LITCHFIELD — Rebecca Ledger of Libby-Tozier School has been featured in the October 2012 Teacher Spotlight.
Ledger, a second grade teacher, was featured for her consistent efforts to implement a rigorous, personalized curriculum. Ledger meets with her Professional Learning Group, a group of other second grade teachers in her district. These teachers discuss what the students know and what gaps in learning need to be filled in. Then they take alignment information from two sets of curriculum standards to set the teaching goals for the year. Well prepared by this preliminary work with her team, Ledger teaches her students this student-centric, Core Curriculum for 2012-13, from the first days of school.
As she goes through the year, Ledger meets with her PLG to isolate learning targets and to design and share expectations and ideas for teaching lessons. All six of RSU 4’s second grade teachers teach the same curriculum. “That our Core is consistent is the best part,” Ledger said. Something as simple as having all the second grade teachers share the same curriculum information with parents at the open house: ‘This is what you can expect your kids to learn in second grade across the districts,'” Ledger said.
Individual teachers then have complete freedom to teach the specified content and skills based on individual learning styles of students, a wide variety of resources and their own teaching styles.
The positive results RSU 4’s PLG have on student learning are undeniable. Assistant Superintendent Cathy McCue said, “Research tells us that when students understand what the learning target is [and can express it in] their own words, they excel. Not only do all of the teachers know what it is that they want students to learn and how they will assess the learning, so do the students!”
Ledger’s new students are still adjusting to her classroom, when she starts to teach them creatively how to tell time, which is her first learning target. She makes certain that her students retain what they learned last year and provides intervention in the form of extra review for the four students who have forgotten the skill. Soon, all her students are telling time to the quarter- and half-hour. Having met the common expectation, Ledger is then free to challenge her new students to extend their knowledge by telling time in minutes and by applying their skills to various scenarios, such as figuring out how long they had slept the previous night.
So what’s next after telling time? There are many options, but Ledger’s PLG helps her to “stay on track.” The team comes together regarding a predetermined topic for one-hour every Wednesday. Since the teachers are in two separate buildings, they resourcefully opt to eliminate driving time and connect online using Skype. During every meeting the teachers share resources and ideas for teaching the designated topic(s) from RSU 4’s 2012-2013 Core Curriculum. They also collectively determine a developmentally appropriate assessment for the unit.
During a recent meeting, Ledger observes that students had a difficult time, “drawing hands on a clock to indicate a quarter-hour.” Although her students can tell time by reading the hands on the clock, they lack the fine motor skills to draw them precisely. That kind of insight is then incorporated as the PLG strives to assemble valid common assessments for informal and formal progressive monitoring.
According to McCue, “Feedback from teachers has been that the time in PLG spent on learning targets and assessment data has been the most valuable professional learning that they do.”
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