Procedural Understanding of Observing
Academic Language and
Differentiation
Medical interns participate in Grand Rounds
observations in which they view various
situations in action and then debrief with their
instructor.
Here’s your challenge: What do you think
medical interns and preservice teachers have
in common?



When you go into a classroom, what do you look for?
Do you watch the teacher or the students?
What do you think you should look for to determine if
students are engaged in learning?
Objectives
After completing the Exploration section, you should be able
to:
1.
Describe the components of the observation
protocol used in our Video Grand Rounds (VGR).
2.
Describe the VGR process and complete the
video observations utilizing the observation
protocol.
3.
Recognize examples of differentiation in the
videos.
Observation Protocol: Defined
What’s This?
 The protocol is to be completed as you view the lesson
video. It is divided into 3 sections. The first section is the
Context for Observation. The second is the Learning
Environment, Engagement in Learning, and Deepening
Thinking section. The final section is Subject-Specific
Pedagogy section. The guiding observation prompts are:
1.
Did you observe the identified behaviors in each segment? (yes, no)
2.
If “yes”, what evidence influenced your answer?
Take a look:
Observation Protocol:
Learning Environment,
Engagement in Learning, and
Deepening Thinking Section:




Organization
Student Engagement
Deepening Student
Thinking
Affective Quality of the
Classroom
Subject-Specific Pedagogy
Section:







Lesson Goals
Introduction
Instruction
Check for Understanding
Guided Practice
Independent Practice
Closure
Scaffolding the Observation Protocol

Experiences within your program have been purposely designed to
scaffold the learning of key concepts identified within the Continuum of
Developing Expertise (CODE) Student Learning Framework.
SophomorePlanning
Junior 1Planning,
Instruction
Junior 2Planning,
Instruction,
Assessment
Senior 1Planning,
Instruction,
Assessment
Senior 2
Planning,
Instruction,
Assessment
Curriculum
Diversity
Differentiation
(Instruction
and
Assessment)
Academic
Language
Classroom
Management
Co-Teaching (As
applicable)
CODE
Student
Learning
Framework
Take a look:
This is the rubric that will be used when scoring the observation
protocol:
Context For Observation: Defined
What’s This?
 When observing, you need to know the demographic
information of the school and classroom. This information
includes how many students are in the classroom, gender,
ethnicity, socio-economic status, and exceptionalities.
Understanding this context for learning, provides the
observer with additional information when determining the
effectiveness of the observed teaching.

For example, if 67% of the students in the classroom are English
Language Learners and the teacher did not use any visuals when
giving directions, then the observer would check no under question
2 of the Instruction segment.
VGR Process: Defined
What’s This?
 Process in which pre-service students view a series of
lesson videos, complete structured observation protocols,
and debrief with a faculty member following each protocol
completion.

Steps for completing the Video Grand Rounds:





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Review the video’s Context for Observation. (See following Hot Links slide.)
Read the Associated Reading (See following Hot Links slide.)
View the video and take notes. (See following Hot Links slide.)
Complete the observation protocol on BB.
Debrief your observations with your instructor and peers.
Then compare your protocol to the faculty completed protocol.
Think About:

As you begin to view the following videos and
complete an observation protocol, think about your
past experiences in school.

Did your teacher ever differentiate instruction, including
assessments? What are some examples of ways your teacher
differentiated instruction and/or assessments? Why is
differentiated instruction important?
Hot Links:
Classroom Video
Grade/
Subject
Context for
Observation
Associated
Reading
Video #1: ELA Throughout the Day
https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/fifthgrade-class-culture
5th/LA
Washington Elementary School
Berkeley, CA
342 students
Student/Teacher Ratio: 16/1
District Spending: $9,317
Academic Language
http://www.academiclanguage
.org/Academic_Language.html
VIDEO #2 : Main Idea
https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/3rdgrade-ela-lesson
3rd/LA
P.S. 110 Florence Nightingale, New
York, NY
406 students
Student/Teacher Ratio 13:1
$17, 108
Differentiated Instruction (pp
1-7)
http://www.edugains.ca/resour
cesDI/Brochures/DIBrochureO
ct08.pdf
Video #3: 3 R’s: Revolution, Reaction, &
Reform
https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/t
eaching-complex-concepts
4th/SS
Think College Now School Oakland,
CA
279 students
Student/Teacher Ratio: 16:1
$7964
Marzano’s 6 Step Vocabulary
Process
http://www.ascd.org/publicatio
ns/educationalleadership/sept09/vol67/num0
1/Six-Steps-to-BetterVocabulary-Instruction.aspx
Video #4: Skip Counting
https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/skipcounting-with-kindergarteners
K/Math
Lakeridge Elementary School
Seattle, WA
457 students
Student/Teacher Ratio: 15:1
$8,208
Differentiated Instruction (pp
8-15)
http://www.edugains.ca/resour
cesDI/Brochures/DIBrochureO
ct08.pdf
1.
2.
3.
What are the major components of the observation
protocol?
Was academic language taught during the lessons in
Videos #1 and #3? What did you observe that would
support this?
Was the content, process and/or product differentiated
during the two lessons in Videos #2 and #4? What did you
observe that would support this?
Observation Protocol

Three guiding prompts focuses observer on what is seen, not inferred.

Two primary foci are Learning Environment, Engagement in Learning, and Deepening Thinking and Subject-Specific
Pedagogy.

Observer must include if they think the teacher was effective in what they did and why the observer thinks so.
Video Summary
Video #1: ELA Throughout the Day- In ELA Throughout the Day, Ms. Noonan demonstrates a variety of
organizational and motivational methods for promoting ELA in general and academic language in particular.
Video #2: Finding the Main Idea- In the Finding the Main Idea, Ms. Bannon begins with a whole group lesson on
finding the main idea. Once she teaches the concept. She differentiates the practice by putting the students in
their reading groups and assigning leveled texts at the appropriate reading level. She continues her
differentiated instruction as she moves around the room talking to each group and scaffolding their learning.
Video #3: 3 R’s- Mrs. Dimaggio taught her students about revolution, reaction, and reform in history. The students
explored the terms in order to reach a deep understanding of the complex, abstract concepts. The students
used a variety of vocabulary building strategies, cooperative pairing , and problem solving skills to determine
meanings. Students were engaged in the real world problem solving.
Video #4: Skip Counting with Counting Collections- In Skip Counting with Counting Collections, Ms. Latimer uses
manipulatives to help develop understandings of place value. While the students are completing the same
product, a counted collection, the process they use and the number in their collection (content) are
differentiated by individuals and groups.
Round Developers: Joy Stapleton, Kristen Cuthrell
Protocol Developers: Linda Patriarca, Mike Vitale, Kristen
Cuthrell, Joy Stapleton