Instructional

Rounds:
A Handbook for Principals
Practical steps to illuminate
the best teaching techniques,
strategies, and practices.

By Aaron Brengard

8 Principal ■ November/December 2016 THINKSTOCK; MOODBOARD; SHIRONOSOV; MONKEYBUSINESS IMAGES; LITTLEHENRABI

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 A
s principal and instructional leader, teacher teams. Alternatively, schools can
I observe classrooms daily. About use shared collaboration time to conduct
three years ago, I realized that instructional rounds.
though my staff members shared After each classroom observation, teachers
ideas with one another in meetings or in the huddle up outside the classroom and take
lunchroom, they didn’t see what I saw on my turns sharing observations. For our rounds,
rounds: firsthand observations, new ideas, and we give each person a specific role tied into
best practices. That changed when we came the instructional core, taking notes on either
upon the idea of staff instructional rounds. the teacher, the students, or the content. This
During instructional rounds, groups of creates some overlap in the debrief conversation
educators move from class to class observing that helps us understand the interconnections
one another. Instructional rounds have become between the three parts of the core. For example,
the way teacher teams can see the work being one observer may note a teacher saying, “Turn
done in other classrooms, develop a shared to a partner and answer this question.” Another
understanding of high-quality instruction, and observer may add, “18 of the 24 students were
reflect on their own practice. talking with partners.”
The instructional core—the relationship The final step was to establish norms
between the teacher, the student, and the to create a level of trust among
content—is the perfect lens for instructional staff. A teacher opening his or
rounds. Anything of value in classroom her classroom to colleagues
instruction is connected by the content and what can feel vulnerable. We
the teacher and students are saying or doing. needed to keep in mind that
Teachers may have the best intentions or a we would be guests in each
curriculum may be perfectly aligned to standards, other’s classrooms and we
but what matters most is what students actually were there to learn, not
do. Instructional rounds can illuminate that. pass judgment. In fact, we
specifically chose to never
Craft the Plan, Create Norms include feedback for the
To get started, my staff and I began by reading teacher being observed in
Instructional Rounds in Education: A Network the process. The point was
Approach to Improving Teaching and Learning by to see instruction that would
Elizabeth A. City, Richard F. Elmore, Sarah E. inspire dialogue, reflection,
Fiarman, and Lee Teitel. At a staff meeting, and personal growth. Here are
we discussed rounds and established them as our norms:
a way for teachers to study their practice—not
as an evaluation tool. We explored how our ■ Focus on the instructional core—the
observations and discussions with colleagues relationship between teachers, students,
would ultimately help each individual think about and content.
his or her own classroom. ■ Honor the process and value each other’s time.
Next, we established a typical rounds cycle with ■ Seek evidence and challenge assumptions.
grade-level teams visiting three to five classrooms ■ Stay focused on mission, purpose, growth,
in other grades, making observations, and and improvement.
holding an in-depth discussion of trends and ■ Assume good intent.
next steps. While mixed-grade-level teams is
an option, we put an emphasis on the shared Making the Rounds
experience and opportunity to have deep Here’s how instructional rounds work in
discussions with grade-level peers. execution, from the pre-planning to the
In the cycle, teacher teams enter a room post-rounds action plan.
together and take low-inference notes for 10–15 Establish a problem of practice. Before
minutes. Low-inference notes are observations heading into classrooms, teachers meet and
with concrete data, and without value judgments agree upon a problem of practice. This can
or recommendations. range from trying to determine how to hold
Getting teachers out of the classroom small group instruction during math to looking
can be a logistical issue. Typically, we used for ideas to increase student engagement
teams of substitute teachers to release the during a literacy block.

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 ”As a shared experience, it was beneficial when
looking to implement one of the practices we
saw in our own classrooms. Having colleagues
open their classroom doors in order for others
to get better and hone their practice is such
a personal way to share ideas.“
Rachel Trowbridge, 1st grade teacher

Problems of practice are:

■ Directly related to student learning;

■ Focused on the instructional core;
REFLECT ■ Directly observable and actionable; and
ON THIS ■ High leverage—they make a significant
Instructional rounds
are a classroom difference for student learning.
strategy focused
around a problem
Set the schedule. Consider how to maximize As teachers enter the room, they each take
of practice, in order
to learn and extend the time when teachers observe rooms. For notes on what they see or hear. They are
practice. They are instance, don’t observe a classroom looking for encouraged to ask students questions. This
not an evaluation
a mathematic problem of practice during that helps clarify misunderstandings and allows
tool or checklist used
to “fix” teachers. classroom’s reading time. Also, avoid surprising for the observer to understand the context
a teacher by having three to five teachers or processes that were established prior.
walking in her classroom unannounced. All After the specified 10 to 15 minutes, observers
the planning and scheduling needs to be done gather outside the classroom. This is done after
prior to the day of the instructional rounds. each classroom observation. Each person takes
Here is a typical schedule: turns sharing one low-inference observation
data point until everyone has shared their ideas.
■ 8-8:30 a.m.: Set context, expectations, and focus The process is then repeated after the next
for the day. Determine visit order. observation. Typically, team members change
■ 8:30-10 a.m.: Visit classrooms. Plan for observation lenses each time. By the end of the
approximately 10 minutes inside each day’s rounds, each participant should have used
classroom and 5 minutes to debrief outside. each of the three lenses of the instructional core
■ 10-10:45 a.m.: Discussion to analyze trends. once or twice.
■ 10:45-11:30 a.m.: Create theory of action and Debrief. After a series of three to five classroom
establish next steps. visits, it is time to discuss trends and identify
promising practices. With the help of a facilitator
Conduct the rounds. With clipboards in (either the principal or a team-designated staff
hand, teachers divide among themselves the member) the team debriefs about some of the
observation lens: teacher, student, or content. trends of practice that were observed across all of
Before entering the room, it’s important the classroom visits. Our favorite way is to chart
to establish a timekeeper and some kind of responses on poster paper. These are the four
non-verbal signal that it’s time to leave. steps to debrief.

10 Principal ■ November/December 2016 THINKSTOCK; MONKEYBUSINESS IMAGES; RAWPIXEL LTD

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 ”I see rounds as a coaching clinic where you go in to
learn from other practitioners in their field of expertise
in real time. You learn to evaluate what works and what
doesn’t for your own personal practice.“
Sergio Hernandez, 4th, 5th, 6th grade teacher

Step 1: Describe. What do you see? Share Tip: Connect the theory
evidence of each of the parts of the instruction of action to the problem of
core in each classroom. practice established prior. Have
Tip: The best way to craft a trend is to make teachers think about how the
the description specific enough to picture the claims may address that problem.
practice or strategy, but generic enough to not
be able to identify the classroom where it was Step 4: Map the next level. How
observed. do we move instruction to the next level?
Make recommendations and set action items.
Step 2: Analyze. Identify trends across the With a theory of action, it’s time to break
instructional core. This is a chance to look for down the implementation into smaller,
similarities across the set of observational data. manageable steps. This includes deadlines,
Tip: When looking for promising practices, who is in charge, and what data will be
look for trends that will inspire the group. It’s collected to determine success.
not important to identify every trend, especially Rounds have brought a new energy to our
when they are elements already established by campus. Instead of me, the principal, being the
the team or possible negative practices. only one seeing amazing practices going on
each day, every teacher has spent a significant
Step 3: Predict. Use the evidence to make time analyzing what teaching looks like in other
claims. This step holds the real power of rounds. classrooms. While it definitely took training,
After seeing classroom experience firsthand, practice, and time to implement, we now have
teacher teams need to make some claims in a well-established instructional improvement
order to develop a theory of action. From the practice in place. Teachers participate in at
trends, identify specific practices. Then, craft least three instructional rounds cycles per year.
those practices into a theory of action using While I facilitated the trends debrief for each
“if-then” statements: If (this practice/strategy is of the teams the first time, we now have teacher
executed), then (this observable behavior will teams identify a peer to lead the facilitation.
occur), and we know because (of this outcome.) Rounds have not only expanded our teaching
Here’s an example: If we embed small group capacity, but are improving our leadership
literacy instructions into projects, then students capacity, too.
will become better readers, and we know this
because of increased fluency, accuracy, and Aaron Brengard is principal of Katherine Smith School
comprehension assessment data. in San Jose, California.

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