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Create a Learning Team Road Map

A well-designed plan is flexible and focused on the team's goal

By Learning Forward
Categories: Collaboration
April 2013
Learning teams must take many steps in making their time together meaningful and productive. In addition to knowing who is meeting, what student needs they’ll address, what norms they’ll set for their work, how they’ll find time, and how they’ll evaluate their work, they also need to carefully plan the steps they’ll take along the way. Otherwise, their meetings may be filled with fascinating activity and well-designed learning that doesn’t accomplish the goals they’ve established. Once teams know what they are setting out to accomplish through careful data analysis, their next step is to create a plan to guide their journey. Through this planning process, collaborative teams make clear their assumptions and beliefs about the work they’re doing and keep their top priorities in mind.

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Authors

Anne Jolly

Anne Jolly (ajolly@bellsouth.net) works with schools and districts throughout the Southeast to implement professional learning teams and writes STEM curriculum for Engaging Youth through Engineering (EYE). She blogs about STEM at MiddleWeb.

create-a-learning-team-road-map

This article is adapted from Team to Teach: A Facilitator’s Guide to Professional Learning Teams (NSDC, 2008). The book outlines the steps a learning team takes in its quest to improve the knowledge, skills, and practices of its members so they in turn are best equipped to reach and teach all students. The book is available through the Learning Forward Bookstore at https://store.learningforward.org.

Team Planning Tools

Use the tools on pp. 35-37 to draft the team plan, outlining milestones and timelines to take the team where it needs to go. The team growth plan highlights specific indicators in 10 important areas for teams to keep track of how well their work and processes are progressing.

What Do We Believe?

Here are questions for teams to consider as they openly share assumptions about teaching as part of their planning process.

  • What specific needs do our students have?
  • What do we believe high-quality teaching in this area looks like? What would teachers and students be doing?
  • What do our current instructional practices look like in this area?
  • What do our current practices imply about how we believe our students learn?
  • What beliefs about our students do we want our teaching to reflect?
  • Is there a gap between what we believe about teaching and learning and what we actually do? If so, why?
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Learning Forward is the only professional association devoted exclusively to those who work in educator professional development. We help our members plan, implement, and measure high-quality professional learning so they can achieve success with their systems, schools, and students.

Categories: Collaboration

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