« Home: Key questions for SLC implementation
How can we develop effective interdisciplinary teams?
Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning Teams are the basic building blocks of SLCs which may contain one or more teams but never more than a few hundred students. Each interdisciplinary team of teachers shares students in common for multiple years and organizes instruction to gain more instructional time with fewer students.
General
Continuous Improvement Tools
- Small Learning Communities Self-Assessment Tool (PDF 4.39M)
Forms
Teaming
Fast Facts: What are PLTs? (PDF 136K) A Professional Learning Team is a small, highly collaborative teacher team of four to six members that engages in professional learning to improve student learning. PLTs meet regularly, at least every other week, for about 90 minutes during the school day. This time, protected by administrators, is used to focus on improving teaching and student learning. With the schoolwide PLT process, all teachers are organized into PLTs. The process connects the school's student data and the teachers' knowledge and experience to the research and best practices shown to increase student achievement.
SLC Size
Multiple years with students
- Looping: Supporting Student Learning Through Long-Term Relationships (PDF 128K) This publication from the Education Alliance at Brown University describes looping and answers frequently asked questions.
Teacher Course Load
Common Planning Time
- "Finding Time for Common Planning", adapted from Moving Forward, a research-based guide developed by NWREL.
Collaboration
Professional Learning Communities: Communities of Continuous Inquiry and Improvement by Shirley M. Hord, Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL), 1997
Dedicated Space
"Innovative School Design for Small Learning Communities" from Horace, Vol. 18, No. 1. Fall 2001. Describes new school designs which invite students to be active, teachers to coach, and everyone to know one another well. These schools create environments where students can move around, create, and work. In these same spaces, teachers can be on the move, escaping the front of the room and sitting with individuals or a few students in quiet areas, as well as joining with other teachers to work across disciplines with larger groups.
