The Professional Learning Communities Journey: from Beginning to'''

1
The Professional Learning Communities Journey
from Beginning to...

• Green River Regional Educational Cooperative
• Coaching Academy
• Session One
• January 20 - 21, 2009

• Tim Brown
• Solution Tree Associate
• browncharl2_at_gmail.com

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Coaches Academy

• Purpose
• To support the implementation of Professional
  Learning Communities by providing educational
  leaders with the knowledge, tools, and skills to
  effectively coach others in their schools
  throughout the change process.

3
TODAYS AGENDA

• Introductions
• Understanding the intent of the coaching academy
• Identification of the role of the coach
• Developing an understanding of the Professional
  Learning Community model
• Reflections and Planning

4
Guiding Questions

• Why are we here?
• What resources are available?
• What is my role in this process?
• What is a Professional Learning Community?
• What have we learned and what are we going to do
  about it?

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Who Am I???

• Tim Brown
• Retired from public education after 28 years
• Director for the Professional Learning
  Communities Project at the Heart of Missouri
  Regional Professional Development Center in
  Columbia, Missouri
• Solution Tree Associate
• Favorite quote Be the change you want to see in
  the world. Mahatma Ghandi

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Focus on What We Can Change

• LOOK AT MOMENT TO MOMENT OPPORTUNITIES
• MOTIVATE
• INSPIRE
• CHALLENGE
• PROVIDE MODELS
• ENCOURAGE
• CELEBRATE ACCOMPLISHMENTS
• HAVE HIGH EXPECTATIONS BACKED BY ACTIONS

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Norms

• Solo Learning
• Small Group Learning
• Large Group Learning

What do you need from others in the room to
enhance your learning?
Handout page 3
8

• What are my learning goals for my participation
  in PLC Coaching?
• Read the quotes on page 4
• Select the quote that most appeals to you
• Share your thoughts about the quote with your
  teammates
• Reflect on your learning goals for this academy

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A Learning Community is Characterized by

• Shared Mission, Vision, Values and Goals
• Collaborative teams
• Collective inquiry
• Action orientation / experimentation
• Commitment to continuous improvement
• Results orientation

DuFour and Eaker, Professional Learning
Communities at Work, 1998
Handout
10
PLC Attributes Jigsaw

• Read your assigned attribute(s)
• Share your attribute with your table group.
• In what ways are the essential attributes of a
  PLC evident in your school/district?
• What are examples of the attributes you can share
  and celebrate?

Handout Page 5
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The most promising strategy for sustained,
substantive school improvement is building the
capacity of school personnel to function as a
professional learning community. Milbrey
McLaughlin
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Creating a Collaborative Culture is a journey...
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It begins with a shared understanding of where
you want to go, together,
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and is fueled by a continuous process of
building the skill and the will to share
responsibility for the success of all learners.
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Why would we want to create a professional
learning community?
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• About 30 percent of high school students drop out
  before graduation
• 1 million students fail to graduate from high
  school every year.
• One high school student drops out every nine
  seconds
• (Lehr, Johnson, Bremer, Cosio, Thompson,
  2004)

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• High School drop outs are 72 more likely to be
  unemployed and they will earn 27 less than high
  school graduates.
• Dropouts make up nearly half the heads of
  households on welfare.
• Male and female students with low academic
  achievement are twice as likely to become parents
  by their senior year of high school compared to
  students with high academic achievement.

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• Studies show that each class of high school
  dropouts costs the nation more than 200 billion
  in lost wages and tax revenues, as well as
  spending for social support programs.
• The U.S. death rate for those with fewer than 12
  years of education is 2.5 times higher than the
  rate of those with 13 or more years of education.
  
• Dropouts make up nearly half the prison
  population.
• (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2003b)

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What can we do?

• A study in Philadelphia found that a sixth-grade
  student having one of the following risk factors
  has a 10 chance of graduating from high school
  on time, and a 20 chance of graduating one year
  late.
• Attendance below 80
• Poor behavior
• Failing math grade
• Failing English grade
• (Philadelphia Education Fund, 2005)

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What can we do?

• A 2006 study by Civic Enterprises dropouts shared
  their insights on why they left school before
  graduation. They cited a number of factors that
  would have kept them in school
• enhancing the connection between school and work
• providing real-world learning experiences
• making school more relevant and engaging
• providing more help to struggling students.

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What can we do?

• We must help youth to overcome their sense of
  disconnectedness. We have a responsibility to
  step in and end the "slow disengagement" that
  leads 16-year-olds to opt out of their basic
  right to a great public school.
• Reg Weaver
• NEAtoday, November 2006

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Why would we want to create a professional
learning community?
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Why would we want to create a professional
learning community?
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The rules changed. Where once we were asked to
sort and select, now we are asked to guarantee
all.
Todays Expectations

• Rick Stiggins, Assessment Trainers Institute

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We must change from a model that picks winners
to one that will create winners.Harold
Hodgkinson, 1987Michigan The State and Its
Educational System
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The Normal Distribution
Standard Deviations
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Yesterdays Desired Growth
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Todays Desired Growth
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Why would we want to create a professional
learning community?
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Correlates of Effective Schools

• Strong Instructional Leadership
• Clear and Focused Mission
• Safe and Orderly Environment
• Climate of High Expectations
• Frequent Monitoring of Student Progress
• Positive Home/School Relations
• Opportunity to Learn Student Time on Task

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Twelve Norms of a Healthy School Culture

• Collegiality
• Experimentation
• High Expectations
• Trust and Confidence
• Tangible Support
• Teaching to the Knowledge Base
• Appreciation and Recognition
• Caring, Celebration and Humor
• Involvement in Decision-making
• Protection of Whats Important
• Traditions
• Honest and Open Communication

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Random Acts of Improvement
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PLC Framework
Aligned Acts of Improvement
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Is a Professional Learning Community...
A prescription or a recipe?
NO !
A new program?
NO !
35
Why would we want to create a professional
learning community?
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Fact

• Teachers Matter
• Regardless of the research basis, it is clear
  that effective teachers have a profound impact on
  student achievement and ineffective teachers do
  not. In fact, ineffective teachers might actually
  impede the learning of their students.

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Fundamental Assumptions

• We can make a difference Our schools can be
  more effective
• People improvement is the key to school
  improvement
• Significant school improvement will impact
  teaching and learning

DuFour DuFour Eaker, 2003
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Is Your School Ready for Professional Learning
Communities? Are you ready to lead?What will
it mean for you?
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The Four Hats of School Leadership
Presenting
Coaching
Consulting
Facilitating
Handout
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Handout

• Read the handout on the Four Hats of Leadership
• With your team discuss how these hats relate to
  your role as a member of the leadership team
• For each Hat identify some of the actions you
  would take as a coach
• Identify some venues or opportunities where you
  see these actions can happen
• Be prepared to share you thoughts and suggestions
  with others in the room

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(No Transcript)
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With your colleagues
Handout
43
Check out the tools of your trade!
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What is a Professional Learning Community?

• TERMS travel easily,
• but the meaning of the underlying concepts
• do not.
• Michael Fullan, 2005

?
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What is a Professional Learning Community?

• Define each term
• Share your understanding of the three terms with
  a partner
• Write your definition of a Professional Learning
  Community
• Be prepared to share with the rest of the group
• Therefore, a professional learning community is

handout
46
Making the Complex, Simple

• The professional learning community model
  requires the school staff to focus on learning
  rather than teaching, work collaboratively on
  matters related to learning, and hold itself
  accountable for the kind of results that fuel
  continual improvement.

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Three Big Ideas

• Set Priorities
• Focus on learning rather than teaching
• Best Practices
• Work collaboratively
• People, Process, Tasks
• Hold ourselves accountable for results
• Data Driven
• SMART Goals
• Pyramid of Interventions

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Considering Culture as you begin

• Assumptions
• Beliefs
• Expectations
• Habits
• The norms or the way we think and act.

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CHARACTERISTIC 1 Shared Mission, Vision,
Values and Goals

• At the heart of a schools culture are its
  mission and purpose the focus of what people
  do. Although not easy to define, mission and
  purpose instill the intangible forces that
  motivate teachers to teach, school leaders to
  lead, children to learn, and parents to have
  confidence in their school. Terry Deal and
  Kent Peterson

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Learning By Doing - Case Study

• Individually read the case study of principal
  Cynthia Dions efforts to create a new mission
  for her new school.
• Choose a recorder for your group.
• At your tables discuss the reflection question
  that is offered at the end of the case study.
• Be ready to share with others in the room
• Consider
• Processes for sharing knowledge
• Moving the dialogue to action
• Checking current reality
• Posing the right questions
• Emotions of the leader

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Biggest Process Struggle

• Failure to build shared knowledge
• Assess current reality
• Attend training and awareness institutes
• Listen to testimonials from teachers who are part
  of a PLC
• Go on a site visit
• Read articles and books
• Allthingsplc.info

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Confused writing a mission with living a mission

• Describe in vivid detail the school they hoped to
  create.
• Effective Schools correlates
• Describe specific practices
• Discuss specific commitments they would make
• Shared her commitments with the staff.
• Identify indicators to monitor to assess
  progress.
• Establish team goals
• Celebrate team goals

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Clarity of Purpose

• Mission asks Why? Why do we exist?
• Vision asks What? What do we want to become?
• Values and Collective Commitments asks How? How
  must we behave to create the school that will
  achieve our purpose?
• Goals ask How? How will we know all of this is
  making a difference?

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Shared Mission, Vision, Values,
GoalsCommunicating the Message

• We build significance through the use of many
  expressive and symbolic forms rituals,
  ceremonies, icons, music, and stories. Humans
  have always created and used symbols as a
  foundation for meaning. Organizations without a
  rich symbolic life become empty and sterile. The
  magic of special occasions is vital in building
  significance into collective life.
• (Bolman and Deal, 1995)

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CommunicatingBeliefs Expectations - Vision

• What do I want my classroom to look like for
  students and for me?
• To achieve this I will
• How do I want my students to interact with each
  other and with me?
• To achieve this I will
• How do I want my students to approach learning?
• To achieve this I will

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Mission Why do we exist?What is your BHAG for
your school?

• BIG HAIRY AUDACIOUS GOAL
• A huge and daunting goal like a big mountain
  to climb.
• It is clear, compelling, and people get it
  right way.
• It serves as a unifying focal point of effort,
  galvanizing people and creating team spirit as
  people strive toward a finish line.
• Like the 1960s NASA moon mission, a BHAG
  captures the imagination and grabs people in the
  gut.

Jim Collins Good To Great
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To Be

• World Famous
• The Best School In Town
• An Accelerated Academy
• The Best Science Department in the State
• Dedicated to Student Success

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• We believe that all students can and must learn
  at relatively high levels of achievement.
• It is our job to create an environment in our
  classrooms that results in this high level of
  performance.
• We are confident that with our support and help,
  students can master challenging academic
  material, and we expect them to do so.
• We are prepared to work collaboratively with
  colleagues, students, and parents to achieve this
  growth.
• DuFour,
  DuFour, Eaker

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Collective Commitments

• Individually decide on a commitment you can make
  for each strand of the vision statement that
  would further this statement.
• Write it down on a sticky note.
• Post your sticky notes on our school vision
  statement.
• Read the commitments of the staff.
• Make a master list of the collective commitments
  of the staff.
• Revisit it and celebrate it at the end of the
• school year.

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Perlatas Collective Commitments

• We will be optimistic and enthusiastic
• We will respect all staff, students and their
  families
• We will include the parents and the community in
  the learning process
• We will have high expectations for all students
  and ourselves
• We will accept responsibility for student
  learning and developing each students potential
• We will identify the essential outcomes, develop
  a common pacing guide and teach the same
  standards at our grade level at the same time

Handout
61
Perlatas Collective Commitments

• We will work collaboratively in developing
  instructional strategies and designing common
  assessments
• We will monitor the achievement of our individual
  students and use the results to guide our
  processes of continuous improvement
• We will model everything we expect from our
  students including life-long learning, behaviors
  and respect

Handout
62
The Art and Science of Teaching Robert J.
MarzanoWhat will we do to

• Establish and communicate learning goals, track
  student progress, and celebrate success?
• Help students effectively interact with new
  knowledge?
• Help students practice and deepen their
  understanding of new knowledge
• Help students generate and test hypothesis about
  new knowledge?

Handout
63
What will we do to

• Engage students?
• Recognize and acknowledge adherence and lack of
  adherence to classroom rules and procedures?
• Establish and maintain effective relationships
  with students?
• Communicate high expectations for all students?
• Develop effective lessons organized into a
  cohesive unit?

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What Happens Next?

• The topic is back on the table
• Find examples of the vision in actionand tell
  the stories
• Listen
• Make it part of our conversation

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REMEMBER MISSION, VISION and VALUES and GOALS
ARE NOT ONE TIME THINGS

• Begins a necessary conversation
• Reinvigorates workers
• Inspires innovation and service
• Renews commitment

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You are not an accident!!!Communication Audit

• What do we plan for?
• What do we monitor?
• What do we model?
• What questions do we ask?
• How do we allocate time?
• What do we celebrate?
• What are we willing to confront?

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Focus on the LearningTeam Implications
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Mission, Vision, Values and Goals Rubric

• Read through each element on the rubric.
• Underline those things that are currently
  happening in your school
• Discuss to see where you would rank your school
  on the rubric
• What evidence do you have?
• Plan one thing to further your school on the
  rubric?

handout
69
Coachs Reflections

• What makes sense to you?
• What can you use back in your building?
• What do you need to make it work?

handout
70
What is the business of our business? The answer
to this question is the first step in setting
priorities.

• Judith Bandwick

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What is the one thing?

• We make learning rather than teaching the
  fundamental purpose
• of our school.

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TYPES of SCHOOLS

• Learning is based upon the students ability.
• Learning takes place if the student takes
  advantage of the opportunities to learn within
  the school.
• All students can learn something, and we will
  create a warm pleasant environment for them to
  learn.
• All students can learn and we will do whatever
  it takes to help students learn and achieve the
  agreed upon curriculum/ standards.

Handout
73
QUESTIONS to CONSIDER

• Which school did you attend?
• In which school do you currently work?
• In which school do you want to work?
• Which school do you want your kids to attend?

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Beginning the JourneyReflection on the first Big
IdeaWhat does it mean to have a focus on
learning rather than teaching?
handout

• What would be the evidence?
• What practices would we be doing?

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Focus on Learning Topics

• Grading practices
• Homework practices
• Intervention programs
• Tasks of teams

• Curriculum practices
• Assessment practices
• Instructional practices

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Curriculum Practices

• Essential learning outcomes and learning targets
  for every course at every grade level
• Develop pacing guides
• Teach at the same pace as much as possible
• Stop teaching non-curriculum units and materials
• Inform students
• Inform parents
• Inform each other

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Assessment Practices

• Formative and summative
• Clear expectations for students
• Frequent progress monitoring
• Use data to examine best practices and drive
  instruction
• Include variety and choice
• Project based

Oxford Academy and Central School
District Oxford, NY August, 2008
78
Instructional Practices

• Varied approachesaddress a variety of learning
  styles and abilities
• Reflecting on and sharing best practices
• Academic choice
• Communicate with colleagues about student
  learning
• Cooperative learning
• Use of all levels of Blooms Taxonomy
• Self-directed learning
• Vocabulary development
• Student sharing
• Re-teaching

Oxford Academy and Central School
District Oxford, NY August, 2008
79
Grading Practices

• Use of rubrics
• Instant results
• Portfolio assessment
• Clear constructive feedback for students
• Grading based on improvement/mastery
• Based on essential outcomes

Oxford Academy and Central School
District Oxford, NY August, 2008
80
Homework Practices

• Supportive environment for student success
• Extension of time and support when needed
• Meaningful
• Relevant to class/extension of class
• Break work into manageable pieces
• Varied according to ability
• Relevant to learning target
• Opportunity to reflect on what has been learned
• Opportunity to apply learned skills
• Minimal weight in the overall averagehomework is
  practice

Oxford Academy and Central School
District Oxford, NY August, 2008
81
Intervention Programs

• Based on student needs
• Documented
• Use assessment data to drive and assess
  intervention
• Frequent
• Timely
• Flexible
• Effective use of referral system

Oxford Academy and Central School
District Oxford, NY August, 2008
82
What makes sense and what are some questions?
QUESTIONS
QUESTIONS
QUESTIONS
MAKES SENSE
TURN AND TALK
Handout page 22
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Feedback
Plus
Delta
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The Professional Learning Communities Journey
from Beginning to...

• Green River Regional Educational Cooperative
• Coaching Academy
• Session One
• January 20 21, 2009

• Tim Brown
• Solution Tree Associate
• browncharl2_at_gmail.com

85
What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are
insignificant compared to what lies within
us. Oliver Wendell Holmes
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Goals for the Day

• Building the Collaborative Culture of a
  Professional Learning Community
• Defining a Collaborative Culture
• Understanding Collaborative Teams
• Defining Collective Responsibility

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Guiding Questions

• What has come clear since last we met?
• What is collaboration and what makes it different
  from teams?
• How should we organize teams?
• How do we find time for teams?
• How can we provide the parameters and framework
  to ensure teams use their collaborative time in
  ways that have a positive impact on student
  learning?
• What have we learned and what are we going to do
  about it?

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What has become clear to you since last we met? -
Oliver Wendell Holmes

• I thought about
• I have some questions about.
• I want to expand and explore some ideas

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A Learning Community is Characterized by

• Shared Mission, Vision, Values and Goals
• Collaborative teams
• Collective inquiry
• Action orientation / experimentation
• Commitment to continuous improvement
• Results orientation

DuFour and Eaker, Professional Learning
Communities at Work, 1998
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PLC BIG Idea 2 Collaborative Culture
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Big Idea Number TwoCollaborative
Teams People.. Process Tasks

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Structures for Collaborative Teams

• People
• Know people
• Align people to tasks
• Process
• Efficient and Effective
• Tasks
• Centered on Learning
• Anne Conzemius and Jan
  ONeill THE HANDBOOK FOR SMART SCHOOL TEAMS

93
What is collaboration?
A systematic process in which we work together,
interdependently, to analyze and impact
professional practice in order to improve our
individual and collective results. DuFour, Eaker,
DuFour
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Learning by Doing
Handout page 31-32

• Consider the scenario about collaboration
• Answer the reflection question at the end of the
  scenario
• Be prepared to share your thoughts with other in
  the room.
• Why did Principal McDonalds efforts to build a
  collaborative culture in his school go awry?
• What steps might he take to improve upon the
  situations

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Simply being collaborative does not make change

• Members of a Learning Community must call on each
  others knowledge, skills, and aspirations to
  address their goal.

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Great Teams What have they got?

• Think about great teams you have been on.
• What were some of the attributes that created a
  great team experience?
• Discuss how those same attributes can be part of
  what we do in our collaborative teams at school.

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Attributes of Effective Teams

• Trust
• Deal with conflict as a team
• Build shared knowledge and make commitments
• Members hold themselves accountable to each other
  and the goals of the team
• Support each other to reach team goals

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Think about it!

• Successful schools are places where teams of
  teachers meet regularly to focus on student work
  through assessment and change their instructional
  practice accordingly to get better results.
• Michael Fullan, 2000

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What does it mean to collaborate?
100
Are we a group or a team?
101
What made the difference?
102
Collaborative Teams

• Meaningful experience
• A sense of being part of something larger than
  the self
• A sense of being connected
• A sense of being generative

Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline (1990)
103
Collaboration, Cooperation or Coordination

• With a small group . . .
• Review the explanations for collaboration,
  cooperation and coordination
• How do these terms apply to your everyday
  professional interaction?

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Coachs Reflections

• What makes sense to you?
• What can you use back in your building?
• What do you need to make it work?

handout
105

• The best place to succeed is where you are with
  what youve got.
• --Charles M. Schwab

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Five Dysfunctions of TeamsPatrick Lencioni

• Absence of Trust
• Fear of Conflict
• Lack of Commitment
• Avoidance of Accountability
• Inattention to Results

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Patrick Lencioni The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
INATTENTION TO RESULTS
AVOIDANCE OF ACCOUNTABILITY
LACK OF COMMITMENT
FEAR OF CONFLICT
ABSENCE OF TRUST
108
Dysfunction Evidence
Absence of Trust Invulnerability Fear of
Conflict Artificial Harmony Lack of
Commitment Ambiguity Avoidance of
Accountability Low Standards Inattention to
Results Status and Ego
Handout pg 131
109
Compass Points Activity
Handout
110

• What are the strengths of your style? (4
  adjectives)
•  
• What are the limitations of your style? (4
  adjectives)
•  
• What style do you find the most difficult to work
  with?
•  
• What do other people need to know about you so
  that we can work together more effectively?

111
Collaborative Culture

• Educators who are building a professional
  learning community recognize that they must work
  together to achieve their collective purpose of
  learning for all. Therefore, they create
  structures to promote a collaborative culture.
• Richard DuFour
• ON COMMON GROUND

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Norms help establish
TRUSTThe standards of behaviors by which we
agree to operate while we are in this group.
113
Team Norms

• Creating Team Norms
• Give each team member 5-7 Post-It note.
• Give team members 5 minutes to identify norms and
  write them on the Post-It notes.
• Put all post it notes out in the middle of a
  table.
• Give the team 15 minutes to group the Post-Its in
  silence.
• Give the team 20 minutes to discuss groupings and
  prioritize norms.
• Write prioritized norms on chart paper to post
  during team members.
• These may be decorated and laminated.

114
NORMS for LEARNING COLLABORATION

• 1. Listen through the filter of a question.
• 2. Set aside distractions.
• 3. Learn by doing and sharing.
• 4. Be open and honest.
• 5. Listen ACTIVELY.
• 6. Respect and value everyone
• in the group.
• 7. Focus and Reflect purposefully
• 8. Participate actively

115
Meeting Agenda and Logs
Handout
116
Patrick Lencioni The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
INATTENTION TO RESULTS
AVOIDANCE OF ACCOUNTABILITY
LACK OF COMMITMENT
FEAR OF CONFLICT
ABSENCE OF TRUST
117
What Conflicts????

• What to teach
• How to teach
• When to teach
• Where to teach
• How to measure
• What to measure
• When to measure
• Resources

• Materials
• Technology
• Projects
• Homework
• Grades
• Expectations
• Guidelines
• Protocols

118
Crucial Conversations

• Clarify what you want and what you do not want to
  result from the conversation
• Attempt to find mutual purpose
• Create a safe environment for honest dialogue
• Use facts because gathering facts is the
  homework required for crucial conversation.
• Share your thought process that has led to the
  conversation
• Encourage recipients to share their facts and
  thought process

Handout page 43
119
Crucial Conversation Practice

• Structured Inquiry
• In triads, identify person A, B, and C.
• 2 minutes
• A describes the situation and dilemma
• 7 minutes
• A role plays the challenging party in the dilemma
• B models a crucial conversation
• 2 minutes
• C describes what he/she observed giving
  specific evidence
• 3 minutes
• Open discussion

Handout page 44
120

• Your meetings have become a Gripe session.
  Christine dominates the conversation with her
  criticism of the administration and the way
  things are run around here. Its keeping the
  team from getting work done.

121

• Robert is a veteran member of the teaching staff
  who regularly communicates low expectations about
  .. Everything!!! Hes consistently bringing up
  the way it used to be stories. This time hes
  talking about special education. Hes referred
  several kids that he knows belong in special
  education and they just keep delaying placement
  because they say he needs to try some different
  strategies in his classroom.

122

• In the last team meeting Sally Sue became
  unglued. She yelled and screamed at Bob because
  he just goes along with everything! She is fed
  up with his happy-go-lucky approach to the
  world and his whatever it takes attitude. Its
  her opinion that he gives kids too many chances
  to get their work done and too many opportunities
  to earn a good grade in his class. Consequently,
  his failure rate is much lower than her failure
  rate . It was an awkward meeting to say the least.

123
Patrick Lencioni The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
INATTENTION TO RESULTS
AVOIDANCE OF ACCOUNTABILITY
LACK OF COMMITMENT
FEAR OF CONFLICT
ABSENCE OF TRUST
124
Team Protocol-Consensus

• Building consensus on the critical questions
  that constitute the foundation of a learning
  community is an important step in developing the
  capacity to function as a professional learning
  community.
• But what is consensus?

125
Common Mistakes in Building Consensus

• We try to get it alone, rather than building a
  guiding coalition
• We use a forum that is ill-suited to the dialogue
  that is typically necessary for consensus
• We pool opinions rather than build shared
  knowledge
• We feel we need consensus on each, specific
  detail of implementation
• We set an unrealistic standard for consensus and
  invest too much energy in resisters

126
Consensus

• We arrive at consensus when two criteria are met
• All possible points of view have been heard
• The will of the group becomes evident even to
  those who most oppose the solution

DuFour, DuFour, Eaker
127
Consensus

• According to Bob Chadwick, creator and designer
  of the Consensus Institute, true consensus does
  not reside in the words rather, it resides in
  the visible behaviors.

(Consensus Institute, July 1997)
128
Fist to Five

• 5 - Ill champion
• 4 - Strongly agree
• 3 - Agree
• 2 - Reservations
• 1 - Oppose
• Fist - veto

129
Voices and Visual Cues

• Soundings
• Corners
• Pros and Cons
• Silent Post-its
• Thumbs
• Fist of Five
• Human Continuum
• Chart Continuum

130
In Attempting to Build Consensus

• Did we build shared knowledge regarding best
  practice?
• Did we honestly assess our current reality?
• Did we ensure all points of view were heard?
• Was the will of the group evident even to those
  who opposed it?
• IF THE ANSWER TO EACH OF THE ABOVE IS YES, GO FOR
  IT!!

131
Patrick Lencioni The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
INATTENTION TO RESULTS
AVOIDANCE OF ACCOUNTABILITY
LACK OF COMMITMENT
FEAR OF CONFLICT
ABSENCE OF TRUST
132

• Its not
• Who is the best teacher
• Its
• What are the best practices to get results

133
Patrick Lencioni The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
INATTENTION TO RESULTS
AVOIDANCE OF ACCOUNTABILITY
LACK OF COMMITMENT
FEAR OF CONFLICT
ABSENCE OF TRUST
134
Big Idea Number ThreeResults Oriented

• PLC Characteristics
• Collective Inquiry
• Action Orientation and Experimentation
• Commitment to Continuous Improvement
• Results Oriented

135
Focused Collaboration
Collaborative cultures, which by definition have
close relationships, are indeed powerful. BUT,
unless they are focusing on the right things they
may end up being powerfully wrong. Michael
Fullan
136
Collaborate about what?
If we want our school improvement efforts to have
a significant impact on student learning, we
should focus those efforts on the factors that
significantly impact learning.
137
Curriculum
The Learning Environment
Key Areas of Focus
Assessment
Instruction
138
Four Corollary Questions

• What do we want students to learn?
• How will we know that they have learned it?
• What will we do if they dont?
• What will we do if they do?

139
REFLECTIONS

• Using the Reflection on Big Idea NO. 1 sheet
• What are some things that reaffirmed your
  thinking?
• What are some new things you are considering?
• What are some things you will do differently this
  year?

140

• Team
• Time

Pages 49
141
Time for Homework!

• Read Learning By Doing Chapters 1,3,7
• Conduct a Needs Assessment of Your School
  Learning by Doing pages 60 64 and pages 156 -
  157
• Begin the PLC journey! Try Some Activities