INSTRUCTIONAL ROUNDS Clemens Educational Consulting Chambersburg, PA October 2011 "Although social change cannot come overnight, we must always work as though it were a possibility in the morning." -Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

State three ways you could describe the level and type of learning in your school system without using test scores?

What it is and isn’t... ∅ “Walkthroughs” or “drive-bys  Rounds is descriptive, analytic, inferential ∅ A teacher evaluation tool ∅ NO assessment of individual teachers  Separate the person from the practice; focus on the practice ∅ An implementation check  Rounds focuses on patterns of practice and predicted results, not compliance with directives ∅ Training for supervision  Rounds focuses on collective learning rather than individual supervisory practice—mirror, not window ∅ A “program” or a “project”; an add-on, another initiative among many  Rounds is a practice, designed to support an existing improvement strategy at the school or system level  The way we do the work

4 Walkthroughs Improvement plan Network

Where does your evidence fit? From Learning Walkthrough Guide, Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

Observation Protocols  We will spend only minutes in each classroom  We will enter the classroom in pairs or triads and move to a designated area of the room (maybe to seating which classroom teacher has provided)  We will have note paper and pen for taking notes during the observation (no mobile phones will be permitted)  We will not formally acknowledge the teacher or class on entering the classroom or leaving and will not talk to other members of the observation group during the observation  We may walk around the room at an appropriate time to talk with students about their learning  When moving between rooms we will refrain from any discussion

Basic Norms  Use the descriptive voice  Separate the person from the practice  Honor our differences and accept where people are at  Reward openness  Focus on building the next level of work, not judging the current level of work  Everyone can improve

Building Responsibility  Be available from 8:30-9:00 and 12:30-2:30 on the day of the IR Team Visit  Prep Building for IR Team Visit  IR Team on the Day of the Visit  Review SIP Plan  Prepare a room visit list  Sit in on debriefing  Discuss next steps and how to share with school staff

Common Problems of Practice  Are students able to articulate their thinking in writing?  Are students able to transfer learning from one content area or grade level to another?  Are students active or passive participants in class?  Do teachers do most of the talking and thinking in the classroom?  Do teachers enact a high-level curriculum in a low level way?

Common Problems of Practice  How do teachers know what students know?  How do students know the quality of their work?  What role do students play in assessment?  How do students talk with one another about classwork?  What does learning look like for special education, ELL, boys, or girls?

Objectives  Leave with a clear idea of what rounds is and isn’t  Be able to observe using descriptive evidence  Be familiar with the rounds practice  Make connections to your own work

Agenda  Warm-up, review objectives and agenda  What is Instructional Rounds? Why do rounds?  Task  How do we do rounds? Rounds simulation  Preparing for rounds: Description, Problem of Practice  Observation, Debrief  Analysis, Prediction, Next Level of Work  So what? Making connections between rounds and your work  Wrap up

What is rounds? Why do rounds?

Why do rounds?  A question you have to answer for yourself... My brief answer... EKG...  Equity—To ensure that ALL children have access to powerful learning no matter which classroom they’re in  Knowledge—To understand what kind of learning is happening in your system  Group capacity—To build a shared language and understanding of powerful learning and teaching

What do you see? It is not pictionary!!!!  Practice being descriptive  What made it difficult?  What could have made it better?

The Instructional Core Principle #1: Increases in student learning occur only as a consequence of improvements in the level of content, teachers’ knowledge and skill, and student engagement. Principle #2: If you change one element of the instructional core, you have to change the other two. Principle #3: If you can’t see it in the core, it’s not there. Principle #4: Task predicts performance. Principle #5: The real accountability system is in the tasks that students are asked to do. Principle #6: We learn to do the work by doing the work. Principle #7: Description before analysis, analysis before prediction, prediction before evaluation. TEACHER STUDENT CONTENT TASK

Activity  Think about a recent change in your area of responsibility  Was the change related to Content, Students or Teachers?  What changes occurred in the other two areas (planned or not planned)  What could you have done differently to assure a successful change

Description Problem of practice Preparing for rounds

Observation of Practice Collect data that is:  Descriptive not evaluative- just the facts!  Specific  About instructional core  Related to SIP

Developing the Discipline of Seeing  Seeing is a discipline  It’s like a muscle—it gets stronger with repetition  Foundation of our practice (see Instructional Rounds, Chapter 4) 20

Description with Judgment “The teacher read from a book that was not at the appropriate level for the class.” “There was too much time on discussion, not enough time on individual work.” “The students conducted a sophisticated lab experiment.”

Description without Judgment “Student 1 asked student 2: ‘what are we supposed to write down?’ Student 2 said, ‘I don’t know.’” “Students followed directions in the text to make circuit boards.” “Teacher introduced the concept of fractions and students applied it in a hands-on activity.” p.85 in Instructional Rounds book

Specificity of Evidence “Teacher introduced the concept of fractions and students applied it in a hands-on activity.” vs. “Prompt for student essays: “What role did symbolism play in foreshadowing the main character’s dilemma?” p.93 in Instructional Rounds book

24 What do you see?  What is the teacher doing and saying?  What are the students doing and saying?  What is the task?

Video Observation  Take notes  What’s the evidence?  Video Example #1  Video Example #2 Video Example #2

Debrief observations  Describe what you saw – jot down on 5-10 sticky notes key observations you made from the video  Analyze the descriptive evidence, in your small group, placing sticky notes on chart paper and grouping them.  What patterns do you see?  How might you group the data? What’s the evidence?

DEBRIEFING PRINCIPLES  Stick to Evidence  Timekeeper is Critical to Team Success  Debrief by Question or Debrief by Classroom  Debrief in small groups first and then large group  Share talk time- “everyone speaks once before anyone speaks twice” or “three before me”  Write down three patterns of evidence

Predictions  Predict what students are learning. If you were a student in this class and you did everything the teacher told you to do, what would you know and be able to do?

Predictions Purpose- Page 122  Goal of this step is to connect teaching and learning.  What causes the learning we want to see?  What specific teaching moves, what kinds of tasks, what forms of student engagement lead to powerful learning for students?

Predictions Process  Analyze each classroom using the foundational question.  Gallery walk each classroom analysis.  Look for patterns throughout all building classrooms.  Is there general agreement?

Next Level of Work Imagine if these data were from your school / district… Consider…  What resources exist to support improvement?  What initiatives are already in motion? What 3 detailed suggestions would you make to help the school move instruction to the next level?  Next week  By winter break  By the end of the year

Next Level of Work  Host principal provides context- initiatives, meeting times, PLCs, current work in the POP area, resources available.  Detailed suggestions- For suggestions to be helpful, they need to be described at a level of specificity that links the recommended action to the stated problem of practice.  Learning occurs when groups push each other to be specific.

Next Level of Work  Using your IR Data for one school to create three specific recommendations that follow the timelines below.  Next week  By winter break  By the end of the year

What did you learn from the IR visits? How will your new learning affect your role and your practice in your classroom and p? So what? Making connections to your work

Connections, next steps  How is rounds like and not like existing and past work in your district?  What are your hopes and fears for rounds in your district?  What next steps will you commit to based on your learning today?

SIP Review and Team Planning  Set Dates for Visits  Discuss IR visit team process and roles  Time Keeper, Facilitator, Prove it Person!, Digital Note-taker  How will you make sure predictions and next steps are included in the process?