Action Step of the Week: Aggressive (Intentional) Monitoring
Forget grading! Track the data in the moment and get more students to mastery.
Action Step of the Week
Every time you release students for independent practice, aggressively monitor academic outcomes by:
1. Name the "lap"; describe what you are looking for
2. Put a check or X on each paper for that specific thing you announced
3. Track on your tracking sheet
4. Repeat the process for each part of the student exemplar response
Why?
Aggressive monitoring is an impactful teacher move because it enables teachers to provide targeted, real-time feedback to every student during independent practice, significantly enhancing the learning process. This approach allows teachers to:
Reduce the time they spend on grading IF they track the data as they go
Collect real-time data
Increase student participation and accountability for independent work
Provide differentiated support and challenge high-performing students appropriately
Reinforce correct answers
Improve classroom management
Potential Evidence
Students do not receive feedback during independent work.
Teacher does not sufficiently monitor student work.
There are a number of errors in student work that are not addressed.
Questions to Ask Yourself
What is the feedback students receive during independent practice?
To what extent does the student work represent the exemplar?
Do students understand their academic expectations? How do I know?
What are the students’ level of engagement during independent practice? Do you see evidence of pencils moving, typing, text reading, etc.?
Does the teacher struggle with grades?
Glossary of Terms
Aggressive Monitoring: A teaching strategy that closely observes and tracks student performance to ensure that tasks are completed correctly and efficiently. It often includes real-time feedback and intervention.
Real-Time Feedback: Immediate guidance or correction given to students as they work, often to prevent mistakes or reinforce correct behaviors.
Intervention: A strategy or action taken to support struggling students or adjust teaching methods to improve learning outcomes. Aggressive monitoring could lead to immediate actions based on real-time observations, such as pulling a small group or reteaching.
Coaching Conversation Template
How to use it:
Find any bracketed text.
Use only ONE of the evidence examples.
Plan and internalize this.
We want our teachers to internalize their lesson. This coaching plan is your lesson plan. Don’t be a hypocrite.
Be you! You can do it.
Praise/Follow Up on Previous Action Steps
I appreciate the opportunity to sit down with you to discuss my observation.
First, I want to follow up on <previous action step or feedback>. Tell me more about how this is going for you. What impact has this had on you and your students?
Today, I saw <positive evidence of specific teacher action>.
What impact does this move have on you and your students?
<Confirm their analysis - back it up with student-level evidence>
Evidence
I want to hone in on some evidence that I collected.
<no feedback> (i.e. When you think about the independent practice time, what do you think the teacher can be doing during that time to help students get to mastery? Right. It’s actually a common misconception that we can’t give feedback during independent practice and I want to practice a way to do that effectively called aggressive monitoring. You ready?)
<no monitoring> (i.e. I observed your class doing independent practice from 12:02 to 12:22. I saw 23 out of 25 students get started right away. After 10 minutes of independent practice, students started to falter. That number creeped down to 15 out of 25. The main gap was monitoring. Do you agree? What do you think?)
<lots of errors> (i.e. Your students pushed through 20 minutes of independent practice. There were lots of pencils moving and intense focus. You’ve established a strong culture of practice in your classroom. However, I did notice some gaps in student work. Let’s look at a couple. <Student work analysis> We can interrupt at the point of error by practicing a strategy called aggressive monitoring.)
Action Step
Great, so here is your action step: Every time you release students for independent practice, aggressively monitor academic outcomes by:
1. Name the "lap"; describe what you are looking for
2. Put a check or X on each paper for that specific thing you announced
3. Track on your tracking sheet
4. Repeat the process for each part of the student exemplar response
What impact will this have on you and your classroom?
Go ahead and write down the action step.
Plan/Practice
Let me show you what this looks like with the observed lesson.
MODEL
I <found/made> the exemplar. As I looked at this, I decided that I was going to do <number> of laps. I am going to do a lap for <name the laps>.
(Example: “I will do a lap to see you have annotations. Then, I am going to see that you answered the question. Finally, I’ll look for your claim.”)
Now, let me show you what that would look like live.
Okay, class. You will now have 20 minutes to complete the independent practice. I will be doing laps to give you feedback on your progress. The first lap will be <lap>. I’ll put a check if you are on track and I will put an X if you need to look at it again. Then, I’ll be looking for <lap 2>. Finally, I’ll look for <lap 3>. This room is silent and you are working independently. Hands down, get to work.
(Model moving to different parts of the room with a pen and clipboard in hand. Stop at each paper, mark the paper, and then the tracker. Move QUICKLY).
What did you see in my model that is present in the action step?
PLAN
Let’s look at tomorrow’s independent practice. Take a few minutes to <find/create> the exemplar and then we will find our laps.
What laps did you find you can use based upon this independent practice?
Okay, write those laps on the top of the tracking sheet.
Now, what errors do you anticipate seeing when you go around the room?
I’m going to do a couple of those errors as you script what you want to say before we take it live.
(Set up papers around the room for live practice)
PRACTICE
Go ahead and give your directions for independent practice, name you lap, and begin your laps for feedback. Don’t forget your tracker.
Look for:
Intentional movement around the room
Body language and tone
Clear description of what they are looking for
Quick prompting
Recording on the sheet
Why did you choose to move to this side of the room first? For this next practice, I want you to change up your lap. Generally, we want to go to our fast workers for aggressive monitoring first. Here’s why: Our fast workers will help us determine if a gap in the class requires any reteaching. Try again.
What impact will this type of call and response have on your classroom?
Closing/Follow-Up Up
Thanks for playing along. Practice can be awkward, but it is a great way to ensure we can work out all the kinks.
Let’s review the action step.
I would love to see this in action as a follow-up. I look forward to seeing you in action <date>.