Transcript Leading and Supporting Instructional Improvement

Welcome to the
Science Leadership Support
Network!
• Post the questions you have concerning personal
communication that arose from your reading of
Ch. 8 in CASL on the designated chart.
• Post the personal communication strategies that
you use that were not mentioned in Ch. 8 on the
designated chart.
The SLSN is supported by the Kentucky Department of Education and PIMSER.
Goals of SLSN
Participants will:
• Articulate the “big ideas” in science, together with
teacher and student understandings (content,
process, relevance) that underlie them.
• Develop a broader understanding of assessment
and how to use a variety of assessment strategies
in support of student learning.
• Develop and act on a personal vision of leadership
for sustainable improvement in their school or
district.
Group Norms
• Start and end on time
• Put cell phones on silent
• Be respectful of all
comments
• Everyone participates
• Exercise the rule of “two
feet”
• Come prepared for the
meeting
Review
• Reviewed quality item development.
• Reviewed and provided feedback on the
deconstructed standards for properties of
matter.
• Reviewed and revised the MC and ORQ’s
developed during the summer.
• Began developing an instructional model
for effective instruction in science.
Roadmap for the Day
Personal Communication
Learning Targets:
• I know how to gather
information, make
inferences about student
understanding, and
determine next steps in
instruction from PC
methods.
• I know some notebooking
strategies and could
implement them for use in
the science classroom.
Personal Communication
• Questioning
Questioning strategies that promote reasoning
• Conferences and Interviews
• Class Discussions
Considerations and deliberate planning
• Oral Exams
• Journals and Logs
Science notebooks
How many ways can you * ?
• Working with your members of your grade band group,
classify the question stems by reasoning type.
• Working with your “expert” group, generate a list of
“signal words” for your group’s reasoning type.
• Using STM standards for your grade band/level, write a
couple of questions that could be used to elicit
understanding for that reasoning type.
• With these questions and standards in mind, brainstorm
some possible next steps for instruction if students lack
understanding.
How many ways can you * ?
• Rejoin your original group.
• Take 3 minutes per reasoning type to share
signal words, example questions, and next
step considerations and complete your
organizer.
• As a group, determine one key idea about
reasoning questions as a form of AFL to
share with the whole group.
• “…rigor is not simply about students being
given more or harder work. Rigor is about
what students are able to do as a result of a
lesson.”
– Tony Wagner and Robert Kegan, Change Leadership
Class Discussions
• As you watch the
video clip of the
teacher using a class
discussion as AFL,
note 3 or 4 key points
to consider.
• What distinguishes a
class discussion as
AFL from other
classroom discourse?
Seattle’s Science Notebook
Program
• Students are motivated to learn new
concepts and skills when they are engaged
in meaningful learning experiences, such as
those in inquiry-based science units.
• The ultimate goal is for students to develop
an understanding of science concepts, and
to do so, they must learn how to think
scientifically.
Seattle’s Science Notebook
Program
• Students also need to learn specific
scientific skills (e.g., making observations
and interpreting data) and forms of
expository writing (e.g., data analysis and
conclusions) to help them construct their
understanding of concepts and develop their
ability to think analytically. Science
notebooks serve as a tool in this learning.
Seattle’s Science Notebook
Program
• Students need scaffolding and modeling to help
them learn science concepts, scientific thinking
and skills, and expository writing.
• Elementary students have limited time and energy
for making entries in their science notebooks, so
their entries should focus on expository writing
that will deepen their conceptual understanding
and/or develop their scientific skills and thinking.
Writing in Science:
How to Scaffold Instruction to Support Learning
Science Session
Writing Session
• Engagement
• Shared Review
– Date and Focus Question
• Active Investigation
– Record data, take notes,
make illustrations or
diagrams
• Shared Reflection
• Application
– Questions about shared
reflection of conclusions
based on focus question
• Shared Writing
– Model structure
• Scaffolding
• Independent Writing
– Use scaffolding to complete
notebook entries
Science Notebooks
• The science notebook is not a product
that looks good, but it is a product to
support learning and to develop
expository writing skills.
• The science notebook is not about
what students did, but it is about
helping them to make meaning of
what they did.
• Avoid having students write about
how they felt, what was their
favorite…,what they did, or a generic,
“What did you learn today?”
• Notebooks should be for formative
rather than summative purposes and,
therefore, should not be graded.
Science Notebook “Rules”
• Date, in numerals, the first page of the
entry.
• Write a focus or investigative question for
each lesson.
• Write something about each science
session.
• Write legibly (not necessarily their “best
handwriting”).
Science Session
Engagement
• Write the date in
numerals on the first
page of your notebook
entry.
• Write the focus
question on the top
line of your notebook
entry page.
Active Investigation
Shared Reflection
• Discuss investigation
• Introduce word bank
– “Students must learn scientific vocabulary after they have had a concrete
experience.”
– “Ideas develop from experiences, and technical terms develop from the
ideas and operations that are rooted in those experiences. When terms come
first, students just tend to memorize so much technical jargon that it sloughs
off in a short while.”
– Organize the words conceptually, rather than randomly or alphabetically.
– Write “generic” science vocabulary in a different color than you will use for
the unit words. The “generic” word cards can be reused with any/every
science unit.
– Add an icon or simple diagram to help students remember the term’s
meaning.
– Make multiple copies of the words and place on word bank or in envelopes,
so when it is time to write in their science notebooks, students can have a
copy at their desks.
Application
• How does the investigation connect to other
observations or experiences that you have
had?
• What are other questions that you have as a
result of the investigation?
Writing Session
Shared Review
• Focus is on processing what was learned
from the investigation.
• Question students about the shared
reflection of conclusions from the science
session.
• “You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to
think like a rocket scientist.”
– Gerry Wheeler, NSTA Executive Director
Shared Writing
• Model structure as the students provide the
content.
• Focus of writing will be on:
– Comparing and contrasting
– Cause and effect
– Reasoning
Data analysis
– Drawing conclusions from data
Scaffolding
Data Analysis Writing
• Introductory/topic sentence:
– This graph/table shows…
• Summarize the data:
– Qualitative data
• More/less; longer/shorter
– Quantitative data
• Actual quantities/measurements
• Concluding statement(s):
– Therefore, I think…
• Outliers, inconsistent data
– Some data were inconsistent. I think this happened, because…
• Connection to the real world
– This information could be important because…
Independent Writing
• Use scaffolding to write in science
notebooks
Web Link for State Multiple List
for Science
http://www.education.ky.gov/KDE/Instructional+Resources/Curri
culum+Documents+and+Resources/Textbooks+and+Instruction
al+Resources/Adoption+Group+III+-+Science+-+2008++2014.htm
Leadership Development
Learning Target:
• I can connect the 7
disciplines for
strengthening
instruction with my
work as a science
leader.
Reinventing Education
Before Reading:
During/After Reading:
• At the beginning of this article
Wagner states, “…the problem
is not that teachers and students
are failing, but that the system
is obsolete. Reforming our
present system is not the
solution. We need to reinvent
it.”
• If you were given ‘absolute
power’ to REINVENT your
school, what would it look like?
What would drive your
decisions?
• In the last section of the article
Wagner says that, “I personally
believe that powerful questions
drive learning, answers do not
drive learning.”
• What questions really drive the
work in your building or district
currently? Who’s posing the
questions? Who’s trying to
answer them? How?
Leading and Supporting
Instructional Improvement
Excerpted from a Presentation by
Tony Wagner, Co-Director
Change Leadership Group, Harvard University
A “Theory of Change”
• Student achievement will not improve unless and
until teaching improves. Higher standards, more
testing, smaller schools, etc. do not, by
themselves, improve teaching.
• Teachers, working alone, with little or no
feedback on their instruction, will not be able to
improve significantly—no matter how much PD
they receive.
The NEW Work: 7 Disciplines for
Strengthening Instruction
1. The district or school creates understanding and
urgency around improving ALL students’
learning for teachers and community and they
regularly report on progress.
•
•
Data is disaggregated and transparent to everyone
Qualitative (focus groups and interviews) as well as
quantitative data is used to understand students’ and
recent graduates’ experience of school.
2. There is a widely shared vision of what is
good teaching which is focused on rigor,
the quality of student engagement, and
effective methods for personalizing
learning for all students.
•
Either developed by the district or by the
school
3. All adult meeting are about instruction and are
models of good teaching.
4. There are well-defined performance standards
and assessments for student work at all grade
levels. Both teachers and students understand
what quality work looks like, and there is
consistency in standards of assessment.
5. Supervision is frequent, rigorous, and entirely
focused on the improvement of instruction. It is
done by people who know what good teaching
looks like.
6. Professional Development is primarily on-site,
intensive, collaborative, and job-embedded and
is designed and led by educators who model best
teaching and learning practices.
7. Data is used diagnostically at frequent intervals
by teams of teachers to assess each student’s
learning and to identify the most effective
teaching practices, and teams have time built into
their schedules for this shared work.
“Reinventing” What & How We Teach:
The New 3 “R’s” for the 21st Century
• RIGOR
– Teaching students to use their minds well and to communicate clearly
• RELEVANCE
– Helping students to understand why something is important to learn
– Fostering curiosity & life-long learning by providing students opportunities to
explore learning that is personally relevant to them
• RELATIONSHIPS/RESPECT
– Students won’t learn or work hard for teachers who do not respect them
– You can’t motivate a student you don’t know
Looking for Evidence of the 3 “R’s”:
7 Questions for Students
1.
2.
3.
4.
What is the purpose of this lesson?
Why is this important to learn?
In what ways are you challenged to think in this lesson?
How will you apply, assess, or communicate what
you’ve learned?
5. Do you know how good your work is, and how you can
improve it?
6. Do you feel respected by other students in this class?
7. Do you feel respected by the teacher in this class?
“Reinventing” How We Work Together:
Creating “Communities of Practice”
• For Teachers/Counselors
– Work in small groups to analyze “problems of practice” (i.e., looking at
individual students, student work, teacher work and case studies)
– Developing lessons collaboratively
– Observing one another teach/advise and peer coaching
• For Principals
– Share and critique draft School Improvement Plans
– Discuss “problems of practice” and real “case studies” of teacher supervision;
role-play supervision conferences with teachers
– Plan “problem-solving” faculty meetings and seek feedback from teachers
• For Central Office
– Discuss “problems of practice” and real “case studies” of school and principal
supervision; role-play supervision conferences with principals
– Plan “problem-solving” administrator meetings and seek feedback from principals and
other staff on meetings as models of good teaching/learning
Thinking Systemically & Working Strategically:
4 “Rigorous” Questions for Leaders
1. What’s the problem you’re trying to solve?
-What does it have to do with improving teaching and learning?
-What data (qualitative/quantitative) have you used to understand the
problem?
2. What is your strategy for solving this problem?
-Why did you choose this strategy? What others did you consider?
-Can you clearly explain your “theory of action” (i.e., how you think this
strategy will solve the problem you’ve identified?)
3. Who is accountable for what to solve this problem?
-What do they need to get the job done?
4. What data will you track to tell you whether you’re
making progress in solving this problem?
Instructional Model for Science
Learning Target:
• I can identify areas on
which to focus in
order to develop a
robust model for
effective science
instruction.
• “Unless and until there is a focus on how to
develop the teaching skills required to help
all students meet more rigorous standards
and master the curriculum (and all teachers
use assessments to improve instruction),
student achievement is unlikely to improve
more than marginally.”
– Tony Wagner and Robert Kegan, Change Leadership
Qualities of Good Science
Instruction
• Examine the categorized list of criteria generated
by this group for “good” science instruction.
• Working with your table group, match your
criteria with one of the 10 questions from Marzano
for developing models of instruction.
• Where are the areas of strong correlation?
• Where are the gaps?
• What criteria need operationalized?
• “Without agreed-upon definitions (or at least a
clarification of how a person is using a term) and
observable data that support the person’s
assessment of the lesson, conversations about
teaching and learning remain ethereal, reinforcing
the teaching profession’s weak craft knowledge
base, professional language, and standards of
practice. We need agreed-upon criteria.”
– Tony Wagner and Robert Kegan, Change Leadership
Qualities of Good Science
Instruction
• Spend-a-buck
– You have 4 “quarters”
(colored dots).
– Based on the
comparison of our
criteria to Marzano’s
framework, “vote” for
the question(s) you feel
we need to explore in
more detail.
• “Berliner ultimately concludes that effective
teaching is a dynamic mixture of expertise
in a vast array of instructional strategies
combined with a profound understanding of
the individual students in class and their
needs at particular points in time.”
– Robert Marzano, The Art and Science of Teaching
from “In Pursuit of the Expert Pedagogue”
Roadmap for the Day
Take Home Messages
• A wide array of personal communication
techniques can be employed to uncover student
thinking in order to inform instruction. They
require deliberate planning.
• Science notebooks should be used to help students
learn science content, to think scientifically, and to
communicate scientifically.
• A shared vision of good teaching is essential for
robust improvement.
Next Meeting
• October 24th
• Read Ch. 7 in CASL
• Read selected chapters
in The Art and Science
of Teaching
– How does this apply to
our developing
instructional model?