Episode 041: PLC Plus with Nancy Frey & Doug Fisher
Join us for this discussion with the potent pair Doug Fisher & Nancy Frey! We learn about their new book, PLC+ and the five questions that get to the heart of what collaboration time should look like in schools. Stay tuned until the end for a special promo code for our listeners for the PLC+ Institutes the authors will be hosting in Colorado in October!
Connect with Fisher & Frey
Website: www.fisherandfrey.com/ | Twitter: @DFisherSDSU; @NancyFrey | Newest Book: PLC Plus, Corwin Press
Website: vrainwaves.com | Twitter: @VrainWaves | Becky Twitter: @BeckyEPeters | Ben Twitter: @mrkalb
Out of Our Heads & Into the Classroom: (01:30)American Express: Simple Guide to Lean MeetingsRobyn Jackson on weekly team meetingsHave an agenda / protocolTechless meetingsPre-mortem from Daniel PinkCollaborative notes & DRIsToby - Chrome ExtensionIntroduction to Fisher & Frey & PLC Plus (08:12)Their School: Health Sciences High & Middle College in San DiegoQuestions: Where are we now? & the importance of pre-assessmentsSide note: common questions for PLC work come from DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, & Many, 2010 as a PLC foundation: Learning by Doing: A Handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work; we acknowledge this foundational work when discussing PLCs : What do we want students to learn? (essential standards)
How will we know if they have learned? (team-developed common assessments)
What will we do if they don’t learn? (systematic interventions)
What will we do if they already know it? (extended learning)
Collective EfficacyGraham Nuthall, Hidden Lives of LearnersStudents already know between 40-50 percent of what the teacher is teaching (Nuthall, 2007)Equity: Removal of Barriers vs. intervention as responses to student dataActivator: Someone to guide the groupWhat are PLCs getting wrong? (13:21)Emphasis on the structural conditions can overwhelm the focus and mission of the groupPLC must continually reinvest in itselfLack of attention to instruction - “How do we move learning forward?”Literacy example (16:49)Curriculum / Instruction / AssessmentRecent research that ~20% of in-class tasks are on grade level TNTP’s The Opportunity Myth - and an article from EdWeekPLC+ Protocol - Assignment analysis (from The Education Trust) (19:34)Equity in Motion work from The Education TrustTrust and the importance of Relational Conditions (21:18)Activator helps keep the conversation movingProtocols provide consistencyPLC+ / PD (22:57)Roughly a 1 to 3 ratio - Full staff Professional learning to PLC+ TimeCredibility & Efficacy (24:33)Teacher Credibility: Trust, Competence, Dynamism, ImmediacySelf-Efficacy and Collective Efficacy (27:17)Albert Bandura’s research on self-efficacy -From Leading Impact Teams, by Bloomberg & Pitchford (& based on Bandura’s research, as well as Goddard, Hoy, & Hoy): Efficacy = Mastery Moments, Vicarious Experience, Feedback, and Trust“Where are we going?” and “Where are we now?” (31:08)5 Questions in PLC+: Where are we going? Where are we now? How do we move learning forward? What did we learn today? Who benefited and who did not benefit?Bringing data to the PLC+ (33:22)Student feedbackEquity / Cognitive Bias / The Decisions we choose to make: (35:52)Quote from PLC+: “Underlying every decision about what we choose to gather data on is an unspoken decision about what we won’t look at.”Data should be aligned to team’s common challenge; then did we impact learning or not?Invite students to PLC+ times for feedbackProtocols for learning walksMicroteaching protocolsWhat did we learn today? Every single day we should be formatively assessingScheduling logistics (44:56)Two PLC+s - Grade level & Content levelVertical & Horizontal conversations are necessaryGrading at their school (48:19)Competency-Based / Mastery of StandardsFormative homework & classworkAll Learning is Social Emotional (50:41)Social Emotional Academic LearningRemoving institutional barriers vs. Intervention (54:27)Support each learner individually - help them find a way to masterySpecial offer for Vrain Waves Listeners!! (58:50)Promo Code: VRAINWAVESGo to corwin.com/PLCColorado to register; Oct 3 & 4 in Denver at the Curtis Hotel