Are We a Group or a Team?

Copyright © 2015 by Solution Tree Press

Materials appearing here are copyrighted. With one exception, all rights are reserved. Readers may reproduce only those pages marked “Reproducible.” Otherwise, no part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without prior written permission of the publisher.

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Facilitator’s Guide Writer: Hudson Perigo

Notes to the Facilitator

In this workshop, based on his 1-5-10 team-evaluation activity, Mike Mattos addresses the very foundations of student success by showing educators how they can move from coordination to collaboration in their own professional learning communities (PLCs). The video segments clearly demonstrate differences between a cooperative group and a high-functioning, collaborative team. Special attention is given to what defines a 1 Team, 5 Team, or 10 Team. Tools and activities in this guide will help you move each team to a true collaborative 10 Team. In this way, Mattos says, teachers come together for the greater good—the highest levels of learning for every student.

The workshop features a video program (approximately forty-three minutes in length), which highlights classroom teachers and school leaders from real PLCs engaged in the strategies highlighted in this workshop.

The workshop is divided into nine components.

1. Welcome and Opening: Welcome participants to the workshop, and engage in an opening activity.

2. What Is True Collaboration?: In this opening segment of the video, Mattos discusses how teams collaborate, while groups merely coordinate.

3. How to Force Rank Your Team: Participants discover the characteristics of a 1 Team, a 5 Team, and a highly functioning, truly collaborative 10 Team. They then will force rank their own teams.

4. Building Strong Teams: Next, Mattos discusses the foundations of building high-functioning teams in which members share responsibility for learning outcomes, develop time to collaborate, and collaborate professionally.

5. Bloomington’s First Steps: One high-functioning team models how to build shared knowledge, organize team composition and responsibilities, and decide on the right kinds of assessments for their students.

6. Setting Norms That Work: Mike Mattos discusses how team members can come to agreement and work in true professional collaboration.

7. Moving From a 5 Team to a 10 Team: Part I— Participants examine and reflect on the critical question, “What do we want students to learn?”

8. Moving From a 5 Team to a 10 Team: Part II—In this video segment, Mattos discusses common assessment and how teams can answer the critical question, “How will we know if each student is learning essential concepts?” In the end, assessing student progress is the only way to determine teacher effectiveness.

9. Conclusions: In the last segment of the video, participants will see PLC practitioners reflecting insights about their own collaborative teamwork.

Conducting the Workshop

This workshop is designed to last about three and a half hours. All the professional development materials you will need to conduct the workshop—facilitator’s guide with detailed teaching suggestions and reproducible handouts, as well as the video resources—are provided in this package.

To conduct a successful learning event, please consider the following accommodations.

• Preparation: It’s important that you view the entire video program, read all materials, and complete all activities yourself before leading the workshop.

• Location: The workshop should take place in an area that is large enough for individual, small-team, and whole-group work.

• Equipment: You will need a DVD player and may need multiple monitors. Ideally, you will have one video monitor for every ten to twelve participants.

• Handouts: Reproducible handouts for all participants are included with this guide (starting on page 16). Duplicate these handouts before the workshop begins, and distribute them to participants according to the workshop instructions.

• Additional equipment: You will also need notepaper, index cards or note cards in two different colors, flip charts, chalkboards, whiteboards, and appropriate writing materials to conduct the workshop.

• Refreshments: The agenda for the three-and-a-half-hour workshop should include one or more breaks during which you offer beverages. Snacks are optional, but water should be available throughout the workshop.

Video Program

This workshop incorporates a video program that is approximately forty-three minutes in length. The video features discussion with award-winning author and educator Mike Mattos, as well as documentary footage from teachers and administrators from Fossil Ridge Intermediate School, St. George, Utah, and Bloomington High School South, Bloomington, Indiana, as they discuss and model how to become a truly collaborative team. The PLC at Work® process is embedded in the culture of these schools, and the footage captures the sights and sounds of effective teacher teams and leaders in action. There are no scripted scenes in this program! Participants learn from the real-life experiences of successful PLC practitioners.

The PLC Resource Continuum

This resource is designed to introduce educators to PLC concepts and build shared knowledge regarding the key terms and practices of collaborative teams in PLC schools. The video is designed to provide a precise explanation of PLC collaborative team practices and to give educators suggestions for moving forward on the PLC continuum. Furthermore, while other resources typically stress the research base that supports PLCs, this video makes the case for professional learning communities through the stories of the people who have actually created them.

Print

Making Teamwork Meaningful: Leading Progress-Driven Collaboration in a PLC at Work by William M. Ferriter, Parry Graham, and Matt Wight

Video

Collaborative Teams in Professional Learning Communities at Work: Learning by Doing by Richard DuFour, Rebecca DuFour, Robert Eaker, and Thomas W. Many

Web

allthingsplc .info

go.solution-tree.com/plcatwork

Workshop Overview at a Glance

15–20 Welcome and Opening

15 What Is True Collaboration?

20–25 How to Force Rank Your Team

20–25 Building Strong Teams “Team Foundations”

15–20 Bloomington’s First Steps “Team Foundations”

25–30

20–25

20–25

15–20

Setting Norms That Work “Team Foundations”

Moving From a 5 Team to a 10 Team: Part I—What Do We Want Students to Learn?

Moving From a 5 Team to a 10 Team: Part II—How Will We Know if Each Student Is Learning the Essential Concepts?

Conclusions: Observations From a 10 Team

“Essential Standards Chart”

“Essential Standards Chart”

“Common Assessment Team Protocol”

“Critical Issues for Team Consideration”

Workshop Teaching Suggestions

The purpose of this workshop is for educators to explore how they can move from coordination to collaboration in a PLC at Work.

Learning Objectives

After viewing the video and participating in the activities for the workshop, participants will be able to:

• Distinguish between a cooperative group and a true collaborative team

• Distinguish the characteristics of a 1 Team, a 5 Team, and a high-functioning 10 Team

• Evaluate and force rank the current status of their own teams

• Analyze the behavior of high-functioning teams

• Organize a strong team, provide dedicated time to collaborate, and collaborate professionally

• Identify the foundations of common assessment team protocols

• Develop strategies for providing teams with time to collaborate

• Describe the four critical questions associated with effective collaborative teams

• Explore critical team-building issues regarding norms, boundaries, responsibilities, and respect

• Recognize the importance of treating all learners not as my students but as our students

• Identify team products that flow directly from critical questions about what they want students to learn

• Develop common assessment plans for their own teams

• Determine if students are learning essential concepts and thus evaluate teacher effectiveness

• Articulate the importance of ongoing learning in the growth of a school

Program Overview

This video program encourages participants to move from being members of a cooperative group to members of a collaborative team. Participants should already be familiar with PLC at Work principles, which Mike Mattos, former principal of the award-winning Pioneer Middle School in California and nationally acclaimed author and consultant, expands on with his own strategies. The video program challenges educators to explore and improve their professional interactions. It will give educators tools to improve the weaker links in their teams so that they may function at the highest levels possible for the good of all students.

Materials

• Video program: Are We a Group or a Team?: Moving From Coordination to Collaboration in a PLC at Work

• Reproducible handouts:

• “Team Foundations”

• “Essential Standards Chart”

• “Common Assessment Team Protocol”

• “Critical Issues for Team Consideration”

• Index cards or note cards in two different colors, flip charts, chalkboards or whiteboards, and appropriate writing materials

Activities

You can show the forty-three-minute video program without stopping and then conduct the activities for each section of the guide. It is recommended, however, that you follow the activities as outlined in the workshop teaching suggestions and stop the video when prompted in the facilitator’s guide and on the video. The workshop suggestions in this guide support this second approach. After showing each video segment, allow participants time to comment, express opinions, ask questions about the material, and complete the activities suggested in the guide. If requested, you can replay portions of the program as participants consider the questions and activities.

Welcome and Opening

1. Welcome participants to the workshop, and introduce yourself and anyone else serving as a workshop host, co-leader, or organizer.

2. If participants do not know one another well, conduct a “getting to know you” activity. Ask participants to form pairs and interview each other for a few minutes. Then, ask the pairs to introduce each other to the group, stating the person’s name, something interesting or different about the person, and what the person hopes to gain from the workshop. (If there are more than twenty people in the group, have each pair join another pair and only make introductions within each group of four.)

3. Play the first video segment.

4. Stop the video at the “Pause for Discussion” title card, and conduct the following opening activity designed to assess current knowledge and participants’ perceptions of their teams.

5. Distribute two index or note cards to each participant. (If you have two different colors, use one color for the first task and the other for the second.) Ask each participant to privately rank his or her current collaborative team on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most highly functioning, and put his or her answers aside. Then, ask participants to answer the question, “Do you feel you’re ‘on your own’ when in your classroom?” with Yes, No, or Not sure. Remind participants to put these cards away as well.

6. Restart the video, and view “What Is True Collaboration?” Stop at the next “Pause for Discussion” title card.

What Is True Collaboration?

1. Divide participants into three groups. Using the scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the highest), ask the first group to brainstorm characteristics of a 1 Team, the second group to brainstorm characteristics of a 5 Team, and the last group to brainstorm characteristics of a 10 Team. Have each group select a leader who will present the characteristics to the participants.

2. Appoint a recorder to list the characteristics on a flip chart, and post these pages throughout the room for future reference. Encourage participants to alter the lists throughout the workshop.

3. State that the next video segment will focus on how the author defines these terms. Restart the video, and have participants view “How to Force Rank Your Team.” Stop the video when “Pause for Discussion” appears.

How to Force Rank Your Team

1. Return to the lists you developed in the previous activity, and ask the group to complete them, adding Mattos’s characteristics. Lead the discussion by giving hints until participants have reflected on many or all of the concepts the video expresses. If you run out of time and don’t cover them all, don’t worry—you can fold them into later discussions. Additionally, always look for opportunities to reinforce these characteristics.

2. Should the discussion lag, use the following team characteristics to refocus the conversation. (It can be helpful if you have already listed these on a flip chart.)

• A 1 Team:

› The drama makes my job harder.

› People don’t give it their full attention (coming late, leaving early, grading papers, or so on).

› We agree to disagree when it comes to essential standards.

› I try to share, but no one else does.

› There are cliques and gossip.

› I’d rather use the time to prep.

• A 5 Team:

› My team is pretty good.

› We coordinate our curriculum for the most important standards.

› For the major topics, we use common assessments.

› We share some instructional ideas.

› We take turns making copies and doing other prep tasks.

› We’re friends, not just colleagues.

› I’m in charge of my students; they’re in charge of their students.

› Holding one another accountable is awkward.

• A 10 Team:

› I can’t imagine doing my job without my team.

Workshop Teaching Suggestions

› What we achieve collectively is greater than what I could achieve alone. The sum is greater than the parts.

› It’s not my students, but our students

› What we collaborate about impacts what I do in my classroom. It transforms me.

› I would never come to a meeting unprepared, because we’ve agreed collectively—if I’m unprepared, I’m not the only one hurt.

› We hold each other accountable.

3. Then, ask participants to force rank their existing teams as being a 1 Team, 5 Team, or 10 Team. If all participants are from a single team, allow them to discuss their choices. Refer back to their original lists when necessary.

4. Encourage open communication. Should disagreement occur, list general areas, and post for future reference. Assure participants that the exercise is not meant to judge. There is no wrong answer. As Mattos reminds us in the video, “Our work is too important.”

5. If participants are from various teams, break into smaller groups, and ask for volunteers to share their discussion experiences.

6. Take a ten-minute break, and state that the next segment in the video will focus on building strong teams. Resume the video with the segment “Building Strong Teams.” Stop the video at the next “Pause for Discussion” title card.

Building Strong Teams

1. Using a whiteboard or flip chart, quickly brainstorm a review of the first three steps for building a strong team: (1) forming teams that share learning outcomes, (2) finding time to collaborate, and (3) collaborating professionally. Record results, and post for future reference.

2. Distribute the reproducible handout “Team Foundations” (page 16), and brainstorm norms and goals. Ask for a volunteer to record. Sample points raised could include:

• What are PLC norms?

› Collective commitments to professional behavior—arriving on time, having mutual respect, completing assignments, sharing the workload, using professional conduct, and so on

• How do we define our common goals?

› Strategic and specific

› Measurable

› Attainable

› Results oriented

› Time bound

3. If time permits, or if you have a large group, you can break into four groups to work on the questions, having each group report back to the whole.

4. Return to the video, and play the segment “Bloomington’s First Steps.”

Bloomington’s First Steps

1. Return to the handout “Team Foundations.” Divide participants into random groups of two or three, and ask them to review the questions raised in the previous discussion. Then, drawing on the experiences that the teacher leaders at Bloomington High School South shared, have them analyze whether or not their own previous efforts to work on the handout were SMART choices.

2. Conduct a group discussion of how decisions are made in their own team or teams.

3. Have a recorder list the five elements of SMART goals as participants reflect strategies for organizing a collaborative team. After the discussion, post the results.

4. Return to the video, and play the segment “Setting Norms That Work.”

Setting Norms That Work

1. Ask participants to take several minutes to self-reflect on the content of the last video segment. Do they know current or past team members who broke team norms? Have they themselves ever disrespected team norms? Do they ever belittle the work of the team to others?

2. Replay the video segment, if necessary.

3. Break into groups of two, and discuss ways to encourage team members to change their negative behaviors and work in professional collaboration. What can be done when team members will not recognize team norms? For example, review norms at the beginning of each team meeting, and then revise them as needed.

4. Bring participants back to a whole-group discussion of the issue. Sample discussion starters can be: “What do we do when team norms are broken?” “How do you inspire professional behavior in another team member?” “What have you seen in present or past team meetings that helped make others feel accountable to the important work of the team?”

5. Remind everyone that this is a safe zone to address any example of norms being broken and offer any solution—as long as it’s done in a respectful, professional manner. Egos should be put aside. Record responses on the “Team Foundations” handout.

6. Take a ten-minute break, and resume the video with the segment “Moving From a 5 Team to a 10 Team: Part I—What Do We Want Students to Learn?” Stop the video at the next “Pause for Discussion” title card.

Moving From a 5 Team to a 10 Team: Part I—What Do We Want Students to Learn?

1. Divide participants into groups of three or four. If the group consists of several different teams, have those teams work together.

2. Distribute copies of the “Essential Standards Chart” (page 18). This is a tool to help participants make decisions that lead to team improvement.

3. Have the group select an essential standard to discuss.

4. Using the time frame of a first period of instruction (trimester, quarter, or semester), have participants unwrap the essential standard into learning targets, starting with those that they will first introduce to students.

5. Build common assessments by identifying three to five questions for each of the learning targets they identified.

6. Use the results from these common assessments to identify and suggest ways participants may monitor students needing more time and how they could support these students with learning targets. (Encourage participants to focus on causes, not symptoms.)

7. If small teams were working on the project, and if time permits, conduct a group discussion of results.

8. Return to the video, and play the second segment on how a 5 Team can become a 10 Team: “How Will We Know if Each Student Is Learning the Essential Concepts?” Stop the video at the next “Pause for Discussion.”

Moving From a 5 Team to a 10 Team: Part II—How Will We Know if Each Student Is Learning the Essential Concepts?

1. Divide participants in half, and using their individual notes on the “Essential Standards Chart,” ask one group to brainstorm answers to the question, “How do we know if students are learning?” Have the second group brainstorm answers to the question, “How do you know that your teaching was effective?”

2. Have each group record its thoughts on a whiteboard or flip chart and choose a group leader to report back. Convene the whole group, and conduct a discussion of the results. During the discussion, remind participants to target causes, not symptoms.

3. Distribute the handout “Common Assessment Team Protocol” (page 20), and ask each participant to recall a common assessment tool he or she used recently in the classroom. Then, quickly respond to the six questions. If all participants are from the same collaborative team, ask for consensus on which assessment tool the group can address.

4. Return to the video, and play through to the end.

Conclusions: Observations From a 10 Team

1. Ask for volunteers to reveal to the group whether or not they changed what they wrote on the index cards in the initial activity. Has anyone changed his or her mind about team ranking or feelings of isolation? (Note: Don’t worry if no one wants to answer this—that can still be a signal the wheels are turning.)

2. Distribute the handout “Critical Issues for Team Consideration” (page 21), and ask participants to review the handout in light of what they have learned in the workshop. Ask participants to identify those items on the chart that they should address in their next team meetings.

3. Recap the value of the handout.

• This is the tool to help you start work on moving from a 5 Team to a 10 Team.

• It can direct your team to focus attention on the issues that impact practice and thus student achievement.

• It prompts team members to generate products that flow from honest dialogue and decisions.

4. Encourage each participant to complete the handout “Critical Issues for Team Consideration” again before attending his or her next collaborative team meeting—and to continue team building while bringing other members not present for this workshop up to speed.

Reproducible Handouts

Team Foundations

Team Members:

Our Norms:

We commit to reviewing these norms at every meeting, revising them as needed, and holding each other accountable for following them.

When Norms Are Broken, We Will:

page 1 of 2

Adapted from Simplifying Response to intervention © 2012 Solution Tree Press • solution-tree.com

Our Meeting Schedule: Date: Time: Place:

Teams work toward common goals. Our goals to improve student learning are:

Working in collaborative teams, examine all relevant documents, Common Core standards, state standards, and district power standards, and then apply the criteria of endurance, leverage, and readiness to determine which standards are essential for all students to master. Remember, less is more. For each standard selected, complete the remaining columns. Complete this chart by the second or third week of each instructional period (semester).

Essential Standards Chart

Extension Standards

What Is It We Expect Students to Learn?

Team Members:

Common Summative Assessment

When Taught?

Semester:

Subject:

Prerequisite Skills

Example of Rigor

What will we do when students have already learned this standard?

What assessment(s) will be used to measure student mastery?

When will this standard be taught?

What does proficient student work look like? Provide an example and/or description. What prior knowledge, skills, and/or vocabulary are needed for a student to master this standard?

Grade:

Description of Standard

What is the essential standard to be learned? Describe in student-friendly vocabulary.

Adapted from Simplifying Response to intervention © 2012 Solution Tree Press • solution-tree.com

Common Assessment Team Protocol

This protocol is designed to help a teacher team quickly and efficiently discuss a common assessment. If each teacher reviews his or her own assessment data prior to the team meeting, then the team should be able to collectively complete this activity within a typical team meeting of forty-five to sixty minutes.

1. Which specific students did not demonstrate mastery on which specific standards? (Respond by the student, by the standard)

2. Which instructional practices proved to be most effective?

3. What patterns can we identify from the student mistakes?

4. How can we improve this assessment?

5. What interventions are needed to provide failed students additional time and support?

6. How will we extend learning for students who have mastered the standard(s)? Adapted from Simplifying Response to intervention © 2012 Solution Tree Press • solution-tree.com

Team Name:

Critical Issues for Team Consideration

Team Members:

Use the scale below to indicate the extent to which each of the following statements is true of your team.

1. ___ We have identified team norms and protocols to guide us in working together.

2. ___ We have analyzed student achievement data and have established SMART goals that we are working interdependently to achieve.

3. ___ Each member of our team is clear on the essential learnings of our course in general as well as the essential learnings of each unit.

4. ___ We have aligned the essential learnings with state and district standards and the high-stakes exams required of our students.

5. ___ We have identified course content and/or topics that can be eliminated so we can devote more time to essential curriculum.

6. ___ We have agreed on how to best sequence the content of the course and have established pacing guides to help students achieve the intended essential learnings.

7. ___ We have identified the prerequisite knowledge and skills students need in order to master the essential learnings of our courses and each unit of these courses.

8. ___ We have identified strategies and created instruments to assess whether students have the prerequisite knowledge and skills.

9. ___ We have developed strategies and systems to assist students in acquiring prerequisite knowledge and skills when they are lacking in those areas.

10. ___ We have developed frequent common formative assessments that help us to determine each student’s mastery of essential learnings.

11. ___ We have established the proficiency standard we want each student to achieve on each skill and concept examined with our common assessments.

12. ___ We have developed common summative assessments that help us assess the strengths and weaknesses of our program.

13. ___ We have established the proficiency standard we want each student to achieve on each skill and concept examined with our summative assessments.

14. ___ We have agreed on the criteria we will use in judging the quality of student work related to the essential learnings of our course, and we practice applying those criteria to ensure consistency.

15. ___ We have taught students the criteria we will use in judging the quality of their work and have provided them with examples.

16. ___ We evaluate our adherence to and the effectiveness of our team norms at least twice each year.

17. ___ We use the results of our common assessments to assist each other in building on strengths and addressing weaknesses as part of a process of continuous improvement designed to help students achieve at higher levels.

18. ___ We use the results of our common assessments to identify students who need additional time and support to master essential learnings, and we work within the systems and processes of the school to ensure they receive that support.

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