"What is a PLC? ...an ongoing process in which educators work collaboratively in recurring cycles of collective inquiry and action research to achieve better results for the students they serve. " --Richard DuFour, Rebecca DuFour, Robert Eaker, Thomas Many
The "big ideas" of effective professional learning communities are: a focus on learning, culture of collaboration, and a focus on results. The work of the PLC focuses on four essential questions:
- What do we want all students to know and be able to do as a result of each essential standard we teach?
- How will we know when each student has learned?
- How will we respond when, at the end of the unit, some students have not learned?
- How will we enrich and extend the learning for students' who have demonstrated capacity?