Observations on Classroom Teaching

The principal at a school described her challenges in getting all teachers to implement research-based Explicit Direct Instruction lesson design and lesson delivery strategies. She stated that some of the resistant-to-school-reform teachers had left or were leaving. Having these distracting teachers leave improved the school, she said, and now other teachers are engaged with implementing staff development and improving the effectiveness of their classroom practices.

I went to a school to provide classroom coaching for teachers in implementing Explicit Direct Instruction. One of the teachers was sick so I had an unscheduled hour. I asked the school’s academic coach to accompany me on some unannounced 5 minute walkthroughs. We were surprised to see almost no implementation of instructional practices from recent staff development during the unannounced observations. This underscores the difficulty implementing research based practices in the classroom. Some teachers are able to use the practices when scheduled for observations but are not using them when no one is watching. One of the hard things about school reform is changing adult behavior.

I observed an elementary school lesson. During feedback after the lesson, I told the teacher that she needed more student interaction including interspersing more Checking for Understanding questions and pair shares between students. The principal, who accompanied me, said that the teacher had talked for 24 minutes before asking a Checking for Understanding question. Good lessons have lots of student-to-teacher and student-to-student interaction. I have measured teachers that average a student interaction every minute. During a lesson I taught recently, I had teachers count the number of student interactions I used. I had 57 student interactions during a 35 minute lesson. With a high number of student interactions, discipline problems evaporate, students are more engaged, pay attention more, and learn more.