Before the rounds happened, the principal emailed the teachers telling them the "problem of practice" (short version: students are not working on grade level and they have not developed higher-order thinking skills) and "focus questions" that the observers would be looking for. Their focus questions were:
- What evidence do you see or hear in the areas of questioning/academic feedback that indicates the in-depth level of student work is at the appropriate grade level according to the standard(s) and learning targets?
- What evidence do you see or hear that indicates the standards and learning targets are scaffolded for diverse learners?
- What evidence do you see or hear that indicates the academic language of the standard is differentiated for various English language proficiencies?
The rounds ended up being at the same time that our students were taking the MIST test, so they did not come observe any lessons in our classroom. However, my mentor teacher and I still talked about these focus questions and how I could adjust my lessons to show evidence of the things they were looking for.
At the faculty meeting after the instructional rounds, the principal talked about what the Clipboard Mafia had told her. It turned out that they really didn't see a lot of the things they were looking for in most of the classrooms they observed. Many of the teachers who had been observed were frustrated, because they said that the observers came during morning meeting, when students were eating breakfast, and they didn't feel like they really had the opportunity to demonstrate the things the observers were looking for. Others felt like the suggestions for improvement were vague (my FM asked for specific examples on how to show evidence of differentiating academic language, and there weren't really any concrete examples of what they were looking for).
Have any of you been observed, or have you talked to your mentor teachers about instructional rounds? These seem really intimidating, and I am honestly so glad they didn't come at a time when I was teaching. I do think it's helpful that the teachers got the focus questions and problem of practice ahead of time, but do you think that these short observations are really enough for the observers to get a good idea of what's happening in a classroom, no matter what time of day they come?
First, I love the name "Clipboard Mafia."
ReplyDeleteWhen my school was doing evaluations, they came back at another time to observe my teacher, so the school didn’t observe me personally. The evaluations at my school were a little different. They were short fifteen-minute observations that were designed to encourage more communication between the administration and the teachers. They were looking for good teaching practices, but not any specific questions in particular. The point of the observations was similar to our observations, to point out what the teachers were doing well and to make suggestions for improvement. However, a lot of the teachers received more suggestions than commendations, which upset many of the teachers. They felt like the administration didn’t have any faith in their teaching decisions. Many teachers also complained that they were always observed at the same time, so the administration only saw introduction lessons or the direct instruction before guided practice.
I agree with you Ilana, the short observations do not seem to be an accurate measure of the teacher’s ability in the classroom. I also think they are really intimidating, and even some of the veteran teachers at the school are uncomfortable being observed. (Although, they seem to be uncomfortable because they think they know what they are doing, and I would be intimidated because I’m still learning what I need to be doing.) However, I also understand that the administration wants to know what is happening in the classrooms. The weekly observations seem like a great way to accomplish that, if they planned those observations at different times throughout the week in order to see different parts of the day and different parts of units. Those weekly observations would also be a lot stronger if they pointed out the good things the teachers are doing and took more time to encourage their teachers.