My Coaches' Couch: Kidwatching during Modeling

As Roland Barth, author of Improving Schools from Within, has said, “There is no more powerful way of learning and improving on the job than by observing others and having others observe us” (Barth, 2006, p. 11). Modelling a lesson in a teacher’s classroom provides the opportunity for observation. Whether only one teacher observes or you invite the whole team, observations are an experience ripe with prospects for instructional improvement.

Pre-Observation: Laying the Foundation for Teacher Learning

Effective observation starts with wondering. As you prepare for the lesson, ask about not just teacher needs, but also student needs. Get together before the observation lesson and elevate the questions that guided your planning. Tell the teacher(s) what you are wondering about now. Will students grasp the concepts as intended? Will they have success with the mini-steps leading up to that concept? Will they find the work interesting?

What Will Students’ Do?

Completing the template below can help you prepare for the observation by focusing on student learning. Before the observation, look together at each step in the lesson and consider what you think will happen: anticipate students’ responses and how you might adjust. Make a corresponding list of things you want to pay attention to while the lesson is being taught. Observer(s) will capture these things in their notes; hopefully you can capture them in your brain for later reflection.

The “points to notice” column on our chart will guide our notetaking once the lesson is underway, but it is also helpful to think beforehand about the structure for notetaking. Some teachers like to use two column notes: What the teacher says/does in one column and what the students say/do in another. Since our lessons will be student focused, the right column will be very full by the end of the lesson! Sometimes, the team agrees on a structure for notetaking, but more often, each follows their own instincts about how to capture what happens in the classroom. For me, that means writing or typing as fast as I can, trying to get exact words and notice actions and even facial expressions. Sometimes, it the team is observing, we divide and conquer, giving each teacher a set of students or a station to specifically attend to.

Objective Observing: What Do We See and Hear?

During an observation, notes should be objective. Evaluation can wait! Notes should reflect just what is happening. There will be time for reflection later. I encourage teachers to sharpen their senses so they see and hear the nuances of student and teacher actions and interactions.

Wearing Our Culture Glasses

Before stepping into the classroom, it’s also helpful to remind ourselves to wear our “culture” glasses – to be especially tuned to how culture and context are impacting students’ responses throughout the lesson. We want to make note of these, because it will help us adjust the lesson, improve its effectiveness, and apply new understandings in our future planning. Being sensitive to the affective responses of students will give us clues about the fit between the lesson and our students’ culture. These details will also give us a sense of whether the lesson is successfully building on students’ background knowledge. Be sure to note the “aha” expressions and the looks of confusion. For example, during a fifth-grade lesson, we noticed how confused students seemed about the word problem asking them to determine payment at a parking garage. Later, when we thought this through, we realized there wasn’t a parking garage within a 50-mile radius of their community! Noticing students’ affective responses pointed out a mismatch between lesson content and students’ background.

It’s also helpful to remind observers to shift their focus throughout the lesson. Even if there has been a pre-assignment to focus on a particular student or group, observers should get in the habit of lifting their gaze from time to time to see what other students are doing, to note the arrangement of the room and the choreography of the lesson. These factors all influence individual students’ learning.

Linking PD to Practice

Being prepared before an observation and thoughtfully observant during the lesson ensures a productive debrief. According to Reeves (2010), “observing professional practice in action has been a missing link in professional development,” (p. 81), and it is a link that can sharpen teachers’ attention to student learning and broaden their instructional repertoire. Modelling, the first stage in the GIR model, provides this link.