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

Reflecting on Goals at Mid-Year

In my last entry I made the direct statement that if you haven't had the opportunity to set goals with your mentee yet, the best thing is to just do it. Many of us have, on the other hand, established goals for our work with our mentee earlier in the school year.

January or February is when I usually reserve some protected time with each teacher I'm mentoring to reflect on professional goals and refine our intended work together for the remainder of the year.

Reflecting on professional goals at mid-year is important for few reasons. First, it provides an opportunity to note successes. Looking over our work together from the start of the year, there should be plenty of evidence of decisions made, next steps taken, and successes realized. This is rejuvenating! Additionally, this time for reflection may surface a shift in focus for a particular goal. For example, while at the start of the year a teacher may have been interested in developing cooperative groups in his or her classroom, by mid-year it may be time to look more closely at what and how students are learning within those groups. Lastly, it is simply helpful to take pause and remember the big picture. Our mentee's day-to-day teaching life can easily surface multiple topics for discussion that are based on urgency. While responding to such urgency is an important layer of offering support, we are simultaneously there to facilitate each mentee's broader professional vision for his or her growth and the success of every student in their care.

I've found that it is essential to reserve a day for reflecting on goals. The next time you are with your mentee(s), pull out your calendars and decide a good time to take pause and reflect.

What if We Haven't Completed Goal Setting Yet?

Three words: Just do it. Even if you are goal setting in January, it is always worth it to set goals for your work together. I'd recommend that the goals you set now focus primarily on your intended work together for the remainder of the academic year while taking into consideration your mentee's goals from the start of the year.

Creating Challenge

With the holiday season and a few weeks of much needed rest behind us, this is the perfect time to raise some mentoring conversation topics that create challenge in our work with our mentees. November is perhaps the worst month to take on such an approach - new teachers are often exhausted then, and usually only a day ahead of their classes. The holiday break brings quite a bit of rejuvenation.

Just today, I met with a first-year teacher and he was really happy with how his week was unfolding. He told me about how he was able to reflect on his classes over the break and how he wanted to change them to make them more engaging. As he put it, "I had an epiphany! I was bored in my classes, so my students HAD to be bored in my classes! I've decided I can do something every day to make the content I'm teaching much more engaging. We're doing hands-on activities outside, I'm doing demos more often, we're playing games to learn vocabulary, I'm working on making every wall in my room inviting and about learning. My students love it - and I'm happy today!"

Now with this type of motivation, my mentee was energized to hear about next steps he could take with his room set-up, more challenging approaches to weave into his vocabulary instruction, additional curriculum guides that could extend his hands-on lessons.

So what are some of the steps we can take to create challenge in our work with our mentees?

Here are a few suggestions:

• Dig into looking at student case studies. Look at their student work. Suggest next steps for mentees to reach out to the students' families. Note the questions that come up in your conversations and write them down on a Collaborative Log to follow up on finding the answer. Propose readings related to each case study student's learning needs and share insights together. Link mutual learning to future lesson planning and steps towards appropriate teaching strategies to differentiate instruction.

• Reflect on goals together. Rather than simply reflecting on how successful your mentee is at meeting his or her goals, work together to refine the goals towards more precise next steps. Of course, we celebrate any and all accomplishments that have been made thus far in the year, but the added layer of challenge keeps newer teachers inspired to continue to learn and grow.

• Design an Inquiry Action Plan. Action inquiry provides an opportunity to focus on a key question a teacher may have about a change he or she plans to make in the classroom. Together, you'll decide what kinds of evidence you want to gather to shape answers to that question over time. It's the perfect opportunity to encourage a mentee to try something in the classroom that he or she will stick with and reflect on using such evidence as classroom observation notes, student work analysis, assessment results, and lesson plans.

• Analyze Student Work. This is perhaps the most powerful approach to learning about what students specifically need to enhance their learning. It is a natural springboard towards a mentee making instructional decisions to meet those learning needs.

I find January to be an inspiring month for our work as mentors. It is a time of the year when the work becomes increasingly rich and focused on refining practice.

It would be fun to hear some of your January stories - and some of the successes you have accomplished along the way.

Thanks for reading!

-Alison.