QUESTIONS TO FACILITATE PLCs

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.

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.

DEVELOPING PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES

I presented and facilitated a district wide experience this week for newly formed PLC’s. I designed the presentation around three quotes from Richard DuFour and my work with backwards planning featured in Instructional Coaching With the End in Mind. 

DuFour identified three big ideas in the article linked above:

Big Idea #1-  “The professional learning community model flows from the assumption that the core mission of formal education is not simply to ensure that students are taught but to ensure that they learn. This simple shift– from a focus on teaching to a focus on learning– has profound implications for schools.”

The staff seated in PLCs spent discussion time exploring these questions from my work:

What area of student achievement will be the focus of our initial work? What measures do we have of our current status?

What student behaviors/actions would be needed to produce the desired achievement?

What teacher behaviors are most likely to generate the desired student behaviors?

Big Idea #2 -  “Educators who are building a professional learning community recognize that they must work together to achieve their collective purpose of learning for all. Therefore, they create structures to promote a collaborative culture.”  

I presented how PLCs most often develop through stages of individuals meeting to franchise activities to real teams. The key in being a team is shared responsibility for student success. As a second grade PLC of 5 teachers, are all responsible for all second graders’ achievement? As a math department PLC, are AP teachers responsible for student performance in remedial classes?

Big Idea #3 -  “Professional Learning Communities judge their effectiveness on a basis of results. Working together to improve student achievement becomes the routine work of everyone in the school. Every teacher-team participates in an ongoing process of identifying the current level of student achievement, establishing a goal to improve the current level, working together to achieve that goal, and providing periodic evidence of progress.”

I suggested that for continuous improvement members had to take their teaching “public”. Observing in each other’s classrooms and examining student work. A video clip  illustrated how teachers could gain insights from assessing student understanding together.

Returning to my backwards diagram we discussed how the work of PLCs should push school leaders and individual teachers. Learning in a PLC may uncover the need for school or system change pushing leaders. As learning uncovers ways to increase student success, the sense of team responsibility and a “public” teaching culture press teacher change.

The power point for this presentation is available here.

GRIT AND ACHIEVEMENT

Last week’s blog covered some of my thoughts connected with Martin Seligman’s book, Flourish, and connections I made to coaching.

I had an opportunity this week to explore another element from Seligman’s work with members of a middle school staff:
 Chapter 6 in Flourish … Self Control, Character and Grit presents a formula:

 Achievement = Skill x Effort

which aligns with my formula in Tapping Student Effort

 Effort x Ability = Success.  

Seligman spells out how a character of self- disciple is a greater predictor of academic success than is IQ. The ultimate self-discipline character is GRIT… the never-yielding form of self- discipline, an extreme persistence that produces very high effort.

“The more GRIT you have, the more time you spend on the task, and all those hours don’t just add to whatever innate skill you have: they multiply your progress to the goal.” (page 121)

I asked the middle school staff to examine this quote from the work of Angela Lee Duckworth , a student and colleague of Seligman.

“Under achievement among American youth is often blamed on inadequate teachers, boring textbooks, and large class sizes. We suggest another reason for falling short of their intellectual potential: their failure to exercise self-discipline. We believe that many of America’s children have trouble making choices that require them to sacrifice short term pleasure for long- term gain, and that programs that build self-discipline may be the royal road to building academic achievement”    (Psychological Science 16(2005):939-44)

You can listen to Duckworth’s TED presentation on Grit here or complete the Grit Survey yourself.  When looking at the research of 90 /90/ 90 schools (90% poverty, 90% minority and 90% of the students scoring proficient) it strikes me that educator GRIT is a key. I wonder how that educator behavior might generate increased student GRIT.

How does a school look to increase student self -discipline? What kind of self –discipline would create the student achievement that we seek? The middle school group that I was working with is interested in exploring changes that move students from compliance, “What do I have to do to pass, or get an A, or finish?” to students setting goals and practicing identifying and committing to “what it takes to achieve it”.

FLOURISH

My holiday reading list included Flourish… A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well- being by Martin E.P. Seligman.

  I have written in earlier blogs  about my work with optimism and had read Seligman’s earlier book, Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life.  I found that the behaviors of optimists that had positive effects on our lives could be consciously practiced.

In Flourish, Seligman describes positive psychology and expands a theory of happiness to an understanding of well-being that allows one to flourish.

He applies his work to life, health, education, economics and policy development and includes a section on teaching well-being in schools. I found that as I read, my applications of the content continually jumped to many areas of my life and work.

Here are his five pillars for well being and my thoughts as to how they apply to coaching teachers:

Positive Emotions…a pleasant life. Seligman discusses the need for an appropriate ratio of positive to negative comments. From corporate meetings to marriage relationships the positive to negative ratio in conversations is a predictor of success.

That’s why I have always used a planning process for coaching conversations that allows the coach to build a positive emotional tone. Approval statements and questions around strengths of the teacher or the lesson open the door for a teacher to be vulnerable and explore an area for growth or change. I remember being asked by an observer how I found so many positives to build into the conversation. I said it was simple.  I spent most of my observation time and focus looking for them. Often areas for improvement are the easiest things to spot. Once you have found an area for improvement, focus the observations on positives to work from.

Engagement…..Did time stop for you? Were you completely absorbed by the task? These are the questions that are used to identify a state of flow, an element of well-being.

For coaching to have its desired impact on student outcomes coaches need to build teacher engagement in teaching and learning. A teacher’s critical and creative thinking in a coaching pre-conference can set the stage for teacher engagement in the teaching/learning activity, the follow up post conference and the next step outcome. Questioning is a critical coaching skill.

Meaning…”Belonging to and serving something that you believe is bigger than self”

I have always had exploration of teachers’ beliefs as a component of coaching training and conferencing design. Prescribed and sequenced curriculums focused on testing schedules have often hidden meaning for teachers and students. Effective coaches have teachers explore and identify meaning of their work and decisions.

Accomplishment and Achievement were identified as elements of well-being.

This suggests that goal setting in coaching can increase teachers’ sense of well-being. What are the signs of success that will indicate progress toward and achievement of the desired results of the teacher’s efforts? One of the observing roles of a coach is to spot early signs of success and bring them to the teacher’s attention.

Positive Relationships…. “Very little that is positive is solitary….other people are the best antidote to the downs of life and the single most reliable up.”

While looking at the coaches’ role of building positive relationships with teachers has always been part of my training sessions, I have increasingly seen the coach’s role as one of building staff to staff relationships. Teaching is a team sport. Teacher well-being and student well-being are increased as positive relationship grow.

The great news is that coaching well-being will likely increase your well-being.

VULNERABILITY

I identify vulnerability as an important element in many of my training and consulting settings.

vul·ner·a·ble   [vuhl-ner-uh-buhl]

adjective

1. capable of or susceptible to being wounded or hurt,  

2. open to moral attack, criticism, temptation,  

3.  open to assault; difficult to defend: .

In coaching training I describe that much more teacher growth is likely to occur in coaching and mentoring sessions than in evaluation or supervision. The reason is that a teacher will make him/herself more vulnerable in a coaching or mentoring setting. That vulnerability creates the opportunity to change and grow….defensiveness is low.

Similarly, in the classroom, teachers work to create an environment where students are comfortable being vulnerable. When a student will share his thinking or idea without certainty of correctness, leaning advances….the student is open to criticism.

When working with professional learning communities, I describe that PLCs move from meetings of individuals to franchises to teams as they develop trust and shared responsibility for students. In order for the trust to develop some members need to be vulnerable…. sharing a concern, an example of where they are not getting the student response or success that they desire. They are susceptible to being seen as ineffective.

This week I was working with state department of education leaders who were exploring ways for departments, who have previously functioned more independently, to become a team with a common focus on school improvement and student achievement. I shared work from Margaret Wheatley identifying the need to focus on the flow of information within an organization, the importance of rich and diverse relationships, and a common vision.

These leaders formed groups that identified what behaviors they would need to consciously practice in order to bring about an organizational culture that would produce the desired teamwork. Their lists included phrases like collaboration, improved communication, sharing, exploring options, etc. As I studied the lists I realized an underlying element that was required was vulnerability.

These department leaders would need to risk being open to each other, sharing information and resources, supporting others before the trust formed. Someone must be vulnerable for trust to develop.

David Peck writing in The Recovering Leader suggests that vulnerability is the job of leaders:

Leadership requires the courage to make yourself vulnerable before others you want to inspire or guide, and anyone with whom you intend to create something of lasting value. When you act authentically with those who are – or may be – important to you, they will reciprocate, and be moved to do their best work.

The greatest collaborations are based on shared vulnerability.

Teachers who are vulnerable with their students set the stage for student risk taking and learning. School leaders need to model the same for staff.

When we were children, we used to think that when we were grown-up we would no longer be vulnerable. But to grow up is to accept vulnerability. To be alive is to be vulnerable. - Madeleine L'Engle

Happy New Year to All!
I’ll share more pondering in 2012

MULTIPLIERS AND DIMINISHERS

Attending and presenting at the recent Learningforward Conference in Anaheim, CA, I had the good fortune to hear a keynote by Liz Wiseman the author of Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter (Harper Business June, 2010 )

Along with Greg McKeown, Wiseman studied 150 leaders and identified two categories:

Multipliers: These are the leaders who inspire others to stretch themselves to deliver results that surpass expectations. They use their intelligence to amplify the smarts and capabilities of the people around them. When these leaders walk into a room they generate participation… ideas flow and problems get solved.

Diminishers: These leaders drain intelligence, energy, and capability from the people around them and always need to be the smartest person in the room. These are the idea killers, the energy sappers, they diminish talent and commitment.

Using five disciplines, which Wiseman and McKeown suggest are based on skills that we can all develop, multipliers generate twice the capabilities of their team than do diminishers.

1. The Talent Magnet: Attracts and deploys talent at its highest point of contribution.
2. The Liberator: Creates a climate of safety and ambition that both invites and demands people’s best thinking and work.
3. The Challenger: Defines an opportunity that causes people to stretch.
4. The Debate Maker: Drives sound decisions through rigorous debate.
5. The Investor: Delivers extraordinary results again and again without direct management.

Let’s explore just two of these disciplines as they apply to teachers and instructional leaders and coaches: Liberator and Challenger

In Wiseman’s presentation she discussed two teachers as examples of leaders who were multipliers. They maximized the capabilities of their students.

Liberators create an intense environment that requires students’ best. Thinking of these classrooms, I envision lots of problem based  approaches… especially REAL problems…often problems that the students have identified as worth solving. As a Challenger this multiplier teacher limits his or her help to just the right touch that keeps a student struggling but not giving up.

The diminisher teacher is likely creating a tense environment…perhaps trying to motivate effort more with grades and test. Telling students what they need to know or do to be successful. These teachers are unlikely to learn from or with their students.

Being a multiplier is a great goal for instructional coaches. Too often teachers perceive a coach as one who should have the solution to the teacher’s problems or the person who will take the student, fix him, and bring him back. If coaches take the role of problem- solver, they will become diminishers.  Wiseman suggests that diminishers give directions that feature “how much they know” (a Know-It-All)…a big mistake for coaches.

 She suggests that multipliers are Investors who give the ownership of the results to others and invest in their success…an ideal image for successful coaches.

ALTERNATIVE CERTIFICATES...DIGITAL BADGES

I recently read two articles that jogged my memory back to writing by the past president of the American Federation of Teachers, Albert Shanker.  He described how schools could function more like merit badges in scouting. Defining what a learning outcome or performance should be would then allowing students to work toward completion in ways and pace that worked for them. A scout who takes twice as long as another to complete the requirements for a badge receives the same badge and wears it with the same status as the one who earned it more quickly. As a teacher who always struggled with grading because “time was up”, his idea made lots of sense to me. 

In the October 10, 2011 Education Week, Allen Collins and Roy Pea wrote a commentary, The Advantages of Alternative Certifications for Students.

 Adults and students are acquiring knowledge and skills outside the traditional school or classroom but if they fail to enroll in a school or college program they receive little credit for their accomplishments.

Students could prepare for certification exams by taking online courses, listening to lectures or demonstrations online, reading books, getting tutored face to face or via the internet, or playing engaging games designed to support disciplinary learning and reasoning.

An exam system would publish “what’s needed to pass,” and learners could decide how to prepare.

What kind of options and motivations for learning could alternative certificates create? What if students could complete assessments when they were ready? Can we give students the chance to “test out of “units or whole courses because of independent learning?

Lynn O’ Shaughnessy wrote a blog titled Digital Badges Could Significantly Impact Higher Education.

Badges are earned through skills and knowledge gained in a variety of ways including informally, through one’s workplace, open courseware and other online classes, and even traditional colleges. The badge system would let you gather badges from any site on the Internet, combining them into a story about what you know and what you've achieved....This sort of badge collection may eventually become a central part of an online reputation, helping you get a job, find collaborators and build prestige.
So-called digital badges could end up breaking the stranglehold that traditional colleges and universities have enjoyed in awarding credentials. Digital badges could give Americans who earn them the kind of impressive credential that a college degree has conveyed without having to go through the time and considerable expense of earning one or more diplomas.

John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, HASTAC and Mozilla  announced a $2 million Digital Media and Learning Competition for leading organizations, learning and assessment specialists, designers and technologists to create and test badges and badge systems. The competition will explore ways digital badges can be used to help people learn; demonstrate their skills and knowledge; unlock jobs, educational and civic opportunities; and open new pipelines to talent.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan called the digital badges a "game-changing strategy”: "Badges can help engage students in learning, and broaden the avenues for learners of all ages to acquire and demonstrate—as well as document and display—their skills.

Technology can empower learners, We need to design the assessments and documentation strategies to support that empowerment. 
Hopefully, a first step might be finding ways for teachers to demonstrate their ongoing learning rather than collecting “hours” for recertification.