PLC Cohort - Secondary

1. PLC Cohort - Secondary December 3, 2010 Ensuring the success of all learners through classroom, PLC, and school-wide interventions

2. Rome wasn’t built in a day… • Interventions take time and patience. • PLC work is never done. • Hang your hats on making progress. • You and your PLC are the key to the change that is needed to meet the needs of all learners. • There is strength in numbers. • Start somewhere and build on small successes.

3. What does the research tell us about effective interventions? • Interventions should ensure all students receive support in a timely fashion—at the first indication they are experiencing difficulty. • PLC’s, schools, and teachers must require a system to monitor student progress continually and frequently and to respond immediately when students struggle.

4. Characteristics of strong interventions… • The process should direct rather than invite students to devote the extra time to support until they are experiencing success. • Students should get help when they need it regardless of who their teachers might be. • A good system of intervention is designed to allow students who need more time and help to access it, but does not let students off the hook when they do not learn.

5. Interventions must be monitored to ensure that they are working. If they are not, adjustments must be made and alternative interventions must be available. • The intervention system must be fluid to allow students to come in and out as needed. • Interventions should help students master agreed upon standards. • Prerequisite steps are critical.

6. Start with analyzing student performance… • Analyze common formative assessments together • Look at student grades together • Look at attendance and skipping and who it is affecting • Look at summative test results and which students are not meeting benchmarks (Some of this is PLC work; some is school-wide work.)

7. The job of a PLC is to prevent failure, not to do an autopsy after failure has occurred. Brainstorm with a partner how some widely accepted educational practices are aimed at autopsy, not prevention of failure.

8. Agree as a PLC on keys to student success: • What do we believe as a group is acceptable performance in each area we need to monitor? • What do we as a group intend to do when students fall below acceptable performance levels?

9. Looking at common formative assessment data… • Work with another partner to determine how you would work with each other to prevent failure on the skills assessed in these two classes. (Handout 3 and 4)

10. List one strategy that YOUR PLC could agree upon to impact each of the following failure indicators: • Students with poor grades • Students with poor attendance • Students who have not mastered a standard(s) as assessed commonly by your PLC • Students who are not meeting basic benchmarks

11. 3 Types of Interventions: Intensive Interventions Targeted group interventions Universal interventions ~5% ~15% ~80% of Students

12. First level of intervention: THE CLASSROOM

13. Don’t Panic! • You can start small and build a big bag of tricks as you go along. • Part the beauty of a PLC is shared responsibility for developing that bag of tricks. • Ask for help. Your administrators stand ready to help you prepare for every student to succeed.

14. What are the keys to being ready to intervene in the classroom? Preparation is key! • Tiered assessments will tell you what each student needs • Tiered assignments can be developed in advance and used again and again • Anchor (enrichment) assignments can be ready for students when they have mastered a standard before other students have.

15. Science/Health Example: • Meets standard:“Design a balanced menu for 3 meals in a day using the nutritional guide for minerals, vitamins, etc. • More Complex: “Research and compare the dietary/nutritional needs of an average middle school student and a world class athlete. Create a well-balanced menu based on a typical day for each person. Include caloric intake and breakdown of fats, carbohydrates and proteins for the day.

16. Original Terms New Terms • Evaluation • Synthesis • Analysis • Application • Comprehension • Knowledge • Creating • Evaluating • Analyzing • Applying • Understanding • Remembering (Based on Pohl, 2000, Learning to Think, Thinking to Learn, p. 8)

17. Curriculum compacting: Be prepared to isolate and eliminate teaching content that students already know. • Be ready to teach lessons more than one way to accommodate students who learn in different ways. • Find a different way to present the material the next time. (Definition of Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over expecting to get a different result.)

18. Be ready with lessons that capitalize on student interests… • What would seem relevant and engaging to struggling learners? • To students who already know it?

19. Activity: • Number off 1-5. • Work with those who have your number to generate examples of your strategy for meeting all student needs. • Compacting • Anchor (enrichment) assignments • Tiered assignments and tiered assessments • Assignments to appeal to student interests • Two great ways to teach the same lesson

20. How does a classroom geared for the success of all students look? All students must know what is expected of them. • Classroom rules, procedures, and learning expectations. • Getting help • Transition time • Use of material and equipment • Voice levels

21. More on student expectations… • Will students be expected to help each other? What are the rules/expectations around cooperative learning? • Do students know what will happen if a student needs extra time or help? • Do students know what will be expected if they “get it” quickly?

22. Activity: Table groups: List two student expectations that ensure learning for all that have been successful for you. Be ready to share.

23. Physical space… • Is the classroom set up to handle groups of different sizes and also individuals working alone? • Are there work centers? • Reading areas? • Research areas? • Independent work spaces? • Where are the anchor (enrichment) activities and how are students held accountable for completing them? • Where are the resources students will need?

24. Activity: Think-Pair-Share: What is one thing you are going to do in arranging classroom space for the success of all learners that you have not done before?

25. Grouping… • Large group/whole class • Small homogeneous groups • Heterogeneous groups • Cooperative groups where students help each other. • Pairs of students. • Individuals working alone.

26. Activity: In table groups: Give one example of when each type of group can be effectively used to ensure the success of all learners. • Large group/whole class • Small homogeneous groups • Heterogeneous groups • Cooperative groups where students help each other. • Pairs of students. • Individuals working alone.

27. Groups should be flexible… • Research shows that tracking does not enhance student achievement. Activity: • In table groups: What is the difference in a homogeneous group and tracking? What does flexible grouping mean? Give some examples.

28. Foster student ownership… • Students must know… • The expected learning target. • How they will be assessed. • What proficiency looks like. • How progress will be monitored. (Teacher feedback is key to achievement and ownership!) • That they have some choices. • That they have responsibilities for the success of the classroom. • That their achievement will be celebrated.

29. Tools for developing student ownership… • Contracts • Portfolios • Self-assessments • Progress monitoring tools (Graphs, charts, etc.) • Built in time and mechanisms for individual feedback from the teacher

30. Activity: Table groups: • List 3 strategies you’ve used or heard about for increasing student ownership and responsibility to enhance learning for all students. • Share out by table until we run out of strategies.

31. What role does a PLC team play in classroom interventions? • Flexible grouping/shared students (Requires advanced planning so that the schedule can accommodate. It’s a systemic change, but you can make it happen! Talk to your administrators!) • Consistency (Reduces teacher shopping and parent complaints because everyone is on the same page about how student success will be ensured.)

32. Shared work load (All contribute to planning for a big bag of tricks to meet the needs of all learners.) • Shared problem solving (All teachers in the PLC help each other with strategies for meeting the needs of all learners.) • Lends credence to requests for systemic solutions. (All members of the PLC have attempted classroom interventions and can document the need for a systemic response.)

33. What role does a PLC play in a system of school-wide interventions? Research shows that system interventions are most effective when they support teams rather than individual teachers. Table Groups: List 2-3 reasons this statement might be true.

34. Closing Activity… 30 seconds each person. Go around the room. • What ideas for ensuring the success of all learners do you have leaving today that you didn’t have when you came?