Wildwood’s journey to becoming a model Professional Learning Community began with the arrival of a new campus leader in August of 2020. Wildwood already had a good academic reputation. However, based on the campus demographics and the talented teaching staff, we knew we could foster a campus culture that supported a great academic reputation.

Using a listening tour, we determined that our campus needed a stronger level of collaboration. We found teachers did not feel they had a voice and there was a disconnect from the collaborative process to the classroom. The campus was ready to be inspired!

We started studying Learning By Doing from Solution Tree to fully jump into the work. Specifically, the study guide arranged by chapter was an integral tool for us to identify key points. We also used the suggested questions and followed the steps recommended. The book study sparked great conversations and began to give our teams hope for the connection to the classroom they needed. We looked at data to convince our teams that a collaborative culture and collective responsibility for every student on our campus was necessary. We made commitments to each other to ensure that everyone was mutually accountable, not only for the student learning, but for each other’s learning. Our teachers were starting to be open to learning new instructional strategies and implementing new strategies when they felt it was appropriate. They began to feel respected as professionals. As Learning by Doing states, "When professionals know better, they have an obligation to do better." The journey towards a professional learning community moved from words to action.
Throughout this process of learning and growing together, our Instructional Leadership Team (ILT) sent out monthly surveys asking teachers for honest feedback to determine our next steps as a campus. Although some of the months were harder to read than others, we always took a deep breath and kept our eye on the prize of improving our collaborative culture for our students.

After three years of nurturing growth at Wildwood, we are beyond proud of the work happening on a daily basis. Our data shows improvement each year, while at the same time, our collaborative culture grows as well. We revisit our norms, collective commitments, and goals continuously to keep a strong focus. Now we feel confident in the foundation we are providing for our students at Wildwood. The teachers have a voice in our collaboratives, see the connection to the classroom, and believe in our professional learning community.

1. Monitoring student learning on a timely basis.

Monitoring student progress begins with dedicating time for collaboration. The master schedule has been designed to allow teams to collaborate daily, weekly, and quarterly to discuss students and their progress.

Daily, teachers meet with students in small groups or one-on-one conferences through a workshop-based instructional model. Teachers track student progress using anecdotal records of their interactions based on proficiency scales created as a collaborative team. Teachers use this data to form fluid small groups and determine the skills to target. 

On a weekly basis, Wildwood Elementary teams collaborate to identify and unpack our TEKS, review our district scope and sequence (TISD Integrated Curriculum Map), analyze district curriculum pacing guides, determine learning progressions, and ultimately design meaningful lessons, interventions, and extensions for our students. In addition, grade level teams design and backwards plan common formative assessments. Teachers have moved from being compliance driven to a commitment for all students to master essential standards. This allows teachers to provide multiple opportunities to show mastery through progress monitoring and reteach/redo opportunities.  Based on summative data, students are flexibly grouped for targeted small group instruction. These groups are fluid and change based on students’ learning outcomes and needs.

Quarterly, teams meet with the campus Instructional Leadership Team (ILT) to review student data and determine if further discussion and targeted interventions are needed through Response to Intervention (RTI).

In addition to this cycle, the campus ILT routinely shares research with teams and engages them with collective inquiry regarding the instructional strategies that directly impact student learning through action research. Kid Chat meetings are routinely held throughout the school year to monitor students needing additional support. These meetings include teachers, specialists, administrators, and the campus diagnostician. This committee of professionals work together to provide a plan that includes additional targeted support for these students.

2. Creating systems of intervention to provide students with additional time and support for learning.

Grounded in the Wildwood Elementary mission is the promise of “High Levels of Learning. Every student. Every day.” With the passion for this mission, a framework for supporting students was necessary to ensure great learning was occurring not for most or even the majority of students, but for all students. As a committed first step, Wildwood created time in our instructional day for a campus-wide intervention and enrichment block. During this time, all students are served at their level, as determined by data from common formative assessments. Students are flexibly grouped to provide targeted and meaningful instruction. General and special education staff are utilized to achieve this level of service and support of learners. To increase agency, students are given the opportunity to set goals focused on data and receive TEKS based activity choices within their personalized pathway to take ownership of their learning.

Even with a solid and well-planned intervention block, some students may not be making adequate progress. In these cases, Wildwood Elementary follows a more traditional RTI model with the initial step being a Kid Chat meeting. In these meetings teachers identify students who need additional intervention and create student goals for learning. The desired outcomes are to analyze student performance data, pinpoint research-based strategies to support those students, and make recommendations for progress monitoring. As a result teachers leave with a goal and targeted plan to address the students' deficits.

Wildwood Elementary continues to serve a highly diverse population of international, gifted, and high achieving learners resulting in an emphasis on question four as a strong focus for our campus. Grounded in Tier 1 best practices, teachers are trained in instructional strategies that yield high quality results in student performance such as: use of randomness, student discourse, identification of the cognitive verb, examination of student task, instructional rounds, Thinking Tasks, and Depth and Complexity Dimensions. In an effort to increase and influence growth for all students, even those demonstrating mastery of grade level standards, our campus Advanced Academic Specialist is essential in coaching individual teachers, attending grade level collaborative meetings, and providing feedback for extension opportunities through higher order questioning, project-based learning, and cross-curricular connections.

3. Building teacher capacity to work as members of high performing collaborative teams that focus efforts on improved learning for all students.

Wildwood Elementary shares a common commitment to student learning that is most prominently displayed in team collaboration. 

At the beginning of each year, teams work together to establish norms and collective commitments. These commitments are the foundation of our high performing and collaborative teams. Teams allow themselves time to get to know one another both personally and professionally and, in turn, they are more aligned, engaged, and productive. Our teachers see each other as their most accessible and useful sources of knowledge. They spend most of their collaborative time asking each other questions about their instructional successes, planning lessons together, learning from each other, and celebrating each others’ successes.

Our collaborative community is made up of people with expertise in many different areas. Our team includes classroom teachers, administrators, content specialists, as well as our Advanced Academic Specialist. Each team meets weekly to unpack the state standards using an adapted version of Solution Trees’ Learning Design Template. We review the district scope and sequence and create common formative assessments. We analyze these assessments and use them to guide our instruction and flexible grouping. Using this data, we create targeted lessons, prescriptive interventions, and meaningful extensions. At times this leads to additional professional development, purchased resources, and “At Bats”. During “At Bats”, teachers observe one another to improve their ability to teach concepts to reach the needs of every student.  Our teachers are stakeholders in the collaborative process by helping design district curriculum, as well as serve as presenters at district-wide professional development days. 

Our specials teachers (art, music and physical education) are a collaborative team within our campus and with other educators in our district. Specials teachers are an integral part of our staff and collaborate with classroom teachers to integrate core content. For example, students in art are writing artist’s critiques of their work. Once again, our mission is to promote high levels of learning for every child, every day. 

Another area to build capacity is by working with team leaders. Team leaders are an extension of the school leadership team and act as facilitators in the collaborative process. The team leader assists the team in establishing norms, and accountability protocols to maximize the effectiveness of the team. Team leaders also meet monthly with the principal to focus on the school improvement process. 

In addition, our campus content specialists in conjunction with campus leadership, assess the needs of the campus based on instructional rounds and observations. This powerful coaching team provides all staff members learning opportunities through modeling, feedback, and professional development. As a result of our passionate and dedicated educators, many volunteer to participate in instructional coaching cycles.  This powerful process helps teachers to improve their craft through self-reflection and challenges them to reach their highest potential.

Achievement Data Files

• wes-k-2-data-3628.xlsx
• wes-3-4-data.xlsx

• UIL February 2023

  • 2nd Grade Creative Writing-3rd place

  • 2nd Grade Storytelling- 6th Place

  • 2nd Grade Chess Puzzle Solving- 3rd Place

  • 3rd Grade Ready Writing- 2nd & 4th Place

  • 3rd Grade Chess Puzzle Solving- 1st, 2nd, 6th Place

  • 4th Grade Ready Writing- 3rd Place

  • 4th Grade Chess Puzzle Solving- 4th Place

• DI February 2023

  • 4th Grade Team

    • Instant Challenge High Score- 1st in their category

    • Main Challenge: Technical- 2nd in Elementary

  • 3rd Grade Team

    • Instant Challenge High Score- 1st in their category

    • Main Challenge: Improv- 1st in Elementary (earning an invitation to State Finals)

• GE Model School- 2021-2022, 2022-2023

• Math Olympiad- Division E Top 30% Award 22-23

Images

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Files

• model-plc-school-collab-long-range--kinder.pdf
• wes-learning-progression-template-23-24.pdf
• wes-agenda-template-23-24.pdf
• model-plc-school-wildwood-schedule--wes-23-24-1.pdf