overview

As we continue to grow in the area of close reading, each teacher will have the opportunity to observe and be observed by another teacher in his or her content area. This process is designed to foster strong professional relationships among teachers as we learn from experience of another colleague here at the school.

Observations will occur during observer teacher planning periods and will be scheduled ahead of time. Each partner pair will be responsible for identifying the date and time of the Peer Observation and sharing lesson materials ahead of time.

Paired Teachers may choose to observe each other many times throughout the remainder of the year, however at a minimum each pair is expected to complete two complete rounds of observation and debrief. There are two scheduled debriefs which will occur during the first 20 minutes of Friday PD on 3/24 and 5/19 (rescheduled to 5/26). Paired teachers should therefore complete one round before March 24th and then a second round before May the 19th.

debrief protocol

There are two scheduled debriefs which will occur during the first 20 minutes of Friday PD on the following dates:

• Friday, 3/24
• Friday, 5/19 (rescheduled to 5/26)

*Prior to these dates, each teacher should be observed at least once.

Teachers will follow the process outlined below to debrief their observations and share feedback.

Background:

10 minute protocol for each observation. 20 minutes total for teachers who successfully observed each other.

Protocol:

• Observed teacher explains the close reading activity she led, explaining the close reading phase being addressed, the strategy employed, its goal, and why the focus text was selected. (3 minutes)
• What did the observing teacher see in the classroom environment that supports close reading? (1 minutes)
• What teacher actions did the observing teacher see that support close reading? (1 minutes)
• What student actions did observing teacher see related to their progress in close reading strategies? (1 minutes)
• Then, two minutes for Q & A about the observed close reading strategies between the observed and observing teachers. (2 minutes)
• Observed teacher identifies what she want to work on to refine her close reading strategies in upcoming lessons. (2 minutes)

Now complete the protocol again, with the teachers switching roles.

peer observation pairings