Eighteen walkthroughs in a week. The hard part was providing meaningful feedback. I set a goal this week to get eighteen walkthroughs in and provide teachers with meaningful feedback on their instructional practice. I knew that this was an audacious goal, but I knew that I would be a better leader even I didn’t achieve it. I’ve always believed that striving for greatness makes us all better so, I took a chance and aimed high.
I failed miserably at my goal this week. I was able to accomplish the walkthroughs but my feedback left more to be desired. Mid-way through the week, I recalibrated my goal of providing meaningful feedback because I discovered that I didn’t have a system to provide it to teachers. So, I took myself through the process of design thinking. I created a Google Form that incorporated the instructional focus of our campus for the year but the key component of the form was the comments section. By the end of the week, I was able to narrow down the process of how I will give meaningful feedback to teachers for the rest of the year. A vital part of the process was to seek critique from a few teachers who would really challenge my way of thinking.
Meaningful feedback is meant to provide space and time for reflection and spark a change in teacher behavior alongside coaching. Below are the three main components of our campus’ walk-through feedback form.
3 Components of Instructional Walk-through Feedback
1. Teacher Facilitation In The Learning Framework
2. Effective Use of Learning Targets
3. Teacher Implementation of Best Practices
How will you provide meaningful feedback to teachers this year?
Find it very interesting…thanks for sharing.
Would you have a template of this grid you used?
Thank you very much
Hi Sylvie. Thanks for visiting bjohnsonEDU.com. Here is a link to a screen cap: https://wp.me/a94lGy-9L
Three words stood out for me: “meaningful feedback” and “process.” Meaningful feedback requires reflection on the action of teachers and what was most impactful to students. Having a method (process) to share those reflections makes consistency probable and possible. As a teacher, I always wanted more than a perfunctory “great job.” What did I “do” to spark student engagement and learning? A thoughtful comment regarding my work can spur me on for months to press on through challenges. Never give up on what you have begun.