What's Up with Wednesday Walks?

Wednesdays are by far, my favorite day of the week! Not only do I get to engage with students in their learning and observe the talents and skills of our amazing educators, but also have the opportunity to process continuous school improvement progress with principals.  As a result of the walks,  I am more aware of campus goals and what supports might be needed to help achieve those goals.  Please know how much I appreciate the welcoming environments and continued focus on "Every Student, Every Day, a Success"!

As we enter into our final round of walks, I thought I would remind you of our process (see link Wednesday Walk Protocol ) and share with you the data collected throughout the year as we reflect on how standards-based planning is reflected in classroom observations as a system.

Round One Focus: Learning Targets visible in the classroom-making the focus of instruction visible and accessible to students. 85% of 120 total classroom visits had visible targets.








Round 2 Focus: Learning Targets visible (93%) and when asked, students were able to describe the target 78.8%.

                                                               





Round 3: Learning target data was banked as we saw systematic visibility across 93% of our classroom observations. The data collected in this round focused on target/task alignment and when asked, students were able to describe the learning target.

86.2%

81.7%

Round 4: The focus remained the same as we wanted to get to 90% target/task alignment and student articulation of the learning target before adding another data point.   We did notice a slight increase in target/task alignment (82.4%), but a decrease in students able to describe the learning target (77%).  It's exciting to see the changes in how students engage in the learning when they are aware of the targets and what they need to do to get there. It is evident in many classrooms that there is a shift in how teachers are planning and leveraging the PLC questions, "what do we want students to know and do?" and "how will we know when they got it?" as we are seeing changes in the way targets are written (directly aligned to the standard at the appropriate taxonomy or higher) and the way students are able to connect it to their learning.  I have full confidence that we will continue to observe implementation systematically across the district as we stay the course for round 5.

If you are wondering what might be the next data point, it would be looking for students working in groups.  This is an important step to transferring the ownership of learning to the students and is easily observed.  Two specific elements, "processing new content" and "organizing students in groups" provide great references and a resource when planning a lesson that is more student-centered. 

Thank you for demonstrating the commitment to professional growth, willingness to be vulnerable at times, and desiring the feedback to continue to improve instructional leadership in the classroom.  Keep the momentum going and empower each other to finish the year strong!  Every minute counts and YOU Make A Difference!