Clear Direction for Singletons and Their Leaders

1. What knowledge, skills, and dispositions should every student acquire as a result of this unit, this course, or this grade level? 2. How will we know when each student has acquired the essential knowledge and skills? 3. How will we respond when some students do not learn? 4. How will we extend the learning for students who are already proficient? (p. 36)

The task of organizing teachers in collaborative teams to answer the four critical questions is straightforward when it comes to schools with multiple teachers at any given grade level or teaching the same course. Naturally, those teachers will be able to collaborate. But what about singleton teachers? All schools have singletons, and some schools have many singletons or are made up solely of singletons.

Clear Direction for Singletons and Their Leaders

Through our work in schools, we see teachers and leaders struggling with how to appropriately organize singletons in meaningful teams and support members of singleton teams to successfully answer the four critical questions of a PLC. We wrote this book to provide clear direction on this issue for PLC leaders and singleton team members. We recommend involving and empowering singleton teachers when advancing the PLC process across a school or district, as well as for the professional development of those singleton educators who so often work in isolation.

Our goal is to make the step-by-step process for collaboration clear and more meaningful for singletons, and it is our intent to enhance singletons’ motivation to collaborate as well. This book is for both singleton educators and administrators, as both must know and ensure effective implementation of the PLC process for the benefit of students. Both must also ensure structures are in place and time is available for every teacher to engage in meaningful collaboration if educators ever hope to see all students learning at high levels.

Chapter 1 seeks to bring clarity to what collaboration in a PLC looks like and how to ensure it is meaningful. Educators build key understanding of what is and isn’t meaningful collaboration, and we elaborate on what actually impacts student learning. In this chapter we also describe in greater detail the singleton dilemma all schools on the PLC journey face.

Chapter 2 introduces readers to the three distinct on-ramps (or entry points) singletons can take to have meaningful collaboration with other educators. These on-ramps are starting points to collaboration for singletons that then guide singletons

and administrators with crucial steps. These on-ramps provide choices so singletons can find the most meaningful collaboration based on their situation as they look to improve their instruction and student achievement using the PLC process.

Chapter 3 helps singletons prepare the groundwork so they are ready to collaborate in meaningful ways utilizing any of the three on-ramps. The preparation mirrors the work of a teacher on a course-alike team, but singletons will often complete this work independently. It is critical that singletons complete the work this chapter describes prior to taking any of the three on-ramps—much like a prerequisite skill needed for a class. Singletons who have completed the groundwork will be ready to engage in meaningful collaboration, but without it, singletons will lack focus and could end up concentrating their efforts in the wrong direction.

Each of the next three chapters focuses on one of the on-ramps for singletons to experience meaningful collaboration.

Chapter 4 focuses on developing teacher teams across schools, when singletons work with a course-alike singleton (or singletons) in a different school. Singletons may find one educator to collaborate with or a small group. There are benefits to any size collaborative team; the key is the educator does not work in isolation. These teams can function virtually as needed.

Chapter 5 focuses on how teachers in the same building can find meaningful collaboration by identifying common skills or concepts singletons teach in different courses. For example, some schools might only have one science teacher at the sixthgrade level and another at the seventh-grade level who don’t teach common courses. These teachers could collaborate about common skills.

Chapter 6 guides teachers toward meaningful collaboration with a colleague in the same building—a critical friend—when no other teammate teaches the same skill or concept that a singleton identifies as essential.

Chapter 7 brings together the different team structures this book describes, along with the more common same-course or grade-level collaborative team structure, to ensure all teams on campus align toward meaningful collaboration leading to increased student achievement. Leaders and teams will learn ways to keep the work doable and how to work through expected resistance, and they will find checklists to guide their progress.

Included in chapters 2–6 are sections specifically for leaders and for teachers that provide short examples. In addition, chapters 4–6 include templates to guide the work of collaborative teams as they work through the four PLC critical questions.