Last
week’s blog identified discussions for PLC’s using a backwards planning
process from a recent professional development day that I facilitated. Later with the same school I was asked to facilitate some example PLC discussions for elementary teachers.
The quote from the Annenberg Institute provides a starting point for what a PLC might set
out to accomplish.
Several
kinds of activities promote a commitment to
the collective and individual learning
and openness to continuous improvement that are hallmarks of PLCs. They
include engaging in
collaborative problem solving around
specific issues or dilemmas, identifying
needs, and articulating a focus for
the work; building knowledge by studying
and discussing current issues and practices in quality teaching and
learning, thus exploring ways to develop a
culture of ongoing professional learning in
a school or district; and
observing, analyzing, and providing feedback
and ideas about school data and teacher
and student work.
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| Questions for Life |
I find that
someone preparing questions in advance can jump start productive conversations
that motivate teachers’ commitment to the PLC process. I modeled for the
teachers how Questions For Life provided a template for planning questions to
guide the critical thinking of a PLC.
In the
first example, PLCs of K-1-2 teachers worked together as the second grade teachers
examined a recent common math assessment using these questions:
Select
a standard that you would expect students at this time of the year to master.
Identify students who did not master the skill.
What similarities are there among these
students?
How important is this skill to
students’ progressing in higher skill development?
How much effort do you feel we
should invest reteaching this skill? Why?
What do you think students need to
experience, do, practice to master this skill?
How can we create those
opportunities?
In what ways might we collaborate on
this effort
They then
repeated the process focusing on advanced students:
Identify an upcoming skill we will
be instructing that some students have mastered.
List all those students who mastered
it.
What learning activities might we
provide those students as we teach the skill to the rest of the students?
How might we collaborate to provide
this option?
Teachers
from grades 3-4-5 who team at grade level teaching one content area to all the
students at that grade worked in grade level PLCs with these questions:
Select 2 students whose work raises
questions or concerns.
One teacher shares the students one
at a time with colleagues presenting questions or experiences with that student.
Each colleague shares that student’s work from their classes.
Compare this group of students’
work.
What groupings can you make of
students needing to develop common learning skills?
What are the most important areas
for us to address?
What ideas do you have for teaching
the needed learning skills?
How can we collaborate to provide
for this?
Since PLC
time is often limited, the questions to guide the process can greatly increase
the impact on student success.









