Performance Development at Chace Nogrades Lesson Observation Dialogue

Performance Development at Chace No-grades Lesson Observation: Dialogue and Development What to avoid What to try

‘Dialogic Lesson Observations’ Dr Vincent Lien (@fratribus) Pre-Observation: “I would humbly listen to the initial planning of the lesson to be observed. ” In-Observation: “I would go in free of preconceptions and assumptions” Post-Observation: “I would… humbly engage in a dialogue with the teacher of my experience as “a learner” in that lesson” https: //fratribus. wordpress. com/2015/11/28/dialogic-lesson-observation/

Pre-Observation How What Brief chat Email conversation Share the lesson plan What have been recent issues with the class? What have they been studying? What might the observer focus on …What does the teacher want to take away?

In-Lesson Observation If the teacher wants your feedback on something in particular. Write a narrative of what took place: what the teacher did; what the students did. Put questions you want to ask later.

After the Lesson Bullet-point 3 or 4 things you have agreed. There should always be a follow-up. What should they do to either reinforce their strengths or secure better practice? Observe/be observed again? When? Who? Bulletpoint 3 or 4 things you have agreed. If students are making insufficient progress and remedial action is required.

Do not: Ϫ Use as a ticklist Ϫ Expect a teacher to do all of this Ϫ Judge them against these standards Do: Refer to this when you are looking for ways of describing excellent practice and when you want to encourage the teacher to stretch themselves further.

Post-Observation What not to say

How not to feed back “Hi Barbara. Thanks for that: that was a really outstanding lesson. ” “Have a seat, Barbara. Where do you think it all went wrong? ” “I’ve only got a couple of minutes. How would you sum up that lesson? ”

How not to feed back “If I were an Ofsted inspector, I’d have given that a 2. Happy with that? ” “I can’t think of any way you could improve on that. See you next time!”

How not to feed back Avoid Ofsted numbers (1, 2, 3, 4) and adjectives (Outstanding, etc. ). Do not attempt a summary of the lesson until you have discussed it in detail. Reserve plenty of time to discuss properly: this is a professional dialogue. Don’t make a judgement: your job is to help the teacher to develop.

What you might say instead

What you might say instead “Hi Barbara. Thanks for that. Talk me through what you wanted to get out of that lesson. ” “Describe to me what happened as the students came in/ during the first phase of the lesson. ” “What went well during this phase? What would you do again? ” “Why did it not happen the way you wanted? What would you do differently next time? ” “What did you do to help the learning in the middle phase of the lesson? ”

What you might say instead “Can you think of 2 aspects of the lesson that you might have done differently? How might they have improved the learning? ” “Which aspects of your teaching from this lesson would be worth sharing with your colleagues? How could you do that? ” “You say you want to improve on X. Can you find anything in the toolkit which could help you? ” “Would you like someone to observe you again? ” “As we have agreed that there are concerns with your teaching, I will be letting your Ho. F and Sue and Daniel know. Then we can decide what needs to happen next. ”

How you might feed back Discuss what the teacher’s intentions were. How did they plan to make learning happen? Discuss phases, or episodes. Make the teacher identify 4 -5 things they did that they would do again (www). …And 2 -3 things they would adjust (ebi). Make them commit to learning from this…so, what can they do next to secure this?

If it’s not good enough… • Too many students are not making progress. • Student misbehaviour is not being addressed properly. • The teacher is not marking work or giving adequate feedback. • The teacher behaved unprofessionally. The concern should be raised immediately with the teacher’s HOF/ line manager and the Headteachers.

No-grades Lesson Observation: Dialogue and Development Nothing can go wrong