Monitoring for Learning
Douglas Elementary School in Tyler, Texas is a great example of professionals who focus on intentional teaching and learning. Under the leadership of Christina Roach, the Pre-K through fifth grade teachers have worked diligently over the past six years to refine their practices of using learning targets and success criteria, along with formative assessments to partner with their students for learning. The staff members are truly experts at intentional teaching.
This year, the Douglas staff has worked to refine their skills of intentional monitoring. The teachers take the success criteria for each learning target and create monitoring charts they use as they observe students and evaluate student work. By monitoring minute-by-minute throughout the lesson, teachers can take action quickly. Sometimes, just a quick micro-intervention gets students back on track for learning, while some students benefit from other Tier 1 interventions such as small group coaching.
By taking action quickly, they are closing the daily learning gap and preventing bigger gaps from developing. Here are some examples of the ways they monitor all of the children during core instruction and in small group instruction.