1. Reciprocity: Teachers are often hesitant to let people into their classroom.
1.1. Coherent View of what is powerful teaching and learning
1.2. School culture isolates teachers
1.2.1. Confronts norms of privacy in the classroom
1.2.2. Develops languages and culture to break down isolation
1.2.2.1. Initial awkwardness as language and interaction around instruction is changed
1.2.2.1.1. like NVC
1.2.2.2. Forces participants to justify evaluatory statements like "engagement" with evidence from observations
1.3. Professionalism
1.3.1. Educational practice around protocols and norms of professional discourse pg 12
1.3.2. "successful teachers are born not made and good teaching is gift" pg 12
2. Constructivism
2.1. Avoid giving the answers
2.2. How to learn from their practices
2.3. How to identify and understand their NEXT problem
2.3.1. New node
2.4. Take control of their own learning
2.4.1. Explictly keep track of what the group is learning. pg 98
2.5. Discomfort is ok pg 96
2.5.1. The work and learning is very vulnerable and scary
3. Instructional Core: Teacher-Student-Content
3.1. 1. Improvements can only happen if improve level of content, teacher knowledge/skill, student tasks
3.2. 2. If you change one element you have to change the other two
3.2.1. Failure modes: Teacher does all the work. Teacher doesn't know how to teach new high level content
3.2.2. US spends more time thinking about what and how of teaching, rest of world pays more attention to student engagement.
3.2.3. Questions to ask:
3.2.3.1. How will this affect teachers' knowledge and skills
3.2.3.2. How will this affect the level of content in the classroom?
3.2.3.3. How will this affect teh role of the student in the instructional process?
3.2.3.4. How will this affect the relationship between the teacher, the student and the content?
3.3. 3. If you can't see it in the core its not there!
3.3.1. Ask the student: "Whats going on here?"
3.3.2. Look for variability in the task the students are doing.
3.4. 4. Task predicts performance
3.4.1. Look on the students desk not at the blackboard to see what the students will be able to do
3.4.2. Accountability drives the task system in the classroom.
3.5. 5. The real accountability system is the tasks that students are asked to do
3.5.1. "Accountability is the way we steer the system towards a good collective result, using performance measures, standards, rewards, sanctions
3.5.1.1. New node
3.5.2. Must know what to do AND how to do it.
3.5.2.1. Must build capactiy to observe, analyze and affect instructional practice.
3.5.2.2. strong visible transparent common culture of instructional practice.
3.5.3. New node
3.6. 6. You learn to do the work by doing the work.
3.6.1. No quick answers must transform culture
3.7. 7. description before analysis before evaluation
3.7.1. Language is culture and vica versa
3.7.2. Description: Observation without judgement
3.7.3. Anaysis: Group observation into categories in agreed upon ways.
3.7.4. Prediction: Use the analysis to make causal arguements about what learning might be expected.
3.7.5. Evaluation: High-Medium-Low level practice
4. Focus and Coherence
4.1. "Deepen the work with greater focus on building a strong culture of instructional practice" pg 36-37
4.2. Outside support can increase incoherence
4.3. Push on a
4.4. Need common language inside and between schools in order to carry the culture.
4.5. Content focused, sustained learning close to the work, context specific, time to practice. pg 134
5. Similar to other types of school reform
5.1. Observation
5.1.1. Not used as evalution.
5.1.2. Often there is no common definition of what should be looked for during an observation and teachers may recieve conflicting feedback.
5.2. Networks
5.2.1. Some use of "neworks" just replicates disfunctional meetings. Instructional rounds is very specific about what happens when people get togheter.
5.3. School Improvement Strategy
6. The Process
6.1. Identify a problem of practice pg 102
6.1.1. Very specific
6.1.1.1. Focus on instructional core
6.1.1.2. observable, actionalbe
6.1.1.3. Connects to broader strategy
6.1.1.4. high leverage
6.1.2. Of all the things we could pay attention to in the classroom we are going to focus particuallary on ""
6.1.3. How to facilitate figuring out what the problem of practice should be?
6.1.3.1. Strenghts and need strengthening?
6.1.3.2. What data do you have about these?
6.1.3.3. What else haveyou been learning from these data?
6.1.3.4. What is puzzeling you about this data?
6.1.3.5. What has felt challening?
6.1.3.6. I hear you saying...XYZ is taht right?
6.1.3.6.1. It sounds like we have the following options which seems like a good match for both the host and the network.
6.1.3.7. Ask open ended questions
6.1.4. Potential problems is problems of practice
6.1.4.1. Too much packed into it
6.1.4.1.1. Couldn't pick from several
6.1.4.1.2. Will be more valuable and deeper if you focus on up to 3. If a new network focus on 1.
6.1.4.2. Too broad or undefined
6.1.4.2.1. Hard to get useful feedback.
6.1.4.3. Turns into an audit:
6.1.4.3.1. Are adults doign what they are supposed to? NOT OK
6.1.4.3.2. Turn around by focusing on the learning. Are students learning what they are supposed to. OK
6.1.4.3.3. Focus on data. why are you asking?
6.1.5. Develop a Theory of Action
6.1.5.1. Statement of a causal relationship - If Then
6.1.5.2. Empirically falsifiable - must be able to disqualify all or parts of the theory based on evidence of what occurs as a consquence of my actions.
6.1.5.2.1. ToA are by definition hypothesis, theories that can be proven false - This makes is vulnerable and scary to share them.
6.1.5.3. Distingish between vision, strategy and TofA that operationalize the strategy.
6.1.5.4. Open Ended: Prompts further revision and specification.
6.1.5.5. Don't let your Theory of Action be modified to try to get all your favorite initiatives into it.
6.1.5.6. Revise it when you learn
6.1.5.6.1. Serves as a tool for learning and a diary of your learning.
6.1.5.7. Double
6.1.6. What info is needed ahead
6.1.6.1. People will read about a page
6.2. Observe
6.2.1. Small groups visit classrooms in rotation for 20 min or so
6.2.2. Take written nots pg 95 ask for this excplictly
6.2.2.1. The three questions
6.2.2.1.1. New node
6.2.2.2. Informed by the problem of practice you are focusing on
6.2.2.3. Orient: Grade, content, # of students and demographics, timing
6.2.2.4. The Task
6.2.2.5. Patters of interactions
6.2.2.6. listen to qustions
6.2.2.7. How much time spent on each task, note time occaisionally in notes.
6.2.3. don't intrupt lesson
6.2.3.1. No introductions needed
6.2.4. Ok to ask students question if appropriate moment
6.2.4.1. move around room
6.2.4.2. What are you learning? What are working on? what do you do if stuck? how do you know you are finished? how do you know if its good enough? pg. 111
6.2.5. Don't talk to other observers in class or hall - wait for debrief.
6.2.5.1. other conversations tend to be judegment heavy
6.2.6. Look down not up. Focus on the task the students are doing. Focus on the students
6.3. Debrief Process - samples page 119
6.3.1. description
6.3.1.1. Build a body of evidence directly from the observation
6.3.1.1.1. sticky notes
6.3.1.1.2. flip charts
6.3.1.1.3. New node
6.3.1.2. Stay in Descriptive Voice
6.3.1.2.1. start with assessemnt seldome get to describing and predicting causal relationship between teaching and learning. pg86
6.3.1.2.2. Must get agreement on what you are looking for
6.3.1.2.3. Use Ladder of Inference
6.3.1.2.4. Words like good, great, bad, weak at conversation stoppers and judgement
6.3.1.2.5. Describe what you see not wht you don't see
6.3.1.2.6. Take wr
6.3.1.3. Finer grain evidence is better to build on and create a common picture pg 93
6.3.2. Analysis
6.3.2.1. Look for patterns
6.3.3. Prediction
6.3.3.1. How do the patterns explain or not explain observable student performance in the school?
6.3.3.1.1. laser-like emphasis on cause an effect relationships between what we observe therachers and studnets doint and what students can actually do.
6.4. focus on next level of work
6.4.1. Concrete steps to make improvement
6.4.2. Reciprocity: Leaders who seek improvement must provide resources and support to teachers.
6.4.3. Must be specific and linked to the instructional core.
6.4.4. Maybe helpful to review context
6.4.5. next week, next month, next year
7. Why are schools "failing?"
7.1. Adults are operating at or near the limits of their knowledge. More bad news without new knowledge will not help
7.2. Schools are often successfully doing something that solved a problem they used to have, but they have not moved on to the next level of identifying the next problem to solve and how to solve it.
7.3. Schools do not have the norms and practices needed to take knowledge from experts and deploy it into the classrooms
7.4. Schools that are staying the same are often producing results with social capital not instruction pg 37
7.5. culture of hierarch, compliance and self-protection pg 63
8. Norms
8.1. Confidenciality
8.2. being comfortable with supervisors or reports
8.3. protocols can help
8.4. must go beyond "nice"
8.5. focus on descriptive voice
8.6. practice is not about who they are as people and can be improved
8.7. focus on instrcutional core
8.7.1. should see the cnage in the classroom
8.8. data on attendance and also participation
8.8.1. frequency counts in disuccsions to focus on the data around the expectation of equal participation
8.9. encurage public learners
8.10. Be hard nosed about evidence pg 97
8.10.1. Talk about why it matters
9. Facilitation pg 73
9.1. Knowledge of teaching and learning
9.2. Skill working with adult learners
9.3. Familiar with instructional rounds and it's learning goals
9.4. Crediibility with members
9.5. outsider advantages
9.5.1. different perspecitve and skills
9.5.2. more likely to notice and push a backslide
9.5.3. share knowledge from other networks.
9.5.4. must not fall into the role of "expert"