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Session 5. Reading Curriculum Implementation, and Protecting Time and Trust
Objective. Read how the written curriculum is being taught and learned using a deliberate work sample, pupil voice and a short learning walk, protect teacher time and trust, and present findings in a one-page briefing with honest limits.
A leader who only watches lessons sees the teacher's performance. The curriculum lives somewhere else too: in pupils' notebooks over weeks, in what pupils say when you ask, and in what several classrooms have in common. This lesson goes deeper into reading all three without turning them into another inspection, and into the honesty a one-page briefing needs when you report upward. The thread is the same as in the whole course: protect teachers' time and trust, and learn from what pupils actually do.
Key ideas
Three curriculums and what a book look can read
- There is the curriculum on paper (the national curriculum framework and the state textbook), the one the teacher teaches and the one the pupil learns. They are rarely the same. A book look, also called work scrutiny, reads the last two through the pupils' work over time.
- Choose the sample deliberately: one class, one unit (not one page), six pupils spread across attainment, including pupils who are often missed. Ask three questions: Does the order follow the plan? Is the work at the right level for each pupil? Do pupils act on the feedback they get?
- What not to do: do not count ticks or praise neat books, do not mark teachers, do not compare subjects by the same form, do not use it to rank. A TeacherToolkit article on work scrutiny argues that the most useful question is whether pupils act on feedback. Talk to the teacher afterwards about intent and obstacles.
Pupil voice that is real, safe and acted on
- Pupils know things the notebook cannot show: what they wait for, what confuses them, what they do when stuck. A simple check is the Lundy model of child participation (Queen's University Belfast): give pupils Space to speak, support their Voice, make sure an Audience listens and let their views have Influence.
- Practice: a small group of 5 or 6 pupils for 15 minutes, a leader the pupils do not fear (not the class teacher), three open questions ('What did you learn last week? What helps you most? What do you do when you are stuck?'), notes with no names. Check your school rules on speaking with pupils, tell pupils what the notes will be used for and, if a pupil shares something about safety, follow safeguarding rules at once.
- Never ask pupils to rate a named teacher, and never quote an answer in a way that lets the class be guessed. Influence matters: go back and tell the pupils what changed, even if the answer is 'nothing yet, because...'.
Learning walks and rounds in your cluster
- Instructional rounds, described by Elizabeth City, Richard Elmore and colleagues at Harvard, borrow the hospital idea of rounds. Lee Teitel's account: a host school names a problem of practice, a team of four or five observes five or six classrooms for about 20 minutes each and takes factual notes, then the team describes what it saw, looks for patterns, predicts what pupils are learning and proposes the next level of work, mainly for leaders.
- Shrink it for your cluster: three observers, four classrooms, 10 minutes each, one question about the school (for example, 'what do pupils do in the first five minutes?'). The finding is about the school's system, never about a named teacher, and no teacher receives personal feedback from a walk.
- A methodist who visits other schools can bring a fresh eye. Agree the question with the host head in writing, share the result first with the host, and decide together what goes any further.
Protecting time and trust, then the briefing
- Run a workload test on every routine: how many minutes does this cost a teacher, and what do we stop doing to make room? A book look should cost the teacher zero minutes of preparation. Teachers who prepare special displays or extra paperwork for a visit are telling you the visit has become a performance.
- Keep a trust ledger: promises made to staff (session 1) and the date each was kept or broken. When one is broken, say so and repair it in the open. Trust is spent in one afternoon and rebuilt over a year.
- When you report upward, write one page: the question, what you looked at, what you found, what you cannot claim, what you propose and what it costs in teacher hours, and which protections remain in force. Map your readers first: teachers, parents, the head or founder, the education department and the board each need something different.
Three versions of the curriculum
On paper
What is intended
- National framework
- State textbook
- School plan
Taught
What teachers do
- Lesson visits
- Learning walks
- Teachers' own account
Learned
What pupils get
- Notebooks over time
- Pupil voice
- Tests and tasks
What a notebook can and cannot show
A notebook shows what a pupil did, copied or left blank, over time. It does not show why. A blank page may mean absence, a pupil who could not start, or a lost sheet. Identical answers may mean copying from the board or a clear model. So read for patterns: does the order match the plan, do errors appear and get fixed, does the work get harder, do comments lead to a change in the next page?
Be careful with scale. Six notebooks of one class in one unit cannot show how a teacher teaches all year, nor how other classes are doing. Report them as 'in this sample'. A UK government group on marking was set up to find marking that raises standards without unnecessary workload: take the lesson that comments should help pupils and cost little.
Pupil voice, and an honest briefing
Pupil voice works when it is safe and visible. Small groups, a leader the pupils do not fear, open questions, no names, and a reply: 'You told us X; we changed Y.' Without that reply, pupils learn that their opinion changes nothing. Avoid leading questions such as 'Is your teacher good at explaining?'. Ask about what they do, not who is to blame.
When you write the briefing, separate three kinds of sentences: what you saw (facts), what it suggests (a question to check), and what you propose (with its cost in teacher hours). State what you cannot claim, and show that every protection from your visit promise remains. A briefing that admits limits is more useful to a board than one that sounds certain, and it keeps teachers' trust when they read it.
Examples from the classroom
Six notebooks, one question
Scene. The deputy head of a Tashkent school reads six Grade 6 Russian-language notebooks from one unit, chosen from the previous test: two higher, two middle, two lower attainers. Five notebooks follow the textbook order. In four, the same spelling error appears in three consecutive pages and the teacher's comment is a tick. She does not rank anyone. She asks the teacher, 'What do you see when you read these?' and they agree on a ten-minute starter on that spelling pattern.
Insight. A book look reads patterns across pupils and leads to a conversation, not a mark.
Five pupils and a reply
Scene. In Bukhara a methodist meets five Grade 7 pupils for 15 minutes with three open questions. Four say they wait when they are stuck and the teacher does not see. Two weeks later the school agrees a 'stuck card' that pupils put on the desk corner. The methodist returns to the same pupils and says, 'You told us you wait; we tried the card for two weeks. What do you think?'. Pupils offer two changes to the card.
Insight. Pupil voice earns trust when pupils see an effect and are asked again.
Four classrooms, ten minutes each
Scene. Three schools near Samarkand form a small cluster. Six teachers and methodists ask one question: what do pupils do in the first five minutes? They visit four classrooms for ten minutes each and write facts. In three of the four, pupils wait more than three minutes for instructions. They report to the heads: no classroom, teacher or school is named, and the proposal is a start-up task routine tested in each school for two weeks.
Insight. A learning walk gives a pattern about the school's system, not feedback on individuals.
Common pitfalls
- Counting ticks or praising neat books as if they were learning.
- Reporting a claim about all classes from one class in one unit.
- Using pupil voice to rate a named teacher.
- Asking teachers to prepare displays or extra paperwork for a book look.
Six Notebooks and a Board Briefing
- Part A (45 min). In trios read the work-sample summary for six pupils and the pupil-voice notes in the Kit (Grade 5 mathematics, a fractions unit). Fill the three-question table: order, level, action on feedback. Mark each cell with a fact from the sample.
- Write three findings (facts only), one question you would ask the teacher, and one list of things you cannot conclude from this sample. Choose what the school could do next without adding teacher paperwork.
- Part B (30 min). In pairs fill the stakeholder map (teachers, parents, head or founder, education department, board): what each needs, what worries them, what you will say. Then draft the one-page briefing using the template.
- Rehearse a 2-minute spoken version for the board. A partner asks the three hard questions from the Kit ('Which teachers are weak?', 'Why did you look at only one class?', 'What will this cost?'). Answer honestly, including 'I cannot say that from this sample'.
- Alone (5 min): write your final leadership task from the Kit, choose the class and the date, and list the protections you will promise.
Your facilitator will guide you through this activity in the session.
Questions to discuss
- What could you say about the curriculum from six notebooks, and what could you not say? Where was the temptation to say more?
- Which pupil-voice answer surprised you, and how would you make sure pupils see an effect from it?
- Which of your readers' worries in the stakeholder map is the one most likely to damage trust with teachers if you answer it badly?
Reflect
- When was the last time you looked at six pupils' notebooks across a whole unit? What did you do with what you saw?
- What would your pupils say if you asked them what they do when they are stuck?
- Which of your school's routines would you stop so that the new ones cost teachers nothing extra?
Try it tomorrow
- Choose one class and one unit and list the six pupils you would sample, spread across attainment.
- Write three open questions for a 15-minute pupil group and decide who will ask them and how you will reply to pupils.
- Draft the line 'What we cannot claim' for a briefing on a sample of six notebooks.
Further reading and links
Read how the curriculum is taught and learned from a deliberate sample, pupil voice and short walks, ask teachers for no extra preparation, state what you cannot claim and report on one page with protections.