Topics: Professional Development Featured Implementation Support

The Impact of High-Quality Professional Learning

Great Minds

by Great Minds

March 21, 2023
The Impact of High-Quality Professional Learning

every child is capable of greatness.

Posted in: Aha! Blog > Wit & Wisdom Blog > Professional Development Implementation Support > The Impact of High-Quality Professional Learning

When working with high-quality instructional materials such as Wit & Wisdom®, teachers need professional learning to successfully implement the curriculum. Professional learning helps educators develop the necessary knowledge and skills to improve students’ learning. Wit & Wisdom provides professional development (PD) sessions and coaching to support educators throughout their implementation journeys. In this post, three Great Minds® team members share why engaging in high-quality professional learning offers crucial support for successful Wit & Wisdom implementation.

Helping Teachers Uncover the What, Why, and How

Mary Williams, PD Fellow

Mary Williams HeadshotDuring my training as a Wit & Wisdom PD Fellow, I learned how to facilitate Wit & Wisdom PD sessions. I quickly noticed how these sessions build participants’ knowledge of Wit & Wisdom’s research basis and design. This knowledge prepares educators to use Wit & Wisdom materials effectively and empowers them to stick with the process when they encounter challenges.

I witnessed the success of this approach firsthand when I facilitated Module and Lesson Study for my colleagues. As I observed classroom instruction before the session, I noticed that teachers reduced the lessons’ rigor by skipping student discussion opportunities or by modeling tasks for the whole group. In short, teachers were performing the heavy lifting in the lessons. While teachers had good intentions—not wanting students to become frustrated or lose confidence—students missed the opportunity for productive struggle during the lessons.  

When teachers attended Module and Lesson Study, they built foundational knowledge about productive struggle by

  • developing a shared understanding of productive struggle,
  • reflecting on productive and unproductive learning experiences,
  • considering teacher moves that foster productive struggle,
  • reading research about the benefits of productive struggle, and  
  • using the Lesson Preparation Protocol to plan for productive struggle.

These activities helped teachers learn the what, why, and how of productive struggle. In lesson preparation and delivery, teachers immediately applied their new understanding of productive struggle and the curriculum. Now, I regularly observe teachers challenging students with rigorous tasks and appropriate supports.

Creating a Community of Trusted Colleagues

Neil Nicholson, Wit & Wisdom Leaders Program Facilitator

Neil Nicholson HeadshotWit & Wisdom educators come to our PD sessions with abundant knowledge and experience, so engaging them as trusted colleagues sets the stage for ongoing collaboration and improvement. I think of a trusted colleague as someone with whom I can openly exchange ideas. As a facilitator, I create the conditions that foster trust between myself and the participants and among the participants themselves.  

Because Wit & Wisdom PD sessions are unscripted, we as Great Minds facilitators must use our skills and experiences to create the trust that leads to transformative learning. First, we establish and uphold our norms during each session. One norm we use reminds the group to “value all voices, experiences, and questions.” When I lead a session, this norm reminds me to work with participants rather than deliver to them. Every participant—regardless of how long they have been teaching or using Wit & Wisdom—is encouraged to share, reflect, and ask questions in each session.

Next, because we value our partners’ voices and experiences, we ensure that we respond to participants’ needs. Building strong relationships with our school and district partners helps us better understand their needs. In sessions, we make time to get to know participants and the most resonant aspects of the content for them. In my work with the Wit & Wisdom Leaders Program, I attend ongoing one-on-one meetings with Leaders to better understand their successes and challenges. These meetings allow me to emphasize the most impactful content in their work with students.

Finally, we invite participants’ expert voices into the conversation. Often, insightful ideas abound regarding how to approach an implementation challenge. In a recent Geodes® session, a district leader asked about shifting away from leveled texts. Because the group had established a rapport based on collaborative problem solving, the district leader solicited advice from the other session participants rather than asking only the facilitator. From their own experiences, the group generated ideas for how to best incorporate Geodes in the leader’s district.  

We know implementation is a process—we’ve been there! Every Wit & Wisdom PD facilitator has used the curriculum. Our team draws on their field experience to provide support for teachers and leaders at all implementation stages. We love creating trusting communities of learners dedicated to students’ success with Wit & Wisdom. The relationships formed during professional learning support successful implementation.

Addressing Context and Building Capacity

Laura Sharp Minicucci, Implementation Leader

Laura Sharp Minicucci HeadshotI work with schools and districts that have unique strengths and needs based on their size, experiences, and contexts. Fortunately, Wit & Wisdom implementation support seeks to understand our partners’ goals. This year, I have worked with Schenectady, New York, during their first year of implementation. Schenectady’s leaders committed to developing coaching capacity, even in several schools that lack site-based coaches.

I’ve been amazed while working with Schenectady on a Guided Observations for Leaders (GOL) series. This offering builds upon the information from our foundational professional development sessions, including Lead Wit & Wisdom, Launch Wit & Wisdom, and Module and Lesson Study. For example, in Launch Wit & Wisdom, participants learn about curriculum components such as the Content Stages. In Schenectady’s GOL, we collaboratively deepened our understanding of the Content Stages and their instructional implications. We planned accordingly to improve implementation.

"Research shows that program implementation supported by substantial professional development is much more successful than just buying a program. You need to make sure that you’ve built the capacity for success and not just expected magic to happen."

—Dr. Timothy Shanahan,
Shanahan on Literacy

Using the Teaching and Learning Progression—a tool that describes the progression of Wit & Wisdom implementation—the GOL participants observed instruction and reflected on what they noticed. The group’s coaches and leaders noted that, in some observations, teachers skipped lessons’ Launch sections, which establish a lesson’s purpose. The team knew that communicating the purpose for each lesson drives inquiry and sets the stage for deeper learning, so they agreed to support teachers with this skill. One GOL participant realized that the Content Stages offer deep insight into each lesson’s learning. Although they knew the Content Stages, the GOL work helped them better understand the connection between the Content Stages and each lesson’s purpose. All participants were able to use their new understanding to support their colleagues with implementation.

High-quality professional learning cannot be one-size-fits-all, which is why I love working with partners across the country to plan strategically, to observe Wit & Wisdom in action, and to coach for implementation success.

Learn More about High-Quality Professional Learning

Often, successfully implementing a high-quality curriculum results from investing in high-quality, curriculum-aligned professional learning. Check out these resources to learn more from leading professional learning experts:

Listen and Read

Loftus, Melissa, and Lori Sappington, hosts. “What are THE ELEMENTS needed to transform teaching and professional learning?Melissa & Lori Love Literacy, episode 56. 

“Standards for Professional Learning,” Learning Forward, 2022. https://standards.learningforward.org/standards-for-professional-learning/

Inquire about Great Minds Professional Learning

Inquire about bringing Wit & Wisdom and Geodes professional learning offerings to your school or district.

Contributor Bios

Dr. Mary Williams is the literacy coach in Orangeburg County School District, South Carolina, and a Wit & Wisdom Fellow. She is a 20-year veteran teacher and has taught kindergarten through Grade 3 as well as students identified as academically gifted and talented. In addition to the many hats she wears in her school district, Dr. Williams is the proud mother of two beautiful adult children and the grandmother of one little person whom she adores.

Neil Nicholson is an implementation leader for Great Minds and specifically supports educators in the Wit & Wisdom Leaders Program. Neil always wanted to be a teacher, and after earning her undergrad and master's degrees at Georgia State University, she was a classroom teacher and Reading interventionist for 10 years. She now continues her work to help every student shine their brightest through empowering and coaching leaders along their implementation journey with Wit & Wisdom.

Laura Sharp Minicucci currently serves as an Implementation Leader for Great Minds. Prior to joining the Great Minds team in 2021, Laura worked as a second-grade teacher, teacher educator, and literacy coach in Baltimore City Public Schools. In her spare time, you will find Laura listening to her favorite podcasts and hiking with her dog, camera in hand. 

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Topics: Professional Development Featured Implementation Support