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Building a Professional Learning Community at Work™: A Guide to the First Year (a play-by-play guide to implementing PLC concepts) 2nd Edition
Purchase options and add-ons
Winner--2010 National Staff Development Council's Staff Development Book of the Year Award
Bronze Medal Award Winner--Foreword Reviews 2009 Book of the Year Award
Get a play-by-play guide to implementing PLC concepts. Each chapter begins with a story focused on a particular challenge. A follow-up analysis of the story identifies the good decisions or common mistakes made in relation to that particular scenario. The authors examine the research behind best practice and wrap up each chapter with recommendations and tools you can use in your school.
Benefits:
- Get a compelling, accessible narrative to grasp PLC problems and solutions.
- Read the book cover to cover or select chapters for mini-lessons.
- Gain reproducible tools you can use in your own schools.
Contents:
Foreword by Richard and Rebecca DuFour
Prologue: A New Beginning
Part I: Summer: Committing to a Common Purpose
Chapter 1: Starting With a Vision
Chapter 2: Empowering the Core Team
Part II: Fall: Building a Team
Chapter 3: Creating Trust
Chapter 4: Supporting Team Development
Part III: Winter: Weathering the Challenges
Chapter 5: Negotiating Personalities and Conflict
Chapter 6: Experiencing Frustration
Part IV: Spring: Looking Forward
Chapter 7: Connecting Data Analysis and Instructional Improvement
Chapter 8: Building a Collective Intelligence
Epilogue: Equal Parts Looking Back and Looking Forward
- ISBN-101934009598
- ISBN-13978-1934009598
- Edition2nd
- PublisherSolution Tree
- Publication dateSeptember 25, 2009
- LanguageEnglish
- Dimensions8.75 x 0.75 x 11 inches
- Print length216 pages
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"Graham and Ferriter set out to restore the faith of educators that their efforts can have a significant impact on student achievement. They weave a story that is both refreshingly candid and powerfully compelling. [They] write with the honesty and insight that can only be acquired through direct experience. One of the most common questions we hear from educators who become willing to implement the PLC concept in their own schools is, But where do we start? Graham and Ferriter have answered that question, very specifically, in this powerful book. It is a wonderful contribution to the literature on Professional Learning Communities at Work, and we highly recommend it to educators at all levels."
--From the Foreword by Richard and Rebecca DuFour
"What a terrific resource! The authors have done a great job of organizing Building a Professional Learning Community at Work, starting each chapter with a real-life story and ending with a set of practical tools that have been well thought out. The Tools for 21st Century Learning Teams is a tremendously useful addition. This book is well-designed, well-written, and packed with useful information. I can see myself using it in my own work with professional learning teams. Kudos to the authors! You've given educators a practical and engaging resource!"
--Anne Jolly, educational consultant and president of PLTWorks
"Bill Ferriter and Parry Graham have put together a very accessible step-by-step guide on how to go about creating this kind of culture [professional learning communities], including ways to trouble-shoot potential challenges. The questions that it encourages readers to ask themselves and their colleagues might be the most important parts of Building a Professional Learning Community at Work™."
--Larry Ferlazzo, ELL teacher and Edublogger, Sacramento, California
About the Author
Parry Graham, EdD, is principal of Nashoba Regional High School in Massachusetts. During his 20 years in public education, he has held a variety of roles, including high school teacher, consultant, and clinical assistant professor in the School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Graham has also been a school-based administrator at the elementary, middle, and high school levels.
An experienced leader in professional learning communities, he consults with numerous schools and districts to turn PLC principles into concrete improvement strategies. He has written articles for the Journal of Staff Development, Research in Middle Level Education Online, Connexions, and TechLearning.
Dr. Graham completed a doctorate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
William M. Ferriter is a sixth-grade science teacher in a professional learning community near Raleigh, North Carolina. A National Board Certified Teacher, Bill has designed professional development courses for educators nationwide on topics ranging from establishing professional learning communities and using technology to reimagine learning spaces to integrating meaningful student-involved assessment and feedback opportunities into classroom instruction.
What Bill brings to audiences is practical experience gained through extensive and continuing work with his own professional learning team and students in his classroom. Teachers appreciate the practicality of his presentations, knowing that the content shared is content that is currently being used by a full-time classroom teacher. Every session is designed to give participants not just a clear understanding of the "whys" behind the ideas that he is introducing, but tangible examples of how to turn those ideas into classroom and collaborative practices that work.
Bill has had articles published in Kappan magazine, Journal for Staff Development, Educational Leadership, and Threshold Magazine. A contributing author to two assessment anthologies, The Teacher as Assessment Leader and The Principal as Assessment Leader, he is also coauthor of several Solution Tree titles, including Teaching the iGeneration, Building a Professional Learning Community at Work™, Making Teamwork Meaningful, and Creating a Culture of Feedback. Bill also maintains a popular blog, "The Tempered Radical," where he writes regularly about teaching in today's world.
Bill earned a bachelor of science and master of science in elementary education from the State University of New York at Geneseo.
Product details
- Publisher : Solution Tree; 2nd edition (September 25, 2009)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 216 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1934009598
- ISBN-13 : 978-1934009598
- Item Weight : 1.5 pounds
- Dimensions : 8.75 x 0.75 x 11 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,164,260 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #827 in Parent Participation in Education (Books)
- #949 in Education Research (Books)
- #4,379 in Educational Certification & Development
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors
Parry Graham is the Superintendent of Lincoln Public Schools in Lincoln, MA. He Previously served as Acting Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent of Wayland Public Schools. Graham began his career in public education in 1994 as a high school teacher and has spent the last 17 years in leadership roles at the elementary, middle school, high school, and central office levels.
His latest books, How Public Schools Really Work: An Insider's Guide for Parents and Practitioners, and, Advanced and Struggling Students: An Insider's Guide for Parents and Teachers to Support Exceptional Youngsters, are focused on helping parents advocate and navigate in their children's schools. He is also the co-author of Making Teamwork Meaningful: Leading Progress-Driven Collaboration in a PLC at Work, and Building a Professional Learning Community at Work: A Guide to the First Year, which won Learning Forward’s 2010 Book of the Year award.
Graham completed his doctorate at UNC-Chapel Hill, where he also worked part-time as a clinical assistant professor in the School of Education.
Learn more at parrygraham.com
William M. Ferriter uses his 29 years of experience as a full-time classroom teacher to design professional development sessions for educators on topics ranging from establishing professional learning communities and effective systems of intervention to integrating meaningful differentiation, extension, and student-involved assessment opportunities into classroom instruction.
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"Lacking any kind of organizational decision-making power, teacher leaders can only change the behavior and commitments of colleagues when they are committed to actively building positive relationships with peers" (39).
Over spring break I anxiously started and finished Building a Professional Learning Community at Work: A Guide to the First Year by Graham and Ferriter. I was really excited to read this book, not because I am a self-proclaimed expert in PLCs or even have any experience at all with teacher collaboration, but the idea of creating common assessments, building consensus about what it is all students should learn and be transparent with colleagues about successes and failures in the classroom has intrigued me ever since reading a few of the (in my opinion) more theoretical PLC books written by DuFour, DuFour and Eaker. This book claimed to be written BY practitioners (Ferriter is a teacher and Graham is a principal) FOR practitioners and it lived up to the claim.
In my nearly six years teaching, I have slowly realized as Ferriter and Graham suggest,
"The truth is, most teacher just don't talk about practice with one another" (50).
In my admittedly rare visits to the staff lounge, the talk is typically centered on weekend plans or recent sporting event successes and failures - adults being social and there's nothing wrong with that, I guess. When the phrase "teacher collaboration" comes to mind, I think of informal hallway conversations about weather-related dismissals or the timing of the upcoming pep rally. Other times, I think about all staff in-services or departmental meetings. Teachers "collaborate" from time to time, right?
"It's not whether teachers are collaborating - it's what they're collaborating about" (51, emphasis mine)
This book proposes specific tasks for teams to complete, "such as identifying essential curriculum objectives for the next quarter or creating common assessments..." (73) - just the kind of practical suggestions I'm imagining a true professional learning community needs as it begins the journey of trust, collaboration and transparency.
Yet another part of the book that stood out to me was describing collaboration as seen in many schools today and how it differs from that of a professional learning community.
"Unfortunately, many teams get complacent and fail to move beyond the simple sharing of instructional practices, while such conversations are a good beginning, the real work of PLCs is reflective and inquiry oriented, resulting in teacher learning and improved instruction" (73).
Ferriter and Graham describe the journey of a fictitious school, both the ups and the downs, as they begin to form grade-level, discipline-friendly professional learning communities. Coupling realistic scenarios with the theories such as proximal development and positive deviants make for a fresh mix of academic, yet practitioner-friendly commentary.
Most of all, I appreciated the pragmatic outlook expressed by the authors. Bill and Parry clearly articulate the work of a PLC functioning at a high level, scaffold the necessary steps to overcome the
inevitable obstacles, leaving the reader hungry to jump in and start the journey for him/herself.
Ready-made surveys, templates and PLC handouts are provided at the end of each chapter with digital copies are also available online. If you've read any of the DuFour, et. al books and are ready to put theory into practice and begin collaborating with your colleagues in a meaningful way, this book is for you.
It's written by teachers with teachers in mind. This is not a standard PLC theory and research dump. Parry Graham and William Ferriter follow a fictional principal and his core team of teacher-leaders as they work to reform their building as a professional learning community. The scenes in their PLC story serve as the launch point for each chapter. Each scene is followed by clear, concise analysis, an explanation of the underlying research, and practical recommendations for school leaders moving forward.
If the scenes feel staged at times, it's an easy flaw to forgive. Each line of dialog serves to illustrate a critical element of working in collaboration with others. While the story is fictional, it's clear that the authors have lived through many of the meetings and conversations portrayed in the book.
Graham and Ferriter don't shy away from the messy parts of teamwork, collaboration, and leadership. Sometimes teachers disagree. Sometimes they let each other down. Sometimes teachers hurt each other. More than once, I found myself cringing at the too-honest comments of teachers trying to figure out how to make collaboration work. If you've ever worked collaboratively with other teachers, you know that the results can be tremendous, but the process can get barbed and personal at times. In Building a PLC at Work, Graham and Ferriter point out common trouble spots in collaboration and share insights for overcoming the instances of friction in a collaborative team.
This book includes no shortage of research. These guys read a lot of really good books, and they apply fundamental principles from these books to education. If you've read and enjoyed books like Good to Great, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Here Comes Everybody, and Professional Learning Communities at Work, then Graham's and Ferriter's ideas will really resonate with you.
Reproducibles in every chapter help you to get started now. No need to wait for committees to form and surveys to be turned in. Building a PLC at Work includes sample meeting agendas and worksheets for every step of the process, from initiating informal conversations to reflecting on data conversations.
If you've been put off by the one-dimensional idealism of many PLC seminars or district workshops, Building a Professional Learning Community at Work will be a breath of fresh air. Graham and Ferriter unpack the good, the bad, and the ugly aspects of reshaping a school as a professional learning community, and they cast a real-world vision for how schools can leverage collaboration to realize high achievement for every student.