Teacher Inter-visitations

Purpose of Teacher Intervisitations

The primary purpose of teacher intervisitations is to foster a collaborative professional learning environment where educators can observe, discover, and reflect on effective instructional strategies in real-time. These rounds serve as a structured mechanism for educators to gain insights into high-leverage practices—specifically within Danielson Framework domains 3b, 3c, and 3d—to improve outcomes for all students, particularly targeted subgroups. By bridging the gap between planning and execution, intervisitations allow teachers to identify actionable next steps for their own classrooms.

Following the observations, the host and visiting teachers will meet during Monday Professional Development (PD) time to conduct formal debriefs. Using the specific debrief questions provided in the JKO Intervisitation Debrief Form, teams will reflect on the concentration area of the visit—whether it be 3b, 3c, or 3d—to analyze the instructional impact and planning choices made during the lesson.

Integration of Team Focus Areas

The intervisitation forms are intentionally designed to synthesize the priorities of three core leadership bodies:

1. Instructional Leadership Team (ILT)

The ILT’s focus on rigorous pedagogy is embedded through the systematic tracking of professional competencies:

• 3b (Questioning and Discussion): Monitoring the distribution of Depth of Knowledge (DOK) levels and the shift from teacher-led Q&A to student-to-student discourse.

• 3c (Engaging Students): Evaluating "low floor, high ceiling" task architecture and the alignment of cognitive demand with student MAP Growth data.

• 3d (Assessment): Focusing on instructional pivoting based on real-time data and the use of AI tools for rapid analysis of student misunderstandings.

2. Equity Team

The Equity Team’s mission is integrated via a dedicated "Equity Lens" across all observation and debriefing tools:

• Representation: Ensuring instructional materials feature protagonists and experts who reflect the identities of the students in the room.

• Participation Tracking: Requiring observers to monitor the frequency and depth of engagement specifically for Black and Latino males to ensure they are not bypassed.

• Cultural Relevance: Encouraging tasks that allow students to apply academic concepts to "counter-narratives" or social justice issues relevant to their neighborhoods.

3. Inquiry Team

The Inquiry Team’s focus on specific student populations, such as Multilingual Learners (ENL) and Students with Disabilities (SWD), is operationalized through targeted scaffolding requirements:

1. ENL Support: Tracking the use of "translanguaging" (home language use), bilingual glossaries, and sentence frames to provide comprehensible input.

2. SWD Support: Observing the use of visual anchors, tiered graphic organizers, and chunked instructions to reduce cognitive load.

3. Wait Time & Processing: Ensuring extended wait time is provided specifically for these subgroups to process complex, high-level questions before responding.

Dates and Focus:

3b Friday, April 24th Debrief: Monday, April 27th

3c Friday, May 1st Debrief: Monday, May 4th

3d Friday, May 15th Debrief: Monday, May 18th

Below you will find the tools used for the inter-visits.