Learning Walks
USI Network Learning Walks are professional development opportunities that foster learning between schools. We design them to provide both host school and visiting school participants with useful knowledge and experience that they can apply to their classrooms. Walks are not evaluative and are not focused on individual teachers’ classrooms or instruction. Alternatively, USI Network Learning Walks are structured to collect a breadth of evidence around a targeted instructional area. This evidence is collected from classroom observations, student focus groups and the examination of student work and is used to further understand and enhance student learning school-wide.
USI Network Learning Walk Outcomes
FOR HOST SCHOOLS
a) Systematically-collected evidence of student learning to support analysis of instructional improvement and student learning
b) Identification of concrete and specific next steps for consideration
FOR INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERSHIP TEAMS OF SCHOOLS
a) Opportunities for focused reflection and planning for efforts to improve teaching and learning
FOR “LEARNING WALKERS”
a) Practice utilizing multiple methods for collecting, analyzing, and presenting evidence of student learning
b) New knowledge of a specific area of instructional practice
c) Experience using an evidence-based action planning process
Methods for Examining Student Learning
CLASSROOM OBSERVATIONS
Classroom observations are organized around looking for evidence (as defined by the school’s instructional leadership/support team) of student learning and teaching in a targeted instructional area. Learning walk members assume specific roles, within a small team, as they look for classroom-based evidence, examining the classroom environment, looking at student work/portfolios, talking to students, and watching the interaction between teachers and students. At the end of their round of classroom observations, teams summarize what they saw (using evidence to support their findings), identify trends across the classrooms, and begin to think about possible next steps.
LOOKING AT STUDENT WORK
Some teams engage in a systematic examination of student work during the learning walk visit. The work is selected based on the identified focus for the day and the specific questions about student learning that the host school’s instructional leadership/support team wants to ask. Teams use structured protocols to examine the student work, in addition to supporting documents from the school, such as rubrics and standards.
STUDENT FOCUS GROUPS
Some teams interview groups of students to get an understanding, from their perspective, of what they are learning and why, the school’s strengths where learning is concerned, and how teaching and learning can be improved. USI Network obtains parental/guardian permission for every participating student.