PLCs for Leadership Teams SEMLAC – Day Two

1. Metro ECSU Linda Harvieux August 12, 2011 PLCs for Leadership TeamsSEMLAC – Day Two A Metro ECSU Presentation

2. Agenda • Welcome and Grounding • Sustaining the Culture and Growth of the PLC: Are we a group or a team? • Mapping Your Route: • The Four PLC Questions: What is the work? Where is your team? What’s next? • What do we expect the students to learn? • How will we know? • Mapping Your Route Continued: • The Four PLC Questions: What is the work? Where is your team? What’s next? • What will we do if the students don’t learn? • What will we do if they already know it? • Action Planning A Metro ECSU Presentation

3. “The message should be, ‘We did then what we knew how to do. Now that we know better, we can do better.” DuFour, pg. 255 Grounding: Ordered Sharing • “The message should be, ‘We did then what we knew how to do. Now that we know better, we can do better.” DuFour, DuFour, Eaker & Many. pg. 255 A Metro ECSU Presentation

4. Team Building and Networking:Are We a Group or a Team? A Metro ECSU Presentation

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6. How did you do? A Metro ECSU Presentation

7. Try Again Make a plan A Metro ECSU Presentation

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9. How did you do? A Metro ECSU Presentation

10. Consensus Building A Metro ECSU Presentation

11. Criteria for consensus building Things to think about when deciding whether to use consensus or not…. • How much support or buy-in do you need in order to implement. • History. • Past successes. • Skills of the group. • Volatility. • Confidentiality. A Metro ECSU Presentation

12. Achieving consensus Which of these do you believe defines consensus: • All of us can embrace the proposal. • All of us can endorse the proposal. • All of us can live with the proposal. • All of us can agree not to sabotage the proposal. • We have a majority-at least 51 percent-in support of the proposal. A Metro ECSU Presentation

13. Consensus occurs…. When the group reaches a single solution or decision and each member of the group can say: • I believe you understand my point of view. • I believe I understand your point of view. • I will support the outcome because it was reached openly and fairly. • I believe it is in the best interest of the entire group. A Metro ECSU Presentation

14. Consensus does not mean…. • A unanimous vote. • Everyone’s first choice. • That everyone agrees. (Enough participants need to be in favor of to get the decision carried out.) NOT ALL DECISIONS SHOULD BE MADE BY CONSENSUS A Metro ECSU Presentation

15. Consensus happens when…. • All points of view have not merely been heard, but actively solicited. • The will of the group emerges even to those who most oppose it. A Metro ECSU Presentation

16. Setting up for success • What are the worst possible outcomes if we don’t do this? • What are the worst possible outcomes if we do this? • What are the best possible outcomes if we don’t do this? • What are the best possible outcomes if we do this? • Use “worst possible” as a planning tool to identify what needs to be done to be sure these outcomes don’t happen. • Use “best possible” as tool to identify what has to be done to be sure these outcomes happen. A Metro ECSU Presentation

17. Fist to five strategy 5. Fingers. I love this proposal. 4. Fingers. I strongly agree. 3. Fingers. The proposal is okay with me. I am willing to go along with it. 2. Fingers. I have reservations and am not yet ready to support this proposal. 1. Finger. I am opposed to this proposal. Fist: If I had the authority, I would veto this proposal, regardless of the will of the group. A Metro ECSU Presentation

18. Working through group consensus When the group gets stuck…. What to say when the group gets stuck or is running out of time. Ask…. A Metro ECSU Presentation

19. Working through group consensus When the group gets stuck… • Go back to points you all agree upon. List them. • Go back to the polar points. What would make this something you could live with? • Take a break (walk around). • Change facilitators. • Put a hold on the issue. • Use sufficient consensus. A Metro ECSU Presentation

20. Working thru group consensus Questions to ask about the process: • Have we fully involved everyone as participants in the problem-solving process? • Have we listened carefully to all points of view, particularly the unpopular ones? • Have we seriously faced any emerging conflict in our group and tried to reconcile differences? Pledge to revisit within a certain time. A Metro ECSU Presentation

21. Consensus continuum A Metro ECSU Presentation

22. Managing complex change CHANGE CONFUSION ANXIETY GRADUAL CHANGE FRUSTRATION FALSE STARTS A Metro ECSU Presentation

23. The Four PLC Questions: What is the work? Where is your team? What’s next? • Assessing your team: • Focus on Student Learning • Collaboration • Focus on Results • Find the “Self-Assessment for a Focus on Learning” in your binder (end of day 2). • Read through the criteria and match with the four questions. • Save this assessment to complete as we investigate the work of your team. A Metro ECSU Presentation

24. Using the Agenda as a Discussion Guide and a Log 24 In This Section: • Team roles are recorded • Document member participation to keep all members accountable and informed 25 A Metro ECSU Presentation

25. Non-Negotiables Define essential learning and use common assessments Everyone participates and works toward the common goal – achievement for all students Teams make individual norms and honor their team norms -adapted from DuFour, et. al. 26 A Metro ECSU Presentation

26. Why Norms? “There is such a thing as group IQ. While a group can be no smarter than the sum total of the knowledge and skills of its members, it can be much “dumber” if its internal workings don’t allow people to share their talents.” -Sternberg, 198 A Metro ECSU Presentation

27. Norms • Norms make sure all the team members can participate by having solid “internal workings”. • How will your norms help your team develop solid “internal workings”? • What will the team do about “norm-breaking”? • What do we do about the person who doesn’t come? • What do we co about the person who comes but doesn’t participate? A Metro ECSU Presentation

28. Example Norms: Structural and Functional • We will not interrupt. • We will start and end on time. • We will use an agenda and log. • We will engage in deep listening assuming positive intentions. • We will use our time to focus on student learning. • Our meetings will be guided by the four critical questions. A Metro ECSU Presentation

29. Centerpiece Activity: Norms 29 • Centerpiece Activity: • Working in your group, first silently respond to the norm cards in the middle of the table, one at a time. • After time is called, assign a facilitator to process each norm. • Read aloud the ideas created as a group. • Synthesize the ideas into one all-encompassing statement. • Describe how that norm with look – document for future reference. A Metro ECSU Presentation

30. Your Team Focus 30 27 A Metro ECSU Presentation

31. Finding a District and/or School Focus • Use summative results : MCA, NWEA, other standardized tests and classroom summative assessments to identify topic and content strands to focus on • Evaluate content area student skills and learning strategies to identify skill based focus areas • Identify common skills across curricular areas to identify skill based focus areas A Metro ECSU Presentation

32. Content Focus: Schoolwide Reading or Math A Metro ECSU Presentation

33. Common Course/Different Content: Skill Focus A Metro ECSU Presentation

34. Common Skills Across Curricular Areas A Metro ECSU Presentation

35. Your Team Focus 35 27 A Metro ECSU Presentation

36. Back to the Four Questions and the Agenda • Find the packets of “Four Questions” and a blank “Four Question” grid. • Sort the questions strips in the appropriate section of the grid. • Check your work on the completed grid. • Add 2-3 questions of your own in each section of the grid. • Add questions as we move through the day. A Metro ECSU Presentation

37. The Four PLC Questions:What Do We Expect Our Students to Learn? Collaborative Teams Data/Assessment Student Learning A Metro ECSU Presentation

38. Starting with the Common Focus A Metro ECSU Presentation

39. What do we expect our students to learn? A Metro ECSU Presentation

40. Identifying Priority Standards(AKA: Power Standards, Essential Learnings) • Priority Standards Defined: Priority Standards are a carefully selected subset of the total list of the grade-specific and course- specific standards within each content area that students must know and be able to do by the end of the each school year in order to be prepared to enter the next grade level or course. Ainsworth, 2003; Reeves, 2001, 2002 A Metro ECSU Presentation

41. Prioritize – Don’t Eliminate Priority Standards are not all that we teach; rather, they represent those prioritized learning outcome that are absolutely essential for all students to know and be able to do. Ainsworth, 2003 A Metro ECSU Presentation

42. Supporting Standards Defined Supporting standards are those standards that support, connect to, or enhance the Priority Standards. They are taught within the context of the Priority Standards, but do not receive the same degree of instruction and assessment emphasis as do the Priority Standards. Ainsworth A Metro ECSU Presentation

43. Criteria for Selecting Priority Standards A Metro ECSU Presentation

44. Evaluating Readiness, Endurance and Leverage Use three criteria when considering which are “priority standards”: • What they need to know and be able to do in the next grade, (Readiness) and across content areas. (Leverage) • What they need to know and be able to do in the way of life skills. (Endurance) • What they need to know and be able to do on all high stakes district or state assessments. (High Stakes Testing) (Ainsworth, 2003) A Metro ECSU Presentation

45. Guiding Questions • Endurance • Are the students expected to retain the skills/knowledge long after the test is over? • Leverage • Is this skill/knowledge applicable to many academic disciplines? • Readiness for the Next Level of Learning? • Is this skill/knowledge preparing the student for success in the next grade or course? Reeves, 2003 A Metro ECSU Presentation

46. Using the Data as a Criteria • Using results from the “Data Retreat Process” identify subjects and strands in which all students or student groups are not proficient or are showing the largest proficiency gaps. • Triangulate the data results with a variety of standardized tests, classroom screeners, common formative assessments, other classroom data and teacher observation. • Return to the standards to prioritize. A Metro ECSU Presentation

47. Determining Power Standards Template Metro ECSU

48. Resources for Developing Priority Standards • Ainsworth, L. (2003a) Power Standards: Identifying the standards that matter the most. Englewood, CO: Advanced Learning Press. • Ainsworth, L. (2003b). “Unwrapping the standards: A simple process to make standards manageable. Englewood, CO: Advanced Learning Press. • Ainsworth, L. and Viegut, D. (2006). Common formative assessments: How to connect standards based instruction and assessment. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. • Stiggins, R.J., Arter, J. A., Chappuis, J. & Chappuis, S. (2006). Classroom assessment for student learning: Doing it right- using it well. Portland, OR- ETS Assessment Training Institute. A Metro ECSU Presentation

49. Setting SMART Goals to Focus the Team • Choose a Priority Standard for the team focus • Agenda Item: “Deconstruct the Standard” • What do we expect the students to learn? • What is the key vocabulary students need to engage in this content? • What are skills necessary to engage in this standard? • What skills and content were taught in the previous grade or class? • How do we know the students learned it? A Metro ECSU Presentation

50. SMART Goals Are…. • Strategic and Specific • Focus on the vital few • Measurable • Both formative and summative • Attainable • Goals that motivate us to strive higher • Results-Based • Concrete benchmarks • Time-Bound • Builds internal accountability and commitment A Metro ECSU Presentation