Empowering Teachers Using the PLC

Michael Tofte

K-12 Supervisor of STEM

Trenton Public Schools

The Need for Coaches

• As per my job description, one of my responsibilities was to provide embedded professional development for 21 schools on 24 campuses.
• It became highly difficult to provide quality professional development to all schools by myself.
• Based on that need, I submitted a proposal to develop part-time Science teacher leaders in each building.

Recruiting Coaches

• General Announcements
• PLC Meetings
• Mass E-mail
• Excerpts in Superintendent’s Newsletter
• Word-of-mouth
• E-mail teachers

Recruiting Coaches

• Specific Strategies
• Contacted principals to get their feedback and recommendations
• Talked one on one with exemplary teachers and encouraged them to apply

Training the Coaches

• The Science Leads would meet after school 1-2 times per month at the TBOE office.
• High school leads would meet together.
• Middle school leads would meet together.
• Elementary school leads would meet together.

Training the Coaches

• I would train the teachers in the areas they needed the most help in, such as...
• Synthesizing our STEM program materials
• Creating lessons using our new instructional framework
• Converting teacher centered labs into student centered labs
• Science pedagogy
• Teaching our new science curriculum

based on the Next Generation Science

Standards

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Training the Coaches

• The coaches would also report to me on any challenges the teachers were facing any concerns the principals expressed and depending on the concern, I would go to the schools to and address them or have the coaches address them.

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Role of the Coaches

• The coaches would then turnkey to their staff and principal.
• The turnkey process was multi-faceted.
• The coaches would do a presentation at either a PLC or a faculty meeting based on building schedule and principal preference.
• The coaches would present, model, and facilitate and guide teachers through the process.
• Coaches also open their classroom doors to allow other teachers to come and observe them using the teaching strategies with their students.

Where are we now in the process?

• Buildings and schools are at varying levels in the process due to a number of factors, such as…
• Are there established PLCs at their schools?
• What date was the Science Lead hired?
• Etc.

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Where are we now in the process?

• The schools that are furthest along receive weekly or bi-weekly PD from either the science lead or myself.
• Teachers in the schools that are furthest along are creating lesson plans together in their PLCs with other teachers in their grade using our instructional framework and newly approved 2015-16 curriculum that is aligned to both the NGSS and the STEM program we have been implementing.
• These PLCs are being led on a weekly basis by the Science Lead and I come when my schedule permits (1-2 times per month).

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The Rider Cohort

• In addition to my own personal coaches, I worked with the Rider Cohort at PJ Hill.
• Mrs. Pinelli led the following effort.
• She collaborated with 4^th grade teachers to choose a close reading strategy to focus on, implement the lesson, collect student data, discuss the student data at further meetings, and make suggestions for improvement based on the data.

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The Rider Cohort

• PJ Hills lesson in the words of Mrs. Pinelli: “This lesson was adapted from Readworks.org. The learning goal, or objective, was to compare and contrast two non-fiction passages. The teacher modeled the skill by reading aloud two different passages and guiding students to find the main ideas in each passage. Even though the main ideas were similar, the passages were about two different topics. The teacher then modeled how to compare and contrast the two articles using the Venn Diagram as a graphic organizer. The students then worked independently to model the skill using two different articles. The articles asked the students to compare and contrast two different environmental issues/ activist groups and use a Venn Diagram to highlight the similarities and differences.”

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The Rider Cohort

• The rubric they chose – “The Venn Diagrams were scored on a scale of 0-4.
• 0 - Did not complete- no effort demonstrated.
• 1 - Student shows minimal effort- answers are incomplete, student demonstrates a very limited understanding.
• 2 - The student demonstrates a partial understanding of the concepts or skills. Ideas contain errors and misunderstandings.
• 3 - The student demonstrates an understanding of the skill or concept. The response may contain minimal errors and provides adequate textual based evidence.
• 4 - The student demonstrates a thorough understanding of the skill or concept. The ideas presented are clear and logical. The student exhibits a clear command of conventions, grammar and spelling and presents textual based evidence.

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The Rider Cohort

• PJ Hill’s Data Analysis Results
• The current data shows that a majority of the students need more instruction on main idea and being able to compare and contrast non-fiction articles or text.
• The students seemed to demonstrate a basic understanding of the compare and contrast skill. The students came up with some ideas for each article, but not necessarily the main ideas.

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The Rider Cohort

• PJ Hill’s Future Data Based Plan
• Moving forward- this data shows that the students need more guidance and instruction on finding the main ideas and using the information to compare and contrast it with other ideas. Teachers may want to explore other instructional ideas in order to re-teach skills.

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Benefits of Coaches

• Schools with highly active science leads generated far more excitement for teaching science in elementary schools compared to schools with less active coaches or no coaches.
• The teachers in schools where we have highly active coaches demonstrated a much better understanding of the 2015-16 science curriculum and the pedagogies laid down in our instructional framework.

Benefits of Coaches

• Coaches at the elementary school level have decreased the resistance towards administration and teaching science in general.
• At the main high school, we hired coaches who would assist the physics teachers twice per week. The data is represented below:
• In 2013-14, we had 2 students earn an 89 or higher in physics.
• In 2014-15, we had over 80 students average an 89 or higher. Teachers graded only tests, quizzes, and labs. All tests were aligned to AP standards.

Benefits of Coaches

• With the help of the coaches, we went from having 5 STEM activities/programs for our students district-wide to having over 70 including:
• Project Based Learning
• EcoSchools
• AP Physics
• Common Assessments
• Engineering
• Civil Engineering
• PARCC Argumentative Writing in Science

Future of Coaching in Trenton - Elementary

•  Phase 1 – Make staff familiar with new curriculum and materials.
• Phase 2 – Make staff familiar with how to teach using an instructional framework.
• Presenting the instructional framework
• Modeling a lesson using the instructional framework
• Creating a lesson using the instructional framework
• Sharing the lessons created and offering feedback
• Phase 3 – Creation of interdisciplinary lessons using English Language Arts informative texts that BEST match the content being delivered in each science unit.
• Phase 4 – Analyzing progress by interpreting and discussing student data.
• Phase 5 – Creating interdisciplinary units between Science and Math
• Phase 6 – Analyzing progress by interpreting and discussing student data.

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Future of Coaching in Trenton - Secondary

• September
• Get Science Lead position posted, interviews, board approved.
• Walkthroughs to see curriculum implementation
•  October
• Walkthroughs to see curriculum implementation
• Use data from September and October walkthroughs as well as June 2015 surveys to create a PD calendar for November-June.
• Begin Science Lead meetings.
• Begin PD led by Science Leads.
•  Year Round
• Collect Benchmark data and analyze.
• Analysis of data in PD
• Use data to amend PD
• PD led by Science Leads
• Walkthroughs to see curriculum implementation

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Questions