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The power of conversation

Teachers see their

practice
through our words.

n formal observations, through spoken AND written words.

n informals, only through written words: informal summaries.

The teacher should make a consertive

effort to plan for consistently
communicating instructional
outcomes. Serveral students were
asking "What do I do now? There
were other parts of the lesson the
teacher should of captalized on to
maximize every learning opportunity
for students.

Purpose: Improve communication using writing strategies

Useful Framework
Rubric language
positive first, if possible
give before you take

+
Evidence to support
specific evidence
link cause and effect

+
Suggestion
offer results-oriented
suggestion
link cause and effect

o
i
t
c
fe

Re
n!

About Tone
Negative transitions
Mindreading
Judgment
Harp on one thing

Specific details sell

reality.
-- Matt Roberts
http://www.getmewriting.com/nuts-and-bolts-ofwriting/specificity/

Without concrete facts they might think that

you are just making the whole thing up,
or at least exaggerating.
-- Chris Garrett
The Persuasive Power of Specificity. Copyblogger.com

Evidence scripting

= what you see and hear,

without writing positive or negative inferences or
judgments from what we see and hear
Allows us to analyze what we see as
opposed to inserting our own idea of
effective instruction
Helps us search for cause and effect
relationships between what we observe teachers
and students doing and what students actually
know and are able to do as a consequence
Adapted from Elmore, Instructional Rounds in Education, Chapter 4

Rubric language = claim

Statements that a teacher performs a certain
teaching skill or carries out a certain pattern in
his or her instruction.

To support our claims our rubric language

in Summaries, we have to include evidence.

Examples of claims:
She communicated high expectations
for learning.
The teacher has made an effort to
establish standards of conduct.
Rubric language

The teacher circulated.

This statement is a claim. Claims do not provide
sufficient context or evidence to help teachers see
their classrooms.
How do we determine the level of
effectiveness of the teachers walking
among the students

The teacher circulated.

To include more specific evidence, answer
questions such as:
Is the teacher monitoring student
understanding or student behavior?
Does the teacher talk with students? If
so, what is the conversation?

The teacher circulated.

As the teacher circulated among table

groups, she asked each group 1 to 6
questions. What does the red dye
represent? What does the bread
represent?

Peers include evidence in a variety of

ways, including
Rubric language then evidence
or
Evidence bulleted underneath
rubric language
or
Evidence imbedded into rubric
language

Link cause and effect to make a more powerful visual

Students in the back were starting to whisper and move around.

The teacher needs to know what caused that to happen.
Was it the structure of the lesson? The pacing? The rigor? Procedures?

Claim = The learning task had to be clarified.

Evidence = Multi-step directions were given
verbally by the teacher. Most students were
unable to begin the assignment . The
teacher had to repeat directions as she
circulated.

Use cause and effect to provide a

more powerful visual for the teacher.

Give and Take

Give and Take

The
Giveteacher asked many questions, with some designed to
promote student thinking, and made effective use of wait time.
Only
students who volunteered were selected to respond. This impacted parti
ake
T
by allowing students to opt out. All questions were asked teacher to student,
Learning
would be enhanced if.
s
e
gg
u
S t

Any time change feels daunting, well try to

dodge it. It doesnt matter whether youre talking
about personal change or organizational change or
societal change. In situations like this, where the
change feels too big, weve got to shrink it, so it
feels more manageable.
-- Chip Heath and Dan Heath
Authors of Switch

When you set small, visible goals,

and people achieve them,
they start to get it into their heads
that they can succeed.
-- Chip Heath and Dan Heath
Authors of Switch

Big changes can start with

very small steps.

Small changes

tend to snowball.
-- Chip Heath and Dan Heath
Authors of Switch

Suggestions: Answer the teachers question, Where can I go fro

What can that teacher do tomorrow to have a positive impact on student
Whats one strategy the teacher can try tomorrow?
Specific idea relevant to evidence
Make them feel they can succeed.

Informal Summary Examples in Word

Use Comments to ID rubric language, evidence,

cause/effect, etc.
Emailed to you as First Class attachment.
Instructions are in the email.

Timer
Please work on summary examples,
individually or
as a group, then take a break.
At 9:45, well start the last part of the
session.

*Timer is hyperlink from online-stopwatch.com.

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