Professional Learning Communities

ELMI Professional Learning Community

During ELMI Professional Learning Community (PLC) meetings, educators collaboratively engage in recurring cycles of collective inquiry and action to achieve better teaching and learning. Like other components of the ELMI model, PLC meetings have adapted over time to be responsive to the needs, strengths, and desires of the participants. Lead Teachers from each grade level receive facilitation training, plan and facilitate the meetings. The entire PK-3rd grade staff participates. Teachers collaborate not just within their grade level teams, but also across grade levels, to generate productive conversations about math learning progressions and share related instructional tips.

Group of teachers engaged in a Profesional Learning Community

Cycle Of Inquiry

ELMI PLC meetings use a recurring cycle of inquiry protocol to guide educators through a process of understanding how students are making sense of mathematics and deciding next steps. This cycle of inquiry could be used with a wide variety of formative performance math tasks or assessments.

Protocol Steps

  1. Step 1. Big Ideas

    Identify the central ideas of the mathematics. What mathematical ideas might be helpful for students to know to be able to respond to the prompts? Prerequisite math knowledge?

  2. Step 2. Anticipated Student Responses

    How do you anticipate students will respond to the prompts? What are all the possible ways students might respond to the prompts? What are possible student misconceptions?

Steps 1 & 2 Completed before administering the assessment

  1. Step 3. Student Performance

    How did students perform? What is the math they know? What is the math they are working on? What patterns emerged? Any surprises?

  2. Step 4. Instructional Implications

    What will be our response if they do know it? To reteach what we have done
    What will be our response if they don’t know it?

Steps 3 & 4 Completed after administering the assessment, with time to reflect back on Steps 1 & 2 to gain further insight

Teacher-led PLC Meeting Resources

The following resources include a sample PLC meeting agenda teachers use to facilitate PLC meetings. Also included is a teacher-led PLC meeting presentation that pairs with the agenda.

  • About
  • The Early Learning Math Initiative, a grant funded project, is engaging teachers in professional development and coaching support spanning from PK- third grades. This support focuses on the development of learner-centered teaching practices affording all students the opportunity to grapple with and make sense of mathematics. Our aim is to refine and improve teacher practices that empower all students to engage with meaningful mathematics in school and beyond.
  • For inquiries contact Kim Bambao at kbambao@smcoe.org