This book demonstrates the many ways classroom walkthroughs can be used for continuous, systemic, long-range school improvement. Woven throughout the book are eighteen different models of walkthroughs that have been successfully implemented in schools across the country. An effective tool for improving teaching and learning, this book demonstrates that there is no "one-size-fits-all" walkthrough model. It shows you how to use classroom walkthroughs to meet the specific needs of your school.
Engaging Teachers in Classroom Walkthroughs is a practical guide to planning and implementing brief but focused classroom observations that involves teachers in every step of the process. Drawing from their study of 40 schools in the United States and Canada, the authors show how administrators and teacher leaders moved teachers from resisting to embracing the practice. Readers will learn how to Foster a school culture that supports walkthroughs. Implement the components of successful walkthroughs, such as focus and "look-fors," data collection methods, and meaningful follow-up strategies. Get all teachers involved and actively participating. * Evaluate the walkthrough process and measure its effectiveness. Use walkthroughs to support professional development related to the Common Core State Standards. This book demonstrates that when teachers learn from one another in a cycle of continuous professional growth--through observation, shared inquiry, dialogue, and follow-up--they develop a sense of collegiality and a common mission. By opening their doors to their peers, they also contribute to broader school improvement efforts that positively affect teaching and learning throughout the school.
This book demonstrates the many ways classroom walkthroughs can be used for continuous, systemic, long-range school improvement. Woven throughout the book are eighteen different models of walkthroughs that have been successfully implemented in schools across the country. An effective tool for improving teaching and learning, this book demonstrates that there is no "one-size-fits-all" walkthrough model. It shows you how to use classroom walkthroughs to meet the specific needs of your school.
Instructional Rounds in Education is intended to help education leaders and practitioners develop a shared understanding of what high-quality instruction looks like and what schools and districts need to do to support it. Walk into any school in America and you will see adults who care deeply about their students and are doing the best they can every day to help students learn. But you will also see a high degree of variability among classrooms--much higher than in most other industrialized countries. Today we are asking schools to do something they have never done before--educate all students to high levels--yet we don't know how to do that in every classroom for every child. Inspired by the medical-rounds model used by physicians, the authors have pioneered a new form of professional learning known as instructional rounds networks. Through this process, educators develop a shared practice of observing, discussing, and analyzing learning and teaching.
Change the entire school culture with this collaborative method of supervision! For years, the classic supervision model has frustrated both principals and teachers by fostering superior-subordinate relationships, focusing on teacher conformity rather than growth, or producing checklist data that are irrelevant to the curriculum. The Three-Minute Classroom Walk-Through offers a practical, time-saving alternative that impacts student achievement by cultivating self-reliant teachers who are continuously improving their practice. This method answers principals' key questions: Is the work of my teachers aligned with district curriculum? Are my teachers using research-based "best practices"? Are they choosing the instructional strategies that will promote student achievement?
"This book provides the most informed and transformative blueprint known for building the capacity of teacher coaches and supervisors. Districts across Texas are using the Downey Walk-Through to break through the barrier of the isolated classroom and provide a platform for improved dialogue about teaching and learning." —Susan P. Holley, Associate Executive Director Texas Association of School Administrators Master the Downey Walk-Through for reflective dialogue with this must-have sequel! In 2004, The Three-Minute Classroom Walk-Through introduced educators to the Downey Walk-Through, a practical approach to coaching and supervision that is now widely accepted and used. Offering an expanded examination of the Downey Walk-Through, this sequel to the bestseller focuses on the second part of the walk-through—the reflective follow-up conversation—and clarifies many of the common misconceptions and misapplications of the approach. The authors illustrate how leaders can use observations from the walk-through to engage in professional conversations and encourage teachers to reflect on and improve their practice. Offering extended examples, activities, and guidelines for changing schools one teacher at a time, this resource shows school leaders how to: Provide effective follow-up discourse without criticizing or demoralizing teachers Build collegial and respectful relationships with faculty members Help teachers see their power to become continuously improving professionals Foster a collaborative process between principals, teachers, and other instructional leaders Now educators can enrich their professional interchange as they work together to evaluate, redefine, and strengthen best practices for the classroom!
Educators know that teachers are a school's most essential strength. In Building Teachers' Capacity for Success, authors Pete Hall (winner of the 2004 ASCD Outstanding Young Educator Award) and Alisa Simeral offer a straightforward plan to help site-based administrators and instructional coaches collaborate to bring out the best in every teacher, build a stronger and more cohesive staff, and achieve greater academic success. Their model of Strength-Based School Improvement is an alternative to a negative, deficit-approach focused on fixing what's wrong. Instead, they show school leaders how to achieve their goals by working together to maximize what's right. Filled with clear, proven strategies and organized around two easy-to-use tools--the innovative Continuum of Self-Reflection and a feedback-focused walk-through model--this book offers a differentiated approach to coaching and supervision centered on identifying and nurturing teachers' individual strengths and helping them reach new levels of professional success and satisfaction. Here, you'll find front-line advice from the authors, one a principal and the other an instructional coach, on just what to look for, do, and say in order to start seeing positive results right now. Note: This product listing is for the Adobe Acrobat (PDF) version of the book.
School leaders search for effective and practical ways to live out what research tells us makes a difference in student learning. Research literature is easy to embrace theoretically, but it is much more difficult to turn research into compelling collective action. How do we create the climate where the trusting members of a 'professional learning community' improve the results of their practice? What does it take to be the 'small learning community' that includes students and parents as well as professional educators? What will we do to harness the positive power of 'community' to transform the learning and achievement of all students? This walk-through protocol provides both a process and a tool for inquiry-based professional development, community engagement, and ultimately, student self-direction. It starts with a school's commitment to build an inquiry model that assumes the capacity for extraordinary learning on the part of students, teachers, administrators, and families. The protocol can be employed narrowly_to guide the improving practice of a couple of teachers with a passion for biology, for example_or more broadly. Many of the improving schools highlighted in the chapters of this book chose the walk-through protocol as a frame for school-wide professional development that led to exceptional growth in learning and student achievement. This process allows schools to create a community where all members approach learning as an inquiry and are proactive designers of their success.
The results are in: observations are not improving teaching and learning. Pertinently, the Gates Foundation’s recently completed effort to improve student outcomes through enhancing the teacher evaluation process failed to achieve substantive improvement. The way observations are currently designed serve as an obstacle to teacher risk-taking. Teachers fear negative evaluations when their pedagogy is rated, and they lack faith in being supported by supervisors because a trusting relationship between them and their observer has not been built. Trust-Based Observations: Maximizing Teaching and Learning Growth is a schema changing evaluation model that understands people perform at their best when they feel safe and supported. It begins with twelve, 20 minute observations per week followed by collegial conversations driven by reflective questions, sharing observed teaching strengths, and the building of safe and trusting relationships with teachers. Add the elimination of rating pedagogical skills and replace it with rating mindset, and teachers trust. When teachers fully embrace risk-taking and innovation, it leads to remarkable teaching transformations and improved student learning.
In this important book, education expert Kim Marshall shows how to break away from the typical and often ineffective evaluation approaches in which principals use infrequent classroom visits or rely on standardized test scores to assess a teacher's performance. Marshall proposes a broader framework for supervision and evaluation that enlists teachers in improving the performance of all students. Emphasizing trust-building and teamwork, Marshall's innovative, four-part framework shifts the focus from periodically evaluating teaching to continuously analyzing learning. This book offers school principals a guide for implementing Marshall's framework and shows how to make frequent, informal classroom visits followed by candid feedback to each teacher; work with teacher teams to plan thoughtful curriculum units rather than focusing on individual lessons; get teachers as teams involved in low-stakes analysis of interim assessment results to fine-tune their teaching and help struggling students; and use compact rubrics for summative teacher evaluation. This vital resource also includes extensive tools and advice for managing time as well as ideas for using supervision and evaluation practices to foster teacher professional development.
