Brian Cohen
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Distilling Education to Checklists

10/26/2011

3 Comments

 
For many teachers and administrators across the School District of Philadelphia the District Walkthrough is a most harrowing experience. For a brief period of the school day the principal and/or assistant principals along with instructional support staff frantically cater to the whims of a large group of people charged with assessing the current academic progress of a school. According this document on the Empowerment Schools Walkthough Framework webpage, only 45 minutes are to be spent in classrooms. With the short amount of time allocated to this task the assessment of teaching and learning boils down to a simple checklist that leaves out most of the qualitative aspects of the classroom.

It is fairly easy to tell in the first 10 minutes of watching a class if there is actual learning going on that day. When it comes to walkthroughs, however, I have found that there is not so much a search for "learning" as a search for specific items deemed important by some external body. For example, I have been reprimanded over the past three years for lacking (at one time or another): a) posted objectives, b) current student work, c) state standards. Instead of spending the time to truly listen and watch what is going on, the focus is on these individual items.

My main quandary here is not so much that the walkthroughs exist - it is the fact that there does not seem to be any research behind their implementation. I have asked many people how or why it is important to student learning that I post my objectives, have loads of student work, or have a list of the state standards and have not received any cogent responses. If those in charge of maintaining the quality of education in schools do not, themselves, keep up on current research of pedagogy, how are they supposed to know what to look for? 

Unfortunately I am not as well versed as I would like to be in this field. As a third year teacher I do feel like I have a handle on many things in my classroom but I still think on a macro level of what is going on around Philadelphia. The teaching across the city is deeply important to me, though, so I want to make sure that those in charge of giving teachers red, yellow, or green dots based on our proficiency in teaching are assessing us in a valid way. Don't you?
3 Comments
Eddie
10/27/2011 04:45:16 am

Hey Brian,

I read your post and call it fate because I've been thinking about the value of a "walk through" for a few weeks.

First of all, let me be clear. I hate random administrative walkthroughs. I hate them for the following reason: The philosophy of the walkthrough and system to apply this philosophy is wrong. What is the walkthrough philosophy? Teachers should be teaching in an engaging manner and students should be learning. But something is wrong here. Admins walk in late and have no context. Even if they are on time, they have no context for the most part. For instance, lets say I start my class: I begin the pre-class assignment, check over it, read the objectives, go over big questions, field some questions and begin the lesson - all of which takes 2 minutes. Then ad admin walks in and has some checklist - mainly to see some standards on the board, if kids are learning be it together or by themselves, management and engagement, etc... Here is what is lost in this: the fact that the classroom and lesson are biological objects. They are alive and change with environmental factors. What are the factors? Kids! Teachers (teachers who are "with it") must amend lessons on the spot. OK the lesson on thesis statement isn't working out, let me think on my feet and troubleshoot some methods to get the class to full understanding. Is it perfect? No, but that's a good teacher using formal assessment to monitor understanding. Now if an admin sees this he or she could see that as being unprepared. See the context is missing from the "random" walkthroughs.


I'm all about walkthroughs though - albeit walkthroughs in my perfect world. I invite administrators into my classroom every three weeks and I give them things to focus on. These are informal observations and I tell them what to focus on before they enter my class. I also schedule some time after they see me teach to have a debrief. I honestly feel that is the only way an observation should go down. You must have the context (a pre-meeting) have the lesson (giving them something to focus on), and debrief after the lesson. Now this takes a lot of time to do - this is a problem with the overall system (perhaps a blog topic on a perfect school model is in order).


Now as for the comments regarding the "posting the objectives, language objectives, sped objectives, state standards, agenda, big questions, student work." I fell every teacher should do this. I do this every day and I start my class by taking my students through this small 2 minute routine. Is there research? Yes. The research comes from the perspective of Harry and Rosemary Wong (sound familiar) and it comes through the lens of classroom management. If a teacher (especially a new teacher) is focused with his or her lesson in the planning and executing phase and is able to translate the backwards design model into a student friendly manner, then the kids will know what they are doing and how they will get there. This in turn will inspire your kids to have those great conversations about the content objectives. Is it needed? Yes. It takes 2 minutes to mention at the beginning of class. There is some research by Cris Tovani in the scope of reading for comprehension and it states "if a student is reading for a purpose they are reading for comprehension." Why can't this be applied to the lesson section of our chalkboard? If a student is learning for a purpose (by being told the objectives and manner in which he or she will learn the lesson) they in turn will have a purpose to be great learners.


I'm on the fence about student work. Is it important to post? Yes. Do you have to draw any attention to it during instructional time? Not really. I think it's nice for kids to see progress. Does it have to be all A work? Nope. I put C's and D's on my student wall because that C submission is coming from a student who usually makes F's in the class. I think having students see completed work and having them get some praise for it is a good thing.


-Eddie

Reply
Brian Cohen
10/27/2011 05:39:51 am

Eddie,

Your point on the 2 minutes at the beginning of class is well taken - I make sure one student reads my objectives at the beginning of class and we discuss the agenda. That being said, I think there is something about not having the objective be too obvious so that there is more discovery going on. While I am not the fanboy of discovery learning that some might think, if a student comes up with the idea of the lesson on their own, they will probably have more connection to it.

As for student work - I am still on the fence. I am all about showcasing products of what a student has done. But assessments? I don't think I need to post tests around the room. For one thing, it seems like I would be focusing on only a few students who do ridiculously well and those who don't get posted would feel left out. I'd rather post everything than nothing.

Reply
I Teach in Philly
10/27/2011 07:55:42 am

Get one thing straight: even if you ask the perfect higher order question at just the right moment and give every student a magical "aha moment" there will be a walkthrough person to tell you that you did it wrong.

These people are not educators. They are bureaucratic robots. They don't understand or care about the soul of learning. They care about checklists and destroying morale.

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    I am a math teacher in the New York Department of Education. I infuse technology and real-world problems into my curriculum in order to prepare my students for the future. I would love for people across the country to recognize we teachers can't do it alone. If you don't believe me, come visit my classroom!

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