This school implemented a targeted approach to minimize summer learning loss. They focused on writing instruction, providing daily writing practice and feedback. Teachers set goals around monitoring student progress. Leaders closely monitored teaching and led professional learning on effective writing pedagogy. As a result, fewer students experienced learning loss over summer break according to teacher reports. The school maintained their focus on writing instruction over multiple years to sustain results.

1. Broken Bay- Leading Learning
July-August 2012 Mary Wootton

2. .
What strengths do our
students have and
what knowledge and
skills do our students
need? What strengths do we as
teachers & leaders have
and what knowledge and
skills do we as teachers &
leaders need?
What has been the
impact of the
professional learning?
Our changed
actions/practices? Deepen professional
knowledge & refine skills.
Build content knowledge
& pedagogical knowledge
Engage students in
new learning
experiences

4. (Wootton, 2010)

5. Activity
Read scenario from beginning to end
Re read- each section- positives/negatives- rate the practice
Buddy who you don‟t normally work with
share your reasons, discuss, modify, learn
School groups what does this mean for us in our school
Whole group- our professional learning what will we
KEEP, STOP, START

6. Keep
-Analyse data with the teachers
-Combine external and internal expertise
-Practice on an identified student need
-Sustained focus on the goal
-Ongoing checking and monitoring – reflect on what is / isn‟t
working

7. Stop
- Waiting for the NAPLAN as the only analysis
- Overusing the NAPLAN data
- Hoping and assuming that the PL is used in the classroom
- Changing the focus and direction
- Relying on a PL meeting for all teachers
- Relying on an external person to do the work

8. Start
- SIP is going to be referred to by all staff
- Using internal expertise
- Using ongoing monitoring and checking
- Using a range of data for planning and teaching
- Differentiating PL
- Using student voice to see what has/hasn‟t worked for them
- Start engaging teachers‟ existing theories
- Asking key questions of the data and using a range of
measures to analyse the data

9. Strategic actions - it‟s all in the planning
Develop a rich picture of the issue
• Strengths and needs of the students within the target group
• Strengths and needs of the classroom teacher/s
• Strengths and needs of the middle leaders
• Strengths and needs of leadership
Develop a rich picture of the possible solutions
• Research (formal and informal)
• Develop a process for critiquing ideas
Make a collective decision
Actions
•Should reflect a coherent improvement theory and strong pedagogical
knowledge.
•Identify factors which may contribute to improving student achievement.

10. Monitoring the impact your SIP
Set up the evaluation at the same time as you set up your plan
What questions do you need to ask?
• Looking for evidence that things are getting better
What is measured or assessed?
- Identifying a range of indicators
- Identifying what to expect within these indicators in the short, medium
and long term
How will information be gathered?
-Using processes/practices/systems already in place or that need to be out
in place to monitor

11. Transcript case study
Leaders had looked at their NAPLAN and PAT r data
Wanted to include the staff in the whole process
Concerned about reaction of teacher practice being
observed. Story is not what about what they found out
but the process of using the data to inform their
• Student achievement data,
• Student survey and voice
• Teacher practice data and voice
to inform their professional learning

12. School Case Study
• Testing their hypothesis- where to start?
• Concerns about engagement of teachers
• Teacher reaction to collecting teacher
practice data- classroom observations
• What do our students think?

13. When/why/how did we collect
classroom data?
• We needed more reading data (baseline) - especially
classroom data to help test hypotheses
• Outlined we (the leadership team) would collect a
straight transcript/record of what was said/done with
no name or class on transcript
• Other staff began taking transcripts

14. What did we do once we had the classroom
data?
• Ensured we had de-identified samples
• Photocopied samples into mixed groups so
each group had about 6 samples
• Group processing - patterns,
inconsistencies and questions/ observations
which arise from transcripts; perceived lesson
purpose

15. Student Focus Groups
What did you learn in guided reading this week?
What sorts of things does the teacher do to help you with your
reading?
What are some of the things the teacher does that doesn‟t
help you with your reading?

16. Teacher Programs and Survey
How often reading taken?
What types of texts are used?
Guided? Shared? Independent?
Groups? Whole class? Individual?
Purpose of the lesson

17. Outcomes
Ownership of the challenge
Enthusiasm about the challenge
Evidence from transcripts-teacher practice
linked to student achievement concern
Ownership of where to next.

18. Broken Bay
February 2012 Mary Wootton

22. Students
Teachers
Checking
PD
Classroom
What are the strengths &
learning needs of our students?
Writing in books (target students)
• How regularly was writing happening?
• Was there feedback/feedforward in the students’ writing
books?
Planning
• Learning intentions, success criteria, grouping for need
Student voice
• Show me some feedback in your books
• Tell me what it means
• Have you used the feedback? Show/tell me how

24. Students
Teachers
Checking
PD
Classroom
School inquiry and professional learning:
What is effective feedback?
Alignment of goals - Student goals
I am learning to use my feedback to improve my writing
Or I am learning to self assess using the success criteria?
Teacher Goals-effective feedback/feed forward
I am learning about effective feedback. I am learning about the
progressions of writing so I can give effective feed forward.
Leader:
I am learning about practice analysis conversations so I can have
effective feedback conversations with teachers.

25. Students
Teachers
Checking
PD
Classroom
Engagement in Professional Learning
Students:
What is feedback? Why do I get it? What do I do with it?
When?
Teachers:
Effective feedback (Linked to differentiated LI and SC)
Feed forward - Knowledge of the progressions of writing
Leaders:
Effective feedback-linked to practice analysis with teachers
Building pedagogical content knowledge- feed forward

26. Students
Teachers
Checking
PD
Classroom
Changes in Practice
Student Using my feedback
Teacher Regular writing-clear audience and purpose
Regular written and oral feedback/feed forward
Using language students know
Allowing time for students to respond
Differentiated learning intentions
Leader Feedback conversations with teachers
Have attended all PLD so they could build their
pedagogical content knowledge so they could
feedback and feed forward effectively.

27. • High poverty school
• Year 4 class- 8 to 9 year old students
• Even mix of ethnicity
• 4 years experience as a teacher
• Part of the feedback professional learning

28. Attributes of this Effective Teacher
• Instructional writing occurs everyday
• Learning intention linked to student need-focused inquiry
• Daily modeling linked to the learning intention
• Students learn in flexible groups based on identified learning
needs-focused inquiry
• Oral feedback is given daily
• Written effective feedback at least twice a week

29. Next learning steps for this teacher
How will you know you have done well?
The teacher will tell me
The teacher will write in my book that I got it right
Teacher wants to support her students become more self
regulated by :
Co – constructing the success criteria with the students
Developing students‟ self assessment skills so they can
identify:
• what they have done well
• their own next learning steps

30. LEAP

31. Questions to stimulate reflection and
sustainability of effective practice
What impact have we had on student achievement? What is our
explanation of this?
Have we met our targets? What is our explanation of this?
For which students have we had the most impact? What is our
evidence for this?
For which students have we had the least impact? What is our
explanation of this?
What might we do differently to improve outcomes for all students?
What is in place and is valued? What do we need to improve? What
is essential to sustain? What can we plan to ensure this occurs?

32. An example of targets
All students not moving 1 sublevel in 2010 will move at
least 1 sublevel from November 2010 through to
November 2011 based on Nationally Normed
Assessment tools.
All students (Year 0-10) working below expectations for
years 1-8 will move at least 2 sublevels.

33. All students not moving 1 sublevel in 2010 will move at least 2 sublevels ~ All
Students
All students not moving 1 sublevel in 2010 will move at least 2 sublevels
All Students
70%
60%
50%
% of Each Year Level
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Less than One
Less than One
Less than One
Less than One
Less than One
Less than One
Less than One
Less than One
More than Two
More than Two
More than Two
More than Two
More than Two
More than Two
More than Two
More than Two
One
One
One
One
One
One
One
One
Two
Two
Two
Two
Two
Two
Two
Two
Yr 2 (n=5) Yr 3 (n=41) Yr 4 (n=75) Yr 5 (n=15) Yr 6 (n=41) Yr 7 (n=29) Yr 8 (n=29) Yr 9 (n=41)
Sub Level Movement End 10 - End 11
2011 Year Level

34. All students (Year 0-8 End 2010) working 1 sublevel below cluster expectations will
move at least 2 sublevels ~ All Students
All students (Year 0-8 End 2010) working 1 sublevel below cluster expectations will move at least 2 sublevels
All Students
80%
70%
60%
% of Each Year Level
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
One
One
One
One
One
One
One
One
One
Less than One
Less than One
Less than One
Less than One
Less than One
Less than One
Less than One
Less than One
Less than One
Two
Two
Two
Two
Two
Two
Two
Two
Two
More than Two
More than Two
More than Two
More than Two
More than Two
More than Two
More than Two
More than Two
More than Two
Yr 1 (n=11) Yr 2 (n=51) Yr 3 (n=56) Yr 4 (n=83) Yr 5 (n=26) Yr 6 (n=34) Yr 7 (n=26) Yr 8 (n=20) Yr 9 (n=8)
Sub Level Movement End 10 - End 11
2011 Year Level

36. Teacher Goals
to learn what quality writing looks looks at all levels
to teach writing everyday from Day 1
to monitor the progress of my focus students
Why?
so I know what to expect at each curriculum
level and the progressions
so I can give effective feed forward to my
students

37. Student Goals
Expectations that I will write at the same level I
was writing in November last year
I will be able to identify what I am doing well and
what I need to learn next.
I will be able to articulate where I am in my
writing and where I need to be and what I have
to learn to get there.

38. School wide practices Introduced
• A December writing sample that was typical of the
student‟s writing will be glued into the next year‟s
writing book
• Practice analysis will include talking to the students
about the sample in their writing books
• Why is it there? How do they use it?
• Students who had „dropped‟ were named in each
class. Team meetings to include discussions around
student progress towards the goal of moving 2 sub
levels
• Writing will occur daily and start Day 1.

39. Leader Goals
• To closely monitor the teaching of writing
in all classes and agreed to practices
• To lead professional learning to include:
• What is quality writing
• Effective teaching of writing
• Progressions of writing.

40. School A
1Year 1 (Nov-Feb)
Year 2 (Nov-Feb)

41. Teacher voice
Teacher 1 “ it was our focus for everything. Staff meeting, syndicate
meetings, targets, my appraisal goals, professional development were
all about minimising the summer effect. The kids even knew about it
and didn‟t want to drop” (Teacher, personal communication, February,
2011).
Teacher 2 “the way I think changed, I expected the kids to drop after
a six week break. What we did on teacher only day made me realize I
couldn‟t think that way any more, and I didn‟t and guess what-
nowhere near as many of my kids dropped” (Teacher, personal
communication, February, 2011).
Teacher 3 “having the kid‟s writing in the front of the books and
reminding them, and me to look at how they were writing and
expecting to write like that at the start of the year or better” (Teacher,
personal communication, February, 2011).