Penn Literacy Network (PLN)

Our instructional, district-wide philosophy comes out of the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Literacy Network (PLN).  In a PLN classroom, students co-construct meaning with their peers to make sense of new information and to reflect on their own learning.  Within this framework, teachers plan lessons to tap into what’s known as the Four Lenses of Learning, described below. All teachers have received this training, including our new teachers each year, which is now facilitated by our very own veteran teachers.  

Students as active learners- that’s the theme. 

If the teacher is doing all of the work, he/she is working too hard.

Social Lens:  We learn through social interaction.  Whose voices are heard in the classroom?  Student voice, not teacher voice, fills the walls within a PLN classroom.  Do students have the opportunity to share their work with their peers and refine their thinking?

Human Lens:  Do the students feel safe to take learning risks?  Do students feel successful? Do students have an opportunity to respond (write, create a project, etc.) in a way that will be unique to them?

Language-Based Lens:  Are students reading, writing, speaking, and listening throughout the class?  Are reading, writing, speaking, and listening inter-related? The more students are writing and speaking for their own purposes, the more they will develop their own thinking, connect the subject to their own lives, and remember and apply what they have learned.

Meaning-Centered Lens:  How are students actively making sense of the information?  Are they able to connect the topic at hand to their own lives?