Instructional Rounds: Supporting a Culture of Quality Instruction and Student Learning

During the 2011-2012 school year, I sat in a classroom and observed an engaging and empowering seventh-grade math lesson. The teacher was masterfully implementing strategies from recent professional development and the students were enthusiastically learning new material. In instructional leader mode, which principals can relate to, I thought about how I could explain what this high-quality teacher was doing at an upcoming staff meeting. Thankfully, at about the same time I stumbled across an article published in the May/June 2009 edition of the Harvard Education Letter titled, Improving Teaching and Learning through Instructional Rounds. Written by Lee Teitel, the piece described teams of educators, made up of principals, teachers, union leaders, and central office personnel, who visited schools and examined classroom instruction in a “focused, systematic, purposeful, and collective way” (p. 1). I was intrigued by the idea of Instructional Rounds and wondered if my school could implement the practice in a slightly different way—using already-established teacher teams. Instead of attempting to describe exemplary teaching during staff meetings, I could use Instructional Rounds to take groups of teachers to see it in action. We could all learn from each other. We could learn from the experts right here in our building.  

The school I am fortunate to be the principal of, Franklin Middle School in Janesville, Wisconsin, enjoys a house/team structure that provides a common professional learning community preparation period for teachers. Also known as the admin-directed prep, teachers use this time to collaborate and communicate. The period occurs when the students on their team are in allied arts classes such as physical education, band, art, and technology education. Like many middle school schedules, the other two grade levels teach core classes at this time. The schedule was made for peer observation via Instructional Rounds I thought.

Following suggestions from the article mentioned earlier by Lee Teitel, and the book he collaborated on with others, Instructional Rounds in Education: A Network Approach to Improving Teaching and Learning (City, Elmore, Fiarman, and Teitel, 2009), we carried out our first Instructional Rounds by following the four-step process described in both publications. First, we decided what we wanted to focus on during our visit. This is step is called the problem of practice. Second, we spent time in a classroom observing a teacher. This step is known as observation of practice. Third, we talked about the effective things we saw the teacher and students doing on our visit. This step is referred to as the observation debrief. Fourth, we discussed what we can implement for continuous improvement. This step is referenced as next level work.    

Over the past five years, we made tweaks to our procedures and created different iterations of the Instructional Rounds observation form. Logistically, the process now looks like this: Each month, team leaders are given an instructional around a sign-up form. They meet with their team and decide who they would like to visit. It can be fun for a team of sixth-grade teachers to see their kids in a physical education class or visit a seventh-grade science room. Both examples have value. The office then contacts the requested educator and asks if they would be willing to host an observation of one lesson. Teachers always have the option of passing on a request and they know that Instructional Rounds are a learning experience. No piece of the process is evaluatory.

Because our class periods are 48 minutes long, we fell upon a ratio of 25 minutes of observation and 20 minutes of discussion. We employ an Instructional Round note sheet that includes look-fors from our school improvement plan (SIP). The form is tightly coupled to the SIP and our digital lesson plan template. New teachers to the building learn our procedures and expectations quickly because they see them in action.

Recently, we selected blended instruction/learning as our problem practice because we wanted to expand these teaching skills and the use of rotations to everyone in the building. After we observe a teacher, we follow certain procedures and routines, which we designed to keep the process going well, such as making copies of our note sheets for the host teacher, providing the teacher with a thank you card, and earned release time for hosting.  Even to this day, I start our rounds conversation with the reminder that what we are doing is for learning purposes and not evaluative.

As I finish up my seventeenth year as a principal, I can state honestly that no other initiative over that time has created the same positive climate and culture benefits to the level of Instructional Rounds. Seeing a first-year teacher beam after a group of veterans complimented her teaching skills is a professional highlight.

Are instructional rounds right for your building? If you are looking for a way to promote the effective teaching that is going on right now in your building and acclimate new teachers to your climate and culture, Instructional Rounds might be just the thing for you. Check out the publications referenced or contact Franklin Middle School with any questions. 

References

City, E.F., Elmore, R.F., Fiarman, S.E., Teitel, L., & Lachman, A. (2009). Instructional rounds in education: A network approach to improving learning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press. 

Teitel, L. (2009). Improving teaching and learning through instructional rounds. Harvard Education Letter, 25(3), 1-3.