Strengthening the Evaluation Process

1. Strengthening the Evaluation Process National Institute for Excellence in Teaching1250 Fourth StreetSanta Monica, CA 90401

2. Harvesting Reflection and Preparing for Growth The Evaluation Process:

3. Important Things to Remember The World According to Mister Rogers

4. Today’s Agenda • Kinesthetic Tic Tac Toe! • Challenges/Barriers • Effective Planning • Effective Questioning • Post-Conference Refinement Think Aloud • “Model of Concrete Suggestions” Activity • Critical Friends Protocol • Book Talk • Action Plan • Exit Ticket

5. Training Objectives Each Participant Will: • Gain a deeper understanding of the effective components of the evaluation process, focusing on the post conference. • Develop an appropriate post conference “model of concrete suggestions”, given an identified refinement descriptor. • Analyze post conference plans from their individual schools, using guiding questions to strengthen their refinement plans, with the goal of achieving effective classroom implementation as a result of the post conference.

6. Kinesthetic Tic Tac Toe Tools for Engagement – page 123 (Bingo)

7. What are some challenges/barriers you are faced with concerning the evaluation process? Post Conference Pre Conference Timed Write, RoundRobin, Popcorn

8. Effective Planning Before the Observation During the Observation After the Observation

9. Why is effective planning necessary for the observation?

10. Effective Planning is necessary because: Creates purposeful questions in order to gather evidence that will lead to effective coaching during the pre and post conferences. Creates a circular process that enables connections between lesson planning, IGPs, and reinforcement and refinement of the lesson. Builds credibility for the evaluation process.

11. Effective planning: 4. Builds a strong connection between each teacher's student achievement value-added gains and evaluation scores. 5. Creates a circular process that enables connections between lesson planning, IGPs, and reinforcement and refinement of the lesson.

12. How is evidence gathered prior to an observation?

13. Gathering Evidence Prior to the Observation Lesson plan • What does the teacher want students to know and be able to do? • How will the teacher determine if students are showing progress towards meeting the learning goals? • What will the teacher and students be doing during the lesson? • How will the teacher know if all students have reached the objective?

14. Gathering Evidence cont. • Walk –through/follow-up evidence • IGP refinement - Teacher’s refinement area • Cluster Development - Determine ability level of the teacher through effective questioning during development

15. How can gathering evidence from multiple sources create a greater opportunity for coaching (pre/post conferences)?

16. How is evidence gathered during an observation?

17. Gathering evidence during the observation Good scripting is essential for the evaluation process to work well!

18. Scripting Hints 1 & 2 Time – Include the start time, transitions, and ending time. Capture the length of different segments of the lesson. The length of the script should be proportionate to the time spent in the observation. Abbreviate – In order to record as much of what the teacher and students say and do it is necessary to create your own shorthand. Example: T for teacher and S for student when writing dialogue.

19. 3. Verbatim – Capture as much verbatim dialogue as humanly possible. Direct quotes are good evidence. 4. Verbal and nonverbal behaviors – Record what you see the teacher and students doing. This might include interactions with each other, roles and responsibility in grouping, movement in transitions, teachers directions for an activity, etc. 5. Paraphrase – use parentheses to indicate that you are paraphrasing, so when you go back through your notes you know what is paraphrased and what is verbatim.

20. 6. The Line – If an interruption occurs during the lesson, draw a horizontal line across the paper. Record elapsed time. 7. Circulate – Circulate as necessary to collect evidence from teacher, students, and student work.

21. What should an evaluator be listening and looking for? • What should an evaluator be listening and looking for? -Evidence of descriptors from the Instructional Rubric that clearly give evidence of student mastery of the lesson objective.

22. View Lesson 4th Grade ELA Lesson Similes & Metaphors

23. How is evidence gathered after an observation?

24. Gathering Evidence After the Observation 3 • Questions to ask myself immediately after the observation: • Was this a proficient lesson? • Was there evidence of student learning? • Did the teacher address the needs of every student? • Were the activities aligned to the lesson objective? • Did the students master the objective?

25. 4 Gathering Evidence cont. Organize the Script Questions & Feedback - After you finish, go through the script and label all questions. Tally and categorize question types. Highlight or tally academic feedback. Label – Begin to categorize scripting notes by labeling evidence for various indicators and descriptors on the Implementing Instruction Rubric.

26. Gathering Evidence cont. 3. Check – • Is the script free from evaluative and prescriptive language? • Did the observation last at least 30 minutes? • Does the script recreate the events of the classroom?

27. Gathering Evidence 5 • What did the teacher say and do? - Strong evidence is not paraphrased. • What did students say and do? -Write only what you see and hear

28. Break

29. What is the purpose of Questioning Teachers? Lead teachers to a reinforcement/refinement area Reflection to build capacity, conscious competence, & conceptual understanding

30. Effective Questions are… 6 open-ended and require thoughtful reflection scaffolded from broad to narrow designed to lead the teacher to an area of reinforcement and refinement specific to one descriptor or indicator

31. Effective Questions are… aligned to the reinforcement and refinement objective leveled for teacher capacity focused on student achievement

32. 7 The Post-Conference

33. What are the elements of a high quality Post Conference?

34. Elements of a high quality Post Conference are… To provide verbal feedback to the observed teacher based on evidence from the lesson. Create an opportunity to coach the teacher in an area of reinforcement (strength) and area of refinement (need).

35. Introduction • Greeting/Establish Length • Review Conference Process • General Impression Question

36. Reinforcement Plan: • Write a reinforcement objective. • Ask a reinforcement self-reflection question. • Identify examples from your script to give concrete examples of why you are reinforcing the teaching behavior. • Recommend continued use (include rationale). • Elicit feedback from the teacher.

37. Let’s Take a Closer Look… Refinement Plan

38. Refinement Plan • Refinement Objective • Self-Reflection Questions • Specific Evidence from Lesson/Specific Model for how to include this area in the lesson • 4. Guided Practice • 5. Closure

39. Guiding Questions for Selecting a Refinement Area 8 Are the activities aligned to lesson objectives and how do they promote student mastery? When selecting a refinement area, which rubric indicator would have the greatest impact on student achievement? Is the refinement model tailored to the teacher's level of ability?

40. Leadership Book Page 173 Guiding Questions for Selecting a Refinement Area Is there sufficient and specific evidence to support why the teacher needs to work in this area? Do I have enough personal knowledge and teaching experience to help the teacher improve in the area of refinement?

41. Refinement Objective • Elements of an effective objective: • A clear label of the standard being reinforced, language from the evaluation rubric, and an action for teacher to take. • The objective is clear for the evaluator – it sets the direction for the conference and narrows the focus to one indicator and one or two specific descriptors.

42. Refinement Objective By the end of the conference, the teacher will be able to explain how she can make learning meaningful and relevant to students and how this can impact student learning.

43. Self-Reflection Questions 9 • Ask specific questions to prompt teachers to talk about what you want to him or her to improve. • Utilize questions that include specific language from the rubric which can lead the teacher to reflect on the indicator/descriptor you have identified as his/her area of refinement as it relates to the lesson. • These questions should be scaffolded from broad to narrow….going 5 deep when possible to provide opportunities for in-depth reflection.

44. Self-Reflection Questions Why is it important to make learning meaningful and relevant for students? When developing lessons, how do you make learning meaningful and relevant for students? What is the purpose of learning about similes and metaphors? How will students use similes and metaphors in their lives? How will making learning meaningful and relevant improve student learning?

45. Identifying Evidence Identify specific examples from your scripting notes and categorization sheet of the indicator/descriptor being refined. Examples should contain exact quotes from the lesson or vivid descriptions of actions taken.

46. Identifying Evidence The use of similes and metaphors was not related to students’ lives except through a review of prior learning. “I know you all said it (the poem) made mind pictures for you and you could imagine it.” “A galleon is a ship with big sails. You remembered.” Students had opportunities to explore within the poem for similes and metaphors, but opportunities for student inquiry were not provided.

47. Identifying Evidence Student says, “If I see more than one (simile or metaphor) can I just write one.” (Lack of curiosity, meaning, & relevancy to students’ lives.) Brief mention to one student about using metaphors in writing, but lacked a clear connection to writing which would have provided relevancy for all students. “You want to have as big of a collection of metaphors as you can because they will help you when you do your writing.”

48. Provide a Model Provide specific examples of what to refine with suggestions that are concrete. Also indicate why the example is strong and how it will improve student learning.

49. Provide a Model When you began the lesson, you connected the objective to previous learning, which was one way to begin providing meaning for the students for the day’s lesson. As you circulated among the students, you told one student to locate as many similes and metaphors as he could because it would help him in his writing one day. Expand on this statement to this one student by leading all of the students to identify how they could incorporate similes and metaphors into their own writing or verbal communication with others.

50. Provide a Model Here is a model of how that might sound within your lesson, "Why is it important to give lots of details when you are describing something? The more details you give, the easier it is to get a mental picture of it. A mental picture is the picture we have in our heads when we imagine something.Your voice (or your personality that shows in your writing) should be strong to make your writing as interesting as it could be and create those mental images for your audience. You canexpress your personality in your writing