Columbus+State+PLC

O riginally, the PLC model was designed to support action research, collaboration, and professional development among K-12 educators. While there are several professional development needs common to K-12 and postsecondary level educators, these sets of educators also work within unique educational settings and serve very different groups of students. Therefore, the PLC model used in this study was modified to fit the specific development needs of the study's participants. Using the PLC model's original three core principles, the following adaptations were made.

Ensuring that Students Learn
Our focus should be on what students are learning rather than what we, as teachers, are teaching. Three crucial questions teachers should ask are:
 * What does this idea mean? **

1. What do we want each student to learn? 2. How will we know when each student has learned it? 3. How will we respond when a student experiences difficulty in learning?

As a group, we will choose one project we are teaching in English 1101/2 during spring 2013 semester as our focus. As a group, we do not have to teach the same, identical project, but we will collaborate on the following:
 * What does this idea mean for our first-year composition PLC? **


 * 1) What learning outcome do we want each student to learn? (Choose a specific outcome).
 * 2) How will we know when each student has learned it? (Choose a means for assessing our students’ understanding of the learning outcome chosen above).
 * 3) How will we respond when a student experiences difficulty learning? (Choose methods for offering students additional assistance, if applicable).

A Culture of Collaboration
“Despite compelling evidence indicating that working collaboratively represents best practice, teachers in many schools continue to work in isolation…the powerful collaboration that characterizes professional learning communities is a systematic process in which teachers work together to analyze and improve their classroom practice” (DuFour, 2004, p. 9).
 * What does this idea mean? **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">We will agree to meet regularly throughout spring 2013 semester to discuss our shared learning outcome, individual lesson plans, and assessment ideas. We are willing to share teaching resources, materials, and practices. We will work productively by establishing a smart goal for the semester and setting specific goals for each meeting.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">What does this idea mean for our first-year composition PLC? **

<span style="color: #800000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">A Focus on Results
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">“Professional learning communities judge their effectiveness on the basis of results” (DuFour, 2004, p. 10).
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">What does this idea mean? **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">We will assess how and in what ways our students have (or have not) learned our shared learning outcome in our focus project. This may mean creating formative and summative assessments. This may mean providing “proof” of learning by collecting student work and/or reflective writings by students and ourselves.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">What does this idea mean for our first-year composition PLC? **

<span style="color: #800000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-align: left;">Introducing the PLC
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">At the beginning of spring 2013 semester, eight part-time faculty members within the English department volunteered to participate in this PLC study. Dr. Bentley and Dr. Livingston met with all eight faculty members together for an hour-long meeting to provide participants with an overview of the PLC model structure, address questions, and discuss the participants' professional development needs and/or interest in joining the PLC.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Participants were provided with [[file:What is a Professional Learning Community.docx|this handout]], which outlines the PLC adaptations made for the CSU study.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Dr. Bentley and Dr. Livingston also collected [[file:CSU_PLC_PrePLC_questionnaire.docx|this questionnaire]] from participants as a means to collect further information regarding the participants' professional development needs and experiences with "communities" prior to participation in the study.

<span style="color: #800000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-align: left;">A Culture of Collaboration
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Next, the eight participants were divided into two groups of four (based on participants' availability to meet). As demonstrated in our initial PLC meeting, having deep conversations (with all participants' participation) in a group of 10 was not feasible. Therefore, the two smaller PLC groups were formed. The smaller groups were formed in an effort to promote collaboration and communication among PLC members. Dr. Bentley served as the "leader" of one PLC group, and Dr. Livingston served as the "leader" of the other group. Throughout the rest of the semester, the two small PLC groups met three times for one-hour meetings. The focus of the meetings were as follows.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">**Small PLC meeting #1:** Participants discussed the student learning outcomes for their respective courses. Each participant chose one student learning outcome as a focus. Each participant also chose one major course project in which he/she planned to develop teaching resources and assess student achievement related to that focus learning outcome.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">**Small PLC meeting #2:** Participants discussed their focus projects, student assessment ideas, and general teaching concerns or issues that they were experiencing.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">**Small PLC meeting #3:** There was no set topic for this meeting. Participants were encouraged to bring their own teaching concerns and share teaching resources/ideas.

<span style="color: #800000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-align: left;">A Focus on Results
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">In order to meet the third PLC principle - A Focus on Results - PLC participants were asked to compile their findings regarding student achievement. That is, participants created a teaching portfolio providing teaching and assessment materials related to their focus projects and student learning outcomes. Further, participants included reflective writings within their portfolios to explain how, and in what ways, the learning outcomes were met. Finally, in order for Dr. Bentley and Dr. Livingston to better understand how the PLC experience served the participants' professional development needs, they collected a post-PLC questionnaire.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Download further information about the [[file:CSUPLC_PLCportfolio.docx|PLC Teaching Portfolio]] here.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Download the [[file:PostPLC_questionnaire.doc|post-PLC questionnaire]] here.