Professional Learning Communities

Professional Learning

Community

Dessalines Floyd

To create a professional learning community, focus on LEARNING that

informs teaching, work collaboratively, and hold yourself accountable

for results.”

1. What do we want each student to learn?

2. How will we know when each student has learned it?

3. How will we respond when a student experiences difficulty in learning?

Explore Critical Questions

The answer to #3 is what distinguishes PLCs from traditional schools!

Timely (1)Intervention (2)

Directive (3)

Students who need help are identified QUICKLY.

Students are provided help as SOON as they need it.

Instead of inviting students to seek assistance, students are REQUIRED to devote time until mastery is achieved.

What kind of community exists at your school?What kind of community exists at your school?

Do… Don’t…

study the standards and district curriculum to determine essential knowledge and skills.

team-up to develop and discuss common formative assessments.

examine results.

share and make goals, strategies, and concerns public.

assume that exposure to standards/curriculum guarantees access to a common curriculum to all students.

make excuses for failure to collaborate.

teach subjects in isolation.

Now…

Team goals SHIFT

From…• “We will adopt a new 25

book FASTRead campaign!”

• “We will create five new labs for our science course!”

To…• “We will increase the

percentage of students who meet the state standards in reading from 25 to 50 percent!”

• “We will reduce the failure rate in our course by 50 percent!”

Don’t suffer from the D.R.I.P Syndrome

DATA RICH-INFORMATION POOR

•Understand data and use it to drive instruction.

•Be careful not to overload staff with info at the expense of understanding.

•Become a results-oriented PLC!

•Teacher-teams develop common assessments and monitor individual student results closely

•Teams develop common cumulative exams and reflect on the results

•Focus is on continual improvement

•Do not limit improvement by focusing on factors outside of the classroom (e.g. student discipline, staff morale, attendance)

RESULTS

…THE COMMITMENT AND PERSISTENCE OF THE EDUCATORS WITHIN IT.”

-RICHARD DUFOUR

“The rise or fall of the professional learning community concept depends not on the merits of the concepts itself, but on the most important element in

the improvement of any school…”

•Marzano, R. (2003). What works in schools: Translating research into action. Alexandria, VA: ASCD

•Barth, R. (1991). Restructuring schools: Some questions for teachers and principals. Phi Delta Kappan, 73(2), 123–128.

•DuFour, R (2004).Educational Leadership | Volume 61 | Number 8 Schools as Learning Communities   Pages 6-11