Creating a PLC to Improve Literacy Instruction

Session One:  January 21, 2015

Activity One

Getting to know you:  What is your name?  What is your school?  Why did you choose this PLC?

Activity Two

Explore Smarter Balanced Sample Items and Performance Tasks:

Click on the link below and then scroll down to "English language arts/literacy", pull down on "View more English Language Arts/Literacy Sample Items", choose a grade band and examine sample Reading, Writing, and Speaking & Listening items and released Performance Tasks.

Consider:  What instructional shifts are essential for student success?
 
http://www.smarterbalanced.org/sample-items-and-performance-tasks/

 Activity Three

Keeping in mind what we learned from the Smarter Balanced Sample Items and Performance Tasks, we will use the Equip Rubric to write questions to guide teachers toward improving literacy instruction across contents.

http://www.achieve.org/files/EQuIP-ELArubric-06-24-13-FINAL.pdf

With a partner, choose one of the four columns (categories) and add questions you might ask teachers after classroom visits.  We will use these questions to practice providing effective feedback at our next meeting at Hawkins.  We can continue to add and refine this document and use it at our own school sites.

Click on the link to the Google Drive document, "Supporting CCSS Literacy/ELA Instruction":

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1O4h-7DpGbNx4G_XyJaBqQdL3bm5QeuJZpeHeYqw2gqM/edit

Activity Four

"What is a Professional Learning Community" by Richard DuFour

http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/may04/vol61/num08/What-Is-a-Professional-Learning-Community%C2%A2.aspx

Whip-Around Questions:

What most resonates with you from DuFour's article?
How will you use this information at your school site?

Activity Five:  Setting Goals for Our PLC

What would you like to learn/accomplish by the end of our four sessions?

https://docs.google.com/document/d/11rrZRWOQ5J6aX2hkexA0MtpoawOve94Tribw2DBwBzg/edit

What is a tentative plan for our next sessions?

Next meeting:  Wednesday, February 11 at 8:30am at Augustus Hawkins High