A Process for Successful Learning Labs

Learning labs are a structure where teachers can observe each other teaching and walk away with ideas to take back to their own classrooms. As an instructional coach, I’ve been lucky enough to work with the educators in my school to collaboratively design a structure that makes learning labs a professional growth opportunity we can all benefit from. When structures are established that ensure a learner mindset and build trust, a team is equipped to give and receive feedback. These structures enable leaders to effectively bring learning labs to their own schools.

ESTABLISHING SHARED UNDERSTANDINGS OF THE PROCESS

Before bringing learning labs to your school, it is important to start by sitting down with your teaching team and establishing shared agreements and expectations for the process. When teachers open their classroom to observation, it is a vulnerable experience and one that teachers need to feel comfortable with for the process to work.

When we first began with learning labs, we set out the following agreements:

• Embrace a mindset of curiosity and an interest in learning from each other.
• Be aware of the impact of your words, body language, and tone.
• Honor confidentiality; we will take the learning with us and leave specific names, etc., behind.
• Stay fully engaged in the process.

Safety and a mindset of curiosity are central to a successful learning lab. Once these agreements are set, it is important to reference them before and after any lesson observations take place.

PREPARING FOR THE LESSON OBSERVATION

At my school, we’ve found several ways to make our learning labs more successful. One of these is for the team to thoughtfully select the lesson that will be observed. This helps ensure that the group of observing teachers and the host teacher will get to see examples of the specific strategies they are curious about—do they want to see a phonics lesson, a reading lesson, a writing lesson, a teacher conferring with students, and/or small group instruction? What standard do they want to focus on in order to accelerate student learning?

Next, I meet with the host teacher who will be teaching the lesson. During this meeting we co-plan the lesson; we do this to ensure that we highlight strategies the team is curious about observing.

Additionally, the day before the lesson observation, the host teacher and I talk to the students in the class and let them know what is going to happen: A group of teachers is coming in to watch their teacher in action, and the focus is not fully on them, although we are interested in their experience during the lesson. We tell students it is important that teachers learn from each other, just like teachers learn from their students, in order to improve instruction.

Finally, right before the group of observers and I walk into the lesson, we have a quick but crucial pre-brief for the lesson. The host teacher describes the lesson and a bit about their students. As a group, we review our agreements and I introduce the note catcher that observers will use during the observation.

engaging in the LESSON OBSERVATION

During the actual lesson, the observers and I use a note catcher that includes space to write down objective noticings and a space to list wonderings from the lesson. This note catcher also lists our shared agreements at the top. If there was a specific instructional strategy the host teacher wanted to focus on, we also list that on the note catcher.

The observing teachers then actively watch the lesson and complete their notes. The observing teachers may walk around the room from time to time to see what students are doing, but generally they stay seated toward the back of the room to avoid distracting students. In this way, the lesson feels more comfortable for students.

DEBRIEFING THE LESSON OBSERVATION

After the lesson observation, it is crucial that the teachers debrief and reflect. I guide the discussion as the instructional coach. The observers bring their note catchers, which are ideally full of key observations and questions for us to discuss.

To effectively facilitate this conversation, I start by reviewing the shared agreements again, and then give time for each teacher to individually reflect on the lesson—writing down or highlighting two observations and two wonderings from the lesson that they want to focus on during this time.

Then, the observing teachers share their noticings using language such as “I noticed…” or “I saw/heard…” I intentionally ask teachers to use objective language like this as opposed to more judgmental language, such as “I liked…” Often the host teacher just listens actively during this time. I take notes during this time so we can reference anything that comes up in the future.

Next, the observing teachers share two wonderings, using language such as “I’m curious about” or “How did you…?” After this, the host teacher can address the noticings or wonderings as they see fit and share any comments they have about how the lesson went.

To end the debrief, each teacher shares an action step using language such as “I’m excited/curious/going to try…” and “I wonder what might happen if I…” We note them in our agenda so that we can check back in with each other to see how the actions went, in a future team meeting.

When the structure and agreements for successful learning labs are intentionally planned, the process of learning alongside and from each other can have a huge impact on student learning. Again and again I hear from teachers how much they value time in learning labs, and how it energizes them and helps them see each other in action. These labs support continuous improvement and help teams grow closer together.