Put me in coach!

 

    

    My son played serious baseball for over ten years.  During that time there were many games that he sat on the bench while others played.  He practiced hard and cheered on his team.  Eventually, after a lot of coaching he started to catch and be the designated hitter.  He was so ready.  He was prepared to play every game.  I think what created those conditions was the coaching and practice that Max and his teammates received.  There was guided instruction and then they all went out to practice the skill.   The coach monitored and guided the practice.  They were all released to play.  There were kids who would stay back and get further support from the coach or assistant.  However, everyone was engaged and focused.  When practice was about three quarters over the coach would run a game giving all players the opportunity to be assessed at their position.  He'd used this data to determine who would be ready or proficient and give the team the best chance to win.  The coached differentiated practice to maximize performance and growth.

Differentiation means tailoring instruction to meet individual needs.  Whether teachers differentiate content process, products or the learning environment, the ue of ongoing assessment and flexible grouping makes this a successful approach to instruction.

    Our workshops in reading and math as well as in other classes follow this model.   Before we can release the team (students) it's imperative to start with a focus.   This means that there is a clear learning intention.  Last week I did several observations.  I'm going to highlight two classrooms, Sarah Kuhlmann and Katie Naughton.  Sarah started her lesson with the learning intention posted.  As she introduce it she revealed the success criteria.  Her introduction included a brief discussion of key words found in the intention.  Please look at the pictures below.

    Preparing for differentiation means that a teacher needs to deliver a mini or focus lesson that will catapult the majority of the class (80%) to work on the assignment independently.  This is a critical step before you start to differentiate for the students who need additional support.  Sarah's think aloud that is shown here sets the students up for success through her clarity and modeling of her thinking.  Remember you  are the expert and kids need to see and hear your thinking so it's visible.  This is the move that prepares kids to work.

    We are going to shift to Katie's room.  She also gave a very explicit mini lesson very similar to Sarah's but with different content.  She also had excellent success criteria that she used to confer with kids as they worked on the activity.

  

    She used the language of the success criteria to prompt and cue students to complete the work.  It was a classic example of differentiation.  Katie made the decision to let students work with the material and she met them where they landed.  Please watch the video to see her in action.

    The decision is easy.  Release kids from an efficiently planned and concise mini/focus lesson.  They support the students with purposeful feedback to help them do the work of the learning intention.

    Last week I was sitting in on the 2nd grade PLC and they asked about changing the process to meet the needs of small groups of kids.  I asked them "who makes the decisions in your classroom?"  They answered "I do." I then asked them "Is the decision you want to make student-centered?"  They said, "Yes". Then I said, "make the decision."   

Differentiation is key in moving our achievement.  You are the coach!  

Put your kids in the game.

Sowing the Seeds of Greatness

 

There's a certain kind of person who doesn't wait for greatness.. they make it! We aren't waiting to be great together we will take action to make it happen!    What matters is having the courage to think big and the strength of mind to k now that there is no limit to the greatness you can achieve. Garin Kilpatrick

    Creating the conditions for growth requires ample doses of focused and relevant feedback connected to school improvement processes. Feedback serves as the compost for cultivating a culture of collective action. Rooting it in a comprehensive model for supervision and using tools and strategies that promote relevance ensures that the teachers and students in your care will grow beyond measure.

    Effective feedback is information that helps teachers grow so students can. Bambrick-Santoyo (2012) state that, “the primary purpose of observing teachers isn’t to judge the teacher, but to find the most effective ways to coach them to improve student learning”. This requires an approach to feedback that has teachers engaged so they can identify what is working and what needs improved. For this to happen feedback has to be specific and connected to the daily work of the school. Feedback has to be focused and relevant.

    Feedback and observation is more than a series of steps that lead to a final evaluation. Supervision is about supporting and directing, not judging and being in compliance. It is about creating a culture where examining practice, working together to figure out issues, and constantly improving is the norm. A broadened definition of supervision, one that moves away from thinking it is just about appraisal, and viewing it as a vehicle for growth is needed.

As mentioned last week during our PLC professional development feedback for staff will be found in these four elements. It is critical that the feedback you receive in relevant and focused so you may apply it in your daily instruction. The interplay of the four elements is important as each of them build upon the other. It is important that we collaborate so you find the feedback authentic and useful to support your teaching.

Element I: Universal Support, Qualitative Feedback. Practices and processes in this element are designed to help move the school forward by providing focused feedback around the school improvement plan. Collaboratively defined look fors used during daily walkthroughs provide the basis for feedback.

Element II: Individual/ Small Group Support, Qualitative Feedback. Practices in this element are targeted at individual teachers and small groups. While all elements are needed, this element packs a big punch in terms of affecting student achievement because it uses frequent observations in both classrooms and PLCs to provide targeted ongoing feedback. 

Element III: Universal Support, Quantitative Feedback. The practices in this element are designed to help determine levels of implementation of school improvement plan efforts. This summative check is necessary in order to help identify what additional supports are needed so that all students benefit from improvement efforts.  

Element IV: Individual Support, Quantitative Feedback. Practices in this element provide individuals with summative feedback on their overall teaching efforts. Methods in this element are dictated by state or district mandates. Feedback is based on teaching standards. 

So let's get started and make greatness happen. Together as a team along with the support of your colleagues we will improve the achievement profile at Bloomer!

Let's take another route...

 

Do you remember taking a road trip and really wanting to get to the spot you've been waiting for?  You are so excited and maybe had been planning only to find that time seems to be moving so slowly that you start to ask your parents, "Are we there yet?" My sister and I were so annoying that my dad stopped at a rest area once and gave us a map and told us to stop talking.   We never traveled again without a map.  (You know those are those paper things we used to use before Google Maps.)  I sure you aren't surprised by this story to know that I was impatient as a kid.

Our journey to achievement can also be tedious.  We want to achieve so badly that there are times when we get impatient because we don't seem to be getting there fast enough.  Our time will pass if we bring out our map and check our mileage.  The map is the standards and our mileage our assessments.  If we feel like some of our kids are taking a detour we need to maximize the workshop and differentiate.  We know that not all kids travel at the same speed and direction.  It's our job to determine what they need and how to give it to them.

Differentiation means tailoring instruction to meet individual needs.  Whether teacher differentiate content, process, products, or the learning environment.  It is customizing the journey to get kids to achieve the learning.

Content:  The knowledge and skills students need to master.

Process:  The activities students use to master the content.

Product:  The method students use to demonstrate learning.

We will be exploring and learning how to do this with vigor starting in professional development.  Our goal is to become flexible in our instruction so that we day or do just the right things to get kids to do the cognitive work.  This flexibility requires a strong workshop based on the model of gradual release of responsibility.  Consider this diagram below.

You need to have command of the workshop and this model to differentiate.  

Consider this example from last week.

Last week I observed Paige's math lesson.  She released to kids to work on a fairly complicated problem involving multiplication of fractions.  She differentiated the content for a group of special education students who were the first to see her.  She guided them through the first stages and checked on them frequently.  The process was slightly different for them as they weren't released to do the entire problem until she check them for understanding.  She also differentiated with method.  Her students were grouped by ability after she reviewed their student work the night before the lesson.  Kids were given agency to use a variety of methods to solve the problem.  Some kids used the table and dry erase markers as a draft.  Others went straight for the paper.  The most exciting part, however, was that they knew the learning objective and were comfortable with the success criteria.  Paige floated between groups asking different questions, providing prompts and/or cues and finally delivering direct instruction if the kids didn't land where she needed them to.  All in all it was a great example of differentiation within the workshop.  Getting the students out to work quickly was imperative.  Have clarity in learning intention and success criteria a must.  Knowing the process and assessing was the key to her success.  It was an excellent example of how a math workshop can meet the needs of all students.

The journey is ahead and we know what we are up against.  It's time to start our engines; get out our map and fill the tank.  Let's move in the direction of excellence through collaboration and support; so when we are asked, "are we there yet?"  We will say...

Yes, we are!

Don't Be the Lid

 I have used this video to illustrate that when we put on a lid we are limited by the container.      What does it make you think of?

This week you will begin to mark and measure progress of your instruction on our Data Wall Graph documents.  You will use the student work results from your daily lessons that match your learning intentions and success criteria.  The key to our higher achievement will be in working to ensure that kids are meeting these intentions and that they are written at grade level expectations.  The success criteria map our what kids need to know to accomplish the learning.  You are in control of this along with your team.  When kids leave the mini or focus lesson you should have some level of assurance that 80% of them can meet the standard when they go out to work.  Those who can not should have an explicit plan from your tool kit that will support kids in meeting the success criteria.  This is differentiation and it is the key strategy in our school improvement plan.

Last week when I observed in Katie Naughton and Emily Baxter's classrooms I saw these concepts in action,  Kids were working in specific groups designed by the teacher.  Emily had kept a group of seven kids with her to reteach the lesson.  The other 18 kids were working in partners to work on the activity.  When I gave her feedback i asked her if kids were able to meet the learning intention she posted.  She said yes with about 85+%.  It's the precise actions that she made to support those 7 kids to meet the objective.  Sure there may have been 1 or 2 who didn't but without that tiered intervention and the clarity of her lesson there would have been far more.

In Katie's room I observed her teaching a group of about 4 students who have targeted intervention.  They were working at a lower level that the other students in her classroom.  She modified the learning to support the kids with concrete scaffolds to help them eventually reach the grade level expectation.  It is this additional teaching outside the tier of special education or intervention that has created the conditions of growth in students year after year.  In addition, she's differentiated workplaces with students so they work at a level that supports their learning.  Finally, her use of Dreambox with individuals rounded out the room.  

Making a difference in achievement doesn't happen by accident.

You need to think and plan for the efficient use of the entire workshop.  I trust you to utilize it within the conditions that have been presented to you.  You have the opportunity to put on a lid or lift it so students can reach their fullest potential.  It is you and you along with your team hold the secret.