1 Evidence Based Observation Lead Evaluator Training Part 2 – Session 1 November 14 th, 2012 Welcome!

 Practice collecting evidence of “engaged learners.”  Examine an observation that you have completed, looking at your evidence. Screen for bias/opinion. Is it factual? Is it quantified?  Identify the presence or absence of “engaged learners” in your current observation tool.

1. What would be evidence of “engaged learning?” 2. What are the attributes of engaged learning? 3. How many students should be engaged? 4. What is the “continuum of engagement?”

1. I want to incorporate what I have learned about engagement into my observations. 2. Encourage teachers to refocus on engaging all learners. 3. Conduct walkthroughs looking for engaged students. 4. Help teachers design lessons to maximize student engagement. 5. Be more consistent with the identification of engaged learning. 6. Remind staff of the importance of engaged learning and what I should see and hear if students are engaged in their learning. 7. I will try to ‘quantify’ student engagement. 8. Teachers need work with student engagement…..

 Explain the difference between current practice and evidence based observation  Identify and define criteria for effective instruction around which evidence collection will be focused  Describe strategies that a district could employ to increase the quality of evaluations and the agreement of evaluators.

Continuum of Engagement TEACHER ONLY SIMULTANEOUS ACTIVE PARTICIPATION OPTIONAL STUDENT PARTICIPATION OCCASIONAL TEACHER DIRECTED PARTICIPATION

You will share your work and help each other be more correct. Make every effort to: 1.Script or type facts. – Quotes from teacher and students for balance. Make every effort NOT to paraphrase. 2.Quantify where possible – time of lesson, #’s of participants…

4 th grade Science Lesson Students will be able to:  identify the components of a series circuit connection  compare the components of a series circuit with the components of a circuit connection

Evidence Collected: T “Last week, can you tell me what you were building?” “What did we build with a bulb? What did we call it when we had some components?” S “a circuit.” T “What were the components in a circuit that you built?” “Eric?”

Evidence Collected: T “What do you think these poles represent?” Ss “North and South”. T “Here’s the challenge for today, can you get two bulbs to light at the same time?” All students took out a graphic organizer. Students were seated in quads. The “getters” collected materials for each group. All students were building circuits to test their predictions.

 What does your piece of a particular rubric say about “teaching to an outcome?”  Be ready to share.

 Orange: Danielson (2011 Revised Edition)  Tan: Marshall’s Teacher Evaluation Rubric  Blue: NYSTCE Framework for the Observation of Effective Teaching (Pearson)  White: NYSUT’s Teacher Practice Rubric

 The objective of the lesson is clear to the students (Shift from “What do I want them to do today?” to “What do I want them to learn today?”)  All classroom activities are aligned with the objective

Time is used efficiently to get to the learning objective

What? Objectives state what students are expected to learn in that lesson. Objectives begin with VERBS that identify the level of thinking required in the lesson.

Why? Instructional objectives narrow what students focus on in the lesson and help the teacher keep activities, questions and responses to student’s aligned.

 Identify and explain the function of each of the organelles in an animal cell.  Use order of operations to solve these two problems.  Describe strategies that a district could employ to increase the quality of evaluations and the agreement of evaluators

Outcomes: Students will be able to:  Calculate unit price by dividing the price of the product by the number of units  Compare unit prices to determine the “best deal”  Explain the mathematical thinking behind what makes it the “best deal”

“What is the unit price?” was posted on the interactive white board. T “Today we are going to learn about unit price. What is unit price?” T “Unit price is how much it costs for each unit.” “How do you find unit price?” was displayed on the white board.

T “Make sure your decimals are in the right place.” The teacher held up two boxes of cereal—different size boxes. T “You aren’t looking for the better deal, you are looking for the better price.” One student worked on the white board solving 420 divided by 5.

 Quotations from the teacher  Examples/models  Descriptions of activities in which the students are engaged  Student quotes

SWBAT identify how a writer narrows their focus while writing

Defend WHY you called this evidence of TTO: T “Today I want to talk to you about what writers do to narrow their focus.” T used a visual of a pizza/pizza slices to illustrate “narrowing the focus”. T “Did I stick to my focus? Is it about my grandmother’s swing and being on that swing—that special time with her?” T “In a few minutes I’m going to ask you to talk to each other and decide if your story is narrowed or if you need to do some more narrowing.” All students “buddy shared.”

What did you collect? Defend WHY you called this evidence of TTO: The teacher stated to the class, “Narrowing the focus helps us as writers.” She added “narrowing the focus” to the “How Writers Revise” chart posted in the front of the room.

 Examine an observation that you have completed, looking at your evidence. Screen for bias/opinion. Is it factual? Is it quantified?  Look for evidence of “teaching to an outcome” as you observe teaching.

Thank You! See you November 19 th *Submitting Evidence* Feel free to bring computers/electronics

Evidence Based Observation Lead Evaluator Training November 19th, 2012 Part 2 – Welcome Back!

1. Practice collecting evidence of “teaching to an outcome”. Describe what has changed for you as an observer as a result of this workshop. 2. Examine an observation that you have completed, looking for evidence and bias/opinion. Describe what you notice about the types of evidence you are collecting.

1. The objective of the lesson is clear to the students. *** 2. The outcome is clearly stated. ** The kids know the outcome. *** 3. Listen for the “direct words” from the teacher. 4. Activities are aligned to the objective. ** 5. Post, review, state outcome 6. Verbs 7. Describe the learning. What do you want students to know? 8. Continually bring kids back to the purpose of the lesson.

 Practice observing specifically to see if the teacher sets a clear outcome and focuses on it throughout the lesson.***  Collect evidence to discuss “teach to an outcome” with the teacher. (Did the activities directly relate to the “target”?)  Emphasize the importance of the teacher stating the outcomes.  Helping teachers understand how important it is for students to see the purpose of what they are doing.  Can the teachers communicate outcome to me and to the students?  Have teachers provide an outcome at pre-conference  Not be judgemental!

 Identify the key attributes of “effective questioning”  Collect evidence of “effective questioning”  Describe multiple ways for collecting evidence of “effective questioning  Classify evidence of “questions” as  Check for understanding  Effective questions  Objectives  Classroom management/procedural

What does it look like and sound like when a teacher uses effective questioning strategies?

Rubric Language (“Proficient”): NYSUT: Most of teacher’s questions are open in nature and engage students in deeper thinking and further discussion. Teacher responds to students’ questions/comments. Responses challenge student thinking Danielson: While the teacher may use some low-level questions, he/she poses questions to promote student thinking and understanding. Teacher creates a genuine discussion among students, providing adequate time for students to respond, and stepping aside when appropriate. Teacher successfully engages most students in the discussion, employing a range of strategies to ensure that most students are heard. Critical Attributes: Open ended questions Effective use of wait time Marshall Has students actively think about, discuss, and use the ideas and skills being taught. Pearson 1. Uses questioning practices to keep all students engaged 2. Uses questioning to promote different types and levels of thinking 3.Uses wait time appropriate to goals of questions and types of questions asked 4. Uses a continuum of questioning and cueing techniques to lead students to correct responses 5.Uses follow-up questions to prompt students to explain thinking and extend knowledge. 6. Perseveres and returns to students who give partial answers to state the full answer in correct academic language 7. Prompts students to interact with and react to one another during the lesson. 8. Engages students in interactive talk that prompts them to explain their thinking and comment on other students’ thinking 9. Uses Student’s comments, questions and ideas to advance learning for the class

Criteria for Effective Questioning  Congruent (relevant) to the learning  Invitation for ALL students to think  A range of questions are used to extend thinking from a base of knowledge to higher order thinking that is more critical and creative

Continuum of Questioning High Consensus Yes/No - Fact Low Consensus Closed Open

Lesson Goal: “Have them (the students) have a conceptual idea about division of fractions.” -Bonnie Bushaw

“How can I get 1/3 of a muffin? Oh-I saw someone draw a picture. That’ll work. Take a minute to do what you need to do to figure this out.” “Ok. Who can tell me how many muffins with a third muffin serving? What do we have for a 1/3 muffin serving?” S “72” T “Can you prove it?” S “Yes because if you get 1/3 of a muffin, that’s 3 out of one muffin. 24 X 3 is 72.”

T “Figure out my 24 muffins and divide them into ¼ muffin servings.” S “You just add 24 to 72 and get 96.” T “She added 24 to 72, the last answer, is that ok?”

 What kinds of questions are used for check for understanding?  What kinds of questions are used for effective questions (that lead to the outcome)?  What kinds of questions are used for classroom management/procedural?

“When I heard the city was considering pulling out the sewer line, I thought wouldn’t it be fun to build a model of that and have the kids understand erosion and deposition, but also how it might affect themselves as well as the community.”

What are we going to do today? What’s our goal today? (Effective questions leading to the outcome) Why is this important to our community? Why is it important that we are taking time to study our creek? Why have I asked you to make models of this? And why is it important to point out where the erosion and deposition is occurring? (Effective questions leading to the outcome)

Are you talking to each other? (Management/Procedural) If it were to expand around the corner, what might it effect? What’s around that area? S: Houses Also a what? S: A road S: and domesticated animals (Check for Understanding)

Your Mission:  Collect 4-5 pieces of evidence FOR EACH EFFECTIVE TEACHING CATEGORY.  You will be labeling the evidence as “Check for Understanding,” “Student Engagement,” “Teach to an Outcome” and/or “Effective Questioning.”  Keep in mind that “good evidence” is often quotations or numerical facts having to do with the students or the teacher.

 Evidence is observable (overt)  Evidence is of ALL students  Evidence is congruent to the objective

All students are visibly participating in activities/learning that is relevant to the objective.

 The objective of the lesson is clear to the students (Shift from “What do I want them to do today?” to “What do I want them to learn today?”)  All classroom activities are aligned with the objective

 Congruent (relevant) to the learning  Invitation for ALL students to think  A range of questions are used to extend thinking from a base of knowledge to higher order thinking that is more critical and creative

 T “During today’s lesson, you will identify coins and their values. You will practice calculating the sums of the coins.”(Teaching to an outcome)  T “When would you need to add coins?” (Effective Questioning)  T displayed clusters of coins on the interactive white board. All students wrote the sums of the coins on their individual white boards and showed their work to the teacher when she said, “Show!” (Student Engagement/Checking for Understanding)

 your 4-5 pieces of evidence (labeled) for each area of effective teaching we have focused on to and by December 5

Thank You! I look forward to continuing to work with you and your teaching staff.