WEBVTT

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[Music]

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Terry Dade: At Graham Road,
we do have a significant portion

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of our students are
second language learners.

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Coupled with the fact
that we have 80 percent free

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and reduced lunch population

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and approximately 92 percent
are minority students,

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we do not have time to
waste a single minute

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in our instructional day.

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So that's why we've chosen
to be standards-based

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and to develop a true
PLC (professional

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learning community).

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With the challenges that
some may use as excuses

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for students not performing,
we use that as impetus

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for why we need to bring our
A-game each and every day.

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Focusing on the standards allows
us to have a very extensive

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and well-thought-out curriculum
map that every teacher here

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at Graham Road will
be able to follow

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over the course of the year.

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This standards-based approach
has also allowed us to dive

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in to say, "Do our teachers
really know what the standard

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entails, what it means for what
they'll see their students being

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able to do in the classroom?"

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So we spend a lot of time
unpacking those standards.

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We believe fully in
the team approach

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to standards-based instructions,
so we have resource teachers

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and reading specialists
who work directly

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with each grade-level team.

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>>Kate O'Donnell: At
Graham Road, we have PLCs,

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which is professional
learning communities.

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We want to work collaboratively
with all the expertise

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and perspectives in the building
to really dig very deeply

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into the math and
literacy standards.

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A typical PLC will have members

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of the team including
homeroom classroom teachers,

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also specialists
like ESOL teachers,

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and reading specialists, and
then special education teachers.

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[Unwrap standard]

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>>O'Donnell: At the second-grade
PLC, we were looking

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at a standard from Virginia
that looks at both fiction

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and nonfiction, and
we were zooming

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into the nonfiction piece.

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So the standard asks
for students

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to preview nonfiction
using certain features,

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including pictures, titles,
headings, and diagrams.

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And then we match that
with another standard

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that was quite compatible.

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It asks students to utilize a
table of contents and diagrams.

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[Build a collective
understanding]

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O'Donnell: The idea behind
the PLC is that we're working

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with backwards lesson design.

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At the PLC, we're saying, "Okay,

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if this is what our students
are expected to learn

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and demonstrate understanding
of, what does that entail?

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What's going on there?"

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So instead of having
a core reading program

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that tells us what to do on a
given day, what texts to use,

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what strategies to use, what we
do is we bring all the members

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of the PLC together.

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We look at that standard.

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We look at the essential
knowledge

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that Virginia sets out.

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And then we, together, talk
about our understanding of it,

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and then we bridge that with the
professional literature that's

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out there on a given standard.

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And we'll talk through what
is the professional literature

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saying about how students
learn these certain strategies,

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or what are some obstacles
that students might encounter?

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And then from there, we'll take
that collective understanding,

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and we'll apply it to our lesson
design that we will also come

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up with collaboratively.

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[Review assessments]

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O'Donnell: We will
switch and talk

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about summative assessment--

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things that the state
has released

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or that different assessment
organizations have released--

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and we'll also look at
formative assessments

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that teams have used
in the past.

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We looked at last year's
formative assessment and talked

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through how last year
we gave this assessment

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that was much broader, and this
year we're taking our students

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to looking at the nonfiction
features more specifically

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in one-at-a-time fashion, so
what do we want to change?

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[Frame the lesson]

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O'Donnell: Then, we'll go
into the framing piece.

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Our framer will preselect texts
that she thinks are good fits.

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Now, this is by no means
a directive from her

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or from anyone else on the team.

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The purpose of that conversation
is much more to say,

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"Here are the pieces that
stand out in this text.

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Here's why this text works

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for this standard
and this strategy."

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And then teachers can certainly
use that very same text or say,

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"You know what, I
know of another text

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that really meets
my students' needs,

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and it does have all
these other pieces.

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So that's the one
I'm going to use."

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In addition, they're also
going to talk through

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"What are the tools that we
want students to be using

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for engagement and
accountability?"

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So at the second-grade PLC,
our framer brought a big poster

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with a giant magnifying
glass that structured how

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to write what I'm previewing,

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the different nonfiction
features from the standard,

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and then a question that I
predict will be answered,

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and then leaving tracks
of the student thinking.

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Then that anchor chart will
be visible in the room as part

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of the print-rich environment

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so that students can always
look back to that anchor chart

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to remind themselves
of the thinking and how

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that thinking was recorded,
both throughout the year

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and then also when
they are working

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with their individual
graphic organizer

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that will be a very similar
version to the class chart.

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[Benefits of collaboration]

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O'Donnell: The impact of PLCs on
teaching reading comprehension

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and strategies and standards
is pretty significant.

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Teachers come to the
meeting having an idea,

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but they leave the meeting
having a deep understanding,

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and the impact is seen
in the classrooms.

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You have teachers who are doing
standards-driven instruction.

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It's specific; it's
fine, fine detail;

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it's deep and purposeful.

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But again, it draws on
individual students,

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individual teacher, individual
class desires and interests.

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[Music]