Classroom walkthroughs are a cornerstone of continuous school improvement, offering leadership teams and educators invaluable insights into instructional practices across PreK-12 classrooms. When done collaboratively, walkthroughs can celebrate successes, identify areas for growth, and create a culture of shared responsibility for student achievement. The key is to do this with teachers, not to teachers—fostering trust and partnership every step of the way.
Contact us for more information on making your walkthroughs impactful for both students and teachers – [email protected]
What Are Classroom Walkthroughs?
Walkthroughs are brief, focused classroom visits that allow leadership teams to observe teaching and learning in action. They’re not about evaluation or judgment but about gathering data to identify trends, support teachers, and align practices with the school’s instructional goals.
Walkthroughs can help create consistency and clarity around effective teaching practices, ensuring every student benefits from high-quality instruction every day in every classroom.
Why Are Walkthroughs Important?
- Build Collective Efficacy: Research by John Hattie highlights collective teacher efficacy as one of the most powerful drivers of student achievement, with an effect size of 1.57. Walkthroughs reinforce this belief by focusing on shared goals and collaboration.
- Celebrate What’s Working: Teachers deserve recognition for the positive practices happening in classrooms every day. Walkthroughs highlight strengths and successes to be shared and replicated schoolwide.
- Align Teaching Practices: A structured walkthrough process ensures alignment with the school’s instructional priorities, helping teachers deliver consistent, high-impact instruction. See example below: Instructional Framework.
- Support Academic Achievement, Behavior, and Well-being: Evidence-based instructional priorities promote consistent practices that engage students academically while helping them regulate behavior and develop social-emotional skills.
- Guide Professional Learning: Data from walkthroughs helps identify areas where teachers may need additional support, informing targeted professional development plans.
- Create a Culture of Continuous Improvement: Walkthroughs reinforce that growth is ongoing—for students, teachers, and leaders.
What is an Example of Instructional Priorities and Practices?
Instructional Frameworks: A Tool for Common Instructional Priorities and Practices
To establish consistent, effective teaching practices across classrooms, schools can use an instructional framework as a guiding tool. An instructional framework provides a shared set of evidence-based strategies and expectations for what teaching and learning should look like in every classroom, every day.
What Is an Instructional Framework?
An instructional framework outlines effective practices for the opening, body, and ending of a lesson, ensuring stronger consistency across all classrooms and content areas. It’s adaptable to meet the needs of diverse learners and creates a foundation for:
- Academic Achievement: Ensuring every student has access to clear, rigorous, and engaging instruction.
- Behavior Regulation: Establishing predictable routines and expectations that help students stay focused and on task.
- Social-Emotional Well-Being: Building classroom environments that foster respect, collaboration, and a sense of belonging.
Core Elements of an Instructional Framework
- Clear Learning Targets and Success Criteria:
- Teachers post and review learning objectives and success criteria with students daily.
- These targets guide students in understanding what they’re learning and how they’ll know they’ve succeeded.
- Engaging Lesson Beginnings:
- Lessons start with activities that connect to prior knowledge and engage students immediately, such as warmups and bell ringers that engage students with thought-provoking questions.
- Teachers establish routines and set a positive tone to prepare students for learning.
- Consistent and Effective Instructional Practices:
- Teachers use evidence-based strategies and explicit instruction (teaching, modeling, guided practice, and collaborative learning, or as Dr. Anita Archer teaches us, I Do, We Do, You Do) to support students in meeting or exceeding grade level standards.
- Vocabulary instruction, purposeful reading, writing, and discussion activities are emphasized to in every classroom every day for every student.
- Active Participation:
- Teachers structure student collaboration with clear roles and scaffolds to ensure productive discussions and active participation by all students.
- Partner and group work supports both academic and social-emotional skills and engages students in their learning.
- Meaningful Closures:
- Teachers wrap up lessons with reflection activities, such as exit tickets or summary discussions.
- Closures connect the day’s learning to broader unit goals and help teachers gather formative assessment data.
- A Positive and Predictable Environment:
- Routines, positive reinforcement, and proactive behavior management strategies ensure classrooms are calm and focused.
Why Use an Instructional Framework?
- It provides a common language and structure for all teachers, ensuring consistency across classrooms.
- It ensures every student experiences high-quality instruction that supports their academic, behavioral, and emotional growth.
- It aligns teaching practices with schoolwide goals, such as bell-to-bell learning or equity in access to effective instruction.
Now That We Have an Example, How Do We Roll This Out?
Now That We Have an Example, How Do We Roll This Out?
Establishing an instructional framework is a powerful way to ensure that all students receive effective instruction daily—but creating and implementing it requires a collaborative approach. Walkthroughs can serve as a vital tool in this process, helping schools evaluate and refine their framework over time.
Step 1: Get into Classrooms
Start by conducting walkthroughs focused on celebrating the great work already happening. Observe positive practices, such as strong lesson beginnings or effective partner work, and share these observations with staff to build trust and enthusiasm for the process.
Step 2: Collaborate on Effective Practices
Work with your leadership team and teacher leaders to define what effective teaching looks like in your school. This might include practices like:
- Clearly posting and referencing learning targets.
- Using routines that promote behavior regulation and engagement.
- Consistent annotation strategies.
- Time in text strategies.
- Explicit vocabulary instruction.
- Ending lessons with meaningful reflection activities.
You can use an instructional framework to document these practices and ensure alignment across classrooms. Contact STRIVE for more information on developing, implementing, and sustaining an instructional framework and walkthrough system to impact teaching and learning.
Step 3: Pilot and Refine
Roll out the walkthrough tool in phases, starting with one focus area (e.g., lesson beginnings, consistent annotation strategies). Use walkthroughs to gather data on implementation, share aggregated results with staff, and refine the walkthrough based on feedback.
Step 4: Measure Impact and Expand
As your consistent instructional practices take hold, use walkthrough data to assess the impact on student engagement, behavior, and achievement. Identify areas where additional professional development might be needed and continue to layer new practices, always collaborating with teachers and celebrating progress.
Conclusion
Evidence-based consistent practices (i.e., Instructional Frameworks) and walkthroughs go hand in hand, providing a foundation for consistent, effective teaching practices and a tool for continuous improvement. By focusing on shared goals, collaboration, and clear expectations, schools can create environments where students thrive academically, socially, and emotionally.
Walkthroughs provide the data and feedback necessary to evaluate and refine your instructional priorities and practices ensuring it evolves alongside the needs of your teachers and students.
For more information on creating instructional frameworks and walkthrough tools click the links below to access additional resources, examples, and videos. Together, we can build classrooms where every student and every teacher has the opportunity to succeed!
- Instructional Walkthrough Tool Paper and Pencil video
- Instructional Framework Walkthrough Tool and Dashboard (GOLD- Laurel Middle School) video
- Instructional Framework One-Pager
- Instructional Framework Example (GOALS)
Contact us for more information on making your walkthroughs impactful for both students and teachers – [email protected]
We must take care of the teachers, leaders, and coaches that take care of our children
-Debbie
Our aim is simple: to provide as many helpful resources as possible to teachers, leaders, and coaches. Every comment you make and every share helps us achieve this goal.
Leave a Comment: Your thoughts and experiences are valuable to us and other readers. Join the conversation and help us all learn more!
Share with Others: Know other teachers who could benefit from our resources? Spread the word and help us reach more educators
