Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning Instructional Rounds Institute Jamie Spugnardi Liz Storey October 18-20, 2010

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 & March February 7-8Advanced Instructional Rounds Institute

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning Agenda – Day 1 8:30 Welcome & Agenda Overview Key Concepts of Instructional Rounds 9:40 Break 10:00 Using Descriptive Language: Seeing vs. Judging Observations using Classroom Videos 11:30 Lunch 12:30Observations Debrief (with Break) 3:15Discussion of Schedule for Days 2 & 3; Closing

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning Agenda – Days 2 & 3 7:45Convene at GRREC Training Center 8:00Board buses for transport to schools 8:30Pre-brief & Classroom Observations 10:00Debrief & transport back to GRREC 12:30Lunch 1:30Reflections on visits; General session 3:30Closing

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning Learning Goals Build common language, expectations, and norms for conducting Rounds. Understand key concepts of Instructional Rounds. Understand how the instructional core is the heart of Rounds and of improvement efforts. Build skills in observing teaching and learning, in using descriptive vs. evaluative language, and in debriefing classroom observations. Understand how to launch a rounds network in your district

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning My Learning Goal Think of three things: Something you read or have heard about rounds that connects to your previous work Something you hope to learn in the next three days about rounds Something you hope to do as a result of this Institute

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

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning Instructional Rounds are NOT: for teacher evaluation. for administrators only. a checklist or walkthrough. an implementation check. a program, project, or new initiative.

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning Two Primary Learning Goals of Rounds 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 Instructional Rounds Process Theory of Action Problem of Practice Observation of Practice Observation Debrief –Describe –Analyze –Predict –Next Level of Work Follow up with School/District

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning Schools as Problem-seeking Organizations “The formulation of the problem is often more essential than the solution.” -Einstein

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning A Problem of Practice: Our school has recently focused on providing clear learning goals to identify and precisely express what students will know and be able to do as a result of the lesson. Guiding Questions: What is the work students are being asked to do? How does the teacher connect the work of the student to the learning goal? What evidence do you see or hear in students’ interaction with the task(s) to show they know the learning goal for the lesson?

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning PISA Levels: Six Ways of Demonstrating Learning Level 1: Find a fact in text in response to a question. Level 2: Remember something someone else has told you and repeat it. Level 3: Remember a procedure that someone else has taught you, and apply it accurately and fluently. Level 4: Choose a procedure from among a number you have learned, apply it accurately and fluently, explain why you chose it, and why it might be better than another. Level 5: Using a body of evidence, make an argument about what you think it means; anticipate and respond to counter arguments. Level 6: Teach something you think you know to someone else.

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 Learning to See is: a discipline. like a muscle - gets stronger with repetition. the foundation of the Rounds practice. …Unlearning to Judge

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Covered Picture hyu

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning Observations: Tips for Note Taking Describe what you see—remember description, not judgment. Be specific (fine-grained) Pay attention to the instructional core Gather evidence related to the Problem of Practice. Gather evidence of student learning, noting what students are doing, saying, making, writing, etc. Keep the following background questions are in your mind: –What are students saying and doing? –What are teachers saying and doing? –What is the task?

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning Let’s Practice Mathematics Linear Functions & Inequalities 10 th grade Social Studies Branches of Government - Grade 4

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning Ladder of Inference I take actions based on beliefs.I adopt beliefs about the world.I draw conclusions. I make assumptions based on the meanings I added. I select data from observable data and experiences. (Senge, 1990)

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning Description Read through your notes (“pieces of evidence”) from the observations. Place a star next to data that seem relevant to the problem of practice and/or data that seem important. Select 5-10 pieces of data, and write each individual piece of data on a sticky note (Post-it™).

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning Description, Cont. Share your pieces of data with your group, helping each other to stay in the descriptive (not evaluative) voice by asking, “What did you see/hear that makes you think that?” Maintain a rule that everyone speaks once before anyone speaks twice.

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning Analysis On chart paper, sort/cluster the evidence (on sticky notes) in ways that make sense to your group and helps make sense of what you saw. (Single pieces of evidence can be a “group.” In other words, a sticky note can stand alone.) If evidence belongs in more than one cluster, copy it again on a second sticky note. Label your clusters.

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning Analysis, Cont. Take five minutes for private self-reflection, identifying patterns. What are your questions? With the group, discuss patterns making sure to account for variation as well as similarities. On another sheet of chart paper, chart the patterns in short phrases or sentences.

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning Analysis Example

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning Prediction Predict what students are learning based on the data and analysis. “If students in this school did exactly what teachers asked them to do (based on your group’s observations), what would you predict students would be able to do?”

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning

Next Level of Work Review descriptive evidence, analysis, patterns, and predictions in light of the Problem of Practice. Think about and discuss what students need next in order to expand their learning opportunities around the Problem of Practice. Brainstorm and chart recommendations for next moves for the school. Write 3 to 4 recommended actions to be completed by the school. (It is helpful to describe these recommendations in terms of “to be completed by next week, by the end of this semester, by the end of the year,” etc.)

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning

Goals of “Next Level of Work” Anchor recommendations in the Problem of Practice, Move instructional practices across classrooms consistently, Provide feedback consistent with the school’s context, Bring “fresh eyes” to the school’s practices, Separate the person from the practice, Push, challenge, and question—model professional discourse.

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning Preparing for Site Visits School Locations Team Assignments Logistics Schedule

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning “If I brush my teeth twice daily, then I won’t get cavities and will keep my teeth for a long time.” Theories of Action

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning “If teachers use learning targets to guide instruction, then higher student achievement will be the result.”

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning “If lessons have clear learning targets aligned to established content standards, and if students and teachers use effective formative and summative assessments of learning aligned to those targets, then students will have richer information to guide the teaching and learning process and to differentiate learning for individual student needs, and higher student achievement will be the result.”

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning focuses on instructional core (the interactions of the teacher and students in the presence of content). is directly observable (sensory). is actionable (and can be improved in real time). connects to a broader strategy of improvement and the school's action plan (within the school or school system). is high-leverage (would make a significant difference for student learning). A Problem of Practice:

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning 1.How did the articulation of the Problem of Practice change over time? 2.What do you notice regarding the sources of data, specificity of language, development of a theory of change? 3.What questions do you have for this school? Thinking About One School’s Journey with Problem of Practice...

Supporting High Quality Teaching and Learning Factors for Launching a Rounds Network 1.Safety for participants and for the system 2.Membership – Who’s in? How will it be structured? 3.Using a problem-based approach 4.Separating practice from people 5.Developing a common theory to guide the work 6.Being grounded in a “learning by doing” approach 7.Using protocols for consistency and coherence

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. Rowan, B., Correnti R., & Miller R. (2002). What large-scale, survey research tells us about teacher effects on student achievement: Insights from the Prospects study of elementary schools. Teachers College Record, 104(8), Senge, P. (1990). The fifth discipline: The art & practice of the learning organization. Currency Doubleday, New York.