PD #1: September 2023
Welcome to the first of two Educational Directions professional development sessions presented to the participating districts of the Southwest Arkansas Education Cooperative. The training is specifically tailored to both the districts present today as well as the time of year (in Learner Year terms, the Formative Period). The training will cover 3 models and includes activities and reference materials so that the participant can translate the content of today’s PD into immediate action.
The first model is Ed Directions’ School Improvement Framework. We will look at a Venn diagram with the three intersecting circles that make up the district’s and the school’s approach to the LEARNS Act: Circle 1 – High Stakes Accountability and Student Performance, Circle 2 – Standards-based Teaching and Learning, and Circle 3 – The Local Context. These areas of influence will be covered in detail in the presentation and have a large reference section in the participant’s guide.
The second model (which is really a 2 model set) looks at how students learn and how students perform. In the Neuroscience of Learning diagram, participants will understand how Learning is really the process of getting content and the understanding of how to use that content into long-term, (to move that content or change into) retrievable memory (which in the next model, becomes the Knowledge leg). We do not test what students know. We test how they can perform with what they know. If students have a performance issue, we have to look at where student work breaks down. For this, we use the 5 Legged Model of Performance (1 – Knowledge, 2 – Attitude, 3 – Perception, 4 – Thinking, and 5 – Experience). To improve student performance, we must do a causal analysis of what key issue(s) a student is having. This allows us to target interventions and address the root cause of poor performance.
Finally, we will cover arguably the most important model of understanding student-focused instruction and the key to building better Learners and Performers: The Rhythm of the Learner Year. We have broken the school year down by student need and focusing on building the potential of learners early in the year then actualizing that into performance as we get later in the year and prepare for high stakes testing. This process is not about just improving test scores. We do not teach to the test. We teach through the test. We believe that if you build self-starting, confident, engaged learners and performers, high test scores are a natural byproduct.
We have also customized a participant’s guide specifically for the SWAEC teams. We have activities that follow key learnings to make sure participants understand the competencies of each major point. Since this is the first time many of these educators have been introduced to these models, we put longer form explanations as a reference. We have also included an after action activity to capture successes and areas of opportunity from the opening of the 2023-24 school year as well as a strategic planning activity for creating 30 day, 60 day and end of semester priorities to close out the first semester.
