Reading Observation Hui conversation

Hui - Dr Rebecca Jenson 

Talk about change to making the change.

We know that we are going to be judging the teaching, we know this implicitly. The teachers we view also know that they are being judged, even if we say we aren't. It is implicit. 

A way of thinking is about taking the snapshot and having those professional conversations.

Snapshot - 'taking a photograph' of what is happening and then comparing it to what it looked like before. (Summative) This is what has always been done by Woolf Fisher but now moving towards us doing this.

When you see something you code it as ... i.e. when you moderate writing it gets coded as ...

Formative Leadership functions to have professional conversations to make a change. 

In terms of the snapshot, we are looking for what we have seen and what we haven't seen. 

Is it a vase or a cup? = when we see an item with flowers but has a handle, we need to know if we are deciding if it is a vase or a cup.

Diverse Texts:

Windows & Mirrors - our students need both when learning.

Teach Learners to Think and Question:

It is the ako part - working with the learners to shape this.

Discussion around the question: What do we see is the strength in our classrooms around these 5 things?

• When teachers are working with learners are they creating learners who think and answer, not think and question. 
• The variance between teachers/schools is huge, so it is hard to answer the question "what do we do well already"
• What barriers do cultures create around the idea of questions?
• Do we teach the skills to disagree with each other?
• Saying to students  - How does talk help you learn? Write down the rules for your classroom around talk. These two questions/thinking can create a picture of the realities of talking in the classroom
• One member reflected on the energy put into the create tasks as opposed to the teaching of the task. Perhaps this isn't the best for students. 

The observation tool is built around the 5 areas above. 

One way to think about it in terms of observations: We are looking at how much pollen is in the hive, so if one bee only brings back a small amount it doesn't matter. 

Why? Our reading data  - principals have looked at the data are wanting to focus on improving reading 

Identify trends to improve student outcomes 

Wide range of snapshots across the country 

Identify the good oil 

School leaders PLG - ask them to summarise the why? Why are we doing these observations?