in a PLC Gail Varney WVDE Title I School Improvement Coordinator Creating a collaborative culture is the single most important factor for successful school improvement initiatives and the first order of business for those seeking to enhance the effectiveness of their schools ID: 747309
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Slide1
Building
Collaboration
in a PLC
Gail Varney
WVDE
Title I School Improvement CoordinatorSlide2
“Creating a collaborative culture is the single most important factor for successful school improvement initiatives and the first order of business for those seeking to enhance the effectiveness of their schools.”
Eastwood and LewisSlide3
Essential Questions
What does leadership look like in a PLC?
How do we organize staff into teams to promote a focus on learning?
How do we find time for collaboration?
How do we help teams collaborate on the issues that impact student learning?
How will we respond when teams experience difficulty?Slide4
In PLCs…
Leaders motivate and inspire staffs to believe it can be done.
Leaders have strong opinions about what must happen.
Leaders clearly communicate the “musts.”
Leaders are “loose” around how the musts are accomplished.Slide5
Loose-Tight
Leadership
Neither “top down” nor “bottom-up” approach
Genius of “and” instead of “or” (simultaneously loose and tight)
Lays out the expectations
Produces strong leaders AND empowered teachersSlide6
Loose-Tight Leadership
A culture built around the idea of freedom and responsibility …
Within the framework of a highly developed system.Slide7
Principals Cannot Go It Alone…Slide8
Shared Leadership
Develops the capacity of teachers throughout the school to assume leadership roles
Taps into and shares everyone’s knowledge and skills
Principal’s role becomes “leader of leaders.”Slide9
Guiding Coalition
“We can’t ignore the willingness and readiness of a staff to implement PLC concepts in order to devote all our time and energy to convincing a few holdouts of the worthiness of the initiative.”
DuFour
, et al. (2006)Slide10
The “Right People on the Bus”
Leaders must have allies to pursue a new direction for their organizations.
Leaders need a strong leadership team.
This guiding coalition guides the process of the PLC journey.Slide11
Who is on
Your
Bus?Slide12
Activity
Share with the group at your table the names of people in your school who are ready to get on the bus. Make plans for how to get them on board.Slide13
How Do We Organize Staff Into Teams to Promote a Focus on Learning?Slide14
Organize Teams According to Their Work so Members Work to Achieve Common Goals…
Essential outcomes
Common assessments
Interventions and extensionsSlide15
Grade Level or
Subject Level Teams
The best team structure is a team of teachers who teach the same course or grade level.Slide16
Vertical Teams
Teachers can be linked with those who teach content above and/or below the level of their students.Slide17
Specialists on Teams
Specialist teachers can become members of grade-level or course-specific teams that are pursuing outcomes linked to their areas of expertise.Slide18
Electronic Teams
Technology can be a tool to create partnerships with colleagues in the county, state, or world.Slide19
How Do We Provide Team Collaboration Time?Slide20
“One of the ways in which organizations demonstrate their priorities is allocation of resources, and in schools, the most precious resource is time.”
Learning by Doing,
DuFour
,
DuFour
,
Eaker
, and Many, 2006, pg. 96 Slide21
FINDING Time…Slide22
Provide Common Planning in Master Schedule
Use Parallel Scheduling
Adjust Start and End Time
Share Classes
Schedule Group Activities, Events, and Testing
Utilize Substitutes
Bank Time
Use In-Service and Faculty Meeting Time
Embed Staff DevelopmentSlide23
PROTECTING Time…
Believe teachers will use collaboration time well.
Monitor/pay attention to how teachers use the time.
Communicate the importance of common time to parents and teachers.Slide24
Activity: Show and Tell
Create a presentation to show how your school is structuring collaboration.
Include information on collaborative teaming: how teams are structured and how time is provided for collaboration (or your plans to do so).
Share these with the whole group.Slide25
How Do PLC Teams Collaborate on the Issues That Impact Student Learning?Slide26
First, how DO PLC teams Collaborate?
Collaboration is more than working together congenially -more than communicating well or working well together.Slide27
PLC teams work together
interdependently
to achieve common goals for which they are mutually accountable.Slide28
Same goal?
Working in close proximity?
Collaborative Team?Slide29
Same goal?
Working in close proximity?
Collaborative Team?Slide30
How do PLC teams collaborate?
Every major decision related to the learning mission is made through the collaboration process.Slide31
PLC teams use team consensus
to guide decisions.
Consensus occurs when everyone’s view has been heard and the will of the group is obvious.
Consensus means everyone agrees to support the decision, publicly and privately, once it’s final.Slide32
PLC teams pursue specific and measurable performance goals.
Each collaborative team should translate one or more of the school goals into one or two SMART goals that drive the work of the team.
Strategic & Specific,
Measurable
Attainable
Results-Oriented
TimeboundSlide33
PLC teams develop team
SMART Goals
Team SMART goals should be short-term so they serve as benchmarks, tracking incremental progress.
Frequent feedback and intermittent reinforcement help sustain the effort.Slide34
PLC teams develop norms to guide their collaboration.
By what standards of behaviors will a team agree to operate?Slide35
Team Norms
Each team should create its own norms.
Norms should be stated as commitments to act or behave in certain ways (instead of beliefs)
Norms should be reviewed at the beginning and end of each meeting for at least 6 months.
Teams should formally evaluate their effectiveness at least twice a year.
Teams should focus on a few essential norms rather than creating an extensive laundry list.
Develop protocols.
Violations of norms must be addressed.Slide36
Activity
Using a consensus building activity, develop norms for your School Improvement Teams. Slide37
We know HOW to collaborate…
Now what?Slide38
Purpose of collaboration - to help more students achieve at higher levels – can only be accomplished if the professionals engaged in collaboration…Slide39
collaborate on the
RIGHT THINGS.Slide40
Effective teams engage in meaningful collaboration that is beneficial to them and their students.
The effectiveness of any team structure will depend on the extent to which it supports teacher dialogue and action aligned with the big PLC guiding questions.Slide41
Teams need access to relevant information to build a shared knowledge necessary for collaboration…
School data
Professional Development
Educational Journals and Books
Web based resourcesSlide42
Focus on the Right Things!
Identify the non-curriculum units and materials and get rid of them.
Clarify essential outcomes by grade or course.
Develop/utilize pacing guides.
Develop common assessments.
Establish targets and benchmarks.
Analyze assessment results.
Plan for interventions and instructional improvement strategies.Slide43
Other “Right Things” for Collaborative Team Focus…
Instructional practices
Grading practices
Homework practices
Intervention programsSlide44
Team Products
One of the most effective ways to enhance the productivity of a team is to insist that it produce.Slide45
Products of Collaboration
Agendas/Minutes
SMART Goals
Norms
Pacing Guides
Data
Analysis of Data
Common AssessmentsSlide46
How Will We Respond
When
Teams Experience Difficulty?Slide47
“The final challenge – and the one that solidifies success – is to build so much momentum that change is unstoppable, that everything reinforces the new behavior, that even the resistors get on board – exactly the momentum that develops in winning streaks.”
R
osabeth
Moss
KanterSlide48
Responding to Resistors
Assume good intentions.
Identify specific behaviors essential to the success of the initiative.
Focus on behavior not attitude. Monitor behavior.
Acknowledge and celebrate small victories.
Confront incongruent behavior with specific concerns and communicate logical consequences.
Don’t confront everything – just what’s in your face at the moment.Slide49
We must encourage others to express their concerns, seek to understand them, and address them honestly.
We can acquire important insights from those who challenge us.
Use restating and reframing skills when you hear a negative statement.
What we reward and what we confront is a big piece of culture building.
Goal is for teachers to confront each other – professionally – on what matters.Slide50
“You are more likely to behave yourself into new ways of thinking, not think your way into new ways of behaving.”
Michael
FullanSlide51
Review of Essential Questions
What does leadership look like in a PLC?
How do we organize staff into teams to promote a focus on learning?
How do we find time for collaboration?
How do we help teams collaborate on the issues that impact student learning?
How will we respond when teams experience difficulty?Slide52
“Creating a PLC is not advancing through a checklist of tasks to be accomplished;
It is a passionate, nonlinear, and persistent endeavor.”
DuFour
, et.al. 2008