Saturday, June 23, 2018

You Are Not a 2


The teacher evaluation system used in my state scores teachers on a scale of 1 – 4;  1 = Unsatisfactory, 2 = Basic, 3 = Proficient, and 4 = Distinguished.  Although we try to separate coaching from evaluation, inevitably principals or teachers themselves want to work on areas with the lowest scores.  In these cases, we need to be clear that the number is not a description of them as a teacher, but it can be a helpful part of the conversation. 

If you feel confident that the evaluation system you are using describes good teaching, then conversations that are anchored in the system’s descriptors can be helpful.  We can talk about what a 3 is on a particular attribute, giving examples and asking questions to help teachers recall lessons when those qualities were present.  If the teacher is stretching for a 4 on an attribute, we can support planning with the specific element in mind.  Lessons that successfully incorporate features of high-level teaching and learning lead to replication of these features.

That’s what happened when Angie and I planned a lesson on fractions together.  Angie had identified the instructional attribute of student-to-student discussion as something she wanted to work on, since it had  been a low element on a recent evaluation.  She’d seen that, frequently, when an explanation was provided by a peer, students seemed to get it, even when she had already tried to clarify a concept herself.  So I suggested that students lay a piece of chart paper that had been split into four quadrants across a group of desks.  The class was given a fractions problem and students worked independently to solve the problem on their quadrant of the paper.  Then they explained to their table group the strategy they had used for solving the problem.  Next, the group decided which strategy they liked best from their group, and Angie chose a couple of starred examples to be shared with the class.  This approach was so effective that Angie later applied the quadrant collaboration strategy to lessons in other content areas, enriching her use of student-to-student discussion across the curriculum.  Student discussion using this approach matched the number 4 (distinguised) level in our evaluation rubric. 

Making the number something that is in the teacher’s control is energizing and empowering.  Although at times a lesson may exhibit attributes of a low evaluation score, no teacher is a 2.  There is a big difference.


This week, you might want to take a look at:

Learning walks in blended classrooms:



Mentor texts for “versus” tales:



Using wordless picture books in middle school:



4 Ways to Build Safety in Coaching:



Flipping the “I Do, We Do, You Do”:


That’s it for this week – Happy Coaching!

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