Bumping Up Your Walkthroughs:

Recognizing and Coaching for Instructional Rigor

Presented by Alisa Braddy and Denise White

Inspire and Engage Consulting Services LLCwww.inspireandengage.com

Dr. Robert Sylwester

1. Where am I?

2. Who are all these people?

3. What are we going to do today?

The Brain’s Three Questions

About Us

Alisa Braddy Denise White

• Classroom Teachers• Instructional Coaches• Worked with teachers

and principals throughout the US and Canada

Bumping Up Your Walkthroughs

Discuss how walkthroughs can become an opportunity for instructional coaching.

Identify strategic ways to address the lack of rigor you observe during classroom walkthroughs.

Understand the research supporting the effectiveness of these strategies.

Learn specific strategies to provide your teachers with in order to bring rigor to life in their classrooms.

Use Classroom Walkthroughs as a Coaching Opportunity:

It’s What the Teachers Want

• “Leaders can vastly increase their leverage by becoming coaches because coaching is a communication process that connects people to performance.”

• “The higher the level of response and follow up by the supervisor, the higher the staff rated their supervisor’s effectiveness.”

The Heart of Coaching, Crane 2002

Coaching through Walkthroughs

• “The best walkthroughs give teachers relevant real-time data on their instruction…which should be specific and descriptive to the level of performance observed.” (Skretta, 2007)

• Be prepared to give teachers strategies that specifically address the observed behaviors and performance.

What You Have Observed

andWhat You Can

Suggest

What You Have Observed

• Too much teacher-talk• Disengaged or merely

”compliant” students• Ineffective guided practice

Implement Collaborative Structures

#1

“Isolation is the enemy of improvement.”

-Tony WagnerThe Global Achievement Gap

College and Career Ready

In a survey of over 23,000 employees across industries and locations

• More than 2/3 reported that their job requires more collaboration than it did three years ago

• 60% said their day-to-day work requires regular coordination with ten or more people

FCW, Cattie, 2012

Research on Collaboration

• Cooperative learning demonstrated improvement of student engagement and retention of classroom material (Johnson and Johnson, 2009).

• Cooperative learning methods improve students' time on tasks and motivation to learn, as well as students' interpersonal relationships and expectations for personal success (Johnson and Johnson, 2009).

Research on Collaboration

• Collaborative discussion-based practices improved comprehension of the text and critical-thinking skills for students across ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. (Journal of Educational Psychology, 2009)

• Studies show that when students are engaged in collaborative tasks, dopamine is released which serves as a self-rewarding system and increases retention of information (Willis, 2012).

Collaboration Group Work

Working together toward a common goal

Working together toward a common goal

Using a structure that provides:

•Positive Interdependence

•Individual Accountability

•Equal Participation

•Simultaneous Interaction

Reciprocal Teaching

1) 27 + 5 =

2) 19 + 6 =

• Find a partner and identify yourselves as either “A” or “B”.

• Partner A teaches Partner B the first problem while Partner B “coaches” as needed.

• Switch roles and Partner B teaches the second problem to Partner A as Partner A “coaches” as needed.

Playing Card Discussion

1. Draw a playing card from the deck.

2. Form a discussion group with the people who are holding the same numbered card.

3. Take turns answering the questions that match your suit.

4. Be sure to ask whether anyone in your group has anything to add about your topic.

5. Discussion continues until all group members have discussed their topics.

Playing Card Discussion Questions

SPADES: Discuss and describe the main characters in the book.

CLUBS: Discuss the setting of the book. Why is it important to the story? How would the story be different set in another place or time?

DIAMONDS: Discuss the most important event(s) in the book. Why were they so important to the development of the plot?

HEARTS: Discuss the theme of the book. What message is the author trying to communicate and how does he/she do it?

SL.1.Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

Common Core State Standard: Speaking and Listening

Have you ever observed

something like this?

What You Have Observed

• Students with their heads down• Students getting out of their seats at

inappropriate times• Pencil-tapping, chair-rocking, gum-

snapping• ERGO

EmbedMovement into

Instruction

#2

Research on Movement

• A workplace study done by Galen Cranz found that sitting in chairs for more than 10 minutes led to the following:

• Reduced physical and emotional awareness• Decreased productivity• Increased fatigue

Benefits of Movement

• Increased math, reading, writing scores

• Positive personal relationships• Decreased depression, anxiety, fatigue• Decreased disruptive behavior

(from Journal of School Health, Aug. 2011)

Clock Appointments

4. Repeat as directed. Keep your clock!

12

3

6

9

1. Move around the room; stop with signal.

2. Record name of person.

3. Take turns discussing the topic.

Explain how the economic impact of the Great Depression has affected current economic legislation.

Discuss why the Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act was not successful in ending the Great Depression.

Discuss the Laffer Curve and why it is so controversial.

Do you agree with George Bush that Reagan’s economic plan is “Voodoo Economics”? Why or why not?

Box It1.Carry your Box It sheet and your pencil as you

mingle to the music.

2.When the music stops, partner with the person closest to you.

3.Select a box to work on with your partner.

4. Your partner will sign your box to indicate you worked together to fully and completely address that question.

5.When you are finished with that box, hold up your paper and find a new partner.

BOX-IT

1. Explain the causes and effects of the Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act. (pgs. 192-195)

3. Explain why George Bush called Reagan’s economic policy “Voodoo Economics” (pgs. 203-205).

2. Compare and contrast the contemporary Laffer Curve to the Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act. (pgs. 199-202; 192-195)

Directions: Choose a question to investigate with your partner. Discuss and record your answers. Be sure to cite evidence from the text. When you are finished, sign each other’s boxes beneath that question.

Box It1.Carry your Box It sheet and your pencil as you

mingle to the music.

2.When the music stops, partner with the person closest to you.

3.Select a box to teach your partner.

4. Your partner will sign your box to indicate you taught and he listened to you teach.

5.Trade roles.

6.When you are finished with that box, hold up your paper and find a new partner.

BOX-IT

1. 27 X 8 =

5. 67 X 4 =4. 33 X 2 =

3. 93 X 7 +

6. 42 X 4 =

2. 35 X 5 =

Directions: Choose a problem to teach your partner. When you are finished, your partner will sign the box beneath that problem. Trade roles.

1. On an index card, write two things you have learned.

2. At the signal, stand up, put your hand up, find a partner NOT sitting at your table, and give him/her a high five.

3. Listen actively to one another as you share your first idea.

4. When you finish, put your hand up and find a second partner with his or her hand up and give a high five.

5. Share your second idea.

6. Return to your seat when finished.

Stand Up, Hand Up, Pair Up

SL.1.Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

Common Core State Standard: Speaking and Listening

Have you ever observed

something like this?

Uncle Joe drove Caleb to the football game and dropped him off. “I will be back to pick you up when the game is over,” said Uncle Joe. A few hours later, Uncle Joe pulled into the parking lot and watched the students streaming out of the stadium cheering and high-fiving each other. As Caleb climbed into the car, Uncle Joe remarked, “Well, it looks like your team won the game!”

Where did Uncle Joe take Caleb?Who drove Caleb to the football game?

Increase the Rigor of Questioning

#3

What Makes a Question Rigorous?

• Rigorous questions ask students to infer, analyze, and/or synthesize.

CCSS Anchor Standard for Reading

1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.

Creating Text-based Questions

To ensure that questions require textual evidence AND are rigorous, start by drawing a conclusion from the text.

Conclusion

Question

Answer

Question Stems for Text-based Questions

• How does the author let you know that _____?• What in the text helps you understand _____?• Based on the information in the text, how do

you know that _____________________?• What words or phrases in the text help

explain what ______________ means?• What did the character do or say that lets you

know that _________________________?

Uncle Joe drove Caleb to the football game and dropped him off. “I will be back to pick you up when the game is over,” said Uncle Joe. A few hours later, Uncle Joe pulled into the parking lot and watched the students streaming out of the stadium cheering and high-fiving each other. As Caleb climbed into the car, Uncle Joe remarked, “Well, it looks like your team won the game!”

What in the text helps you understand how Uncle Joe knew that Caleb’s team won the game?

“Empowerment is the natural complement to accountability.” Sergiovanni, 2002

Empower Your Teachers Every Time You Do a Walkthrough!

See You in July!

Please come to our session on Thursday, July, 10th:

Next Gen Assessments: Ready or Not, Here They Come!

www.inspireandengage.com

Contact us:

Alisa Braddy and Denise WhiteEducation ConsultantsInspire and Engage Consulting Services

www.inspireandengage.com

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