Energize Your Teams
Help your teams get better faster. Written for busy school leaders, instructional coaches, and teacher leaders, this ultimate “grab and grow” guide details how to bridge the gap between learning and doing at every stage of the PLC journey.
Benefits
- Understand every aspect of a professional learning community and how collaborative teams and school leadership play a role in them.
- This resource includes 23 different professional development modules with corresponding articles that coaches can use to support teams' job embedded, "just-in-time" learning on PLCs.
- Explore the different levels on the PLC continuum.
- Learn a proven, effective coaching cycle that will fortify your collaborative team school improvement efforts.
- Improve team collaboration regarding all aspects of your learning community, including curriculum, assessment, and intervention.
- Determine the next steps that will help you realize the true potential of your PLC.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Energize Your Collaborative Teams
Chapter 2: A Continuum of Practice for PLCs
Chapter 3: The Team Coaching Cycle
Chapter 4: Highly Effective Collaborative Teams
Chapter 5: Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum
Chapter 6: A Balanced and Coherent System of Assessment
Chapter 7: Productive Data Conversations
Chapter 8: The Pyramid of Interventions
Chapter 9: Willis ISD: Practical Implications of Coaching Teams
Appendix A: SIG and Pathway Tools
Appendix B: Index of Strategies, Activities, and Protocols
REPRODUCIBLES
Chapter 4
- Module 4.1: Why Should We Collaborate?
- Module 4.1: Are We a Group or a Team?
- Module 4.2: Conditions to Consider Before Establishing Collaborative Teams
- Module 4.3: Focus: A State or Condition Permitting Clear Perception and Understanding
- Module 4.3: Structures: The Building Blocks of Collaboration
- Module 4.3: Clarifying Roles and Responsibilities: A Critical Task When Forming Collaborative Teams
- Module 4.3: Investments in High-Trust Relationships Produce Big Dividends for Collaborative Teams
- Module 4.3: Connoisseurs of Interactive Tools and Strategies: How Teams Use Process to Achieve Results
Chapter 5
- Module 5.1: Why Should We Ensure Students Have Access to a Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum?
- Module 5.1: Are We Making a List or Delivering on a Promise? The Unintended Consequences of Believing All Standards Are Equal
- Module 5.2: A Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum Is Not a Proper Noun
- Module 5.3: Prioritizing the Standards Using R.E.A.L. Criteria
- Module 5.3: Is It R.E.A.L. or Not?
- Module 5.3: Is This Standard R.E.A.L?
- Module 5.4: Unwrapping the Standards: A Priceless Professional Development Opportunity
- Module 5.5: Crafting I Can Statements: A Practice Worth Pursuing
Chapter 6
- Module 6.1: Why Should We Use Common Assessments?
- Module 6.1: The Secret to Success
- Module 6.2: A Balanced and Coherent System of Assessment
- Module 6.3: Four Steps to Creating Valid and Reliable Common Assessments
- Module 6.3: Evaluating the Quality of an Assessment
- Module 6.4: The Power of Distractors
- Module 6.5: Shifting the Purpose of Preassessments: Providing Evidence to Inform Instructional Practice
Chapter 7
- Module 7.1: Double Duty Data: Understanding the Dual Roles of Using Data in a PLC
- Module 7.2: Three Rules to Help Manage Assessment Data
- Module 7.3: Types of Data Conversations
- Module 7.3: Unclutter Your Team’s Data Conversations
- Module 7.4: It’s Not Pixie Dust, It’s Protocol
- Module 7.4: Protocols: A Powerful Prescription for Professional Learning
- Module 7.5: Facilitating Productive Data Conversations
Chapter 8
- Module 8.1: Why Should We Implement Systematic Interventions?
- Module 8.1: Dialogue Dice
- Module 8.2: Ensure the Successful Implementation of Interventions in a PLC
- Module 8.2: How Do Our School’s Current Practices Align With the Essential Elements of RTI?
- Module 8.3: The Need for Speed: Criteria for Designing an Effective Pyramid of Interventions
- Module 8.4: Regrouping Versus the Classroom Approach: Choosing the Better Way
- Module 8.5: Responding to That “Pesky” Question Four in a PLC: How Will We Extend the Learning for Students Who Are Already Proficient?
Chapter 9
Appendix A
- Strategy Implementation Guide
- Pathways for Coaching Collaborative Teams in a PLC: The Five Prerequisites of a PLC
- Pathways for Prerequisite One: Educators Work in Collaborative Teams, Rather Than in Isolation, and Take Collective Responsibility for Student Learning
- Pathways for Prerequisite Two: Collaborative Teams Implement a Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum, Unit by Unit
- Pathways for Prerequisite Three: Collaborative Teams Monitor Student Learning Through an Ongoing Assessment Process That Includes Frequent, Team-Developed, Common Formative Assessments
- Pathways for Prerequisite Four: Educators Use the Results of Common Assessments to Improve Individual Practice, Build the Team’s Capacity to Achieve Its Goals, and Intervene and Enrich on Behalf of Students
- Pathways for Prerequisite Five: The School (or Each Team) Provides a Systematic Process for Intervention and Extension
SUGGESTED RESOURCES
Books
- Bailey, K., & Jakicic, C. (2012). Common formative assessment: A toolkit for Professional Learning Communities at Work. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- Bailey, K., & Jakicic, C. (2018). Make it happen: Coaching with the four critical questions of PLCs at Work. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- Bailey, K., Jakicic, C., & Spiller, J. (2014). Collaborating for success with the Common Core: A toolkit for Professional Learning Communities at Work. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- Buffum, A., Mattos, M., & Malone, J. (2018). Taking action: A handbook for RTI at Work. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- Buffum, A., Mattos, M., & Weber, C. (2009). Pyramid response to intervention: RTI, professional learning communities, and how to respond when kids don’t learn. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- Buffum, A., Mattos, M., & Weber, C. (2012). Simplifying response to intervention: Four essential guiding principles. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- Conzemius, A. E., & O’Neill, J. (2014). The handbook for SMART school teams: Revitalizing best practices for collaboration (2nd ed.). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- Dimich, N. (2015). Design in five: Essential phases to create engaging assessment practice. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- DuFour, R. (2018). Passion and persistence: How to develop a Professional Learning Community at Work [DVD] (Revised ed.). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- DuFour, R., DuFour, R., & Eaker, R. (2008). Revisiting Professional Learning Communities at Work: New insights for improving schools. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- DuFour, R., DuFour, R., Eaker, R., & Karhanek, G. (2004). Whatever it takes: How professional learning communities respond when kids don’t learn. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- DuFour, R., DuFour, R., Eaker, R., & Karhanek, G. (2010). Raising the bar and closing the gap: Whatever it takes. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- DuFour, R., DuFour, R., Eaker, R., & Many, T. (2006). Learning by doing: A handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work (1st ed.). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- DuFour, R., DuFour, R., Eaker, R., & Many, T. W. (2010). Learning by doing: A handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work (2nd ed.). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- DuFour, R., DuFour, R., Eaker, R., Many, T. W., & Mattos, M. (2016). Learning by doing: A handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work (3rd ed.). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- DuFour, R., Eaker, R., & DuFour, R. (2007). The power of Professional Learning Communities at Work: Bringing the big ideas to life [DVD]. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- DuFour, R., & Fullan, M. (2013). Cultures built to last: Systemic PLCs at Work. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- DuFour R., & Marzano, R. (2011). Leaders of learning: How district, school, and classroom leaders improve student achievement. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- Glaude, C. (2011). Protocols for professional learning conversations: Cultivating the art and discipline. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- Lipton, L., & Wellman, B. (2012). Got data? Now what? Creating and leading cultures of inquiry. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- Many, T., Maffoni, M., Sparks, S., & Thomas, T. (2018). Amplify your impact: Coaching collaborative teams in a PLC at Work. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- Many, T. W., Maffoni, M. J., Sparks, S. K., & Thomas, T. F. (2020). How schools thrive: Building a coaching culture for collaborative teams in PLCs at Work. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- Marzano, R. J., & Simms, J. A. (2013). Coaching classroom instruction. Bloomington, IN: Marzano Resources.
- Marzano, R. J., Warrick, P. B., Rains, C. L., & DuFour, R. (2018). Leading a high reliability school. Bloomington, IN: Marzano Resources.
- Marzano, R. J., Warrick, P., & Simms, J. A. (2014). A handbook for high reliability schools: The next step in school reform. Bloomington, IN: Marzano Research.
- Marzano, R. J., Yanoski, D. C., Hoegh, J. K., & Simms, J. A. (2013). Using Common Core standards to enhance classroom instruction and assessment. Bloomington, IN: Marzano Resources.
- Mattos, M., & Buffum, A. (Eds.). (2015). It’s about time: Planning interventions and extensions in secondary school. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- Mattos, M., DuFour, R., DuFour, R., Eaker, R., & Many, T. W. (2016). Concise answers to frequently asked questions about Professional Learning Communities at Work. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- Reeves, D. (Ed.). (2007). Ahead of the curve: The power of assessment to transform teaching and learning. Bloomington IN: Solution Tree Press.
- Roberts, M. (2020). Shifting from me to we: How to jump-start collaboration in a PLC at Work. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- Smith, W. R. (2015). How to launch PLCs in your district. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- Sparks, S. K. (2008). Creating intentional collaboration. In The collaborative teacher: Working together as a professional learning community (pp. 31–55). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- Sparks, S. K., & Many, T. W. (2015). How to cultivate collaboration in a PLC. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- Stephenson, S. (2009). Leading with trust: How to build strong school teams. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- Wiliam, D. (2018). Embedded formative assessment (2nd ed.). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
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