Facilitation Practices that Move Collaborative Work Forward

Q-Comp Presentation

January 27, 2011

Who We Are

Phil Lienemann– K-12 Principal– 3rd year administrator, 12 years total experience

Jen Schwankl– Elementary Special Education– 2nd year, 11 total years experience

Jay Meiners– High School Science: Biology and Earth Science– 10 years experience

Who We Work With

Minnesota River Valley Education District Located in Montevideo, MN Karen Jacobson, Director Yvonne Sorenson, Assistant Director

No Magic Bullets

This is what we’ve found works in our school culture Structures and formats for each school will be

different Willing to share what we have Minneota visited to look at our plan Tracy-Milroy-Balaton visited to look at our plan Montevideo borrowed materials from our PLC format

Our School-Lakeview

Cottonwood, MN-Wood Lake, MN 13 miles north of Marshall, MN in SW MN Around 560 students K-12 Mostly a two section school

– Small senior class: 24– Large 7th grade 64, large 5th grade 57– Incoming K classes around upper 50s

Staff of 48 in 7 PLCs

Brief History

The year before I arrived– Orbiter interest groups: web page development, information

literacy, etc.

My 1st year– Two hour early out once a month– Month to month– Focus on Information Literacy

The following two years– Changes

Change #1

Became a Q-Comp School Small committee formed to draft ideas

starting in the spring of 2009 Input on major areas of the plan; minor

tweaks, adjustments made over the summer by administration-timelines

Ratified by LEA and School Board in the fall of 2009

Change #2

Formation of school goals Last year, each school had an umbrella goal based

upon NWEA scores Each PLC formulated a goal specific to their group of

students This year’s schoolwide goal uses MCA achievement All are aware of goals: on every staff meeting

agenda

Change #3

Early outs– From once a month to every other week– From two hours to one– Meet the same amount of time, more frequently– PLC Leaders meet in off weeks

Change #4

Assigned Groups– PLCs by grade levels: PreK-K, 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8, 9-10, 11-

12. About 7 members per group– 7 PLCs, 8 Leaders-one group has co-leaders– Special education, vocal and band music, art, agriculture,

health and physical education, business, Spanish teachers all fold into one of the seven groups

– Ex. Mr. Meiners’s 9-10 grade group– There have been discussions re: job alike groupings

Change #5

Focus– Started last year with a study of data: math,

reading, language usage, science– MCA and NWEA as well as local assessments– Every PLC set their own goal under a school wide

umbrella– Then PLCs focused on research based

instructional strategies to target a low data area

Change #6

Teacher Leaders in place– One in the elementary, one in the secondary

Julie Neisius, 2nd grade teacher Dan Hoffman, Engineering technology teacher

– Focus on evaluating Domain 3 of Charlotte Danielson’s Framework of Effective Teaching: rubric

– Evaluation forms: Planning and Post-

It’s a Process

Fortunate-Time has always been approved by school board.

Avoid water cooler talk Meaningful discussions about teaching and

learning Wanted to have a sense of accomplishment

by the end of every meeting Yet we continue to learn and adjust

Necessary Evils: Protocols

Guided staff in first steps of in-house Data Mine, Fall of 2009 – MCAs: D, P, M, E– NWEAs: Hi, Mid, Lo accomplishment levels– Substrand data on NWEAs more than MCAs

These findings led to the instructional strategies research and implementation for the year

More Protocols

Following identification of research based instructional strategies:

Meeting Calendar: Distributed leadership– Who would facilitate weekly meetings?– Who would take the notes? Who would keep time?– Who would share video of implementation of strategy in

class?– Who would share student work or research article?– Who would bring the sustenance?

Lakeview2010-2011

Study Group Name:

Date Meeting Facilitator Facilitate and keep meeting focused and moving forward

Note TakerRecord the meeting notes and give original to Toni (Toni will make copies with feedback

Time KeeperFollow planned timeline for meeting

Developing CFAPerson designated to develop CFA comes with pre-work completed

Sharing CFAVideo ShareRemember to use the video sharing protocol to guide your discussion and self reflection.

Sharing CFAShare Student WorkRemember to use student work protocol to guide discussion and self reflection

TreatsIt is your responsibility to sustain the group members with FOOD (not required each week but highly recommended)

More Protocols

Weekly Minutes– Filled out by the weekly note taker– Communication piece with administration

Video Sharing Protocol– Modified Annenberg Protocol– Five minute clip of class with strategy

Student Work Sharing Protocol– Modified Annenberg Protocol– Strengths and weaknesses of the work, feedback

PLC Leader Meetings

Meet in off weeks– Cover past and upcoming PLC meetings– Support each other: laugh and joke, ask for help

with a situation or problem– This year, digging into Learning by Doing a

portion at a time

Focus this year

Formative Assessments Based upon the work of Dufour, Dufour,

Eaker, and Many Learning by Doing Plan is to continue focus of formative

assessments into next year, shifting to summative assessments the next year

Common Formative Assessments

Elementary: what is given in one classroom must be given in the other– Guaranteed and viable curriculum

In the event of no alike grade level or content area teacher, development of assessments in PLCs add to the collegial discussions and quality of assessments– What do we expect of our students?

Other practices to facilitate collaboration

Common Grade Level Planning meetings Once a week, elementary grades meet for

one prep period to plan, discuss, evaluate curriculum, assessments, and practices

Starting to build this process up into junior high classes

Recap: Facilitation Practices

Early out time to meet in PLCs Calendar of meeting dates: early outs and

PLC Leaders Goals to accomplish Protocols to guide PLC discussions Teacher Leaders’ evaluations Common grade level meetings

Questions?

Thank you!

Contact Information

Lakeview Public Schools– Telephone: 507-423-5164– phillienemann@lakeview2167.com

Phone ext. 1323

– jaymeiners@lakeview2167.com– jenschwankl@lakeview2167.com