Walk throughs
In 2006 whilst in America and Canada I participated in some walkthroughs with school principals who had a focus on improving the quality of instruction in classrooms. This page will highlight some of my experiences using this strategy at Elsternwick Primary School, a public school in Melbourne Australia. Walkthroughs are one way in which principals and or lead teachers can gain a sense of what instruction is happening in classrooms and provide positive yet specific feedback to teachers. The strategy has a number of defined parts: pre – e.g. notifying teachers, deciding upon the specific focus, discussion on what we might expect to see in the classroom – e.g. walk the walls to look at the instructional supports, listen to the teacher providing feedback or asking questions, asking the children and finally post: e.g. discussing what we saw, deciding upon teacher feedback strategies.
The strategy was brought to prominence by Carolyn Downey who was an associate professor in the educational leadership department at San Diego State University. When asked by colleagues how to start walkthroughs I urge them to test the waters and have a dialogue with staff about what quality teaching looks like, how might feedback via walkthroughs might support them and build trust for we are now deprivatising teaching and this can be threatening to some teachers. When I first started conducting walkthroughs I focused in February on the unpacking of school values, the construction of sets of expectations or norms in classrooms and the development of quality relationships based on knowledge of the learner and their needs. We usually model these expectations at staff meetings and provided resources for ideas.
Over the past 12 months I have given presentations to colleagues across the Victoria on walkthroughs and soon will update this page with some of these resources.
One useful clip comes from ASCD on walkthroughs. The first clip is of a primary principal going into the classroom.
Another short clip here is from a secondary school and the team leader conducting a walkthrough. This is a different model of feedback – more to the individual teacher. Perhaps her last comment in the clip is the key – increasing the dialogue about teaching and learning
Listed below are some presentations I have given to colleagues:
Additional links and resources that colleagues have asked me to share include:
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School Administrators article This article has lots of links however the thing I found most useful was the section on the focus questions posed for the walkthrough.
Walkthroughs and Instructional Improvement: This article by Howard Johnston is again informative however its two links to looking at student work protocols at the end are really valuable. We have found that when teachers look collaboratively at student work they use their collective insights to identify what to teach next.
Intentionally building capacity: This article provides a summary of the process.
Walkthrough offer new ways to view schools article:
Principal walkthrough checklist: Not that I am in favour of a checklist for walkthroughs but this list can give you ideas for a focus to look for.
A research brief on walkthroughs that has great online resources.
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