PLC Facilitator Training September 12, 2007Early Release Day

“The most promising strategy for sustained, substantive school improvement is developing the ability for school

personnel to function as professional learning communities. (DuFour & Eaker, 1998)

Materials

• Icebreaker

• Norm Form

• PLC Log, SMART Goals, PLC Evaluation, and PD Needs Assessment from 06-07

• Unit Plan Template

• PLC Plan Sheet

• PD Request Form

Agenda Sept. 12 Early Out

• Team Building Activity - PLC Overview

• Share District Expectations

• Develop Norms

• Examine your current reality

• PLC Needs

• Develop tentative PLC Yearly Plan

Team Building Activity

Parallel Words – Team Builder Ask players to sit in a circle and have one person start the game by saying a random word or phrase (such as peanut butter). The person on his or her right then says the first word or phrase that comes to mind (for example, jelly). Continue around the circle until all players have a chance to make a word association. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Discuss the following questions: How does this activity reflect the power of group brainstorming and thinking? What helps you think quickly on your feet? How might this game help you with brainstorming? PLC Tasks?

Repeat the activity using the following words? Round 1 – Professional Round 2 – Learning Round 3 – Community After the activity write a group definition of a PLC. Write the definition on the bottom of your “Norm Form” Discuss: How does your definition reflect the differences between a PLC and a traditional school? What are some ways your PLC reflects the definition of a PLC? What changes would need to be made to more accurately reflect the definition.

Big Idea #1 How is a Professional Learning Community different than a traditional school?

PLC In Regard To Traditional School

Learning for All Focus Teaching

Strategies to back their commitments

Commitments Haphazard strategies at best

Teachers develop and monitor the indicators frequently

Indicators Indicators are often developed by outside sources. Monitoring is done at the end of the learning only.

Timely, Required, Systemic Intervention

Response to Students who aren’t

Learning

Left up to the individual teacher

Educational Issues Collaboration Student behavior, personalities, school politics

Big Idea #3 For each term below explain the importance of each word in a PLC

Goals:

PLC teams establish goals, work together to achieve the goals, and provide periodic evidence of progress.

Data:

PLC teams are data driven. They welcome data, use it as a catalyst for improved teacher practice. Data is useful only when the team has a basis of comparison.

Common Assessments:

PLC teams develop common assessments, identify how students perform on specific skills. There is common administration and common scoring of the assessments. The data is used to improve instruction and help individual students meet the learning goals.

Improvement:

Focus on continual improvement which results in change in teaching and learning. Improvement focuses on the classroom not those factors that are outside the classroom and beyond our control.

Commitment and Persistence

Sustaining PLC’s requires:

1. Hard work

2. Focus on learning rather than teaching

3. Collaboration on matters related to learning

4. Accountability for continuous improvement

District Commitment

• 8 Early Outs

• October 8 PD Day for Data Analysis

• January 2 half day for PD

• 2 half day Learning Teams for Core PLCs

For professional development related to data analysis, curriculum development, common assessment development and analysis, instructional improvement, and development of interventions and enrichments.

PLC Organization

Configuration of Teams—work with principals to make them meaningful, if across buildings we can help coordinate.

• Leadership of Teams—several trained

facilitators, share the leadership, identify new facilitators to be trained, decide who will go to principal/facilitator/PD Rep meeting

PLC ExpectationsPRODUCTS

After September Early OutNorm FormTentative Yearly PLC Plan Sheet

After Each Early OutMonthly LogPLC Plan SheetYearly Log

TBA (decided by building)2 unit plans (Cores)Non-cores - what makes sense?

TIME --All PLC members are expected to meet in the building with the PLC group on designated days from 1:15-3:30. Schedules on early out days should be the same as a regular school day for extra-curricular activities.--Facilitators and PD Representatives will have follow-up meetings with principals after each early out.

Rationale Unit Plan

Unit plans answer the questions of a PLC:

What do we want students to know? Essential Questions

How will we know they learned it? Assessments, Scoring, Data Analysis

C & C Question: How will we help them learn it?Instruction & Special Ed Adaptations

What will we do when they didn’t learn?Interventions

What will we do when they did learn?Enrichments

Unit Plan Template

October PD Day

• Identify the 2 units you will do

• Make your unit development plan

Norms

•Why we need them?

•What they are? Samples/Categories

•Publishing the norms

•Enforcing them

•Periodic evaluation

Why Norms are NeededNorms are ground rules to identify behaviors that will

help us do our work & discourage behaviors that interfere with a group’s effectiveness.

• How we act• How we interact• How we conduct business• How we make decisions• How we communicate—to have honest discussions

that enable everyone to participate & be heard.

NORMS EXIST WHETHER OR NOT YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THEM

Categories of Norms

• Time• Confidentiality• Decision Making• Participation• Leadership

SAMPLE NORMS FOR PLC’s

TIME/ATTENDANCE:• Start & Stop on time• Stay on task• Attend all meetingsCONFIDENTIALITY• Say what you need to here in the room, not in the parking lot • Individual comments are confidentialDECISION MAKING• Reach decisions by consensus, fist to five• Use data to drive decisions• We will publicly support all decisions made by the groupPARTICIPATION• Stay on task, focus on what we have control over and what moves the PLC forward• Listen and hear one another’s viewpoints—look at pros & cons• It is your responsibility to make sure your idea is put in the room• Speak directly to the person and you have issue with. • Address issues, not personalities• Commit to getting representative views, allow equal airtime for all participants• Focus on being a change agent• Be willing to experiment and make mistakes• Think creatively• Be responsible for the work of the PLCLEADERSHIP:• Assign and rotate roles of timekeeper, recorder/secretary, leader, etc.

ACTIVITY FOR DEVELOPING NORMS

PURPOSE: • To ensure all members have the opportunity to contribute• To increase productivity & effectiveness• To facilitate the achievement of your goals PROCESS:• Put the categories for norms on the board, may want to add a

miscellaneous• Each person records behavior you consider ideal for a group, one

per slip of paper and place it under the appropriate category.• 1 or 2 people will work with each category to group those with

similar ideas together. • For each group of cards, the group writes a norm, record on chart

paper.• Determine support for the norms• Adopt final set of norms

OPTIONAL ACTIVITY

Consensus occurs when…

1. All points of view have been heard2. The will of the group is evident even to those who

most oppose it.

Use Fist to Five to get consensusAll participants start with a fist and then put up the number of fingers to indicate their level of support for the topic. 5 = greatest support, fist=no support

Those most opposed have the opportunity to voice their opposition

Publishing Norms

How can you keep them visible?

• Posted in meeting room• Copy for everyone• Review at the beginning of each

meeting• Include on the top of each agenda

STOP & DEVELOP NORMS

• Revisit Last Year’s Norms• Revise• Start from Scratch

• A copy will be turned in at the – Principal/Facilitator/PD Rep meeting following

the early out

Enforcing NormsWHO IS RESPONSIBLE? ALL GROUP MEMBERS

Norms will be violated so talk about violations & how violations will be dealt with.

If you don’t call attention to violations, you are creating a second set of norms.

Ask: “How would you prefer to be notified you have violated a norm.”

Keep it light hearted , like throwing foam balls at someone who comes in late. Use colored cards, flags, hankies. All members must agree to these methods.

Periodically evaluate the adherence to the norm—How well did we do on this norm.

Stop and Develop Ways for Publishing & Enforcing

Put this on your list of norms to turn in

5 Principles of Successful Meetings

• Discuss only one topic at a time• Use only one process at a time• Achieve interactive and balanced

participation• Respect cognitive conflict by eliciting

disagreements and respecting other viewpoints

• Have all understand and agree to meeting roles and responsibilities

Current Reality—using our data for comparison to continue

the improvement cycle. PLC Yearly LogSMART GoalsPLC EvaluationPD Needs Assessment from 06-07

What were our accomplishments last year? (Log, Smart Goals, back of PLC Evaluation)

What needs did we identify? Are there others to add? (PD Needs Assessment)

How did we function as a team last year? (PLC Evaluation)

FOCUS ON RESULTS…

Where do we want to be?

Where are we now?

What questions do you have that data might answer?

How will we get where we want to be?

What are we learning?

Where should we focus next?

Questions for PLC Groups

PLC’s

Focus on educational issues

not school politicsnot student behavior

not personalities

Learning Team # 1 ( Cores)

Learning Team #2 (Cores)

TODAY’s GOAL:

RELATED SMART GOAL:

AGENDA FOR THE NEXT PLC TIME: Date: Time: Place: Leader:GOAL:Materials to Bring:Individual Responsibilities:

SUMMARY OF TODAY’s PLC TIME: (Include any data reported)

PLC EARLY OUT MONTHLY LOG for _____, 200_PLC GROUP NAME:___________________________________________ Members Present:____________________________________________Members Absent:_____________________________________________

QUESTIONS TO BE ADDRESSEDDuring today’s PLC time Next PLC Time

What do we want students to learn? (Curriculum Objectives, Unit Development)How will we know if they learned it? (Assessment, Data Analysis)

What will we do if they didn’t learn it? (Instruction, Intervention)What will we do if they did learn it? (Instruction, Enrichment)

PLC Facilitator Training Dates for OCT. 8 PD Day

September 288:00 to 11:00: 6-12 Math

12:00 to 3:00: 6-12 Comm. Arts

October 18:00-11:00: 7-12 Social Studies

12:00 to 3:00: 7-12 Science

October 28:00 to 11:00 3rd-5th Grade12:00 to 3:00 K-2nd Grade

Specials—TODAY - after this meeting

“A successful face-to face team is more than just collectively intelligence.

It makes everyone work harder, think smarter and reach better conclusions than they would have on their own.”

James Surowiecki

“If there is anything that the research community agrees on, it is this:

The right kind of continuous, structured teacher collaboration improves the quality of teaching and pays, big, often immediate, dividends in student learning and professional morale in virtually any setting.”

Mike Schmoker