The Big Ideas of PLCs
Big Idea 1 - Ensuring Student Learning
The professional learning community model flows from the assumption that the core mission of formal education is not simply to ensure that students are taught but to ensure that they learn.
1. What do we want each student to learn? (Goals/Expectations)
2. How will we know when each student has learned it? (Assessment)
3. How will we respond when a student experiences difficulty in learning? (Intervention)
4. How will we respond when they already know it? (Enrichment)
Big Idea #2: Culture of Collaboration
The powerful collaboration that characterizes professional learning communities is a systematic process in which teachers work together to analyze and improve their classroom practice. Teachers work in teams, engaging in an ongoing cycle of questions that promote deep team learning. This process, in turn, leads to higher levels of student achievement.
Big Idea #3: Focusing on Results
Professional learning communities judge their effectiveness on the basis of results. Every teacher team participates in an ongoing process of:
identifying the current level of student achievement,
establishing a goal to improve the current level,
working together to achieve that goal, and
providing periodic evidence of progress.
-DuFour and Eaker, 2006
The professional learning community model flows from the assumption that the core mission of formal education is not simply to ensure that students are taught but to ensure that they learn.
1. What do we want each student to learn? (Goals/Expectations)
2. How will we know when each student has learned it? (Assessment)
3. How will we respond when a student experiences difficulty in learning? (Intervention)
4. How will we respond when they already know it? (Enrichment)
Big Idea #2: Culture of Collaboration
The powerful collaboration that characterizes professional learning communities is a systematic process in which teachers work together to analyze and improve their classroom practice. Teachers work in teams, engaging in an ongoing cycle of questions that promote deep team learning. This process, in turn, leads to higher levels of student achievement.
Big Idea #3: Focusing on Results
Professional learning communities judge their effectiveness on the basis of results. Every teacher team participates in an ongoing process of:
identifying the current level of student achievement,
establishing a goal to improve the current level,
working together to achieve that goal, and
providing periodic evidence of progress.
-DuFour and Eaker, 2006
What does a PLC look like?
SMART Goals allow for learning-centered goals to be monitored and results-driven.
SMART Goal = Specific & Strategic, Measurable, Attainable, Results-oriented, Time-bound
"We will reduce our Partially Proficient rate in student writing by at least 5%
as measured by benchmark assessments by June 2016."
SMART Goal = Specific & Strategic, Measurable, Attainable, Results-oriented, Time-bound
"We will reduce our Partially Proficient rate in student writing by at least 5%
as measured by benchmark assessments by June 2016."