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�2024-2025 MSLC ILT#2

Using Active Observation Cycles To Improve Learning

�October 31, 2024

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1. Please turn on your camera and mute your microphone. (These icons are at the bottom left of your screen)

�2. Please have a place to jot notes handy (Google Doc handouts can be found in the Chat :)).��3. Goal: “All In” for Yourself and Colleagues�

A Few Preliminaries

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Materials for Today

If you do not have what you need, please chat: Jojo!

Link to Handouts

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SY24-25 ILT Learning Series

Institute

Unit Unpacking

Lesson Prep

Modeling Part I

(June 17th-18th)

ILT# 1:

Modeling Part II

(August 29th)

ILT# 2:

ActiveObs

Part I

(October 24th)

ILT# 3:

ActiveObs Part II

(January 30th)

ILT# 4:

Review & Remediation

(February 27th)

Page 1

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Session Objectives

Page 1

Together we will…

Study techniques we can use to prepare to Actively Observe student work during independent practice
Practice building a tool that will enable us to collect data on student understanding and to provide targeted feedback while we circulate

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Denarius Frazier

What’s effective about how Denarius monitors and responds in the moment to what he sees in student work?

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Estimated Time: 10 min

Time Gate: 1:59 PDT

Stop Action Version: https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/776341311/fcad86bf82

Non-Stop Action Version: https://vimeo.com/191871381/6c7fc7d0fb

To kick off our study of Active Observation, we’re going to start with one of our favorite TLAC clips, and it’s of our very own Denarius Frazier. So go ahead and snap it up for him!
In this clip, we’ll see Denarius expertly circulate and give students feedback during a round of Independent Practice.
This is a rich clip with a lot happening, so I’m going to pause halfway through. During the first half, I want you to just take note of what what he’s saying and doing as he circulates. Then for the second half, we’ll see him respond to a common error he sees with Show Call.
Snaps again for Denarius! So grateful we can learn from his teaching.
When we come back, I’d love for ____ & _____ to kick off our discussion. Enjoy!

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Denarius Frazier

Circulates With Intentionality: Denarius actively observes student work for evidence of mastery and potential mistakes. At the start of each “lap,” he also names one specific component he’s looking for in their responses.
Exemplar in Hand: Denarius compares students’ work against his exemplar, which enables him to quickly see where student understanding is strong, where it may be breaking down, and what feedback will move students forward.
Targeted Individual Feedback: Denarius disciplines himself to give high-quality feedback on what his focus is for each lap. This allows him to give feedback–written and verbal–to all of his students and quickly identify any trend(s) to address.
Collects Data: Denarius tracks evidence he sees of mastery as well as mistakes. This helps him prioritize the gap(s) he should address with the class.
“Batched Feedback”: To address a common error, he Show Calls a piece of work and efficiently addresses it with “batched feedback.” He then releases students to immediately apply the feedback!

Page 2

Estimated Time: 1.5 min

Time Gate: 2:00 PDT

Circulates With Intentionality: Denarius actively observes student work for evidence of mastery and potential mistakes. At the start of each “lap,” he also names one specific component he’s looking for in their responses.
Exemplar in Hand: Denarius compares students’ work against his exemplar, which enables him to quickly see where student understanding is strong, where it may be breaking down, and what feedback will move students forward.
Targeted Individual Feedback: Denarius disciplines himself to give high-quality feedback on what his focus is for each lap. This allows him to give feedback–written and verbal–to all of his students and quickly identify any trend(s) to address.
Collects Data: Denarius tracks evidence he sees of mastery as well as mistakes. This helps him prioritize the gap(s) he should address with the class.
“Batched Feedback”: To address a common error, he Show Calls a piece of work and efficiently addresses it with “batched feedback.” He then releases students to immediately apply the feedback!

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Christina Fritz

What similarities and differences do you see in how Christina uses Active Observation?

Page 2

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Christina Fritz

Page 2

Similarities:

Circulates With Intentionality: Christina actively observes student work for quality (vs. completion). Like Denarius, she has clear laps: 1) check for how students are marking up the problem and 2) checking for how students have set up their model
Exemplar in Hand: Christina also compares students’ work against her exemplar, which enables her to quickly spot evidence of mastery as well as a common gap.
Targeted Individual Feedback: Christina also disciplines herself to give high-quality feedback and back-pocket prompts that align with her focus for the lap. This enables her (and her co-teacher!) to give feedback–written and verbal–to all students
Collects Data: Tracks evidence she sees of mastery as well as mistakes. This helps prioritize a common gap(s) to address, which is that students aren’t creating three equal parts).

Differences:

Charting the Error: Christina opts to chart the error as opposed to Show Calling (but either can work!). This can be particularly useful for use with younger students. The added benefit here is that students can also reference the chart as a resource not only for this lessons but future ones.
Resources: She reminds students to leverage available resources for support if they get stuck.
Manages the Follow Up: Christina makes it explicit to students that she will be coming back to check their progress and whether they’ve been able to implement her feedback. She then makes a note for herself so she remembers to do this!

Estimated Time: 1.5 min

Time Gate: 9:20 CDT

Similarities: Like we see Denarius do, Christina…

Circulates With Intentionality: She actively observes student work for evidence of mastery and potential mistakes. Its clear that like Denarius, she too has laps. The first was to check for how students are annotating/marking up the problem before solving, and then for the second, she’s checking for how they’ve set up their model.
Exemplar in Hand: Christina also compares students’ work against her exemplar, which enables her to quickly spot evidence of mastery as well as a common gap.
Targeted Individual Feedback: Christina also disciplines herself to give high-quality feedback on what her focus is for the lap. This enables her (and her co-teacher!) to give feedback–written and verbal–to all students
Collects Data: Tracks evidence she sees of mastery as well as mistakes. This helps her and her co-teacher prioritize a common gap(s) to address with the class, which is that students aren’t creating three equal parts).

Differences:

Charting the Error: Christina decides to leverage charting as opposed to Show Call (but either can work!). This can be particularly useful for use with younger students. The added benefit here is that students can also reference the chart as a resource not only for this lessons but future ones.
Follow Up: Christina makes it explicit to students that she will be coming back to check their progress and whether they’ve been able to implement her feedback. This is implicit in Christina's clip, but we love the statement: “I’m going to come back in two minutes” (and then see her make a note to herself to remember to do this!)

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Key Idea

“Never mistake activity for achievement.”

—John Wooden

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What is Active Observation?

Key Idea: Decide intentionally what to look for and maintain discipline in looking for what you have prioritized. If you see it, affirm it. If you don’t see it, give bite-sized, actionable, and specific feedback to help students improve their work.

Page 2

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Strong Student-Teacher Relationships

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Safe: Create the conditions that make students feel physically, emotionally, and intellectually safe.
Successful: Support and challenge students to feel genuine, authentic success.
Known: Acknowledge and celebrate what’s distinct about students’ work or their identity.

Estimated Time: 1 min

Time Gate: 4:03 CDT/2:03 PDT

Since strong student-teacher relationships are so important, the TLAC team spent 6 months interviewing leaders and teachers as well as reflecting on our own teaching experience.
We also sought to consider the student-teacher relationship from the student perspective: How does a strong student-teacher relationship make you (the student) feel.
The result of the study and reflection was this framework. Strong student-teacher relationships have three qualities. They make students feel safe, successful, and known.

Safe: Students need to feel physically, emotionally, and intellectually safe to achieve their best. Teachers have the responsibility for creating the conditions that make students feel safe.
Successful: All students want to be successful. Achievement is the horse and confidence is the cart. Strong relationships emerge where teachers push their students to feel genuine, authentic success.
Known: Students feel connected to teachers who acknowledge and celebrate what’s distinct about their work or their identity.

We think Active Observation can be a powerful (underrated) tool for relationship building.

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Relationship Building Montage

Page 3

How does Active Observation support strong student-teacher relationships? What actions do these teachers take that contribute to relationship building?

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Focus feedback on replicable student actions
Say the student’s name/nickname
Smile
Frame the feedback as an opportunity to improve/refine/grow
Acknowledge improvement
Validate ideas/work with Precise Praise

Relationship Building Montage

Page 3

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ActiveObs Cycles

Prepare for ActiveObs

(Before the Lesson)

Individual Feedback & Collect Data

Batched Feedback & Revise

Circulate w/ Intentionality

Page 3

Estimated Time: <1 min

Time Gate: 4:14 CDT/2:14 PDT

We like to think about active observation as a cyclical process because it is the process in which we collect data through circulation, give feedback individually or in a group format, and then start back over with collection of data.
Although Active Observation can take place at many points throughout a lesson–for instance, during the “You Try”–we’ll focus on the art of this practice during Independent Practice. This is in part because it’s where where we pass the baton, and give students some independence, so they can shift from dependent to more independent learners.
Just like with modeling, we believe that effective teaching starts in lesson preparation or what teachers do before a lesson to set themselves up for success. So, today, we will spend the bulk of our time discussing what teachers can do BEFORE the lesson to prepare for strong facilitation of independent practice and responsive teaching.

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Why This Can Be Challenging

Volume & Velocity of Data: There’s so much information to process, and in so little time!
Identifying Trends in Real Time: It can feel as though there are no clear trends; each student seems to be making a different mistake!
Knowing What We’re Looking For: It can be hard to prioritize what we should be looking for in-the-moment.
Responding to Error: When we encounter an error we haven’t anticipated, it can be hard to come up with feedback we could give on the spot.

Page 3

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A Teacher Essential: ActiveObs Tool

Key Idea: An ActiveObs Tool is a teacher’s Lesson Preparation for Independent Practice. Teachers often complete it in a copy of student-facing materials, and bring it with them as they circulate with a pen in hand.

Page 4

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Anatomy of an ActiveObs Tool

Ideal Student Response

Circulation Laps

Space to capture data/notes

Back-pocket prompts

(Plan for Error)

Page 4

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Studying an Active Observation Tool

Page 4

Silent Solo (75 seconds):

How will this preparation support this teacher’s ability to gather and act on the data they collect during independent practice?

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Anatomy of an ActiveObs Tool

A few takeaways:

Ideal student response should support this teachers’ ability to maintain a high bar for accuracy and work quality
Circulation laps should enable the teacher to carefully monitor work quality and help the teacher narrow their focus during each lap around the room
Anticipated errors may make it more likely that the teacher will see when students are making them and to provide targeted feedback to address those mistakes
Dedicated space to collect data during each lap will make it easier for the teacher to “see” whether students are making a common error so they know what to address with the class

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Estimated Time: 1.5 min

MOP: None

Time Gate: 4:25 CDT/2:25 PDT

We saw a lot of these ideas in the chat, but a few main takeaways.

Including an exemplar, or ideal student response, supports a teacher’s ability to maintain a high bar for accuracy and work quality. It also frees up teachers’ working memory to be doing more analysis of student work, rather than trying to hold onto the correct answer or correct work in their head.

Circulation laps are, IMO, one of the most underrated parts of an active observation took. Laps enable us as teachers, to narrow our focus during each lap around the room, making it easier to internalize data and identify trends

Prethinking and planning for error makes it more likely that we will spot errors when they happen and that our feedback will be clear, concise, and leave the heavy lifting on students.

Finally, a dedicated space to collect data makes it easier (and more likely) that teachers will see trends in student responses

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Steps to Building an ActiveObs Tool

Step 1: Identify Priority Tasks
Step 2: Create Ideal Student Response & Identify Laps
Step 3: Plan for Error
Step 4: Build Your Data Collection Chart

Page 4

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Step 1: Identifying Priority Tasks

Key Idea: Select a few independent practice problem(s) that will give you the clearest picture of whether students are on the path to mastery of the objective/aim

Examples: “do-not-pass-go” problems; tasks that match or exceed the rigor of what students will be asked to do on the Exit Ticket, etc.)

Page 5

From this summer!

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Identifying “Priority Tasks”

Key criteria to consider….

Standards/Assessment Alignment: Which 3-4 questions are most aligned to the associated standard that I unpacked?
Exit Ticket Alignment: Which questions/tasks will give you the clearest picture of whether students are on the path to mastery, as demonstrated on the Exit Ticket?
Model Problem Alignment: Which problems are most aligned to the problem I chose to model?
Key Prior Knowledge: Which questions/tasks give students opportunities to practice retrieving and/or applying previously taught content?

Page 5

From this summer!

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Steps to Building an ActiveObs Tool

Step 1: Identify Priority Tasks
Step 2: Create Ideal Student Response & Identify Laps
Step 3: Plan for Error
Step 4: Build Your Data Collection Chart

Page 5

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Step 2: Create ideal student response

Page 6

Key Takeaway: Fully “work out” the solution to the problem from top to bottom, and in the precise format that students will be expected to. This includes making any necessary annotations to the prompt/task, adding any necessary labels, etc.

Fully “worked out solution” in format expected of students

Annotations made to prompt

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Build An ActiveObs Tool Practice: Part I

Choose ONE of the following tasks to work with:

Elementary - Pg. 7
Middle - Pg. 8
HS - Pg. 9

In the space below the task, create your ideal student response. Make sure to create it in the format expected of students.

Create Your Ideal Response

(3.5 min)

Pages 7-9

Private chat me “done” once you finish!

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Build An ActiveObs Tool Practice: Part I

For the given task, create your ideal response in the format expected of students

Create Your Ideal Response

(3.5 min)

Spar with Ours

(2 min)

Compare your ideal response with what we came up with
Make any additions/tweaks to yours (as needed!)

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We Were Thinking…

Middle

High

Elementary

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What Are Circulation Laps?

Key Idea: When we clearly define and name our laps, we discipline ourselves to prioritize what’s most important, making it easier to then look for it in student work. Effective laps are…

Bite-sized
Observable
Precise & Task-Specific
Sequential

Non-Example: “I’m coming around to look at your work for Question 10.”
Example: “I’m coming around to check how you’ve factored your polynomial in Question 10.”

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Estimated Time: 2.5 min

MOP: None

Time Gate: 4:41 CDT/2:41 PDT

Once we’ve planned our exemplar, we can start preparing for the art and practice of circulation! We are going to start with planning circulation laps. We define a circulation lap as a lap around the room with a clearly defined focus or look for.
Naming your laps (aka saying them out loud before starting) is an especially high-impact teacher move because it not only makes what you’re looking for transparent to kids, but it also causes you to narrow your focus and make feedback targeted
Here are some criteria that make laps effective:
Bite-sized: We want to make sure we’re looking for something we can name in one sentence (or even a few words!). This ensures your focus is narrow enough to feel manageable.
Precise & Task-Specific: precise laps makes for more precise, targeted, and actionable feedback.

This can sound like, I’m coming around to check how you’ve factored your polynomial in Question 10. The teacher would then narrow their observation, feedback, and data collection in the factoring of the polynomial for Q10. Note the difference in specificity between this and “I’m coming around to look at your work for Question 10.”

Observable: Laps should be something you should expect to see evidence of on students’ papers.
Sequential: Numbering your laps can ensure that you’re clear on what you’re looking for/naming in the roder you’d expect to see it on students’ papers!

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From Ideal Response to Laps

Page 10

Lap 1: “Coming around to check your annotations for number of turns and degrees on the diagram”
Lap 2: “Coming around to check the objects you have listed for each person.”

Our Laps

Key Idea: We can’t check for everything, so we want to be able to observe for the most essential building blocks/look fors that indicate students are on the path to mastery.

Estimated Time: 1 min

Time Gate: 4:42 CDT/2:42 PDT

Here’s a model for how we might go from an exemplar to a set of circulation laps.
The task on our screen is from an elementary math curriculum. Students are practicing identifying 90* turns using a diagram and real world context. As a teacher, there would be a ton to circulate for in this single problem.

So, I first ask myself, what are the 2-3 elements that I know I need to see as evidence of student mastery.

First, I need to see students annotating or converting degrees into “turns” or the number of 90* rotations.
Then, I need to see if students have accurately identified the objects at each of the given rotations.

Now, I can write these as laps.

Lap 1: “Coming around to check your annotations for number of turns and degrees on the diagram”
Lap 2: “Coming around to check the objects you have listed for each person.”

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Build An ActiveObs Tool Practice: Part II

Plan Your Circulation Laps

(2.5 min)

For the task you’ve been working with, create 2 circulation laps and record those in the blank space provided in the template.

Success Criteria:

Bite-Sized
Observable
Precise & Task-Specific

Private chat me “done” once you finish!

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Build An ActiveObs Tool Practice: Part II

Plan Your Circulation Laps

(2.5 min)

Spar with Ours

(90 sec)

For the task you scripted an ideal student response for, create two circulation laps and record those in the blank space provided in the template.

Compare your laps with what we came up with.
Make any addition/tweaks to yours (as needed!)

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We Were Thinking…

Example	Laps
Elementary School	Lap 1: “Coming around to check your annotations on the clock” Lap 2: “Coming around to check your hours and minutes…”
Middle School	Lap 1: “Coming around to check how you used your commutative property to rewrite Lap 2: “Coming around to check your use of inverse operations on both sides (for part a) Lap 3: “Coming around to check your use of inverse operations on both sides (for part b)
High School	Lap 1: “Coming around to check your midpoint of JM” Lap 2: “Coming around to check your slope of JM and Perpendicular Bisector” Lap 3: “Coming around to check your substitution into point slope…”

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Steps for Building an ActiveObs Tool

Page 11

Step 1: Identify Priority Tasks
Step 2: Create Ideal Student Response & Identify Laps
Step 3: Plan for Error
Step 4: Build Your Data Collection Chart

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Plan for Error Technique Notes

Key Idea: One of the keys to turning error into learning is to plan for it. When you Plan for Error, you anticipate student misunderstandings and plan your responses to them.

Three Steps

Script Exemplar Response ✔
Anticipate Errors
Plan Back-Pocket Prompts/Questions

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-What common errors am I seeing in students’ work/Exit Tickets?

-What will students find most challenging about solving this problem?

Estimated Time: 1.5 min

Time Gate: 4:52 CDT/2:52 PDT

As a teacher, seeing errors on student papers can be intimidating, frustrating, insert all types of emotions! One of the keys to appreciating moments of error and turning those moments into learning is to plan for it. When we Plan for Error, we anticipate student mistakes and plan possible responses to them.
The process of planning for error comes down to three steps

Script Exemplar responses (which we just did together!)
Anticipate 1-2 errors we might encounter as we circulate. Good questions to consider when doing this step are:

-What common errors am I seeing in students’ work/Exit Tickets?
-What will students find most challenging about solving this problem?

Finally, the crucial final step is to plan a few back-pocket prompts that we could use to help address those errors. This is helpful so we can provided targeted feedback and don’t have to think of what to say in the moment!

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Reflection: Effective 1:1 Feedback

In the Chat: What makes these feedback prompts especially useful/effective?

Example Feedback Prompts
“Remember to distribute your negative sign.” “Use the word ‘translation’ in your answer.” “Don't forget to place your decimal point in your answer." “Don’t forget to divide both sides.” “Step 1 looks perfect. Double-check your operation in Step 2. “How can you check your answer?" “This part looks good. So, something happened in this line” (circles it)

Page 11

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Anticipating Error “Rules of Thumb”

Considerations when planning for error…

Review student work from previous lesson, assessment, or homework to identify common trends/gaps
Review the student-facing notes to inform which problem solving steps students may struggle with the most
Leverage the exit ticket unpacking to support the skills and knowledge students have historically needed more support with in the course

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Estimated Time: 1.5 min

Time Gate: 4:54 CDT/2:54 PDT

Here’s what we came up with:

Precise & Task-Specific (vs. Generic): Giving feedback that’s task-specific makes it more actionable as opposed to keeping it broad and vague. Saying something like “check your work” or “you made a calculation mistake” doesn’t help students on the path to showing mastery–that’s an action that could apply to ANY task, regardless of the whats in front of them.
Bite-Sized and Efficient: Each prompt or cue should take 5-15 sec to deliver to each student. Lengthy feedback that requires students to consider too much at any given time runs the risk of overloading their working memory and degrading performance!
Actionable (i.e. students can apply it/use it to improve their work or process). Like good directions, it should equip students with knowledge of what TO do as opposed to what NOT to do.
Keeps Cognitive Work on Students: Make sure the prompt/cue doesn’t do all the work for students/inadvertently giving the answer away. The goal is to help students do as much of the math as possible themselves, with light support or guidance as needed.
(If applicable) Acknowledges Progress That Has Been Made: Honor the progress students have made by acknowledging it. Even just letting kids know they got it right is motivating (e.g., as we see Denarius say to one student in the video: “Killing it Great job.”) One disclaimer: use acknowledgment with discretion/where warranted; overdo this, and you risk making feedback too lengthy/ cheapening acknowledgement/ praise).

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Qualities of Effective Back-Pocket Prompts

Feedback that improves student learning is…

Precise & Task-Specific (vs. Generic)
Bite-Sized and Efficient (5-15 sec)
Actionable (i.e. students can apply it/use it to improve their work or process)
Keeps Cognitive Work on Students
(If applicable) Acknowledges Progress That’s Been Made

Page 12

Estimated Time: 1.5 min

Time Gate: 4:54 CDT/2:54 PDT

Here’s what we came up with:

Precise & Task-Specific (vs. Generic): Giving feedback that’s task-specific makes it more actionable as opposed to keeping it broad and vague. Saying something like “check your work” or “you made a calculation mistake” doesn’t help students on the path to showing mastery–that’s an action that could apply to ANY task, regardless of the whats in front of them.
Bite-Sized and Efficient: Each prompt or cue should take 5-15 sec to deliver to each student. Lengthy feedback that requires students to consider too much at any given time runs the risk of overloading their working memory and degrading performance!
Actionable (i.e. students can apply it/use it to improve their work or process). Like good directions, it should equip students with knowledge of what TO do as opposed to what NOT to do.
Keeps Cognitive Work on Students: Make sure the prompt/cue doesn’t do all the work for students/inadvertently giving the answer away. The goal is to help students do as much of the math as possible themselves, with light support or guidance as needed.
(If applicable) Acknowledges Progress That Has Been Made: Honor the progress students have made by acknowledging it. Even just letting kids know they got it right is motivating (e.g., as we see Denarius say to one student in the video: “Killing it Great job.”) One disclaimer: use acknowledgment with discretion/where warranted; overdo this, and you risk making feedback too lengthy/ cheapening acknowledgement/ praise).

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Back-Pocket Prompts/Questions That Preserve Rigor

Type	Examples
Describe the Fix	“Remember to divide both sides by the same number.” “Go back and include the word ‘translation’ in your answer.” “Our decimal points should be lined up when we add decimal values.”

Provide a Missing Piece	“The term you’re thinking of is ‘translation.’” “Your first step is ________. What comes next?”

See the Gap	“Go back and check your second step.” “Pay attention to your signs.” “This answer is correct, but what else is the question asking us to find?”

Provide a Cue	“Go back and review step 1 from the ‘Worked Example #1’ in our notes.” “If you’re stuck, look back at our anchor chart that’s up front.” "Remember, the height of a triangle will be perpendicular to the base".

Page 12

(60 sec): Place a “✓” beside any types your teachers are already using, and add a “✩” beside any they could start using

Estimated Time: 2 min

Time Gate: 4:56 CDT/2:56 PDT

MOP: Silent Solo (60 sec)-->No shareout

Facilitator Note: This slide animates one row at a time.

As we’ve been reflecting, one of the central goals of ActiveObs is to support students with feedback that helps them make progress in their learning. However, we want to do so without doing too much of the work for them! One way we see teachers do this is by responding to gaps with feedback prompts/ cues that help students see their error or get to the right answer on their own.
Here is a table of the different kinds of prompts we see teachers use.
We can provide feedback prompts that describe the fix, provide a missing piece, help students see the gap, or provide a cue
Take 60 sec to read Silent Solo and place a “✓” beside any types you or your teachers are already using, and add a “✩” beside and type you think you or your teachers could benefit from starting to use.

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Build An ActiveObs Tool Practice: Part III

In the space provided in the template, anticipate a mistake you might see for ONE of your laps, and plan a back-pocket prompt you could provide to help the student. (If you finish early, do the same for the other lap!)

Plan for Error

(4 min)

Private chat me “done” once you finish!

Estimated Time: 5 min

Time Gate: 5:01 CDT/3:01 PDT

MOP: Frame + Planning (5 min)-

SAY:

Now you’ll have a chance to do some Planning for Error for the same task you’ve been working with.
Here’s how it’ll work:

In the space provided on page 6, you’ll anticipate a mistake you might see for ONE of your laps, and plan a back-pocket prompt you could provide to help the student. Feel free to reference the table on page 9 for some ideas (If you finish early, do the same for the other lap!)

You’ll have 4 min for this. Don’t get too caught up in picking the perfect error or back-pocket prompt. The goal is just to have clear rationale for why you anticipated that error, and to give you a chance to get some practice in so you can see how quick this can go! In just a bit, you’ll have a chance to compare what you came up with what we did

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Steps for Building an ActiveObs Tool

Page 13

Step 1: Identify Priority Tasks
Step 2: Create Ideal Student Response & Identify Laps
Step 3: Plan for Error
Step 4: Build Your Data Collection Chart

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Collecting Your Data

Key Idea: Capture quick notes on common gaps or trends to address in student work on your ActiveObs Tool (e.g., tally marks by error trend or to track # of students whose responses show evidence of Look Fors; initials of students who you may want to call on, etc.)

Page 13

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Example 1

Example Data Collection Charts

Silent Solo (90 sec): Study the data collection chart for the task you’ve been working with and then consider what’s effective about…

…the design and content of the data collection tool?
…the teacher’s Plan for Error? (See: Pink and Blue annotations!)

Pages 14-16

Example 2

Example 3

Estimated Time: 5 min (2 min SS→2 min BOR→No shareout!)

Time Gate: 5:09 CDT/3:09 PDT

A common question we get whenever we discuss Active Observation with teachers is…what do teachers’ note-taking tool/Data Collection Tool look like?

As you might’ve guessed, there’s no one way to design a data collection chart. But to spark your thinking, we’d like to share a few examples.
For this activity, you’ll have 90 sec solo to study the data collection chart for the task you’ve been working with and then consider what’s effective about…
…the design and content of the data collection tool?
…the teacher’s Plan for Error? (See: Pink and Blue annotations!)

If you finish early, we encourage you to look at another data collection chart to see if you have any additional steals or ideas!

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Example #1

Page 14

Aligned feedback prompts and back-pocket questions

Space to track frequency of anticipated errors or correct work (see: check mark column!)

Space to capture data for each lap

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Example #2

Page 15

Aligned feedback prompts and back-pocket questions

Space below each lap to collect data for correct work and errors

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Example #3

Page 16

Anticipated errors & space to track

Responsive back-pocket questions and feedback-prompts

Space to capture data for each look for

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Party Favor: ActiveObs One-Pager

Pages 17-18

Includes:

-Additional videos

-Look Fors

-Links to artifacts

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ActiveObs Cycles

Individual Feedback & Collect Data

Batched Feedback & Revise

Circulate w/ Intentionality

Prepare for ActiveObs

(Before the Lesson)

For next time…