1. Classroom Observation Drives Instructional Practices Aspiring Leaders 10-8-15

2.  Schools exist to ensure that all students learn at high levels; not to ensure students are taught.

3. 1. What school characteristics and practices have been most successful in helping students achieve at high levels? 2. How could we adopt those characteristics and practices in our schools? 3. What commitments would we have to make to one another to create such a school? 4. What indicators could we monitor to assess our progress?

4.  National Association of Elementary School Principals (2002) defined the very job of elementary and middle school principals as: Leading Learning Communities.

5.  Early advocates of public high school designed the institution to sort and select students, arguing that all students “can not do and do not need the same education.

6.  National Association of Secondary Principals (2004) called upon its members to develop PLCs as one of its three key strategies to improve the learning experience of every student.

7.  Many schools and districts that proudly proclaim they are PLCs have shown, little evidence or either understanding the core concepts or implementing the practices of PLCs.  Tell me what PLCs mean to you.  Tell me what a Walk Through process means to you?

8.  Instructional Rounds are based on the model of medical rounds.  PLCs are the collaborative efforts with other professionals.

9. “The idea behind instructional rounds is that everyone involved is working on their practice, everyone is obliged to be knowledgeable about the common task of instructional improvement, and everyone’s practice should be subject to scrutiny, critique, and improvement.”

10.  Dr. Mike Schmoker sees these tours/rounds as critical.  “They should be conducted by at least two people who then report on all-school patterns of growth or need for improvement.

11.  A set of protocols and processes for observing, analyzing, discussing and understanding instruction that can be used to improve student learning “at scale.”  The instructional rounds process is an example of a specific practice.

12. “Rounds are a special kind of walkthrough, a special kind of network [PLC], and a special kind of improvement strategy integrated into one practice.”

13. 1. Ensuring that students learn 2. A Culture of Collaboration 3. A Focus on Results

14. A four-step process:  Identifying a problem of practice from the theory of action that is guiding our work.  Observing classrooms, as individuals or in small teams, gathering descriptive, non- evaluative evidence.  Debriefing using the ladder of inference.  Focusing on the next level of work.

15. Rounds address the gap between PD and our ability to implement the knowledge and skills offered in PD by forcing us to look at our underlying assumptions about instructional improvement and identifying and addressing the structural gaps that prevent meaningful implementation of various initiatives.

16.  The best way to get a glimpse of the instructional core is to look at what the students are doing, not necessarily what the teacher is doing.  Feedback and guidance for the teacher should focus on the tasks students complete, with attention to how the instructional core must be addressed.

17.  PLCs and Instructional Rounds are the foundation for sustaining change that leads to improved instruction and improved student learning.

18. Dear Staff:  I had the opportunity to visit collaboration meetings this morning. Here are some highlights:  The sixth-grade team discussed their curriculum map for Envision and discussed how the plan takes into consideration the essential standards and the CST testing window. The team was engaged in discussion about Envision and how to best use the new resources. Through this work, the team is guaranteeing a curriculum for all sixth-grade students in any of the four classrooms… Our values of collaboration, data-driven instruction, and tiered instruction are all exemplified in this work.

19. Once a critical mass of clarity and leadership focus has been achieved, the leader brings in the big bats…data.

20. This data isn’t individual teacher data; rather, it asks the question, “How well is the group doing relative to the collectively designed and agreed- upon goal?” And again, the leader puts the data, as simple as it may be, into a short email and fires it off to the entire staff.

21.  “Dear Team: Our goal this year is to focus in on two areas (Clear Objectives and Check for Understanding) of Hunter’s model of lesson delivery. As I went out and visited classrooms 92% of the classrooms I visited had the current standard posted. Only 39% listed the objective being taught in the lesson. Maybe they were there and I just didn’t see them. If you could have the objective and standards being taught written in the upper left-hand corner of your white board, it would be a lot easier for me to find.

22.  Here he sets a baseline using collected data and clarifies what he wants to see the next time he visits the classroom. No nagging. No prodding. No memo of understanding. In fact, he ends with an encouragement. A common tenet of a professional learning community is the desire to continuously improve, and it can’t hurt for a little group motivation to fire up the collective teacher’s desire to achieve on any metric.

23. Hi Falcon Staff,  I collected data on two of our four walkthrough objectives today. Here is how we did… 75% of the Falcon Staff had an agenda posted 75% of the Falcon Staff had an objective posted 32 classrooms were observed* I really am proud of how well everyone is integrating the walkthrough objectives. Telling students what they will be doing and what they are expected to learn is essential for all learners. If you need help with writing an agenda/objective or need clarification on the reasoning behind it, feel free to come by and we can work together on it.

24.  Take the walk through data given to you and create a written response to your staff that will set the next stage for PLC discussion.

25.  There is added value to this method of walkthrough observation. Dr. DuFour and Dr. Marzano, in their current book, Leaders of Learning(2011), adapted Marzano and Waters’ earlier list of 21 principal responsibilities into 19 high-leverage leader responsibilities that directly applied to a school’s collaborative efforts. Of those 19 behaviors, this simple method of walkthrough observation/observations encompasses approximately 13 of them.

26. The purpose of the walk- through process The timeline for the walk- through process The look-fors in the walk- through process

27.  The purpose of the classroom Walk Through is to monitor curriculum and instruction on a day-to-day basis.

28.  In order to collect data on curriculum and instruction, the building administrators will focus primarily on the learners in the classroom rather than the teachers.

29.  Collect school wide data through frequent, brief classroom visits with a focus on specific student learning “ look-fors. ”  Share collected trend data with staff as a means of fostering collaboration and reflective dialogue.  Use the trend data to assist in making decisions regarding continuous school improvement.

30. Improved instructional practices Fewer discipline referrals Increased student achievement

31.  …does not take the place of, nor is it part of the teacher appraisal process

32.  …is NOT intended for evaluation purposes.

33. 1. Visible presence 2. Teacher evaluation Informal observation Formal observation 3. Classroom Walk-Through

34.  Practiced by David Packard  Co-Founder of Hewlett-Packard and Sam Walton, Founder of Wal-Mart  Two of the top 10 CEO ’ s of all time.  (Fortune Magazine, July, 2003) (Management By Wandering Around)

35. A way to better align curriculum and instruction on a day-to-day basis A tool to enhance classroom visits A systemic method of collecting real-time student learning data to inform PLC ’ s about teaching and learning

36. Administrator will enter the classroom and stay for two to four minutes Administrator may interact with students (if it is not obtrusive to the lesson) and ask questions of the learners  Suggestion: Administrators and schools should come up with a visual signal that the visit is a walk through

37. During the first quarter, administrators will practice by walking each classroom 3 times (2 times/six weeks) Administrators will practice analyzing the data but will not share with faculty

38. Beginning with the second quarter, principals will make classroom visits 3 times/quarter or 2 times/six week to collect “ real data ”

39.  Objective: Is it clear and evident “ what ” students are expected to learn? Can students articulate what they are learning (rather than doing)? We ’ re doing math. We ’ re doing page 47. We ’ re learning how to graph the slope of an equation. Note: see continuum of behaviors

40.  Performance Task: What are students doing? Are students active in their participation with a performance task? Does the activity align with the Common Core? What is the action verb from the task?

41.  Thinking*: At what level of Bloom ’ s Taxonomy are students working? Are students working at the comprehension level? How often are our students at the level of analysis?

42.  *Student Engagement: At what level of engagement are the students working? Are students authentically engaged? Are students compliant in the activities? Are students off-task?

43.  What is the next level of work in this classroom, school, or system?  Thus, we reinforce the idea that improvement is a clinical practice. Our job is to make the practice better over time, not to mete out rewards and punishments.  What do you think about when you hear clinical practice?

44. “If teachers use learning targets to guide instruction, then higher student achievement will be the result.” Problematic on a couple of levels…

45. “If lessons are guided by 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 and teachers 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.”

46. If lessons are guided by clear learning targets aligned to established content standards…  If teachers know how to establish clear learning targets, how will we support them in doing so and how will we monitor and document their work?  If teachers know how to establish clear learning targets, do they know how to effectively use those targets to guide lessons? What does it mean to effectively use a learning target to guide the lesson?

47. …and if students and teachers use effective formative and summative assessments of learning aligned to those targets…  How will teachers learn effective formative and summative assessment techniques? How will leaders know if teachers know how to do this and how will they support the process? What role will students play?  How will we know if our assessments are aligned to our learning targets?

48.  While teachers have been developing learning targets, we haven’t really given them any training on how to use the targets to guide lessons. Is this training needed, or is this obvious? How would we find out? If we need to train them, we need to develop a strategy for doing so.  How do we as leaders support and monitor teachers in effectively using the learning targets to guide lessons?

49. Teachers have been trained on unpacking standards to develop student-friendly learning targets, which should now guide their lessons. Many teachers have posted learning targets on their boards. However, informal classroom walkthroughs suggest that student work isn’t consistently guided by these learning targets.  What does student work tell us about the focus of their lessons?

50.  Administrators achieve Gold Card Status when they use Instructional Rounds ( Walk Through) and PLCs. Apply for yours today!