From PD to PLC: The Next Step in Our Writing Journey

Learning is always occurring whether in the classroom
 or PLC; with students or with adults.  

If you missed the beginning of our writing journey this school year, you can read about it here. At that time I mentioned that the journey had just begun and this is only the next step as our journey to better meet the writing needs of our students continues.

As with most everything, it's through much collaboration
that our systems are perfected. 

With resources in hand, our building began to use the Lucy Calkins materials to help guide writing instruction with a clearer idea of what grade level rigor should look like. Our principal provided  an opportunity for grade levels to talk about writing during a half-day PLC. During this time, we were able to bring unit writing samples and talk about grade level proficiency. Although calibration was not our primary focus, it was definitely a great opportunity to start those conversations. Administrators, facilitators and teachers all sat around the table to get a better understanding of grade level work and participate in the process. The rich conversations were enlightening especially since the provided rubric is based on grade level standards instead of generalized indicators. The positive feedback indicated how the rubric focuses on what the student can do and matches those indicators to grade level proficiency. We walked away from our time with a deeper understanding and writing SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, timely) goals set for our next writing PLC. Because of our current level using data to drive instruction as Miss Mills discusses here, this protocol was a natural next step. This protocol for analyzing student data was introduced by another school in our district to the principles, and the assistant principals and finally to the instructional facilitators. With this common message presented at the district level, we were able to see how the benefits of this protocol could help guide the conversations at our building.

Once a few modifications were made, we were ready to implement. One thing I greatly appreciate at Jones is not having the pressure for a system to be perfected before we give it a whirl. As with most everything, it's through much collaboration that our systems are perfected.

These PLCs occurred at each grade level in late November/early December. Fast forwarding to January, we again focused our professional development on writing and used an entire in-service day to meet with grade level teams to reflect on student progress toward meeting goals, score additional writing, and start the protocol again with the current unit of study. The current information will be incorporated into grade level interventions. Learning is always occurring whether in the classroom or PLC; with students or with adults.