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What is a PLC?
What is a PLC?
"An ongoing process in which educators work collaboratively in recurring cycles of collective inquiry and action research to achieve better results for the students they serve" (DuFour et al., 2016, p. 10).
A Professional Learning Community (PLC) is the school or district, and Collaborative Teams work together within the PLC to focus on the Three Big Ideas and answer the Four Critical Questions.
Three Big Ideas
Three Big Ideas
- A Focus on Learning
“The fundamental purpose of the school is to ensure that all students learn at high levels.” (DuFour et al., 2016, p.11)
- A Collaborative Culture
“Educators must work collaboratively and take collective responsibility for the success of each student. Working collaboratively is not optional.” (DuFour et al., 2016, p.11-12)
- Results Oriented
“To assess their effectiveness in helping all students learn, educators focus on results – evidence for student learning.” (DuFour et al., 2016, p.12)
Four Critical Questions
Four Critical Questions
For each unit of instruction, we ask ourselves the following...
For each unit of instruction, we ask ourselves the following...
- What do we want all students to know and be able to do?
Identify essential standards and develop learning targets
Decide the standard to which students will be expected to achieve the learning targets
- How will we know if they learn it?
Develop Common Formative Assessments (CFAs)
Decide on a plan for regularly administering CFAs and analyzing the results
- How will we respond when some students do not learn?
Identify (based on data) students who need additional support to achieve the learning target and what strategies we will use to support them
Analyze the results of CFAs collaboratively to improve instructional practices and strategies
- How will we extend the learning for students who are already proficient?
Identify (based on data) students who are proficient at the learning target
Identify strategies to extend their thinking and learning
Adapted from DuFour et al, 2016
Loose and Tight
Loose and Tight
A PLC is made up of teachers collectively empowered to make important decisions, such as what to teach, when they will teach it, what assessments they will create and use, what criteria they will use to grade those assessments, and the norms and goals for their teams. These elements are what is considered "loose". (DuFour et al., 2016).
We can identify areas of success in our teams by engaging in regular self-reflection, such as using this Self-Reflection Tool from the Learning by Doing (DuFour et al., 2016) Self-Reflection Tool - Questions to Guide the Work of Your Professional Learning Community
"At the same time, however, there are many elements of the PLC process that are "tight", that is, they are nondiscretionary and everyone in the school is required to adhere to those elements" (DuFour et al., 2016, p. 13).
We can monitor our progress on the "tight" elements of the PLC process by referencing the district Collaborative Coaching Instrument and related pathways.
Guiding Coalitions
Guiding Coalitions
"The guiding coalition...is a team that learns deeply about best practices, assesses candidly the school’s current reality, determines potential next steps to improve the school, identifies possible obstacles and points of leverage, and plans the best way to create staff consensus and ownership (Buffum et al., 2012).”
Guiding Coalitions in PLCs are tasked with achieving the following goals:
Become PLC experts by learning about the PLC Process - from common vocabulary to the cycle of continuous improvement in which collaborative teams participate
Become experts on the PLC process's benefits for students, teachers, and the school community
Disseminate information about the PLC process to collaborative teams
Lead PLC transformation by example
Model continuous improvement
Support collaborative teacher teams
(Hall, 2022, pgs, 44-45)
Leadership Teams vs Guiding Coalitions
Mission and Vision Statements
Mission and Vision Statements
The foundation of a PLC rests on the four pillars of mission, vision, values, and goals.
The mission pillar asks the question, "Why?" More specifically, it asks, "Why do we exist?"
The vision pillar asks "What?" - that is "What must we become in order to accomplish our fundamental purpose?"
The values pillar clarifies the collective commitments. It asks, "How must we behave to create the school that will achieve our purpose?"
The goals pillar identifies the targets and timelines that enable a staff to answer the question, "How will we know if all of this is making a difference?"
(adapted from Learning by Doing, pgs. 39-51)
Resources for writing mission and vision statements:
Mission and Vision in Forty-Five Minutes
Selecting Collective Commitments
(reproducible from Shifting from Me to We by Michael Roberts)
The Foundation of a PLC: The Forgotten Four : a blog post from South Carolina ASCD
"It is difficult enough to bring these concepts to life in a school or district where there is a shared understanding of their meaning. It is impossible when there is no common understanding and the terms mean very different things to different people" (DuFour et al., 2016, p. 19).
This glossary exists to align the understanding of key terms surrounding the PLC process for ASD1. With common understanding comes common expectations and clarity for all members of the PLC.
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