Building the

Collaborative
Culture of a PLC
Collaboration: Session 1
PLC Professional Development for Teams

Learning Council, Elementary Leadership Teams,

and Secondary Leadership Teams
LEARNING COLLABORATIO RESULTS
 Why Collaboration?
 “a collection of teachers does not truly become a team
until they must rely on one another( and need one
another) to accomplish a goal that none could achieve
individually”

 “co-laboring” to benefit students

 “in a PLC the reason teachers are organized into teams,

the reason they are provided with time to work together,
the reason they are asked to focus on certain topics and
complete specific tasks, is so that when they return to
their classrooms they will possess and UTILIZE an
expanded repertoire of skills, strategies, materials, and
ideas IN ORDER to impact student achievement in a
positive way.”

DuFour, Richard, et. al. Learning by Doing. Bloomington: Solution Tree, 2006.

 Why Collaboration?
 “Individuals on effective teams learn to
acknowledge mistakes, weaknesses,
failures, and the need for help. They also
learn to recognize and value the strengths
of other members of the team and are
willing to learn from one another.”

DuFour, Richard, et. al. Learning by Doing. Bloomington: Solution Tree, 2006.

 Five Dysfunctions of a Team

Lencioni, Patrick. Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Field Guide for Leaders, Managers, and Facilitators . San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
 Team Norm Activity
In your small group develop team norms by:
 Completing Developing Norms from direction
sheet, write your norms on the norms template
 write proposed norms for each of the 6 areas of
consideration

If your team has already written group norms:

 Do your norms cover some of the common
challenges that occur in teams?
 Do you need to add anything after looking at the
norms template page?

DuFour, Richard, et. al. Learning by Doing. Bloomington: Solution Tree, 2006. (p. 210-211)

Additional Tips for Creating Norms
 Each team creates its own norms
 Stated as commitments to act or behave in
certain ways rather than as beliefs
 Reviewed at the beginning and end of each
meeting for at least 6 months
 Teams formally evaluate effectiveness at least
twice a year
 Teams focus on a few essential norms rather
than extensive laundry list.
 Violations of team norms must be addressed
DuFour, Richard, et. al. Learning by Doing. Bloomington: Solution Tree, 2006. (p.106)
 Seven Norms of Collaboration
 Pausing  Paying attention to
 Paraphrasing self and others
 Presuming positive
 Probing for
specificity intentions
 Pursuing a balance
 Putting ideas on
the table between advocacy
and inquiry

Are you looking in the mirror or out the window?

DuFour, Richard, et. al. Learning by Doing. Bloomington: Solution Tree, 2006. (p. 104)
Balance Between Advocacy and Inquiry
 Protocols for Effective Advocacy

 Protocols for Effective Inquiry

DuFour, Richard, et. al. Learning by Doing. Bloomington: Solution Tree, 2006. (p. 105)

 Seven Factors to Influencing Reluctant Staff
1. Reason Providing
“resistance
Connecting
Changing
Presenting
Appealing
Building people
the must
to the
real
shared way
to
2. Research be
with
the identified
incentives
person’s
world
information
rational
knowledgeexamplesofand
thinking tois
intuition
the
3. Resonance dealt so
where
and
embrace with
that
presentedtherather
anthe
decision
research (e.g.
idea
base
idea
4. Representational than
has
using ignored”
proposal
been “feels
analogies)
making applied
Re-descriptions supporting a
5. Resources and Reward right”
successfully
position
6. Real-World Events
The greatest opportunity for change
comes from the first six factors.
7. Confrontation

Gardner, Howard. Changing Minds: The Art and Science of Changing Our Own and Other People’s Minds.
Boston: Harvard Business School, 2004.
DuFour, Richard, et. al. Learning by Doing. Bloomington: Solution Tree, 2006. (p. 173)
Video clip
Overcoming barriers to effective
communication
 Building the
Collaborative
Culture of a PLC
Collaboration: Session 2
PLC Professional Development for Teams

Learning Council, Elementary Leadership Teams,

and Secondary Leadership Teams
 Small Group Discussion
Isolation Collaboration

Brainstorm: What are the rewards / benefits of

working in isolation? Collaboration? Write one
idea per sticky note.
Share Points-
•Share sticky notes, add to whole group chart
 Defining PLC Collaboration
Isolation
“The traditional school
often functions as a
collection of independent
contractors united by a
common parking lot.”
Eaker, Results Now, p 23
What is a “Professional Learning Community”? Educational Leadership, May 2004
Collaboration PLC Collaboration
“Congeniality, focus on “…a systematic process in
building groups which teachers work together to
camaraderie” analyze and improve their
classroom practice.”
“Consensus on operational
procedures” “Teachers work in teams,
engaging in an ongoing cycle of
“Committees to oversee questions that promote deep
different facets of school team learning.”
operation”
“…leads to higher levels of
student achievement.”
Partner Discussion
Jigsaw Activity:
 5 Keys To a Successful Meeting – highlight the big ideas for one of
the following:
 Behaviors and Relationships
 Focus
 Roles and Responsibilities
 Structure
 Process

Share Points-
•Share the key’s big ideas with the whole group

Erkens, Cassandra, et. al. The Collaborative Teacher. Bloomington: Solution Tree, 2008.

(p. 33-54)
Comparison
With those sitting around you, discuss how your line
compares with that of organizational change
First and Second order change
First order change:
 Small changes with “existing knowledge and
skills of the staff”
 Small steps within existing paradigm

Second order change:

 BIG changes…a “dramatic departure from the
expected and familiar”…
 “Perceived as a break from the past… may
require new knowledge, new skills”

DuFour, Richard, et. al. Learning by Doing. Bloomington: Solution Tree, 2006. (p. 186,

215, & 218)
Don’t Judge too Quickly
PLC: Professional Learning Communities
4 Crucial Questions
What do we want each student
Student Learning Expectations
to learn, know, or be able to do?
What evidence do we have of the learning?
Formative Assessment

How will we respond when some students

don’t learn?
Pyramid Of Intervention
How will we respond to those who have
already learned?