Learning Walk for OUR 6-8 / IM 6-12 Math

Overview

BetterLesson believes that school and district leaders are first and foremost instructional leaders, investing in people and systems to improve learning opportunities and outcomes for students. Our goal is to provide leaders with processes, tools, and support for making organizational change and improving learning for students. We can help build leaders’ capacity in instructional leadership through a Learning Walk, a non-evaluative process used by leaders to assess the quality of student learning and effectiveness of instruction in their buildings, focusing on how leaders can support improvements to the learning experience. Learning Walks will consist of two learning experiences, a Learning Walk Launch and a Learning Walk Cycle.

In this Math Curriculum Learning Walk, leaders will have the opportunity to get into classrooms to learn about trends in how the curriculum is playing out for teachers and students. They will look for trends in the use of the curriculum materials, how students are accessing and engaging with the tasks, and how teachers are guiding students to make connections.

Audience

This Learning Walk is designed for school and district leaders, instructional coaches, and teacher leaders who are implementing the Open Up Resources 6-8 Math or Illustrative Mathematics 6-12 Math Curriculum in their schools or districts and would like to take a student-centered approach to their role by developing their craft in coaching, observation, and feedback.

Outcomes

These Math Curriculum Targets can be selected for the Learning Walk Cycle sessions to take a deeper dive into evidence of these outcomes in the classroom and student learning.

• Fundamentals of Curriculum Implementation: I can successfully launch the Math Curriculum by navigating the resources, understanding the structure, and facilitating problem-based activities.
• Making Learning Meaningful: I can facilitate learning experiences where students work to make meaning of mathematics.
• Student Engagement: I can create a learning environment that fosters student ownership and engagement in the classroom.
• Supporting All Students: I can support all students to access and have success with the curriculum.

Learning Experience

Launch

The Learning Walk Launch can be experienced as a 1-day in person workshop with an onsite BetterLesson coach guiding classroom walk-throughs, or as a 2-hour virtual workshop facilitated by a BetterLesson coach, followed by independent classroom walk-throughs.

In the Learning Walk Launch, participants will:

Define

• Explore the benefits of a Learning Walk:
  • To build capacity of school leadership
  • To identify “look-fors” in the implementation of this Math Curriculum
  • To effectively support change
• Build understanding around the curriculum materials and how they are designed to support problem-based math teaching and learning
• Be oriented to and examine a tool to facilitate the Learning Walk process for the Math Curriculum Focus Area
• Prioritize the target areas for Math Curriculum implementation in their own school context

Explore

• Practice using the Learning Walk tool by participating in short, group classroom walk-throughs (in-person) or by evaluating curated artifacts and resources (virtual)
• Collaboratively reflect on the Learning Walk process and tool

Build

• Synthesize data from the Learning Walk using a digital tool to identify trends in the evidence they collected
• Build a plan for implementing Learning Walks in their schools

Cycle

After participating in a Learning Walk Launch, participants will engage in professional learning community cycles, with each cycle focusing on one target area within the Math Curriculum. The Learning Walk Cycle can be experienced as a 1-day in person workshop with an onsite BetterLesson coach guiding classroom walk-throughs, or as two 2-hour virtual workshops, facilitated online by a BetterLesson coach, with independent classroom walk-throughs.

Define

• Build understanding around the key components of the Math Curriculum Target area
• Take a deep dive into the “look-fors” and evidence of this Target within the classroom using curated artifacts to identify exemplars
• Prioritize look-fors within a Target to develop a focus for the Learning Walk

Explore

• Collect data and evidence for the Math Curriculum target area through participating in independent classroom walk-throughs and evaluating curated artifacts
• Collaboratively experience a protocol to reflect on the effectiveness of using a narrow lens when observing student learning

Build

• Synthesize data from the Learning Walk using a digital tool to identify trends with the evidence they collected
• Align on the evidence for a particular look-for in a Target and evaluate the effectiveness of the tool for that target in their context
• Analyze their learning around the Learning Walk process to help build a plan for continued implementation