The Collaborative Team Plan Book for PLCs at Work®

T H E C O L L A B O R AT I V E T E A M

Plan Book

K i m B a i l ey   C h r i s J a k i c i c

Copyright © 2021 by Solution Tree Press Materials appearing here are copyrighted. With one exception, all rights are reserved.

Readers may reproduce only those pages marked “Reproducible.” Otherwise, no part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without prior written permission of the publisher.

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Acknowledgments We would like to thank the many educators who have contributed their experiences and insights over the years. You have enriched our thinking and served to strengthen our practices in this work. We would also like to thank the following leaders who shared their implementation stories: Jason Andrews, Jack Baldermann, Mandi Dunlap, Greg Grana, and Sandy Ritchey. Thank you for allowing us to showcase your journey.

Solution Tree Press would like to thank the following reviewers: Casey Ahner Director of Secondary Programs Los Lunas Public Schools Los Lunas, New Mexico Scott Cunningham Principal Orange Middle School Lewis Center, Ohio

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Bailey, Kim, author. | Jakicic, Chris, author.

Title: The collaborative team plan book for PLCs at work / Kim Bailey and Chris Jakicic.

Description: Bloomington, IN : Solution Tree Press, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020024652 (print) | LCCN 2020024653 (ebook) | ISBN 9781951075637 (spiral bound) | ISBN 9781951075644 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Teaching teams. | Lesson planning. | Professional learning communities. | Teachers--Professional relationships.

Classification: LCC LB1029.T4 B35 2020 (print) | LCC LB1029.T4 (ebook) | DDC 371.14/8--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020024652 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020024653 Solution Tree Jeffrey C. Jones, CEO Edmund M. Ackerman, President Solution Tree Press President and Publisher: Douglas M. Rife Associate Publisher: Sarah Payne-Mills Art Director: Rian Anderson Managing Production Editor: Kendra Slayton Senior Production Editor: Todd Brakke Content Development Specialist: Amy Rubenstein Copy Chief: Jessi Finn Proofreader: Sarah Ludwig Text and Cover Designer: Laura Cox Editorial Assistants: Sarah Ludwig and Elijah Oates i i | T H E C O L L A B O R AT I V E T E A M

Tara Fulton Principal Clute Intermediate School Clute, Texas Jarrod Hunt Assistant Principal Fern Creek High School Louisville, Kentucky Greg Kushnir Solution Tree Associate Edmonton, Alberta, Canada Louis Lim Vice-Principal Richmond Green Secondary School Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada

Michael J. Maffoni Author and Education Consultant Littleton, Colorado David Pillar Assistant Director Hoosier Hills Career Center Bloomington, Indiana Will Remmert Principal Eagle View Elementary School Elko New Market, Minnesota Bo Ryan Principal Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts Middle School Hartford, Connecticut Rusty Taylor Principal Crimson Cliffs High School St. George, Utah

Table of Contents Reproducible pages are in italics.

The Collaborative Team Plan Book for PLCs at Work ®. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iv About the Authors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iv

PART 1: PLC Fundamentals and Protocols

1

What Is a Professional Learning Community?. . . . . . 2 Cultural Shifts in a PLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Structural Shifts in a PLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 The Work of Collaborative Teams. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Are We Focused on the Right Work?

Graphic Organizer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Identifying Team Norms Protocol. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 SMART Goal Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 The PDSA Cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Critical Issues for Team Consideration . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Team Meeting Agenda Template. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Priorities for Learning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Identifying Essential Standards Protocol . . . . . . . . . . 18 Unwrapping Standards Protocol. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Unwrapping Standards Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Five-Step Unit-Planning Template. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Developing Assessments Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Analyzing Common Formative Assessment Data Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Essential Standards Student-Tracking Chart . . . . . . 26

Team Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Substitute Teacher Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

What Is Our Team’s Vision? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Success Story: Windsor Central School District—Creating a Compelling Vision. . . . . . . . . 45 How Can We Create a Learning Culture With Students?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 What Roles Do We Need to Assign for Our Team?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

How Do Effective Teams Find Time to Respond to Assessments? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 How Can We Sustain Norms and Commitments? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

How Can Singleton Teams Be Effective With the Work of a PLC? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Success Story: Eastside Elementary School—Recognizing the Power of Collective Commitments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

How Do We Effectively Use Benchmark and End-of-Year Data? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

How Do We Use Student Work to Plan Our Response? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

How Do We Keep the Essential Standards the Focus of Our Work?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

What Does It Mean to Have a StandardsBased Mindset?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

What’s the Difference Between Common Planning and Common Pacing?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 How Do We Support New Team Members?. . . . . . . 59 What Do Powerful Vertical Conversations Look Like? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 What Do High-Performing Teams Look Like?. . . . . 63

How Do We Use Feedback With Students?. . . . . . 99 What Routines Can Our Team Use to Give Students Timely Feedback?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Success Story: Westmont High School—Using the DuFour Award as Continuous Improvement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Are We Lesson Planning or Learning Planning?. . . 65

Why Can’t We Use Our Benchmarks as Common Formative Assessments?. . . . . . . . . . . 105

Success Story: Cherokee Bend Elementary School—Getting Started the Right Way. . . . . . . . 67

How Can Our Assessments Impact Our Professional Practice? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

What Does a Balanced Assessment System Look Like for Collaborative Teams?. . . . . . . . . . . . 69

How Can We Make Time for Reflection? . . . . . . . . 109

How Do Teams Use Formative and Summative Assessments Effectively? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 How Do Teams Differentiate Between Standards and Learning Targets? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Holidays and Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29

Do We All Have the Same Picture of Proficiency? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Year-at-a-Glance Guide for Leadership and Collaborative Teams. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

How Do We Know We’re Approaching Our Assessments in the Right Way?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

PART 2: Weekly Planners

33

Why and How Do We Build Celebrations Into Our Work?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Are We Lesson Planning or Learning Planning?. . . 35

What Are Systematic Interventions?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Weekly Planning Page Topic Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

How Can Teams Use Mindset to Help All Students Be Successful?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

How Does Our Team Make the Mission Live off the Wall? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

How Can We Benefit From Collective Teacher Efficacy? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

How Can We Use Pop-Up Professional Development to Keep Getting Better?. . . . . . . . . 111 When Students Are Proficient, How Do We Extend Their Learning?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 How Can Our Team Do Action Research? . . . . . . . . 115 Success Story: Woodlawn Middle School— Sustaining Success. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

PART 3: Epilogue and References

119

References and Resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

How Do We Get Actionable Data? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

What Is Consensus?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

P L A N B O O K F O R P L C S A T W O R K ® | iii

The Collaborative Team Plan Book for PLCs at Work®

In this book, we highlight several resources that detail in depth the work of a PLC. First and most foundational is Learning by Doing: A Handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work (DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, Many, & Mattos, 2016). Written by a team of PLC at Work experts and architects, it clarifies the why, who, and how of PLCs that lead to schoolwide improvement in student learning. We believe Learning

by Doing (DuFour et al., 2016) is the pivotal resource educator teams should use when doing the work of a PLC, and it still serves as our go-to resource. In addition to this essential resource and to support your team’s implementation of the PLC process and culture, we have derived and adapted additional resources in this plan book from the following. f Common Formative Assessment: A Toolkit for Professional Learning Communities at Work by Kim Bailey and Chris Jakicic (2012) f Concise Answers to Frequently Asked Questions About Professional Learning Communities at Work by Mike Mattos, Richard DuFour, Rebecca DuFour, Robert Eaker, and Thomas W. Many (2016) f Make It Happen: Coaching With the Four Critical Questions of PLCs at Work

by Kim Bailey and Chris Jakicic (2019) f Simplifying Common Assessment: A Guide for Professional Learning Communities at Work by Kim Bailey and Chris Jakicic (2017) f Taking Action: A Handbook for RTI at WorkTM by Austin Buffum, Mike Mattos, and Janet Malone (2018) Part 1 of The Collaborative Team Plan Book for PLCs at Work concisely establishes foundational information about the PLC process and culture, and then focuses more specifically on the work of collaborative teams. It offers essential knowledge and reproducible resources to support guiding coalitions and collaborative teams in their work, regardless of whether their school or district is just getting started on the PLC journey or is doing the work of continuous improvement to ensure learning for all. Organized by topics, this part includes updated protocols for identifying and unwrapping essential standards, planning and pacing units, developing SMART goals, creating common assessments, analyzing the results of common assessments, and developing targeted interventions for students. In addition, we provide a

i v | T H E C O L L A B O R AT I V E T E A M

Part 2 consists of forty weekly planning pages teams can utilize in several ways.

Team members can use them for both individual lesson plans and the organization and documentation of collaborative team meetings and decisions. These pages offer a place to keep notes during collaborative meetings and calendarize key actions, such as those related to pacing instruction, determining assessments, and planning interventions. Each week also features a short article or a testimonial from a model PLC school on a topic of interest to collaborative teams. (A model PLC school has shown a long-term commitment to PLC concepts and has shown clear evidence of improved student learning.) Teams can reference these articles and testimonials as food for thought, perhaps engaging in a brief discussion about them during the first few minutes of their team meetings.

Finally, part 3 offers a short epilogue and a list of the references and resources we cite throughout this plan book.

We hope this plan book can serve as a useful resource for collaborative teams. Let’s get started!

About the Authors Kim Bailey is former director of professional development and instructional support for the Capistrano Unified School District in Southern California. Her leadership was instrumental in uniting and guiding educators throughout the district’s schools on their journey to becoming PLCs. She also taught courses in educational leadership as an adjunct faculty member at Chapman University in Orange, California. Prior to her work in professional development, Kim served as an administrator of special education programs and a teacher of students with disabilities.

Chris Jakicic, EdD, is a former middle school science teacher and principal. Through her work with teachers and administrators across the United States, Chris emphasizes that effective teaming is the heart of professional learning communities. She also shares practical knowledge about how to use data conversations to interpret classroom information for effective instruction. She has worked closely with schools and districts that want to use the power of common formative assessments to increase learning for all students. She provides specific, practical strategies for teams that want to make the best use of their limited common planning time to write effective assessments and give students exactly what they need next.

To book Kim Bailey or Chris Jakicic for professional development, please contact pd@SolutionTree.com.

©2021 by Solution Tree Press. All rights reserved.

The Professional Learning Communities at Work Plan Book (DuFour, DuFour, & Eaker, 2006) introduced a series of resources designed to support teams in doing the work of a professional learning community (PLC) to ensure learning for all. The intent of The Collaborative Team Plan Book for PLCs at Work is to supplement that work and provide collaborative teams with key information and curated tools that team members can take to their meetings and use to guide their actions throughout the school year.

year-at-a-glance list to help teams consider key actions for their work throughout the school year.

T H E C O L L A B O R AT I V E T E A M

Plan Book “This book is one of the most useful tools that I have ever reviewed for teams that want to do the real work of a PLC. It seamlessly fuses theory, practice, and PLC implementation, making it a necessity for every collaborative team that truly cares about student learning.”

“This resource takes teams by the hand and supports them step by step through the work of collaborative teams to implement meaningful instruction, analyze progress, and determine next steps based on results. It’s a must-read for any teacher team engaging in the PLC journey!”

—ANTHONY MUHAMMAD,

— K AT I E M C C L U S K E Y,

Educational Consultant and

Assistant Superintendent for

Author, Transforming School Culture

Teaching, Learning, and Accountability,

“The team-planning process can be messy, full of sticky notes and scraps of paper. The Collaborative Team Plan Book for PLCs at Work captures all the resources teams need in one place to ensure effective collaboration. We have all heard the axiom, ‘Failing to plan is planning to fail.’

With this amazing resource, you will not fail!”

—DEBORAH TURNER ELLIS, Principal, Minnieville Elementary,

Glen Ellyn School District 41, Illinois

Designed exclusively for teacher teams, this plan book is a one-stop shop to aid your collaborative team’s work as it pursues its mission of learning for all. With well-researched ideas, activities, and forty weeks of planning pages for organizing instruction, this valuable resource will guide and improve your team’s work as part of a professional learning community (PLC).

Teams will: • Review the foundational components of the PLC process, such as determining team structures, establishing norms, and setting SMART goals • Utilize many reproducible forms and tools to improve collaboration and to collect and organize information • Recognize the positive cultural shifts that occur for teams that follow the PLC process • Plan for a full school year of collaborative work with weekly calendars • Read success stories from real schools that have seen dramatic, inspiring change through PLC at Work

Visit go.SolutionTree.com/PLCbooks to download the free reproducibles in this book.

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