Clarify, Document, Discuss: Facilitating Faculty Conversations for Instructional Coherence
There are new opportunities to make real change for sustainable school improvement
A space has been created for educators to innovate. There are no tests, addressing all standards has become less of a priority, and teachers are seeing possibilities afforded with less external accountability.
In fact, a few educators actually prefer teaching online for part of the time. As one teacher noted, “Having less time with my kids in school has forced me to really consider what’s essential when we are together, and how I then teach content and skills online that are better served from a distance.” This teacher has become adept at using Zoom to support book clubs with break out rooms and leading online whole group discussions to construct collaborative understanding around a text.
While the pandemic is awful, there are opportunities to make real change for sustainable improvement in schools. As a principal, one of my roles is to identify these opportunities and then protect these spaces for innovative educators to push the limits on what’s possible.
For example, I am meeting with grade level teams to capture more promising virtual and independent practices in a Google Doc. The goal is to describe these instructional practices and how we know they are effective, and then begin to affirm them as they occur in every classroom.
To structure this conversation, we used five areas of feedback that came from families via the spring survey we conducted after multiple months of remote learning.
Authentic Tasks and Assessments
Structured, Student-Led Discussions
Clarity of Expectations
Voice and Choice
Proactive Communication
Next, I framed our conversations as an opportunity to a) clarify what each area looks like in practice, b) document what is happening at each level, and c) discuss what next steps are possible within grade levels and throughout the school. To maintain trust, I reminded teachers we were meeting to celebrate their efforts and to consider what we can learn going forward.
Clarify
Under each area, I offered possible strategies that would be appropriate to utilize in a digital space for instruction. For example, under “Authentic Tasks”, I listed “Self-assessment in a Google Doc journal” as one idea.
After suggestions, teachers wanted to clarify what each area meant. “Did parents actually say ‘authentic tasks’ in the surveys?” one teacher asked. “No,” I responded, “not in so many words. That is a good question.” I explained that families’ responses included “we want the learning to be relevant” and “please assign meaningful work” that fell under this more general area.
“They’ve given us a rough description of what they seek for instruction,” I went on, “and this is our opportunity to define what this might resemble with our students.” By engaging in dialogue around understanding each area, we created clarity while defining these practices collaboratively.
Document
Writing ideas down, whether on paper or on a computer, creates a more permanent sense of whatever one is thinking about or discussing. It’s a reason why more people don’t write: they are worried about committing to what will be written. Conversely, writing down what we are thinking or saying leads to one more likely implementing the practice or idea in their life.
Even with examples, teachers wanted more clarity. “Everything cannot be authentic in education. Sometimes we just have to teach text features so kids can become successful readers. We can make it fun, but it is skill-driven.”
I did not disagree. “Do you think that might work under ‘Proactive Communication’? Maybe this is an opportunity to educate our families on why and when we teach this element of reading.”
Hearing no disagreement, I wrote out in the appropriate space how we would let families know if and when their child needed targeted support and how it would be facilitated. (There could be a case made that any literacy skill should happen within authentic texts, but three weeks into teaching during a pandemic told me this was a conversation best had later in the year.)
Discuss
I was getting a sense that we were dancing around a bigger issue: Wednesdays and independent learning time. Teams have been successful in the past with incorporating Genius Hour into instruction. Typically, they started the year with a collaborative project around an area of interest, such as researching a local site and creating a classroom text. With pressure we were receiving from a few individuals outside the district to teach five days a week instead of using Wednesdays for professional collaboration, plus my own belief that we can release the responsibilities of learning more quickly to students, teams were encouraged to articulate what independent learning time could be vs. what it was in the past.
I started. “How could we embed Genius Hour within authentic tasks?” No one responded. I paused, rethought my question, and then followed up with another: “What about voice and choice? That seems like a more natural combination.” One teacher affirmed this idea.
As I wrote out “Students will engage in self-directed inquiry projects…” another teacher interjected. “Not all my students are ready for Genius Hour right away.” They wanted to keep modeling and provide shared demonstrations until all students were ready. I affirmed their compassion for wanting to ensure students were successful.
“What if we could offer opportunities for self-directed learning to all students and families that wanted them?” Another teacher followed up. “Yes, we could make it pretty simple to start, such as providing a guide that supported students to ask questions while they read texts of their choice in Epic.” The team was agreeable about this next step, so I wrote it out under “Voice and Choice”.
During these initial team meetings, one teacher wisely noted, “We aren’t going to make everyone happy. No matter what we do, some will disagree with our approach.” It helps to support our decision-making when we have clear, articulated descriptions of instructional practices that everyone can agree are effective in-person adn online. Keeping this process open to everyone and encouraging continuous feedback from families puts responsive instruction at the forefront of how we are going to operate during these times.