PLCs 2007-2008

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Port Susan Middle School!

What We Do and Believe Matters!

August 2007

1. What is it we want allstudents to learn?

2. How will we knowwhen they have learnedit?

3. How will we respondwhen they do not learn?

4. How will we respondwhen they already knowit?

Professional Learning Communities

PLCs A REVIEW

BUILDING TEAM NORMS

The rst step when working in a PLC is todevelop the team norms. These are the agreedupon operating principles for working togethercollaboratively.

DESIGNING UNITS AND ASSESSMENTS

The second step when working in a PLC is todesign a common unit using the Understanding by Design (UbD) framework, and a commonassessment to measure student learning.

EXAMINING STUDENT WORK

The nal step when working in a PLC is toexamine student work to gather moreinformation about student learning and toensure that assignments are aligned with

standards or agreed upon goals for excellence. We must acceptnite

disappointment, butwe must never lose

innite hope!

90 by 09!W H

A T W E D O A N D

B E L I E V E M A T T E R S !

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Understanding by design is a tool,philosophy, and framework to supportintentional planning. There are threestages to UbD:

STAGE 1: IDENTIFY DESIRED RESULTS

In stage 1, we consider the goals. Whatshould students know, understand, andbe able to do? What big ideas areworthy of understanding and impliedin the established goals (e.g., contentstandards, curriculum objectives)?

What “enduring” understandings aredesired? What provocative questionsare worth pursuing to guide studentinquiry into these big ideas? Whatspecic knowledge and skills aretargeted in the goals and needed foreffective performance?

STAGE 2: DETERMINE ACCEPTABLE

EVIDENCE.

The second stage we consider evidenceof learning. How will we know if students have achieved the desiredresults and met the content standards?How will we know that students really understand the identied big ideas?

What will we accept as evidence of prociency? The backward designorientation suggests that we think aboutour design in terms of collectedassessment evidence needed todocument and validate that the desiredresults of Stage 1 have been achieved.

STAGE 3: PLAN LEARNING EXPERIENCES

AND INSTRUCTION

With identied results and appropriateevidence of understanding in mind, itis now time to nalize a plan forlearning activities. What will need tobe taught and coached, and howshould it best be taught, in light of theperformance goals? What sequence of activity best suits the desired results? Inplanning the learning activities, weconsider the WHERETO elements.Those guidelines can be summed up ina questions: How will we makelearning both engaging and effective,given the goals and needed evidence?

Understanding by DesignIT IS A PHILOSOPHY

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During the 2006-2007 school year, we focused on building and implementing common assessments using Understanding by Designand the GRASP framework. This year, we will continue this process. Assessments come in many forms and have varied purposes. A review of the forms and functions is below.

PERFORMANCE TASK

Complex challenges that mirror the issues and problems faced by adults. Ranging in length from short-term tasks to long-term, multistaged projects, they yield one or more tangible products and performances. They differ from academic promptsin the following ways:

• The setting is real or simulated and involves the kind of constraints, background “noise,” incentives andopportunities and adult would nd in a similar situation (i.e., they are authentic).

• Typically require the student to address an identied audience (real or simulated).• Are based on specic purpose that relates to the audience.• Allow students greater opportunity to personalize the task.• Are not secure: the task, evaluative criteria, and performance standards are known in advance and guide student

work.

ACADEMIC PROMPTS

Open ended questions or problems that require the student to think critically, not ust recall knowledge, and to prepare aspecic academic response, product, or performance. Such questions or problems:

• Require constructed responses to specic prompts under school and exam conditions.• Are “open,” with no single best answer or strategy expected for solving them.• Involve analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.• Typically require an explanation or defense of the answer given and methods used.• Require judgment-based scoring based on criteria and performance standards.• May or may not be secure.• Involve questions typically only asked of students in school.

QUIZ AND TEST ITEMS

Familiar assessment formats consisting of simple, content-focused items that:• Assess for factual information, concepts, and discrete skill.• Use selected-response (e.g., multiple-choice, true-false, matching) or short-answer formats.• Are convergent, typically having a single, best answer.• May be easily scored using an answer key or machine.• Are typically secure (i.e., items are not known in advance).

INFORMAL CHECKS FOR UNDERSTANDING

Ongoing assessments used as part of the instructional process. Examples include teacher questioning, observations,examining student work, and think alouds. These assessments provide feedback to the teacher and the student. They are nottypically scored or graded.

AssessmentDIFFERENT TYPES OF ASSESSMENT FOR DIFFERENT PURPOSES

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The goal for last year’s PLCs was to developcommon units using Understanding by Design,to administer a common assessment, and toanalyze student performance. I think it issafe to say we accomplished two out of thethree tasks. This year, we are going tocontinue our work in our PLCs andintentionally focus on analyzing studentperformance. By using a tool to examinestudent work, our PLC units andassessments can be enhanced to benet ourstudents.


Every day teachers examine student work.They give quizzes and grade them; theyassign and evaluate essays; they ask studentsto produce projects of various kinds andthey score them using rubrics. The processof developing, assigning, collecting, andevaluating student work is traditionally asolitary activity, limited to the connes of the classroom. However, educators are nowusing student work as a vehicle to reect ingroups upon their teaching practices and to

change or develop new teaching strategiesto help all students learn.

INFORMED DECISION MAKING

Examining student work lends itself toinstructional decision making more thanany test score can. Test scores do notenable informed decisions about what toteach and how to change instruction to help

students learn. If teachers do an itemanalysis (a process in which teachersexamine students wrong answers, looking for patterns), for example, they may ndthemselves teaching students minutiae.They may also nd themselves trying togure out what the distracters (the incorrectoptions on a multiple-choice test) in aquestion signal in terms of how studentsshould be able to think about a concept orskill. Test scores are of limited use in termsof curriculum, instruction, and assessment.

Working collaboratively to examine studentwork, educators can learn not only whattheir students know and are able to do butalso how to help them move forwardthrough improved classroom instruction.

The ultimatemeasure of a man isnot where he standsin the moments of

comfort and

convenience, butwhere he stands intimes of challengeand controversy.

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Educators also desire and need qualityprofessional development experiencesthat reduce the isolation they often feel,experiences that allow them to havemeaningful conversations about thecomplex issues of teaching andlearning. Outside experts--speakers,presenters, and workshop leaders--offerexpertise, wisdom, and inspiration, buttheir messages, by themselves, seldomresult in substantive change. A superbspeaker at the beginning of the yearcan inspire, but inspiration can beshort-lived in the face of classroomrealities.

Embedded professional development

can be more effective in bringing aboutsubstantive change in the classroom. Itarises from the classroom wheneducators contribute their personalteaching experiences to professionaldevelopment discussions with theircolleagues, and it returns there aseducators begin to make changes withtheir colleagues’ support. Examining student work ts perfectly within thistype of professional development.

C h a r a c t e r i s t i c s o f e m b e d d e dprofessional development include thefollowing:

•It is rooted in classroom andschool realities, and is, therefore,

tailored to the needs of thoseenvironments.•It is content rich and based onreal data--student work andteacher practice.•It establishes the school as alearning community, promoting inquiry and reective practice.•It establishes a culture of quality.•It honors the professionalism,expertise, experiences, and skills of educators.•It involves participants in thedesign of the experience, creating more ownership than externallyplanned professional development.•Because those who participate

choose what they themselves willwork on--something that isrelevant to their school and thatthey care about--some level of application is ensured.•It is much less expensive thanhiring an educational consultant orother type of imported expertise tolecture, when that “expert” mayhave little knowledge of whatspecic professional developmentactivities would most benet theschool.

LOGICAL PART OF PLC WORK

Examining student work is a logicalpart of our PLC work. This step canbe incorporated after the commonassessment has been given and scored

by the teacher. There are manybenets when incorporating a systemthat intentionally looks at student work:

BENEFITS TO THE STUDENTS:

• Improved student learning

• Increased student clarity aboutintended outcomes

BENEFITS TO TEACHERS

• Commitment and condence inability to promote student learning

• Analytical and reective inquiryskills (e.g., examining multiplefactors and perspectives whenanalyzing a situation)

• Professional knowledge✴ Content understanding ✴ Student development and

learning ✴ Methods and strategies✴ a s s e s s m e n t d e s i g n a d

interpretation✴ Contextual factors

• Al ign ing among c la s s roomstandards , ins t ruct ion, andassessments

• Awareness and self-assessment✴ Inuence of feelings and

beliefs on assumptions andactions.

Professional DevelopmentPROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES ARE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

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Step 1: Background Information: The presenting teacher describes the learning goal, instruction, and student work collected. The teacher can also describe the student if he or she is not following the same student(s) throughout the year.

Step 2: Probing Questions: Teachers in the group ask the presenting teacher probing questions such as:•What learning (skills, knowledge, attitudes) were you hoping to observe in this piece of work (your short term goal)?•Explain your reasons for selecting theses areas of learning (e.g., how these areas relate to your long term goals?).•How did your learning plan help ensure student success in relation to the learning targets ?•How does this example of student work serve as a representative sample of all of your students work?•Under what conditions was this work generated (e.g., directions given, work done individually or as a group, timeallocation)?

Step 3: Observation: The teachers together describe what they observe in the work and how it relates to the learning goals.The presenting teacher listens . Teachers may inquire for more information by using the following questions:

•What do you observe in the student’s work? (Use only descriptive words; withhold judgment.)•What questions are raised as you look at the work?

Step 4: Analysis: The teachers together analyze what the work tells them about the student’s learning and the instruction.The presenting teacher listens.

•How does the student work demonstrate student learning as measured by the learning goals? Using the student’s work,provide evidence that supports:

•What the student understands or can do,•What the student is struggling with (e.g., misconceptions, gaps in the learning, a skill...etc.).

•What does the student’s work tell you about the success of the strategies and learning activities used?

Step 5: Reection : It is the presenting teachers turn to speak. The presenter provides his/her perspective on the student’swork, responding to the questions raised and adding any other information that he/she feels important. Most importantly, thepresenter also comments on any surprising or unexpected things that he/she heard during the observation, and analysis phases.

Step 6: Plan: Based on the analysis, and reection, teachers identify next steps. The teacher may use the following questionsto guide this discussion:

•What additional information or data (if any) do we need to more fully understand the student’s learning before we candecide which action to take (e.g., student “think aloud” about a problem, a videotape, discussion with parents or with other

professionals, teacher observation data...etc.).•What would the presenting teacher like the student to learn next (e.g., skill, information, understanding)? Explain thereasons for identifying this short term goal?•What teaching strategies are likely to help the student achieve the short term learning goal? Explain why these strategieswill work.•How will we use what we learned today to help other students?

Collaborative Analysis Protocol

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ADAPTATIONS TO THE PROCESS

To further enhance the benets of examining student work, you or your PLCmay consider implementing the following elements:•Choose two students to focus onthroughout the school year who represent acluster of students who are presenting learning challenges (high or low).•Keep a portfolio that documents the work of the two students, and the strategies andmethods tried along with your reections.

WHY PROTOCOLS

First What are protocols?•A protocol consist of an agreed uponguidelines for a conversation, and it is theexistence of this structure--which everyoneunderstands and has agreed to--thatpermits a certain kind of conversation tooccur--often a kind of conversation whichpeople are not in the habit of doing.•Protocols are vehicles for building thes k i l l s - - a n d c u l t u r e - - n e c e s s a r y f o rcollaborative work. Thus, using protocols

often allows groups to build trust by actuallydoing substantive work together.

Why use a protocol? A protocol creates a structure that makes itsafe to ask challenging questions of eachother; it also ensures that there is someequity and parity in terms of how eachperson’s issue is attended to. The presenterhas the opportunity not only to reect onand describe an issue or a dilemma, but alsoto have interesting questions asked of himor her, AND to gain differing perspectivesand new insights. Protocols build in a spacefor listening, and often give people a license to listen, without having to continuallyrespond.In schools, many people say that time is of the essence, and time is one resource thatno one seems to have enough of. We have

been experimenting with protocols as a wayto make the most of the time people do nothave.Finally, it is important to remember that thepoint is not to do the protocol well, but tohave an in-depth, insightful conversationabout teaching and learning.

You can’t hold aman down withoutstaying down with

him.

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Today’s classrooms are lled with diversity. Students come from all types of backgrounds and with wide ranges of abilitiesand skills. In classrooms where diversity is embraced, students are the focus from which the curriculum develops. Indifferentiated classrooms, teachers begin where the students are and not in front of a curriculum guide. In differentiatedclassrooms, teachers ensure that students compete against themselves and not against each other. Differentiated instructionsupports our work with making stage three of our UbD units more meaningful for students. Moreover, Differentiatedinstruction ensures we reach our goal of 90 by 09.

THE RESEARCH

Major ndings presented in the research on differentiated instruction include the following:• Differentiated instruction provides multiple approaches to content, process, product, and assessment and provides a blend

of whole-class, group, and individual instruction.• Teachers in differentiated classrooms begin with a clear and solid sense of what constitutes powerful curriculum and

engaging instruction.• Differentiated instruction is proactive with teachers planning a variety of ways to “get at” and express learning.• Teachers in differentiated classrooms provide instruction that is more qualitative than quantitative.• Instruction focuses on student understanding of concepts rather than producing work.• Differentiated instruction is student-centered. It builds student understanding on previous learning and a realization that

not all students posses the same backgrounds and abilities.• Teachers in differentiated classrooms give their students as much responsibility for their learning as possible and engage

their students in talking about classroom procedure and group processes.• Differentiated classrooms provide students with options to address project assignments. The project assignments should

ensure that students rethink ideas and information previously studies.

• Differentiated instruction will help ensure that stage 3 of the UbD design process meets our students needs.

Why Differentiated Instruction?THE HOW OF WHAT WE TEACH AND ASSESS

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PLCs 90 by 09


The Process A VISUAL

PLCs 2007-2008

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