Leading Arkansas Teachers
I am a teacher serving students
under your leadership.
How will you continually
invest in building my capacity as an effective
teacher?
The Art and Science of Teaching
• Pedagogy – leading children
• Andragogy – leading adults
ERZ Concepts
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Collaboration
Community and Parent Involvement
Distance Learning
Faculty Sharing
Mentoring
Professional Development
Recruitment and Retention
Teacher Preparation Programs
Purposes:
 A look at Leadership
 A look at Literacy Design Collaborative
through the lens of teacher support
–planning/developing of modules in PLCs
–during an LDC module
–after LDC module has been taught
Setting the Stage for Leadership
Finis Origine Pendet:
The end depends upon the beginning.
“How you begin determines what you will achieve.” The
Emperor's Club
“If your goal is to reach a particular destination, decisions
about the route must come after identifying that
destination.”
– Thomas R. Guskey
ASCD EL May 2014: Professional Learning Reimagined, page 15
What is our plan/route for educating
students in Arkansas?
“If our goal is to reach a particular destination,
decisions about the route must come after
identifying that destination.”
Sphere of Influence in Education
Source: Model developed
by Stephen Barkley
Sometimes, this is how it feels…
…and sometimes, it feels this way.
• Do you and your teachers know what school
will look like when the Common Core State
Standards are fully implemented? LDC?
• Are you and your teachers clear about what
will no longer be happening when the CCSS
are fully implemented? LDC?
• Are you and your teachers critical consumers
of materials and resources that claim to be
aligned with the CCSS?
Which of the following are the central shifts required from
the CCSS in ELA/Literacy? (check all that apply)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Build students’ knowledge through content-rich non-fiction.
Provide students reading and writing experiences grounded
in evidence from text, both literary and informational.
Strengthen students’ understanding of narrative text by
making meaningful connections to their personal
experiences.
Provide students different levels of text based on their
reading abilities.
Provide regular opportunities for students to practice with
complex grade-level text and its academic language.
Which of the following are central shifts required from
the CCSS in math? (check all that apply)
1. Focus deeply on the concepts emphasized in the standards to
help students build strong foundations for learning.
2. Create coherent progressions within the standards from grade
to grade so student knowledge and skills build onto previous
learning.
3. Introduce multiplication and division earlier in students’
learning as foundations for math concepts taught in later years.
4. Develop students’ conceptual understanding, procedural
fluency, and their ability to apply math in context.
5. Teach each math topic as an independent, new concept that is
distinct from topics taught earlier or later.
Which of the following describes an activity that would
meet the CCSS below? (check one)
1. Students summarize a chapter of a novel and apply
what they’ve read to their own lives.
2. Students write a story about the American Revolution
as if they lived through the time period.
3. After reading a novel, students develop an argument
in favor of a character’s point of view based on facts
and events from the book.
4. Students interview a local elected official after reading
15
about voting rights in America.
S.N.A.P
(Stop Now and Process)
LDC Core Principles
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Align with the Common Core State Standards.
Distribute responsibility for reading and writing.
Make tasks central.
Connect reading and writing instruction.
Call for back-mapping.
Foster a responsive system.
Encourage local choice.
Strive to be teacher-friendly.
17
Goals of LDC
 To engage students in reading, comprehending,
analyzing, interpreting, and responding to complex texts
 To align assignments to standards and promote
collaboration
 To help teachers personalize learning so that every
student can master the standards
 To ensure that all students can be college and career
ready
 To engage students in reading, comprehending,
analyzing, interpreting, and responding to complex texts
 To align assignments to standards and promote
collaboration
 To help teachers personalize learning so that every
student can master the standards
 To ensure that all students can be college and career
ready
Literacy Design Collaborative
• What Task? (what the students will do)
• What Skills? (skills students will learn along
the way to completing the task and how they
will provide evidence of their learning along the
way)
• What Instruction? (what the teacher will do
to ensure students learn – how the teacher will
teach the skills)
• What Results? (aligning student products to
the rigor of the CCSS – scoring student work
according to the expectations of the standards)
LDC Language
Template Task
Mini-tasks
Instructional Ladder
Argumentative Writing
Text Complexity
Rubric
Text Complexity
S.N.A.P
(Stop Now and Process)
 LDC Review and Updates
Why LDC?
LDC is a powerful solution to the primary challenges
currently facing schools and districts nationwide in:
• implementing the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).
• demonstrating clear evidence of teacher effectiveness.
• adopting a structure that naturally leads to teacher
continuous improvement.
• connecting teacher planning and instruction directly to
evidence of student work.
Why LDC?, cont.
LDC provides collaborative tools and language
for teachers, schools, and districts to increase
teacher effectiveness, student achievement, and
organizational learning while at the same time
seamlessly integrating CCSS into daily
instruction in science, history, English language
arts, and other disciplines.
Literacy Design Collaborative
LDC Template Task Collection 2.0
December 2013
Three Types of Writing:
• Argumentative
• Informative/Explanatory
• Narrative
A Teacher's Perspective on LDC Tasks
LDC Announces:
New LDC Elementary Template Task Beta
Collection
“A template task collection for three grade
bands:
K/1, 2/3, and 4/5 [is ready] for beta testing; we
are hoping that schools and teachers in
classrooms across the country will try out the new
template tasks. We greatly value your feedback,
so please send your experiences, revisions, and
recommendations to questions@ldc.org.”
BREAK
#ARLDC
LDC
What is Required?
Template
• Fill in the template task, completing all blanks but not
Tasks
altering the other template wording.
• List the reading texts for the prompt or describe how
students will be guided to select appropriate texts.
• Provide a background statement that introduces the
prompt to students.
• If an extension is included, provide an activity in which
students share or apply what they have learned with a
real-world audience or through a hands-on project.
(The extension may also be omitted.)
• Use the appropriate rubric for the template task.
Changing or adding to the
LDC Template Tasks
•
•
•
•
Teachers choose texts students will read.
Teachers choose products student will produce.
Teachers choose content.
Teachers consider school, district, and state
requirements.
Adding Rigor to the LDC Template Tasks
• Add additional requirements to the Teaching Task to
differentiate or provide additional challenge.
• Add one or two demands to a prompt.
• Add demands that align to the appropriate gradespecific standard.
• Consider the demands when determining…What skills?
Demands
• D1 Be sure to ______ (acknowledge; refute) competing views.
(Argumentation)
• D2 Give (an example; # of examples) from past or current (events;
issues) to illustrate and clarify your position. (Argumentation or
Informational/Explanatory)
• D3 What ________ (conclusions; implications) can you draw?
(Argumentation or Informational/Explanatory)
• D4 In your discussion, address the credibility and origin of sources
in view of your research topic. (Argumentation or
Informational/Explanatory)
Demands, cont.
• D5 Identify any gaps or unanswered questions.
(Argumentation or Informational/Explanatory)
• D6 Use ________ (stylistic devices) to develop your work.
(Argumentation or Informational/Explanatory or Narrative)
• D7 Use ________ (techniques) to convey multiple
storylines. (Argumentation or Informational/Explanatory or
Narrative)
• D8 Include ________ (e.g. bibliography, citations,
references, endnotes). (Argumentation or
Informational/Explanatory)
LDC Template Task
becomes
an LDC Teaching Task when
completely filled out by the
teacher.
!
Completed Teaching Task
Task Template 14 - Informational or Explanatory
How can one geographical location hold meaning for
three different religions? After reading informational
texts about Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, and texts
about the Temple Mount/Haram Al-Sharif in Jerusalem,
write an essay in which you describe the significance of
this site to each of these religions and address the
question. Support your discussion with evidence from the
text(s).
S.N.A.P
(Stop Now and Process)
 Support for Planning/Developing
Modules in PLCs
What practices are currently in place to support
teachers as they plan?
Professional Learning Communities
• collegial group who are united in their
commitment to an outcome.
• engage in a variety of activities including
sharing a vision, working and learning
collaboratively, visiting and observing other
classrooms, and participating in shared
decision making.
Scheduling for PLC’s
cs
Bio
Science
Phy
Science
History
Social
Studies
Technical
Health
Humanitie
Fitness
s
Literary
Fiction
Mathemati
Disciplinary Literacy
Disciplinary
Literacy
Intermediate Literacy
Basic Literacy
Doug Buehl, Developing Readers in the Academic Disciplines, 2011, p.13,
model offered by Shanahan & Shanahan
40
Text-Dependent Questions
• Based on close reading of appropriately complex text
• Often based on student annotations
• Promote understanding beyond basic facts
• Push readers back into texts
• Include language from the standards/frameworks
• Cannot be answered unless text has been read and understood
– Selecting template based on
content standards
– Developing Critical Focus
Questions
– Selecting appropriate texts
– Selecting student products
PLCs

Selecting Template Based on Content
Selecting a Template Task
Page 33 in guidebook??
Critical Focus Question
• Pinpoints the important learning that will
occur in the content
• Encourages deep thinking
• Elicits open-ended thinking
• Defines what students should know and be
able to do throughout the unit of study
Critical Focus Question
•
•
•
•
•
•
Should be based on standards
Should be significant
Should be in simple language
Should be thought-provoking
Should be important five years from now
Should not be answered by a simple “yes”
or “no”
Support teachers in considering a variety
of texts (discipline-like).
• Literature: novels, stories, poems, plays
• Informational texts: newspaper articles, journal
articles, primary source documents
• Opinion pieces: editorials, speeches, essays on an
issue
• Reference works: encyclopedias, almanacs, manuals,
how-to books
Support teachers in considering a variety of
writing tasks (discipline-like).
• For an essay, substitute a review, article, editorial, speech
or proposal (“I propose amending Arkansas law to
require schools to register students as voters on their
18th birthdays. That would be good policy because…”).
• For a report, substitute an article, lab report, or a
manual.
• For a narrative, substitute an article, account, biography,
story, or play script.
• Encourage teachers to immerse themselves and then
their students in the types of writing most common in
their fields.
S.N.A.P
(Stop Now and Process)
#ARLDC
http://www.ldc.org
LDC’s New Look

•
•
•
•
Support in the classroom
during an LDC module
Coaching during teaching
Look-fors during implementation
Peer visits/peer coaching
Next Steps
Mini-tasks
Mini-Tasks
Pacing
Skill
Product and Prompt
Scoring
Instructional
Strategies
30 minutes
Gather relevant
information from
multiple primary and
secondary sources
about immigration
laws written between
1880 and 1930;
assess credibility of
each source; follow a
standard citation
format
Using a note-making
method, select
information from
primary and
secondary sources;
use strategies for
discerning credibility;
Notes; evidence of
credibility
consideration;
Selects relevant
material to support
prompt; applies
strategies for
assessing credibility;
Applies note-making
skills
Model note-making
tool (foldable)
Model SOAPS
credibility tool
Model using MLA
citation guidelines
S.N.A.P
(Stop Now and Process)
 Support after LDC module has
been taught.





Scoring student work (rubric)
Using data to inform teaching
Reflecting on planning
Considering a colleague’s perspective
PLC time (I can’t wait to ask about this!)
Student-Centered Coaching Questions
What were the learning goals set for students
during the teaching? Did they learn? How do
you know?
[Refer back to the task. Look at What Results? – consider
all the mini-tasks]
Student-Centered Coaching Questions
How did students respond to various teaching
strategies/approaches?
[reflect on all mini-tasks; were they on target? What
about the pacing of the lessons?]
Student-Centered Coaching Questions
Given the students’ response to the teaching
strategies/approaches, what would you change
in the future and what aspects of the
plan/approaches would you retain? Why?
[were the mini-tasks appropriate? Were the strategies
the most appropriate?]
Student-Centered Coaching Questions
What did you do to ensure that students felt
confident and comfortable during the learning?
[were students ‘with me’ during this series of lessons?
Did they really get it?]
“Education research shows that
most school variables,
considered separately, have at
most small effects on learning.
The real payoff comes when
individual variables combine to
reach critical mass.”
“The School Principal as Leader: Guiding Schools to Better Teaching and Learning”
“It is a fact that in the right formation,
the lifting power of many wings can
achieve twice the distance of any bird
flying alone.”
~Milton Olson~
What does LDC look like in a district?
The LDC model is flexible enough to be
used in various ways because the core
of the work is CCSS implementation
with best practices in professional
learning and instruction—essential
goals in most schools and districts.
There are two ways to improve results:
redesign the school based on best
instructional practices or get new kids.
- Tim Westerberg, former high school principal in
Littleton, CO
Bringing Out the Best in People
Expect the best from people you lead.
Study the other person’s needs.
Establish high standards for excellence.
Create an environment where failure is not fatal.
Recognize and applaud achievement.
Place a premium on collaboration.
Take care to keep your own motivation high.
Bringing Out the Best in People, Alan Loy McGinnis, 1985
“Lessons From Inside the Classroom”
Pages 6 & 7
Pages 10 & 11
Pages 11 & 12
Pages 13 & 15
Pages 17 & 18
I am a teacher serving students under
your leadership.
How will you as a leader continuously invest in me
to increase my effectiveness as an educator?
Sphere of Influence in Education
Source: Model developed
by Stephen Barkley
Bringing Out the Best in People: How To Enjoy Helping Others Excel
~Alan Loy McGinnis
Reflection
• What will you see in an LDC classroom?
• What will you NOT see in an LDC
classroom?
• What will you see more of/less of?
Tweet About LDC!
#ARLDC