2019-2020 Continuing our Work

with Essential Outcomes

through Professional Learning
Communities
Key Area of Action 1: Student Learning

Key Area of Action 2: Inclusive and Healthy Environments

Key Area of Action 3: School and Community Relationships

Instructional Framework

Grasslands focuses on:

 Essential Outcomes
 Instructional Practices
 Assessment and Reporting
 Intervention Strategies
to ensure student learning.
We focus on the 4 big questions of
PLCs.
We provide many ways for students to
achieve the competencies that they need
to be successful in their learning.

Grasslands Public Schools 2019-2020

Updated June 18, 2019

Hosted at BJHS
 Page 2

Table of Contents
Collaboration Cycle 3
Instructional Framework Review 3
Role of the Facilitator: 3
Role of the Teacher: 3
Role of the PLC: 4
Essential Outcomes – GOALS: 4
PLC Dates: 4
DAY 1 - Essential Outcomes 5
DAY 1 - Expectations of Essential Outcomes 6
DAY 1 - Assessment 8
DAY 2 – Tier 1 - Universal Instruction 11
DAY 2 – Expectations 11
Day 3 – Response to Interventions and Instruction (RtI2) 13
Day 3 – Expectations 14
Interventions 15
Pyramid of Supports 16
PLC Overview 17
Big Ideas of PLCs 17
4 PLC Questions 18
Comprehensive Balanced Literacy Look-Fors 19

All PLCs have the opportunity to meet between division days.

 Page 3

Collaboration Cycle

Instructional Framework Review

Consider these questions during the intentional planning process:

 What do we want students to know and be able to do? (Essential

Outcomes)
 What instructional practices will I choose? (Strategies and activities)
 How will we know if each student has learned it? (Assessments –
formative and summative)
 How do we respond when a student is not learning or already knows it? (Intervention and enrichment)

 Without #1 and #3 – you do not have a PLC. PLCs are characterized by a common set of agreed-upon
outcomes and a common understanding of how we will know learners have achieved those.

Role of the Facilitator:

The facilitator will:

 Organize the PLC time together (start times, break times, assign tasks)
 Establish the norms, ensuring that the PLC adheres to the norms, revisiting norms
 Support the PLC members
 Ensure the accountability of each participant
 Integrate and support the FNMI content within planning and teaching
 Maintain the progress
 Be responsible for the product(s) and ensuring it is in the team folder
 Report back to the PLC and to Admin Council the progress of the PLCs
 Ensure the Division’s common assessments are reviewed in the fall and implemented for these areas:
o Grade 7-9 Social Studies
o Grade 7-9 English Language Arts
o Grade 7 Mathematics
o Grade 7-8 Science

Role of the Teacher:

Each teacher has a role in the PLC. The teacher’s role is to:

 Support the establishment of the norms and ensure that they are adhered to
 Be responsible for the product(s)
 Ensure that all PLC members have a voice and support all PLC members
 Contribute to the process
 Complete necessary work prior to each PLC time and ensure it is shared in the team folder
 Participate in reviewing the Division’s common assessments in the fall and implementing them in the
spring for these areas:
o Grade 7-9 Social Studies
o Grade 7-9 English Language Arts
o Grade 7 Mathematics
o Grade 7-8 Science

All PLCs have the opportunity to meet between division days.

 Page 4

Role of the PLC:

 Each PLC is accountable for establishing and supporting the work of developing the essential
outcomes, planning using the essential outcomes and assessing the essential outcomes.
 The essential outcomes need to be explicit in day to day planning back at the school.
 The PLC needs to organize the team drive.
 The PLC needs to store the documents (essential outcomes, planning, resources, assessments) in the
team drive.
 Ensure the Division’s common assessments are reviewed and implemented.

Essential Outcomes – GOALS:

 Every teacher ensures the Essential Outcomes are the focus of all subject areas they teach.

 Every student will have clear opportunity to achieve those same essential outcomes, regardless of
which school or class they are enrolled.

 By the end of Day 3 you will have time to Polish your work! Your PLC will then be able to ensure that
there are at least 3 essential outcomes with an assessment, instructional strategies, interventions,
resources, and FNMI content.

PLC Dates:
 Wednesday, August 28, 2019 – hosted at BJHS in the afternoon
 Monday, December 2, 2019 - 8:30 AM – 12:00 PM at BJHS
 Monday, March 9, 2020 - 8:30 AM – 12:00 PM at BJHS

All PLCs have the opportunity to meet between division days.

 Page 5

DAY 1 - Essential Outcomes

Wednesday, August 28, 2019 PM – Group Presentation - Video
Essential Outcomes:
● These are critical to student success, and must be mastered in depth.
● There will be approximately 1-3 per unit (no more than 5).
● A ‘Unit’ can be defined as a:
o Contained segment of study (ie: the Ecology Unit in Science, the Basketball Unit in PE)
o A time-delimited period of instruction (ie: during the month of September)
o A Thematic portion of instruction (ie: during the “Our Community” unit)
● The Essential Outcomes (Knowledge and Skill) can (and should) show up in multiple units.
● The Essential Outcome MUST be learned by ALL.

BY focusing on essential outcomes, teachers prepare students for 80 to 90

percent of the provincial tests. (DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, and Many, 2006).

Remember:

 if you chose everything as a priority nothing is a priority; and

 some learning outcomes are vital to a student’s success and others
are just nice to know.

Bring to Day 1:

 Year plans
 Chromebook
 Water bottle
 2019-2020 Continuing the Work Essential Outcomes booklet (the one you are reading)
 Grades 7-9 Teachers: Results of your subject area division wide assessments in these areas:
o Grade 7-8 Science
o Grade 7 Math
o Grade 7-9 Social
o Grade 7-9 ELA


Team Drive – Check to ensure that you all have access as this is where the material is stored and uploaded.
Essential outcomes:
https://goo.gl/7QGsoV

All PLCs have the opportunity to meet between division days.

 Page 6

DAY 1 - Expectations of Essential Outcomes

1:00 PM – 3:30 PM at BJHS
Our Goals of today:

 to ensure that all students master Essential Outcomes at each grade level which were agreed upon by
our division wide PLCs.
 To review the instructional framework
 Select one essential outcome to teach (Grades 1-6 will select one in math and one in language arts)
before the next day.

- GOAL: ALL students will achieve grade-level benchmarks in regular classes

- The school will provide intervention where necessary to ensure student achievement of the “Rocks”
(essential outcomes).
Today’s work:
1. Set/Review/Confirm the norms for the PLC.
2. Review the Instructional Framework (Our 3 Key Areas of Action with Student Learning at the core, the
Learner Competencies and the 4 PLC questions).
3. Introduction to the essential outcome work done and why it is important to have essential outcomes
4. Review this booklet which includes the expectations for our work in 2019-2020.
5. Review and confirm the essential outcomes.
 Post only the essential outcomes in team drive as subject essential outcomes 2019-2020.
 The facilitator will email Rob Suik of updates.

6. The following grades and subjects will proceed a bit differently:

Grades 1- 6
Select an essential outcome in math and language arts that all students will achieve before the
PLC Day 2 on December 2nd, 2019. All teachers will teach both essential outcomes before the
next PLC day.

 What do we want students to know and be able to do? (Essential

Outcomes)
 What instructional practices will I choose? (Strategies and activities)
 How will we know if each student has learned it? (Assessments –
formative and summative)
 How do we respond when a student is not learning or already knows
it? (Intervention and enrichment)

All PLCs have the opportunity to meet between division days.

 Page 7

Grades 7- 9:

Grade 7-8 Science

Grade 7 Math
Grade 7-9 Social
Grade 7-9 ELA

 Before Day 1, the facilitators may send out an organizer/spreadsheet to track the
results and ensure the first day has thorough analysis.
 These grades and subject areas will review and confirm their essential outcomes
on Day 1.
 The PLCs will review their common assessment results, analyze and discuss the
assessment:

o Was each question on the assessment aligned to an essential outcome?

o Do the questions demonstrate a learning of the essential outcomes?
o Is the language clear?
o Was the test scaffolded throughout to ensure success?
o Was there a variety of question types?
o Is it clear how students will be awarded a mark?

 Revisions to the common assessment need to be made by consensus.

 The rationale for changes need to be reported by the facilitator to Rob Suik. The
rationale will be compiled and shared.
 Future Common Assessments need to be:
o mapped out according to Essential outcomes
o on google form
o have a tracking sheet for teachers to input data

Grade 10-12 ELA, SS, Science, and Math:

 After you have reviewed and confirmed the essential outcomes, ensure that you
are aware of what the vertical alignment would be (look below and look above) to
ensure success at your grade level.

Other PLCs:
 After you have reviewed and confirmed the essential outcomes, ensure that you
are aware of what the vertical alignment would be (look below and look above) to
ensure success at your grade level.
o Grade 10 will look at Grade 9 and grade 11 Essential Outcomes
o Grade 11 will look at Grade 10 and Grade 12 Essential Outcomes
o Grade 12 will look at Grade 11
o Identify gaps (and vacillators will share feedback)? Are there suggestions
to support their own grade level?
 What does student achievement look like at your grade level?

All PLCs have the opportunity to meet between division days.

 Page 8

7. The essential outcome will be identified as a knowledge or skill outcomes as this will support you to
decide how to teach the outcome and how to assess the outcome. (There are skills that need to be
practiced and a worksheet activity will not be a good measure of student achievement.)

8. If your PLC has 10 or more people, your facilitator(s) may split you into smaller PLCs with
approximately 5 people to work on different aspects of the planning and assessment of the
essential outcome to be achieved by all students by December 2, 2019.

DAY 1 - Assessment
9. Assessment
 Discuss how you will teach and assess the essential outcome(s).
o You teach and assess the knowledge and skill outcomes differently. (This is left up to
teachers to input their professional judgement.)
o How will you measure if all students have achieved the outcome? What is “good”
enough”? What do students need to know or be able to do to achieve the essential
outcome?

 There is a big difference between acquiring NEW knowledge/skill and refining EXISTING
knowledge and Skill (schema) – we teach and assess those differently, too.

 Brainstorm methods/tools to assess the degree to which students have achieved the essential
outcome. You may include formative and summative measures.
o What would be the best way to assess the outcome? What will we bring back to the
next PLC to show student achievement of the outcome?
 Ensure that the assessment focuses on the essential outcome that was selected (rubric,
project, essay, task, exam, etc) and not the overall construct that the outcome is a part of (ie:
if the outcome is to learn to create a solid persuasive argument, measure that as a target, not
the role-playing in the mock parliament that was used as a vehicle to provide context for that
work.)

Assessment - we need to know the following 3 things:

 Kids KNOW what we wanted them to know;
 if they can DO what we set out to have them do; and
 if they can APPLY what they have learned in new settings.

These are 3 different things, and we assess them in different ways. We will need to be very intentional about
this.

3 things must occur for assessment to be formative:

 the assessment is used to identify students who are experiencing difficulty;

 those students experiencing difficulty are provided additional time and support to acquire the intended
skill or concept, and
 the students experiencing difficulty are given another opportunity to demonstrate that they have
learned.
(Dufour, Dufour, Eaker, Many, 2006)

All PLCs have the opportunity to meet between division days.

 Page 9

10. Closure
 Who will post the norms into the team drive?
 What are the “take aways” for each member?
 Is the PLC meeting between division days? If so, when and where?
 Post the revised essential outcomes in team drive along with the notes from today.
 Post the essential outcome(s) that will be taught before the next PLC.
 Email Rob Suik of any revisions to the essential outcome list.
 Email Rob Suik any revisions and their rationale to the common assessments (grades 7-9).
 Post the assessment method/tool that you have developed into the team drive before Day 2.

 There are unit design templates to support you as you work through the unit in last year’s
Essential Outcome/PLC Framework which is posted in the 2019-2020 Essential Outcome
Team Drive.

 What do we want students to know and be able to do? (Essential

Outcomes)
 What instructional practices will I choose? (Strategies and activities)
 How will we know if each student has learned it? (Assessments –
formative and summative)
 How do we respond when a student is not learning or already knows
it? (Intervention and enrichment)

All PLCs have the opportunity to meet between division days.

 Page 10

For Day 2:

 Bring back the assessment method/task used to assess the essential outcome.
 Bring back the data from the assessment that you used.
 Each teacher will need to be prepared to discuss and share instructional strategies that you
used to support the teaching of the essential outcome.
 Your PLC may decide to bring samples of students’ work to share.
 Prepare for Day 2.

A reminder that Short Term (Unit) Plans for each subject will include (from A.P. 841):

1) Key Topics – Identify a Strand or Unit to be taught, containing the Essential Outcome(s) to be
learned,
2) Cross-curricular Competencies, Literacy connections, Numeracy connections and First
Nations, Métis and Inuit perspectives
https://education.alberta.ca/competencies/student-competencies/
3) Assessment Plan – Assessment of Prior Learning, Formative and Summative Assessment of
Learning within Unit
4) Identify Student Learning Activities - Consideration of opportunities for Application,
Analysis, Evaluation, and Synthesis
5) Teaching Pedagogy/Strategies – Differentiation Considerations (Awareness of differences in
students’ abilities, interests, and optimum learning methods obtained from pre-assessment,
parents, IPP’s, previous teachers, cum file, and observation.) Curriculum, planning, and
teaching are contingent on the needs of the students in the classroom.
6) Resources and Materials (Including plan for purposeful technology use)
7) Projected time frame

All PLCs have the opportunity to meet between division days.

 Page 11

DAY 2 – Tier 1 - Universal Instruction

December 2, 2019 8:30 AM – 12:00 PM at BJHS
Examples of Tier One Instructional Practices Across All Content
Areas:

 Inquiry Learning
 Cooperative Learning
 Cues, Questions and Advanced Organizers
 The Explicit Strategies (Read Aloud, Think Aloud)
 Shared, Guided or Independent Reading/ Writing
 Word Work (Vocabulary including Academic and Content
Specific)
 Oral Language (listening and speaking to develop thinking skills)
 Experiments
 Concept Mapping
 Picture Word Inductive Model
 Reciprocal Teaching

A copy of Beyond Monet is provided in the PLC folder which outlines various instructional strategies.

DAY 2 – Expectations
 Bring back the assessment method/task used to assess the essential outcome.
 Bring back the data from the assessment that you used.
 Be prepared to discuss and share instructional strategies that you used to support the teaching
of the essential outcome.
 Your PLC may decide to bring samples of students’ work to share.

1. Review norms.
2. Review the essential outcome(s) that were taught. (What did we want students to know and be able to
do?)
3. Review the data from the assessment that you used. (How will we know if each student learned it?)
a. Did students do well on all areas of the assessment?
b. How did you respond when a student is not learning?
i. Did you re-teach? Did you re-assess?
4. Review the instructional strategies that you used to support the teaching of the essential outcome. (What
instructional strategies did you use?) Be prepared to discuss how you felt these instructional strategies
were/weren’t effective, what you did in response, and what you might try next time as a result of your
learning. This work is as much about our growth as professionals as about our student’s learning…
effective PLCs work to identify and clarify the effectiveness of a variety of instructional strategies in the
local context.

All PLCs have the opportunity to meet between division days.

 Page 12

Grades 1- 6:

 Select an essential outcome in math and language arts that all students will achieve before
the PLC Day 3 on March 9, 2020. All teachers will teach both essential outcomes before the
next PLC day.

Grades 7- 9:

Grade 7-8 Science

Grade 7 Math
Grade 7-9 Social
Grade 7-9 ELA

o Decide when the common assessment will be given in classrooms.

o Review the procedures for giving the common assessment.
o Will the PLC meet after the assessment to discuss results? If so, when?

 Select an essential outcome that all students will achieve before the PLC Day 3 on March 9,
2020. All teachers will teach the essential outcome before the next PLC day.

Grade 10-12 ELA, SS, Science, and Math:

 Select an essential outcome that all students will achieve before the PLC Day 3 on March 9,
2020. All teachers will teach the essential outcome before the next PLC day.

5. Round table:
 Each member will share the following about how the essential outcome:
o The assessment(s) tools/methods that you used to assess the essential outcome (post in the
team drive).
o What instructional strategy did you use?
o Why did you choose it?
o How many students achieved the essential outcome(s) with whole class instruction?
o If not, what did you do with the students who did not achieve the outcome? How did you re-
assess after the intervention was in place?
o Did the students have all the background knowledge to begin learning the essential outcome
(and if not what did you do)?
o How did you respond when a student did not learn the essential outcomes?
o What differentiation did you use?
o How did you re-assess for those who experienced difficulty?
o Reflect and evaluate your Instructional practice… how well did your chosen method work?
What else might you do to achieve better results next time?
o How did you respond if they either already knew or quickly learned the outcomes?
(enrichment?)

All PLCs have the opportunity to meet between division days.

 Page 13

6. Additional Reflection/Discussion:
 How did you communicate the learning outcome achievement to the student?
 To the parents/guardians?
 What recommendations can you make to the next teacher who tries to teach this essential
outcome?

7. PLCs will select a different essential outcome to teach before the next PLC.
8. PLCs will brainstorm an instructional strategy/ies that will be the “most promising” strategy to ensure all
students achieve the essential outcome.
9. Today, there is common planning and assessment time. Your PLC is able to collaborate to plan how the
outcome will be taught and the assessment for the essential outcome.
 Some tips for planning:
o There is a big difference between acquiring NEW knowledge/skill and refining
EXISTING knowledge and Skill (schema) – we teach and assess those differently.
o Discuss how you will teach and assess the essential outcome depending on if it is a
knowledge or skill outcomes.
o How will you measure if all students have achieved the essential outcome?
o Will you teach the unit using the same instructional strategy as you used for the first
essential outcome? (did the data show this worked well?)
o What resources will you need to support the instructional strategy selected?
o How will you add First Nations, Metis and Inuit content? Check Grasslands and Alberta
Education website for resources.
 Assessment - Discuss (and develop if time permits) an assessment tool or method for the
essential outcome.
• Post in your team drive
• Discuss communication of assessment (rubrics, project, exam etc) and how to
inform students and parents about what the next steps would be to ensure
students’ success in learning.

11. Closure
 What are the “take aways” for each member?
 Is the PLC meeting between division days? If so, when and where?
 Post work in team drive along with the notes from today.
 Bring back instructional strategies and assessment tool/method used to teach the next selected
essential outcome.

 What do we want students to know and be able to do? (Essential

Outcomes)
 What instructional practices will I choose? (Strategies and activities)
 How will we know if each student has learned it? (Assessments –
formative and summative)
 How do we respond when a student is not learning or already
knows it? (Intervention and enrichment)

All PLCs have the opportunity to meet between division days.

 Page 14

Day 3 – Response to Interventions and Instruction (RtI2)

March 9, 2020 - 8:30 AM – 12:00 PM at BJHS
(speaker – RtI) - How will we respond when students don’t learn?
8:30 AM – 12:00 PM at BJHS

 Each member will bring back instructional strategies and assessment tool/method used to
teach the selected essential outcome.

Day 3 – Expectations
1. Review the norms.
2. Round table:
 Each member will share the following about how the essential outcome.
 Share the assessment(s) tools/methods that you used to assess the essential outcome (post in the
team drive).

Discussion guide and questions:

 What instructional strategy did you use?
 Why did you choose it?
 How many students achieved the essential outcome(s) with whole class instruction?
 If not, what did you do with the students who did not achieve the outcome? How did you re-
assess after the intervention was in place?
 Did the students have all the background knowledge to begin learning the essential outcome
(and if not what did you do)?
 How did you respond when a student did not learn the essential outcomes?
 What differentiation did you use?
 How did you re-assess for those who experienced difficulty?
 Reflect and evaluate your Instructional practice… how well did your chosen method work?
What else might you do to achieve better results next time?
 How did you respond if they either already knew or quickly learned the outcomes?
(enrichment?)

3. Reflection/Discussion – How did you communicate the learning outcome achievement to the student? To
the parents/guardians? What recommendations can you make to the next teacher who tries to teach this
unit?

4. Grades 7- 9:

Grade 7-8 Science

Grade 7 Math
Grade 7-9 Social
Grade 7-9 ELA

What do you need to support your students to be successful in the common assessment of the essential
outcomes?

All PLCs have the opportunity to meet between division days.

 Page 15

5. Today, there is time to select another essential outcome for common planning, assessment development
and discussion of interventions to use. Your PLC is able to collaborate to create/refine/edit a unit/lesson
and the assessment for the essential outcome(s).
 A guide to refining/editing a unit/lesson plan – Will you teach the unit using the same
instructional strategy (did the data show this strategy worked for most students the first time?
Did a member indicate that they would try another method)? Will you add resources that are
used? What will you refine/edit? How will you add FNMI content?
 Your unit plan will now list the specific interventions. Post your interventions within the unit plan
in the team drive.

Interventions
 Are not designed as a permanent support for individual
students, nor as a whole-class support to compensate for
ineffective instruction.
 Interventions are designed to be targeted on specific needs,
to be used with smaller groups (more intense) or to provide
more time for learning
 Interventions should avoid merely repeating the instruction
that didn‘t work the first time …“More of the same” is not an
effective intervention.
 Designing an effective intervention must take into account the
specific needs of the learner
 When students are experiencing difficulty, they should be directed to intervention until the desired
knowledge or skill is acquired. Targeted Intervention is not voluntary

Polish your work! Your PLC will now be able to ensure that there are at least 3 (could be 4 depending on
the grade) essential outcomes with an assessment, instructional strategies, interventions, resources,
and FNMI content.

All PLCs have the opportunity to meet between division days.

 Page 16

Alberta Education Competencies:

https://education.alberta.ca/competencies/student-competencies/

 Collaboration
 Critical Thinking
 Communication
 Problem Solving
 Managing Information
 Personal Growth and Well-Being
 Cultural and Global Citizenship

Pyramid of Supports

All PLCs have the opportunity to meet between division days.

 Page 17

PLC Overview
PLC – is an ongoing process in which educators work collaboratively in recurring cycles of collective inquiry
and action research to achieve better results for students they serve.
Participation is not reserved for designated leaders but it is a responsibility of every member of the PLC.

Collaboration Definition – The situation of two more people working together with a common focus to create
or achieve a common output to improve student learning

Big Ideas of PLCs

1. A focus on learning - Ensuring that students learn and ALL students learn at high levels
2. A culture of collaboration – With a focus on Learning for ALL
a. The teams in a PLC engage in collective inquiry into both best practices in teaching and best
practices in learning.
b. Collective inquiry enables team members to develop new skills and capabilities that in turn lead
to new experiences and awareness.
c. Members of PLCs are action oriented and value engagement and experience. They realize that
learning by doing develops a deeper more profound knowledge and greater commitment to
learning.
3. A focus on results
a. Each member engages in an ongoing cycle:
i. Gathering evidence of student learning
ii. Developing strategies and ideas to build on strengths and address weakness
iii. Implement those strategies and ideas
iv. Analyzing the impact of the changes to discover what was effective or not
v. Applying new knowledge in the next cycle of continuous improvement
b. The goal is to create conditions for perpetual learning

 What do we want students to know and be

able to do? (Essential Outcomes)
 What instructional practices will I choose?
(Strategies and activities)
 How will we know if each student has
learned it? (Assessments – formative and
summative)
 How do we respond when a student is not
learning or already knows it? (Intervention
and enrichment)

All PLCs have the opportunity to meet between division days.

 Page 18

4 PLC Questions
 What do we want our students to know and be able
to do?
 How will we know if each student has learned?
 How will we respond when a student is not learning
or has already learned it?
 What instructional practices will we chose?

Outcome: By the end of the last PLC day, your PLC will
have 3 essential outcomes with: instructional strategies,
assessments, interventions, resources, and FNMI content
to support their achievement.

All PLCs have the opportunity to meet between division days.

 Page 19

Comprehensive Balanced Literacy Look-Fors

All PLCs have the opportunity to meet between division days.