Learning by Doing. Bloomington: Solution Tree, 2006. (p. 173)

Appealing to rational thinking

and decision making

Building shared knowledge of the

research base supporting a

position

“resistance must be identified and dealt with rather

than ignored”

Presenting real world examples where the idea

has been applied successfully

Connecting to the person’s intuition

so that the proposal “feels

right”

Changing the way the information is presented (e.g.

using analogies)

Providing people with incentives to embrace an idea

Why am I here?

Work together to accomplish goals

Benefit students when return to classroom with “expanded repertoire of skills, strategies, materials, and ideas in order impact student achievement in a positive way.”

DuFour, Richard, et. al. Learning by Doing. Bloomington: Solution Tree, 2006.

What did we Accomplish?

Leaders… Promote focused and productive meetings Apply effective communication skills Encourage interdependence to achieve

goals Keep 4 crucial questions at the forefront

Building the Collaborative Culture of a PLC

Collaboration: Session 2PLC Professional Development for Teams

Learning Council, Elementary Leadership Teams, and Secondary Leadership Teams

Small Group Discussion

Brainstorm: What are the rewards / benefits of

working in isolation? Collaboration? Write one

idea per sticky note.

Share Points-

•Share sticky notes, add to whole group chart

Isolation Collaboration

Defining PLC CollaborationIsolation

“The traditional school often functions as a collection of independent contractors united by a common parking lot.” Eaker, Results Now, p 23

“Congeniality, focus on building groups camaraderie”

“Consensus on operational procedures”

“Committees to oversee different facets of school operation”

“…a systematic process in which teachers work together to analyze and improve their classroom practice.” “Teachers work in teams, engaging in an ongoing cycle of questions that promote deep team learning.”

“…leads to higher levels of student achievement.”

Collaboration PLC Collaboration

What is a “Professional Learning Community”? Educational Leadership, May 2004

Partner DiscussionJigsaw Activity: 5 Keys To a Successful Meeting – highlight the big ideas for one of

the following: Behaviors and Relationships Focus Roles and Responsibilities Structure Process

Share Points-

•Share the key’s big ideas with the whole group

Erkens, Cassandra, et. al. The Collaborative Teacher. Bloomington: Solution Tree, 2008. (p. 33-54)

ComparisonWith those sitting around you, discuss how your line

compares with that of organizational change

First and Second order changeFirst order change: Small changes with “existing knowledge and

skills of the staff” Small steps within existing paradigm

Second order change: BIG changes…a “dramatic departure from the

expected and familiar”… “Perceived as a break from the past… may

require new knowledge, new skills”

DuFour, Richard, et. al. Learning by Doing. Bloomington: Solution Tree, 2006. (p. 186, 215, & 218)

Don’t Judge too Quickly

PLC: Professional Learning CommunitiesPLC: Professional Learning Communities4 Crucial Questions4 Crucial Questions

What do we want each studentWhat do we want each studentto learn, know, or be able to do?to learn, know, or be able to do?

What evidence do we have of the What evidence do we have of the learning?learning?

How will we respond when some How will we respond when some students don’t learn? students don’t learn?

How will we respond to those who How will we respond to those who have already learned? have already learned?

Student Learning ExpectationsStudent Learning Expectations

Formative AssessmentFormative Assessment

Pyramid Of InterventionPyramid Of Intervention

Don’t judge http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMgzTBhG2Us

Bad PLC http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CqSP_slziw

Fed Ex

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hKWM5Z1zds

Bathroom remodel – feel out of place, uncomfortable http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZf53MtLUCc

Ship – front fell off http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-QNAwUdHUQ