UNMISTAKABLE IMPACT A Partnership Approach for Dramatically

Improving Instruction ~ By Jim Knight

Partnering for SuccessE. R. Dickson Elementary SchoolOctober 21, 2013

Why Impact Schools?Current statistics tell us:Every year, over1.2 million students-that’s

7,000 every school day-do not graduate from high school on time

Nationwide, only about 70 percent of students earn their high school diplomas. The breakdown among race is 57.8% of Hispanic, 43.4% of African American, 49.3% of American Indian and Alaska Native, and 76.2% white students.

Only about 29% of America’s eighth-grade public school students meet the NAEP standard of reading proficiency.

Why Impact Schools, Continued…About 2/3 the prison inmates are high school drop-

outs and 1/3 of all juvenile offenders read below the fourth grade level.

Fewer than half of all high school graduates are prepared for basic high school math.

UNLESS current trends change, more than 12 million students will drop out during the course of the next decade-at a loss to the nation of more than $3 trillion.

WE Can Make an Unmistakable Impact!These data are overwhelming, disturbing, even

frightening; and NOT surprisingly, they have prompted many to seek someone to blame.

Rather than pinning the blame on someone, a more productive approach is to look for ways to make things better. One area we can improve in schools is professional learning.

This book proposes Impact Schools. Every aspect of professional learning is designed to have an UMISTAKABLE, POSITIVE IMPACT on teaching and, hence student learning.

WE can improve how well our students learn and perform if our schools become the kind of learning places (for students and adults) our students deserve.

The BIG 4 of an Impact SchoolOne Page Target:Content Planning-this involves unpacking the standards and using

them as a foundation for creating guiding questions that guide students to the knowledge, skills, and understanding they need to acquire.

Formative Assessment-teachers identify simple assessments (everything from whiteboards to graphic organizers to quizzes to thumbs-up/down) they can use in the moment during teaching to gauge how well students understand what is being taught.

Instruction-teachers implement 6 high-leverage teaching practices that are fairly easy to implement and can have a powerful, positive impact on student learning: Effective Questions, Thinking Prompts, Stories, Cooperative Learning, Experiential Learning, Quality Assignments.

Community Building-this involves developing and teaching clear expectations for all activities and transitions in the classroom, reinforcing those expectations by frequently praising students and calmly, consistently, and fluently correcting them when necessary.

Guiding QuestionsWhat are the BIG 4?In what ways will the seven partnership

principles help us make an unmistakable impact at E. R. Dickson? How can they influence our growth as educators?

What are the defining features of reflection? How does reflection relate to improvement of one’s professional practice? What ‘impact’ will this have?

How does true dialogue enhance and foster professional learning? What ‘impact’ will this have?

PARTNERSHIPS

In Impact Schools, educators nourish humanity by working from foundational principles that lead to respectful interchange. When people act on the partnership principles, they foster humanity by recognizing everyone’s value, by encouraging and listening to others’ voices, by providing real choices, and by learning in the context of real-life work. Most importantly perhaps, people working from the partnership principles see themselves as learners as much as teachers in any helping interaction. (p. 8)

Helping Relationships

Teachers are living, breathing, complicated professionals, and they work with living, breathing, complicated young human beings. To bring about improvements we hope to see, we need to recognize--in fact, honor-- the complexity of providing support within professional relationships. In education, effective professional learning must be grounded in an understanding of how complex helping relationships can be. (p. 20)

Partnership Principles

Unmistakable Impact (Chapter 2)

1. Equality2. Choice3. Voice4. Reflection5. Dialogue6. Praxis7. Reciprocity

1. Equalitypp. 29-31

2. Choicepp. 31-34

3. Voicepp. 34-36

4. Reflectionpp. 36-38

5. Dialogue

pp. 38-39

6. Praxispp. 42-44

7. Reciprocitypp. 44-45

Activity #2: What? To deepen understanding of the Partnership Principles

Why? To maximize our learning and instructional potential

How?Jigsaw / Picture It / Connect & Share It

Reflection

What is reflective practice?

• Requires that the practitioner commit to being a learner

• Involves the individual practitioner thinking about her experiences for the purpose of gaining new conceptual perspectives or understandings

Why is it important to reflect?

“We do not learn from experience. . . we learn from reflecting on experience.”—John Dewey

Why is it important to reflect?Critical reflection is “the core difference between whether a person repeats the same experience several times becoming highly proficient at one behavior, or learns from experience in such a way that he or she is cognitively or affectively changed.”—Boyd & Fales (1983, p. 100)

What steps are involved in critical reflection?• Describing or reporting a situation or

issue• Identifying one’s response to the

situation—feelings, questions, etc.• Analyzing the situation, e.g., making

connections, considering different perspectives, etc.

• Evaluating one’s effectiveness in dealing with the identified situation or issue

• Considering implications for future action

How do we use Reflection to improve our practice?Two minute quick write…..

DIALOGUE

What does it mean?Dialogue is talking with the goal of digging deeper and exploring ideas together. It is “thinking together.” Since dialogue is a way to communicate where there is equality between speakers, where ideas are shared, and where partner’s ideas are respected, dialogue is the goal of change leaders taking the partnership approach.

Dialogue…Dialogue is a form of communication where

meaning moves back and forth between and through people. The mental picture created is one in which a stream of meaning is flowing among and through us and between us…out of which will emerge some new understanding. It is something new that may not have been the starting point at all. It’s something creative. This shared meaning that we create is the “glue” or “cement” that holds us all together.

5 Requirements for Dialogue1. Humility – During dialogue, the humble

communicator is fully present, paraphrasing what is heard, hearing the emotion and meaning of what is said in addition to the actual words.

2. Faith – Dialogue is never manipulative; it is grounded in free conversation between people who respect each other as equals. If we are equals, I should value your words as much as I value my own.

3. Love – Dialogue is only possible if we have empathy for others. In dialogue, we start by being empathetic, respectful, and nonjudgmental rather than taking a superior approach, that starts by judging others.

5 Requirements for Dialogue, Continued4. Critical Thinking – Dialogue is the thinking

approach to communication. If we truly want to learn from a conversation, we are wise to go into it looking for ideas that disprove our way of thinking rather than looking for confirmation that our opinion is correct

5. Hope – Dialogue occurs when we start by trying to understand together, when we listen and learn rather than tell and resist. Every act of dialogue is an act of hopefulness, that we believe we can advance thought and create something new and better.

How do we use Dialogue to improve our practice?Two minute quick write…..

NEXT STEPS…..Becoming an Impact SchoolOne Page Target – we must have a common

visionLearn more about Instructional Rounds

and how they are different from Walk-throughs (Identified Problem of Practice)

EXIT SLIPTake a few minutes to think about what we

have learned today. Briefly describe any changes you will make as a result of today’s experience.

Please ask any questions you may still have about the “content” of what we learned today….