What are professional learning communities?

By MEGAN HUGHES

news@yourdailyglobe.com

Ironwood — Members of the Board of Education for Ironwood Area Schools heard at their Nov. 25 meeting a presentation on Professional Learning Communities.

Trisha Winn, who is the English 7-12 department chair for Luther L. Wright K-12 School, provided the slideshow.

Winn is also the district’s PLC coordinator and so reviewed the program’s achievements, as well as its goals.

According to her, the PLC process starts with an analysis by teachers of what every student needs to learn at his or her grade level, so as to be prepared properly for the following year.

“We call them power standards,” said Winn.

She added that, after establishing said standards, teachers create assessments for them.

‘We take that assessment data and bring it to our weekly meeting, where we assess and discuss it with our colleagues,” said Winn.

During these meetings, teachers are able to review topics with which students struggle, and use one another as resources to help improve student proficiency in a given subject.

Much of Winn’s own assessment work is in the field of English.

“It’s a cycle,” she said. “We refine our process, and we need to have enough autonomy as teachers to take risks and learn what works and what doesn’t.”

What students need to learn are based on state standards, according to Winn. Of these standards, teachers work together to decide which standards deserve higher priority.

“It is absolutely impossible for any of us to teach 100 standards a year and make sure that everyone is proficient in every one,” said Winn. “Some are more important than others.”

She described the difference between these essential standards and the remainder as the difference between “need to know” and “nice to know.”

“That is what we focus on: the skills that they need in order to keep learning,” said Winn.

The PLC program focuses on proficiency with the material, aiming to get students to a point where they reliably can understand and utilize the skills on which they focus (rather than on specific grades).

Winn said that, over the course of the year, teachers regularly meet to assess these proficiencies and bring up any concerns they may have. These meetings also allow teachers to assess their own teaching methods and adjust as needed.

“We are developing a form that we all can use,” she said.

The form allows a teacher to break down into smaller parts the state standard on which they are focusing, thus facilitating better tracking of their students’ progress.

“At the start of the unit, I can show this to my students,” said Winn of the form, “and I can say ‘These are the things you will need to be able to do.’”

Winn used examples from her own classes to show how effective the process has been to her department. “The students are very proud of their work,” she said.

For the students who may be struggling, Winn said their teachers may have them seek additional assistance by attending what is called a Response-to-Intervention class — referred to by its acronym of RTI.

“They are going well so far,” said Winn, “My hope is that we won’t need high school intervention classes. For the kids in elementary, we will always need that RTI time to help them with subjects they are struggling with.”

She concluded, “It’s an ongoing cycle” and iterated that young students who have been immersed in the process early are the ones who will benefit in the most.

As such, she said, “We are aiming to really raise the bar for K-12.”