![]() ![]() ![]() Engaging in Learning Huddles to Examine Data and Refine Instructional Practiceįor their learning huddle on this particular Wednesday, the teachers bring in records of the feedback they offered to students in recent writing conferences. It also involved piloting the efforts to improve reading and writing in two WCSD elementary schools before scaling the use of inquiry cycles in other content areas and throughout the district. This work entailed developing key focus areas, or “drivers,” with the partners, informed by the recommended practices in the What Works Clearinghouse Practice Guide, Teaching Elementary School Students to Be Effective Writers. REL West also worked with the principals, district coaches, and grade-level lead teachers to build knowledge about inquiry cycles so that these leaders in the district could support teachers in practicing and utilizing the new data-driven decisionmaking process. Austin’s guiding question in the partnership has been, “ How can we shift the way teachers collaborate, so they become more reflective about their practice and improve their practice more intentionally?” Specifically, WCSD elementary teachers would learn to make evidence-based decisions about refining their literacy instruction, using a collaborative problem-solving cycle of choosing a “change idea,” testing it - or trying it out - in their classrooms, collecting data, looking at the data together in teams, and fine-tuning the change idea. To help WCSD achieve its goal, the partnership lead, REL West’s Kim Austin, took a long-term view, planning for sustainability: REL West coaching would emphasize building teacher capacity to adopt the routines and practices of a collaborative inquiry approach to improve teaching and learning. When leaders in WCSD identified the need to improve the literacy performance outcomes of its elementary students, the district and REL West formed the REL West Literacy Improvement Partnership, with the Center for the Collaborative Classroom for curriculum expertise, and the Northwest Regional Professional Development Program for professional learning. ![]() Building Teacher Capacity for Inquiry Cycles “Stead Elementary’s participation in the Literacy Improvement Partnership opened our eyes to true reflective practice that was job embedded,” says the school’s principal, Dr. Over the course of three years participating in REL West’s Literacy Improvement Partnership, these teachers have internalized an improvement mindset, adopted new behaviors for collaborating in their grade-level teams, and learned how to collect and reflect on data on their own practices to shift their instruction. Directives are used to issue delegations of authority, basic policies, and operating instructions.ĪMS Directives and USDA Directives and information about the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is also available.Stead Elementary’s experience illustrates how elementary teachers in the Washoe County School District ( WCSD) in Reno, Nevada, are routinely conducting cycles of data inquiry in their grade-level learning huddles to improve how they teach reading and writing. Directives are permanent issuances that are in force until canceled. ![]()
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