Instructional

Agility

Cassandra Erkens
Anam ara Consulting, Inc.
CassErkens@anamcaraconsulting.com
Twitter: @cerkens
Instructional agility, a teachers intentional maneuver to respond to what is
happening as a result of his or her instructional influence, occurs when emerging
evidence informs real-time modifications within the context of expected learning.
(Erkens, Schimmer, and Vagle, 2017 publication in press).

1. Precision accuracy and exactness

2. Flexibility susceptible to modification or adaptation
3. Emerging evidence and real-time modifications student questions,
student answers, student conversations, peer feedback, coaching
conversations, quizzes, homework, exams, projects, and so on.

Productive Talk:
If the following table provides the wrong ways to be precise or flexible, then what are the
right ways?

PrecisionWrong Ways FlexibilityWrong Ways

Stick to the pacing guides.
Follow the curriculum with fidelity.
Apply algorithms (e.g., 80% of students
make 80% mastery or 2 formatives
every week).
Right ways?
- Teaching whats interesting to the
teacher
- Waiting for everyone to be caught up
- Employing personal preferences
(criteria) for scoring student
performances
Right ways?

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 Instructional Agility
Precision Flexibility

and

Standards F. Instructional Toolkit

Learning Progressions (teaching and re-
A. Assessment Maps teaching)
B. Error Analysis Collaboration G. Differentiation
C. Quality Questions Required Strategies
D. Sufficient Evidence H. Malleable Curriculum
E. Accurate Inferences I. Educational Triage
Prioritization Skills
Considerations:
o Know the standards deeply and the progressions of learning within.
o Look at student evidence and engage in error analysis with colleagues; plan
instructional responses.
o Create rigorous questions to be used during instruction and on assessments; plan
instructional responses.

The 4 Is of Instructional Agility

Instruct Provide purposeful directions regarding the learners
acquisition of new knowledge, skills, or abilities.
Investigate Seek evidence of instructional influence by
observing emerging evidence.
Interpret Decode the emerging evidence with speed and
accuracy for indications of effectiveness, confusion, errors, etc.
Intervene Adjust with responsive instructional maneuvers that
keep learning moving forward.

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Instruct
The mission is not simply to ensure that students are taught but to ensure that they
learn. This simple shiftfrom a focus on teaching to a focus on learninghas
profound implications.
Rick DuFour, authority on educational reform and PLCs

Learning in schools must be about creating and maintaining hope, efficacy, and
achievement for learners.

Hope
Hope is not a nave, sunny view of life. It is the capacity not to panic in tight situations,
to find ways and resources to address difficult problems.

Michael Fullan, authority on educational reform, systems, and leadership

Efficacy
Knowing that I have the capacity to make a difference through my work and being
willing to take the responsibility to do so.

Arthur Costa & Robert Garmston, authority on teaching and cognitive coaching

Achievement
One consistent finding of academic research is that high expectations are the most
reliable driver of high student achievement, even in students who do not have a history of
successful achievement.

Doug Lemov, author of Teach Like a Champion

We're not teaching kids to chase their dreams, we're teaching them to catch them.

- C.J Huff, Superintendent, Joplin Missouri Public Schools

The vision of practice that underlies the nation's reform agenda requires most teachers to
rethink their own practice, to construct new classroom roles and expectations about
student outcomes, and to teach in ways they have never taught before.

Linda Darling-Hammond and Milbrey McLaughlin (1995)

Assessment
Latin term for assessment assire literally means to walk beside.
Assessment must be something teachers do with and for learners not to learners.

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 Know Thy TEKS
Backward Design
(Wiggins & McTighe, 2005)

Standard
Target Target Target Target Target Target

Assessment

Curriculum

Instruction

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Investigate
What are they learning?
Hattie and Yates (2014) note that listening is critical during the questionprompttask process. When
teachers listen, they can 1) identify mistakes, errors, or misconceptions; 2) demonstrate respect for the
learners; 3) model learning practices; 4) create space for learners to interact with each other; and 5) create
space for their own reflection as they identify next steps in instruction.

Rules for Good Questions and Discussions

Use questions to clarify learning objectives and prompt further investigation.
Engage learners in partner conversations in advance of calling for answers.
Engage learners in silent writing before asking for public sharing.
Use strategies such as ThinkPairShare or Everyone Answers on white boards.
Avoid questions that require only a yes or no answer. Higher-order thinking, error analysis, and
demonstrating understanding of quality require elaborate communication.
Engage learners in generating questions as you engage them in answering questions.

Is everyone learning? What evidence is needed to answer the question?

Hinge Questions
Structure productive questions (hinge questions) to highlight the learning progressions that may
be used at the beginning, middle, and/or end of the lesson to reveal various stages of learning for
the learners (Wiliam, 2011).

Read the quotation below. Select the answer that draws an accurate conclusion.

The teacher, pinching her brow into dark lines of disgust, told them to show respect.
The kids are annoying the instructor because of their behavior. [Correct answer]
The teacher is trying to remove extra eyebrow hair. [Incorrect: misinterpreted evidence:
pinching brow]
The teacher is pinching her brow. [Incorrect: restate explicit evidence]
All teachers get mad whenever kids laugh too much. [Incorrect: overgeneralized, not tied
to specific evidence]

You Try It. Where is the learner in the learning progression for each answer?

For our spring trip to Wolf Ridge, we will need school buses to transport the students. A school bus
holds 36 students. If we have 269 students to be transported, how many buses will we need? ____

7 _________________

7.47 _________________

8 Correct answer; learner can do the math and round with reasoning

8.47 __________________

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 Purposeful - Progressions of Learning:
Descriptions of successively more sophisticated ways of thinking about an idea that follow one
another as students learn Wilson & Berthenthal, 2005

Finding Progressions of Learning: The 4 C Problem Solving Model

(designed and employed by the technical courses @ West Delaware HS in Manchester, IA):

Problem Solving = Concern + Cause + Correction + Confirmation.

Concern: What is the root of the problem? Why is it a concern?

Cause: What are the variables that created or complicate the concern?
Correction: What are some plausible solutions and which one is the best one to solve the
problem?
Confirmation: What evidence do you have or will you generate to assure your solution accurately
addressed the concern and solved the problem?

To employ the model, students must first understand concerns. In order to demonstrate skills with
isolating and using concerns, students must

6. Isolate the concern and the criteria that define it.

5. Identify the main concern in a complex problem.
4. Understand where/how concerns fit within the problem-solving model.
3. Identify concerns in given scenarios.
2. Determine what criteria will be used to identify something as a concern.
1. Define concern.

Once students understand concern in the problem solving model, what would they need to do next in
order to complete the full model?

Take one of the remaining Cs , (cause, correction, confirmation) and back map it to the smaller parts
(learning progressions) from easiest to hardest. What knowledge/skills are involved and whats the
appropriate sequence for those concepts?

Concern Cause Correction Confirmation

Hardest 6. Isolate concern and

criteria for the concern.
5. Name main concern.

4. Understand PS model.

3. Identify concerns.

2. Determine criteria.

Easiest 1. Define concern.

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How are they learning?
Building relationships with learners is as much about generating trust for open exchanges as it is
about being able to interpret the instructional impact of your work with accuracy based on a high
degree of familiarity with the learners.

A Learners DNA

DNA Learning Focused Questions

Desires Where am I going and why?

Needs What are my growth areas and challenges?
Assets What do I bring to the process that will help me address gaps and achieve
goals?

A Learners Tells
Expert teachers were highly accurate at inferring student comprehension from nonverbal
cues. Their awareness of individual student learning was specific and depended on their
relationship with that student, rather than existing in generalizable knowledge form. In short,
the experts knew their students as individuals with unique quirks and expressions. They
could 'read' these individual reactions quite unconsciously.
Hattie & Yates, 2014

Para Language Pitch, rate, tone, volumeall aspects of the message that create
meaning for the words but are not the words themselves
Non Verbals Facial expressions, posture, body language all aspects of the
message that do not involve words

What are the learners grasping?

What are the learners missing or misunderstanding?

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Interpret
Appreciate
Treat every student response right or wrong as if it is a gift.
Learning is risky business. Celebrate student attempts to participate in meaningful ways.
Teach learners to focus on and develop their own growth mindsets.
Establish a culture that supports risk taking and create guidelines to support classmates in
sharing the responsibility of keeping everyone safe as they answer challenging questions.
Engage in in-depth exploration of both right and wrong answers.
Always close a dialogue by clarifying the right answers so there is no confusion.

Analyze
Linda Darling-Hammond (2010), notes that accuracy might not be gained even with time
served in the classroom: Although people who enter teaching with poor preparation do learn
from their experience, they do not always learn the right things. With little knowledge to inform
their decisions, teachers can draw the wrong inferences about why things went wrong and what
to do about it (p. 208).

Analyzing Types of Errors

Mistake Error

A mistake is the state or condition of being
wrong because of a simple accident (misreading
the directions or missing a key word like always
or not). Clear additional evidence demonstrates
that key concepts, terms, or processes are
understood.
An error is the state or condition of being wrong
because of a clear misunderstanding or
application of a practice in concept, skill,
reasoning, or any combination therein. Available
evidence demonstrates a visible disconnect
between what was taught and what was
understood.

Is it a reading error?
A misconception?
A concept error?
A reasoning error?
(Chappuis, 2009, 2014)

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 The Missing Step
Error Analysis
Fisher and Frey (2007) write, Misconceptions include preconceived notions, nonscientific beliefs, nave
theories, mixed conceptions, or conceptual misunderstandings (p. 32).

Identifying, Labeling, and Addressing Errors

Create stacks.
Identify errors (reading
error, concept error,
reasoning error).
Label common errors.
Determine interventions.
Take it to the classroom.
Note: No student names
should ever be revealed in
this process.
Create Stacks Using Student Work
Rubric and Proficiency
Right and Wrong Answers
Scored Answers
Create two stacksthose that are all Create the number of stacks that align
right and those with errors. with the predetermined proficiency
levels.
Examine error stack and subdivide Examine each stack and identify
into smaller stacks of like errors. common errors or isolate the
components that would move work
into the next highest level if
addressed.
Give each type of error a label that describes the error.
Step 1: Design instruction to help learners understand the type of error and
the strategies to fix that type of error.
Step 2: Engage learners in focused revision of those types of errors in their
own work.
Strategy 1: Swap card sets with a colleague. In your classroom, give cards
to students and have students repeat the process you used to create stacks,
ending with a class-generated list of types of errors made when engaging in
given concepts or processes.
Strategy 2: If the cards have student names on them, pull a few significant
examples from other classrooms and use as class teaching tools, naming
the errors, identifying the strategies to fix or avoid such errors, and
collectively modifying or altering the examples with classroom input.

Types of Errors Found in Information Literacy Student Artifacts

Identify Theme
Restate something directly
from the passage
Summarize
Guess by selecting generally
popular themes (e.g. be kind)
Offer single word answers
Assess Evidence Organize Thinking
Summary, but no Based on your past experience, what types of
evidence errors do learners make when they struggle
with organization? Write a few ideas here:
Inaccurate evidence
Insufficient evidence
Sufficient evidence but
weakly linked to the
claim

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Intervene
Feedback is one of the most powerful instructional intervention tools a teacher has at his/her disposal. Its
primary purpose is to reduce the discrepancy between where a learner is relative to where the learner is
supposed to be (Chappuis, 2014). Feedback is an instructional tool that is used to assure every student
learns.

Learning-oriented.
L
The feedback continues a students learning, encouraging the
student to continue his/her own thinking and continued investigation. Learning-oriented
feedback does not generate compliance-based fixes.

Error-specific. The feedback explores specific types and patterns of error and the
E strategies needed to address those errors, but it does not give away the answers. To do so,
it must support the learner in finding his/her own fixes by being descriptive, informative,
and evidence-based or data-rich.

Actionable. The feedback can be applied while the student is engaged in the learning.
A
It
is timely and applicable. If feedback is offered during the formative stages, the feedback
would set the student up for mastery on the summative. If it is offered during the
summative stages, the feedback is process-oriented for future assessments that will engage
similar knowledge and skills.

Related.
R
The feedback relates directly to the learner by connecting 3 significant areas:
Links directly to the learning targets involved
Highlights the specific predetermined quality criteria addressed
Indicates both success and growth areas for the learner

Narrowed. The feedback narrows the concerns to be addressed to a prioritized and

N manageable few, helping the learner focus his/her efforts on those elements that will have
the greatest impact in a given amount of time.

Self-Regulation-Oriented. The feedback supports self regulation by enabling the learner

S to make independent, healthy instructional choices while inspiring him/her to continue

doing so. Ultimately, feedback creates a tone that fosters hope and efficacy for the
learner.

Providing a learner with feedback is serious business. Feedback is the intervention tool with which
teachers can empower learners to get into the drivers seat of their own instructional decision-making.
More importantly, it is the tool with which teachers can build hope and efficacy for their learners.

References:
Chappius, J., (2014). Seven strategies of assessment for learning. Portland, OR: Pearson Assessment Training
Institute.
Hattie, J., & Timperley, H. (2007). The power of feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77(1), 81112.
Wiliam, D. (2013). Feedback and Instructional Correctives. In McMillan J. H. (ed). SAGE handbook of research
on classroom assessment. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. pp. 197 - 214.

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Correct
Correct all errors and misconceptions before moving forward so learners have a clear
understanding of accurate answers. Engage learners in working collaboratively to analyze
errors and generate accuracy.

Responding to Right and Wrong Answers

Establish a culture that supports risk taking and create guidelines to support classmates
in sharing the responsibility to keeping everyone safe as they answer challenging
questions.
Solicit a collection of answers before designating the right or best one, then let the group
argue the merits of various answers on the way to identifying a good answer.
Always leave the discussion and individual learner with a correct answer to avoid confusion
And, circle back to that same learner for a new opportunity to get another question
correct so that he/she leaves the lesson on a successful note.

Responding to Student Responses Responding to Student Responses

When They Are Incorrect When They Are Correct
Will you change, keep, or modify your answer Withhold affirmation of student response and
if I add/remind you of x (add in anything missing ask others to argue its merits.
from the learners response)? Or, if thats correct, Why?
how might you explain this? Prove it.
Ask a follow-up question that leads the student Do you agree?
to understand the error in the answer. Can you tell me more?
Do you have any evidence to support that What evidence do you have to back your
answer? Any evidence to the contrary? response? Is there any evidence to counter your
Take us through the steps that lead you to that response?
conclusion. If you were teaching a younger student this
You are partially correct in that x is x, but what concept, how would you explain how you got to that
about adding the notion of y what might that do to correct answer?
the second part of your answer? Can anyone tell me what makes [X]s answer
What I heard you say is x (rephrase to buy correct?
thinking time and gain clarity). Is that what you
meant?
Thank you for those ideas. If you were to
approach the concept from a slightly different angle,
you might notice .
Thats the answer to the next question I was
about to ask! Youre way ahead of me.

Note: It is important to use these same kinds of answers with consistency, even with right answers, so
that they dont become code for wrong answers.

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Collaborate
Instructional Agility
Precision Flexibility

and

Why PLCs?
We can find no evidence that any country that leads the world in educational performance has gotten
there by implementing any of the major agenda items that dominate educational reform in the United
States.
Tucker, Standing on the Shoulder of Giants:
An American Agenda for Educational Reform, 2011, p. 39

"The conclusions [of over 800 research based meta-analyses] are recast here as six signposts towards
excellence in education:

Teachers are among the most powerful influences in learning.

Teachers need to be directive, influential, caring, and actively engaged in the passion of teaching
and learning.
Teachers need to be aware of what each and every student is thinking and knowing, to construct
meaning and meaningful experiences in light of this knowledge, and have proficient knowledge
and understanding of their content to provide meaningful and appropriate feedback such that each
student moves progressively through the curriculum levels.
Teacher need to know the learning intentions and success criteria of their lessons, know how well
they are attaining these criteria for all students, and know where to go next in light of the gap
between students' current knowledge and understanding and the success criteria of: "Where are
you going?", "How are you going?", and "Where to next?".
Teachers need to move from the single idea to multiple ideas, and to relate and then extend these
ideas such that learners construct and reconstruct knowledge and ideas. It is not the knowledge or
ideas, but the learner's construction of this knowledge and these ideas that is critical.
School leaders and teachers need to create school, staffroom, and classroom environments where
error is welcomed as a learning opportunity, where discarding incorrect knowledge and
understandings is welcomed, and where participants can feel safe to learn, relearn, and explore
knowledge and understanding.

In these six signposts, the word "teachers" is deliberate, as a major theme is when teachers meet to
discuss, evaluate, and plan their teaching in light of the feedback evidence about the success or otherwise
of their teaching strategies and conceptions about progress and appropriate challenge. This is not critical
reflection, but critical reflection in light of evidence about their teaching."
Hattie, Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses
relating to achievement. 2009, pp. 238-9.

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