Debriefing Observations

Drawing from my March 28th post, I'd like to share some thoughts about debriefing observations. With strong evidence-based observation notes in hand, the purpose of a classroom observation debrief, from a mentoring perspective, is to surface the mentee's thoughts about the lesson and the evidence collected in the observation notes themselves. The point is not to tell our colleagues what transpired. The point is to reflect on the evidence of what transpired, surfacing areas of success, challenge, ongoing focus, and next steps in conversation.

As mentors, a critical preparatory step we can take prior to the observation debrief is to review our observation notes and come up with a few rigorous questions to guide the meeting with our mentee. I italicized the word "few" for a reason: too many questions can take the debrief into the realm of overwhelm for our mentee rather than that of supportive inquiry.

In crafting debrief questions, it is helpful to write them down and reflect upon them. Are the questions truly questions, or are they judgement-laden statements framed as questions? Taking a hard look at our questions and being sure they are in fact questions that open up thinking and reflection is essential.

Here's a simple example that gets at my point. Contextually, let's say you observed a teacher's classroom wherein a portion of students in the class were not participating in an interactive portion of the lesson. Your notes show this - including a seating chart detailing the nature of student participation during the interactive segment of the lesson. Your notes also include selective scripting of the lesson, detailing the nature of the teacher's instruction and the nature of student participation in response to that instruction.

These notes can lead to judgment - and a judgmental question such as:

What do you plan to do about the students at the back of the room who are distracted and not learning?

The above question, written down and reflected upon, can be reframed as:

What do you notice about this section of notes focusing on the students who are seated at the back of the room?

Be prepared to pause and wait for answer.

The notes themselves reveal that students at the back of the room are not participating. If your mentee does not see this, point out what you saw according to what the notes reveal. Then move the conversation towards problem solving and naming next steps.

What is the nature of their participation?

What are some next steps you might take to address this issue?

Again, pause and wait for answer.

Anticipate making a suggestion or asking a clarifying question as appropriate based on your mentee's response. Also be prepared to troubleshoot with your mentee, framing possible next steps together and writing down relevant ideas on a Collaborative Assessment Log* or other note-taking tool.

Finally, you may decide that you'd like to move the conversation towards verbatim teacher instruction before the debrief comes to a close.

Let's take a look at your instruction during this section. What are your first thoughts about the nature of your students' participation based on what the notes capture in terms of your instruction?

As always, be prepared to pause and wait for an answer. Perhaps the teacher shares that the instruction was somewhat confusing in retrospect. Such a response is an entry point for rethinking the nature of the instruction for greater clarity. Perhaps the conversation moves towards revising the original lesson plan, or looking forward to the following day's lesson for revision. Perhaps an instructional scaffold was necessary to enhance clarity and that can be designed collaboratively. Ultimately, the conversation steers again towards achievable next steps.

Of course, we cannot control the exact outcome of any conversation with our mentees. From just one well crafted question encouraging reflective thought, the conversation can move in an unexpected direction - one we would have never anticipated. This is exciting. When we train ourselves to let go of rigid personal outcomes, a wide space opens up for learning.

It is our job to steer the conversation. Steering is different than controlling. We come into every conversation with a clear idea about key points we'd like to surface and a clear intention to move the conversation through three essential phases: framing the problem or area of focus, surfacing possible solutions or areas to explore, and naming achievable concrete next steps to take before the end of the meeting.

We have the capacity to enter every conversation with a genuine interest in what our mentee thinks about his or her teaching practice - thus, the importance of well crafted questions that enhance inquiry rather than enforcing our opinions. In this way we steer the work respectfully and maintain an underlying expectation that our mentee is a thoughtful professional who will take thoughtful next steps to improve practice. Perhaps that next step is to ask us for direct advice on what action to take - but at least in creating the space for our mentee to make such a request, we position them as autonomous decision makers.

Laura Lipton puts it like this: "The kinds of questions we ask novices become theirs over time." I believe this is at the heart of our work as mentors.

Thanks for reading.

Alison

*The Collaborative Assessment Log is a New Teacher Center Formative Assessment System mentoring tool.

Portfolio Completion Deadlines

BTSA and Intern Portfolios are due on Monday, June 21st at New Teacher Support and Development, Sankofa Academy, 2nd Floor, 581 61st Street, Oakland.

To be clear, portfolios are to be completed by:

Year 1 BTSA Participants - required

Year 2 BTSA Participants - required

Year 1 Interns who elect to complete one

If you have questions or concerns about any aspect of BTSA or Intern program portfolios, please contact your NTSD liaison.

Observing - Using Evidence

How many of us have received observation feedback about our teaching or observation notes that were riddled with the observer's ideas about what happened in our classes, rather than some straightforward evidence-centered notes capturing what they saw? How many of us have gotten feedback that sounded something like this: "You are doing such a great job!" "Your lesson was strong - I loved it!" "You are trying really hard, but your lesson was off pace." "The students were not engaged" or "The students were engaged."

Now, I'm not one to say that a kind word or an opinion about improvement is to be excluded from observation feedback completely, but such feedback, especially if it stands alone without some captured evidence for collaborative reflection with the observer, leaves little to go on regarding reflective thought. I believe observation notes that capture as much detailed evidence as possible about what transpires within a given lesson - around a clear area of focus for the observation - is perhaps the strongest entry point to facilitate thinking about pedagogy with ANY teacher.

The two observation techniques I use most often are Selective Scripting and Movement Patterns/Seating Chart. When using Selective Scripting, teacher and student actions, around an select observation focus, are noted in two separate columns labeled "T" and "S". The time is noted on the side. The Movement Patterns/Seating Chart includes a drawing of the layout of the classroom and then involves noting evidence of what is going on in the class, usually with shorthand.

After years of conducting at least 500 evidence-centered observations, I've found that keeping the focus on writing down what is happening, as exactly as possible, leads to a few important outcomes. First, I always notice something about my mentee's classroom and students that I never recognized before as a result of the evidence I'm capturing -- this opens up future topics for conversation and a deeper understanding of my mentee's professional growth potential. It often leads to mentees noticing something about their classroom practice that they never noticed, either. I've witnessed many, many big "a-ha" moments when teachers review the observation notes I've gathered for them. Additionally, by virtue of capturing evidence, rather than opinion, it often happens that trends around equitable participation, equitable access to the curriculum, the nature of teacher talk, the nature of student talk, the nature of teacher questioning, learning needs of English language learners or special populations students, or the impact of teacher actions on student behavior are revealed. This is important, because the evidence speaks for itself, and if my mentee doesn't see it, I can then coach him or her to see it. From here we can often problem solve together around next steps to take pedagogically.

Here are a few ideas for capturing evidence when observing:

• Use exact numbers -- numbers of students with their hands raised, numbers of students who are present, number of minutes a teacher gives for an activity and the number of minutes it takes, number of available or unavailable materials, etc.
• Note the time regularly and randomly - this can be used to reflect on pacing in the debrief
• Use direct quotes
• Use student names when possible
• Capture exact student language - especially when they are working in small groups
• Capture exact student questions and "side talk" - especially when the student is confused
• Use drawings of the room layout to note where the teacher moves, to tally nature of student participation, to record which students are absent, to quote students based on where they sit.
• Note where boys and girls are sitting and capture their levels of and nature of participation if appropriate for the observation focus.
• Capture specific notes about focus students whenever possible.
• Talk to students quietly during independent practice time about what they are doing, what they understand or don't understand, what questions they still have, what they are learning, etc. Write down the questions and the students' answers.
• Use shorthand -- some shorthand I use includes S for student, T for teacher, R for redirect, A for answer, CO for called on, an up arrow for hand raised, a down arrow for called on, ? for question. Often the shorthand emerges within the observation based on what patterns are emerging that need to be captured. Just be sure to make a list of what the codes mean.

Debriefing observations will be the topic of my next blog entry. The debrief is a world of its own - but I'll sign off by saying that the notes are the entry to a collaborative conversation that consistently leads to learning and next steps when they are treated as such. Capturing precise, thorough observation notes lend themselves to an engaging, thoughtful debrief.

If you have any tricks or strategies that have proven effective when taking observation notes, please share them in a comment!

Thanks for reading!

Alison.

The Pre-Assessment Iceberg

I mentioned the Pre-Assessment Iceberg in the November Case Study Students entry on this blog. The Pre-Assessment Iceberg is a FAS Coaching tool that is an excellent guide for thinking and sharing about a student in a very holistic way. I find the use of this tool to be helpful for me as a mentor, because it facilitates a discussion that will generate information about the focus students my mentee is choosing, as well as information about what my mentee knows and doesn't know about pre-assessing student strengths, language levels, academic performance, and learning needs.

If you have been coaching with NTSD for several years, it is possible that you have not yet been introduced to the Pre-Assessment Iceberg. It is a newer FAS tool. If you would like more information and guidance on how to use it, contact your NTSD liaison.

Analyzing Student Work

As I mentioned in an earlier post, "Creating Challenge," the second half of the school year is a time that tends to be rich with inquiry into teaching practice. Mentees have identified and reflected on their goals, have developed a sense of flow in their classrooms, and have a clearer understanding of the scope and sequence of their unit planning. The efficacy of those unit plans, as well as potential differentiated refinement, is powerfully revealed by looking at student work.

During the second half of the school year, I make a concerted effort to look at student work as often as possible. I'm finding that in each mentoring session as of late, when a colleague brings up a point about student understandings or misunderstandings, I'm asking them if they have a few pieces of student work that can demonstrate their point. The work itself provides the evidence around which our problem-solving conversation can focus and proceed. Often looking at only 3 or four pieces of student work that reveal a range of achievement can lead to direct next steps a teacher can take with regard to instruction, lesson planning, checks for student understanding, or professional development.

As we underscore in our mentor trainings and forums, the process of analyzing student work involves these key steps:

• Establishing the standard for student work
• Analyzing the work and sorting the work according to demonstration of achievement of the standard (Far Below, Approaching, Meeting, Exceeding)
• Identifying the performance of students (both what they can and cannot do; what they understand and do not understand based on the work)
• Naming the students' learning needs based on these findings.
• Answering this question: How can I differentiate instruction to meet those learning needs?

In this way we plan with students' actual learning needs in mind rather than what we "think" is the next right step for instruction.

Troubleshooting Student Work Analysis:

• Focus Students! Remember to always include the work of focus students in any student work analysis. The actual evidence of their work produces a non-judgmental evidence based entry point to address the specific learning needs of language learners and special needs students. Their work also consistently opens up reflection concerning effective pedagogical strategies to provide equitable access to the content standards for all students.
• Establishing buy in - sometimes mentees are nervous about looking at student work - it can bring up a lot of vulnerability about their instruction. It's important to be aware of this and sensitive to our mentee's responses. I pay careful attention to entry points through which I can suggest looking at student work. The entry points often sound like this: "My students seemed to be very confused about today's assignment and I'm not sure why...;" "Even though I aligned my learning targets to the final assessment, my students didn't do so well on the test. I'm really frustrated about it...; "I tried out a new instructional strategy today. Some of the students were really engaged, but some of them weren't...." My response sounds something like this: "I have a hunch their work will show us some of the answers to your questions. Can you think of an assignment that we can look in one of our next sessions?"
• Finding the time - a complete Analysis of Student Work (looking at a whole class set of work) takes time. Sometimes it can take two sessions. It is important to put the Analysis of Student work on your calendars and on your Collaborative Logs. Teacher's next step - pull together the work; Mentor's next step - follow through on doing the analysis.
• Getting through it - as a mentor, it's important to be intentional about monitoring the time and moving on to the next step of the analysis to get to the important last step of differentiation. I recommend having a clock front and center and maintaining focus on each step of the process for a set amount of time. Establish the amount of time for each chunk at the start of your session together. If I know our time will be limited, I ask my mentee to select out 2 samples of student work that demonstrate each of the Far Below, Approaching, Meeting, and Exceeding categories.
• Having the Work to Analyze - Some teachers use binders and all the student work is in that binder. If this is the case, I ask them to have the students turn in the work that we are going to analyze, ask the teacher to photocopy it and then return it to their students. Sometimes the work is an essay and teachers want to get them back to their students promptly - and there is a lot of work to copy. In this case, I ask them to choose 2 samples of student work that demonstrate each of the Far Below, Approaching, Meeting, and Exceeding categories and copy them. Sometimes the work is an exit ticket and the teachers read them and toss them - that one is easy - simply remind your mentee to remember to keep the exit tickets for the analysis.

Any other pointers on troubleshooting the Analysis of Student Work are welcome - please write a comment.

Of course, looking at student work is important and useful at any time of the year. It is perhaps the most powerful conversation topic to put on the table to move teacher practice. If you haven't analyzed student work yet, I encourage you to establish an agreement with your mentee to do so in the coming weeks.

Thanks for reading!

Alison.

When Are the Year Two Coach Trainings?

There are three one-day training sessions in the New Teacher Center Year Two Coach Training. These trainings were offered in the summer. They will also be offered once during the school year in the coming weeks.

Training dates are listed above in the "Save the Date" section of this blog.

Go to On Track via the OUSD Intranet to register.

These trainings are for our coaches in their SECOND year - or those in their third year or beyond who have not yet attended them.

Relational Trust

In the sidebar of this blog, I mention that my colleague and friend, Claudia Heron and I, presented at the New Teacher Center Symposium earlier this month. Our topic? Ground Rules: Clarifying and Enacting Moral Purpose for Excellence in Leadership and Mentoring Practice. That is a mouthful, for certain. The session proved to be rich with insight and discussion and participants were inspiringly willing to dive into the topic - one that we saw as potentially charged as presenters - but rich with possibility. Why? Because we intended to surface the stuff that inspires our work - that within which we deeply believe. We were pleased to witness the complete opposite of "potentially charged." Participants wanted to engage in discussion about this most important of topics. How often do we get to talk about what called us to this work to begin with? Why we get up in the morning? What we hope to offer?

How does this relate to ground rules? It goes something like this. What does trust mean? When one looks up the meaning, we find that trust means "relying on the integrity or justice of a person; confidence." Look up integrity and we find "soundness of moral principle and character; uprightness; honesty." (American College Dictionary)

Trust is inherently linked to the alignment of our beliefs to our actions - to our integrity.

Open any book on mentoring or coaching and in the first 30 pages or so, you will find mention of the importance of establishing and nurturing trust in a mentoring relationship. Attend any training on mentoring or coaching and it is likely that trust will come up in the first day - perhaps the first few hours. Looking more deeply at trust, what it means, and how we establish and nurture it through our integrity was the focus of our presentation.

So why does trust matter? This is what I want to share with all of you in this entry. I turn now to the research of Anthony Bryk and Barbara Schneider from their important multi-year study published in 2002 as Trust in Schools: A Core Resource for Improvement. Through conducting qualitative research in 12 Chicago elementary schools, Bryk and Schneider established relational trust as an essential element for school improvement and academic success. In speaking of relational trust, they focused specifically on the adult relationships within a school -- parents to faculty and faculty to parents, principal to teachers, teachers to teachers -- and that these relationships form a sort of interrelational matrix that evokes relational trust when four core elements are present. These elements are respect, competence, personal regard, and integrity.

To take a step back and reflect for just a moment, think about the individuals you trust or mistrust. Do you find it possible to trust an individual who doesn't follow through on his or her word? Do you trust individuals who treat you with respect? How does trust line up with a leader who doesn't speak to incompetence? I suspect you get the gist of this.

Looking at Bryk and Schneider's findings, here is why trust matters.

Relational trust:

• Reduces vulnerability and encourages risk taking.
• Facilitates public problem solving.
• Establishes a professional community of mutual support.
• Creates a moral resource for school improvement.
• Influences belief in the organization’s mission. Bryk & Schneider, Trust in Schools (p. 116-117)

I'm not at all surprised by this list. It's a bit of an "OF COURSE!" in my book. Of course individuals are going to share, be vulnerable, take risks, develop community, and have stronger beliefs in an organization's mission when they trust the people in it. Of course taking risks, collaborating, looking at weakness and changing practice is going to result in change for the better over time. Of course, at schools wherein trust is lacking one would be hard pressed to find whole faculties coming together to engage in cycles of inquiry. Of course.

The research doesn't stop at qualities present in a trust-based institution. Bryk and Schneider also found that relational trust in schools correlated with academic gains.

• Schools with strong relational trust had a 1 in 2 chance of making significant improvements in reading and mathematics.
• Schools with weak relational trust had a 1 in 7 chance of making improvement ONLY IF these schools strengthened trust over the course of the multi-year study.
• Schools with poor relational trust did not improve and had almost no chance of making academic improvements in either reading or mathematics. Bryk & Schneider, Trust in Schools (p. 111)

I like to sum it up like this: Relational Trust Matters.

I've taken the time to share about this because we, as mentors, are integral players in establishing relational trust with our mentees and within the organizations wherein we work. I'd argue that even if a school lacks in overall relational trust in some way, our efforts towards establishing and encouraging a trust-based relationship with each and every mentee will, at the very least, impact relational trust - and all that comes with it - within the context of our mentoring work. At most, we become participants within the matrix of relational trust within an organization - strengthening collaboration and academic achievement for all concerned.

Thank you for all your hard work. It matters.

Alison