Classroom Walkthroughs:

1. Classroom Walkthroughs: How do we move teachers from good to great?

2. Back drop • It is essential to keep in mind the basic premise of what a school is because that which does not reproduce the characteristic features of a school cannot be a Catholic school. (Article 25). The Catholic School Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education 1977 • An excellent Catholic school has a clearly articulated, rigorous curriculum aligned with relevant standards, 21st century skills, and Gospel values, implemented through effective instruction. #7 National Standards and Benchmarks for Effective Catholic Elementary and Secondary Schools 2012. • An excellent Catholic school in the Archdiocese of Hartford has a clearly articulated rigorous college and career-ready academic curriculum aligned with relevant standards, 21st century fluencies, and Gospel values, implemented through instructional best practices and enhanced by effective use of technology. 20†20 Vision: Excellence in Teaching and Learning Standard 8 2012

3. “In educating a balance must be maintained, your steps must be well balanced, one step on the cornice of safety but the other into the zone of risk. And when the risk becomes safe, the next step must venture into another area of risk. Education cannot be confined to the safety zone. No. This would mean preventing personalities from developing; yet it is not possible to educate solely in the risk zone either: this is too dangerous. It is a balance of steps: remember it well.”

4. How do we bring teachers from good to great! • We know all teachers place expectations on students during the first three days of school. • What do great teachers expect of themselves in the classroom? • There is no learning without understanding. • There is no confidence and hope without worth. • Great teachers understand it is about students first, the curriculum second. National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), 2014

5. What do great teachers do differently? • Content mastery is not sufficient. We should view content acquisition as a means to an end, not an end in itself. David Coleman • Every young person will continue to need basic knowledge – but, they will need skills and motivation even more. Tony Wagner

6. According to Webster: • KNOWLEDGE: the sum of what is known, the body of truth, information and principles acquired by humankind • SKILL: the ability to do something that comes from learning, experience or practice; the ability to use one’s knowledge effectively and readily in execution or performance • UNDERSTANDING: the power to make experience intelligible by applying concepts and categories; the knowledge and ability to judge a particular situation or subject.

7. How to Get a Job at Google • The ability to process on the fly; the ability to pull together disparate bits of information; • Emergent leadership; • Intellectual humility and ownership • It’s feeling the sense of responsibility, the sense of ownership to step in to try to solve the problem AND the humility to step back and embrace the better ideas of others. • Expertise The world only cares about – and pays off on – what you can do with what you know. Laszlo Bock interviewed by Thomas Friedman New York Times, 2/22/14

8. What Do Great Teachers Do Differently? • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWXwziQEa8w

9. What Do You See When You Conduct a Walkthrough? Teacher sitting at desk or teaching from desk? Desks all lines up in rows? Students unengaged or negatively occupied? Teacher standing in front of the classroom talking to students? Students working in isolation on worksheets?

10. what should your see when you conduct a walk through?hat? Students exploring & researching using various technology. Students engaged in collaborative discussions? Teachers assessing while walking around?

12. Do You See a resemblance to the master teacher in the faces of your teachers?

13. Are our students given opportunities and experiences to successfully communicate, collaborate, think critically and creatively and be moral evaluators?

14. What Does Great Teaching Look Like? On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the highest level… Where would you place yourself and your teachers in creating a 21st century learning environment based on best practices for the students in your school?

15. What Do Great Teachers Do Differently? • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXCl2fMsdTU

16. Do you see instructional shifts? ELA SHIFTS: • Balancing Information and Literary Text – not at the expense of compromising classics! • Building Knowledge ACROSS the Disciplines • Staircase of Complexity • Text-Based Answers • Writing from Sources • Academic Vocabulary

17. What does this look like? Are your teachers giving content area reading materials (Religion texts, Scientific texts, Historical texts, Art texts, Math texts) INCREASED focus? Is there a mix of teaching styles going on MEETING NEEDS OF DIVERSE LEARNING STYLES? Is academic vocabulary front and center in every discipline and every level? Are your teachers asking text-dependent questions in addition to making personal connections? Are the questions posed worth answering? Do you see evidence–based discussion and writing as you observe formally and informally? Are the students actively participating in their classes? Is formative assessment ongoing and does it include thinking skills? Do you see evidence that appropriate scaffolding is being given to raise the bar for all? Are teachers providing immediate effective feedback? Adapted: Danielson & Marzano

18. Instructional Shifts in Mathematics • Focus – narrow the scope – focus more deeply on fewer topics (Don’t erase essential foundational skills!) • Coherence – connect learning in and across grades so students can build on a foundation of understanding • Fluency – speed and accuracy with simple calculations • Understanding – demonstrate deeper conceptual understanding by applying them to new situations; write and speak of their understanding • Application – make meaning/connections across disciplines; apply math concepts to real-world, authentic situations • Dual Intensity – balance practicing and understanding; value in drills and numerous opportunities to apply skills and concepts

20. What Does this Look Like? • Do you see evidence that teachers are developing the students’ capacity to make sense of multi-step problems and persevere in solving them? • Is it obvious that RIGOR in math class means practice in fluency and RELEVANCE is evident in real world questions being asked and answered? • Is the emphasis on process in math? Can they summarize, speak about & write the process? • Is academic vocabulary front and center? • Are the students engaging in mathematical discourses? Can they express mathematical reasoning? • Do you observe the students’ capacity to use appropriate tools? • Is formative assessment ongoing? Are teachers constantly evaluating student learning/understanding and shifting their teaching accordingly? • Are assignments coherent and do they contain different types of problems that are presented in a simple to complex format?

21. Key Shifts of the SAT Re-Design • Evidence-based reading and writing is required. • Source documents originate from a wide range of academic disciplines. • Vocabulary is focused on words that are widely used in college and career contexts. • The essay IS OPTIONAL and measures students’ ability to analyze evidence and explain how an author builds an argument to persuade an audience. • Math draws from fewer topics; students must study these core math areas in depth. • Students must analyze both text and data in real world contexts. College Board

22. What does great teaching look like? On a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the most frequent… How frequently are you observing, both formally and informally, evidence of these 21st century instructional shifts/SAT instructional shifts? Do your observations provide evidence of teacher collaboration across disciplines?

23. What do great teachers do?

24. Assessment • A learning goal or standard is only as good as the instructor’s ability to imagine what it would look like when it is being met. (Fine, 2010) • Instruction refers to the set of teacher-determined activities carried out in an effort to get students to accomplish a curricular outcome…it is the means by which students attain a curricular end. (Popham, 2008) • Formative Assessment is a means to instruction that’s a better fit for student needs, not an end in itself. (Tomlinson, 2014)

25. Summative & formative • Summative Assessments are cumulative evaluations used to measure student growth after instruction. They are usually administered at the end of a unit, semester or course to determine whether learning goals have been met. High quality summative information can shape how teachers organize their curriculum. (adapted: Coffey) • Formative Assessment is a planned process used by both teachers and students during instruction that provides assessment-based feedback enabling both teachers and students to make adjustments that will ultimately improve students’ achievement. (adapted: Popham,2008) • Formative Assessment can become the most powerful factor in students’ success on summative assessments.

26. What Can Formative Assessment Look like? • Exit/Admit Tickets: based on a teacher-posed question at the end of a class or a reflection on the previous night’s homework or what they learned and what they need for tomorrow completed on an index card in less than 5 minutes…(limitless) • Socrative: a free app for formative assessments including exit tickets, quick quizzes, games… immediate feedback • Journals: students are required periodically to write their thoughts/feelings about their own progress…about a homework assignment…about a topic… • Homework • Worksheets • HANDS UP is NOT a form of formative assessment

27. More formative assessment examples… • Bounce: take an idea and bounce another off it..That reminds me of…I agree, because…Another example is when… • Sum it up: rephrase... I hear you saying… So, if I understand you correctly… • Conferencing • Online sticky notes is a free service that allows you to create a canvas of online multimedia sticky notes. In addition to basic text, the sticky notes you place on your canvas can contain videos, images, and file attachments http://linoit.com/users/vamara/canvases/March%2025 • Four Corners: strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree • As I see it: uses varying sentence stems like I was most impacted by…The angle changes because…Based on the data, I predict…which forces student thinking on their own knowledge or opinions

28. What Does great Teaching Look Like? Is formative assessment ongoing and driving instruction? On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the most frequent… How frequently do you see examples of formative assessment when you visit the classes? Can you share what types of formative assessment you see most often?

29. WHY UNIT PLANNING? • It forces teachers to be standards-orientated: • Teachers and students are more apt to hit a target that is clear and holds still for them (Rick Stiggins) • It forces teachers to make difficult decisions about what to teach, when to teach it, and how to evaluate if the students learned it. • It keeps teachers on pace to reach our goals. • It provides an opportunity to stimulate student interest through overarching content questions that are relevant to students. • It provides planning for differentiating instruction in the unit. • It provides opportunity for teachers to plan on how they will integrate Catholic social teaching in the unit. Source: teachersasleaders.org

30. Essential Elements of a 21st Century Integrated Unit Title/Theme/Grade/Subject Timeline Overview Standards Essential Question(s) Catholic Identity Element Objectives ANCHORS Types of Formative Assessments Summative Assessments Texts/Vocabulary Instructional Activities/Formative Assessments Materials/resources needed Cross-Curricular Links

31. What does great teaching look like? On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the highest level… Where would you place yourself and your teachers in your understanding of unit planning, standards and using them to create targeted learning goals.

32. What Do Great Teachers Do Differently? • https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/teachers-are-miracle-workers

33. Great teaching lessons that integrate instructional shifts

34. A different perspectiveHOW IS THIS ASSIGNMENT DIFFERENT FROM A TRADITIONAL English class assignment? ELA High School: WRITING FROM SOURCES Topic: Was the Federal Theatre Project Successful? Your Task: Carefully read each of the five texts provided. Then, using evidence from at least four of the texts, write a well developed argument regarding the success of the Federal Theatre Project. Clearly establish your claim, distinguish your claim from alternate or opposing claims, and use specific and relevant evidence from at least four of the texts to develop your argument. Donotsimply summarize each text.

35. A different perspectiveHOW IS THIS ASSIGNMENT DIFFERENT FROM A TRADITIONAL English class assignment? • Write an informative/explanatory essay that compares and contrasts aspects of tragic illumination in the tragedies of Romeo and Juliet and Antigone. State your thesis clearly and include at least three pieces of evidence to support it. Please write your first draft on a shared online document in order to receive preliminary feedback form your classmates before submission. • Compare Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address with Martin Luther King Jr.’s Address at the March on Washington and explain why these are both considered great speeches. Be specific and cite from the texts. Begin by identifying the elements of a good speech. State your thesis clearly and include at least three pieces of evidence to support it. Please share your initial thoughts on the classroom blog in order to get feedback from your classmates. adapted: Jossey-Bass, 2012

36. A different perspectiveOpen Ended Algebra I Sample: Bank X charges 2% interest on the first $2,000 that a person borrows, 4% on the next $2,000, and 6% on any loan amount borrowed beyond the first $4,000. Bank Y simply charges 5% interest on all loans. A) If a person with a loan from Bank Y paid $126 in interest, how much did that person borrow? Show your work. B) If a person with a loan from Bank X borrowed $6,000 how much interest must be paid? C) If a person with a loan from Bank X paid $126 in interest, how much money did that person borrow? Show your work. Explain your reasoning.

37. Reporting Category 2: Graphing and Interpreting Linear and Non-Linear Relations • The graph below shows the distance traveled by a car over time. • Describe the speed of the car from A to B. • Describe the speed of the car from B to C. B C Distance A Time

38. A different perspectiveSample Religion Assessments • Compare and contrast the law-abiding Creon in Antigone to the Pharisees found in Matthew 12:1-8 in a five paragraph essay using at least two direct quotes and ten vocabulary words. • Created by high school teachers - CCCII 2013 • Greek Tragedy Grade 10 • Write a script of a short debate between Aquinas (using previous knowledge from the Middle Ages) and Machiavelli concerning their thoughts about political philosophy. • Created by high school teachers-CCCII 2013 • Italian Renaissance Grade 10

39. What Type of Learning Environment Do You Most Consistently Observe? “A learning environment is simply one that makes learning possible.” Peter Young and Colin Tyre, Teach Your Child to Read “You won’t fail on my watch!” Any Master Teacher “Because of you I didn’t give up!” Any Student

40. What expectations do you place on yourself in the classroom? • “To provide a safe, nurturing, stress-free environment for students.” • “To teach the daily lesson in a way that all students can easily understand.” • “To have passion for what I do, take pride in my teaching, and strive to constantly hone my craft.” • “To inspire confidence, worth, & hope in each student through personal acceptance, personal value, and personal recognition.”

41. Putting it all together… • When you teach INTENTIONALLY, your students will grow intellectually, becoming more independent learners and, not inconsequentially, meeting expectations embedded in standards and curriculum. • When you challenge all students to think and provide them with opportunities to build their knowledge base, to grow intellectually and to develop necessary skills, you transform a belief in the equality of opportunity into “equality of instruction” ( Frances Wright, 1829). • Teaching all students to think strategically and critically is to teach equitably. Eleanor Dougherty Assignments Matter 2012

42. I also want to encourage you, educators, to seek new, unconventional forms of education, so as to comply with the needs of places, times and people. This is important; in our Ignatian spirituality: always go a step “further” and never be satisfied with conventional things. Seek new forms in accordance with the places, times and people. I encourage you to do this.

43. Teachers’ Curriculum Conference 2014-2015 https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/teach-for-the-fire

45. Formal Classroom Observation Summative Performance Appraisal Administrator/Teacher Application CECC 2014