What GCSD Values About SEDL

– SEDL provides a team with the experience and expertise to facilitate the district’s efforts to coordinate professional learning teams with current initiatives:

• A team leader to provide resources, share expertise, and evaluate progress;
• A reading specialist to teach and model quality reading instruction in primary, intermediate, and adolescent literacy; and
• A special education specialist to maintain the focus on core instruction while supporting students needing special education.

– SEDL takes the time to develop an understanding of the district culture and to foster a culture where all participants feel a level of comfort.

– SEDL tailors the design of its initiative to have administrators and teacher leaders own the process and carry it forward once the partnership has ended.

– SEDL provides a flexible process and tailors it to meet the specific needs of the district.

– SEDL provides guidance so that partners can craft a flexible plan of improvement to change the way teachers and administrators look at instruction, differentiation, assessment, student work, and overall performance.

What SEDL Values About GCSD

– The district has a designated staff member responsible for coordinating the work of the partnership. This staff member has:

• Time to regularly attend meetings and conference calls with SEDL staff;
• Access to the superintendent;
• Access to principals and instructional coaches;
• Access to professional development funds; and
• A clear sense of the importance of collaborative professional learning.

– The work of the partnership is connected to a districtwide commitment to the initiative rather than an attempt to fix a few schools.

– The superintendent and school board are committed to the initiative.

– The district and schools work to ensure that all teachers have common planning time for job-embedded professional learning.

– The district has invested in a cadre of school-based and districtwide instructional coaches who meet with district leaders on a regular basis to maintain the district priority of continuous instructional improvement.

– There is an openness to learning on the part of both district and school personnel.

The Professional Teaching and Learning Cycle

1. Study

Teachers work in collaborative planning teams (grade-level, vertical, or departmental) to examine and discuss learning expectations from the selected state standards. Teachers working collaboratively develop a common understanding of:

• The concepts and skills students need to know and be able to do to meet the expectations in the standards;
• How the standards for a grade or course are assessed on state and local tests; and
• How the standards fit within a scope and sequence of the district curriculum.

2. Select

Collaborative planning teams research and select instructional strategies and resources for enhancing learning as described in the standards. Teachers working collaboratively:

• Identify effective research-based strategies and appropriate resources that will be used to support learning in the selected state standards; and
• Agree on appropriate assessment techniques that will be used to provide evidence of student learning.

3. Plan

Planning teams formally develop a common lesson incorporating the selected strategies and agree on the type of student work each teacher will use later (in the analyze stage) as evidence of student learning. Teachers working collaboratively:

• Develop a common formal plan outlining the lesson objectives, the materials to be used, the procedures, the time frame for the lesson, and the activities in which students will be engaged; and
• Decide what evidence of student learning will be collected during the implementation.

4. Implement

Teachers carry out the planned lesson, make note of implementation successes and challenges, and gather evidence of student learning. Teachers working collaboratively:

• Deliver the lesson as planned within the specified time period;
• Record results, especially noting where students struggled and/or where instruction did not achieve expected outcomes; and
• Collect the agreed-upon evidence of student learning to take back to the collaborative planning team.

5. Analyze

Teachers gather again in collaborative teams to examine student work and discuss student understanding of the standards. Teachers working collaboratively:

• Revisit and familiarize themselves with the standards before analyzing student work;
• Analyze a sampling of student work for evidence of student learning;
• Discuss whether students have met the expectations outlined in the standards and make inferences about the strengths, weaknesses, and implications of instruction; and
• Identify what students know and what skills or knowledge needs to be strengthened in future lessons.

6. Adjust

Collaborative teams reflect on the implications of the analysis of student work. Teachers discuss alternative instructional strategies or modifications to the original instructional strategy that may be better suited to promoting student learning. Teachers working collaboratively:

• Reflect on their common or disparate teaching experiences;
• Consider and identify alternative instructional strategies for future instruction;
• Refine and improve the lesson; and
• Determine when the instructional modifications will take place, what can be built into subsequent lessons, and what needs an additional targeted lesson.