In pairs or threes, teachers would visit their colleagues' classrooms, spending 5-10 minutes looking at the 'learning artefacts' around the room, observing how the students were engaging with the learning, talking to the students about what they were doing, and asking them what the next steps of learning might be.
Focus during the 'Learning Walk' was on student learning - not teaching, and how Learning Goals, Success Criteria, Anchor Charts and Exemplars were used within the classroom to improve student understanding.
What we, as teaching staff, learned throughout this process was immeasurable. Not only did we see creative and different ideas that we could use in our own classrooms, but we also witnessed a real improvement in the students' understanding of where they were going, how they were going and where they had to go next.
Our 5-minute conversations that followed each classroom visit, also helped us to better understand the purpose and benefit of the 'learning tools' our reform was asking us to use.
Since then, our 'Learning Walks' have progressed from formalised 'professional learning' time slots, to colleagues inviting each other into their rooms to show how their students 'do' things. Many teachers began to recommend the practices of others, and began to 'seek out' classes that they could observe to help improve their practice and, ultimately, their students' learning.
For a detailed look at Riverside's Walkthrough path, please visit Assistant Principal, Stuart Taylor's, blog.
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