Melissa Altemose

Weekly Learning Walks

I conduct learning walks weekly for both the teachers I coach and for the grade level I lead. My coaching and grade level
walks each take a different focus.

As the leader of a grade level, my primary responsibility is to ensure student culture is healthy and expectations for
student behavior is held to the highest level. When conducing a learning walk for my grade level, I look for several things
within the lens of student culture. Student participation and teacher to student talk ratio is observed and feedback is
delivered. The rigor of questions asked of students is observed. I note levels of student participation in response to
questions asked and levels of student completion of work. I also observe for students completing work to high levels by
including work habits in their work. I look to see if teachers are collecting in the moment data on student work and
adjusting their instruction according to this collected data. I look at student posture and focus on school work and I look to
see the engagement of students on bench (HC’s version of In School Suspension).

After completing each learning walk, I examine my observations to see if there are any trends observed across the grade
level. If trends are observed, I plan to add the trend as our weekly focus of the following week and develop a plan to have
teachers practice the skill that is resulting in the gap in our weekly meeting. If I don’t observe trends, but individual areas
for growth, I make sure to either provide the teacher in the moment coaching around the gap or follow up with teachers
later.

For the teachers on my coaching load, my learning walks are more specific to the weekly instructional focus for the
school. Each teacher has an action step for the week and I observe specifically around that lens. I provide in the moment
coaching to teachers around this specific lens and provide written feedback to summarize any in the moment feedback
given. I also look for evidence of mastery of previous action steps and provide both in the moment and written feedback
around each of these. Additionally, I look for evidence of any other weekly goals for the school and provide feedback
around these. Examples of weekly goals include use of daily data tracking, 100% participation from students, teachers
using strong voice, etc. The full list of schoolwide weekly focuses, through mid-February are found below. Examples of
written feedback I have given to teachers is also found at the end of this document.

Learning Walks Look For Log:

Week Action Step Look For:
February Ensure 100% stamp conceptual and procedural understanding during the “follow up” of RTD by…
10 1. Ask “so next time you are evaluating, what do you have to do?”
2. Ask a “how/why” question to follow up to question #1.
3. Double underline what students say by stamping the concepts in sticky language
4. Have 100% of students write their takeaways before moving on to IP/ET.
5. State the “change” you are looking for in their work during the next round of practice while you
AgMo.
February Students are independently engaged in cognitive heavy lifting for at least 50% of the lesson
3 1. dedicate through time stamps in IPP and execute in lesson 25 minutes of the lesson that is solely
working independently
2. Teacher collects and tracks Do Now and RT as proof points that students completed the highest
leverage independent parts of the lesson.
3. dedicate through IPP the exemplar work habits and answers for the HL question in DN/GP/IP/ET
and execute in lesson by providing feedback on work habits, then mastery
January 100% of teachers execute 1 re-teach and use Agmo RTD fundamentals to have students stamp the
27 PU and CU of the re-teach skill
December Create a calm and positive environment during PPN practices throughout the week by internalizing
16 goals and logistics for the day.

Ways to make this happen...

1. Calm tones during corrections and one on one conversations
2. Positive narrations during whole Pride moments and in class
3. Using least invasive corrections (especially proximity) to push students to do the right thing
 4. Develop a series of 1%s in practice moments (high fives, names on board, etc.) where students can
see the benefit of their hard work
December 100% of students track their peers with whole heads on speaker
9 1. Frontload SSCO directions for tracking teammates before calling on someone from a corner of the
room
2. Scan all 4 corners for whole head tracking , narrating who is the model
3. Give cue for student to speak when 100% eyes are set
4. Use proximity to redirect students who aren’t there and do it again if more than a few students
would need redirection
December 90-100% of students are engaged in classroom activities as evidenced by completing 100% of
2 student work
1. Post timer on the board with appropriate time to complete the work you expect students to
complete
2. Give students clear WTD directions for exactly what needs to be completed in the time period,
and what they'll earn for feedback
a. I.E. check/circle for accuracy, shout out for 100% correct (2/2 3/3 etc), stickers for
perfect practice (saved for special stamina building days like test review)
3. Circulate with urgency giving 100% of students feedback on one high leverage question
4. Positively narrate to push urgency in the room
- I.E. work habits, time left to complete work, accuracy/shouting out the incentive "2 for 2 for
Maria, 2 for 2 for Joe, etc"
5. Hold students accountable who don't complete work
- I.E. move to the sideline with clear criteria for how to earn back (what needs to be
completed), issue -$1 on paychecks, etc
November Use a full class reset to ensure 100% of students meet and maintain the expectation for independent
18 practice by...
1. Square up stand still and scan for 100%
2. State what needs to be fixed
3. Give specific, sequential directions for how to reset
4. Give clear cue and narrate the heroes
5. Follow up one on one with any students still not meeting the direction
November 100% of students have tall, straight hands when participating by…
12 1. Give verb SSOC directions and model what it looks like.
2. Tall hands, 3 on 3, two claps tall hands, straight up, no broken elbows, etc
3. Narrate/redirect/affirm/escalate
4. Do it again if more than a few students do not comply.
5. Incentivize the strongest participation in the room/pride
November 100% of students have strong posture by..
4 1. Give verb based, SSOC directions and model what it looks like
2. Collegiate position, cold call, straight backs, feet flat, etc.
3. Narrate/redirect/affirm/fix
4. Do it again if more than a few students do not comply
5. Incentivize the strongest posture in the room/pride
October Ensure 100% of students are tracking the teacher by...
28 1. Propose a challenge to students to have the strongest tracking
2. Giving specific, verb-based direction, and positively narrate the models
3. Least invasively redirect non-compliant students, and use it again if more than a few students do
not track the teacher
4. (If longer tracking period) power narrate heroes throughout teacher talk
October Use elements of strong voice to set up students to comply with teacher directions by:
21 1. Square up/stand still and use proximity to maintain student compliance
2. Give directions that are verb based
3. Directions are specific, concrete, sequential and observable
4. Teacher narrates students who are the “heroes”/models of the behavior that teacher is looking for.
August – Look for focuses were based on individual teacher action steps.
October
Sample of frequency of walkthroughs (3-week snapshot):

Samples of written feedback given to teachers (sent to teachers after each walkthrough):