The Playbook

Moving From PLC Lite to PLC Right

The purpose of PLTs at EMS is not to hold meetings, share activities, or plan the next lesson. It is to ensure high levels of learning for all students through a continuous cycle of teacher learning, student evidence, team action, and reflection.

A PLT is successful when teachers can clearly answer four questions

These four questions should guide every PLT meeting, every assessment conversation, and every intervention and extension decision.

1 What do we want students to learn?
2 How will we know if they have learned it?
3 How will we respond when they don’t learn it?
4 How will we extend the learning for students who are already proficient?

Build Team Clarity

Agree on how the team will work together before diving into student learning.

Before a team can focus deeply on student learning, members need shared expectations.

Goal

Agree on how the team will work together.

Team Actions

Name your PLT members.
Identify your course/content focus.
Agree on meeting norms.
Decide how decisions will be made.
Decide where documents will be stored.
Identify who facilitates, records notes, and tracks action items.

Why This Matters

PLC culture does not happen because people are nice to each other. It happens because teams develop collective responsibility for student learning. Clear norms protect the work from becoming a complaint session, calendar review, or activity-sharing meeting.

EMS Reproducible 1: Team Commitments

Team Name: ______________________________ Course/Grade: ______________________________ Members: ______________________________ Meeting Day/Time: ______________________________

Our team agrees to:

Focus on student learning, not adult preference.
Bring evidence of student learning to the table.
Use common assessments and common expectations.
Be honest about what is and is not working.
Share instructional strategies openly.
Leave each meeting with clear next steps.
Hold ourselves collectively responsible for student growth.

Role	Team Member
Facilitator
Recorder
Timekeeper
Data Lead

Identify Essential Standards

Identify the standards students must know and be able to do — what the team commits to guaranteeing for every student.

PLC Question 1: What do we want students to learn?

Teams cannot guarantee learning if they are unclear about what learning is essential. Essential standards are not the only things taught, but they are the learning outcomes the team commits to guaranteeing for every student.

Goal

Identify the standards students must know and be able to do.

Team Actions

For each unit:

Review state standards, district expectations, curriculum, and assessment data.
Identify priority/essential standards.
Unwrap each essential standard into student-friendly learning targets.
Clarify vocabulary, skills, concepts, and expected level of rigor.
Agree on what proficiency looks like.

Why This Matters

Without essential standards, teams often move through curriculum instead of ensuring learning. Clear essential standards allow teams to design better instruction, common assessments, interventions, and extensions.

EMS Reproducible 2: Essential Standards Organizer

Unit/Topic: ______________________________ Timeframe: ______________________________

Essential Standard	What Students Must Know	What Students Must Be Able to Do	Academic Vocabulary	Proficiency Looks Like

Team Discussion Questions

Is this standard essential for future learning?
Is it assessed on district/state assessments?
Does it have endurance beyond this unit?
Does it help students succeed in the next grade/course?
What would a proficient student be able to say, write, create, solve, or explain?

Create Learning Targets

Break essential standards into teachable and assessable learning targets.

A standard is often too large to teach or assess in one step. Learning targets help teams clarify the path to proficiency.

Goal

Break essential standards into teachable and assessable learning targets.

Team Actions

For each essential standard:

Break the standard into smaller learning targets.
Write targets in student-friendly language.
Sequence targets from foundational to complex.
Decide which targets need direct instruction, practice, assessment, intervention, and extension.

Why This Matters

Learning targets make the work visible. They help teachers know what to teach, students know what they are learning, and teams know what evidence to collect.

EMS Reproducible 3: Learning Target Breakdown

Essential Standard: ______________________________

Learning Target	Type (Knowledge / Reasoning / Skill / Product)	Student-Friendly “I Can” Statement	How We Will Teach It	How We Will Check It
		I can…
		I can…
		I can…

Design Common Formative Assessments

Create common assessments aligned to essential standards and learning targets — a shared tool, not just a quiz everyone gives.

PLC Question 2: How will we know if students learned it?

A common formative assessment is not just a quiz everyone gives. It is a shared tool used by the team to gather evidence, compare results, learn from one another, and respond to student needs.

Goal

Create common assessments aligned to essential standards and learning targets.

Team Actions

Choose which essential standard/targets will be assessed.
Agree on item types and rigor.
Create or select common assessment items.
Create a scoring guide or rubric.
Decide when the assessment will be given.
Decide how data will be brought back to the team.

Why This Matters

Common assessments help teams stop guessing. They allow teachers to identify which students learned, which students need support, which strategies worked, and what the team needs to do next.

EMS Reproducible 4: Common Formative Assessment Planner

Assessment Name: ______________________________ Essential Standard(s): ______________________________ Learning Target(s): ______________________________ Assessment Date: ____________ Data Review Date: ____________

Question / Task	Learning Target Assessed	DOK / Rigor Level	Correct / Proficient Response	Notes

Before Giving the Assessment, Confirm:

The assessment matches the essential standard.
The team agrees on proficiency.
The team knows how results will be recorded.
The team has scheduled time to analyze results.
The assessment will lead to action, not just a grade.

Analyze Student Learning Evidence

Use data to determine student needs and teacher next steps — this is where PLC Right separates from PLC Lite.

Data analysis is not about ranking teachers. It is about learning from results so the team can improve student learning.

Goal

Use data to determine student needs and teacher next steps.

Team Actions

After the common assessment:

Bring student results by learning target.
Identify students who are proficient.
Identify students who need additional time/support.
Identify students ready for extension.
Compare instructional strategies.
Determine what worked and what needs to change.
Plan the response.

EMS Reproducible 5: Student Learning Evidence Protocol

Assessment: ______________________________ Date Reviewed: ____________ Essential Standard: ______________________________

Learning Target	Students Proficient	Students Not Yet Proficient	Students Ready for Extension	Notes / Patterns

Team Reflection Questions

Which learning targets had the strongest results?
Which learning targets had the weakest results?
Which students need additional support?
Which students need extension?
Which teacher had strong results on this target?
What instructional strategy may have contributed to stronger results?
What will we do differently next time?

Why This Matters

This is where PLC Right separates from PLC Lite. PLC Lite stops at discussing results. PLC Right uses results to change instruction, provide support, extend learning, and improve teacher practice.

Plan Intervention

Create a timely, targeted, and directive response for students who have not yet learned it.

PLC Question 3: What will we do when students have not learned it?

Intervention should not mean “students can come if they want help.” Intervention should be based on evidence and connected to specific learning targets.

Goal

Create a timely, targeted, and directive response.

Team Actions

Identify the exact learning target students missed.
Group students by need.
Decide the intervention strategy.
Decide who will provide support.
Decide when support will happen.
Decide how students will be reassessed.
Track whether the intervention worked.

EMS Reproducible 6: Intervention Planning Tool

Essential Standard: ______________________________ Learning Target Needing Support: ______________________________

Student Name	Specific Need	Intervention Strategy	Who Will Support?	When?	Reassessment Evidence	Result

Intervention Must Be:

Timely
Targeted
Based on evidence
Connected to an essential standard
Followed by reassessment
Monitored by the team

Why This Matters

If students do not learn, the team must have a planned response. Without a systematic response, learning depends on which teacher a student has, whether a parent can help, or whether the student chooses to seek support.

Plan Extension

Extend learning for students who are already proficient — extension is not more work, it is deeper work.

PLC Question 4: What will we do when students already know it?

Extension is not more work. It is deeper work.

Goal

Extend learning for students who are already proficient.

Team Actions

Identify students who are already proficient.
Decide how students will deepen or apply their learning.
Create tasks requiring reasoning, application, transfer, or creativity.
Avoid using extension students as peer tutors as the primary plan.
Monitor whether the extension actually increases learning.

EMS Reproducible 7: Extension Planning Tool

Essential Standard: ______________________________ Students Ready for Extension: ______________________________

Student Name / Group	Evidence of Proficiency	Extension Task	Depth / Application Required	Product / Evidence

Why This Matters

A learning-focused culture serves all students. If teams only respond to students who struggle, proficient students may spend too much time waiting, repeating, or completing extra work that does not deepen learning.

Reflect on Teacher Practice

Use student results to improve adult practice — the PLC process is about teacher learning, not just student intervention.

The PLC process is not only about student intervention. It is also about teacher learning. Teams should ask, “What did we learn from this cycle that will make us better?”

Goal

Use student results to improve adult practice.

Team Actions

Identify instructional practices that led to stronger results.
Share specific strategies, examples, and materials.
Decide what the team will replicate.
Decide what the team will revise.
Record team learning for future units.

EMS Reproducible 8: Teacher Learning Reflection

Assessment / Unit: ______________________________ Date: ____________

What Worked?	Evidence	Who Can Share the Strategy?	What Will We Try Next?

Reflection Questions

What did students learn well?
What did students struggle with?
What did we do instructionally that made a difference?
What do we need to reteach differently?
What should we keep, revise, or stop doing?
What did we learn as teachers?

Why This Matters

The goal is continuous improvement, not compliance. A strong PLC culture grows when teachers learn from one another and use evidence to improve practice.

Complete the Learning Cycle

Move through the full cycle repeatedly — each meeting connects to the larger cycle, not a separate event.

A PLT should not treat each meeting as a separate event. Each meeting should connect to the larger cycle.

Goal

Move through the full cycle repeatedly.

The EMS PLT Cycle Summary

Identify essential standards.
Break standards into learning targets.
Plan instruction.
Create common formative assessment.
Teach.
Assess.
Analyze evidence.
Intervene and extend.
Reassess.
Reflect on teacher practice.
Adjust instruction.
Begin the next cycle.

Why This Matters

Culture changes when teams pause to recognize what they learned and how their practice changed. This is what makes PLC a continuous improvement process rather than a meeting structure — the work continues in cycles, and each cycle makes the team stronger.

A final reminder for teams

PLC is not a meeting. PLC is not a binder. PLC is not a form. PLC is not one more thing.

PLC is how we work together to ensure students learn, how we respond when they do not, how we extend when they already have, and how we grow as educators through evidence, action, and reflection.

See the 18-meeting plan → Browse the reproducibles