Classroom Visits, Peer Observations,
and Instructional Rounds
Fostering a Professional Learning Community Grounded in
Feedback, Reflection, and Collaboration
Or
Loading Our Bus with Lots of Mirrors
Adapted from collaboration between Bo Adams, Bob Ryshke, and Jill Gough
What is Good Teaching?
“One of the greatest barriers to school improvement is the lack of an
agreed-upon definition of what high-quality instruction looks like.”
- Elizabeth City, Richard Elmore, Sarah Fiarman, and Lee Teitel in
Instructional Rounds in Education: A Network Approach to Improving Teaching and Learning
Classroom Visits, Peer Observations,
and Instructional Rounds
WHY DO WE DO THIS?
Why MUST classroom visits be part of any
school that strives for excellence?
1.
2.
TEACHING AND LEARNING ARE INCREDIBLY COMPLEX!
FEEDBACK IS ESSENTIAL FOR LEARNING TO OCCUR!
 In a review of over 8000 studies on feedback, John Hattie (1992) stated:
The most powerful single modification that enhances achievement is feedback.The
simplest prescription for improving education must be “dollops of feedback.”
 Katherine Boles, professor of education at Harvard University, refers to
an “egg-crate culture” in which teachers are not only isolated from one
another in separated classrooms, but they are also insulated from the
opportunity to be professionally observed and from the need to
demonstrate their own learning and growth.
– from Pat Bassett article on www.nais.org, retrieved 8-14-2007
However, most of the data that teachers receive about their teaching
comes in the form of “evaluation” which can feel more like judgment.
What is good, effective EVALUATION?
FEEDBACK
 However, WHO IS OBSERVING can cause people to feel very
different about whether they perceive the information to be “evaluation”
or “feedback.” Mindset (fixed vs. growth) influences us, too.
 How we perceive evaluation/feedback is really a question of whether
we view assessment data as more FORMATIVE or more
SUMMATIVE
 Herein lies one of the main reasons we advocate for peer
observation and instructional rounds
Observations: Formative vs. Summative
 There are many purposes for classroom observations, and these purposes
can generally be categorized as FORMATIVE or SUMMATIVE
 Provide constructive feedback
 Recognize and reinforce outstanding performance/best practices
 Provide direction for staff development
 Provide evidence that will withstand professional scrutiny
 Aid institutions in promoting excellence and terminating
incompetent/unproductive personnel
 Unify teachers and administrators in their collective efforts to educate students
 FORMATIVE – for the purposes of enhancing the professional skills of
teachers = Professional Development
 SUMMATIVE – for the purposes of making consequential decisions =
Quality Assurance
 Q: Is it a choice? Are they incompatible? Mutually exclusive? Separate?
Teachers Observing Teachers:
Peer Visits vs. Instructional Rounds
Peer
Visits
• Simpler to implement
• Provides one observer perspective
• One mirror/sounding board
• Basic on-to-one partnering
Instructional
Rounds
• More complex to implement
• Provides multiple observer perspectives
• Compound mirrors and sounding boards
• Integral to genuine PLC teams
Instructional Rounds
“Only if rounds develops a collaborative, inquiry-based culture that
shatters the norms of isolation and autonomy and if it leads to the
establishment of an ‘educational practice’ that trumps the notion of
teaching as an art, a craft, or a style will rounds transform teaching and
learning.”
- Andrew Lachman in Instructional Rounds in Education: A Network Approach to
Improving Teaching and Learning (2009, p. xi)
Classroom Visits, Peer Observations,
and Instructional Rounds
HOW DO WE DO THIS?
Crash Course in Observation Basics
Observer:
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As an observer, you provide additional “perspective consciousness.” You act as a mirror and sounding board for
the teacher being observed.
More observers = more perspectives, more mirrors, more sounding boards
You are not a class participant.You are a fly on the wall.
Of course, you may gain insights into your own classroom.
YOU ARE NOT A JUDGER (trick mirror)! YOU ARE A DOCUMENTER! (fact mirror)
Become aware that your prior experiences, the novelty of your being in the observer role, your personal style,
and your personal biases may get reflected in your observations.
Develop a system for your observations.You might consider the following:
 focus observation on the class as a whole.
 focus on specific teacher activities: giving assignments, asking questions, guiding student interactions, etc.
 focus on the nonverbal behavior of the teacher.
 focus on specific student activities while holding back any tendency to problem-solve how YOU would deal
with such behaviors.
 focus on individual students, how they adapt to class, etc.
Observed:
As much as possible, BE YOURSELF…avoid putting on a performance. The feedback will be more useful this
way. Ideally, you want information about how you normally are on a normal day.
 “How should I explain the presence of the observer to my students? Being observed can give the impression that
I am not doing a good job, and that someone is checking up on me.”
 YOU ARE NOT BEING JUDGED! YOU ARE BEING PROVIDED WITH FEEDBACK!
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Classrooms are complex environments. We cannot
record everything we hear and observe. To recognize
and to understand how teaching and learning occur
in a classroom, it helps to focus on certain aspects
and dimensions of the classroom experience.
What are you observing?
 Physical Environment
 The Learning Task
 The Students
 The Teacher
Rounds provides “divide and conquer”
opportunity!
Physical Environment
 Sketch and describe the physical layout of the classroom.
Note how students are seated. Describe samples of student
work around the room, if visible.
 What messages are conveyed to the students by the
arrangements of the physical space?
 What are the implications of the physical space for student-
student and student-teacher interactions?
The Learning Task
 Describe the goals of the lesson. How are they communicated?
How will the teacher know whether the goals of the lesson have
been attained?
 What was the planned flow of the lesson? How was it
implemented? What is the pace?
 What are some of the assumptions about students’ prior
knowledge?
 What kinds of curricular materials/ resources and what teaching
strategies are being used?
The Students
 What knowledge and skills do students need to complete the
task?
 What are patterns and levels of participation?
 What are students’ reactions (cognitive, emotional,
social…..) to the lesson?
The Teacher
 How was the lesson introduced? How was the students’
prior knowledge assessed?
 In what ways did the teacher communicate expectations?
 Describe the opportunities for students to receive formative
feedback?
 How did the teacher utilize transitions?
 Describe the teacher’s interactions with students? How did
the teacher manage student-student interactions?
Methods for Structuring Observations

Noting Classroom Organization

Scripting Lesson
 Keep a log of your observations. The observer should take narrative notes of what takes place during the
class session. Feedback that is based on what specifically transpires in the class tends to be more constructive
and less judgmental than feedback that only recounts general impressions.
 Write down observations, without screening what you see, hear.
 Use of a tablet can expedite the process.
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Identifying Problems & Solutions
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Tallying Reinforcement & Correction
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Recording Events Related to Specific Student
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Time Analysis
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Teacher & Student Interaction
 Behavior tallies provide one simple method
 Directions/Response Record
 Question/Answer Record…Wait Time Analysis
 Discussion Analysis
 The observer might also find it helpful to draw a diagram of the classroom setup taking note of where
students are sitting, who participates in the discussion, who is silent, etc.
 The observer should also consider whether the teaching methods are engaging all students, especially those
with apparently different learning styles.
Observation Practice and Feedback
 Eighth-grade science teacher Matt A. has completed a
teacher-directed review of atomic number, nuclear particles,
and atomic mass. A discussion of isotopes has occurred. Then,
Matt had his students collect periodic-chart data and pool
their data together using the TI Nspire graphing calculator.
Now, Matt is guiding his student through a lesson on
resolving why a theoretical graph and a real-data graph
appear different. They are graphing atomic number and
average atomic mass.
 Peer Feedback
 Example 1 (peer visit NOT during this lesson)
 Example 2 (instructional rounds visit during this lesson)
 Example 3 (instructional rounds visit during this lesson)
Put Your Heads Together…
 Protocol for pre-observation
What should an observed teacher tell/write to observers
about what they will see? What classroom attributes could an
observed teacher ask for observers to look for and comment
on?
 Protocol for post-observation
What should an observed teacher include in a reflection
about his/her observed lesson? How will team debrief
lesson?
More Things to Consider
 If using Instructional Rounds, how will you schedule?
 What will be the pre-observation protocol?
 Will you utilize a particular observation tool? Can rounds
members use different observation tools?
 Will the observed be expected to write anything?
 What will be the post-observation protocol? Timing and methods
of feedback?