REINVENTING OUR VISION OF
EFFECTIVE INSTRUCTION
Lisa Pruitt
Program Director, District and School Support Services
OUTCOMES
Understand the importance of the instructional
core
 Understand the steps of instructional rounds
and the learning goals behind each step
 Develop skills in observing teaching and
learning—describing what we see
 Develop skills in debriefing an observation
 Build relationships within the group

WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS
Study your picture, but do not show it to anyone
else.
 The TASK: The group must line up in sequential
order according to picture progression.
 Introduce yourself and then describe your
picture to others and determine your place in
the order.
 Describe the relationship(s) of this activity to
group observation of a classroom.

INSTRUCTIONAL ROUNDS IS NOT A “SILVER BULLET”.
Can…
Can’t
Strengthen and deepen an
existing improvement strategy
Compensate for the lack of an
improvement strategy
Build and reinforce a culture of
improvement
Repair a pathologic culture
Provide clarity and focus for
existing professional
development
Compensate for a lack of
focused professional
development
Build pathways into multiple
leadership roles
Compensate for a weak human
resource strategy
A MEETING OF THREE POWERHOUSES!
Walkthroughs
 Networks
 Improvement Strategies

Instructional rounds sits at the intersection of
three current popular approaches to the
improvement of teaching and learning.
THEORETICAL UNDERPINNINGS

The Instructional Core

Theory of Action
THE INSTRUCTIONAL CORE
STUDENT
TEACHER
CONTENT
Hawkins, 1974; Cohen & Ball, 2003
7 PRINCIPLES OF THE INSTRUCTIONAL CORE
1. Increase in student learning only occurs as a
consequence of improvements in the level of
content, teacher’s knowledge and skill, and
student engagement.
2. If you change any single element of the
instructional core, you have to change the
other two.
3. If you can’t see it in the core, it’s not there.
7 PRINCIPLES OF THE INSTRUCTIONAL CORE
4. Tasks predict performance.
5. The real accountability system is in the tasks
that students are asked to do.
6. We learn to do the work by doing the work, not
by telling other people to do the work, not by
having done the work at some time in the past,
and not by hiring experts who can act as
proxies for our knowledge about how to do the
work.
7 PRINCIPLES OF THE INSTRUCTIONAL CORE
7. Description before analysis, analysis before
prediction, prediction before evaluation.
THEORY OF ACTION
A set of casual connections, usually in the if-then
form that serves as a story line that connects
broad visions with the more specific strategies
used to improve the instructional core.
If we implement _____, then _____ ,and _____.
DISTRICT THEORY OF ACTION
If I/we create environments of shared
collaboration focused on improving standards,
curriculum, instruction, and assessment, then
shared responsibility and shared accountability
will create urgency for change and support
continuous improvement of learning for all
students.
SITE THEORY OF ACTION
If we develop the efficacy of students so that they
become active participants in their learning, then
students will fully engage in school and develop
the habits of mind that lead to successful lifelong
earning.
INSTRUCTIONAL ROUNDS DEFINED
What it is...
What it is not…
Culture Building Practice
Supervision and Evaluation
Instructional Problem-Solving
Implementation Check
A Process
An Event
Descriptive, Predictive,
Diagnostic
Normative, Judgmental
Professionalizing
Bureaucratic
COMMITMENT TO INSTRUCTIONAL ROUNDS
Everyone involved is working on their practice.
Everyone is obliged to be knowledgeable about
the common task of instructional improvement
Everyone’s practice should be subject to
scrutiny, critique, and improvement.
HOPES AND FEARS

Using one green post-it per idea, write what you
are hoping to gain from participation in the
consortium.

Using one pink post-it per idea, write what you
are leery or “fearful” about in regard to your
participation in the consortium.
NORMS
What norms should we have as a group to
maximize the chances of our hopes being
realized and to minimize the possibility of our
“fears” coming true?
4-STEP PROCESS

Identifying the problem of practice

Observing

Debriefing

Focusing on the next level of work
PROBLEM OF PRACTICE

Based on data

Based on dialogue

Based on current work
EXAMPLE PROBLEM OF PRACTICE (POP)
Seventy percent of our students in special education did not pass
the state test last year. In particular, they did not do well on the
open-response questions in both math and English language arts.
In many cases, they left those problems blank. We may not be
providing these students with enough practice on open-response
questions. We may be providing too much assistance so that
when they have to tackle these prompts on their own, they do not
know where to start.
POP: What kinds of tasks are students being asked
to do in class?
THE DISCIPLINE OF SEEING

Evidence of what you see—not what you think
about what you see.

Searching for cause-and-effect relationships
between what we observe teachers and
students doing and what students actually
know and are able to do as a consequence.
JUDGMENTAL VS NONJUDGMENTAL

Sort the cards in your envelope into two piles:


Description includes observer’s judgment
Description without judgment

Talk with a table partner about the defining
attributes of each pile.

Turn two of the judgmental statements into
nonjudgmental statements.
OBSERVING
To build a body of evidence about what is going
on in classrooms and how it seemed to bear on
the problem of practice.
1.
What are teachers doing and saying?
2.
What are students doing and saying?
3.
What is the task?
WHAT’S THE EVIDENCE?


As you watch the following video clip of a 5th grade ELD
classroom, write down:

What the teacher is doing and saying?

What the students are doing and saying?

What is the task?
Share the evidence you saw in the lesson with a table
partner.
WHAT TO TAKE NOTES ABOUT…

Grade, Content, Student Demographics

What are students being asked to do? What are
they doing?

Patterns of interaction

Question types and patterns of response

Time
QUESTIONS TO ASK STUDENTS…

What are you learning?

What are you working on?

How will you know if you are finished?

How will you know if what you’ve done is good
quality?
DEBRIEFING

Read through the two options for debriefing.

Under what conditions would it be appropriate
to use either option?
THE NEXT LEVEL OF WORK
Need to be framed in the context of the district
or school
 Fine-grained—as specific as possible
 Decide how information from rounds will be
shared with staff
 Site leader expected to report back at next
meeting

REFLECTION
Choose a “doodle” picture. Record on the picture
your reflections about:
the discussions we have had
 the connection of rounds to your current improvement
efforts
 ideas you have about the instructional core
 ideas that you want to know more about
 how you learned today
 any other thoughts about the morning, process, or
content

SCHEDULING VISITS
November 30
 January 19
 March 8
 April 5


4-5 classrooms that will offer evidence of a
problem of practice
LOGISTICS FOR VISITS
30 minute overview of context by admin
 90 minutes of observation time
 90 minutes for debrief and next levels of work

TOTAL = 3.5 – 4 Hours 8:00a.m.-12:00p.m.
Need room for overview and debrief
 Work with Lisa for morning treats for group
