CRITICAL FRIEND’S NETWORKFOCUSED STUDY VISIT

French Creek Host School

APRIL 13, 2011

Welcome – Ms. Malinda McKillip

Remarks - Dr. DiBartolomeo

Connections

Today’s Schedule

Participants will:

Work together so each participant feels valued, motivated, and accountable to contribute to collective outcomes.Observe in a reflective, analytical but non-judgmental manner.Learn from the critical perspectives, description and impact of practice.Contribute to an account of practice as the recorded and usable outcome of the shared inquiry.

Key Assumptions of Participation

Make practitioner knowledge or practice visible and transferable.Enable practitioners to connect with, adapt and share what they know.Facilitate disciplined, collaborative inquiry.Identify leadership practices and other school conditions that support the development of the focus area.Provide an authentic account of the practice that is directly helpful to the host environment.Inform next steps for the host school.

Goals for the Day

About a classroom A checklist A once a year event An evaluation

A Focused Study Visit is collaborative, school-based inquiry that involves practitioners in the investigation of a particular practice and the conditions of learning and leadership practices that best support its implementation and maintenance in a classroom.

A Focused Study Visit is NOT…

The success of a Focused Study Visit is tied to the commitment level of participating schools to learning from, with, and on behalf of each other.

Focus Area for the day…

• What practice will we see?

• What kind of evidence will we gather in classrooms to tell us about the practice area?

o In classroom management and organizations?o In student learning?

o

o What will we hear when we listen to children?o What will we hear when we listen to teachers?o What questions will we ask of students? Teachers?

Other Data CollectionIn what professional development related to the focus area have teachers participated?What documentation from the school do we need to review?What data collection instruments will we use to record our observations?What does “hall talk” look like? (Participants create thought provoking “wonderings” intended to stimulate thinking that will move the staff to the next level of practice.)What skill(s) must data collectors possess to gather data appropriately?

Review Sample Account of Practice

Debrief…

Description Stage: Make a list of the data you collected. (Factual, low-inference, description of what was observed…)

Analysis Stage: What conditions of learning (clear standards, fair assessments, curriculum framework, instruction, materials and resources, and interventions) and/or leadership practices support what you saw today?

Predictive Stage: If you were a student in this school and you did everything you were expected to do, what would you know and be able to do?

What questions can we pose for the host school that can extend its learning?

What are the next steps for the French Creek Leadership Team?

How can the school’s leadership team shape its leadership practice through the interactions of leaders and followers and aspects of the situation or context?

What role can boundary practices (organizational routines and structures) such as regular meeting and boundary objects (any tool used to coordinate teachers’ and administrators’ perspectives or actions) such as such a protocol play in mediating (serve as go-betweens) leadership practice and influencing instruction?

What key learning points are transferable to other leaders in the District?

Participant Reflection 1. What worked well and what should we do differently next time?

2. What lessons have you learned?

3. How will you put what learned into practice?

4. How would you characterize our learning as a community?

Who will write the account of practice?

Thank you for participating in this Focused Study Visit!