Adjust Instruction

Develop New Instructional Approach Implementation Indicators

Objective: Determine New Instructional Approach implementation indicators to build shared understanding of what the new strategy/technique looks like in practice.

Purpose: The team will continue to build understanding of the New Instructional Approach. They will establish implementation criteria for what the technique will look like in classrooms, which will help calibrate and build shared understanding about effective instruction and how teaching will change. The team will return to these indicators throughout the ACT phase of the cycle.

Recommended time: 15-25 minutes

Preparation: The goal of this protocol is to build consensus around what the New Instructional Approach will look like in classrooms. In order to build collective understanding, the meeting flow should be structured to capitalize on and value all team members’ ideas as well as provide time for clarifying questions.

Additionally, preview the Technique vs. Strategy reading and determine whether the team should narrowing the New Instructional Approach before naming implementation indicators. If you believe that this is the case, bring any necessary professional literature that will support the team in narrowing to a technique.

Practice Perfect Protocol

Objective: Calibrate implementation of the New Instructional Approach using the “Practice Perfect” Protocol

Purpose: As your team begins implementing the New Instructional Approach, it is important to continue calibrating and practicing what effective instruction will look like across classrooms.

As Doug Lemov observes in Leverage Leadership, “Teachers “go live” four or five times a day. And yet unlike other performance professionals, they don’t call what they do to prepare “practice”; they call it professional development” (p. 7). Use this protocol to leverage “...the power of the one thing that is arguably the secret of...success: old-fashioned practice, efficiently run, well-planned and intentionally executed.” (p. 2).

Recommended time: 25-40 minutes (depending on the number of rounds of practice)

Preparation: Set up copies of Practice Perfect Protocol and Observation Checklist with your team’s particular implementation indicators. Practice Perfect is geared toward practicing a small, digestible part of your New Instructional Approach. You or the team should determine ahead of time which parts of the New Instructional Approach to practice.

Consider preparing to share this balcony view with your team: “Today, we are going to continue building on our learning about the New Instructional Approach. Last week, we named specific implementation indicators to describe what effective instruction will look like across classrooms. Today, we will actually practice instruction and implementation of the New Instructional Approach. We will each take turns being the “teacher”, “student” and “observer.” This means we will each give and receive feedback throughout today’s meeting. Through this process, we will improve our pedagogical skills as we continue to calibrate our understanding of what effective instruction looks like. The hope is that we will leave today’s meeting with shared clarity, prepared to implement the new instructional approach with our students.”

Feedback on Implementation of a New Technique

Objective: Receive feedback from colleagues on implementation of a new teaching technique.

Purpose: To receive feedback on implementation indicators for a new technique in order to allow teachers to make adjustments to instruction that support the resolution of the LCP and POP.

Recommended time: 15-20 minutes

Preparation: Teacher receiving feedback should provide a copy of the lesson plan clearly laying out how they intended to incorporate the new technique. Any relevant student work or low-inference notes from classroom observations should be at hand.

Lesson Tuning Protocol

Objective: Tune or create common lesson plans to implement the New Instructional Approach

Purpose: During Step 8, it is important for teams to regularly norm around what effective instruction will look like in classrooms. One way to calibrate and build collective understanding of the New Instructional Approach is to collaboratively tune or plan in-depth lesson plans.

Following this meeting, team members should implement the lesson and task with students. In the next meeting, the team will assess and reflect on implementation using peer observation notes or videos.

Recommended time: 40-50 minutes

Preparation: Some teams have curricula with well-developed lesson plans while others might generate their own unit and lesson plans. Read through the options in this protocol to determine whether the most fruitful team learning will occur in the tuning of an existing lesson (either from a curriculum or teacher-created) OR through the collaborative designing of a lesson plan.

Also, preview the Implementing a CDT Powerpoint. Make a copy of the ELA Thinking Through a Lesson Template or MATH Thinking Through a Lesson Template and ask your team to independently complete part 1 of the template before the meeting if you decide to use it.

Identify student groups in need of additional support

Objective: Identify student groups in need of additional support at the individual classroom level

Purpose: Help teams identify and develop a plan for the students who are in the 50% NOT meeting goal so that they can get closer to 75%+ meeting it with a SPECIFIC plan/adjustment

Recommended time:

Preparation: Each teacher brings their own student work

Assess Progress Towards Student Learning Goal

Objective: Examine results of end-of-cycle task/assessment to assess progress toward Student Learning Goal

Purpose: After weeks of implementing and learning about a New Instructional Approach, monitoring student progress, and adjusting your instruction, your team will analyze student work and performance trends on the end-of-cycle assessment in order to name the impact the cycle has had on student learning. The team will remain evidence-based as they name the extent to which they met the Student Learning Goal.

Recommended time: 15-25 minutes

Preparation: Be sure to remind your team to administer and finish grading all end-of-cycle student assessments. Once all data collection is completed, prepare any end-of-cycle data visual that would help your team analyze student performance. Ask your teammates to identify a representative sample of student work that includes 3-6 pieces. As a facilitator, it is helpful to define what constitutes a representative sample. The work products should provide examples of common errors, depth and breadth of response, and solution strategies. The preceding discussion of performance trends will help the team understand the distribution of performance and where each sample falls within it.

Success Analysis Protocol

Objective: Celebrate successes from this inquiry cycle using the Success Analysis Protocol

Purpose: Engaging in collaborative inquiry centered around ambitious student learning goals and intentional shifts in instructional practice is challenging work. The Success Analysis Protocol is an ideal way to pause as a team and help surface what has gone well in your work together. In doing so, the team will be better prepared to build off of these successes moving forward, a critical piece of continuous improvement.

Recommended time: 10-30 minutes (depending on the number of rounds)

Preparation: Read the original Success Analysis Protocol for additional tips on framing and facilitating. The team can identify successes ahead of the meeting in order to do some pre-thinking before engaging in the Success Analysis.