Plcs 2007-2008

Port Susan Middle School!

WH BEL AT WE IEV D E M O AN D ATT ERS !

PLCs

August 2007

90 by 09! 1. What is it we want all students to learn?

2. How will we know

Professional Learning Communities PLCs A REVIEW BUILDING TEAM NORMS

The first step when working in a PLC is to develop the team norms. These are the agreed upon operating principles for working together collaboratively.

DESIGNING UNITS AND ASSESSMENTS

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

EXAMINING STUDENT WORK

The final step when working in a PLC is to examine student work to gather more information about student learning and to ensure that assignments are aligned with standards or agreed upon goals for excellence.

We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope!

What We Do and Believe Matters!

when they have learned it? 3. How will we respond when they do not learn? 4. How will we respond when they already know it?

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Understanding by Design IT IS A PHILOSOPHY

Understanding by design is a tool, philosophy, and framework to support intentional planning. There are three stages to UbD: STAGE 1: IDENTIFY DESIRED RESULTS

In stage 1, we consider the goals. What should students know, understand, and be able to do? What big ideas are worthy of understanding and implied in the established goals (e.g., content standards, curriculum objectives)? What “enduring” understandings are desired? What provocative questions are worth pursuing to guide student inquiry into these big ideas? What specific knowledge and skills are targeted in the goals and needed for effective performance?

1. Identify desired results.

STAGE 2: DETERMINE ACCEPTABLE EVIDENCE.

STAGE 3: PLAN LEARNING EXPERIENCES AND INSTRUCTION

The second stage we consider evidence of learning. How will we know if students have achieved the desired results and met the content standards? How will we know that students really understand the identified big ideas? What will we accept as evidence of proficiency? The backward design orientation suggests that we think about our design in terms of collected assessment evidence needed to document and validate that the desired results of Stage 1 have been achieved.

With identified results and appropriate evidence of understanding in mind, it is now time to finalize a plan for learning activities. What will need to be taught and coached, and how should it best be taught, in light of the performance goals? What sequence of activity best suits the desired results? In planning the learning activities, we consider the WHERETO elements. Those guidelines can be summed up in a questions: How will we make learning both engaging and effective, given the goals and needed evidence?

2. Determine acceptable evidence

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3. Plan learning experiences and instruction.

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Assessment DIFFERENT TYPES OF ASSESSMENT FOR DIFFERENT PURPOSES During the 2006-2007 school year, we focused on building and implementing common assessments using Understanding by Design and 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 longterm, multistaged projects, they yield one or more tangible products and performances. They differ from academic prompts in the following ways: • The setting is real or simulated and involves the kind of constraints, background “noise,” incentives and opportunities and adult would find in a similar situation (i.e., they are authentic). • Typically require the student to address an identified audience (real or simulated). • Are based on specific 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 a specific academic response, product, or performance. Such questions or problems: • Require constructed responses to specific 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 not typically scored or graded. What We Do and Believe Matters!

PLCs

EXAMINING STUDENT WORK

The goal for last year’s PLCs was to develop common units using Understanding by Design, to administer a common assessment, and to analyze student performance. I think it is safe to say we accomplished two out of the three tasks. This year, we are going to continue our work in our PLCs and intentionally focus on analyzing student performance. By using a tool to examine student work, our PLC units and assessments can be enhanced to benefit our students. EXAMINING STUDENT WORK

Every day teachers examine student work. They give quizzes and grade them; they assign and evaluate essays; they ask students to produce projects of various kinds and they score them using rubrics. The process of developing, assigning, collecting, and evaluating student work is traditionally a solitary activity, limited to the confines of the classroom. However, educators are now using student work as a vehicle to reflect in groups upon their teaching practices and to

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change or develop new teaching strategies to help all students learn. INFORMED DECISION MAKING

Examining student work lends itself to instructional decision making more than any test score can. Test scores do not enable informed decisions about what to teach and how to change instruction to help students learn. If teachers do an item analysis (a process in which teachers examine students wrong answers, looking for patterns), for example, they may find themselves teaching students minutiae. They may also find themselves trying to figure out what the distracters (the incorrect options on a multiple-choice test) in a question signal in terms of how students should be able to think about a concept or skill. Test scores are of limited use in terms of curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Working collaboratively to examine student work, educators can learn not only what their students know and are able to do but also how to help them move forward through improved classroom instruction.

What We Do and Believe Matters!

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in the moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands in times of challenge and controversy.

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Professional Development PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES ARE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Educators also desire and need quality professional development experiences that reduce the isolation they often feel, experiences that allow them to have meaningful conversations about the complex issues of teaching and learning. Outside experts--speakers, presenters, and workshop leaders--offer expertise, wisdom, and inspiration, but their messages, by themselves, seldom result in substantive change. A superb speaker at the beginning of the year can inspire, but inspiration can be short-lived in the face of classroom realities. Embedded professional development can be more effective in bringing about substantive change in the classroom. It arises from the classroom when educators contribute their personal teaching experiences to professional development discussions with their colleagues, and it returns there as educators begin to make changes with their colleagues’ support. Examining student work fits perfectly within this type of professional development. Characteristics of embedded professional development include the following: •It is rooted in classroom and school realities, and is, therefore,

tailored to the needs of those environments. •It is content rich and based on real data--student work and teacher practice. •It establishes the school as a learning community, promoting inquiry and reflective practice. •It establishes a culture of quality. •It honors the professionalism, expertise, experiences, and skills of educators. •It involves participants in the design of the experience, creating more ownership than externally planned professional development. •Because those who participate choose what they themselves will work on--something that is relevant to their school and that they care about--some level of application is ensured. •It is much less expensive than hiring an educational consultant or other type of imported expertise to lecture, when that “expert” may have little knowledge of what specific professional development activities would most benefit the school. LOGICAL PART OF PLC WORK

Examining student work is a logical part of our PLC work. This step can be incorporated after the common assessment has been given and scored What We Do and Believe Matters!

by the teacher. There are many benefits when incorporating a system that intentionally looks at student work: BENEFITS TO THE STUDENTS:

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Improved student learning Increased student clarity about intended outcomes

BENEFITS TO TEACHERS

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Commitment and confidence in ability to promote student learning Analytical and reflective inquiry skills (e.g., examining multiple factors and perspectives when analyzing a situation) Professional knowledge ✴ Content understanding ✴ Student development and learning ✴ Methods and strategies ✴ assessment design ad interpretation ✴ Contextual factors Aligning among classroom s t a n d a rd s, i n s t r u c t i o n , a n d assessments Awareness and self-assessment ✴ Influence of feelings and beliefs on assumptions and actions.

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Collaborative Analysis Protocol 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, time allocation)? 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: Reflection: It is the presenting teachers turn to speak. The presenter provides his/her perspective on the student’s work, responding to the questions raised and adding any other information that he/she feels important. Most importantly, the presenter 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 reflection, teachers identify next steps. The teacher may use the following questions to guide this discussion: •What additional information or data (if any) do we need to more fully understand the student’s learning before we can decide 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 the reasons for identifying this short term goal? •What teaching strategies are likely to help the student achieve the short term learning goal? Explain why these strategies will work. •How will we use what we learned today to help other students?

What We Do and Believe Matters!

PLCs

ADAPTATIONS TO THE PROCESS

To further enhance the benefits of examining student work, you or your PLC may consider implementing the following elements: •Choose two students to focus on throughout the school year who represent a cluster of students who are presenting learning challenges (high or low). •Keep a portfolio that documents the work of the two students, and the strategies and methods tried along with your reflections. WHY PROTOCOLS

First What are protocols? •A protocol consist of an agreed upon guidelines for a conversation, and it is the existence of this structure--which everyone understands and has agreed to--that permits a certain kind of conversation to occur--often a kind of conversation which people are not in the habit of doing. •Protocols are vehicles for building the skills--and culture--necessary for collaborative work. Thus, using protocols

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often allows groups to build trust by actually doing substantive work together. Why use a protocol? A protocol creates a structure that makes it safe to ask challenging questions of each other; it also ensures that there is some equity and parity in terms of how each person’s issue is attended to. The presenter has the opportunity not only to reflect on and describe an issue or a dilemma, but also to have interesting questions asked of him or her, AND to gain differing perspectives and new insights. Protocols build in a space for listening, and often give people a license to listen, without having to continually respond. In schools, many people say that time is of the essence, and time is one resource that no one seems to have enough of. We have been experimenting with protocols as a way to make the most of the time people do not have. Finally, it is important to remember that the point is not to do the protocol well, but to have an in-depth, insightful conversation about teaching and learning. What We Do and Believe Matters!

You can’t hold a man down without staying down with him.

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Why Differentiated Instruction? THE HOW OF WHAT WE TEACH AND ASSESS Today’s classrooms are filled with diversity. Students come from all types of backgrounds and with wide ranges of abilities and skills. In classrooms where diversity is embraced, students are the focus from which the curriculum develops. In differentiated classrooms, teachers begin where the students are and not in front of a curriculum guide. In differentiated classrooms, teachers ensure that students compete against themselves and not against each other. Differentiated instruction supports our work with making stage three of our UbD units more meaningful for students. Moreover, Differentiated instruction ensures we reach our goal of 90 by 09. THE RESEARCH

Major findings 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.

What We Do and Believe Matters!

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The Process A VISUAL

1. Develop a common unit using Understanding by Design (UbD).

2. Develop a common assessment or use an ESD 189 CBA or State of Washington CBA.

3. Use The CASL to analyze student performance and to adjust instruction.

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