dlt/blt teacher connection spdg
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DLT/BLT Teacher Connection SPDG. March 11, 2009. The real work. The district work has been challenging, but… The real challenging work is going to be getting follow- through in the buildings. What are we communicating to the buildings and BLTs?. We are exploring whether we can learn together - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
DLT/BLTTeacher Connection
SPDG
March 11, 2009
The real work
• The district work has been challenging, but…
• The real challenging work is going to be getting follow- through in the buildings
What are we communicating to the buildings and BLTs?
• We are exploring whether we can learn together
As a whole building, and
As a whole district
The DLT tried to:
• Chose what we think are powerful strategies.
• We can spend our time disagreeing which strategy we chose, but
• The purpose is to develop our capacity “to learn together” as a school, and as a district, resulting in the use of shared powerful teaching strategies
1. What Matters Most in Terms of Student Achievement?
The variations in student learning are directly correlated with the quality of the teacher.
McKinsey & Company, 2007
The difference in performance between students who are
assigned three effective teachers in a row versus
those assigned three ineffective teachers in a row is
49 percentile points
The single most important influence on student learning is the quality of teaching.
But despite this recognition, most school districts have not defined what they mean by good teaching.
Danielson, 2006
2. What Matters Most in Terms of Teacher Effectiveness?
Teachers have the tendency to gravitate towards approaches that are congruent with their prior practices.
Stein and Coburn, 2008
It appears that the most important difference between the most and least effective classrooms is the teacher, but the most important variable appears to be what they do rather than what they know.
Wiliam, 2007
Effective Teachers
If the research on professional development over the last twenty years has shown us anything, it is that we can change teacher thinking without changing teacher practice.
The only thing that impacts student achievement is teacher practice.
Wiliam, 2007
So if we are serious about raising student achievement, we must focus on helping teachers change what they do in classrooms.
Wiliam, 2007
What Does Powerful Teaching Look Like?
3. What Does Powerful Teaching Look Like?
Take five minutes and identify at your table.
Authentic Pedagogy
An analysis of NELS data found that students in restructured schools where authentic instruction was widespread experienced greater achievement gains.
Lee et al., 2006
Authentic Pedagogy
Average students in schools with high levels of authentic instructions would learn about 78 percent more in mathematics between eighth and tenth grades.
Lee et al., 2006
Authentic Pedagogy
• Instruction focused on―• Active learning in real-world
contexts
• Higher-level thinking skills
• Extended writing and demonstration
Newman et al., 2006
What Affects Teaching/Instruction?
• Having shared norms about teaching and assessment are particularly important.
• Consensus on what high-quality instruction looks like
• Only when there is agreement on effective pedagogy, is it possible to raise questions about how to eliminate ineffective or extraneous activities.
Wahlstrom & Louis, 2008
Three Things About Instruction We Know from the Research
That Matter
1. Powerful teaching
2. Focused instruction
3. Flexible grouping practices Wahlstrom & Louis, 2008
Powerful Teaching
1. Provides attention toward specific learning goals, plenty of choices, and interesting things to think about
2. Presents materials in small steps linked with guided practice
3. Presents information in multiple different ways
Wahlstrom & Louis, 2008
Powerful Teaching4. Involves student problem solving
through the active exploration of new ideas, inventing, and trying out their own approaches to real-life problems
5. Uses questions to determine students’ understanding at many levels, including application outside of the classroom
Wahlstrom & Louis, 2008
Powerful Teaching
6. Assists learners in developing cognitive strategies that enable them to perform higher-level operations independently.
Wahlstrom & Louis, 2008
Another Similar View
Highly Effective Teachers Support Meaningful Learning by:
1. Creating ambitious and meaningful tasks that reflect how knowledge is used in the field
2. Engaging students in active learning, so that they apply and test what they know
Darling-Hammond, 2008
3. Drawing connections to students’ prior knowledge and experiences
4. Diagnosing students’ understanding in order to scaffold the learning process step by step
Highly Effective Teachers Support Meaningful Learning by:
Darling-Hammond, 2008
5. Assessing student learning continuously and adapting teaching to student needs
6. Providing clear standards, constant feedback, and opportunities for work
Darling-Hammond, 2008
Highly Effective Teachers Support Meaningful Learning by:
7. Encouraging strategic and meta-cognitive thinking so students can learn to evaluate and guide their own learning
Highly Effective Teachers Support Meaningful Learning by:
Darling-Hammond, 2008
Compare these findings to your own list that you created
• Similarities?
• Differences?
Students Know More Ways to Learn, Than We Know How to Teach
Hord & Sommers, 2008
4. What Matters Most in Terms of Teacher Learning and Changing their Practice?
Take five minutes and identify at your table.
What Affects Teaching Practices?
• The development of teacher professional community that includes
• Reflective dialogue• Deprivatized practices• Shared norms
• All have a robust effect on teacher practices.
Wahlstrom & Louis, 2008
Reflective dialogue (opportunities to discuss practices with other teachers) is particularly important in changing teaching practices.
What Affects Teaching Practices?
Wahlstrom & Louis, 2008
This Is Why the Concept of Learning Communities or Data Teams Is So Important.
In schools where teachers examined the evidence of the impact of teaching effectiveness on student achievement and regarded their professional practices as the primary cause of student achievement,…
…the gains in student achievement were three times higher than in schools where the faculty and leaders attributed the causes to factors beyond their control.
Reeves, 2007
So What Does This Mean for the Work of―
• The DLT?
• The BLT?
• Grade level, department, and vertical teams?
• Individual teachers?
Work of the BLT Implementing
Shared Practices
PLC/DataTeams
Refined Practices/
Lesson/Unit Plans
ImplementingShared
Assessments
DLT/BLT Work
Monitoring ofShared
Practices
Monitoring of PLC/Data
Teams
Feedback,PD,
Learning
Monitoring of Shared
Assessments
What Are Data Teams?
• Small grade-level or department teams that examine individual student work generated from common formative assessments
• Collaborative, structured, scheduled meetings that focus on the effectiveness of teaching and learning
The Data Team Process
• Step 1 Collect and chart data• Step 2 Analyze strengths and
obstacles• Step 3 Establish goals: Set,
review, revise• Step 4 Select instructional
strategies• Step 5 Determine results
indicators
Common Assessments
• Provide a degree of consistency
• Represent common, agreed-upon expectations
• Align with Power Standards
• Help identify effective practices for replication
• Make data collection possible!
BLT Data Team Work
• Meet at least monthly to discuss
• Achievement gaps• Successes and challenges• Progress monitoring• Assessment schedules• Intervention needs• Resources
DLT/ BLT Work
1. Support the understanding for the need for consistent use of the strategies.
• Intervention strategies• Team development and learning strategies• Pragmatics―Scheduling, roles, outcomes
2. Support the consistent use of the strategies.1. PD, coaching, mentoring, observations
DLT/ BLT Work
3. Develop and implement monitoring and feedback tools and strategies.
• Tools, schedules, methodologies
4. Develop and refine team and systems learning.
Questions and Discussion
Brian McNultyThe Leadership and Learning Center
LeadandLearn.com
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