Southern Metropolitan Region Round 2, Balnarring Primary School 17-18 May, 2010

1. Southern Metropolitan RegionRound 2, Balnarring Primary School17-18 May, 2010

2. The Rounds Process • Observation before analysis • Analysis before prediction • Prediction before evaluation • Build the skills of network members by coming to a common understanding of effective practice and how to support it. • Support instructional improvement at the host site by sharing what they network learns and by building skills at the local level.” “One of the greatest barriers to school improvement is the lack of an agreed-upon definition of what high-quality instruction looks like” Instructional Rounds in Education (pg 3)

3. Observing for focus of investigation Be Descriptive: “Sometimes people get stuck on what we mean by evidence. Is it just any fact? Is “students are sitting on the rug” evidence? By evidence we mean descriptive statements of what you see. The descriptive statements are critical because they give us a common basis for our conversation. They open up the door to conversation rather than closing it. Instructional Rounds in Education: Elizabeth City, Richard Elmore, Sarah Fiarman and Lee Tietel pg 92

4. Host Principal: Rhonda Stephens School focus of investigation “How do the learning tasks presented to students provide opportunities for them to use a range of thinking skills?”

5. Nature of Tasks • Is there evidence of different levels of thinking and challenge? • Is there evidence of different amounts of time for different tasks or different students? • What role does student grouping play in the way students demonstrate their learning? • What are the students actually learning? Clarke, Timperley and Hattie (2003) in Visible Learning by John Hattie

6. Demonstrating Learning What evidence of student learning can be collected? • DO • SAY • MAKE • WRITE

7. Cognitive Challenge

8. Observing for today’s focus of investigation Activity 1: Preparing to See What kind of evidence could we collect to inform today’s focus of investigation? What kind of observations do we think we would be noting? • What kind of evidence would you collect that indicates what the task actually is? • How might students demonstrate their learning? • What learning is the task generating? Discuss at your table group – 5 minutes

9. Observing for today’s focus of investigation Which Questions would be most useful to ask students? • What are you doing? • What are you learning? • Are you doing the same work as everyone else? • Why are you choosing to do your work this way? • Is this work hard? • Does this work make you think? • Have you done this work before? • Why are you doing this work? • What will you learn from doing this task?

10. Collecting Evidence of Learning Our observations should focus on the Instructional Core: • What are teachers doing and saying? • What are students doing and saying? • What is the nature of the task? Consider the relationship of elements in the core

11. Observation Protocols • We will spend only 18 - 20 minutes in each classroom • We will enter the classroom as a group and move to a designated area of the room (maybe to seating which classroom teacher has provided) • We will have note paper and pen for taking notes during the observation (no mobile phones will be permitted) • We will not formally acknowledge the teacher or class on entering the classroom or leaving and will not talk to other members of the observation group during the observation • We may walk around the room at an appropriate time to talk with students about their learning • When moving between rooms we will refrain from any discussion

12. Observation

13. Debriefing Activity 2:Gathering Evidence • Appoint a group facilitator • Individually: identify from your notes 10 pieces of evidence that provide the best feedback to the school about the focus of investigation. • Write each piece of evidence on an individual sticky10 minutes Revisit the focus of investigation: “How do the learning tasks presented to students provide opportunities for them to use a range of thinking skills?”

14. Debriefing Activity 3: Affinity Protocol As a Group: • Place your evidence out for everyone to see (uncollated) • Ask clarifying questions or challenge evidence you are unsure about • Group the evidence in ways that make sense to your group • Give each group a heading • Frame a pattern (s) related to each of the groupings on your poster paper 45 minutes

15. Debriefing Activity 4: Forming Observational Patterns • Groups combine (1&2, 3&4, 5&6) • Designate a new facilitator • Share patterns identified as small groups • Decide as a group which patterns will be presented in the final draft • Record patterns on chart paper 30 minutes

16. Prediction “The goal of this step is to connect teaching and learning. By linking the task and teacher’s instruction directly to student learning, network members tackle the central question – what causes the learning we want to see? What specific teaching moves, what kinds of tasks, what forms of engagement lead to powerful learning for students?” Instructional Rounds in Education (pg 78) • ie: based on the predominant patterns of instruction we have observed what learning would you expect students be able to demonstrate? • Probe the relationship between the teacher/student/task interactions you saw and the learning you predict it would generate.

17. Prediction Activity 5: Teaching and Learning Prediction Respond to the following prompt: If you were a student in this school and you did everything the teacher asked you to do, what would you know and be able to do? 30 minutes

18. Prediction Activity 6: Predicted Next Level of Practice Respond to the following prompt “Describe what it would look like if a school had solved this focus of investigation.” What would: Teachers be doing? Students be doing? What would tasks look like? 30 minutes

19. The Next Level of Work • Activity 7: • Presenting Patterns and Predictions • Combined groups share with the whole group: • Patterns of Practice • Responses to Teaching and Learning Prediction and Predicted Next Level of Practice • Opportunity for groups to revise patterns as necessary.

20. The Next Level of Work Consider: “There should be a causal link between what is suggested to the Principal and improvement in the focus of investigation.” What leadership moves can a principal make to bring about the NLOW? “Next level of work conversations teach district and school leaders the process necessary to unpack what’s involved in supporting teachers to learn a new skill. Suggestions may provide very practical solutions for visiting network members facing similar problems. Instructional Rounds in Education (pg 126)

21. The Next Level of Work Activity 8: NLOW Suggestions Review the Next Level of Work you have identified from the prediction phase What options can you now generate as to how the school can undertake the next level of work in relation to this focus of investigation? Groups must be specific.

22. The Next Level of Work • Activity 9: • Principal Update • Balnarring Primary School: Rhonda Stephens • What information was helpful? • What wasn’t? • What suggestions will you act on?

23. What we are learning? This is the work Skilled facilitation is critical The power of questioning The significance of the instructional core The importance of connecting peers to purpose To challenge the “culture of nice” If you can’t see it it’s not there That a need exists to describe the actions of instructional leaders in their schools

24. Acknowledgements We acknowledge the work of Mark Anderson and Terry Harrington, Regional Network Leaders in Gippsland Region for their work in assisting Southern Metropolitan Region in this project.