walk the walk, talk the talk

My neighbor's 10 year old son, Timmy, is the best fisherman in the entire world. He has caught over one million fish, some that were humongous in size, and he almost caught a shark once in a rather daring escapade that involved many heroic acts on his part. I have never seen the boy fish, but he sure knows how to talk the talk. Have I challenged him on the veracity of his stories...no. And as for "walking the walk", have I witnessed that...no. In your school, have you been able to observe teaching on a regular basis to validate the fidelity of your instructional program?

Sorry about that question, we all know that there is not enough time in the day to perform the multiple classroom observations needed to improve practice. And, conducting the conversations which are required to deeply examine the needed innovations in classroom practices can be difficult. But, what if there was an efficient process that could promote professional dialogue and pave the way for innovations?

Walk-throughs, if conducted efficiently, can serve as an important vehicle for school reform. The key aspect to validate a 5-minute walk-through as a legitimate tool for decision making is that the sample size must be large enough in order to make the data robust. So practically speaking, how can an observation form be structured that will generate the data that will serve as entry points for conversations about increasing the level of student performance/expectations?

You might be inclined to say, “I’ll just focus on one big idea because that will be quick and easy, allowing me the chance to visit more classrooms.” Blooms Taxonomy is a logical choice to be the focus (since it tends to be the signature mechanism in education for denoting a hierarchy of the various levels of thinking). However, while Bloom’s Taxonomy is a big target, it is also somewhat amorphous, and therefore it is problematic to articulate Blooms Taxonomy into a format other than a checklist of words that can be circled when observed. Furthermore, this approach would only serve to record the current level of practice. It is a focus on the darkness of the tunnel, rather than looking at the light at the end of the tunnel.

Focusing on current practice does not move a school forward, it is a stagnate conversation.

A major feature of the protocols cited in Instructional Rounds in Education is to focus on what the optimum level of practice looks like. This avoids the infatuation with dissecting the problem, and puts the energy into articulating what the next level of practice looks like. After all, the goal of reform is to change practice. Noted educational writer Edgar Schein states in his book, Organizational Culture and Leadership, that people need an alternative practice readily available as a substitute for failed structures.

So spend your time on what matters most…the solution.

The innovation from a reform perspective is to increase the occurrence of higher order thinking skills being exercised by the students. The key word here is exercise; as in what is the task the students are being asked to perform. In Marzano’s The Art and Science of Teaching, he cites multiple research studies that demonstrate that the student activity with the largest impact is: identifying similarities and differences (with huge effect sizes with values up to 1.65! p.64.) In addition, comparing and contrasting is a universal process that can be observed in all disciplines and in a wide range of formats. It is an easy target to identify, leading to an efficient observation and data entry process. A simple set of check boxes under the heading Identifying Similarities and Differences, is it evident in [] a question on worksheet, []supported by a graphic organizer, [] a component of verbal questioning/class conversation.

While the opportunity to be in the classrooms is available, other school initiatives can be readily reinforced at the same time. To further support the rationale for including more than one focus area on the walk-through form, please consider this excerpt from an interview with Kevin Kelly (the founder of Wired magazine) as he discusses the connections between technology, humanity, and the evolution of society:

“Inventions never happen in a vacuum. Every idea requires the support of four or five other ideas. There’s a necessary subset of other surrounding inventions that are required. As they appear, the new idea becomes more obvious. It’s an ecological growth.”

May I suggest two other items to put on the form because they are quick and easy, as well as a good support of other district/school initiatives: Is the homework posted and is there evidence of Cooperative Learning. Two aspects Cooperative Learning can be observed: 1) Is the physical environment arranged in a fashion that promotes peer-to-peer interaction (e.g., desks in pairs rather than separate rows); and 2) Are the students directed by the teacher to engage in academic conversations with their peers.

I know that you may have originally wanted just one focus, but having three that will support a improved level of performance and is an example of the ecological approach to viewing reform stated in the earlier quotation from Kevin Kelly. Big problems need a big approach. Another way to phrase it comes from Police Chief Martin Brody in the movie Jaws when he finally sees the size of the problem up close, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”

The intent of all the data collection is to spark a conversation about our profession and our practices. It is not about whether I saw this or I didn’t see that. Amy Irvine relates how framing a conversation as an either-or argument is counter productive: “Each side is glaring, garish even, in its shriek of righteousness …. we respond from a black-and-white paradigm, the potent dualities of us versus them resound with a faint, prehistoric echo. Instead of man against weather, or man against beast, it’s Republicans vs. Democrats, tree-huggers vs. wise-thinkers, Buddhists vs. Bible thumpers. The appeal of such binary thinking is that we are able to name not only who we are, but also what we are not. We draw the dividing line like a firebreak, and it holds back the advancing enemy while we retreat to safer ground” (p. 45).

Retreating from having difficult discussions is not a solution. “It comes down to this: by retreating from that which we oppose, we render lifeless all opportunities for intimacy, and for community. To smile and step away is as fatal to possibility as is brandishing a finger of blame” (p.47). By selecting a focus on the optimum condition, the conversation can center on the steps needed to achieve it. This positive perspective will allow for more productive conversations.

For a fine example of taming the logistics of the walk-through process, consider Matt Ryan, the principal of East Hartford High School, who supervises a staff of over 150 teachers in a school of 2000 students in a culturally diverse semi-urban district. He has mapped his school into quadrants, set a schedule to visit each section, and has designed a memo pad in which to jot down the data. By the third week of school this year he has already visited 154 classrooms! 154 visits while fulfilling the typical daily tasks of an administrator in an urban school district! A truly exemplary example of practical leadership. The strength of the all that data provides the credibility to engage in a serious dialogue about reforming practices. It all boils down to operationalizing one simple mantra…

Walk it, talk it.

Make a good day,
Tod

PS. City, E. A., Elmore, R. F., Fiarman, S. E., Teitel, L. (2009). Instructional Rounds in Education: A network approach to improving teaching and learning. Boston; Harvard Education Press. http://www.hepg.org/hep/book/99/InstructionalRoundsInEducation

PSS. Irvine, A. (2010, Jan/Feb). Spectral Light: Beyond black and white thinking in the new, old west. Orion, 42-48. Audio of the article is available at orionmagazine.org, or as a podcast on iTunes.

PSSS. Lawler, A. (2010, Jan/Feb). Tending the Garden of Technology. Orion, 36-41. Published by The Orion Society and the The Myrin Institute, Great Barrington, MA.

PSSSS. Marzano, R. J. (2007). Art and science of teaching: A comprehensive framework for effective teaching. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development,

PSSSSS. Ryan, Matthew J., East Hartford High School, East Hartford, CT. http://www.easthartford.org/page.cfm?p=4

PSSSSSS. Schein, E. (2004). Organizational culture and leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

PSSSSSSS. Jaws video clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkl3eXAHTRM