Session 2: Learning Collaboratively from Student Work – A Process to Support Teaching and

Learning

Sequence of SessionsPRINCIPALS This one-day training is designed for principals leading the adoption of CKLA. The training will be focused on building a deeper understanding of CKLA quality implementation and why this focus (i.e., quality implementation) is critical to supporting student and teacher growth within the program. Time will also be given to communication around CKLA and tools that are available for supporting outreach efforts around CKLA.

TEACHERSThis one-day training is designed for teachers using CKLA. The training will build teachers’ capacity to take a ‘continuous improvement’ approach to implementation of CKLA. The focus is on gathering evidence for formative (rather than evaluative) purposes (teachers own learning and learning about students in ways that shape instruction). Research suggests this mindset, and these protocols, are supportive of schools and classrooms engaging in successful change, such as engaging in a new curricular adoption.

Overarching Objectives of this February 2014 Network Team Institute:PRINCIPALS 1. Support principals in understanding the sources of data present in CKLA and how to complement these data with added types of assessments,

depending on the questions that need to be answered regarding student performance. 2. Support principals in understanding the importance of building collaborative conversations around CKLA to support teachers’ own learning within

the curricular adoption. 3. To expose principals to a specific protocol called Looking at Student, which is designed to structure teachers’ collaborative conversations around

their teaching/CKLA and illustrate this protocol as a means of enhancing the quality of their curricular implementation.4. To support principals in observing curricular implementation and considering quality versus fidelity of implementation within these exemplars.

TEACHERS1. Support teachers in understanding the sources of data present in CKLA and how to complement these data with added types of assessments,

depending on the questions that need to be answered regarding student performance. 2. Support teachers in understanding, using, and sharing the Looking at Student work protocol as a means to enhance students learning within CKLA

and teachers own knowledge and skill in using the CKLA curricula.3. To support teachers in understanding, using, and sharing a process for building rubrics within CKLA.

High-Level Purpose of this Session:PRINCIPALSSession Description: This session focuses principals on a protocol that uses student work for teachers’ own learning and reflection on the CKLA curricula. This process, Looking at Student Work, is one which can be used across any curricular adoption and so reflects a skill set that is relevant regardless of curricula. However, we will work to understand the use of this protocol within the context of the CKLA adoption. The focus of the discussion will be on the ways that such a protocol sets the stage, at a leadership level, on quality (as opposed to superficial fidelity) of implementation.TEACHERSSession Description: This session focuses educators on a protocol that uses student work for teachers’ own learning and reflection on the CKLA curricula. This process, Looking at Student Work, is one which can be used across any curricular adoption and so reflects a skill set that is relevant regardless of curricula. However, we will work to understand and use this protocol by examining artifacts of student work from CKLA. As such, this session (in conjunction with Session 3) provides teachers an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the student work coming out of CKLA and, simultaneously, provides them a research-based process that is seen as particularly effective in supporting classroom changes, such as curricular adoption. Participants will begin by reading a research article describing the value of the Looking at Student work process, as well as will examine the detailed procedures that have been created to support easy adoption of this protocol.

Related Learning Experiences This training assumes general prior knowledge about CKLA. For schools, teachers, or administrators who are interested in knowing more about Core Knowledge, there are prior training modules posted on EngageNY.org that provide this general support (see . http://www.engageny.org/resource/professional-development-turnkey-kit-ela-p-2-overview for modules of training, on-demand webinars, etc.). It is recommended that anyone new to Core Knowledge look over the material on the program prior to attending this training.

Session Outcomes

What do we want participants to be able to do as a result of this session? How will we know that they are able to do this?

In this session principals will:1. Be able to describe the key ideas behind the “Looking at Student

Work” protocol.2. Be able to point to the value of building collaborative conversations

around student work as a means of supporting students and teachers within the curricular adoption.

3. Be able to articulate the ways in which leadership and culture building are critical pre-requisites to fostering teachers own learning and improvement from the protocol, Looking at Student Work.

In-session activities

In this session teachers will:1. Be able to describe the steps and roles involved in the “Looking at

Student Work” protocol.2. Be able to articulate the difference between descriptive and evaluative

approaches to looking at student work.3. Be able to articulate how the Looking at Student work protocol can

deepen their own understanding of the CKLA curricula and guides them to use the materials in a high quality and individualized fashion.

Session Overview Section Time Overview Prepared Resources Facilitator Preparation

Framing the learning and ranking your top three conversation norms

11

This section will prepare participants for the session’s learning and activities by establishing collaborative discussion norms for their groups.

Session 2: Learning from Student Work, A Process - slides 1 - 5

Handouts:1.

Article: Looking at Student Work for Teacher Learning, Teacher Community, and School Reform

32

This section will engage participants in a small group protocol as they read, discuss, and reflect on the Looking at Student Work article.

Session 2: Learning from Student Work, A Process - slides 6 - 13

Handouts:1. Session2_WarrenLittle

Debrief and summary of important ideas

9+ 15min break

This section will focus participants on the key take-away messages and ideas about protocols.

Session 2: Learning from Student Work, A Process - slides 14 - 19

Handouts:1. Session2_LearningfromLearning

ProtocolBook

Practicing the protocol with student work 31

This section will provide participants guided practice as they work through each step of the protocol with a selected student work sample.

Session 2: Learning from Student Work, A Process - slides 20 - 36

Handouts:1. Session2_LearningfromLear

ningProtocolBook2. Session2_Samples_Wongfr

omHongKong

Session Roadmap

Section 1: Framing the learning and ranking your top three conversation norms Time: 11

[11 minutes] In this section, you will prepare participants for the session’s learning and activities by establishing collaborative discussion norms for their groups.

Materials used (in slides)

Time Slide #/ Pic of Slide Script/ Activity directions

Slide 1 Key Points:1. Welcome participants to Learning Collaboratively from Student Work: A process to

support teaching and learning.

Slide 2 Key Points:1. Read and elaborate on objectives.2. Focus attention on the purpose of using student work as a vehicle for teacher

learning and exploring the Learning Collaboratively from Student Work protocol as a tool to achieve this goal.

Slide 3 Key Points:1. The focus of our next two hours will be to engage in collaborative discussions.2. To facilitate our process, let’s take a moment out to confirm a few norms or ways of

working together that will support the conversations in your groups so that the conversation is productive for everyone.

Slide 4 Key Point:1. Ask participants to share one of their top three norms using a protocol called the

“round.”

Slide 5 Key Point:1. Procedural norms may also support learning.

Section 2: Article - Looking at Student Work for Teacher Learning, Teacher Community, and School Reform

[32 minutes] In this section, participants will engage in a small group protocol as they read, discuss, and reflect on the Looking at Student Work article.

Slide 6 Key Point:1. Prepare participants to consider the Learning from Student Work protocol.

Slide 7 Key Points:1. Ask participants to think about their experiences with teacher meetings.2. Think about the purposes of the conversations and the procedures, how often

teachers meet and for how long, etc.

Slide 8 Key Point:1. Annotate the article to mark words and phrases that resonate with you, confirming

things you do or have experienced or contributing new ideas that you want to remember.

Slide 9 Key Point:1. Identify the most important idea by placing a star on the article.

Slide 10 Key Points:1. Organize the discussion around the idea of roles and rounds2. For this conversation there will be two roles, one – is the first and last word. This

person draws our attention to the most important word or phrase he/she noted in the article.

3. Everyone in the group turns to the page and then the person reads the word or phrase. The 1st and last role only makes sure everyone turns to the page and reads the quote.

4. Then going around the circle – just like the domino share we did earlier – the people in the other role, Important, say why the word or quote might be important to them. If the important person can’t think or why it might be important then they can also raise a question that they have about the word or the phrase.

5. Finally, the 1st and Last role, tells the group why the word or phrase was important.6. Then the process repeats with the next person’s quote.

Slide 11 Key Point:1. The key is that the First person – only shares the quote and then let’s the others tell

why it is important – Save the Last Word for the person that drew our attention to the quote.

Slide 12 Key Points:1. Review directions and timing.2. Make sure participants know that after the rounds their group can have an open

exchange where they can ask questions and talk more about points that came up.

Slide 13 Key Point:1. Allow participants to engage in the discussion for 10 min + 3 additional min to

return to their tables.

Section 3: Debrief and summary of important ideas

[9 minutes + 15 minute break] In this section, participants will focus on the key take-away messages and ideas about protocols.

Slide 14 Key Point:1. Debrief using a protocol, Confirm and Contribute, with participants.

Slide 15 Key Points:1. Learning collaboratively from student work :

a. is a structured conversation where teachers use student work as a vehicle for learning and problem-solving.

b. enables participants to collaboratively develop new ideas teaching and learning.

c. offers the educator presenting the student work help toward answering an important question about teaching or learning.

d. brings students into focus during teacher deliberations about teaching and learning.

Slide 16 Key Points:1. Structured conversation where student work is the vehicle for learning and problem

solving2. All participants benefit from the conversation3. All observations and suggestions for classroom implications are based on specific

evidence that can be seen in the student work4. Even with the aid of facilitation and protocol guidelines, these practices take time

and effort to introduce.

Slide 17 Key Points:1. A vehicle for promoting collaborative work2. Clear focus and purpose for conversation3. Everyone participates – speaking, listening, questioning4. Makes the most of limited time5. Routine steps allow participants to focus on the conversation instead of thinking

about what will come next or what to do.

Slide 18 Key Point:1. The directions for the Save the Last Word for Me protocol are on page 44 of their

manual.

Slide 19 Release participants for a 15 min break.

Section 4: Practicing the protocol with student work

[31 minutes] In this section, participants will engage in guided practice as they move through each step of the protocol with a selected student work sample.

Slide 20 Key Point:1. The purpose of this session is to learn the roles and rounds or steps of the Learning

from Student Work protocol and to then practice the protocol with student work.

Slide 21 Key Points:1. Facilitator: Guides group through the protocol and manages logistics2. Presenting Educator: Brings an important question and related student work3. Documenter: Captures the ideas shared by writing a record of the meeting4. Participant: Observes, describes, listens, infers, connects comments, and

brainstorms ideas related to the burning question and student work

Slide 22 Key Points:1. Divide table into two groups.2. Share student work brought by participants.3. Select one person to be the presenting educator, who will pose a focus question and

share their student work.4. Remind presenting educators that sample focusing questions are on page 19.5. Ask participants to take a moment to read the description for the role that they have

chosen or been assigned.

Slide 23 Key Points:1. Ask everyone to turn to the annotated agenda for their role.2. As a large group we will briefly review each step of the protocol using a sample of

student work projected on the screen.

Slide 24 Key Points:1. Review, quickly, each step of the protocol describing the purpose and pointing out a

few tips.2. Participants should follow along focusing on their role so that they are prepared to

participate in the practice of the protocol.

Slide 25 Key Points:1. Provide an overview of Step 1.2. Both the Facilitator and the Presenting Educator should keep their comments to just

a few sentences leaving the most time for examining the student work.3. Be sure that the Documenter records the Presenting Educator’s focusing question.

Slide 26 Key Points:1. Give a short context for the student work on this slide, speaking like the presenting

educator.2. The focusing question for today, “To what extent are the students demonstrating

mastery of sentence level detailed response and what should my next steps be?”

Slide 27 Key Points:1. Provide an overview of Step 2.2. Emphasize that this is one of the most difficult steps because we have to slow down

and avoid judging the work. It really takes time to notice all of the elements in something as complex as a piece of student work.

3. Remind participants that it is best to point to the work when describing, because we are only pointing out the literal things that we see in the work.

Slide 28 Key Points:1. The group may go in a “round” fashion – where everyone takes a turn at pointing to

something that they notice in the student work. Then the facilitator may open it up for observations in any order from the group.

2. For example:a. I see the student has crossed out words in the question.b. I see the student has underlined the word, “What”.c. I see the student using a capital letter at the beginning of the sentence and

period.d. I see the student using details from the text such as…

Slide 29 Key Points:1. Provide an overview of Step 3.2. Encourage participants to try to take on the student’s perspective.

Slide 30 Key Points:1. This student:

a. Is using words from the question in his/her response.b. Knows what a complete sentence is.c. Knows and is using the spelling pattern ________.d. Thinks the story is __________________.e. I see erasing, so maybe the student thinks that neatness is important.

Slide 31 Key Points:1. Give an overview of Step 4.2. Emphasize a “wild” brainstorm, where all ideas are welcome.3. Presenting Educator will ignore things that she/he has already tried or that are

unrealistic.4. So, the group should just brainstorm as much as possible.5. The Presenting Educator will note only the useful and interesting ideas.

Slide 32 Key Points:1. Read the examples to the participants. Ask participants for additional ideas from the

student perspective.2. This student:

a. Is using words from the question in his/her response.b. Knows what a complete sentence is.c. Knows and is using the spelling pattern ________.d. Thinks the story is __________________.e. I see erasing so may be the student thinks that neatness is important.

Slide 33 Key Points:1. Review Step 5.2. Emphasize that this is the first time we are hearing from the Presenting Educator

since Step 1.

Slide 34 Key Points:1. The Presenting Educator will briefly share with the group the most interesting and

useful ideas that came up in the conversation.

Slide 35 Key Points:1. Review Step 6.2. Emphasize to never skip the round where each participant shares their take-away

learning from the conversation. So, not only the Presenting Educator gains ideas, but also every participant.

3. Remind participants that the Documenter should be sure to capture each person’s take-away.

4. In a month or so, after every participant has shared student work, it is a good time to revisit these lists of take-aways to reflect on and measure the ways that Learning Collaboratively from Student Work impacts classroom practice.

Slide 36 Key Point:1. Ask participants to think for thirty seconds about their take-away learning from our

quick overview of the protocol and then exchange their learning with an elbow partner.

Use the following icons in the script to indicate different learning modes.

Video Reflect on a prompt Active learning Turn and talk

Turnkey Materials Provided

Additional Suggested Resources