I have had some experience with Instructional Rounds, though it was limited.
It was the end of my first year teaching 1st grade (my 5th year teaching) and the principal decided she wanted to implement instructional rounds. I am certain that it wasn’t solely her idea. That year our school was being visited and observed by MANY people from central office and was highly scrutinized because we were not meeting AYP or making the necessary gains in order to meet AYP in the near future.
The climate of our school was not positive to begin with and having so many critical eyes rotating through our school did not improve anyone’s attitude. When the idea of instructional rounds was announced, it was pitched as a way for us to see what everyone in our grade level was doing. One member of the leadership team would cover a class period and another member of the leadership team would walk around with the teacher during that 50 or so minutes, to the other classrooms in their grade level. We were all reassured that it was non-evaluative but there was a checklist so that there would be points to discuss at the debrief meeting. Each grade level was doing these instructional rounds at the same time in their grade level.
There was only one 1st grade teacher that made the rounds. It was the end of the year and we all know how chaotic that time of year is, so that was the reasoning for not continuing the rest of the rounds. My theory revolved around the teachers that had been selected to kick off the initial round. They were all incredibly vocal and negative and contributed largely to the stagnant climate that had settled on our school. Let’s just say, I wouldn’t have wanted to be in the debriefing meeting with those teachers.
This year at my current school, completely different dynamic...completely different everything, the idea of a Pineapple Chart was presented at the Sunshine Committee meeting. Jennifer Gonzalez, author of Cult of Pedagogy blog, (2016) explains “a Pineapple Chart is a system that allows teachers to invite one another into their classrooms for informal observation”. Although some of us on the team loved the idea of allowing fellow teachers in the room to observe, others were VERY against it. Wagner (2008) describes education as a profession as a craftsman trade, there is a “craftsman’s regularity and repetitiveness in that they often teach the same lesson two or three times a day and the same courses for years, with little or no change”. The teachers were against the Pineapple chart because they fear anyone coming in and asking them to change something. Whether they think they are doing everything perfect (doubtful) or they just don’t feel like they have the time to invest to change anything.
I suppose it just blows my mind that teachers, regardless of the school and the atmosphere, don’t want people coming into their classrooms. That feedback is so valuable! I am willing to admit though, that a lot of it comes from experience and whether than experience was positive or negative.
2. Discuss how these additional resources connect to the ideas Wagner puts forth about improving instruction.
There are some distinct similarities and differences between the Instructional Rounds and Wagner’s Learning Walks. The basic idea is the same; taking some time to get a glimpse of what teachers and students are doing in their classrooms, non-evaluative, and time to debrief. All of these are critical components for growth of the observer. I think the biggest difference is the audience and the purpose. Wagner’s Learning Walks focuses on getting an overall picture of what is happening in classrooms for school and district administrators. These positions are not in the classroom daily so they may not know exactly what instruction looks like, let alone what they want instruction to look like. The ultimate purpose with these walks is for the leaders to figure out how to better support the teachers as instructional leaders in the classroom.
3. Thinking about your own leadership, how would you bring this strategy to a school you lead? Think about being a new leader and how you would roll out this new plan, keeping in mind the differences in learners/teachers, and the structure of this school’s PD strategies already in place.
Without going too in depth, I do have a couple of ideas of what I would do if I were to try and roll this type of PD strategy at my current school. First, I would love to model that “open to feedback” mindset. I would like to invite teachers to join in components of my job as an administrator and ask for their feedback; be it regarding planning a staff meeting or lunch duty or really anything that isn’t confidential. I think the next step would be to ask a handful of teachers that are looked up at the school to open their classrooms. There is at least one teacher in each pod, that are always happy to have teachers in their room. Depending on the comfort of the observing teachers, we can start by going in just to watch one of the teachers of their choice. After the first observation, the same teachers that observed would do a second round. I’d like to include a focus, the “problem of practice” as described by Wager (2008) and the Classroom Observation Strategies: Instructional Rounds video (2015) and a short debrief session that really only asks the observers to describe what they saw in regards to the problem of practice. This will also hopefully cause them to reflect on their own practices. Then I would like to have a third round where we include each of the phases that were shown in the Classroom Observation Strategies: Instructional Rounds video (2015). Additionally, I would like to invite the teachers that opened their classrooms to the debriefing meetings so they are able to see what is being discussed and see what they would like to contribute. These teachers are big on growth mindset so I’m confident they would model what it looks like to say, “How can I do this better?” or “How can I meet the needs of my students better?”
My hope is that by scaffolding with teachers and teacher leaders, the school would be more accepting of the opening of classrooms and learning from one another. I recognize that it will take awhile to onboard everyone using this approach. However, my personal belief is to take as much time as we need to do it WELL and do it ONCE. Of course, with the exception of new teachers, but if new teachers come into the school where that climate and expectation are set, it will be much easier for them to become a part of it.
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