Learner-Focused Feedback

Amy Tepper has served as a teacher, administrator, and program director in various K-12 settings and startups to include virtual, homeschool, blended, and public schools. She held the position of Executive Director of a Sylvan Learning Center, opened an alternative 6th-12th school in Okaloosa County, FL, and later was actively engaged in Florida high school redesign and career education reform, providing technical assistance across the state. Amy had the opportunity to collaborate with a team of parents to develop the Ohana Institute, an innovative blended school, focused on global citizenship and discovery learning, serving as Director in its first year. As a consultant, she provided instructional and administrative coaching at an international school in Panama, before joining ReVISION Learning Partnership in 2013. Amy has since completed countless classroom observations through work as a peer validator evaluating practices in Newark and New Haven schools, and in providing embedded, ongoing support for instructional leaders and teachers in the areas of high quality observation, feedback, and teaching and learning across Connecticut. Patrick Flynn has worked as a teacher, teacher leader, curriculum director, and executive program director in K-12 settings in over eleven different states. As the Executive Director of High Schools for Edison Schools and the Chief Academic Officer for Great Schools Workshop in Sacramento, CA, Patrick worked with building and district administrations in nine states to implement systemic high school reform. He has provided professional learning in the areas of transformational leadership, performance management systems, standards-driven instruction, and data-driven decision-making. Patrick is Founder and Executive Director of ReVISION Learning Partnership, providing professional development and support to districts and educational organizations in CT, NY, NJ, and LA since 2010. He has led several school improvement initiatives in rural and urban settings and internationally in the United Arab Emirates with the Abu Dhabi Education Council. He has presented nationally and internationally, including as a keynote speaker at the Forum on Big Data at the Tianjin University of Technology, in Tianjin, China. ReVISION Learning is highly sought after for its leadership in providing the highest quality professional learning opportunities for teacher, administrators, and district personnel.

List of Online Resources Feedback to Feed Forward Strategies Preface Acknowledgments About the Authors Chapter 1: Why Observe for Impact? Building a Culture of Learning Building a Culture of Observation and Feedback The Skills of Observation Teachers as Learners Leaders Leading Learning What's Ahead Chapter 2: What Do You Need to Understand About Learning? Understanding the Concept of Learning Overarching Goals for All Learners Our Three Goals Cautions for Observers How the Brain Works Identifying Learning in Action Recognizing Impact on Learning Determining Causal Attribution Give It a Try What's Ahead Chapter 3: How Can You Prepare for Evidence Collection? Preobservation Planning Planning Your Tools Planning by Using Expectations Planning to Interact With Learners Planning Using Learning Goals Planning Based on Disciplines Planning Based on Standards Give It a Try What's Ahead Chapter 4: How Can You Adapt Evidence Collection Upon Arrival? Your Goals as an Observer Adapting 101: The Basics Metacognition in Motion Making It Count Timing Is Everything Using the Learning Goals Foundational Understandings Student Ability to Meet Expectations Give It a Try What's Ahead Chapter 5: How Can You Adapt Evidence Collection as a Lesson Unfolds? Observing for Learning Observing for Causal Attribution and Impact Observing for Good Struggle Adapting During an Observation Adapting Based on Active Engagement Student Notes Mid-Lesson or End-of-Task/End-of-Lesson Reflections Adapting Based on Tools and Resources Adapting Based on Discourse Give It a Try What's Ahead Chapter 6: How Do You Cultivate a Culture of Learning? Building a Culture of Learning Developing Feedback About Impact Building Trust Making a Culture Shift The Six Steps Final Thoughts Strategies List List of Figures References Index

A leader's most important job is to help teachers understand their impact on student learning. Collecting evidence of learning through observation is a difficult skill to master, but Tepper and Flynn have given us the tools we need in this essential new resource. -- John Hattie "Learning is incredibly complex. Observing classrooms in order to help teachers grow deserves careful and informed consideration of many integrated parts. I'm grateful to have this excellent book as a cornerstone resource in my work to support teachers." -- Julie Stern, Author, Tools for Teaching Conceptual Understanding "Learner-Focused Feedback, Tepper and Flynn's companion book to Feedback to Feed Forward, delves deeply into student learning, how to observe, which questions to ask, and strategies that lead to next steps. The book is a treasure of resources. Children, teachers, and coaches are the winners here. I have never read such a thorough discourse on learning. After 26 years outside of the classroom, it makes me want to go back." -- Claudia Frandsen "Tepper and Flynn's Learner-Focused Feedback delivers the educational framework necessary to develop a school culture that fosters and embraces teaching and learning for impact. Evidence-based feedback that focuses on the learner is the ultimate approach to not only empower educators to be intentional with every detail of their instruction. It also guides the observer to provide feedback from a growth mindset perspective. I believe Learner-Focused Feedback will create the structures to build a school culture based on trust to allow room for promoting educational equity and student achievement." -- Miladys Cepero-Perez "Learner-Focused Feedback: 19 Strategies to Observe for Impact is a must-read for all administrators and instructional leaders. What a gem! I have quoted, cited, and used this book for my own growth as a school leader observing teachers. The knowledge, experience, and research contained in the pages guides my walk-throughs, from the foundational understanding that "a culture of observation and feedback drives a culture of learning" to the essential second strategy, to define "learning," and beyond to the strategies on how to adapt evidence collection during an observation. There are not many books that are as practical as Learner-Focused Feedback. It is an indispensable book if you want to observe for impact." -- Kjell Fenn, Headmaster, "Learner-Focused Feedback: 19 Strategies to Observe for Impact is an essential how-to guide for educators seeking professional growth in the area of observation and feedback. Amy Tepper and Patrick Flynn flawlessly weave classroom examples with strategies for evidence collection that serves as a learning tool and sets the tone for an effective, meaningful conversation. They remind us that observation is not always about evaluation. Using observation and evidence-based feedback for professional growth builds a culture of learning. This book will show you how! Whether you're a teacher, instructional coach, or administrator, Tepper and Flynn guide you through strategies to plan for and adapt to student interactions during an observation in order to improve the quality of feedback for the teacher. Simply put, this book is delicious. Try it in digestible bites through the chapters or all at once for the big picture." -- April Strong "Every school and district have processes in place for classroom observations that can range from peer coaching, informal observations, learning walks, and formal evaluations. These processes are most meaningful when the observer(s) can truly gather information on how instruction, strategies, practices, environment, curricula, and goals impact student learning. In Learner-Focused Feedback, Tepper and Flynn mix the right balance of research, practice, and experience in thousands of classrooms to help observers focus and adapt to what is happening in the classroom to truly understand what students are actually learning. The feedback that can emerge from these adaptive and effective observation practices can most certainly help teachers move their practice forward and in turn improve student learning!" -- Kevin J. Hanlon "Learner-Focused Feedback: 19 Strategies to Observe for Impact serves as an essential field guide for supporting teaching and learning in all classrooms. This book highlights why observation and feedback of classroom practice serves as a key lever for improving student outcomes and cultivating a culture of learning. This is the first book that provides the context of adapting evidence collection strategies during a classroom visit making it a must read for anyone supporting teachers through observation and feedback. Tepper and Flynn make their own learning (metacognitive processing) visible and show readers how to advance evidence-collection practices. The inclusion of examples of collected evidence followed by stop and think provides opportunities for reflection and development of observation practices for administrators, coaches and classroom teachers alike." -- Robert Testa "Every leader knows that educators need high quality feedback. Learner-Focused Feedback: 19 Strategies to Observe for Impact is the practical guide that gives exemplary examples and tools to actually give feedback to move teachers to better instruction." -- Mollie Sullivan Raab