Bridging the Teaching Gap: Creating Skilled Practitioners

1. Bridging the Teaching Gap: Creating Skilled Practitioners Nancy Frey & Sandi Everlove SDSU TeachFirst

2. Your Goals and Expectations On a 3 x 5 card What are your top 2 goals for this session? -or- What outcomes are you hoping for? What do you want to walk away with as a result of spending 2 hours on bridging the teaching gap?

3. How many of you have participated in a professional development event that did not result in changing instructional practice or improving student learning?

4. We Know What Works • Leading authorities on effective professional development: • Helen Timperley – The “what” of PD • Analyzed 97 studies of PD with demonstrable improvements in student learning • Identified 10 key principles shared by PD that improved learning • Bruce Joyce and Beverly Showers – The “how” of PD • 25+ years studying >200 PD models • Identified 4 key components for effective PD

5. Developing Professional Skills Adapted from Joyce & Showers, 2002 Learning progression

6. Startling Statistics

7. 9/day - The average number of words learned from 18 months on by a middle class child 500,000 - The number of words the average middle class child is exposed to by kindergarten ~2 million/year - The number of words read outside of school by 5th graders in the 90th % ~10 million/year - The number of words read by middle school students who read well 3/day - The average number of words learned from 18 months on by a low income child <250,000 - The number of words a low income child is exposed to by kindergarten ~8,000/year - The number of words read outside of school by 5th graders in the 10th % <100,000/year - The number of words read by middle school students with reading difficulties Startling Statistics

8. Consequences • 50% of minority students do not graduate from high school • 93% of low income students will not earn a college degree • Average yearly earnings: • - advanced degree, $72,000 • - bachelor’s degree, $42,000 • - high school graduates, $26,200 • - non-graduates, $18,826 • 70% of all inmates are functionally illiterate or read below the 4th grade level • 70% of all inmates dropped out of high school

9. Learning New Skills Describe how you learned to do one of the following: - Drive a car - Send a text message - Bake cookies

10. What conditions ensured your eventual success?

11. District Demographics • 27,000 students in 44 schools • 65% of the students are Latino/Hispanic, 16% are Asian/Pacific Islander, 14% are white, and 5% are African-American • 72% English learners • 1999, 37% of students were proficient in reading • One school > 800 Academic Performance Index

12. Three ideas

13. 1. Increase instructional consistency

14. 2. Teach for interaction with you and the content

15. 3. Teach for metacognition

16. The First Idea: Increase instructional consistency

17. TEACHER RESPONSIBILITY “I do it” Focus Lesson Guided Instruction “We do it” “You do it together” Collaborative “You do it alone” Independent STUDENT RESPONSIBILITY A Model for Success for All Students Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2008). Better learning through structured teaching: A framework for the gradual release of responsibility. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

18. The sudden release of responsibility TEACHER RESPONSIBILITY “I do it” Focus Lesson “You do it alone” Independent STUDENT RESPONSIBILITY Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2008). Better learning through structured teaching: A framework for the gradual release of responsibility. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

19. DIY School TEACHER RESPONSIBILITY (none) “You do it alone” Independent STUDENT RESPONSIBILITY Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2008). Better learning through structured teaching: A framework for the gradual release of responsibility. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

20. The “Good Enough” Classroom TEACHER RESPONSIBILITY “I do it” Focus Lesson Guided Instruction “We do it” “You do it alone” Independent STUDENT RESPONSIBILITY Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2008). Better learning through structured teaching: A framework for the gradual release of responsibility. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

21. Time for a Story

22. The Second Idea: Teach for interaction with you and the content

23. Purpose and Modeling

24. The Third Idea: Teach for metacognition

25. TEACHER RESPONSIBILITY “I do it” Focus Lesson Guided Instruction “We do it” “You do it together” Collaborative “You do it alone” Independent STUDENT RESPONSIBILITY A Model for Success for All Students Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2008). Better learning through structured teaching: A framework for the gradual release of responsibility. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

26. Models of What Effective Instruction Looks Like Gradual Release of Responsibility in Action 2nd Grade Geometry

27. Professional Development Outcomes • District API > 800 (811 in 2008) • 32 schools with API > 800 (of 44) • Only three schools remain in PI, two are in safe harbor • 73% of the schools made growth targets for English learners (up from 21% in 2004) • 53% of the students reached proficiency

28. So How Did They Do It? • Established a culture for professional learning* • Assessed teachers’ current instructional practices • Identified a focus for PD based on data • Developed realistic and measurable goals • Identified resources • Continuously monitored and communicated progress • Reviewed and revisited GRR components as needed • *Timperley’s Professional Learning Indicators

29. Three Key Steps to Success • Created a common vision and understanding of what GRR looks like in action among District Administrators, Principals, Coaches and Teachers (Collaboratively constructed Quality Indicators) • Resisted the urge to “cover” all the components of GRR in one year - quality over quantity (i.e., they used GRR for teachers’ learning) • Used Quality Indicators to monitor progress and correct “drift”

30. Agree on Quality Indicators • Quality Indicators Drive Instructional Rounds, Coaching, and Walkthroughs

31. We are all immune to feedback unless we have an agreement on quality!

32. Indicators of Success - Productive Group Work DRAFT

33. Quality Indicator #1 Complexity of Task: The task is a novel application of a grade-level appropriate concept and is designed so that the outcome is not guaranteed (a chance for productive failure exists).

34. Quality Indicator #2 Joint attention to tasks or materials: Students are interacting with one another to build each other’s knowledge. Outward indicators include body language and movement associated with meaningful conversations, and shared visual gaze on materials.

35. He’s engaged…

36. … they’re interacting

37. Quality Indicator #3 Argumentation not arguing: Student use accountable talk to persuade, provide evidence, ask questions of one another, and disagree without being disagreeable.

38. Quality Indicator #4 Language support: Written, verbal, teacher, and peer supports are available to boost academic language usage.

39. Quality Indicator #5 Teacher Role: What is the teacher doing while productive group work is occurring?

40. Quality Indicator #6 Grouping: Small groups of 2-5 students are purposefully constructed to maximize individual strengths without magnifying areas of needs (heterogeneous grouping).

41. Collaborating on Quality Indicators • What 8 months of work to agree on and develop quality indicators got them: • A tool to provide observational consistency • A tool to ensure common language and understanding • A tool to continuously revisit and reassess progress • A tool to onboard new staff • A foundation to revise, build on, and push learning to the next level • AND

42. Collaborating on Quality Indicators • Consistency Interaction Metacognition

43. From Professional Development to Practice • What are the patterns of strength you are seeing? • Are there practices that need to be further clarified? • Do you all agree on what quality looks like? • How can examples of classroom practice be integrated into professional development? • Is the faculty ready for new information?

45. Sandi Everlove TeachFirst www.teachfirst.com Nancy Frey San Diego State University www.fisherandfrey.com