Parts: Building the Machinery of a Learning Community

Note to the reader: This post is part of a series using the People, Parts, Interactions thinking routine from Harvard’s Project Zero.

Last week, I wrote about People as the heart of a learning community. This week, let's zoom in on the Parts. Looking at schools through a “parts” lens helps shift the conversation from “this is a great idea” to “this is actually manageable—and here’s how to do it.” Every school already has a lot of moving parts. The key is to make them visible, intentional, and shared.

Making the Parts Visible

In my own elementary learning communities, our teams identified the most prominent parts as: shared understanding, decision-making processes, agreements, student groupings, language, collaboration and trust, shared planning, meetings, timetables, communication with parents, and systems for recording data.

Once our teams identified these parts, we could create agreements—identifying what was negotiable and what wasn’t. That clarity moved us from “my classroom” to “our community”—in the same direction and at the same time.

Zooming in on a Few Parts

• Shared Understanding. Everything began with clarity, a kind of mini vision: we are an interconnected community. All of us serve as mentor teachers for all students. Everyone contributes, and everyone matters. With this foundation, the other parts fell into place.

• Language. “My students” became “our students.” Classrooms stopped belonging to individual teachers. We even dropped teacher names from the doors, shifting to neutral labels like the Green Room or 3🌴. The language shaped belonging. (I write more about this in the post The Language of Belonging in Learning Communities)

• Decision-Making. Not every decision came from leadership. When it came to the nuts and bolts of teaching and learning—who would lead math planning, which students would join which group—our whole team had a voice. That distributed decision-making increased ownership and buy-in.

• Timetables & Schedules. Administrators, this one is for you: timetables either make or break learning communities. At my last four schools, our teams were able to build communities because specialist schedules were synchronized so the whole grade level was “in” or “out” together. This gave us long stretches of time to plan, strategize, and reflect without students. We literally posted and laminated our community timetable in the hallway for all to see. Flexibility was built in—with sticky notes and erasable markers—but visibility was key.

• Shared Planning. In silos, teachers plan alone. In our community, planning was divided by strengths, interests, or areas of desired growth. Two teachers prepped math. Three teachers co-designed an integrated unit for literacy and social studies. Everyone came to our Friday meeting with resources ready—so weekends were ours again.

During a teacher PD day, we sketched out the 12 weeks of school. This setup looks much the same way as it would during our Monday "projection" meeting.

Why the Parts Matter

No single part makes a learning community function. But when the parts are visible, intentional, and shared, the whole system hums. Teachers collaborate more, students feel a stronger sense of belonging, and parents see a unified team working with their child.

An Invitation

This isn’t about perfection. It’s about making the parts visible and flexible, then adjusting together over time. As you think about your own school or team, ask:

• What are the moving parts in our grade level?

• How can we tweak one part so we operate more as a community and less like a silo?

• Which parts are negotiable? Which ones aren’t?

Exploring those questions will help shift your team from “me” to “we”—and that’s when the real magic begins.

If your school is ready to move beyond talk and take meaningful steps toward becoming a true learning community, I’m here to support you.