Norwalk Community School District Instructional Rounds October 26, 2010

Welcome and Introductions Dan & Denny

Overview DaleBackground DennyTheory of Action Problem of Practice Dan/DebSchedule Dale Building Lay Out Deb Reminders DaleQuadrant C&D, Bloom’s Taxonomy

Schedule 8:15Welcome - Overview 9:00Classroom Rounds 11:30Lunch 12:00Debrief 2:30Next Level of Work 3:30Closing 4:00Adjourn

Theory of Action If teachers engage students with research based curriculum, if teachers deliver lessons which can be integrated into Quadrants “C & D”, and if students frequently engage in meaningful classroom experiences that could be categorized into Quadrants C & D, then students will demonstrate higher order work and responses in classrooms, perform better on standardized tests, and be more successful in college and the workplace.

Problem of Practice Despite the implementation of Research-based curriculum, Iowa Core training focused on Quadrants C & D, Concept Attainment Training, Daggett’s R&R Framework training, and Essential Questioning Training Norwalk students underperform in critical thinking as evidenced by indicators (ACT, ITED, Graduate Surveys, Instructional Rounds findings).

Focusing Questions 1. What tasks are students involved in? 2. What questions are teachers asking? 3. What are the student responses? 4. What did teachers do to assess student learning or help students asses their own learning?

Looking for patterns inductively Later in the process we will see what we can learn about teacher practices and student responses. From the inductive process, we will relate those categories to Quadrant C & D and Bloom’s Taxonomy.

TEACHER STUDENT CONTENT THE INSTRUCTIONAL CORE Points of entry for improvement of instruction The culture is present in the academic tasks that students are asked to do If you can’t see it in the core, it’s not there Academic tasks define the real accountability system in your school

Debrief Roles Denny & the Norwalk team listen Facilitators will keep the process moving smoothly Network members Stay in descriptive voice Stick to the evidence Avoid sharing your opinions during transitions OK to talk to student and teachers, but don’t interject yourself into the learning “Everyone speaks once before anyone speaks twice”

Debrief – Inductively analyze observations Individually: 1. Review notes and circle key observations 2. Record key observations on sticky notes ___for Student Tasks Response ___for Teacher Questions ___for Assessment Activity Team: 1. Organize sticky notes into categories and label categories 2. Summarize patterns in relation to focus questions

Debrief Teams join one other group to share and consolidate their categories Prediction – discuss in combined groups If you were a student at this school and did everything you were expected to do, what would you know and be able to do? Share categories and predictions with large group

Next Level of Work Share examples of reflective questions Combined teams generate reflective questions for Norwalk staff Prioritize questions Share

Next Level of Work District context & plans for sharing with staff Remember Focus on teaching and learning (Core) Aim for clarity about good instructional practice, leadership, and organizational practice Ideas for administrator and building leaders/teams Grain size Tie back to collected evidence related to the 2 questions and predictions

NLOW Form new groups – # Create reflective questions for the hosting school that invite the system to think about: Leadership Structural practices Instructional practices 1 Highest Leverage for each of the above Which questions invite the strongest level of thinking?”

Next Level of Work— Reflective Questions Reflective Questions ARE:Reflective Questions ARE NOT: Open EndedYes/No or single response Judgment freeContain bias Uses positive presuppositions “As a district with new and experienced teachers…” “As a district with inexperienced staff…” Uses explorative language: “What might be some possible ways to…” “Can’t your district…?” Shouldn’t…Couldn’t? Invites thinking at upper levels of knowledgeQuestions that are recall/factual levels referenced from Garmston, Costa, Lipton and Wellman

Thanks Closing Thanks to all for participating Sign the “THANK YOU POSTER” for Norwalk staff