Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning Instructional Rounds Institute Jamie Spugnardi Liz Storey February 8, 2011

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning GRREC’s Support for Instructional Rounds School Year October 18-20Instructional Rounds Institute November, January Follow-up Conference Calls & MarchMarch 9 th, Wiki Site February 7-8Advanced Instructional Rounds Institute

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning Learning Goals Refine our understanding of the key concepts of Instructional Rounds. Build skills in constructing modified schedules used to conduct classroom observations. Refine skills in observing teaching and learning, in using descriptive vs. evaluative language, and in debriefing classroom observations. Build connections between Theories of Action, District Strategy and School Problems of Practice.

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning My Learning from Chandlers… Think about your experience yesterday in Logan County: Jot down something you observed from the school or district presentation that connected to these two paradoxes… “Diving in and stepping back” And “Recognize the complexity of the work and simplify it at the same time”

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning Share your Ideas Stand up, find a group of 3-4 colleagues that you did not work with yesterday Share your connections with the paradoxes

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning District and School Sharing What has happened since our Fall Institute? What are you planning for the future?

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning Instructional Rounds Classroom Observations Systemwide Improvement Plans Network

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning How can you connect the two Primary Learning Goals of Rounds through Strategy? Rounds build skills of educators by coming to a common understanding of effective practice and how to support it. Rounds support instructional improvement at the host site (school or district) by providing recommendations for the next level of work.

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning Digging in… Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning Handout 1

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning Liz City’s observation as a district administrator… Teachers want to know what and how Schools saw the revision of the SIP as they can’t make up their minds about what they want us to do

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning If you don’t understand the why, how could you make it work well in your own school and classroom? -Liz City

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning Theories of Action Problems of Practice Double Loop vs Single Loop

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning Main Ideas from Strategy in Action 3 Questions 2 Paradoxes 1 Focus

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning Strategy in Action Summary Strategy is not the same as Strategic Planning Conducting an analysis of the district initiatives is the first place to start (Protocol we will use today) Team functions are required for – All Students to Learn POP and Theory of Action Tools Logic Models create a timeline and milestone monitoring

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning Theory of Action and Strategy Read pages 3-5, Note on the PELP Coherence Framework, section entitled, “Focusing on What Matters” Respond to the following questions at your table How do the authors define Theory of Action and Strategy? Is this different from our current planning process, how? Handout 2

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning Examining one District’s Strategy 1.Review pages 1-7 of the Brockton Public Schools, Realigning Resources for Results Document 2.Individually, Highlight text that directly connects to the philosophy you read in the Note on PELP, (Handout 2) 3.Share your connections at your table Handout 3

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning Taking the First Step… Trying out the Making Sense of the Work Protocol 1.Brainstorm 2.Sort 3.Assess 4.Synthesize Handouts 4 & 5

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning TEACHERSTUDENT CONTENT 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 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. HO 1

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning References City, E., Elmore, R., Fiarman, S., & Teitel, L. (2009). Instructional rounds in education. Harvard Education Press: Cambridge, MA. City, E., Elmore, R. & Teitel, L. (2010, April) Instructional rounds institute. A professional development meeting provided by Harvard Graduate School of Education Programs In Professional Education, Cambridge, MA. City, E.,& Curtis, R. (2009). Strategy in Action. Harvard Education Press: Cambridge, MA.

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning Remember our Conference Call March 9, 2011