Task 3 Strong Examples

Information About the Teacher to Be Observed:
Teacher: Teacher A
Gender: Female
Race/Ethnicity: White
Licensure Area: Elementary 1–6

Information About the Classroom to Be Observed:
Grade level: 4
Subject: Math
Number of students: 15
Gender composition of the class: 8 males, 7 females
Racial/ethnic composition of the class: 2 Hispanic, 4 African American, 1 Asian, and 8 White
Percentage of students classified as economically disadvantaged (in the school): 25%
Number of students with IEPs: 3
Number of English language learners: 2
Number and roles of other adults in the classroom (if applicable): Not applicable

Information About the Lesson to Be Observed:

Priority Academic Area and Focus for the Lesson:

Teacher A is reviewing the fourth grade standard CCSS-4.NBT.B.4: Fluently add and subtract multi-digit whole numbers using the standard algorithm. Teacher A analyzed 4th grade benchmark test data, which assesses addition and subtraction at the skill level, in isolation from words. She used these data to decipher if the priority area was more related to problem solving or to the skill itself. These data indicated that 80% of the students in this class were unable to subtract with regrouping or across zeros in isolation and within word problems. Individualized computer practice problem assessments confirm that less than 20% of students successfully completed all subtraction problems in isolation. She will focus this lesson on addressing the concept of subtraction in isolation from word problems.

Relationship between the intended focus and school/district goals or priorities:

Teacher A has used quantitative data to develop a lesson that includes targeted review of necessary skills for all students. This aligns with the district's priority to engage in data-informed lesson planning. The focus of the lesson will be for students to gain a deeper understanding of what subtraction means, to share understanding, and for students to engage in mathematical discussion with their peers. In an attempt to reach all students, Teacher A uses the District Curriculum Accommodation Plan (DCAP) to help her develop a lesson that accommodates all learners in her general education classroom. She has also developed Tier II supports for her learners in the special education and EL student groups.

Our district and school improvement plan prioritizes "Engaged Learning: Equal Access for All Students – Inclusive practice refers to the instructional and behavioral strategies that improve academic and social-emotional outcomes for all students, with and without disabilities, in general education settings." It continues to state, "In all content areas, staff will implement and practice Tier I and Tier II levels of support that will be embedded in lessons and assessments, and they will be able to identify these strategies in order to determine the effectiveness of the instructional practices in order to increase student achievement."

Relevant student performance data:

Teacher A plans to deliver this lesson because a majority of students are showing a need for improvement in this area.

Data from our [brand name] diagnostic test was key to identifying the priority focus for this lesson. This test is structured to gain rigor or drop down in rigor depending on how students respond to the questions. For the group of students in this class, the program placed 12 as "Not Ready" in the topic of addition and subtraction at the 4th-grade level. This means that these 12 students answered questions tagged with the 4th-grade standard "Fluently add and subtract multi-digit whole numbers using the standard algorithm" incorrectly. Further, Teacher A examined performance on individualized computer practice problem assessments assessing standard CCSS-4.NBT.B.4. Only two students correctly answered all problems. The two students in her EL group and three students in the special education group had the most difficulty on these questions, successfully completing less than 30% of the practice problems.

Intended common instructional practices for use in the priority academic area (including practices observed in visits to other classrooms and research-based practices in the content area):

Teacher A is incorporating a Number Talk into her lesson. Number Talks are a research-based strategy that our district began incorporating in the math department several years ago. Many elementary and 4th-grade teachers attended training on the strategy using the book Number Talks: Helping Children Build Mental Math and Computation Strategies by Sherry Parrish. Teacher A is using this book to help guide her lesson. The strategy of using Number Talks is a shift from "teaching-by-telling" to a focus on allowing students to reason, make sense of problems, and construct their own strategies built upon numerical strategies. There is an expectation for students to communicate their thinking, listen to one another, use patterns, and justify their thinking.

Teacher A's lesson will apply the characteristics of Number Talks to help students form a better understanding of the math. In previous observations in classrooms, I have seen three other teachers incorporate aspects of a Number Talk into their lessons, most commonly strategies for computation of addition, subtraction, and multiplication across large numbers. Teacher A and I discussed that the 4th-grade math team meets once a week on Wednesdays for one hour. In this time the grade-level department discusses student observation, performance, and plans for upcoming lessons. The 4th-grade math content team has identified multiple standards for targeted review including multi-digit addition, subtraction, and problem solving.

Teacher's pre-lesson self-assessment in this focus area, including strengths, areas in need of improvement, and goals:

Strengths

2.B.1. Teaching All Students—Safe Learning Environment

Teacher A has indicated that she believes that one of her strengths is the ability to plan effective lessons based on formative assessment data. She collaborates with the members of the 4th-grade math team to create appropriate Tier I and Tier II levels of support. Another strength is her ability to create an environment where children feel safe sharing their strategies in a group setting. She works hard to scaffold lessons for different learners to help them all feel more confident and successful. Teacher A often uses sentence frames and visual models to help her EL and special education students to access group lessons. She also mentioned that she often references the District Curriculum Accommodation Plan (DCAP) in order to help all students be successful no matter their skill level.

1.A.1. Curriculum, Planning and Assessment—Subject Matter Knowledge

Teacher A has been teaching 4th grade for 15 years. She has a strong background in math and is working toward a master's degree in Special Education. She feels confident in her ability to teach math concepts to all students due to her training and experience.

Areas of Improvement

1.A.3. Curriculum, Planning and Assessment—Well-Structured Units and Lessons

Although teacher A has a strong background in math concepts, she would like to focus on expanding her ability to implement strategies for incorporating math vocabulary into her lessons. She hopes to develop lessons with more meaningful incorporation of math language and encourage her students to use math language throughout the lesson.

1.B.2. Curriculum, Planning and Assessment; 1.B.1. Variety of Assessment Methods

Teacher A wants to incorporate more formative assessment into her planning. Although she uses summative data well for long-term planning, she thinks that it would be beneficial to use more daily assessment to help inform her day-to-day instruction. We discussed her creating and using an exit ticket that assesses student learning to help accomplish this goal.

2.B.2. Teaching All Students—Collaborative Learning Environment

Teacher A would like to incorporate more opportunities for student engagement in the classroom such as:

• Small group instruction
• Center rotations
• Differentiation of lessons
• Cooperative learning opportunities
• Peer collaboration and discussion

Goals

With her areas of improvement in mind, Teacher A has set three goals for this lesson:

1.B.1. Curriculum, Planning and Assessment—Variety of Assessment Methods

1. She will use at least one method of formative assessment of student learning to inform her planning.

1.B.2. Curriculum, Planning and Assessment—Adjustments to Practice

1. She will incorporate purposeful mathematical vocabulary into her lesson.

2.B.2. Teaching All Students—Collaborative Learning Environment

1. She will incorporate opportunities for peer discussion and will work on incorporating more small-group, differentiated learning into her lessons.

Essential Question for the lesson to be observed:

What strategies can I use to subtract large numbers?

Objective for the lesson to be observed:

Students will connect conceptual strategies for subtraction to the standard algorithm to fluently subtract multi-digit whole numbers.

Summary of Pre-Observation Meeting:

Teacher A and I had a pre-observation meeting in her classroom on May 5 from 2:30 to 3:30 PM. Prior to our meeting, Teacher A pulled together some preliminary information about her class for me including student demographic information. Having this information prior to the meeting allowed us to focus our meeting on the data analysis and lesson planning.

We spent the first 10 minutes of the meeting discussing how the year has progressed and how the work of the 4th-grade math team has supported her instructional practice.

Next, we talked about her group of students and the lesson to be observed. Teacher A has 15 students including three students with IEPs and two students who are English language learners. She wants to focus on encouraging accountable talk, where students share their thinking orally, and is mostly concerned with her students in the EL and IEP groups. She would like feedback on their engagement and participation in discussions and their overall understanding of mathematical concepts.

We discussed the topic of her standards-based lesson CCSS-4.NBT.B.4. Teacher A will be teaching students how to subtract multi-digit numbers using a traditional algorithm. We discussed that this class struggled in this area on both the Edmentum diagnostic test as well as the benchmark test. We also discussed data that showed EL students and those with IEPs were most in need of additional supports to master subtraction.

She showed me on the whiteboard how subtraction is incorporated into the partial quotients model that she intends to use to teach division.

I suggested the use of a Number Talk to help guide her lesson. The 4th-grade math team had begun using Number Talks to help review necessary skills. The lesson objective is for students to understand the meaning of subtraction, be able to articulate subtraction strategies, as well as develop more accurate computation skills. I provided a text—Number Talks—and together we used it to select appropriate problems to challenge all students and to anticipate student strategies that she will be able to build upon in her lesson.

Next, we discussed the makeup of the class and I asked her if there were any students she wanted me to look out for in my observation. She said that she has both EL students and IEP students in this group. A strength of Teacher A is engaging all students in a safe and collaborative learning environment, but she was hoping I could give her feedback on whether they seemed to be understanding the lesson. I asked her if she had any method of formative assessment for the lesson to analyze after to see which students "got it" and which will need more review and direct teaching of this topic. From this conversation, Teacher A decided that an exit ticket would be an appropriate addition to this lesson. We would use this exit ticket as a point of discussion in our post-observation meeting to help set new goals for student learning in this area.

Lastly, we discussed her goals for the lesson and what areas she specifically was hoping for feedback. Teacher A is working hard to incorporate more academic vocabulary into her math classroom. She is also hoping to incorporate formative assessment routines more regularly in her classroom to inform her instruction. She is also concerned at the lack of student conversation and collaboration by all students. Her goal for this lesson is to incorporate more student discussion. The choice to teach this lesson using a Number Talk helps to accomplish this. I also suggested that she have students turn and talk or do a think-pair-share to encourage this sort of collaboration. We set an observation date for May 12 at 10:00 AM.

Rationale

Artifact 1—Pre-Observation Template

The candidate presented a strong rationale for the selection of the priority academic area (math), the instructional focus (fluently adding and subtracting multi-digit whole numbers using the standard algorithm), and the instructional practices that will support this learning: academic talk focused on content-specific vocabulary and formative assessments. Notably, the focus area is standards-based (CCSS-4.NBT.B.4) and aligned with district/school improvement efforts requiring teachers to embed Tier I and II supports into lessons and assessments. The focus area was selected after a thorough analysis of student performance data, including 4th-grade benchmark data, which showed a majority of students did not meet this math standard, primary among them students in the EL and IEP groups. The focus is also aligned with the teacher's self-identified areas for improvement: encouraging math vocabulary acquisition to support academic talk and the use of formative assessments to plan and adjust instruction. Additionally, the candidate described the pre-observation conference in detail. The teacher and candidate engaged in discussion and analysis of student performance data, common instructional practices of the school and the 4th-grade math team, and the specific goals of this teacher, and used that information to come to a consensus on the focus for the observation. Finally, the candidate provided evidence that this two-way discussion resulted in changes to the proposed lesson plan.

Memo:
Observation Feedback to: Teacher A
From: Candidate Observer
Date: May 12, 2021

Dear Teacher A,

Thank you for allowing me to observe your math classroom on May 12, 2021. Your goals for this lesson align with our district and school improvement plans, which prioritize engagement and equal access for all students. The standards and observation evidence can be found below on the Teacher Observation Feedback Form.

Observational Notes:

Teacher Actions

• Tells students they will be participating in a number talk and states the Essential Question
• Uses visuals on the Smart TV to show hand signals to show engagement and understanding
• Displays first question on the TV (3:00)
• Allowed about 1 minute of independent thinking/wait time (3:49–4:52)
• "If you have an answer, I challenge you to come up with another strategy"
• Presented sentence frames (5:00)
• "Who wants to be brave and share first?"
• Does not tell students if their answer or strategy is correct
• Writes each student strategy on the whiteboard and reviews for clarity
• Posts 8 strategies from 8 different students
• Helps student describe her strategy by suggesting a number line
• "Thank you for sharing your mistakes, because people can learn from that"
• "There is a lot of support for the answer of 4" and asks if students can find the mistake in the strategy
• Reminds students that they will need 2 strategies in their exit ticket
• Puts up a second problem (11:30)
• Repeats routine, gives exit ticket for independent work

Student Actions

• Students think and use hand signals to show readiness.
• Students share strategies.
• Student 1 gives an incorrect answer and describes strategy.
• Student 2 describes a counting strategy.
• Student 3 uses addition to solve the subtraction.
• Student 4 shares a number line strategy.
• Student 5 shares a breaking apart strategy.
• Student 6 shares another strategy, working backwards.
• Student 7 shares a mistake.
• Student 8 shares correct traditional strategy.
• Student talking through answer finds an error in their own thinking.
• Student uses sentence frame to help explain her mistake.

Instructional Strengths:

2.A.3. Meeting Diverse Needs

1.A.3. Well-Structured Units and Lessons

This lesson was well prepared using data to drive the planning. It was structured to meet the needs of the students in this classroom. Teacher A activated prior knowledge—expectations of a Number Talk—and provided visual models and sentence frames to support student learning. Students were actively engaged, which is a testament to proper lesson pacing and Teacher A's ability to create a safe and collaborative environment where risk taking is encouraged. Throughout the lesson, teacher A allowed different students (8 of 12) to share strategies without indicating "correctness" to the group. This helped to keep students actively thinking about the numbers, making sense of each other's answers, and finding their own mistakes. This lesson encouraged student voice rather than teacher lecture. Students shared strategies that were diverse, and the exit ticket was important to hold students accountable for their learning.

Feedback on Teacher Goals:

1.B.2. Adjustment to Practice

Goal: Incorporate purposeful mathematical vocabulary into her lesson.

Feedback Comments:

This lesson allowed students opportunities to share their mathematical thinking, but the direct instruction and support of math vocabulary was not heavily incorporated. Content vocabulary could have been reviewed at the beginning of the lesson so as not to take away from the structure of the Number Talk. Additionally, Teacher A could prompt students to use content vocabulary, "I noticed you said that we should 'take from the 5.' What do you mean by that? Could you use math language to help describe what you want me to do?" These actions would provide important scaffolds and encourage the use and understanding of vocabulary within the number talk as students share their ideas with the group.

1.B.1. Variety of Assessment Methods

Goal: Utilize at least one method of formative assessment of student learning to inform instruction.

Feedback Comments:

Teacher A made excellent use of dip-sticking techniques throughout the lesson to encourage engagement with the subject matter, to gauge student understanding, and to appropriately adjust the pace and direction of instruction. Teacher A also incorporated an exit ticket at the end of the lesson. These data will be analyzed and used to create groupings for differentiated lesson planning and appropriate scaffolds for at-risk students. This is an exceptional use of formative assessment data. Moving forward, Teacher A should work to incorporate exit tickets more often into her instruction in order to make the most of her limited time with students.

2.B.2 Collaborative Learning Environment

Goal: Develop lessons that incorporate peer collaboration and differentiated learning experiences.

This lesson was structured in a whole-group setting, and students listened and shared from their desks. Teacher A could have encouraged peer collaboration via a "think, pair, share" or "turn and talk" strategy. This would encourage discussion from quiet voices. Two of the EL students seemed engaged in the lesson by using the "me too" hand signal when they heard a strategy that resonated with them, but neither student shared a strategy of their own. Only one of the students with an IEP shared a strategy. Another technique is to prompt students to reshare strategies with a partner, which holds them accountable for listening to one another.

Action Steps:

• Explicitly teach new math words using student-friendly language, and give multiple exposures to math words. Set up a math word wall to reinforce acquisition.
• Begin using turn and talk in your Morning Meeting.

Rationale

Artifact 4—Analysis of Observed Teaching

The candidate provided a summary of the observed lesson, identifying essential qualities of the observed teaching practices using the district's observation template as a framework and referencing specific DESE educator rubric standards throughout. A description of teacher and student actions was included, with attention paid to identified EL and IEP student groups. A detailed summary and analysis of the lesson described the use and effectiveness of observed instructional strategies that aligned with the priority area and instructional focus for the lesson as well as three self-identified teacher goals. The candidate not only identified teacher strengths and areas for growth but also included suggestions to improve instructional practice in the focus areas.

To: Teacher A
From: Candidate Observer
RE: Analysis and Implications of Feedback
Date: May 30, 2021

Dear Teacher A,

Thank you so much for allowing me to observe your instructional practice and for agreeing to provide feedback both verbally and via a Google survey as I complete this PAL task. This year has been challenging, and I appreciate the professionalism and resilience you have shown.

During the pre-observation meeting, you reflected honestly that you were struggling with using peer interaction strategies, as well as the incorporation of math vocabulary. You expressed a concern for your EL and IEP students and were looking for ideas to improve their willingness to participate. When I asked you about our pre-meeting in the Google Form, you said, "You created a safe environment, where I felt comfortable being vulnerable and expressing my growth areas and instructional goals. You actively listened to me and helped adjust and strengthen my lesson plan by using a Number Talk strategy and ending the lesson with an exit ticket." I was happy to hear that my ideas in our pre-meeting were helpful to you. You did comment that the meeting began "with a formal discussion, almost lecture, regarding student data. Once you began asking reflective questions, the data dive became a collaborative, back-and-forth, useful discussion about both student needs as well as my own." This is a lesson I will take with me as I engage in other professional conversations.

In joining your classroom for an observation, I was nervous that my presence might throw off the flow of your lessons or distract students. In your feedback you said, "The candidate was organized and was set up in the back of the classroom before the lesson began. I think this really helped to limit distraction for kids. Once we started, the kids barely even noticed you were there." Students were used to your iPad being used to videotape because of our current teaching model. The approach of live streaming or recording lessons is more common to students now in 2021.

Regarding our post-observation conversation, you commented that "it would have been better to meet immediately after the lesson while all the details were still fresh in my mind." I apologize for not being able to meet formally more quickly. Making feedback conversations a priority is a goal of mine as an aspiring principal. I am thankful, though, that you recognized the importance and took the time to meet with me to debrief your lesson and think about next steps for your instruction. You said, "The strategies that you suggested seemed like easy steps I could take immediately and easily." My goal was for our post-conversation to feel collaborative and helpful. It was important to me that you felt empowered with actionable ideas when you left the meeting. You said, "Candidate Observer suggested that I incorporate the turn and talk strategy into my morning meeting to model the routine for students. This suggestion connected right to my goal of incorporating more collaboration in the classroom." I was glad to hear that our conversation helped you feel more comfortable implementing more student talk in your lessons. Specifically, you were concerned about the learning of five students in your EL and special education groups. You added, "The Candidate Observer suggested ideas in a way that felt like ‘can dos,’ not mandates or things that I had to do. You kept our conversation focused on the growth of those students that I was concerned about." My goal was to use the information from our pre-meeting to develop feedback that felt connected to your goal areas and concerns for your classroom.

I was also excited to see that you decided to create a math vocabulary wall in your classroom! From our pre-meeting and post-meeting, you were clear that the implementation of math vocabulary is a serious goal for you in your daily planning. You said, "The resources you gave me were so helpful and not overwhelming" and "one thing that I am still unsure about and working on is how to directly teach the vocab with such short learning periods." I hope that moving forward you will use the strategies we discussed to make vocabulary a comfortable routine for you and for your students. I think the more you include vocabulary into your classroom and can see its benefits the less it will feel like an "extra" but instead a necessity. It is so admirable that you could reflect on your teaching so honestly in order to grow as an educator. This kind of reflection and honesty is an important first step to improving our practice as educators.

Your willingness to participate in this task was incredibly helpful to me in my growth as a leadership candidate. I am thankful for your honest and reflective feedback. I am excited to hear more about your inclusion of direct vocabulary instruction into your lesson planning, as well as your targeted use of collaborative talk strategies. I hope that you will join us in our 4th-grade learning walks to show off your strengths and growth with the rest of your 4th-grade colleagues!

Sincerely,

Candidate Observer

Rationale

Artifact 5—Analysis and Implications of the Feedback of the Observed Teacher on the Candidate' Pre-Observation Meeting, Observation, and Post-Observation Meeting

The candidate provided a clear and concise analysis of the feedback garnered from the observed teacher via conversations and a Google survey form, regarding each phase of the task: pre-observation meeting, observation, and post-observation conference. Specific examples of the teacher’s feedback were provided for each of these phases. Most significantly, the candidate analyzed this feedback as a source of data to improve their own leaderships practices. The teacher described a collaborative atmosphere during the pre-observation meeting where she "could be vulnerable" and where a collaborative discussion focused on strategies to support student growth using accountable talk moves and formative assessment data. The teacher described the post-conference as an opportunity to evaluate their own performance through the lens of how best to support student growth by increasing student talk within the classroom. Importantly, the candidate showed a clear connection between the selected priority academic area and instructional focus and the pre-observation meeting, observation, and post-observation conference as well as recommendations to the teacher for instructional improvements.

Category Documents

1. Teacher observation protocol and teacher evaluation rubric commonly used in the school and district—Include a copy of the school/district classroom observation protocol and/or template as well as the teacher evaluation rubric used in the school and district. Indicate which categories and indicators were analyzed for the observation. If the district uses the state rubric, include a reference to, or citation of, the rubric instead of uploading the whole document.
2. Unit of study, lesson plan outline core student assignments, and work samples—Include worksheets, assignments, and samples of completed student work.
3. Samples of relevant student and teacher information, and artifacts related to the lesson that were not included in Category #1 or #2. These include protocol and rubric, lesson plan and work samples, student information including relevant demographic and performance data, teacher information which may include, if relevant, student-learning and professional practice goals, PLC group-learning goals, and school/district improvement plan goals.

Task 3 Commentary

The observation was conducted with an experienced 4th-grade teacher that has often expressed the desire for feedback on her instruction. My relationship with this teacher is one of mutual respect and we have always collaborated well as colleagues. During the pre-observation conference, I built upon this rapport to create a collaborative environment and empower the teacher to become a partner in her own learning and growth. I came to this meeting prepared and organized and with pre-set questions to engage the teacher in reflection. A strength of our conversation was the use of data to identify student needs and our commitment to established common instructional practices to meet those needs. In her feedback, she described the pre-observation meeting as more formal than she initially anticipated but expressed that having someone familiar, who understands the content, felt really meaningful. She said that it was helpful that I came with ideas to help her plan her lesson. In this case, our prior positive relationship allowed the conversation to flow comfortably, and we were able to discuss student needs openly and honestly. She was thankful for the opportunity to share her strengths along with her areas of improvement to help me gain insight on her as an educator before the observation. Developing positive relationships with all educators in a school is something that I aspire to achieve in any school that I may lead in the future.

I was also fully prepared for the post-observation conference and aligned my feedback and discussion with the identified instructional focus areas, observational data, and the school's observation protocol. My goal was for the post conference meeting to feel like a collaborative conversation rather than an evaluation. However, I began the conference by providing specific feedback and soon realized that I was dominating the conversation. I quickly adjusted my tactics and engaged the teacher in self-reflection, which led to a more productive discussion around areas for growth.

I wanted my action items to feel attainable and to align directly with this teacher's goals, and I structured our discussion to achieve that. I also wanted to make sure that this educator knows that I was not only looking at her areas of improvement but also noticing how her instructional strengths were incorporated into the lesson. Teacher A said that my feedback was fair and honest, and she was thankful for the opportunity to explain why she made some of the decisions that she made and to collaborate in finding ways to strengthen her instruction. She shared that the strategies I suggested felt familiar and that she was able to begin incorporating them into her practice.

She did suggest that too much time passed between the pre-conference, the observation, and the post-conference and as a result the details of the lesson were foggy. Being timely with feedback is important to effectively help teachers grow in their practice. In the future, I will make it a goal to schedule all three parts of the observation cycle to occur within the same week. This process allowed me to see how important time management can be in the role of an administrator.

I was able to lean on the leadership team at our school to align my feedback and action steps with our school goals. It was encouraging to know that student discussion and formative assessment are goal areas for the leadership team as well. I solicited feedback on my leadership skills from our Assistant Principal, who praised my ability to engage this teacher in meaningful conversation about her goal areas and that my feedback for growth was on target with school priorities. My assistant principal shared some feedback for growth: "Now that you are comfortable with the observation process, it would be beneficial to think about how the goals and feedback from this observation could be pushed out to other 4th-grade math teachers. What other teachers have the same goals? How could you make this learning more widespread and collaborative?" This feedback sparked me to begin the process of developing learning walk opportunities in all grades, as peer observation can be such an empowering tool if facilitated appropriately.

Throughout this process, I relied on DESE's Teacher Evaluation Rubric to guide my discussions and feedback. This rubric is used in our district for administrator walkthroughs and was familiar to Teacher A and myself. The rubric helped guide our pre- and post-conversations, my feedback, and the teacher's planning and implementation of the lesson. In the pre-observation, Teacher A and I also discussed what proficiency and exemplary look like for the standards that this lesson focused on. I learned a lot from analyzing the rubric from the observer's perspective. I also used the "What to look for..." indicators from the DESE website to become more acquainted with these documents. My next steps and areas of growth for myself are to practice observing classrooms that are less familiar to me in content and to develop reference materials, resources, and strategies to support teacher development in all content areas. In retrospect, observing a literacy class or a specialty class would have given me a more well-rounded leadership experience and would have allowed me to learn how the different standards and indicators look across the school.

As I reflect on the entire process of completing task 3, I see it as a success. I learned to use the teacher rubric to identify characteristics of high-quality instruction, and strategies to support teachers to improve their practice. Overall, the process helped me to grow as a leader, allowed Teacher A to grow as an educator, and most importantly will help the growth and learning of these grade 4 math students.

Rationale

Commentary

The candidate described their own learning and leadership development throughout the task. Relevant leadership skills and practices employed by the candidate, such as the ability to build rapport and positive relationships, and the benefits of planning and organization were described in context. The candidate described successes, such as use of the teacher rubric to frame discussions and feedback, but also challenges and adjustments that were needed in leadership practices, such as tactics to increase teacher voice in the post-conference discussion. The candidate analyzed feedback from the observed teacher and a mentor administrator to propose changes in leadership practices for the future.