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Improving Practice
Para Hills 4 PortfolioKATRINA SPENCER
PURPOSE
To strengthen leaders’ capacity to:
undertake quality classroom observations,
reflect on student work and teacher practice and
provide feedback that encourages improvement.
To build greater rigour and regularity in the internal monitoring
of teaching and learning in sites.
OUTCOMES: SESSION 1
Site leaders share resources, ideas and approaches currently in use to monitor teaching practice Update, feedback and clarifications about Learning Walks
Site leaders understand Instructional Rounds and have some resources to conduct these with staff
Each site leader identifies and plans a strategy they will use in Term 1 to undertake observations of practice to monitor the implementation of SIP priorities and challenges of practice Walk throughs / Learning Walks
Instructional Rounds
Analysis of student work
Structured conversations with students
Tasks to determine the
challenges of practice
review curriculum documentation, including scope and sequence documents, unit plans, lesson plans and assessments
review the school’s approach to teaching and learning
review whole school agreements
take part in or review the minutes from professional learning team meetings
analyse samples of student work
observe lessons and describe what teachers and students are doing
engage students, teachers and parents in discussions about what is being taught and assessed, and how
combine internal and external views
HIG
H I
MP
AC
T
The research is clear:
improvement cycles only lift
student achievement when
teachers and leaders
change their practice.
Are we improving student learning?
Evidence of student learning is what students ‘do, say, make
or write’ and can be collected through:
peer observations and debriefs with teachers
videos of teacher practice
observations of students during class
conversations with students about their learning progress and next
steps
formal and informal assessments of student learning
analysis of student work samples.
Sharing time
In pairs/threes share either:
What you have tried since the ‘Learning Walks’
discussion last year
OR
The most effective practice you have experienced
to monitor teaching practice
Any questions or clarifications about Learning Walks
What I have noticed after MANY observations
In most classrooms:
TEACHERS work harder than STUDENTS
TEACHERS talk more than STUDENTS; some students never talk
Students are not sure of the lesson purpose/intention or where to focus
70% of tasks are at the recount/recall/remember/understand level
We are better at LOW FLOORS than HIGH CEILINGS
It doesn’t matter if you finish the task and expectations are unclear
Group tasks often are not ‘group worthy’ and have passengers
Students do not know how to improve their work
There is limited feedback or marking or time to reflect on it
There is limited differentiation or using the teachable moments
TABLE TALK
Any surprises,
concerns or
questions?
Why I focus on the TASKS
Task predicts performance. Richard Elmore
The real accountability is in the tasks that students are given.
Students can’t outperform the tasks they are asked to do and
for many students they experience schooling as one task at a
time- a series of disconnected activities rather than a coherent
development of concepts and understandings.
When observing, I am looking for the RIGOUR in the tasks.
RIGOUR:
Bloom’s
Taxonomy
(and HOTS)
CREATING
EVALUATING
ANALYSING
APPLYING
UNDERSTANDING
REMEMBERING
HOTS
The griney
grollers
grangled in
the grinchy
gak.
1. What kind of grollers were they?
2. What did the grollers do?
3. Where did they do it?
4. In what kind of gak did they
grangle?
5. Place one line under the subject
and two lines under the verb.
6. In one sentence, explain why the
grollers were grangling in the
granchy gak. Be prepared to
justify your answer with facts.
I am also looking at the task’s RELEVANCE
1. Knowledge in one discipline – I check for understanding
2. Apply in discipline – I can use it in this lesson
3. Apply across disciplines- I understand the BIG IDEA and can generalize the concept
4. Apply to real world predictable situations- I am using it in known ways to apply, solve or analyse
5. Apply to real-world unpredictable situations- I am using it in novel ways to synthesise, create, evaluate
RIGOUR
and
RELEVANCE
TABLE TALK
Instructional Rounds is
… a set of protocols and processes for observing, analysing, discussing and understanding instruction that can be used to improve student learning at scale.
Instructional Rounds is not a silver bullet, it does lead to changed pedagogy after sustained focus
There is no one right way to undertake Instructional Rounds
PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE WITH ROUNDS
The Instructional Core
IR anchors improvement efforts in the instructional core
Instructional Rounds supports staff to look at classroom practice in a focused, systematic and collective way and provides data and evidence on whether improvement efforts are reaching students
teacher
knowledge and
skill
student
engagement challenging
content
•STUDENT engagement
•TEACHER knowledge/skills
•Challenging CONTENT
Instructional Rounds Key Principles
1. Increases in student learning occur only as a consequence of improvements in the instructional core
2. If you change one element of the instructional core, you have to change the other two.
3. If you can’t see it in the core, it’s not there.
4. Task predicts performance
teacher
knowledge and
skill
student
engagement challenging
content
IR is not What IR isWalkthrough /
quick
observation
Rounds is a descriptive, analytic, inferential
process of observation
THE DEBRIEF PHASE IS VITAL!
A teacher
evaluation
tool
IR focuses on practice and students’ engagement.
It separates the person from the practice with no
assessment of individual teachers.
Implementation
check
Rounds focuses on patterns of practice,
not about compliance with directives
An event,
project or
program
Rounds is a practice, designed to support and
inform an improvement strategy over time
Training
leaders for
supervision
Rounds focuses on collective learning, rather than
how to supervise individuals
The Instructional Round Process
identify a problem of practice-
Challenge of Practice
1
observe
2
debrief
3
focus on the next level of
work
4
Katrina Spencer 19https://www.aitsl.edu.au/docs/default-source/default-document-library/how-to-guide---instructional-rounds.pdf?sfvrsn=72acec3c_2
1. The Problem of Practice
The PoP is always a work in progress and is best developed collaboratively
It connects to the site’s improvement strategy and represents a place where they feel “stuck” in their improvements
Helps the site to adopt a learning stance - articulating it may nudge development
The SIP CHALLENGE OF PRACTICE should become your PoP and be based on a Theory of Action (If we…, then we…)
Elmore: The problem of practice will not be perfect. Ever.
Challenge of Practice
Discussion/Reflection
Who owns and understands your challenge of practice?
How committed are staff to improving their practice?
How clear are you and staff about what the challenge of practice would look like in daily classroom operation? (what would you be looking for in an observation?)
So where will you start to build clarity, ownership, commitment and consistency??
2. The ROUND or Observation Phase
Observing(keeping a focus on observable evidence not judgements)
No two people will see the same child in identical ways. Two
open and honest educators can be asked to observe the same
child. What they see and interpret will depend on what they decide to look for and their own particular perspectives.
(Martin, S, Take A Look, 2007).
Learning to see and not to judge
Classroom observation in the rounds model is a discipline - a practice, in the sense that it is a pattern of observing and talking designed to
create a common understanding among a group of practitioners about the nature of their work.
Judging has become a national pastime – much of our TV entertainment is based on judgements- MAFS, MKR, The Block…. They create archetypes/stereotypes and we rush to judge – we love it!
In ROUNDS we need to LOOK with an open mind and suspend judgements.
Colour Changing Card Trick https://youtu.be/v3iPrBrGSJMMonkey Business Illusion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGQmdoK_ZfY
Observing
What is the actual work that students are being asked to do?
The lived task vs. stated taskWhat do students focus on when given the task?
Record evidence that is observable, defensible and grounded in
the instructional core- no opinions, judgments or generalizations
(eg 5 students stared at the floor, 3 students chatted rather than many students were disengaged).
Tip: look down not up
Note taking – take lots!
Learning Intention and prompts on IWB
TASK: writing a procedure using a format UNDERSTANDING
Teacher providing instructions Students all focused on front
On T signal all students moved to get books and start work- 3 students wandered, the rest knew routines and settled quickly to work
Students heard discussing ideas and strategies with peers before starting
T redirected the 3 and they settled to work
1 child sat staring for extended period when questioned was unaware of task or strategies to get help
Spoke with 3 students- aware of WHAT to do, not sure WHY or HOW much /expected standards
Talking with Students
Sharratt’s 5 Questions: To lift performance, students need to know;
1. What are you learning? (intention/purpose)
2. How are you doing? (success criteria)
3. How do you know? (feedback)
4. How can you improve? (strategies)
5. Where to next? (direction)
Goldilock’s Question- is this work too hard/too easy/just right for you?How could it be made just right?
Most important to OBSERVE FIRST
Observation Etiquette
Short pictures – a snapshot
10 minutes in 6 classes- organise a timekeeper for sessions
Be as unobtrusive as possible
Adapt to the teaching environment
No talking between rooms
Do you own thinking
Respect staff by not visibly commenting
3. DEBRIEF
If you didn’t see it or hear it in the classroom don’t include it in the debrief”.
1. START WITH WARM FEEDBACK- general noticings
2. SELECT - 3-5 pieces of observation information you recorded
3. DESCRIBE – record these on sticky notes and place on shared board one at a time share one and discuss as a group
4. INTERPRET – start to group or order these to make meaning as team-team members add similar observations to the board
5. EVALUATE – what might this be telling you about the PoP? What themes/issues are emerging? Give the board a heading.
6. PREDICT – the next level of work –if you were a good student…. OR If you were away today what would you have missed?
4. THE NEXT LEVEL OF WORK
…the suggestions for the next level of work are not about “fixing” any one teacher or group of teachers. They are about developing clarity about good instructional
practice and about the leadership and organisational practices needed to support the instruction at scale. Elmore et al
It should support the site to work on their challenge of practice by bringing “fresh eyes” to the practice.
The next level of work should help to build coherence consistent instructional practices across classrooms aligned with the improvement strategy and the context.
Suggestions may include short/mid term and longer term ideas that the school MAY choose to consider- what actions would you take if you were a class teacher or site leader after these observations?
You don’t improve schools by giving them bad news about their performance.
You improve schools by using information about student learning, from multiple sources, to find the
most promising instructional problems to work on, and then systematically developing with teachers and
administrators the knowledge and skills necessary to solve those problems. Elmore et al
Teacher Rounds
At the end of the session I always ask teachers for feedback
on the process or ideas to improve the Rounds
Teachers report that they find the process valuable and didn’t focus
on judging peers rather they focused on student learning
I also ask teachers to share:
What confirmed my practices
What I need to reflect on in my own classroom
What ACTION WILL I TAKE as a result of my observations
Implementing Rounds
This will depend on your comfort and context
JUMP IN AND SWIM STAFF INFO, TRIALS and EXPAND
Having an experience of participating in a Round first is
always useful
‘You learn the work by doing the work.’ Elmore
Leadership Level, Cross School Rounds, Teacher Rounds…
Having a facilitator is useful to keep the flow/focus
So where to from here?
If you are going to develop a regular practice of observing students and teachers, looking for improvement needs and providing quality feedback:
What processes will be most effective at your site?
Who will be involved and how?
What training/support/further information will you need? Staff need?
How will you introduce the practice and build commitment?
Where/when/how will you get underway this term?
How will you document the learning, get feedback and use the information to continuously improve practice?
Ideas and Feedback
Sharing your planning with peers
SESSION 2 TO BE CLARIFIED AFTER SESSION 1
Site leaders share work to date and their next step with colleagues for feedback and development
Collectively identify what we are learning about practice
Strengths and how to amplify these
Concerns and how to address these
Planning for peer observations and feedback
Analysing student work?
REMEMBER: FOCUS ON…
ImprovingNOT
I’m Proving
kk
For information or support
contact Katrina Spencer
0401 120 378