I am hoping for some thoughts/feedback on the role of "singletons" in PLCs. (i.e., Sped. Teachers/Specialists/Speech/ELL). I do know that many of these teachers have PLCs that meet to discuss common instructional strategies/identify pacing and essential skills across district. I am not sure, however, if these PLCs are the weekly, data discussion/common assessment, type of PLCs. I feel, sometimes, that when a "singleton" joins a grade level PLC, it can be a dance to figure out their role and how best they can collaborate/contribute to the process.
Any experiences you could share about grade level teams that incorporate these teachers into the PLC process/learning cycles? Thanks!
Thank you for addressing this, Ryan. I am an EL teacher who is co-teaching in a mainstream 7th grade language arts classroom. We currently do not have an EL PLC at the East Junior high because there is only one FT teacher and one PT teacher. We touch base on some departmental logistics, but it is NOT a PLC. I have joined the 7th grade language arts PLC. It is great to be able to see what the language arts teachers are teaching and sometimes give my feedback, but it is not an EL PLC, so I am, in some ways, an outsider. I think once I am coteaching for some time, that may change, but I feel like I am able to sit in on another department's PLC--and at times give comments or suggestions, but it is still another department's decisions. So I am not sure what the answer is to the awkwardness. I guess it just takes time to establish relationships. And it also depends on the personality of the team/PLC members. Some teams are open and inviting, some teams are less so. I've learned to roll with the punches and try to make it as positive as I can. But I can see why it can be frustrating, and not feel like it is the ideal set-up for a teacher who is not part of a larger department.
ReplyDeleteI also thank you for bringing this topic up. I am a special education teacher and can say we have struggled with this all year. I co-teach Pre-Algebra, so for awhile I attended those PLC's. To be frank, many of the PLC's between the Junior High's have been experiencing growing pains shall we say and have not been functioning as best they could anyway. Then when you throw a specialist in the mix it can cloudy the water even more so. I think specialist can have a positive impact in a departmental PLC (for example, make suggestions on test format, wording of some questions, etc. that may not be as obvious to a general education teacher). That being said the two of us that co-teach have not attended a Math PLC with that group in months. We instead began to meet as a special education math PLC and pulled in other sped teachers that teach essential math classes and put our focus on teaching essentials and aligning our curriculum across building and grades. As Ann said though, some PLC's are very open and operate like well oiled machines, where others are still trying to find their way. I think it is safe to say, that most of the specialist I know are used to rolling with the punches and taking things one step at a time. We would like to be a part of the discussions, but don't want to overstep either...I think there is a place for us within those meetings, but I feel it might help if the roles where more clearly laid out. So while I thank you for bringing this up, I did not help answer your question:) Hopefully, someone else can give some great advice and we can both learn:)
ReplyDeleteBeing a music teacher, there is only one of me in my building. I have a band director with me, but that is it. And even though we teach the same concepts, they can be taught so differently and we often times focus on different things at different levels. My PLC ends up being the same as my vertical team. It can be very difficult to communicate between four different buildings. We set up a wikipage and a google docs page to try and communicate better, but those that don't communicate on the wiki have made it impossible to get things accomplished as a PLC. We struggle with group members being held accountable and with some people getting more credit for other's work. It is a process. I think looking at how other programs do PLCs and hold people accountable would be very beneficial. It would help all those special groups. Hopefully this year will be a learning process for all, and each year after will get easier!
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