Professional Development as Professional Study Within Learning Communities

Over the past five years, I have worked in partnership with Audrey Poppers, the Director of the Noyce Foundation's Every Child a Reader and Writer initiative, to develop professional study, specific to creating and sustaining writing workshops in K-5 classrooms. Because we strongly believe that professional growth will not gain traction with a traditional model of one-size, one-shot fits all professional development, and because the needs of the participants evolve and change as they engage in learning, Audrey and I are constantly developing models of professional study to customize the work for the districts. Here are examples of some of the models that I have facilitated and presented at over the years:

• Beginning and advanced summer institutes

• Seminar Strands of Content for:
• beginning writing workshop teachers and principals
• more experienced coaches, teacher leaders, teachers, and principals
  
• Study Groups for:
• Principals and Assistant Principals, to visit each other's schools
• beginning and advanced workshop teachers
• district literacy coaches
• teacher leaders and district staff developers

• Saturday speaker series open to all participating districts

• Planning meetings with literacy coaches for site content coaching and group facilitation

• Walkthroughs to determine ongoing professional development

What you will see on this site is an example of a seminar content strand: Unit Design – Planning, Teaching, and Reflecting on a Personal Narrative Unit of Study and on a Nonfiction Unit of Study in Writing Workshop. Unit Design was created, at the request of districts, to teach a process for planning writing workshop units of study. This professional study is an example of my facilitation of a large group of coaches, teacher leaders, teachers, and principals from a number of districts who have been involved in our writing workshop professional development for several years. The clips that you will see pertain to the first two days of planning the personal narrative unit and the third day when we reunited, after the teachers taught the unit of study, for the teachers to reflect on their learning and their students' learning during the unit. ^ close

• Bring prior knowledge and experience with them, it's essential to discover relevant entry points before working together
• Engage if they believe the learning is relevant to them and will further purposes in their lives
• Benefit most from those who have high expectations for them
• Must feel that the learning is doable
• Understand new concepts and ideas as a process that occurs over time
• Gain understanding by practicing rather than simply being told what to do
• Learn from a balance of direct instruction, modeling, learners experiencing process, discussions, application, and reflection
• Want to make their own decisions about how to effectively use ideas within the context of their work
• Need to feel safe to take risks and make mistakes
• Require ongoing feedback from others with expertise
• Gain deeper understanding working with a community of learners

Much of the work of professional development is to lift people up and engage in a process of change, moving from a stance of certainty to curiosity. My work is to invite educators to enter into reflective conversations about the how, what, and why of practice, overlaying our experiences and theories into classrooms which create learning experiences where teachers and students are empowered. Over time, the conversations get richer and deeper.
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We make decisions about what unit to teach - and when - based on a balance of our grade level standards, our students' needs and interests, and our own strengths as teachers of writing. The example of professional study that you will see on this site, Unit Design - Planning, Teaching, and Reflecting on a Personal Narrative Unit of Study and on a Nonfiction Unit of Study in Writing Workshop is intended to take participants through a process for backwards planning a unit of study. The process starts with determining the goals for our particular unit; discovering the students' prior knowledge about this kind of writing; deciding on a variety of ongoing assessments to use while teaching the unit in order to gather an understanding of students' learning; and planning a roadmap of mini-lessons to teach the goals for the unit, knowing that mini-lessons will be revised as needed when entering into the work with the students.

Because one of the purposes of the work together during this professional study was to guide teachers through a process for backwards planning a unit of study, I did not give them a pre-written unit, instead, I introduced the content in chunks juxtaposed with the teachers experiencing their own writing in order to deepen their understanding of the writing process and to gain an understanding of their students' points of view as learners. The participants then made decisions for planning a unit specific to their grade levels and students' needs. ^ close

Habits of mind that strengthen teaching and planning and support students as learners in writing workshop

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Who would attend and how many people
We invited grade level teams of teachers, grades 2-5, from districts participating with Noyce. We strongly suggested that teams include teachers from the same schools rather than grouping across schools since the teachers would need to plan, confer, and visit each other’s classrooms between the sessions. In addition, the invited teachers needed to have previous professional development through Noyce to have implemented writing workshop in their classrooms. There was such a large number of teachers asking for help with planning writing workshop units of study that we realized, unlike other forms of professional development, we needed to create three separate groups wherein I would facilitate approximately sixty five participants in each group.

The number, length and timing of the sessions
Unit Design occurred over six full school days, across the school year. We decided to create two three day cycles, the first cycle for planning a “personal narrative” unit of study and the second cycle for planning an “informational” unit. Each cycle was structured so that the first two days took teachers through a process of backwards planning a unit of study. I had planned the unit ahead of time in order to determine the content to teach into and to gather a stack of books to use for models of the kinds of writing we envisioned the students publishing. Although I planned the unit ahead of time, I revealed the content incrementally in order to guide the teachers through a process for planning and to give them necessary time throughout the process for making the content relevant to the specific needs and interests of their students and their grade level. The teams of teachers then had time in between meeting on our third day to teach the unit in their classrooms, work with each other, and gather data to bring with them when we reconvened. It was essential for the teachers to have the time in between our first two planning days and our third meeting in order for the teachers to connect their learning to classroom practice. The teaching experiences and the student work that they brought back with them on our third day together gave them a powerful opportunity to share and reflect on their learning and on their students’ learning.

Expectations and goals
We made it clear that participants would be engaging in a process wherein information would be introduced, revisited, and built upon throughout the sessions, therefore participants needed to make a commitment to come to each day for the two cycles. In addition, teams of teachers needed to make a commitment to teach the unit of study before meeting on the third day of each cycle. Teachers are their own resources for improving practice and needed to connect their learning to their classrooms to be open to successes as well as challenges while teaching the unit in order to gain deeper understanding. While the overall goals for each of the three day cycles were similar, the content was specific to “personal narrative” or “nonfiction”. The goals for the personal narrative cycle were:

During the first two days. . .

• Define what is meant by “personal narrative”
• Determine the type of “personal narrative” the students will write
• Understand why we’re focusing on significance and plot in small moment, personal narrative
• Experience and value the necessity of immersion in reading and writing work
• Determine ongoing assessments
• Practice what we’ll teach
• Collaboratively plan a small moment, personal narrative unit
• In teams and individually, plan a personal narrative unit specific to the grade level, needs, and interests of your class

During the third day. . .

• Celebrate student success, share writing
• Reflect on teaching
• Reflect on students’ learning through collected data (ongoing assessments, student writing, student self-reflections)
• Plan ahead for next personal narrative unit
• Reflect on ways to plan effective mini-lessons and plan lessons
• Cast ahead to our next unit - nonfiction

Content
In classrooms, the curriculum will emerge from the interests of the students as much as it will from the standards and the qualities of good writing that we know will benefit our students as writers. Teachers need to prioritize what will have the most benefit from the list of possibilities, but we also want to be sure to honor the students’ interests. Our overall goal as teachers is to deepen students’ knowledge and develop independence as writers. Writing workshop units of study across a year’s calendar can be genre studies as well as units on qualities of good writing. The content for our Unit Design professional study was specific to two genre studies - personal narrative and nonfiction. However, we can’t teach all of the standards and all of the qualities of writing that would address each of those modes of writing in one unit.

The content to teach into while planning for the personal narrative unit of study came to light after engaging in the following process:

• Defining what is meant by “personal narrative”
• Gathering and reading personal narrative texts in order to define types of personal narrative writing in the world
• Determining the type of personal narrative texts to study, read and to write
• Determining the elements, or qualities of writing, of this type of personal narrative writing
• Prioritizing grade level standards to teach in this unit, always considering depth rather than coverage
• Gathering initial understanding from students by looking at prior personal narrative writing, and from talking with them to determine what would strengthen them as personal narrative writers

“Personal narrative” encompasses a vast array of types of writing. After gathering and reading over different kinds of personal narratives, it was clear that in order for the students to be successful in this first personal narrative unit, we would start by studying short in length and short in time, small moment, types of personal narratives. When reading through examples of this type of personal narrative, the following qualities of writing surfaced. Small moment, personal narratives:

• Communicate meaning
• The importance, or significance, of this story in the writer’s life is clear 
• Incorporate the elements of narrative
• Characters, plot, setting, movement through time, and change
• Structure the writing in a way that supports the meaning
• The events are purposefully organized to convey the meaning
• Use details to support the meaning
• The details are purposefully crafted to convey the meaning
• Have an engaging voice
• The writer’s personality and passion are behind the words   
• Use conventions
• Punctuation is purposefully used to convey and enhance the meaning

It would be far too much content to study all of these elements and standards in one unit. To prioritize content that would build on students’ enduring understanding, it was necessary to then gather initial understanding from students by looking at prior personal narrative writing, and from talking with them, to determine what would most strengthen them as personal narrative writers at this point. It’s important for teachers to know that there is not one correct answer to what students should learn in a unit of study. From reading students’ writing across the participating districts, patterns emerged that informed the decision about what content to focus on.  
The patterns that emerged in the students’ writing showed many strengths as personal narrative writers as well as opportunities for teaching writing. The writing showed:

• Students were writing about interesting, everyday events, however, in general, the meaning of why that story, of all the things the writer could write about, is important to the writer was not implicitly or explicitly clear to the reader.
• Students chose engaging events to include in their personal narratives, however, overall, the events were given equal value and pacing, making it a challenge for the reader to determine where the heart of the story was
• Students were using beautiful, descriptive language and many interesting details, yet the choice of language and details was not in service of supporting the meaning of the story

Consequently, I came to believe that the quality of student writing and the students’ understanding as writers of personal narrative would be improved if the content for this unit of study focused on: 

• communicating meaning (significance) and
• structuring the writing (organizing events, and making thoughtful decisions about which events to include and delete ) in a way that supports the meaning

While this preliminary planning happened prior to my meeting with the teachers, it was necessary to take the participants on the journey of the thinking process in order for them to understand the decisions made about the content and in order for them to exercise a similar process when planning for future genre units of study. Planning any unit of study is a balancing act between the students’ thinking and ideas shaping the curriculum and the teacher’s decisions about which content to prioritize to strengthen the students as writers and to improve their writing. Communicating meaning and organizing one’s writing is fundamental to strengthening any kind of writing. There was plenty of room for student inquiry to inform teaching decisions within the content focus for our personal narrative unit of study.

Process - balancing approaches
I incorporated my beliefs about learning throughout the unit design professional development, and in turn, encouraged educators to take on the habits of mind that will support their students as learners in their classrooms during writing workshop. Learners need a variety of experiences to develop knowledge and make meaning for themselves, consequently, I planned routines to balance direct instruction; modeling; learners experiencing the process that students will experience; and team discussions, planning, applications, and reflections of learning throughout our days together. The following offers some specific examples of approaches used while facilitating professional development in order to encourage educators to take on the habits of mind that will strengthen their teaching and planning and, in turn, support their students as learners in their classrooms.

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Some reflections and thoughts from coaches, teacher leaders, teachers, and principals

Continuous improvement is a belief that learning about one’s work is never finished – professional study is dynamic. It’s our job as educators to continually refine our skills, know our students, inquire into practice, and construct knowledge while working with colleagues. There is always more to learn about in regard to instruction, learning, and leadership in order to become more and more effective and inspired as educators. Here are some key ideas that teachers, principals, coaches, and I took away at the end of our professional study:

• The importance of teaching students to write with meaning, with intention first and foremost with any writing they enter into.
• A process for planning a unit of study that can be applied to planning any unit
• The value of relationships and working closely with colleagues
• There is so much expertise in the room – we can learn a lot from sharing with each other

These ideas have a huge impact on all of us as educators and, in turn, on the development of our students as writers, readers, and critical thinkers. Included here are the inspired voices of some of the coaches, teacher leaders, teachers, and principals. ^ close