Overview

As a busy program director, do you wonder how you can find the time to visit classes and observe teachers and students in action? Are you looking for the right tools to help you observe instruction and provide feedback to teachers that is meaningful, actionable, and standards-based? Do you wonder what kind of feedback helps teachers make a change that impacts student learning? 

This professional development series answers these questions and more.

It is strongly recommended that programs participate in teams of two or three staff (e.g., program director, assistant director, and lead teacher). 

    Audience

    This professional development activity/course is designed for:

  • Adult education program directors
  • Assistant program directors
  • Lead teachers
  • Other program staff with teacher observation duties
Description

This ACLS-SABES joint professional development series is aligned to Indicator of Program Quality 9, Standard 1 and focuses on the ACLS Classroom Visit Toolkit (scroll down past the Standards).

This series will unpack the three main stages of a class observation process (plan, visit, follow-up), as outlined in the ACLS Classroom Visit Toolkit, through a variety of both interactive and self-reflective activities. This PD will help you prepare for class observations, establish clear communication channels with your teachers, learn how to take low inference notes, and use evidence to guide the observation feedback process. 

By the end of this series, you will strengthen your instructional leadership skills and be equipped to implement a collaborative and growth-based process for teacher observation and evaluation.

This is a hybrid series consisting of three modules, each consisting of one self-paced and one synchronous component.

Please note: The online components of this PD series are run via Moodle. You cannot access these online components from the SABES website. You will receive a separate email from SABES  1-2 days before the course begins with instructions on how to access the course from Zoe Reinecke at zoe_reinecke@worlded.org. 

Expectations and Commitments:

This series runs from October 1, 2023, to March 7, 2024, and is followed by an opt-in coaching period from March 7 to May 30, 2024. The estimated time to complete the series (excluding the optional coaching period) is 21 hours. 

Participants will receive 21 PD hours in LACES upon completion of this PD series. 

Professional Development Points (PDPs) can be requested upon completion of all course components, including assignments.

See the content highlights and specific dates for each component on the document Beyond the Checklist.

Participating program teams should expect to engage with the content in multiple ways, some of which are: 

  • Completing three self-paced online modules (1-2 hours per module)
  • Attending two live online sessions (4 hours each)
  • Attending one in-person session (5 hours; location to be announced) 
  • Completing a few assignments in between modules (e.g., observing a class and writing observation feedback)
  • Optional: Working with a SABES instructional leadership coach from March to May 2024 to implement learning from this series.     

Dates:

Pre-requisite: Online self-paced: open from 10/01/2023 (8:00 AM) to 10/15/2023 (8:00 AM)

Module 1: 

  • Online self-paced component: open from 10/15/2023 (8:00 AM) to 10/30/2023 (8:00 AM)
  • Online facilitated component: 11/16/2023, 10:00 AM–2:00 PM

Module 2: 

  • Online self-paced component: open from 11/17/2023 (8:00 AM) to 12/15/2023 (8:00 AM)
  • In-person component: 01/26/2024, 10:00 AM–3:00 PM (location TBD). Snow date: 02/02/2023

Module 3:

  • Online self-paced component: open from 02/01/2024 (8:00 AM) to 03/06/2024 (8:00 AM)
  • Online facilitated component: 03/07/2024, 10:00 AM–2:00 PM

Please note: You only need to register once for the entire course. 

    Learning Objectives

    Upon completion of this professional development activity/course, you will be able to:

  • Use the components in the ACLS Class Visit Toolkit to create a seamless class observation process.
  • Rigorously prepare for the classroom observation process using a core of relevant documents and program data.
  • Write classroom observation summaries with clear, objective, actionable, and realistic feedback.
Presenter(s) / Facilitator(s)
Dana Varzan-Parker
Karen Greaves
Pesha Black
Date
10/01/2023 - 8:00 am
End Date
Location

United States

PD Center
C&I PD Centers Collaboration
SABES Mathematics and Adult Numeracy Curriculum and Instruction PD Center
SABES English Language Arts Curriculum & Instruction PD Center
SABES English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) Curriculum & Instruction PD Center
SABES Program Support PD Center
Adult and Community Learning Services
Topic Area
Education Leadership & Program Management
ELA
ESOL/English Learners
SABES / ACLS
Back to top