By Renee McManus
Instructional Partner
At E. R. Dickson Elementary School in Mobile (AL) our faculty is developing what school improvement expert Jim Knight calls a “One Page Learning Target” for our school.
In an ABPC blog post last year, Cathy Gassenheimer and Alyson Carpenter explored the learning target process and goals in lots of detail. I’ll just say here that the one-page Instructional Target is a plan that all educators in the building agree represents the key ingredients for success in our particular school. It is what we determine is truly important to have the greatest impact on teaching and learning at E.R. Dickson.
We have a new principal this year, Katryna Lowery Ellis. As she joined our learning team, we felt that we should renew our commitment as a faculty to Jim Knight’s Partnership Principles before continuing on this journey together. Mrs. Ellis and I partnered with the Leadership Team to plan the long term “flexible” process of designing a One Page Target.
Our first meeting with the faculty was on October 25th. We shared several documents, including a PowerPoint (Unmistakable Impact) and our Partnership Principles activity. We focused on reflection and dialogue (as you can see in the PPT). Mrs. Ellis and I facilitated this learning together, and it was one of the most powerful educational experiences I have had.
Vertical team meetings
In early December, we met in vertical Professional Learning Teams to continue the development of our target. We used this activity, based on Jim Knight’s guide. What a productive time we had together!
I am now coming to realize that the PROCESS of working together as a faculty to create this Instructional Target is just as powerful as the One Page Target itself. We are learning so much about what we believe and value about teaching and learning as a group and as individuals – and we are having respectful dialogue and building trust along the way!
Our next steps will be to compile all of the charts generated by the vertical teams and then meet again to review, refine, and prioritize those things that MUST be on our “refrigerator door” (the place where things are posted that we want to always keep in front of us).
In this next step, the process will consist of dialogue about best practices as related to Knight’s Big Four and things that have the biggest impact on our school. We will also move into a discussion of how we will monitor the implementation of our One Page Target and what IMPACT we are truly having. This MUST be a meaningful document where we see results.
Here are just a few of the charts that we created in vertical teams. We had 6 teams and each team created a poster for Community Building, Content Planning, Instruction, and Formative Assessment.
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I hope this helps any school that might be working on their One Page Target or thinking about getting started with this concept. And let me add that our new principal, Mrs. Ellis, has been a tremendous “partner” in this journey and jumped in with both feet, ready to learn and to support us.
Renee McManus is the Instructional Partner at E. R. Dickson Elementary School in Mobile, Alabama. Her 20-year career includes time spent as a Classroom Teacher, Title I Facilitator, Writing Coach, Intervention Specialist, Technology Coordinator, and Reading Coach.
