Key Leaders Network--South

1. Key Leaders Network--South September 1, 2011

2. Alphabet Soup! • ABPC — Alabama Best Practices Center • KLN — Key Leaders Network • PCN — Powerful Conversations Network • SLN — Superintendent Leaders Network • FA — Formative Assessment • FF — Formative Feedback

3. Guiding Questions • What do we need to know about the content focus for PCN schools in order to support and monitor improvement initiatives? • In what ways can we use the principles and practices associated with “Impact Schools” to optimize professional development in our schools and district?

4. Guiding Questions, cont’d 3. How can we plan and work collaboratively as a KLN team and with other district and school leaders to achieve maximum benefit from our participation in ABPC networks? 4. Why is it important to think about evaluating professional development at four levels—reaction, learning, use, and impact?

5. New Learning Forward Standards for Professional Learning IMPLEMENTATION:Professional learning that increases educator effectiveness and results for all students applies research on change and sustains support for implementation of professional learning for long-term change.

6. Norms • Collective Responsibility • Collaboration • Each of us is responsible for all of our students. • Participation • Monitor your talk. • Encourage and support others. • Respect • Put cell phones on vibrate. • No side-bar conversations. • Time • Begin and end on time. • Take care of your own creature comforts.

7. Activity #1: Who’s Here? WHAT? Team “Scavenger Hunt” to learn more about KLN districts and individual members WHY? To facilitate building of collegial relationships and development of a connected learning community HOW? Individually collect as much data as possible about individuals and districts; consolidate learning with home team to create a portrait of “who’s here”

8. Major Themes for 2011-12 KLN • Increasing Content Knowledge • Reflecting on Your Leadership of Professional Learning • Engaging in Collaborative Planning • Being More Intentional about Evaluation

9. The Big Picture for PCN, 2011-12—Keeping Abreast of PCN Focus Collaborative Teams/Communities of Practice

10. Mission of KLN Teams To ensure support and accountability for PCN (or targeted) schools as they transfer learnings from PCN to their classrooms and to their colleagues

11. Leading Professional Learningto CreateImpact Schools “schools where every aspect of professional learning is designed to have an unmistakable, positive impact on teaching and, hence, student learning.” —Jim Knight,Unmistakable Impact, 2011, p. 6

12. Knight’s Assumptions • “we can radically improve how well our students learn and perform if our schools become the kind of learning places (for students and adults) our students deserve.” • “Students will not be energized, thrilled, and empowered by learning until educators are energized, thrilled, and empowered by leaning.” —p. 6, Unmistakable Impact

13. Focus of KLN • Deepening Content Knowledge: Focusing on instructional strategies and frameworks featured in PCN • Leading Professional Learning:Using Jim Knight’s framework for “Impact Schools” and applying appropriate principles in your work as instructional leaders • Collaborative Planning: Collaboratively planning to support PCN or targeted schools as they use PCN learnings and resources in their work • Coordinating Evaluation: Assessing transfer of PCN/KLN activities to schools in your district

14. Planning for Systematic and Intentional Professional Learning: 4 Dimensions

15. Four Levels of Evaluation of Professional Development

16. PCN Content Strand #1: College and Career Readiness

17. Four Levels of College and Career Readiness David T. Conley, College and Career Ready, p. 32

18. College & Career Readiness: Key Cognitive Strategies—High Level of Correspondence with CCR Standards • Problem-formulation • Research • Interpretation • Communication • Precision & Accuracy (David Conley, College and Career Readiness, p. 33)

19. Academic Behaviors (Self-Management) • “Self-monitoring . . . . • “Awareness of one’s current level of mastery and understanding of a subject, including key misunderstandings and blind spots; • “The ability to reflect on what worked and what needed improvement in any particular academic task; • “Tendency to identify and systematically select among and employ a range of learning strategies; • “Capability to transfer learning and strategies from familiar settings and situations to new ones” (David T. Conley, College and Career Ready, p. 39)

20. CONNECTIONS:College & Career Ready Standards(Common Core) • Key Cognitive Strategies • Key Content Standards • Academic Behaviors

21. Brief Look at Literacy Standards Across Grade Levels & Content Areas • Anchor Standards broadly describe “what students should know and be able to do, from kindergarten to 12th grade.” • 4 Strands: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, and Language • Within each strand, standards are organized under a set of topics, which apply across all grade levels

22. Example: Reading & Writing Standards for Informational Text • Span grades K-12 • Span content areas: ELA, history/social studies, science, and technical subjects • Organized around the 4 broad topics: • Key Ideas and Details • Craft and Structure • Integration of Knowledge and Ideas • Range of Reading and Text Complexity

23. Activity #2: Quick Look at College & Career Readiness Standards in Reading/Literacy What? Quick Look at College & Career Readiness Standards in Reading/Literacy Why? To develop an understanding of the scope and structure of reading/literacy standards and to understand the developmental nature of these across a student’s K-12 experience How? Team review and rating of your perceptions of your students’ current proficiency

24. Taking It Home—Team Work Plan for CCR • Transfer—What will you share with whom about formative assessment and feedback? • Support to Schools—How can your KLN team support and monitor use of formative assessment and feedback by PCN or targeted schools? • Team Data Collection Tasks—How can we proceed (1) in finding out the current level of practice in our targeted schools and (2) in determining how we can best support instructional leaders efforts to maintain momentum in this area?

25. PCN Content Strand #2:Formative Assessment “An assessment functions formatively to the extent that evidence about student achievement is elicited, interpreted, and used by teachers, learners, or their peers to make decisions about next steps in instruction that are likely to be better, or better founded, than the decisions they would have made in the absence of that evidence.”—p. 43

26. WHYShould We ConsiderFormative Assessment? Many studies demonstrate that when formative assessment is used to improve learning during instruction,student achievement improves. “The effect of assessment for learning on student achievement is some four to five times greater than the effect of reduced class size…Few interventions in education come close to having the same level of impact as assessment for learning. Stiggins et al, 2006, p. 37

27. Double The Learning “attention to the use of assessment to inform instruction, particularly at the classroom level, in many cases effectively doubled the speed of student learning.”—p. 36, Wiliam

28. Activity #3: Leaders’ Role in Improving Use of Formative Assessment WHAT? Conversations focused on the roles and responsibilities of leaders in promoting improved use of formative assessment in our classrooms WHY? To share insights and effective strategies for leveraging this powerful practice across all classrooms in our schools HOW? Table Rounds, which allow you to engage in 3 rounds of conversations with a range of colleagues; record your ideas; and build on others’ ideas

29. Guiding Questions for Table Rounds Conversations • What do you know about formative assessment? Draw upon prior knowledge, including reading and classroom experience, to develop as complete a picture as possible of the what, the why, and the how of formative assessment. • What can we, school and district leaders, do to establish a district- and school-wide expectation that formative assessment and feedback be a part of the teaching-learning cycle day-in-and-day-out in all of our classrooms? [Note: Consider how you would work with both leaders and teachers to ensure improved practice in all classrooms.] • What connections can you make between formative assessment and existing state (and district) initiatives? How can you communicate these connections to instructional leaders and teachers so that they see formative assessment as an integral part of effective teaching and learning—not just one more thing to do?

30. Taking It Home—Team Work Plan for Formative Assessment • Transfer—What will you share with whom about formative assessment and feedback? • Support to Schools—How can your KLN team support and monitor use of formative assessment and feedback by PCN or targeted schools? • Team Data Collection Tasks—How can we proceed (1) in finding out the current level of practice in our targeted schools and (2) in determining how we can best support instructional leaders efforts to maintain momentum in this area?

31. PCN Content Strand #3: Gradual Release of Responsibility Framework Authors: Douglas Fisher & Nancy Frey Publisher: ASCD, 2008

32. Gradual Release of Responsibility Framework for StudentLearning “The gradual release of responsibility model of instruction suggests that the cognitive load should shift slowly and purposefully from teachers-as-model, to joint responsibility, to independent practice and application by the learner (Pearson & Gallagher, 1983).” p. 2, 2nd paragraph, 1st sentence, Better Learning Through Structured Teaching

33. Gradual Release of Responsibility 4 Phases Focus Lessons Guided Instruction Collaborative Learning Independent Tasks

34. Teacher Responsibility A structure for successful instruction, p. 4 Better Learning Through Structured Teaching “I do it” “We do it” Collaborative “You do it together” “You do it alone” Student Responsibility

35. Activity #4: Exploring the 4 Phases of GRR Framework WHAT?Developing a shared understanding of the critical features of each of the four phases WHY?Need for basic understanding of framework that PCN schools will be using this year HOW? Modified Jigsaw Cooperative Learning Activity

36. Taking It Home—Team Work Plan for Gradual Release of Responsibility Framework • Extension of Knowledge—What, if anything else, do we need to know about Fisher & Frey’s “gradual release of responsibility” framework? Who on our PCN team can you contact to provide this information? • Support to Schools—How can our KLN team support and monitor use of this framework by PCN or targeted schools? • Team Data Collection Tasks—How can we proceed (1) in finding out the current level of practice in our targeted schools and (2) in determining how we can best support instructional leaders efforts to nurture and support implementation of this framework?

37. PCN Content Strand #4:Collaborative Teams Within a Professional Learning Community

38. 3 Big Ideas of a PLC • The fundamental purpose of our school is to ensure that all students learn at high levels. • If we are to help all students learn, it will require us to work collaboratively in a collective effort to meet the needs of each student. • We must create a results orientation in order to know if students are learning and to respond to their needs.

39. Activity #5: Linking PLCs to Continuous School Improvement —3-2-1 WHAT?Collaboratively considering the linkages between professional learning communities and continuous improvement WHY? Expectation that transfer of learning from PCN be accomplished through collaborative teams in PLCs HOW? Individual reflection using 3-2-1 followed by sharing in teams

40. 4 Big Questions Driving a PLC 1. What is it we want our students to know? 2. How will we know if our students are learning? 3. How will we respond when our students are not learning? 4. How will we enrich and extend the learning for students who are proficient?

41. Activity #6: Cultural Shifts in a Professional Learning Community WHAT? Informally and collaboratively assessing where your PCN or targeted schools are in their “cultural shifts” associated with becoming a PLC WHY? To use a resource from www.allthingsplc/info that puts in focus the qualities of a school culture that supports a PLC HOW? With your team, discuss 2-3 categories on the “Cultural Shifts” document. Speculate as to where your PCN or targeted schools would fall on the continuum on the accompaning sheet. Be sure to include “A Shift in the Use of Assessments.”

42. New Learning Forward Standards for Professional Learning LEARNING COMMUNITIES: Professional learning that increases educator effectiveness and results for all students occurs within learning communities committed to continuous improvement, collective responsibility, and goal alignment.

43. Taking It Home—Team Work Plan • Transfer—What will you share with whom about collaborative work teams within PLCs? • Support to Schools—How can your KLN team support and monitor the functioning of collaborative teams within PCN and targeted schools? • Team Data Collection Tasks—How can we assess the current maturity of collaborative work teams and PLCs within our schools?

44. KLN: Leading to Create Impact Schools

45. Impact Schools “schools where every aspect of professional learning is designed to have an unmistakable, positive impact on teaching and, hence, student learning.” —Jim Knight,Unmistakable Impact, 2011, p. 6

46. Knight’s Assumptions • “we can radically improve how well our students learn and perform if our schools become the kind of learning places (for students and adults) our students deserve.” • “Students will not be energized, thrilled, and empowered by learning until educators are energized, thrilled, and empowered by leaning.” —p. 6, Unmistakable Impact

47. Knight’s Core Questions or Guiding Questions for Teachers • Is the content I teach carefully aligned with state standards? • Do I clearly understand how well my students are learning the content? • Do my students understand how well they are learning the content being taught? • Do I fully understand and use a variety of teaching practices to ensure my students master the content being taught in my class? • Do my students behave in a manner that is consistent with our classroom expectations? (p. xviv, Unmistakable Impact)

48. Activity #7: How Can We Use the “Instructional Target”? WHAT? Considering the potential of a one-page Instructional Target to focus school- and district-wide instructional improvement efforts WHY? Tools that assist a school community in focusing on “the important things” can accelerate increases in student learning HOW? Read excerpt from Jim Knight’s Unmistakable Impact and use the “Here’s What” text protocol to share insights with colleagues

49. New Learning Forward Standards for Professional Learning LEADERSHIP: Professional learning that increases educator effectiveness and results for all students requires skillful leaders who develop capacity, advocate, and create support systems for professional learning.

50. Taking It Home—Team Work Plan for Creating Impact Schools • Transfer—What will you share with whom about “impact schools” and the one-page “Instructional Target”? • Support to Schools—How can your KLN team work with PCN schools to create a one-page Instructional Target—if you decide this to be appropriate? • Team Data Collection Tasks—How can we proceed in finding out the current level of practice in our targeted schools related to Knight’s “core” or “guiding” questions for teachers?