Yesterday, we had an amazing day of professional development day for our teachers in our district. In the morning, our ELA team organized 13 concurrent 3 1/2 hours of professional development for all of our elementary teachers in the district focused on RTI and different programs that teachers could use in their classrooms for tier instruction. This varied from Tier 1 to Tier 3 from decoding to comprehension and everything in between. An extensive amount of coordination took place between the presenters and the schools to provide focused meaningful PD that was based on teacher/school needs. Our teams of teachers across the 8 elementary schools were strategically divided up across the 13 sessions, so that they could then come back and deliver the highest quality instruction for their students based on their students needs!
As I went from session to session, I took some note to capture the techniques in different sessions that were leading to high quality engagement and learning by our teachers.
Setting the stage for learning-The agendas, goals, and ground rules for the day were established early. The audience already knew and had a strong purpose for learning as described above….focus on improving learning during RTI through the use of specific programs/approaches. I even walked in on one presenter leading a morning meeting to kick off the PD. This allowed the group of teachers from 8 different elementary schools to develop a bond and set a collective purpose for the morning!
Tee’ing up a video-Before showing a video clip of a teacher in action with a group of students, the presenter provided a ‘look-for’ such as “As you’re watching the video, pay close attention to what the teacher does while the student is talking.” This guides those in attendance to focus on what’s important in this clip rather than an open ‘I notice/I wonder’ or not providing guidance at all before watching a video clip.
Skillful 'report outs'-Just like in a classroom reporting out from a partner, group discussion, close read, or video review, is critical to learning and getting a check for understanding from the audience. In this case, I noticed the presenter having only 2 to 3 people report out and then added 1 or 2 quick items to that list. It made me wonder if the presenter had already had a pre-set list of items that she was hoping the audience would discuss and then if they didn’t, she added it in to make sure it was heard by all.
Responding to the report out-Our presenters did a terrific job of showing active listening during the 'report outs’ from ’turn & talks’ or group discussions and then providing either follow up questions that were truly connected to the comment or adding on to solidify the comment or asking ‘What else can you add to that comment?’ to the audience.
Stop and jots-I didn’t always have the handouts in front of me, but I did notice several times that attendees were either taking notes individually or in small groups. This is very normal in a PD. However, what I'm referring to is specific times when the presenter asks the audience to record their thoughts in their notes independently. This is so great to solidify learning and to provide an opportunity for review at a later date. I really appreciated the individual written reflections. To see a room full of adults actively writing in silence is truly amazing and often helps for everyone to plan for their own next steps.
Shifting the lifting-We talk about this a lot in our district and so it’s no surprise to see our coaches push the thinking back to the group through questioning. Too often we see presenters (or teachers) pontificate about their opinion or provide the rationale rather than pause and ask the group a question, Ex. “Why is that so important to student learning?” (or whatever the question may be.) There is a lot of knowledge and experience of the room, so great presenters will leverage that power.
Up and moving-I noticed how the presenters embedded movement activities early and often for their PD. Whether that meant getting up to find a new partner or doing a fun moving activity, it was still movement. Teachers are accustomed to moving all day long, so when they sit during a PD for 3 hours, it is really uncomfortable for them. It’s actually really uncomfortable to sit for that long for anyone most of the time!
Put it to action-In most PD we take in a lot of information, but don't really take the time to understand it or 'practice' it. We had presenters partnering up participants and 'practicing' what they are going to deliver to students. At first, it may seem a little awkward, but when you get into authentic practice and have 'fun' with it. You get a better picture of how it will play out in the classroom.
Elementary ELA-RTI PD Schedule
Now, just to be clear…I didn’t see every one of these strategies in every single session…there were 13 going on in two different buildings about 3 miles apart. Also, unfortunately, I didn’t make it to every single room. However, the exit slips and the debrief after revealed an overwhelming amount of positive feedback from both the teachers and the presenters. (BTW-The debrief was incredible….I should have video taped it. The thoughtfulness and depth of understanding around early literacy skills was awesome.)
We did attempt to record 11 of the sessions using @swivl so, hopefully, we’ll be able to use the videos for additional training in the future. I’m sure the coaches are also using this for their own reflection. Also, I didn’t do any research on this before writing this blog today, but I know that @PeterMDeWitt and others have written about best practices in PD before and I’m pretty sure what I described above would fall in line with those best practices for adult learning.
For the future, I can’t wait to walk through classrooms during RTI with principals and coaches in the coming weeks and months to see it all ‘stick' and check the results of our benchmark assessments to see the impact on student learning! Also, I'm so looking forward to future PD in our district!
Thanks again to an amazing group of presenters! All of your hard work and efforts paid off! @rbautman @sjones1016 @Ktgutowski @AndreaRashbaum @kristinakochi @SheaP_23 @e_boykin3 @4everlearning1 Kelly Fox and Stacey Treutt!
We did attempt to record 11 of the sessions using @swivl so, hopefully, we’ll be able to use the videos for additional training in the future. I’m sure the coaches are also using this for their own reflection. Also, I didn’t do any research on this before writing this blog today, but I know that @PeterMDeWitt and others have written about best practices in PD before and I’m pretty sure what I described above would fall in line with those best practices for adult learning.
For the future, I can’t wait to walk through classrooms during RTI with principals and coaches in the coming weeks and months to see it all ‘stick' and check the results of our benchmark assessments to see the impact on student learning! Also, I'm so looking forward to future PD in our district!
Thanks again to an amazing group of presenters! All of your hard work and efforts paid off! @rbautman @sjones1016 @Ktgutowski @AndreaRashbaum @kristinakochi @SheaP_23 @e_boykin3 @4everlearning1 Kelly Fox and Stacey Treutt!