Overview

The District's Cycles of Professional Learning (CoPL) is a standardized process of engaging schools with new learning of a specific type of instructional practice or strategy. Currently the District focus targeted through the CoPL is Close Reading.

Each CoPL contains six components which are identified in the model below:

Training/Input

The initial Close Reading Training occurred on 01/17. The session's slide deck is available on the home page of this website as will be all future presentations. All training/input dates for this cycle are listed below:

• Introduction to Close Reading - 01/17
• Text Annotation - 02/17
• Vertical Planning Sessions - 03/02
• Close Reading Support Session - 03/31

Safe Practice

Our school-wide Safe Practice period took place from 01/27 to 02/16. The Safe Practice period was an opportunity to try out and practice teaching close reading lessons without the added pressure of someone observing.

Observing Colleagues (Peer Observation)

Each teacher will be paired with a peer within their own content area so that each teacher may observe the other at scheduled times during their planning period. The pairing is meant to facilitate teacher-to-teacher observation and feedback within the CoPL cycle. Each pair will observe the other person's classroom at least twice this spring. There are two scheduled debriefs which will occur during the first 20 minutes of Friday PD on the following dates:

• 3/24
• 5/19

For more information on the peer observation partner assignments and the debrief process, see the Peer Observation page on this site.

Professional Readings

A professional reading will be included as part of each training session. In addition, many other articles and other professional readings are available and linked to the "Articles" page of this website.

LASW and Data

We will be looking for opportunities during out Standard Analysis Protocol Cycles to examine student work related to Close Reading. The District is also developing a LASW protocol that may or may not be incorporated into a Friday PD session this spring.

Monitor, Measure, and Modify

The ILT will be using the Learning Walk Tool as its primary data collection tool. Additionally, ghost walks of classrooms, informal observations by administrators, and qualitative feedback from S2 meetings, will all be used to monitor implementation of Close Reading and guide support and development both this year and in the coming years.