Group Effectiveness in
Grade Level Professional
Learning Committees
Ashley Mullins
Clay City Elementary
Teacher Leader Professional Development Activity
Objectives:
 Assess the effectiveness of our grade level
Professional Learning Communities (PLCs)
at Clay City Elementary
 Create an action plan to improve PLC
weak areas
 Increase the “effectiveness of your group”
which is the PLC in each grade level
Why these objectives?
 Assessing our group effectiveness and developing an action
plan will help us to become as effective as possible and be
more successful for our kids.
 We have to know what we need to work on before we can
work on it.
 Increasing the effectiveness of our grade level PLCs will
help to better serve our children.
 There is no way our school can function well if its pieces
(our grade level PLCs) don’t function well.
 Time is a precious resource so it is important that each
grade level PLC (or group) functions as efficiently as
possible.
 The less time we waste, the more we get done.
 The better that we are able to function together as a group,
the more we will accomplish.
Outcomes
As a result of this Professional
Development we should be able to……..
1. Understand the overall (current)
effectiveness of our grade level PLCs.
2. Increase the group effectiveness of our
grade level PLCs.
Planned Activities
(that will help us accomplish our objectives)
 Review 12 Key Characteristics to a Fully Functioning Group
pg 216
 This ensures we fully understand the 12 key characteristics that we will rate ourselves
on in the next activity. These are the facets that make an effective group.
 Exercise 11-1: Characteristics of an Effective Group
pg. 217
 This will allow us to evaluate the current group effectiveness in our grade level PLCs
by giving us a scope of where we are currently and where we need to improve.
 Including Discussion Concerning Rating for Each of the 12 Characteristics:
 This will give us a clear notion of where we all stand in the current function of our
group according to each characteristic. Do we agree with the rating? Why or Why
Not? Do you agree with the overall diagnosis of the group’s effectiveness?
 Create an Action Plan to Address Group Weaknesses
 By creating an action plan, we can create a clear process that will increase group
effectiveness through planned activities.
*All activities and Page Numbers are referring to the textbook entitled “The Art of
Leadership by Kent Curtis and George Manning*
Teacher Leadership in Relation to Teams
 Leaders Rely on Teams
 Our Principal, Mrs. Meadows, relies on grade level PLC
teams to accomplish tasks in order to increase student
learning across the school.
 Teacher Leaders recognize the efficiency that occurs when
working with a team in contrast to completing tasks
separately.
 Successful Leaders Understand Groups
 Groups can accomplish more than the individual and
successful leaders understand this.
 To be successful, you have to understand how a group
works best.
What Makes an Effective Group?
“Rather than a single thread, there
is a tapestry of qualities that
characterize all effective groups.”
 Page 215, “The Art of Leadership”
12 Characteristics of an Effective
Group
1.Clear Mission
2.Informal Atmosphere
3.Lots of Discussion
4.Active Listening
5.Trust and Openness
6.Disagreement is Okay
7.Criticism is Issue-Oriented…..Never Personal
12 Characteristics of an Effective
Group, continued
8. Consensus is the Norm
9. Effective Leadership
10. Clarity of Assignments
11. Shared Values and Norms of Behavior
12. Commitment
Exercise 11-1
Evaluating Your Group
 To be able to identify weaknesses in our groups and create an
action plan to get better, we first have to know where we stand in
relation to the 12 characteristics.
 Be Open……Be Honest.
 The only way we can get better and grow is to be true to the situation.
 The Next 20 Minutes:
 Using Exercise 11-1 collectively rate your group according to each
characteristic including open discussion.
 Record scorings, tally points, and see what rating the rubric from
Exercise 11-1 gives your group. Do you agree? Why or Why Not?
Discuss
Take 5 minutes to……
Discuss specific weaknesses that
came to light as a result of Exercise
11-1
Where can we grow?
Why do you think this weakness exists?
What can we do to change the
circumstances and view things in a
positive light?
Identify Your Greatest Two
Weaknesses
 Rome Wasn’t Built In A Day:
 Identify the two areas for growth that you think
would most benefit the effectiveness of your
group with the other members of your PLC.
 We can’t fix everything at once.
 What are your groups two top priorities for
improvement in regards to the 12 characteristics?
Write these down.
Create an Action Plan
 For each of the two identified weaknesses that your group
will work on:
 Identify 3 steps that you can take, as a group, that will
improve areas in which you attend to grow.
 Set up an accountability system
 How will you check yourselves to make sure you are taking
the identified steps with fidelity?
 Can you hold each other accountable to the group for the
better of the students?
Other Things You Can Do
 According to “The Art of Leadership” you can be a Teacher
Leader and take on one of several positive group member
roles in order to increase group success. This is in addition
to your action plan. They are as follows:
 Encourager: be positive and make others feel good
 Clarifier: keep everyone up to speed, summarize meetings
 Harmonizer: bring everyone together
 Idea Generator: be creative and suggest new ideas
 Ignition Key: keep your group motivated
 Standard Setter: be a model for others
 Detail Specialist: be the finisher, fine tune the finished
product
Assessing Our Objectives
 Revisit the action plan we created tonight in your grade
level PLCs every two weeks to make sure that you are
following it and completing the listed steps.
 In three months, at the monthly faculty meeting we will
all reconvene to re-assess the “effectiveness of our
groups” with the same activities that we completed today
in order to see if we are completing our objective, which
is making our grade level PLCs more effective.
 If our objectives have been met, we will hopefully see
growth in our ratings.
 If our objectives have not been met, we will revisit the
action plans in order find alternative ways to improve.