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The PLC+ Activator’s Guide
By: David T. Nagel, John Taylor Almarode, Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, Karen T. Flories
The PLC+ Activator's Guide offers a practical approach and real-life examples that show activators what to expect and how to navigate a successful PLC journey.
- Grade Level: PreK-12
- ISBN: 9781544384047
- Published By: Corwin
- Year: 2020
- Page Count: 176
- Publication date: April 23, 2020
Price: $23.95
For Instructors
Related Professional Learning
Related Institutes- 2023 Annual PLC+ Conference
- Power of Clarity and PLC+ Institute
- Virtual PLC+ Activator's Guide Institute
- Virtual PLC+ Certification
- Virtual PLC+ Institute
Tools
Description
Keeping professional learning communities focused on goals:
High functioning professional learning communities don’t happen by chance. They require deliberate efforts and structures to ensure efficiency and focus, and to ignite action. The first books in the PLC+ series challenged PLC teams to engage in difficult discussions about equity of access, high expectations for all students, and a commitment to building individual and team efficacy. All of this requires activation and skilled facilitation to move from discussion to action. The PLC+ Activator's Guide offers a practical approach, real-life scenarios, and examples that show activators what to expect and how to navigate their PLC+ on a successful and collective journey. Readers will find:
- Templates to help activators prepare for PLC+ meetings
- Approaches for fostering and nurturing collaboration
- Vignettes from real schools that are implementing PLC+
- Reflection questions with spaces for activators to record notes
- Solutions for addressing barriers that often arise in PLC+ teams
Activators will find this an essential guide to keeping PLC+ team discussions goal-focused and the work centered on building the collective efficacy of the team.
Author(s)
David T. Nagel
Dave Nagel, MsED, is an international educational consultant and researcher. Dave began his educational career as a middle school science and high school biology teacher. His administrative experiences involved middle school assistant principal, high school associate principal, and director of extended day and credit-recovery programs. He was honored numerous times as a ‘Senior Choice’ winner, where graduating seniors selected him as someone who dramatically affected their life in a positive way. Dave has credentials in school leadership and secondary science teaching as well as a master of science degree from Butler University. Dave is the author of Effective Grading Practices for Secondary Teachers and the co-author of The PLC+ Activator’s Guide and PLC+: A Playbook for Instructional Leaders.
John Taylor Almarode
Dr. John Almarode is a bestselling author and has worked with schools, classrooms, and teachers all over the world on the translation and application of the science of learning to the classroom, school, and home environments, and what works best in teaching and learning. He has done so in Australia, Canada, Egypt, England, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Scotland, South Korea, Thailand and all across the United States.
He is an Associate Professor of Education in the College of Education. In 2015, John was awarded the inaugural Sarah Miller Luck Endowed Professorship. In 2021, John was honored with an Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council for Higher Education in Virginia. At James Madison University, he continues to work with pre-service teachers and graduate students, as well as actively pursues his research interests including the science of learning, the design and measurement of classroom environments that promote student engagement and learning.
The work of John and his colleagues has been presented to the United States Congress, Virginia Senate, at the United States Department of Education as well as the Office of Science and Technology Policy at The White House.
John began his career in Augusta County, Virginia, teaching mathematics and science to a wide-range of students. Since then, John has authored multiple articles, reports, book chapters, and eleven books including Captivate, Activate, and Invigorate the Student Brain in Science and Math, Grades 6 - 12 (Corwin Press, 2013), From Snorkelers to Scuba Divers (Corwin Press, 2018), both with Ann Miller, and Visible Learning for Science, with Doug Fisher, Nancy Frey, and John Hattie (Corwin Press, 2018). He recently finished a book focusing on clarity, Clarity for Learning, with Kara Vandas (Corwin Press, 2019), as well as Teaching Mathematics in the Visible Learning Classroom, Grades 6 - 8, and Teaching Mathematics in the Visible Learning Classroom, Grades 9 - 12 both with Doug Fisher, Joseph Assof, Sara Moore, Nancy Frey, and John Hattie (Corwin, 2019), all with Corwin Press. Teaching Mathematics in the Visible Learning Classroom, Grades K - 2 and Teaching Mathematics in the Visible Learning Classroom, Grades 3 - 5 with the same author team plus Kateri Thunder hit the shelves in March of 2019. He is also the past co-editor of the Teacher Educator’s Journal.
In 2019, John and his colleagues developed a new framework for developing, implementing, and sustaining professional learning communities: PLC+. Focusing on sustained change in teacher practice, the PLC+ framework builds capacity within teacher-led teams to maximize student learning. The books, PLC+ Better Decisions and Greater Impact by Design, The PLC+ Playbook, Grades K - 12, The PLC+ Activator’s Guide will support this work in schools and classrooms.
John and his colleagues have also focused a lot of attention on the process of implementation – taking evidence-based practices and moving them from intention to implementation, potential to impact through a series of on-your-feet-guides around PLCs,Visible Learning, Visible Teaching, and the SOLO Taxonomy. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, John and his colleagues developed the Distance Learning Playbook for College and University Instruction (SAGE). In November of 2020, Student Learning Communities (ASCD) was released, followed by Great Teaching by Design (Corwin Press), The Success Criteria Playbook (Corwin), an educational textbook on teaching science in the inclusive early childhood classroom, Inclusive Teaching in the Early Childhood Science Classroom (Routledge), and A Quick Guide to Simultaneous, Hybrid, & Blended Learning (Corwin).
Continuing his collaborative work with colleagues on what works best in teaching and learning, How Tutoring Works, Visible Learning in Early Childhood, and How Learning Works, all with Corwin Press, were released in 2021.
Douglas Fisher
Douglas Fisher, Ph.D., is professor and chair of educational leadership at San Diego State University and a leader at Health Sciences High and Middle College. Previously, Doug was an early intervention teacher and elementary school educator. He is the recipient of an International Reading Association William S. Grey citation of merit and an Exemplary Leader award from the Conference on English Leadership of NCTE. He has published numerous articles on teaching and learning as well as books such as The Teacher Clarity Playbook, PLC+, Visible Learning for Literacy, Comprehension: The Skill, Will, and Thrill of Reading, How Tutoring Works, and How Learning Works. Doug loves being an educator and hopes to share that passion with others.
Nancy Frey
Karen T. Flories
Karen Flories is currently a full-time professional learning consultant for Corwin. In her role, she works with teachers and leaders across the nation to understand the Visible Learning research and use it as a guide to inform decisions about what best impacts student learning. Karen also facilitates professional learning centered on teacher clarity, formative assessment, feedback and works hands on with teachers and leaders to drive learning at surface, deep and transfer levels. Most recently, Karen and her colleagues have developed a new framework for developing, implementing, and sustaining professional learning communities: PLC+.
Focusing on sustained change in teacher practice, the PLC+ framework builds capacity within teacher-led teams to maximize student learning. The books, PLC+ Better Decisions and Greater Impact by Design, The PLC+ Playbook, Grades K - 12, The PLC+ Activator’s Guide will support this work in schools and classrooms. Other publications include, Becoming an Assessment Visible Learner Teacher’s Guide 6-12, Becoming an Assessment Visible Learner Learner’s Notebook 6-12, Becoming an Assessment Visible Learner Teacher’s Guide 3-5, Becoming an Assessment Visible Learner Learner’s Notebook 3-5.
Prior to her role with Corwin, Karen was the Executive Director of Educational Services for 5 years and Director of Literacy and Social Studies in VVSD for 2 years, after serving as the English Department Chair for Romeoville high school. Karen’s classroom experience includes high school English, special education, and alternative education. During her time at the district level, Karen led the implementation of Visible Learning specifically focusing on teacher clarity, classroom assessment and feedback. Karen’s presentation style is highly engaging and focuses on participants being able to understand and apply specific practices in their school or classroom based on solid evidence, instruction for secondary students, PLC facilitation, close reading, and text-dependent questions. She is a National Board-Certified Teacher and currently teaches 11th and 12th grade English at Health Sciences High and Middle College, an urban high school in San Diego, California.
Table of Contents
Letter From the Authors
About the Authors
Introduction
Part 1. Activating Your PLC+: Overview
Activating Your PLC+
What Effective Activators Do
Part 2. Activation Requires Effective Collaboration
Facilitation Versus Activation
Five Qualities of a Good Activator
Part 3. Activating Your PLC+: Establishing Roles and Developing Team Cohesion
Supporting Team Cohesion
Establishing PLC+ Roles
Stepping Into Roles Matched to PLC+ Team Member Strengths
Part 4. Activating Your PLC+: Norms and Authentic Instructional Protocols in Your PLC+
Establishing Operating Norms
Social and Emotional Check-Ins
Establishing Process Norms
Operating Norms Versus Process Norms
Utilizing Authentic Instructional Protocols
Part 5. Activating the Five Essential Questions and Four Crosscutting Values of Your PLC+
Activating Guiding Question 1: Where Are We Going?
Activating Guiding Question 2: Where Are We Now?
Activating Guiding Question 3: How Do We Move Learning Forward?
Activating Guiding Question 4: What Did We Learn Today?
Activating Guiding Question 5: Who Benefited and Who Did Not Benefit?
Part 6. The Nuts and Bolts of Your PLC+
Scheduling PLC+ Meetings
Setting Aside the Time for the Work of the PLC+
Overcoming Challenges: (Not Enough) Time
Developing an Assessment Calendar
Part 7. Activating a High-Impact and High-Functioning PLC+
High Impact Versus High Functioning
Part 8. Activating Conversations Focused on Equity
Closing Remarks
References
Index