PLC Toolkit - Rich Smith Graphic PDF

Toolkit for Completing a Cycle of Inquiry on a Collaborative Team Click Here for Directions on Using this Toolkit Click Here for Information for Crediting or Contacting Bill Ferriter -- the Creator of this Toolkit. Direct Link to Toolkit: b.link/plctoolkit 1 Directions for Using This Toolkit: h...

Toolkit for Completing a Cycle of Inquiry on a Collaborative Team Click Here for Directions on Using this Toolkit Click Here for Information for Crediting or Contacting Bill Ferriter -- the Creator of this Toolkit. Direct Link to Toolkit: b.link/plctoolkit 1 Directions for Using This Toolkit: https://youtu.be/cmJdeErRr2w?si=UfL5dIeXjKU6caqR 2 What Do We Want Student to Learn: The first critical question that teams answer when conducting a cycle of inquiry around their instruction is, “What do we want students to learn?” Our goal is to identify a small handful of truly essential outcomes that we can study together. We identify essentials to provide focus for our collaborative efforts. If we have a limited amount of time to collaborate, let’s spend that time studying things that REALLY matter. To learn more about the steps teams take when identifying essentials, return to the cycle and click on the colored boxes listed under the first critical question of learning. 4 Identify an Essential: The first step that teams take when starting a cycle of inquiry is identifying one essential outcome that they want to study together. Essentials are often specific standards from the grade level curriculum, but teams can also study academic skills and dispositions together. Teams generally study one essential outcome at a time. Doing so ensures that the team has the time to think deeply together about the best ways to teach that outcome to students. Remember the mantra, “Do less, but do it well.” Products to Create: Lists of essentials for each unit of study or for each quarter. 5 Resources for Identifying Essentials: The following resources can be used to support teams working on identifying essential standards: Tool - Using R.E.A.L. to Identify Essential Standards Tool - Helping Singletons to Identify Essential Skills and Dispositions Worth Studying Video - Creating Meaningful Collaborative Opportunities for Singleton Teachers 6 Understand Collectively Each Essential: This step is the most important -- and most frequently skipped -- step in the entire cycle of inquiry. Teams must work together to build shared clarity on (1). What an essential means and (2). What mastery of an essential looks like in action. Notice that this step happens before teams begin any lesson planning. Here’s why: It is impossible to plan effective lessons, design reliable assessments, or plan effective interventions and extensions if you don’t have a rich understanding of the essential that you are trying to teach. Products to Create: An Unpacked Standard, Proficiency Scales 7 Resources For Collectively Understanding Essentials: The following resources can be used to support teams working to build a shared understanding of an essential. Tool - Deconstructing an Essential Standard Tool - Creating Proficiency Scales Slides - Introducing Proficiency Scales to Teachers Video - How are Proficiency Scales Useful to Teachers Tool - Using ChatGPT to Unpack a Standard Tool - Using ChatGPT to Write a Proficiency Scale 8 Lesson / Unit Development: Once a team has developed shared clarity around their essential, they begin to study strategies for teaching that essential. The first resource that they should reference is any district level curriculum materials that they have access to. Teams should also use their own experience and expertise to identify strategies worth trying. Remember that there should be variation in the way that teachers teach an essential standard. You are experimenting with practice together -so be deliberate about trying different things while you teach your essential. Products to Create: Pacing Guides, Unit Planners, Lists of Prerequisite Standards 9 Resources for Lesson / Unit Development: The following resources can be used to support teams working on lesson/unit development. Tool - Essential Standards Chart Tool - Developing a Shared Pacing Guide Tool - Prerequisite Planning Document Tool - Planning Instruction for an Essential Outcome Video - What Role Does Common Pacing Play on a Collaborative Team 10 How Will We Know When Students Have Mastered an Essential? The second critical question that collaborative teacher teams answer when conducting a cycle of inquiry around their instruction is, “How will we know when students have mastered our essentials?” When answering this critical question of learning, teams develop, deliver, and analyze common formative assessments. Our goal in the assessment process is to identify student in need of additional time and support for learning AND to identify instructional practices that are helping more students to learn our essential outcomes. To learn more about the steps teams take when assessing learning, return to the cycle and click on the colored boxes listed under the second critical question of learning. 11 Develop Common Assessment: Teams work together to develop common assessments for grade level essentials for two reasons. First, common assessments can be used to identify students in need of intervention or extension. More importantly, however, common assessments can help teams to evaluate the efficacy of their instructional practices. Common assessments should be intentionally short so they can be developed, delivered, scored, and analyzed quickly. Teams can also use prewritten questions/assessments from curriculum materials as long as they align with the essential that the team is studying together. Products to Create: Short Common Assessments, Team SMART Goals 12 Resources for Developing Assessments: The following resources can be used to support teams working to develop common assessments: Tool - Building a Common Assessment Tool - Turning Observations into Assessment Evidence Tool - Rating Your Team’s Common Formative Assessment Practices Tool - Using the ACID Test to Evaluate a Common Formative Assessment 13 Teach, Differentiate, Check for Understanding: Once teams have developed a common formative assessment, they have finished the planning steps required to complete a cycle of inquiry. At this point, teachers begin teaching their essential to their students. Along the way, they conduct informal checks for understanding in their classrooms and provide just-in-time differentiated support to address any struggles that they see students having. Collaborative team meetings are spent discussing the strategies that teachers are using -- for teaching, for checking for understanding, or for differentiating. Products to Create: Short Common Assessments, Team SMART Goals 14 Resources for Teaching, Differentiating, and Checking for Understanding: The following resources can be used to support teams working to teach, differentiate, and check for understanding: Tool - Differentiation Strategy Checklist Slides - Using ChatGPT to Generate Content for Differentiated Activities 15 Give Common Formative Assessment: This step seems easy, doesn’t it? After team members have taught their essential to students, they administer the common formative assessment that they wrote together. But there are some essential steps to take to ensure that you get reliable results from your assessment. Consider discussing things like how long you will spend on initial instruction, how you will give directions, how much time you will give to students to complete the assessment, and the support you offer to students struggling while testing before you administer your CFA. Products to Create: 16 Resources for Giving Common Formative Assessments: The following resources can be used to support teams working to give common formative assessments: 17 Analyze Data to Improve Student Learning and Teacher Practice: Once a team has given their CFA, they organize and analyze their results. Good data sets are designed to help teachers identify students who are still struggling to master essentials. More importantly, good data sets are designed to help teachers identify instructional practices with promise. When teams discover strategies that helped more students to learn the essential at higher levels, they amplify those practices. When teams discover strategies that weren’t very effective, they abandon them. Products to Create: Organized Data Sets, Team Analysis Documents 18 Resources for Analyzing Data to Improve Student Learning and Teacher Practice: The following resources can be used to support teams working to analyze common formative assessment data: Tool - Targeting Tier 2 Interventions Tool - Common Formative Assessment Data Tracker - Team Results Tool - Team Analysis of Common Formative Assessment Data Tool - Instructional Implications of Common Formative Assessment Data Tool - Individual Teacher Reflection on Student Learning Data Video - Making Data Conversations Safe 19 Planning Interventions and Extensions Based on Common Formative Assessment Results: One of the most common mistakes that collaborative teams make when completing a cycle of inquiry is failing to intentionally target interventions based on the identified needs of struggling students. To avoid this mistake, your team should examine student work samples. Start by sorting student work into four categories -- far from proficient, approaching proficient, proficient, and beyond proficient. Then, examine work samples in each group, looking for common understandings, common misunderstandings, and common mistakes. Use this information to plan interventions and extensions. Products to Create: Targeted Intervention Plans 20 Resources for Planning Interventions and Extensions: The following resources can be used to support teams working to plan interventions and extensions: Tool - Targeting Tier 2 Interventions Tool - Common Misconceptions for Essential Standard Tool - Reengagement Strategies that Work 21 How Will We Respond When Students Experience Initial Difficulty in Learning? The third critical question that collaborative teacher teams answer when conducting a cycle of inquiry around their instruction is, “How will we respond when students experience initial difficulty in learning?” When answering this critical question of learning, teams are providing targeted reteaching to students who did not master grade-level essentials during initial instruction. Teams see reteaching essentials to mastery as a nonnegotiable and persist in their efforts to intervene until all students meet grade-level expectations. To learn more about the steps teams take when providing interventions, return to the cycle and click on the colored boxes listed under the third critical question of learning. 22 Targeted Reteach - Small Group Instruction: The next step that teams take in a cycle of inquiry is providing interventions to students who have yet to master the essential. These interventions are often provided during a dedicated school-wide intervention period. Sometimes, teachers on collaborative teams share students for interventions, assigning struggling students to the teacher who had the best results on the team’s common formative assessment. Other times, teachers provide interventions in small groups or stations in the core classroom. It is essential during this step that the reteaching being provided to students targets their identified needs. Providing reteaching that is not targeted on an identified need is ineffective. Products to Create: Individual Student Intervention Reports 23 Resources for Targeted Reteaching - Small Group Instruction: The following resources can be used to support teams working to provide targeted reteaching and small group instruction: Tool - Team Based Intervention Plan for The following Struggling Learners resources can be Tool - Intervention Tracking Template used to support Individual Teacher teams working plan interventions and extensions:Tool - Creating Next Step Checklists to Tool - Individual Student Intervention Report to Involve Students in the Intervention Process Tool - Using ChatGPT to Plan Tier 2 Interventions 24 Reassess - Student Learning AND Practices: The goal of every team during a cycle of inquiry is to ensure that ALL students master the identified essential. That means teams MUST reassess after providing initial reteaching. Doing so helps the team to identify students who need even more time and support for learning. Doing so also helps the team to find intervention practices that work and intervention practices that should be abandoned. While teams may move forward in their grade level instruction if students continue to struggle after initial reteaching, they must continue to set aside time during intervention blocks to work with students who have yet to master identified essentials. Products to Create: Lists of Intervention Practices that Work, Reassessments 25 Resources for Reassessing Student Learning AND Practices: The following resources can be used to support teams working to reassess student learning and practices: Tool - Intervention Practice Reflection Tool - Rating the Interventions on Your The following resources can be used to support Template Learning Team teams working to plan interventions and extensions: 26 How Will We Deepen the Learning for Students Who Have Already Mastered the Essentials? The fourth critical question that collaborative teacher teams answer when conducting a cycle of inquiry around their instruction is, “How will we deepen the learning for students who have already mastered essential knowledge, skills, and dispositions?” When answering this critical question of learning, teams are providing extensions to students who are working beyond grade-level expectations. Doing so ensures that all students -- including those who have mastered grade-level essentials -- have the opportunity to learn at the highest levels. To learn more about the steps teams take when extending learning, return to the cycle and click on the colored boxes listed under the fourth critical question of learning. 27 Produce a Product Based on the Essential: While most collaborative teams invest regular effort into planning for intervention, few spend the same amount of time and energy on extensions. That often leaves our most accomplished students at-risk because their unique learning needs aren’t being intentionally addressed. To improve the work that they do with extensions, teams must first build their shared knowledge about what “counts” as an extension. Then, they must develop tasks that require students to produce a product based on the essential that is being studied. Products to Create: Tiered Task Cards, Lists of Essentials in Action 28 Resources for Producing a Product Based on the Essential: The following resources can be used to support teams who are asking students to produce a product based on an essential: Tool - Building Your Team’s Knowledge Tool - Creating Tiered Task Cards to The following to support about Extensions resources can be used Extend Learning teams working to plan interventions and extensions: Video - Using ChatGPT to Develop Tiered Task Cards Tool - Using ChatGPT to Plan Extension Tasks Tool - ChatGPT Prompts for High School Students Tool - Creating a Permission Slip for High School Student Use of ChatGPT 29 Introduce Students to Nonessential Outcomes: One of the easiest strategies for extending learning is to introduce students to nonessential outcomes in your required curriculum. Here’s why: You probably already have materials that you can use to introduce students to those outcomes -- so using nonessentials for extension requires less planning time and content development. If this interests you, work with your collaborative team to identify highinterest nonessentials early in your unit planning process. Then, intentionally set those outcomes aside to use for extension. Finally, develop self-directed activities that students can complete during schoolwide intervention periods. Doing so will ensure that you have meaningful work for students to do after they demonstrate mastery of your grade-level essentials without overwhelming you with new planning demands. 30 Toolkit Created by Bill Ferriter Bill Ferriter has about a dozen titles—Solution Tree PLC, assessment and technology author and presenter, noted education blogger, regional Teacher of the Year—but what he is proudest of is his 29 years of full-time classroom teaching experience.