Front: what to look for
You are looking for learning, not activity. Busy, noisy, and collaborative can all happen with little learning; quiet can hide a lot of it.
| Look for | What good looks like | Principle |
|---|---|---|
| Review from memory | Lesson opened with a few questions from earlier lessons, no notes | 6, 7 |
| Teacher teaches new material | Short explanation and a model before students work alone | 2 |
| Small steps | One new idea at a time, practice after each | 1 |
| Every student answers | Whiteboards, all-write, or cold call, not just volunteers | 4 |
| Mostly right before alone | Students get most guided practice right before independent work | 2, 4 |
| Solved examples | New problem types come with a worked example | 3 |
| Mixed and old practice | Practice includes earlier material, not just today's | 7, 8 |
| Feedback on the work | Specific next step, not "good job" | 5 |
You won't see all eight in five minutes. Pick the two or three that fit the part of the lesson you walked into.
Ask, instead of (adapted from Marcie Samayoa's researchED Houston talk):
- Instead of "Are students engaged?" ask "What are students thinking about right now?"
- Instead of "Are students collaborating?" ask "Are students building knowledge, and pulling it back from memory?"
- Instead of "Is the lesson exciting?" ask "Were mistakes caught and fixed?"
Back: one note, one follow-up
The note (leave it within 24 hours; two lines, never more)
Working: [one specific thing you saw that matches the card] Try this week: [one small, concrete step]
Example: "Working: every student wrote an answer on a whiteboard before you moved on. Try this week: start Tuesday's lesson with three questions from last week's unit."
The weekly routine
- Ten visits a week, five minutes each, spread across grades
- One note per visit, one next step per note
- Next visit to that room checks the last next step first
- Friday: tally which look-fors were missing most; that becomes next week's 10-minute staff meeting topic
For schools with one administrator. Start with five visits a week and only the first four look-fors. Protect the visits on the calendar like a meeting.
How strong is this?
Grade of the practices on this card: see principles 1–8. The visit routine itself is a management practice, not a tested intervention.
