Professional
Learning
Communities

In Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) educators learn from one another and transform teaching practices.
Six teachers are gathered around a table in a school library. They are looking intently at a painting and talking to each other.
 
 

Why PLCs?

PLCs value the expertise of teachers and artists and engage them creatively in examining and improving their teaching practice. The learning built through these communities carries forward with their members as they continue teaching.

 
 

Teachers as Artists

In DELLTA, teachers have the opportunity to experience the artistic process that their students are engaged in, enabling them to develop a deeper understanding of the work and better support their students as learners.

Experiential Learning
 
A group of teachers create a tableau by posing their bodies at different levels with their arms and legs extended at different angles. The teacher in front has a serious expression on his face.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/eijKq6Tjt24
Experiential Learning for Teachers
Through a series of professional development sessions and school intervisitations, teachers and artists had the opportunity to experience both the arts and the portfolio process as participants. This helped teachers to have a deeper understanding of what their students were experiencing and to be more fully engaged teaching partners throughout the process.
 

Teachers as Researchers

Teachers formulate inquiry questions based on their curiosity around ML students’ language learning. DELLTA PLCs give educators time and space to observe and reflect on students’ learning. Then they apply what they learn to instruction.

Inquiry-Based Action Research
 
Inquiry-Based Action Research
PLCs pose meaningful inquiry questions around student learning and study samples of their students’ work. Teachers and artists gain insight into students’ strengths, challenges and how they learn. Working together, educators design, test and revise new teaching strategies.
Two smiling women wearing headphones sit together looking at a laptop computer.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/PRsKodoHw48
Video Study: A Deep Look at Our Students
Classroom Teachers and Artists used video to engage in a deep process of observing student learning. This led to rich collaboration in creating new strategies for student engagement.
 

Making Student Learning Visible

Teachers document and review student work in video. Colleagues share insights into how students learn and develop and incorporate new strategies for MLs into their teaching practice.

Educator Portfolios
 
In a classroom, a teacher sits in front of a projection screen displaying a slide that says “The Outcome.” He looks at and gestures towards the screen with his hand.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/_Iupoyfn5Os
Educator Portfolio in Theater
ENL teacher, Katrina Perea, and Artist, Shawn Williams, look at middle school students’ ability to brainstorm, generate ideas, give feedback and revise based on theater criteria in a remote setting. They pilot new tools and protocols for this process.
In a classroom, a teacher sits in front of a projection screen displaying a slide that says “Digital DELLTA Learning Communities Educator Portfolio.” She looks at the screen.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/gABvOATf7Yc
Educator Portfolio Presentation in Dance
ELA teacher Lindsay Pero presents her inquiry-based action research around working with MLs of various levels and native languages in dance to colleagues from other schools.
On a Zoom screen, a teacher shares a slide labeled “Criteria: What’s important?” with three close-up photographs of animals’ eyes. On the right side, the teacher and four students are visible in their Zoom boxes. Two students are raising their hands.
Visual Arts Educator Portfolio
"I thought I was a good teacher, but I didn't have a process." Now, I have a formative assessment process that has raised the quality of MLs feedback, deepened their conversations and improved the quality of their art work. Students co-generate criteria which guide the project, feedback and revision. A visual rubric makes that criteria visible.
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