Using a PLC to Implement an Effective Book Study
(Jeff Lee, Principal, Chattahoochee Elementary School, Gwinnett County Public Schools). Because of the lackluster results of past book studies, I assembled a group of teachers, staff, and school leaders - a PLC - to talk about how this year could be different. We discussed past failures and developed a list of reasons that previous book groups did not have success. This conversation brought up some painful reminders, but we were steadfast in looking at our history so we could better prepare ourselves for the future. Looking over the many problems we encountered helped us to make improved plans to overcome the mistakes of the past, and we have a much more detailed and thoughtful design for our present.
(Jeff Lee, Principal, Chattahoochee Elementary School, Gwinnett County Public Schools).
Because of the lackluster results of past book studies, I assembled a group of teachers, staff, and school leaders - a PLC - to talk about how this year could be different. We discussed past failures and developed a list of reasons that previous book groups did not have success. This conversation brought up some painful reminders, but we were steadfast in looking at our history so we could better prepare ourselves for the future. Looking over the many problems we encountered helped us to make improved plans to overcome the mistakes of the past, and we have a much more detailed and thoughtful design for our present.
Our past book studies were not for naught, as our PLC used the work of Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe to look at the end of our year – May - and work our way backwards to the beginning of school - August! (Did I mention that we learned about professional learning communities in another book study about five years ago?) In their book, Understanding by Design, Wiggins and McTighe (2005) share the strategy of looking at the end-product to determine the best path to get there. What a great idea! We completed this book several years previously, and our lessons are designed this way in our classroom to meet the needs of our students. Why had we not thought about this when we planned our book study groups with our teachers and staff?
We started our planning for the following books: Number Talks: Helping Children Build Mental Math and Computation Strategies (Parrish, 2014); Rigorous Reading: 5 Access Points for Comprehending Complex Texts (Frey & Fisher, 2013); and The Best Kept Teaching Secret (Daniels & Daniels, 2013). We knew we wanted to complete our reading and discussions by February 2015. That would give us March, April, and May 2015, to collect data and reflections of how well we implemented the strategies from each of the texts.
Another task was to determine the facilitators for each of the book study groups. We have Instructional Coaches at our school and each coach (Math, Reading, and Literacy) seized the opportunity to embrace the text that tied to their curriculum area and expertise. Our PLC was adamant that teachers should not be required to join a certain group. Instead, we decided that each Instructional Coach would “sell” her book during our Preplanning Week. Then, we would ask teachers and staff members to sign up for the book they were most interested in learning more about and that they looked forward to implementing strategies from the book study in their classroom.
The next task during our planning of the book studies led to a monthly schedule of reading requirements for members of each group, as well as tasks that would help to stimulate discussion about the books. Our facilitators shared the need to also allow some flexibility during the book study for the participants to make some changes based on their reading and the discussions during the year. After all, if we are charged with differentiating instruction based on the needs of students, should we not differentiate the book study plans to fit the needs of the participants? Finally, our re-energized group established accountability targets so that participants would know what is expected during and after their reading of the texts. Our knowledge of backward design reminded us that this accountability piece needs to part of the planning stage, not an “after thought.”
It has now been three months since we began our Book Study 2.0 groups! We have already observed in our school more discussions about our reading during collaborative planning, more artifacts of student learning impacted by purposeful reading, and increased student achievement on local common assessments. We are several months away from concluding our book studies, but we already know what we need to accomplish. And, we are using the measuring tools along the way to ensure that we end (with much more knowledge and skill) at our final destination!