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Introducing the New and Improved PL Toolbox

2/12/2018

1 Comment

 
We’re excited to re-introduce the PL Toolbox! Back in the summer of 2015, when the PL Coaching and Development rubric was initially created, we immediately knew we needed to unpack what these teacher actions and student actions looked like across proficiency levels. With the help of our school leaders and teachers, we set out to create look-fors for each rubric row, resources, and professional development aligned to each rubric row. Over the past three years we have been working to develop resources and tools to help educators make the shift from a more traditional to personalized environment. After a few fail attempts of sharing this in a meaningful way, the PL Toolbox was born.

To learn more about the rubric and toolbox, make sure to check out the introduction video below:
If you’ve visited and used the PL Toolbox in the past, you’ll notice a few upgrades:
  • Look fors and resources are cataloged by action: ​Instead of listing look-fors and resources by phase and then domain, we shifted organization of look-fors and resources to be listed by action vs. phase. Phases were intended to help educators narrow their focus while building foundational skills. In practice and implementation, we’ve seen more and more educators use the rubric rows to create their own “phases”. And, we think that makes a lot of sense!
  • Pages that showcase the work in Dallas ISD: ​Over the years, we've begun to use this site to house more opportunities to learn about and plug into the four pathways of personalization in Dallas ISD for Dallas-locals and educators across the nation.
  • Coming in April: A Personalized Learning Readiness Continuum: And, what perhaps has been one of the hardest, but rewarding projects our team has recently taken on is to develop a " PL Coaching and Development Rubric" for campuses. We've learned so much over the past three years focusing on the PL classroom, but we believe it's time to take a step back, reflect on, and capture the larger systems and structures that have helped make a personalized classroom thrive in Dallas ISD.
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Kristen Watkins
Director of Personalized Learning 

Kristen leads all district efforts to move towards scale, sustainability, and fidelity of implementation of PL districtwide.
1 Comment

Redefining a Common Language

2/5/2018

2 Comments

 
It's here- the next iteration of the Dallas ISD Personalized Learning (PL) Coaching and Development Rubric! We've learned a lot over the past three years about what it takes to provide students with a personalized environment in the classroom as well as what kind of supports teachers need in transitioning to PL. Since inception, this tool has served as the centerpiece for the training and support teachers receive and as a personal guide through implementation. We're proud that over the years, this tool has remained non-evaluative in nature and one that folks are continuing to use to refine their own practice.

After spending the last couple months reflecting alongside our school leaders and teachers and revisiting the four domains and sixteen teacher and student actions, we're ready to share our lessons learned.  Below you'll find, lessons learned, revisions, and rationale for changes to the next iteration of the PL Coaching and Development rubric by domain. Click here to download the extended rubric.


Assessment and Data
Updates are reflected in green below.

The biggest upgrade to the Assessment and Data domain is that the original phase 2 and 3 have been swapped so that student feedback is prioritized before addressing authentic assessments. ​In year one of implementation, we quickly realized what an oversight this was on our part, and how important timely, frequent, and specific feedback is for the learning process. When the rubric was initially drafted in the summer of 2015, we were optimistic about authentic assessments as something we'd achieve by year two. After spending almost four months digging in, we also realized that in order to ask students to demonstrate learning through authentic formative and summative assessments, we first had to have aligned and rigorous formative and summative assessments- which is something we're still working on.
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​

Instructional Rigor 
Updates are reflected in green below. 
​

When retooling the Instructional Rigor domain, we swapped the original phase 1 and phase 2 so that student access to varied and rigorous learning experiences was first. Many of our teachers in focus groups pointed out that having differentiated learning objectives in phase 1 was actually harder than creating varied learning experiences. They also pointed out that when transitioning to personalized learning, that it was manageable to write one learning objective and build the muscle first in creating varied learning experiences. Student grouping intientially lived in this domain, but when we made the decision to give Equity it’s own domain, we knew this indicator belonged there.
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Student Agency
Updates are reflected in green below. 

What perhaps is one of the biggest lessons learned over the first two years of implementation, is how difficult it can be to set and truly monitor progress towards individual academic and non-academic goals with every student. Before personalized learning, teachers consistently set class goals and/or targets for groups of students that were similar to '80% of us will pass the <insert grade level and content> STAAR test' for the XXXX school year. When making the shift from class or grade level goals to individual goal-setting, we took for granted the role trust plays into empowering students to set academic and non-academic goals that are meaningful. For this next iteration of the rubric, we've incorporated an additional row to reflect this teacher move.
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Classroom Culture
Updates are reflected in green below.

This domain originally felt heavy on side of compliance and one we thought needed more joy! In this next iteration of the rubric we cleaned up some of the indicators in the practicing and achieving column to highlight more celebrations and students who are joyfully engaged. In the class row, we refer to as 'belonging' we added students defining their own purpose for the achieving proficiency level and then shifted the original descriptors down (to the left) a proficiency level.
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Equity 
Updates are reflected in green below. 

For us, adding equity to the next iteration of the rubric was necessary, but we spent most of our time debating on where equity would live within the rubric. As a result, we decided to intentionally call out what equity looks like in a PL classroom, specifically around bias, identity, access, and expectations. We are hopeful this domain serves as a starting point for action and reflection over a topic that can be challenging and uncomfortable at times, but is ultimately at the heart of what is right by kids.
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Picture
Kristen Watkins
Director of Personalized Learning 
​

Kristen leads all district efforts to move towards scale, sustainability, and fidelity of implementation of PL districtwide.
2 Comments
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  • Home
  • About
    • Personalized Learning
    • Meet the Team
    • In the News
    • Impact Report
    • Sharing the Work
    • Blog
    • Flip the Switch
    • Resources for Families >
      • Personalized Learning for Families
      • Hybrid Learning for Families
  • The Rubric
    • Assessment and Data >
      • Data Driven Instruction
      • Student Feedback
      • Authentic Assessment
      • Choice in Assessment
    • Instructional Rigor >
      • Varied Learning Experiences
      • Differentiated Learning Objectives
      • Personalized Learning Pathways
      • Mastery Based Progression
    • Student Agency >
      • Rapport with Students
      • Self- Direction
      • Opportunities for Input
      • Advocacy Beyond Self
    • Classroom Culture >
      • Routines and Procedures
      • Peer Accountability
      • Growth Mindset
      • Sense of Purpose
    • Equity >
      • Self- Awareness
      • Diversity in Design
      • Collaborative Grouping
      • Access to Materials
    • Phases of PL
  • Readiness Continuum
    • 1 The PL Classroom
    • 2 Curriculum + Assessment
    • 3 Data Driven Instruction
    • 4 Social Emotional Learning
    • 5 The PL Graduate
    • 6 Principal/Leader
    • 7 Collaborative Design
    • 8 PL Campus Team
    • 9 Vision + Priorities
    • 10 Personalized PD + Supports
    • 11 Culture of Innovation
    • 12 Sustainability + Access
  • Progressions
    • Lab Rotation
    • Station Rotation
    • Individual Rotation
    • Flex Model
    • Flipped Classroom
    • Enriched Virtual
    • Distance Learning >
      • DLP | Establish a Learning Management System (LMS)
      • DLP | Engagement in Guided Learning
      • DLP | Engagement in Independent Learning
      • DLP | Feedback for Learning
    • Glossary
  • Fellowships
    • Innovation in Teaching Fellowship >
      • 2022-2023 Fellows
      • 2021-2022 Fellows
      • 2020-2021 Fellows
      • 2019-2020 Fellows
      • 2018-2019 Fellows
      • 2017-2018 Fellows
      • 2016-2017 Fellows
    • Innovation Showcase
    • School Retool
    • iDesign Central
  • At-Home Learning Webinars
  • Opportunities
    • Educator Tours
    • Winter Design Excursion Exhibition
    • Self-Paced Google Certification Courses
    • Google Certification
    • University Partnerships- Texas Tech
    • Edcamp
    • PL Road Trip 2023
  • The Lighthouse