Improving the instructional core
- 1. IMPROVING THE INSTRUCTIONAL CORE Riverton Intermediate School
- 2. What is the Instructional Core? In its simplest terms, the instructional core is composed of the teacher and the student in the presence of content. It is the relationship between the teacher, the student, and the content – not the qualities of any one of them by themselves – that determines the nature of instructional practice, and each corner of the instructional core has its own particular role and resources to bring to the instructional process. Simply stated, the instructional task is the actual work that students are asked to do in the process of instruction.
- 3. The Role of Each Corner
- 4. Principle 1: Defining the Instructional Core "You don't change performance without changing the instructional core. The relationship of the teacher and the student in the presence of content must be at the center of efforts to improve performance.” Richard Elmore There are 3 Ways to Increase Student Learning & Performance increase the knowledge and skill of teachers change the content alter the relationship of the student to the teacher and the content
- 5. Principle 2: Changing One Part, Changes ALL Parts For any positive impact on student learning to take place, changes in any single element of the instructional core must be accompanied by corresponding changes in the other two elements. Raising the level of learning expectation and content would have to be accompanied by development of the teachers’ skill level in teaching the new content. Then, too, thoughtful practices to extend student engagement with the new content would have to be put in place.
- 6. Principle 3: If You Can’t See It, It’s Not There Student performance is a result of the teaching that is going on in the classroom and the tasks that students are asked to do. Teaching causes learning.
- 7. Principle 4: Task Predicts Performance What predicts performance is what students are doing daily. Observing academic tasks, predicting what students will know as a consequence of what they are being asked to do, and providing guidance will assist students in performing at higher levels.
- 8. Principle 5: The Real Accountability System Is in the Tasks that the Students are Asked to Do There is a connection between doing the right thing and knowing the right thing to do. If instruction and performance are to improve, we must know what the actual practice must look like to get the expected results at the school level.
- 9. Principle 6: We Learn To Do The Work By Doing The Work… We learn to do the work by doing the work, not by having done the work at some time in the past, and not by hiring experts who can act as proxies for our knowledge about how to do the work. In education, we must engage in professional practice. We need to know what high-level instruction looks like.
- 10. Principle 7: Description Before Analysis, Analysis Before Prediction, Prediction Before Evaluation We describe what we see utilizing a common language. Analysis is getting people to work at grouping what they see into agreed upon categories and start to make some judgments about how the categories are related to each other.
- 11. How Will RIS Improve the Instructional Core?? Identify a Focus of Practice Collect Data about the Focus of Practice Analyze and Make Sense of the Data Focus on the Work
- 12. Identify a Focus of Practice Survey Results…
- 13. How Will We Collect Data about our Focus of Practice Learning to SEE, Unlearning to JUDGE Classroom Observations will be made using NON-JUDGEMENTAL Statements. a) Students worked for 20 minutes on an application problem b) Students were focused on the task c) Task was to write a five paragraph summary of how metaphors enhanced the novel d) Task was a challenging application of literary knowledge
- 14. Fine-Grained Data Collections “Not all forms of evidence are equally valuable.” “In general, finer-grained descriptions make it easier for us to discuss classrooms and to build a common picture of what is happening in classrooms.” Stay in the descriptive mode and be ready to discuss the why behind the description.
- 15. Fine-Grained or Large-Grained?? a) The lesson was about the four main causes of the Civil War. b) Teacher: “How are volcanoes and earthquakes similar and different?” c) Teacher questions students about the passage they just read. d) Teacher: “Boys and girls, today’s number is 30. Who can give me a string of numbers that go up to 30?” e) Students worked individually even though they were in groups. Each worked on own paper and didn’t talk with others. f) Teacher checked frequently for comprehension.
- 16. What’s Next?? In-school Instructional Rounds Observations Tomorrow: Grade Level Instructional Rounds Observation Training during the 2nd half of your planning. Please meet in the Large Conference Room. Next week: Peer to Peer Data Collection will take place. Details will be given during tomorrow’s meeting. September 5th: Grade Levels will sort and analyze their data, and formulate an action plan. Learn Something About Our Focus of Practice