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Professional Learning Communities

with a Focus on Formative Assessments

Presented by:•Arnold Goldstein, Superintendent, North Bellmore School District•Ellen Fantauzzi, Coordinator of Funded Programs, Grants & Community/Public Relations, Bellmore-Merrick CHSD•Patricia Krizan, Curriculum Specialist/Staff Developer for the Humanities,

Bellmore-Merrick CHSD

LIASCD – October 17, 2008

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Big Ideas of Today’s Session

• An understanding of Professional Learning Communities—what they are, what they are not

• Insights into formative assessments—uses and abuses

• A journey through our process—what worked, what didn’t work, and how it can be modified for use in your district

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What are PLCs?

• If you were to spend a day in a school, closely observing the culture, what characteristics or indicators would you look for to determine if the school were a Professional Learning Community?

• What evidence would clearly indicate to you that the school was NOT a Professional Learning Community?

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Characteristics of PLCsDuFour & Eaker

Professional Learning Communities at Work

1. Shared Mission, Vision, and Values

2. Collective Inquiry

3. Collaborative Teams

4. Action Orientation and Experimentation

5. Continuous Improvement

6. Results Orientation

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Partner A – Reads #1, 2, 3Partner B – Reads #4, 5, 6

• Highlight or underline the key ideas for your assigned characteristics.

Share the key ideas from your section with a partner.

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Counting Off!

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1. Shared Mission, Vision, and Values2. Collective Inquiry3. Collaborative Teams4. Action Orientation & Experimentation5. Continuous Improvement6. Results Orientation

• Which essential characteristics are already in place in your school? What do they look like?

• What are the obstacles to establishing PLCs?

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DuFour: An important focus of PLCs is formative assessments.

How are formative assessments different from traditional exams?

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Formative assessments provide information during

the instructional process before summative assessments.

Summative assessments are assessments OF learning that are used to make judgments like grading, program effectiveness, AYP

Formative assessments are assessments FOR learning that are used by the student and teacher to make decisions about what actions to take to promote further learning*

* From Chappius and Chappius, Educational Leadership,12/07

Formative Assessmentsaka

Assessments FOR Learning

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“Learning to Love Assessment” by Carol Ann Tomlinson

Educational Leadership, Dec. 2007/Jan. 2008

What informative assessment isn’t:• Just about tests• About the grade book• Always formal• Separate from the curriculum• About “after”• An end in itself• Separate from instruction• Just about student readiness• About finding weaknesses• Just for the teacher

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What did we do?

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Creation of an In-service Course

“Successful schools operate under the assumption that the key to improved learning for students is continuous, job-embedded learning for educators.” Rick DuFour

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Developing a Professional Learning Community

A One Credit, 15 Hour In-Service Course

To All Members of the Teaching Staff,

You are invited to participate in a new In-Service Course that the

district is sponsoring. Developing a Professional Learning Community

will focus on giving teachers the opportunity to work collaboratively with

colleagues. Teams of teachers will:

• review the research behind establishing PLCs (Professional Learning Communities);

• jointly develop common goals & assessments that promote student learning;

• develop the skills to analyze data from their commonly developed assessments;

• use the data to capitalize on student strengths, to address weaknesses & to promote student success.

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Developing a Professional Learning Community

Grouping of teachersSubject area Teams

Materials On Common Ground Getting Started: Reculturing Schools to

Become Professional Learning Communities

Professional Learning Communities at Work: Best Practices for Enhancing Student Achievement

PLC

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Session #1: What is a PLC?

• Teachers work in groups to select a unit• Background on Formative Assessments is

provided:• “Learning to Love Assessments”• Review of formative assessment

strategies• Teachers begin designing their units

Session #2: Using Formative Assessment to Model PLCs

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Formative Assessments

CHECKING for Understanding: Formative Assessment Techniques for Your Classroom by Douglas Fisher & Nancy Frey

Chap. 2: Using Oral Language to Check for Understanding•Value Line•Retellings•Think-Pair-Share•Whip Around

Chap. 3: Using Questions to Check for Understanding•Bloom’s Taxonomy and question stems

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Chap. 4: Using Writing to Check for Understanding Writing to Learn/To clarify thinking Read-Write-Pair-Share Journal entries Friendly letter Poem Skit Summary writing Write a different ending to a story, event; become a character What if . . .

Chap. 5: Using Projects and Performances to Check for Understanding

“Doing with understanding,” not only as a culmination Role play, skit Audio, visual, PowerPoint presentation, computer graphics Visual displays of Information (p. 87 – 91)

Graphic organizers Concept maps

Other Strategies: 3-2-1 3 Minute Pause

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Sessions #3 – 6

• Session #3: Creating Formative Assessments

& Continued Planning

• Session #4: Analyzing the Results• Session #5: Presenting the Findings• Session #6: Evaluation & Reflection

TEACHING THE UNIT

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Session #5: Presenting the Findings

share and

discuss individual findings with your PLC.

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Then, informally, present your findings to the group:• Describe your unit: What were the goals? What

formative assessments did you use? What was the most effective? The least?

• Discuss student performance: Identify student strengths and instructional strategies that led to success. What student weaknesses did you find? How did you address these weaknesses?

• What did you learn? Were there any surprises? What were your “aha!” moments?

• Describe any changes you would make when teaching the unit again. How will you capitalize on student strengths and minimize student weaknesses in future units?

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Developing a Professional Learning

Community Group Evaluation

• Select a recorder and a facilitator

• Discuss and respond to the following questions with your group members. Your notes should include the general feelings of the group as well as any dissenting opinions. Feel free to use direct quotations (without indicating the source).

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1. What adjectives would you use to describe the PLC in-service?

Unconventional - free to shape our experience Helpful Focused

Practical Engaging Eye towards our goals Insightful RealisticPositive Productive Meaningful Motivating Inspiring Thoughtful

Challenging Enlightening

SuccessfulEducational Collaborative Well-organized

Relevant

Time-consuming Frustrating when group members are from different content areas

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2. What have been the most usefulaspects of the PLC process?

Use of formative assessments to refine day-to-day teaching Being able to assess student progress along the way Time to meet; opportunities to be innovative Opportunities to plan, discuss, reflect, question, and revise Exchange of strategies and new ideas; sharing ideas on

effective strategies; engaging students more effectively; improving lesson plans and strategies

Collaboration with professionals; learning from colleagues Collaboration challenged our ideas of good teaching Comparing/contrasting results among teachers, leading us to

self-evaluate our own teaching styles/success. On Common Ground facilitated group discussions

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3. What were the most challenging anddifficult aspects of the PLC process?

• Sessions too far apart later in the seminar causing a loss of momentum; long gaps between meetings

• Group members in different subjects/grade levels

• Difficulty creating common meeting times outside of class; lack of common planning time

• Deciding how to change those things that did not work; planning immediate modifications

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4. What changes would you make toimprove this in-service?

• Time: condensed to one semester; shorter time frame

• More collaborative time, planning time during the session itself.

• More than one credit or less work

• Meeting location with access to computers

• Must sign up with other teachers

in subject/grade level

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Other thoughts or comments?Ideas of the PLC class should be

implemented at the department levelMeet with other teachers from other

districts who use PLCsPLC #2 – same groups revisit same unit

next yearInteresting to learn a new theory in

assessments, especially when it seems that state (standardized, multiple choice) tests are taking over

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Cultural Shifts in a PLC

FROM• Providing individual

teachers with district curriculum documents

• Infrequent summative

assessments

• Individual teachers determining appropriate response to students

• Isolation

TO• Engaging collaborative

teams in building shared, essential curriculum

• Frequent formative assessments

• A systematic response that ensures support for every student

• Collaboration

Teaching

Learning

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What are other areas on which a PLC can focus?