School-Wide Change Through Improved Teacher Instruction

DR. RONALD VALENTI & JESSICA BIANCULLI

Some Universal Concepts in Delivering Effective Student Learning

We want to see students achieve. The learning process is never static.

We want to provide rigorous learning and make our students critical thinkers.

We need vigorous standards that challenge both students and teachers.

We want to ensure that our teachers are competent, qualified and continually grow professionally in order to deliver robust instruction.

Education Lives in a Culture of Change

Education must contend with and adapt to the culture of change.

Dealing with the culture of change requires visionary and practical leadership.

Preparing our students for the changes they must confront is predicated in improving teacher instruction.

Principal as the Learning/Instructional Leader School wide change in effective learning must rely on sound

leadership.

The principal’s primary focus, as the learning instructional leader, is to ensure that the quality of instruction takes place in the classroom.

There is a direct equation with the quality of teaching and student achievement.

There is a direct equation with teacher professional growth, student achievement and the principal’s role as the instructional leader.

Four Essential Skills for an Effective Learning Leader

Interpersonal Skills

Planning Skills

Instructional Observation Skills

Research and Evaluation Skills

Interpersonal Skills Maintain trust and spur motivation

Enhance collegiality-- promotes sharing , cooperation and collaboration

Tasks accomplished through empowerment

Empowerment leads to ownership

Teachers involved in planning, designing and evaluating programs

Planning Skills Begins with clear identification of goals or a vision to work

toward

Part of the planning phase is to assess what changes need to occur. Be a resource provider to ensure successful teaching

Engage people to be involved

Observe what is going on in the school

Instructional Observation Skills Provide teachers with feedback to consider and reflect

upon.

Observations help guide classroom instruction as well as the improvement of instruction.

Research and Evaluation Skills Needed to critically question the success of instructional

programs.

Use of action research.

Through research and program evaluation can be armed with valuable information to make informed decisions.

Discussion

What are you currently looking for in classrooms when you’re observing/doing a walk-thru?

What consistent instructional models do you see in all of your classrooms?

How do you currently communicate instructional expectation to teachers?

Teacher Lens – Guiding Question

HOW CAN I IMPROVE LEARNING OUTCOMES IN MY CLASSROOM?

What Works in Schools Marzano, 2003

Average student - 50th percentile 2 years highly ineffective teaching

Performance drops to 3rd percentile

Average student - 50th percentile 2 years highly effective teaching

Performance rises to 96th percentile

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Consider This Question

Walk through the hallways of any school and you will see there is teaching going on … but, how do we know if there is learning going on?

1. Formative assessments

2. Student-centered environment

Guiding Question

HOW CAN FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT AIDE IN CONTINUALLY IMPROVING

TEACHING AND LEARNING?

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What are formative assessments?

“Formative assessment is a planned process in which assessment-elicited evidence of students’ status is used by teachers to adjust their instruction or by students to adjust their current learning practices.” From Transformative Assessment by W. James Popham (2008)

WHAT TYPES OF ASSESSMENT METHODS CAN BE USED?

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WHAT TYPES OF ASSESSMENT METHODS CAN BE USED?

Selected Response

Constructed Response

Performance Tasks

Personal Communication

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WHAT TYPES OF ASSESSMENT METHODS CAN BE USED?

Selected Response – Exit Ticket

• Which of the following planets discussed today are examples of gas giants?

a. Jupiter

b. Earth

c. Neptune

d. Saturn

e. Mercury

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WHAT TYPES OF ASSESSMENT METHODS CAN BE USED?

Constructed Response – Journal Entry

What questions do you still have about converting a percent to a decimal?

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WHAT TYPES OF ASSESSMENT METHODS CAN BE USED?

Performance Task – Cooperative Learning

Wikipedia reports that 8% of all Americans eat at McDonalds every day. 310 million Americans and 12,800 McDonalds…

Do you believe the Wikipedia report to be true?

With your group, create a mathematical argument to justify your position.

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WHAT TYPES OF ASSESSMENT METHODS CAN BE USED?

Personal Communication – Think- Pair-Share

During instruction, asking questions to check for understanding-

“What operation might you use to solve this problem?” Explain why you chose this.”

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WHAT TYPES OF ASSESSMENT METHODS CAN BE USED?

Selected Response

Constructed Response

Performance Tasks

Personal Communication

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• Which types of assessment methods are commonly used in your classroom? • Which method could be utilized more often? • How does this impact principal walk-thrus?

Guiding Question

HOW CAN I CREATE A MORE

STUDENT-CENTERED, INQUIRY-BASED LEARNING ENVIRONMENT?

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Inquiry-Based Learning

A transformation from the typical teacher-centered classroom to:

Student-centered learning

Driven by: problem-solving exploratory learning active engagement

“Hands-On” versus “Inquiry-Based?”

Open Chat

What’s the difference between hands-on learning and inquiry-based learning?

• Why does it matter for students?

• How can we support teachers?

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Questions to Spur Inquiry

1. What do you think?

2. Why do you think that?

3. How do you know?

4. Can you tell me more?

5. What questions do you still have?

5 Powerful Questions Teaches Can Ask Students

October 31, 2013 - Rebecca Alber http://www.edutopia.org/blog/five-powerful-questions-teachers-ask-students-rebecca-alber

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Also can be used as

formative assessments!

Small tweaks…

Teachers lens:

1. Ambiguous directions – when appropriate

2. Less support – but ask questions

3. Think time – not just “wait” time

Leader lens:

1. Is it the “Sage on the Stage”

2. The “Sit and Get”

3. Or the “Create and Learn”

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Stanford’s Spark Truck “When kids are successful in school, that’s great. But we’re

interested in seeing kids fail.” – Eugene Korsunskiy

See: http://sparktruck.org/about

Stanford’s Spark Truck “What we’re doing is creating a prototyping mind-set. You try

something, you fail at something, you keep trying. We want kids to know it’s ok to make mistakes along the way.”

Elements of Innovation

• Brainstorming

• Teamwork

• Prototyping

• Invention

• Building

• Sharing

Source: Hochmann, D. It’s a Gas, Gas, Gas. (January 2013). Spirit Southwest Airlines Magazine.

Debrief- Failure is an Option!

What school-wide structures need to be in place to support this shift?

What type of support will our teachers need?

• Parents?

• Students?

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Thank you for your participation!