Using the Professional Learning Guide

Objective:

• Teachers will reflect on standards and the21st century skills before selecting the learner outcome. A learner outcome is a standard or standards coupled with a 21st century skill.

Focus Questions:

1. What data provides you information about where students are in their learning progression?  How will this data drive your instructional decisions?
2. What standard(s) will you teach?
3. What 21st century skill(s) do you plan to emphasize the most/least to support your standards to impact depth of student learning, their performance, and application of learning?
4. What are some activities that enrich the lesson(s) that demonstrate the learner outcome knowledge and skills?
5. What examples and exemplars will you use to support student learning and your own?
6. What is the learner outcome?

Resources:

• 21st Century Skills Rubrics, student data, and current DoDEA standards.

Ideas during PLF Time:

Teachers complete 21st Century Skills Rubrics 21st Century Skills Rubrics and look at current student data, develop leaner outcomes, develop relevant, engaging activities, and performance-based assessments.

Objective:

• Teachers will select one student-centered strategy for improving the teaching and learning of the learner outcome (standard(s) + 21st century skill).

Focus Questions:

1. What strategies best support the learner outcome (21st Century skill +standard(s)) you wish to teach? Why?
2. What experience do you already have with these strategies?
3. Which strategy are you interested in learning more about and how will that strategy engage and empower students in learning to help raise their achievement?

Resources:

• 21st CTLL website, Strand and Strategy eBook, and 21st Century Skills Rubrics.

Ideas during PLF Time:

• Teachers explore the Strand and Strategy E-book. They should use 21st Century Skills Rubrics. 21st Century Skills Rubrics and recent student data to decide on a strategy that will help students achieve the learner outcome (standard(s) +21st century skill). b. Review the relevant performance based activities to ensure learning and application is student-centered and connected to the learner outcome.
  

*This component will overlap with Real-World Application) and Planning

Objective:

• Teachers will select and participate in professional learning opportunities.

Focus Questions:

1. What and why is this strategy a best practice for you? What is the research behind the strategy?
2. What connections are there to your current practice? What impact do you foresee this strategy having on student achievement?
3. As you develop your lesson/unit plan, what assessments/benchmark test will be needed to ensure learning occurs at the level required?
4. What interventions will you use to ensure all students learn at mastery?
5. How will you provide multiple opportunities for students to learn?

Resources:

• 21st CTLL website, Strand and Strategy E-book, Staff Development Teacher and leadership team.

Ideas during PLF Time:

• Engage in discussions about teaching, learning, and the alignment of standards through the use of articles, books, and videos. View and reflect on videos in the Strand and Strategy eBook. Collaborate by reviewing data, looking at student work, planning lessons and build common assessments to ensure rigorous, relevant learning occurs. Tie selected strategy to learner outcome (standard(s)+ 21st century skill) create technology and hands-on learning pieces, select assessment pieces from curricular materials and/or create assessments, participate in a Critical Friends protocol, ask Staff Development Teacher and leadership team for help. Plan non-evaluative/non-critical peer observations.

Objective:

• Teachers will apply their professional learning in their educational setting.

Focus Questions:

1. What formative and summative assessments will you use to assess the students’ proficiency of the learner outcome (content standard(s)+21st century skill?
2. How will you assess if the students can apply their learning to the real world? (Performance-Based Assessments? Rubrics? Project-Based Learning Experiences?)
3. How effective are the lessons in helping students achieve mastery in the learner outcome and apply their learning to the real-world?
4. How well are students learning and how will you know? What feedback and guidance will students be given to support and grow their learning?
5. What trends in learning do you notice?

Resources:

• Video exemplars, Staff Development Teacher and leadership team, Content ISSs, curricular materials and assessments, and collaboration team.

Ideas during PLF Time:

• Make sure assessments match learner outcome, bring benchmark assessments to share with group, co-teach a lesson with the SDT or leadership team member, trouble-shoot problems that occurred during implementation, observe peers teaching a lesson and try techniques out in your own classroom, examine student data and work, participate in a Critical Friends protocol. Observe or have the SDT or collegial friend observe you or tape the lesson and review and reflect on its impact on student learning.

Objective:

• Teachers will evaluate student learning and reflect on teaching strategies by looking at student work and making data-driven decisions to improve instruction.

Focus Questions:

1. What evidence do you have to show that students achieved mastery of the learner outcome? (Content standards + 21st century skill(s))?
2. How will you respond if students did not achieve mastery of the learner outcome?
3. How will you enrich and extend the learning for those who mastered the learner outcome?
4. What worked and didn’t work during the students’ application of knowledge to real world application?
5. Did the teacher and students move higher on the 21st Century Skills Rubrics?
6. What will you do next to improve your practice and increase student learning?

Resources:

• Selected 21st Century Skills Rubrics, Staff Development Teacher and leadership team, and Critical Friend sharing.

Ideas during PLF Time:

• Use 21st Century Skills Rubrics 21st Century Skills Rubrics to measure teacher and student growth, analyze student data and student achievement, self-reflect on the entire process, make decisions on next step to improve your practice, make plans for ensuring students who did not achieve the learner outcome have an opportunity to do so, reflect on what the next learner outcome (standard(s) + 21st century skill) might be, increase student engagement in learning and deepen student learning.