Frisco ISD Focus Magazine February 2018 | Page 21

The sixth-grade STARS team at Wester Middle School meets to discuss strategies being used to assist struggling students. a teacher, in most cases to someone oth- er than their regular classroom teacher. Four days a week, students spend a half hour in these groups getting addition- al instruction in math or reading, either enrichment to build on their learning or ex- tra support to help them master the skill. Every two weeks, the groups change. The learning target changes. Teachers see which strategies work with certain students. Students get exactly what they need. “We all know each other’s kids and cel- ebrate their growth,” said Wilson, team leader of seven fourth-grade teachers at Newman Elementary. “We’re constantly learning from one another and getting new ideas to make our instruction and teaching practices better.” This way of working together collab- oratively, with a focus on results and continuous improvement, is a hallmark of schools across Frisco ISD. Educators work in teams known as Professional Learning Communities, or PLCs, to plan for student learning and support the needs of the whole child. “It’s not just coming up with lesson plans in reading, writing, math, science and social studies,” said Daniel Kanzler, assistant principal at Wester Middle School. “Teachers are looking at the whole picture of the student on a daily basis. It’s a true fulfillment of the District’s mission statement.” At all levels, teachers work with col- leagues who teach the same subject area to align instruction from grade to grade, course to course. In middle school, when students start having many teachers instead of just a few, teachers also meet with those who teach other subjects to the same group of students. Planning time allows them to discuss which students are struggling and what additional strategies have been used to help them succeed. These conversations between teach- ers give them insight into how a student FOUR CRITICAL QUESTIONS OF A PLC What do we want students to know and be able to do? How will we know if students have learned it? How will we respond when they have not learned it? How will we respond when they already know it? is performing in other subjects across his or her grade level. They address students who’ve fallen behind and strive to close achievement gaps. “Everything is changing in middle school and everything is new,” said Ashley Reid, a sixth-grade science teacher at Wester. “We know this is a time when students risk falling through the cracks, so it’s a chance for us to catch them and make sure they are getting everything that they need.” That sense of shared responsibility for all students is a key tenet of the PLC philosophy. Those responsible for teaching the same grade level or course plan lessons and assessments together to help identi- fy the most effective teaching strategies and any areas for improvement within the curriculum. “Sometimes we discover a confusing test question or learn maybe we didn’t successfully teach what the question was asking,” said Eric Davis, a teacher and coach at Independence High School who collaboratively plans with two other World History teachers. “That may mean re-teaching an important idea that many students missed or making tweaks in the future.” Planning for learning is a detailed and deliberate process that matches the spe- cific TEKS, or knowledge and skills that students need to learn, with the lessons, methods and assessments used to teach and measure them. The process supports both experi- enced teachers and those new to the pro- fession, since educators share lessons and ideas to benefit all students. “I can learn from them and they can learn from me,” Davis said of his colleagues. “We all bring something to the table,” agreed Erin Lester, who teaches World History to special education students at Independence. “It keeps you from being comfortable,” added Erin Fox, another World History teacher who says working together en- sures the best outcomes for students. A PLC is a network of fellow teachers to lean on. “When we opened Independence in 2014, about 30 percent of teachers came from other FISD schools,” said Independence Principal Alan Waligura. “The rest came from all over with differ- ent backgrounds and experiences. I think the PLC model empowered them to share their ideas and instructional strategies and made all of us better educators.” n FOCUS | 21