This document discusses the Hesperia Unified School District's process of developing Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) to create Common Core State Standards-aligned curriculum units. It acknowledges problems with the previous system and the need for teachers to collaborate. The district established regular collaboration time, formed a transition team, and provided training. Guiding principles focused on student learning and the 4Cs. Units of study are developed collaboratively around essential questions and include common assessments. The process aims to emphasize a balanced, student-centered approach through PLCs to better implement the CCSS.

1. Grappling with the
CCSS:
Developing PLC
Units of Study
Hesperia Unified School District
David F. Cain, Secondary Curriculum Coach david.cain@hesperiausd.org
Robert McCollum, Director of Curriculum, Instruction, & Assessment
Jodi Consten, Coordinator, Staff Development and Induction

4. The need of teachers
“[Common Core] implementation must include
time for teachers to adjust and collaborate with
colleagues”
NEA President, Dennis Van Roekel, October 2012
“It was the best collaboration time we have had.
When we were done we realized that we had six
weeks worth of lesson plans.”
Teacher, Mesa Grande Elementary School, HUSD

5. Acknowledging the truth
• We had a problem
− The old system of benchmark tests, pacing plans, etc., was not
meeting the learning needs of students.
− Students were falling by the wayside as the machine trudged on.
− Our highest elementary schools, four between 864 and 904, were
matriculating students who, as a cohort, went on to have the
greatest decrease in CST performance.
− Our old resources and the new “Common Core Aligned”
resources did not attend to the necessary shifts in instruction and
developing depth of knowledge.
− Teachers were feeling besieged by the looming CCSS transition.
− If we implemented the CCSS using the same practices and
systems that we used with our old standards, we would be
repeating past failures and failing to meet the needs of students.

6. Putting a plan into motion

7. Putting a plan into motion
• Actively engaged with the CCSS, beginning in 2010 and
developed an implementation plan
• Established collaboration Wednesdays across the district
• Develop a CCSS Transition Team of teachers, district
coaches, and district administrators
• Utilized our established Calibration Committee (grade and
subject representatives from all schools in district)
• Initial CCSS site and parent presentations in 2012
• CART (Site presentations and products—two-hours, five
times this year)

8. Pitfalls in the Process of Transition
Cross-walking is Jaywalking
—Phil Daro
Standards are not just lists
Standards are not the curriculum
Don’t look backward: Tabula Rasa
The most significant change is
how we teach

10. Our Target

11. A Common Destination

12. Our Primary Purpose
• Hesperia Unified School District Mission:
− Preparing todays students for tomorrow’s world
• Validating the professionalism of our teachers
− We are our own best resource
• Focusing on Results
− A deliberate process…
− A deliberate result…

13. Guiding Principles
• Focus on Student Learning that has impact
− Educating the whole child
− 4 Cs—Critical Thinking, Creativity, Collaboration,
and Communication

14. Shifts
Language Arts
Math
• Building knowledge through
content-rich nonfiction and
informational texts
• Focus strongly where the
Standards focus
• Knowledge and depth across the
disciplines—every teacher is a
reading and writing teacher
• Reading and writing grounded in
evidence from text
• Regular practice with complex text
and its academic vocabulary
• Writing from sources
• Coherence: think across grades,
and link to major topics within
grades
• Rigor: in major topics pursue:
− conceptual understanding,
− procedural skill and fluency,
and
− application
*with equal intensity
Balance both breadth and depth in all areas

15. CCSS as opportunity to emphasize balance

16. Our Epiphany
• CCSS and PLCs—made for each other
• Shaping our focus
− What do we want students to learn and be able to do?
− How will we know it?
− What will we do if they don’t learn it?
− What will we do if they already know it or learn it quickly?

17. Collaborative Units of Study
Collaborative Units of Study

19. Units of Study, PLC, and technology collide

20. Learning by Doing: Starting with big ideas
and essential questions

21. Collaborative decisions about
proficiency and assessment

22. Developing quality assessments

23. Anticipating challenges

25. Questions
& Comments
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zy04PRRZrtWGpuQe4s0V
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