Ohio Department of Education OAT Toolkit for Social Studies 2007 OAT Toolkit for Social Studies Professional Learning Teams

Ohio Department of Education OAT Toolkit for Social Studies 2007 Isolation: The Enemy of Improvement? Just leave me alone and let me teach! What are the consequences of teacher isolation in schools?

Ohio Department of Education OAT Toolkit for Social Studies 2007 Professional Learning Teams What are they? Educators working as a community to create an environment that fosters mutual cooperation, emotional support, and professional growth as they work together to achieve group goals.

Ohio Department of Education OAT Toolkit for Social Studies 2007 Professional Learning Teams Why create them? To improve student achievement by assuring that instruction at each grade level builds on the previous year and prepares students for success in the next grade level.

Ohio Department of Education OAT Toolkit for Social Studies 2007 Professional Learning Teams Why create them? To improve professional development by encouraging teachers to recognize and share the best of what they already know. (Schmoker, 2006)

Ohio Department of Education OAT Toolkit for Social Studies 2007 Professional Learning Teams Workshops: One time meeting Little time for reflection No support for implementation Professional Learning Teams: Repeated meetings during school year Allows for reflection and discussion Supports implementation of new ideas What is the difference between a workshop and a professional learning team?

Ohio Department of Education OAT Toolkit for Social Studies 2007 Professional Learning Teams The basic structure of the professional learning team is a group that shares a common purpose. (DuFour and Eaker, 1998) What would be the common purpose of a grade-band Professional Learning Team?

Ohio Department of Education OAT Toolkit for Social Studies 2007 Professional Learning Teams Until a school has clarified what students should know and be able to do and the dispositions they should acquire as a result of schooling, its staff cannot function as a professional learning community. (DuFour and Eaker, 1998)

Ohio Department of Education OAT Toolkit for Social Studies 2007 Collaborative Curriculum Development Ohio’s Academic Content Standards Local Curricula Local Team Planning

Ohio Department of Education OAT Toolkit for Social Studies 2007 Four Focused Questions 1.What do we want students to know and be able to do? 2.How will we know when they know it? 3.What will we do if they don’t know it? 4.What can we do to extend understanding? ( DuFour and Eaker, 1998)

Ohio Department of Education OAT Toolkit for Social Studies 2007 Organized Abandonment: Deciding What NOT to Teach Having a clear curriculum focus means that teachers in a learning community not only identify together what students should know and be able to do, they also decide what not to teach. (DuFour and Eaker, 1998) Why is this particularly important in social studies?

Ohio Department of Education OAT Toolkit for Social Studies 2007 Collaborative Curriculum Development The benefits of collaborative curriculum development: Enables teachers to be more focused in their planning; Ensures attention to a common curriculum; Results in the development of better tests; Enables teachers to identify student weaknesses; Provides teachers with useful feedback; Motivates teachers to continually improve; Ensures systematic collaboration. (DuFour and Eaker, 1998)

Ohio Department of Education OAT Toolkit for Social Studies 2007 Professional Learning Teams Finding time for collaboration: Provide common preparation time. Use parallel scheduling. Adjust start and end times. Share classes. Use scheduled time for group activities, events, and testing. Bank time. Use in-service and faculty meeting time wisely. (DuFour, et.al., 2006)

Ohio Department of Education OAT Toolkit for Social Studies 2007 Professional Learning Teams Read more about Professional Learning Teams: DuFour, R., & Eaker, R. (1998). Professional learning communities at work: Best practices for enhancing student achievement. Alexandria, Va.: ASCD. DuFour, R., DuFour, R., Eaker, R., & Many, T. (2006). Bloomington, Ind.: Solution Tree. Langer, G., Colton, A., & Goff, L. (2003). Collaborative analysis of student work: Improving teaching and learning. Alexandria, Va.: ASCD. Schmoker, Mike. (2006) Results now: How we can achieve unprecedented improvements in teaching and learning. Alexandria, Va.: ASCD.