D.+THE+FIVE+STEP+PROCESS

Dr. Lane's vision of the Five Step Process aligns with the Professional Learning Community approach we have embraced with the Language Arts teams in our district. I believe that teams of teachers must be provided time to come together and experience this process. Professional development is something that you do and NOT something that is done to you. We can all learn from each other and the best development that a teacher can experience is improving their instruction daily through practical application and action research. School improvement is best achieved through teachers coming together, planning instruction and assessment, implementing their plans, and then analyzing the results to inform their decisions. True differentiation in a classroom cannot be achieved until a teacher and the PLC goes through this process. Differentation of instruction cannot happen until we can analyze on a student by student basis the gaps in our instruction and their learning. This is how we build capacity within our district and how we secure that the leadership does not begin or end with any one person.

Last year, each Instructional Coach at Wyandotte was strategically placed by our principal in one office space. Through this, the four content leads were given the opportunity daily to share ideas on how to improve instruction as a whole. I was the lead in this partnership and below are some examples of the types of learning that came from this group.

The first is the the Professional Learning Community reflection cycle that we at Wyandotte utilized. Math, Science, Language Arts, and Social Studies utilized this approach. It mirrors the vision of Dr. Lane and her Five Step Process.



The next documents are agendas that show how the Language Arts department studied the data from their common assessments and reflected on the results. This is the toughest part of the PLC cycle. Each PLC had a lead teacher that facilitated the conversation. These leads were chosen based on Critical Friends training, experience, and leadership. Although I attended these PLC meetings, I merely was a participant and not the facilitator. When needed, I was able to step in and provide support to teachers and teams. I would give each facilitator the data and help them interpret it. Each agenda I provided PLCs was flexible as long as it was data based and addressed the student's needs. Agendas were also different based on the PLC need. I was diligent in making sure that the professional development that I provided met the teachers and students needs.



I also believe that the role of a leader is to elicit feedback from the teachers he or she works with and incorporate it into future professional development. After each quarter and content area inservice, I would request that teachers give feedback on the needs they may have in order for them to recieve the highest quality professional development that they deserve. Below is an example of how I documented the feedback given to me and shared it with the teachers.