A Partnership Approach for Dramatically Improving
Instruction ~
By Jim Knight
Partnering for Success
E. R. Dickson Elementary School
October 21, 2013
Why Impact Schools?
Current statistics tell us:
 Every year, over1.2 million students-that’s 7,000 every
school day-do not graduate from high school on time
 Nationwide, only about 70 percent of students earn
their high school diplomas. The breakdown among
race is 57.8% of Hispanic, 43.4% of African American,
49.3% of American Indian and Alaska Native, and
76.2% white students.
 Only about 29% of America’s eighth-grade public
school students meet the NAEP standard of reading
proficiency.
Why Impact Schools, Continued…
 About 2/3 the prison inmates are high school drop-outs
and 1/3 of all juvenile offenders read below the fourth grade
level.
 Fewer than half of all high school graduates are prepared
for basic high school math.
 UNLESS current trends change, more than
12 million students will drop out during the
course of the next decade-at a loss to the
nation of more than $3 trillion.
WE Can Make an Unmistakable
Impact!
 These data are overwhelming, disturbing, even frightening;
and NOT surprisingly, they have prompted many to seek
someone to blame.
 Rather than pinning the blame on someone, a more
productive approach is to look for ways to make things
better. One area we can improve in schools is professional
learning.
 This book proposes Impact Schools. Every aspect of
professional learning is designed to have an
UMISTAKABLE, POSITIVE IMPACT on teaching and,
hence student learning.
 WE can improve how well our students learn and perform
if our schools become the kind of learning places (for
students and adults) our students deserve.
The BIG 4 of an Impact School
One Page Target:
 Content Planning-this involves unpacking the standards and using
them as a foundation for creating guiding questions that guide
students to the knowledge, skills, and understanding they need to
acquire.
 Formative Assessment-teachers identify simple assessments
(everything from whiteboards to graphic organizers to quizzes to
thumbs-up/down) they can use in the moment during teaching to
gauge how well students understand what is being taught.
 Instruction-teachers implement 6 high-leverage teaching practices
that are fairly easy to implement and can have a powerful, positive
impact on student learning: Effective Questions, Thinking Prompts,
Stories, Cooperative Learning, Experiential Learning, Quality
Assignments.
 Community Building-this involves developing and teaching clear
expectations for all activities and transitions in the classroom,
reinforcing those expectations by frequently praising students and
calmly, consistently, and fluently correcting them when necessary.
Guiding Questions
 What are the BIG 4?
 In what ways will the seven partnership principles help
us make an unmistakable impact at E. R. Dickson?
How can they influence our growth as educators?
 What are the defining features of reflection? How does
reflection relate to improvement of one’s professional
practice? What ‘impact’ will this have?
 How does true dialogue enhance and foster
professional learning? What ‘impact’ will this have?
PARTNERSHIPS
In Impact Schools, educators nourish humanity by working from
foundational principles that lead to respectful interchange. When
people act on the partnership principles, they foster humanity by
recognizing everyone’s value, by encouraging and listening to others’
voices, by providing real choices, and by learning in the context of reallife work. Most importantly perhaps, people working from the
partnership principles see themselves as learners as much as teachers in
any helping interaction. (p. 8)
Helping
Relationships
Teachers are living, breathing, complicated professionals, and they work
with living, breathing, complicated young human beings. To bring about
improvements we hope to see, we need to recognize--in fact, honor-- the
complexity of providing support within professional relationships. In
education, effective professional learning must be grounded in an
understanding of how complex helping relationships can be. (p. 20)
Partnership Principles
Unmistakable Impact
(Chapter 2)
1. Equality
2. Choice
3. Voice
4. Reflection
5. Dialogue
6. Praxis
7. Reciprocity
Activity #2:
What?
To deepen understanding of
the Partnership Principles
Why?
To maximize our learning
and instructional potential
How?
Jigsaw / Picture It / Connect
& Share It
1. Equality
pp. 29-31
2. Choice
pp. 31-34
3. Voice
pp. 34-36
4. Reflection
pp. 36-38
5. Dialogue
pp. 38-39
6. Praxis
pp. 42-44
7. Reciprocity
pp. 44-45
Reflection
What is reflective practice?
• Requires that the practitioner
commit to being a learner
• Involves the individual practitioner
thinking about her experiences for
the purpose of gaining new
conceptual perspectives or
understandings
Why is it important to
reflect?
“We do not learn from experience. . . we
learn from reflecting on experience.”—
John Dewey
Why is it important to reflect?
Critical reflection is “the core difference
between whether a person repeats the
same experience several times becoming
highly proficient at one behavior, or
learns from experience in such a way
that he or she is cognitively or affectively
changed.”—Boyd & Fales (1983, p. 100)
What steps are involved in
critical reflection?
•
•
•
•
•
Describing or reporting a situation or issue
Identifying one’s response to the situation—
feelings, questions, etc.
Analyzing the situation, e.g., making
connections, considering different perspectives,
etc.
Evaluating one’s effectiveness in dealing with
the identified situation or issue
Considering implications for future action
How do we use Reflection to
improve our practice?
 Two minute quick write…..
DIALOGUE
What does it mean?
Dialogue is talking with the goal of
digging deeper and exploring ideas
together. It is “thinking together.” Since
dialogue is a way to communicate where
there is equality between speakers,
where ideas are shared, and where
partner’s ideas are respected, dialogue is
the goal of change leaders taking the
partnership approach.
Dialogue…
Dialogue is a form of communication where meaning
moves back and forth between and through people.
The mental picture created is one in which a stream of
meaning is flowing among and through us and
between us…out of which will emerge some new
understanding. It is something new that may not have
been the starting point at all. It’s something creative.
This shared meaning that we create is the “glue” or
“cement” that holds us all together.
5 Requirements for Dialogue
1. Humility – During dialogue, the humble communicator is
fully present, paraphrasing what is heard, hearing the
emotion and meaning of what is said in addition to the
actual words.
2. Faith – Dialogue is never manipulative; it is grounded in
free conversation between people who respect each other
as equals. If we are equals, I should value your words as
much as I value my own.
3. Love – Dialogue is only possible if we have empathy for
others. In dialogue, we start by being empathetic,
respectful, and nonjudgmental rather than taking a
superior approach, that starts by judging others.
5 Requirements for Dialogue,
Continued
4. Critical Thinking – Dialogue is the thinking
approach to communication. If we truly want to
learn from a conversation, we are wise to go into it
looking for ideas that disprove our way of thinking
rather than looking for confirmation that our
opinion is correct
5. Hope – Dialogue occurs when we start by trying to
understand together, when we listen and learn rather
than tell and resist. Every act of dialogue is an act of
hopefulness, that we believe we can advance thought
and create something new and better.
How do we use Dialogue to
improve our practice?
 Two minute quick write…..
NEXT STEPS…..
Becoming an Impact School
 One Page Target – we must have a common vision
 Learn more about Instructional Rounds and how
they are different from Walk-throughs (Identified
Problem of Practice)
EXIT SLIP
 Take a few minutes to think about what we have
learned today. Briefly describe any changes you will
make as a result of today’s experience.
 Please ask any questions you may still have about the
“content” of what we learned today….