Shared Vision: Getting on the Same page: Quality Instruction

and One Page Learning Targets

Dr. Brian Clayton

Mr. Mark Hodges

Mrs. Carmen Buchanan

Norms

Be open to ideas from others.Be an active participant.Avoid side conversations.Cell phones on vibrate. Be present. (Avoid checking your

e-mail/messages and working on other projects except for during breaks.)

Take care of your creature comforts.

5 Word Prediction

On the index card, use the following 5 words to predict the focus for our professional learning today:

1. students

2. teachers

3. content

4. shared vision

5. target

Learning Targets

I can identify characteristics of quality instruction related to the instructional coreStudentsTeachersContent

Excellent Instruction

“If good instruction-in every classroom and for all students-is the central focus of systematic change in education, then districts need to define “goodness” and come to a shared understanding of what is meant by great or even competent teaching.

Change Leadership p. 37

Barriers to Common Understanding

Definitions often are just assumed to be known and based on assumptions that aren’t clear or evident.

Lack of common vocabulary, often the same words have different meanings for different people

So….

Without agreed upon definitions (or at least a clarification of how a person is using the term) and observational data that support the person’s assessment of a lesson, conversations about teaching and learning remain ethereal, reinforcing the teaching profession’s weak craft knowledge base, professional language, and standards of practice. We need agreed upon criteria.

Change Leadership, p 38

Where do we begin for a common vision at Liberty?

By looking at the

Instructional Core

Instructional Core

Teacher

We tend to focus on just one part of the core, the teacher.

Teachers do MATTER most ….more variability within a school than between schools.

Content

Frequently, Content=standards (intended curriculum)

Often not related to taught curriculum

How do we use instructional strategies to teach the content?

Students

As educators, we must look at what students bring to school.

Students need to be engaged in the instructional process; teachers need to tap into the passions of students. Ultimately, it is the student who learns or not.

The key is the RELATIONSHIPS

It is the relationship between the teacher, the student, and the content-not the qualities of any one of them by themselves-that determines the nature of the instructional practice, and each corner of the instructional core has its own particular role and resources to bring the instructional process.

Instructional Rounds in Education p.24

We want to develop a common vision

“The kind of observing we’re talking about here focuses not on teachers themselves but on the teaching, learning, and content of the instructional core.”

Instructional Rounds p. 84

This is what we want to focus on at Liberty-the entire Instructional Core.

Shared Vision of High Quality Teaching and Learning

What? To express our individual visions for high quality teaching and learning

Why? To prepare for dialogue about our respective views of quality teaching and learning

How? Watch a video taped lesson, assign a “grade” to the lesson, and dialogue with colleagues about your respective views

Template

Thinking about the Instructional Core, we would like for you to record what you see based on these three questions?

What is the instructional task? (Content)

What are the students doing? (Students)

What is the teaching doing? (Teacher)

Observational Hints

Look for evidence that the task is engaging and students are engaged in thinking and learning.

Be descriptive.Focus on what is present, not what is

missing or absent. Don’t concentrate on the dog that doesn’t bark.

Lesson to Grade

http://www.gse.harvard.edu/ppe/clg/clg-resources.html

Time to Assess!

Assign this lesson a grade on one of the post it notes at your table.

Human Bar Graph

Discuss with your group why you assigned the grade you did.

Debriefing the Activity

Do you think that we would see a similar distribution in our district?

What can you infer from the distribution of the around the room?

What are the implications?What can we do to address this issue? Will a shared vision of a one page target

assist us?

Liberty’s Scores

A+AA-B+BB-C+CC-D+DD-F

Break

Creating a Shared Vision of Quality Instruction and What Makes an

Impact School

The best jobs…..

The best jobs involve frequent, supportive, encouraging, and warm-hearted conversations. The best workplaces are electric with learning, with the buzz of new ideas, and inherent joy of growth. In the most rewarding work, we use our knowledge, minds, and hearts to do something that contributes significantly to the greater good.

Unmistakable Impact, p. 3

Impact School Concepts

One Page Target Humanity Focus Principal Workshops Teams Instructional Coach Leverage Simplicity Precision

Questions to discuss about your concept

How does this concept work toward sharing a common vision?

How would this concept improve student achievement?

How would this concept improve teacher collaboration and professional learning?

Core concepts of an Impact School

One Page Instructional Target

If a school is going to be an Impact School, a school that is passionately committed to dramatically improving professional learning, everyone in the school must have a clear understanding of the goal and how to get there. Simple plans, with clear goals, make it easier for everyone in a school to work together to dramatically improve teaching.

Core concepts of an Impact school

Humanity Educators nourish humanity by working

from fundamental principles that lead to respectful interchange. However, the strategy of teachers simply being told what to do and making sure it is done by issuing “punitive” measures is one of the reasons why schools do not move forward.

Core concepts of an Impact School

FocusEducators need to engage in frequent,

positive, useful, and humanizing learning experiences. Schools need to be joyful places of learning for everyone-teachers, administration, and students. In an Impact School, everyone works together in very specific ways.

Core concepts of an Impact School

PrincipalThe principal is a learner. The principal should: Have a deep understanding of teaching

practices Have complete knowledge of how the school’s

professional learning (workshops, teams etc.) can help each other achieve mastery of the practices described in the CIP plan and One Page Target

Guide teachers to use professional learning supports successfully

Core concepts of an Impact School

Workshops (Embedded PD)One shot workshops do not lead to lasting change.

Effective workshops focus on a target and are supported by coaching. The way a workshop is conducted dramatically impacts:

How teachers learn Teachers expectations about implementing How engaged the teachers are How much they enjoy the learning experience.

Workshops topics should not be chosen carelessly.

Core concepts of an Impact School

TeamsTeams of teachers come together to

intentionally plan on how to use the high-leverage learning practices. They also employ collaboration structures to ensure that everyone has a say in the development of useful products, formative assessments, and learning maps that can be used right away in their classrooms.

Core concepts of an Impact School

Instructional CoachesInstructional Coaches provide intensive, focused

support for professional learning in order to “do” change. Coaches are “linchpins” for successful change. Coaches need to provide precise instructions, to model in the classroom, to provide positive and motivating honest feedback, and assist implementing best practices in the classroom.

Core concepts of an Impact School

District LeadersDistrict leaders, led by the superintendent,

put teaching at the heart of school reform efforts. District leaders support (ALL of them) support and positively guide as they monitor everyone’s progress to accomplishing a one page target and a shared common vision.

Core concepts of an Impact School

LeverageTeachers know and teach according to an

instructional plan that is aligned with state standards, know well a student is performing, use a variety of instructional strategies to ensure students master and internalize learning, and implement community building based that create safe, positive, and productive learning communities.

Core concepts of an Impact School

SimplicityA simple plan removes distractions so that

only what matters remains. A simple plan finds order in the complexity of school improvement. Clear goals, clear action plans, and clear methods gets the job done.

Core concepts of an Impact School

PrecisionCoaches, teachers, administrators,

professional developers, and other change leaders must have a complete understanding of the practices in the Target and they must be able to clearly explain those practices so that every can learn, internalize, and use them.

Looking at Liberty’s Instructional Core

CIP plan

One page target

However, does it truly address the instructional core and each of the core concepts of being an Impact School?

From Jim Knight’s book Unmistakable Impact

Take 4 minutes to read the excerpt from Knight’s book about creating a one page target.

Highlight and make notations as needed.

Big Ideas

On the back of your article, write 3 big ideas that you gleaned from the article.

Share those with other members at the table.

Liberty’s One Page Target

In departments, you will be brainstorming ideas to create Liberty’s one page target. We want everyone to be on the same page.

We will be looking at four areas:Content planningInstructionCommunity Building/CollaborationAssessment for Learning

Think about it from a helicopter view

If you were in a helicopter looking down on a school, what would you like to see in the classroom from the teachers, students, and the content (Instructional Core)?

What would the teachers be doing?What would the students be doing?

Some examples of a One Page Target

Imagining Quality Teaching & Learning: “Helicopter Visioning” & Affinity Mapping

What? Generating indicators of quality teaching and learning

Why? To surface our collective thinking about indicators of quality teaching and learning

How Individually reflect, record individual ideas on sticky notes, one per sticky note, (first for students, and then for teachers), and use of affinity mapping to categorize group members’ ideas.

Directions

You will be led through the next activity by the following teachers from your department:

Mrs. Miller

Mrs. House

Ms. Garner

Ms. Bush

Mrs. Breeden

Sharing the Big Three from each group

In conclusion

Take back out your Five Word Prediction card and write a Magnet Summary of what you have learned from this morning’s session.

Lunch! Please be back and ready to begin at

12:45 P.M.