“Don’t do that.”
These were the words of Dr. Richard Dufour over a decade ago as I excitedly and passionately described the work being done in my district.
Mr. Dufour and Dr. Robert Eacker are co-founders of the Professional Learning Communities (PLC) movement in the workplace. Needless to say, I was surprised, disappointed, and a little hurt.
Still, he was right.
Approaches to professional learning communities – in theory
What I shared with Mr. Dufour was 4 important questions for PLC explained in detail in solution treeSystematically across the district.
Year 1: What do you hope your students will know and be able to do?
We had forms and processes in place to ensure that each teacher identified 8-10 required items per course per term throughout the year. This also meant that the team had to come to a shared understanding of what those required items meant, when they would be taught, and what resources they would use to teach them.
Year 2: How do we know if students know it or can do it?
We named our summer training “PLC Q2 Boot Camp” and our focus that year was on creating high quality end-of-unit or formative shared assessments. The length didn’t matter, nor did the type of assessment. Nor did the student outcomes on these assessments matter. The focus was simply on creating assessments whose targets and evidence were aligned with each other.
And after two years of work, we finally arrived at key questions three and four: ‘What if students don’t know or can’t do it?’ and ‘What if students know or can do it?’” Two full years later, and after many hours of training and team meetings, the district began to help the team adjust their instructional approaches.
Dufour quickly identified the problems with our plan: we weren’t moving fast enough into action. We were spending too much time planning. We were spending too much time in the realm of theory instead of practice, and too much time directly impacting student learning by implementing all four of the Professional Learning Community’s Critical Questions.
Ultimately, our efforts have produced significant improvements in student learning. Five of our seven school buildings have been recognized as PLC at Work Model Schools, but we could have seen results sooner and positively impacted many more students. The process could have gained momentum faster than we experienced.
Jump into action quickly with our professional learning community
What were Dufour’s options? Iterative cycles of survey and action research.
This means that educators should address all four key questions within the scope of one unit, and this cycle should be repeated four or five times throughout the year.
A fun example is one school district I worked with recently where the team was hesitant to get started. You hear things like, “everything we teach is important for students to know,” and “if we remove student content, we have a low-level curriculum,” just to name a few.
They were hesitant, but they knew the students were really need In the next unit you will learn important What students learn in the same unit, Nice Things to know in the next unit.
To be clear, we were only focused on the next unit, not the entire year of study. The criterion they focused on had to do with students evaluating the influence of people, places, events, and symbols of the Greeks, Romans, Turks, Russians, etc. As you can imagine, there was no shortage of content in that one criterion. And as we all subconsciously know and unfortunately don’t admit out loud often, there was way too much content in one unit for students to master it all. So we started with one civilization and narrowed down the specific people, places, events, and symbols that students would understand. need To learn, important To teach, and Nice To know.
Teaching and learning: the most important difference
The result was a table like the one below. Of course, the contents that the teacher teaches are written in. However, the difference between this practice and past practices is that need The top line is what the team is committed to ensuring students learn. Everything else is not considered essential and therefore may be taught but not guaranteed. In other words, a table like this distinguishes the difference between what is taught and what is learned.
Rebuild your professional learning community and try again
Just six weeks later, I was back working with the team. The result of one activity in September was that the failure rate on the end-of-unit exam dropped from the usual 15-20 students to just 2. Quite frankly, all they had done was clarify the objectives that students needed to learn. From there, they created graphic organizers to help kids understand the material.
The team noted that not only were fewer students failing, but their understanding of the required objectives was much greater than before. As a bonus, the students were actually important and Nice Create more connections with content needMore content was created than in years past. It completely changed in just a few weeks. Not the year.
Lessons learned: How to answer the four questions better
Of course, Dufour was right. Spending years preparing to improve your practice without doing anything about your current work just won’t work. For one, it’s a disservice to your current students. And it won’t build momentum. If you’re considering the four key questions for a year-long process, follow Dufour’s advice: “Don’t do it.”
Instead, ensure a rapid improvement cycle, as it only takes a few weeks to see dramatic results and build momentum.
Let’s get started — and Get better.
