INSTRUCTIONAL ROUNDS DEBRIEF

1. INSTRUCTIONAL ROUNDSDEBRIEF Insert School Date Adapted from the book INSTRUCTIONAL ROUNDS IN EDUCATION: A Network Approach to Improving Teaching and Learning By Elizabeth A. City, Richard F. Elmore, Sarah E. Fiarman, and Lee Teitel

2. The basic premise of Instructional Rounds is that people learn best about the meaning of high quality instruction by observing teachers, students, and the work students are asked to do, followed by meaningful conversation and analysis.

3. THE BIG IDEA! The idea behind Instructional Rounds is that everyoneinvolved 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. • Instructional Rounds informandare informed byimprovement strategies. • Instructional Rounds start with a problem of practice, one that often emerges from some improvement strategy, and end with ideas for making our improvement strategies more effective. • Instructional Rounds are, then, a vehicle for improvingour strategies and making us much more reflective about our work.

4. QUALITY TEACHING DEFINED “Task Predicts Performance” What predicts performance is what students are actually doing...the instructional task is the actual work that students are asked to do during the process of instruction-not what teachers think they are asking students to do or what the official curriculum says that that student are asked to do...” -Dr. Richard Elmore-

5. INSTRUCTIONAL ROUNDS(GOALS) • Improve participants’ skills as instructional leaders. • Broaden participants’ understanding of their own and other school systems. • Improve student learning. • Strengthen and deepen existing improvement strategies. • Build and reinforce a culture of improvement. • Provide clarity and focus for existing professional development. • Develop a common vocabulary for teaching and learning among leaders. • Build pathways into multiple leadership roles.

6. WHAT INSTRUCTIONAL ROUNDS LOOK LIKE Problem of Practice Observation of Practice Next Level of Work Observation Debrief

7. INSTRUCTIONAL CORE The instructional core is composed of the teacher and the student in the presence of content. TEACHER CONTENT/TASK STUDENT

8. SCHOOL BACKGROUND • Recent Reform Efforts to Improve Instruction • Recent Professional Development

9. PROBLEM OF PRACTICE

10. THEORY OF PRACTICE

11. OBSERVATION OF PRACTICE (Focus Questions)

12. WHOLE GROUP REFLECTION • Patterns Across Classrooms • Anomalies Across Classrooms

13. PREDICTIONS If students in this school did exactly what teachers asked them to do, what do you predict students would be able to do?

14. NEXT LEVEL OF WORK • As we look at the data and how we group the data, what do students need next in order to deepen the level of their thinking and quality of their collaborations? • What advice would you give to the principal and teachers about the next steps?

15. TRANSFER TO PRACTICE • In what ways do you intend to refine your own practice as a consequence of this experience? • What do teachers need to know to support optimal learning? • What does the school need to know to support optimal learning?