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Evidence Based Observation

Lead Evaluator TrainingPart 2 – Session 1

March 5, 2012Welcome Back!

Have you signed the roster?

“Homeplay” Practice collecting evidence of “engaged

learners.”

Examine an observation that you have completed, looking for evidence and bias/opinion.

Identify the presence or absence of “engaged learners” in your current observation tool.

Your goals and questions…

1. What would be evidence of “engaged learning?”

2. What are the attributes of engaged learning?

3. How many students should be engaged?

Questions everyone in the room should be able to answer about engaged learners…

1. I want to incorporate what I have learned about engagement into my observations.

2. Prior to the next session, look for engaged learners in at least three classrooms.

3. Encourage teachers to refocus on engaging all learners.

4. Conduct walkthroughs looking for engaged students.

5. Help teachers design lessons to maximize student engagement.

6. Be more consistent with the identification of engaged learning.

Some of your goals…

Explain the difference between current practice and evidence based observation

Identify and define criteria for effective instruction around which evidence collection will be focused

Describe strategies that a district could employ to increase the quality of evaluations and the agreement of evaluators.

Today’s Outcomes:

Continuum of Engagement

TEACHER ONLY

SIMULTANEOUS ACTIVE

PARTICIPATION

OPTIONAL STUDENT

PARTICIPATION

OCCASIONAL TEACHER DIRECTED

PARTICIPATION

Ready for more practice?

4th grade Science Lesson

Students will be able to: identify the components of a series circuit

connectioncompare the components of a series circuit with the

components of a circuit connection

Evidence Collected:

The teacher stated, “Last week, can you tell me what you were building?” “What did we build with a bulb? What did we call it when we had some components?” One student answered , “a circuit.”

The teacher stated, “What were the components in a circuit that you built?” The teacher then called on Eric to respond.

Evidence Collected:

The teacher stated “What do you think these poles represent?” Students can be heard saying, “North and South”.

The teacher stated “Here’s the challenge for today, can you get two bulbs to light at the same time?” All students took out a graphic organizer and were directed to draw a schematic of their prediction of what the circuit would look like in box one.

Students were seated in quads. The “getters” collected materials for each group. All students were building circuits to test their predictions.

What does it mean when we say “Teach to an

Outcome”?

What does your piece of a particular rubric say about “teaching to an outcome?”

Be ready to share the format of the piece of the rubric you have

Rubrics…..

Pink: Danielson’s Framework for Teaching (ASCD)

Orange: Danielson (2011 Revised Edition)

Tan: Marshall’s Teacher Evaluation Rubric

Green: Marzano’s Causal Teacher Evaluation

Blue: NYSTCE Framework for the Observation of Effective Teaching (Pearson)

White: NYSUT’s Teacher Practice Rubric

Purple: Thoughtful Classroom Teacher Effectiveness (Silver Strong & Associates)

Rubric Work…Teach to an Outcome

The objective of the lesson is clear to the students (Shift from “What do I want them to do today?” to “What do I want them to learn today?”)

All classroom activities are aligned with the objective

What does it mean when we say “Teach to an Outcome”?

Time is used efficiently to get to the learning objective

What? Objectives state what students are expected

to learn in that lesson.

Objectives begin with VERBS that identify the level of thinking required in the lesson.

Learning Objectives

Why? Instructional objectives narrow what students

focus on in the lesson and help the teacher keep activities, questions and responses to student’s aligned.

Learning Objectives

Identify and explain the function of each of the organelles in an animal cell.

Use order of operations to solve these two problems.

Describe strategies that a district could employ to increase the quality of evaluations and the agreement of evaluators

Learning Objectives

Outcomes: Students will be able to: Calculate unit price by dividing the price of the

product by the number of units

Compare unit prices to determine the “best deal”

Explain the mathematical thinking behind what makes it the “best deal”

Video: 6th Grade Math

Video

“What is the unit price?” was posted on theinteractive white board.

Teacher said, “Today we are going to learnabout unit price. What is unit price?”

Teacher stated, “Unit price is how much it costsfor each unit.”

“How do you find unit price?” was displayed on the white board.

Evidence Collected:

The teacher stated to the students, “Make sure your decimals are in the right place.”

The teacher held up two boxes of cereal—different

size boxes.

The teacher said, “You aren’t looking for the better

deal, you are looking for the better price.”

One student worked on the white board solving 420 divided by 5.

Evidence Collected:

The Keys to Teach to an Outcome

Quotations from the teacher Examples/models Descriptions of activities in which the

students are engaged Student quotes

What qualifies as “evidence” for “teach to an outcome”?

More Practice with TTO

Defend WHY you called this evidence of TTO:Collection of EvidenceTeacher stated, “Today I want to talk to you about what writers do to narrow their focus.”

The teacher used a visual of a pizza/pizza slices to illustrate “narrowing the focus”. A whole pizza represented the teacher’s family, a slice represented the teacher’s Grandma Succi, a half-eaten slice represented Grandma’s Succi’s house, and a small biterepresented the teacher’s experience on her grandmother’s swing.

Before the teacher shared a story from her journal, she explained the process she took from deciding to write about her family (a broad topic) down to her decision to write about her experience sitting on her grandmother’s swing (more narrow focus).

Defend WHY you called this evidence TTO:Collection of EvidenceAfter reading her story, the teacher asked, “Did I stick to my focus? Is it about my grandmother’s swing and being on that swing—that special time with her?”

Students read the story aloud with the teacher. Before reading chorally, the teacher asked the students to think about the story they are working on. She asked them to think about whether their story is narrowed enough or needs more narrowing.

The teacher stated, “In a few minutes I’m going to ask you to talk to each other and decide if your story is narrowed or if you need to do some more narrowing.” Students buddy shared.

What did you collect? Defend WHY you called this evidence of TTO:

Collection of Evidence

The teacher worked with two boys during the buddy share time. A discussion took place about the confusion the one student had about the other student’s story. It was decided that the writer needed to work on focusing about the pool—his main topic.

The teacher stated to the class, “Narrowing the focus helps us as writers.” She added “narrowing the focus” to the “How Writers Revise” chart posted in the front of the room.

“Homeplay” Practice collecting evidence of “teaching to an

outcome”

Examine an observation that you have completed, looking for evidence and bias/opinion

Identify the presence or absence of “teaching to an outcome” in your current observation tool

The Keys to Teach to an Outcome

Thank You!See you March 29th*Submitting Evidence*

Feel free to bring computers/electronics

Evidence Based Observation

Lead Evaluator TrainingMarch 6, 2012

Part 2 – Welcome Back!

“Homeplay” (if you have examples, be prepared to share them)1. Practice collecting evidence of “teaching to an

outcome”. Describe what has changed for you as an observer as a result of this workshop.

2. Examine an observation that you have completed, looking for evidence and bias/opinion. Describe what you notice about the types of evidence you are collecting.

3. Identify the presence or absence of “teaching to an outcome” in your current observation tool

Your goals and “keys”…

Keys to Teaching to an Outcome Make the learning objective clear to the

students. Base the lesson on what it is you want the

kids to learn, not do. Focus on the “bulls eye”/keep focused on

the target. All instruction is focused on the objective of

the lesson.

Practice observing specifically to see if the teacher sets a clear outcome and focuses on it throughout the lesson.

Collect evidence to discuss “teach to an outcome” with the teacher. (Did the activities directly relate to the “target”?)

Help teachers recognize/classify if the objective/lesson activities are congruent.

Your Goals:

Identify the key attributes of “effective questioning”

Collect evidence of “effective questioning” Describe multiple ways for collecting evidence of “effective

questioning

Classify evidence of “questions” as Check for understanding Effective questions Objectives Classroom management/procedural

Today’s Outcomes:

What does it look like and sound like when a teacher uses effective

questioning strategies?

Rubric Language (“Proficient”):NYSUT:Most of teacher’s questions are open in nature and engage students in deeper thinking and further discussion.

Teacher responds to students’ questions/comments.Responses challenge student thinking.

2011 Danielson:While the teacher may use some low-level questions, he/she poses questions to promote student thinking and understanding.

Teacher creates a genuine discussion among students, providing adequate time for students to respond, and stepping aside when appropriate.

Teacher successfully engages most students in the discussion, employing a range of strategies to ensure that most students are heard. Critical Attributes: • Open ended questions• Effective use of wait time

Marzano:Teacher engages student with explicit decision making, problem solving, experimental inquiry or investigation task that requires them to generate and test hypotheses.

Teacher uses wait time.

Criteria for Effective Questioning Congruent (relevant) to the learning Invitation for ALL students to think A range of questions are used to extend thinking

from a base of knowledge to higher order thinking that is more critical and creative

Continuum of Questioning

High ConsensusYes/No - Fact

Low Consensus

Closed Open

WAIT TIMEWhat is it?

Why do it?

Video: 5th Grade MathLesson Goal:

“Have them (the students) have a conceptual idea about division of fractions.”

-Bonnie Bushaw

“How can I get 1/3 of a muffin? Oh-I saw someone draw a picture. That’ll work. Take a minute to do what you need to do to figure this out.”

“Ok. Who can tell me how many muffins with a third muffin serving? What do we have for a 1/3 muffin serving?” Student stated: “72”Teacher: “Can you prove it?”Student: “Yes because if you get 1/3 of a muffin, that’s 3 out of one muffin. 24 X 3 is 72.”

Sample Evidence Collected:

Teacher: “Figure out my 24 muffins and divide them into ¼ muffin servings.”

Student: “You just add 24 to 72 and get 96.”Teacher: “She added 24 to 72, the last answer, is

that ok?”

Sample Evidence Collected:

Check for understandingEffective questionsObjectivesClassroom management/ procedural

Classifying to a Rubric

Your Mission: Collect 4-5 pieces of evidence FOR EACH

EFFECTIVE TEACHING CATEGORY. You will be labeling the evidence as “Check for

Understanding,” “Student Engagement,” “Teach to an Outcome” and/or “Effective Questioning.”

Keep in mind that “good evidence” is often quotations or numerical facts having to do with the students or the teacher.

Evidence Collection with Individual Feedback!

The teacher stated, “During today’s lesson, you will identify coins and their values. You will practice calculating the sums of the coins.”(Teaching to an outcome)

The teacher asked, “When would you need to add coins?” (Effective Questioning)

The teacher displayed clusters of coins on the interactive white board. All students wrote the sums of the coins on their individual white boards and showed their work to the teacher when she said, “Show!” (Student Engagement/Checking for Understanding)

Sample:

Video:

Email your 4-5 pieces of evidence (labeled) for each area of effective teaching we have focused on to pwalsh2@btboces.org and bphillip@btboces.org by March 21st.

Practice collecting evidence using the four areas of instruction we have studied

Identify the 3-5 key areas that your district will use when conducting classroom observations

“Homeplay”:

Thank You!Coming Soon: Part 3 Sessions!