There is also a downloadable (PDF) version of the framework.
The Delaware Teacher Classroom Observation Framework is a tool for coaching and development. Administrators and teachers use this framework to align expectations for what high-quality teaching and learning looks like. The observer uses the framework to guide the collection of evidence from classroom observations to assess the quality of teaching — both strengths and areas for growth.
Structure
The observation framework is structured into three Performance Areas that describe the major elements of a successful classroom. Each Performance Area is accompanied by an Essential Question. They are:
- Learning Environment: To what extent does the classroom environment support all students to learn?
- Engagement in Learning: To what extent does the instruction support and engage all students?
- Maximizing Learning: To what extent do all students retain and apply their learning with productive struggle?
Each Essential Question guides the observer to focus on three Indicators which describe the Performance Area at four levels of performance. Each Indicator is defined by several Descriptors. The Descriptors articulate the teacher and student behaviors that an observer would see in the classroom, during instruction, at each of four different performance levels. The observer collects evidence based on the Descriptors of those Indicators to identify feedback to support teacher growth and development and to support assessment of the instruction.
There are many things teachers do outside of the lesson that contribute to high-quality teaching and learning. To recognize this important work, each Performance Area includes Core Teacher Skills. Core Teacher Skills are not evaluated, but instead serve to name much of the work teachers do to achieve the levels of performance noted in the Indicators, and to provide a common language and set of expectations to support teacher growth and development.
Use
In the Delaware Educator Growth and Support System, the observer will use the observation framework to observe each teacher several times over the course of the school year, and to collect evidence at each observation. The observer will share feedback after each observation to support teacher growth and will only assign performance ratings at the end of the school year, using the evidence collected over the course of the entire year.
Core Teacher Skills articulate the many factors that go into the action of planning so that high-quality teaching and learning can happen in the classroom. For example, the act of teacher planning and preparation is not specifically addressed in the Indicators but is observed in the quality of the classroom lesson and outcomes assessed in the framework. This does not mean that planning is not important or expected; on the contrary, planning is critical to success in Delaware classrooms. What this observation framework structure affirms is that what matters most for students is the actual instruction they experience in the classroom, and so instruction is what is ultimately assessed in the Delaware Educator Growth and Support System.
This observation framework is a draft that will be piloted during the 2021-2022 school year. The final observation framework for use across Delaware beginning in the 2022-2023 school year will be available in the spring of 2022. This framework may not be used, modified or adapted for us without explicit permission from the Delaware Department of Education.
Performance Area #1: Learning Environment: To what extent does the classroom environment support all students to learn?
| Level 1 | Level 2 | Level 3 | Level 4 | |
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| Indicator 1.1
Structures for Learning |
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| Indicator 1.2
Positive Classroom Climate |
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| Indicator 1.3
Equitable Access |
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*Equitable is defined as what one needs based on their diverse needs related to background knowledge/experiences, language, ability, etc.
Performance Area #2: Engagement in Learning: To what extent does the instruction support and engage all students?
| Level 1 | Level 2 | Level 3 | Level 4 | |
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| Indicator 2.1
Objectives for Learning |
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| Indicator 2.2
Presentation of Information |
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| Indicator 2.3
Checks for Understanding and Feedback |
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*Explanatory devices are defined as analogies, metaphors, gestures, demonstrations, modeling, think-aloud, physical models, visual representations, graphic organizers, interactive whiteboards, mental imagery, presentation software, minimal and progressive cueing, simulations, educational games, and role plays.
**Logically aligned means to consider the knowledge and activities necessary to accomplish the objective, a progression in level of difficulty (Bloom’s Taxonomy), and the gradual release of responsibility to enable students to transfer, retain, and independently apply their learning.
Performance Area #3: Maximizing Learning: To what extent do all students retain and apply their learning with productive struggle?
| Level 1 | Level 2 | Level 3 | Level 4 | |
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| Indicator 3.1
Rigorous assignments |
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| Indicator 3.2
Questioning and Discussion |
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| Indicator 3.3
Academic Language and Vocabulary |
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*Accountable talk requires students to further develop what others have said and demands students to use accurate knowledge that is relevant to the discussion and requires students to use appropriate evidence to defend such knowledge.
Core Teacher Skills for Learning Environment
- Bringing multiple perspectives to the discussion of content including attention to learners’ personal, family, and community experiences and cultural normsInvesting time in knowing individual students and informing relationships to best support their learning
- Issuing logical and appropriate consequences as needed such that consequences are successful in changing student behavior
- Providing specific, concrete, sequential and observable directions for behavior and academics
- Promoting student persistence in overcoming environmental and learning challenges
- Using efficient routines and procedures
- Using voice and presence to maintain authority and caring for students
- Developing clear procedures and processes for group work
- Reteaching appropriate behaviors
- Providing positive reinforcement
- Modeling and reinforcing positive self-talk
- Explicitly teaching strategies that help students link effort to achievement
- Uses space to maintain safety and accessibility
- Uses various strategies to maintain attention
- Uses calling patterns that invites all students to participate
- Procuring and using displays, visual aids, props, language cues that reflect students’ cultures and backgrounds
- Using grouping roles and arrangements (group sizes, students with diverse needs and perspectives) that are matched to content and learners to maximize student understanding and learning efficiency with the objective
- Using random calling patterns to provide all students equal access to high-level questions
Draft for piloting in 2021-2022 school year. This framework may not be used, modified or adapted for us without explicit permission from the Delaware Department of Education.
Core Teacher Skills for Engagement in Learning
- Considering students’ cultures and language skills when developing learning objectives and activities
- Allocating instructional time to address the most important content for the grade or course
- Managing time to optimize learning time
- Checking whether students understand the key content needed to master the lesson at key points
- Developing objectives that are manageable, worthy and appropriate for a lesson
- Developing objectives that have learner as the subject, have an active performance verb, and a curricular knowledge or skill
- Developing the thinking skills thought processes that students will be required to use to engage with think about the content (e.g., how to “analyze”, deduce, infer, synthesize, etc.)Considering students’ strengths, interests, needs, and IEP goals (where applicable) to develop learning goals and prepare lessons
- Developing and/or using informal and formal assessments aligned to learning objectives that yield usable data on students’ progress toward grade-level standardsDeveloping and/or using a variety of appropriately demanding and differentiated instructional materials and activities, such as texts, questions, problems, learning experiences and assignments
- Using multiple ways to explain and share content (for example: model the skill, provide an exemplar, compare or contrast, etc.)
- Making connections between lesson objective/content and content and learning from other lessons or prior knowledge
- Varying teacher role in the instructional process (e.g. instructor, facilitator, coach) based on content, instructional purpose, and needs of studentsModeling a process for students to provide feedback themselves and to each other
- Providing opportunities for students to respond to and build on their peers’ ideas
- Providing a rationale for learning by explaining the benefits of learning a concept, skill, or process and how it applies to the students’ lives at home, work or schoolDifferentiating instructional experiences and assessments
- Clearly communicates accurate knowledge of the content
- Adjusts instruction as a result of the feedback received from students
- Planning and implementing multiple opportunities for students to practice the skills they are expected to master in the lesson
- Structuring and delivering lesson activities so that students do an appropriate amount of thinking required by the lesson
Core Teacher Skills for Maximizing Learning
- Posing questions or providing lesson activities that require students to support their thinking through citing evidence and/or explaining their thinkingExplicitly teaches students criteria for constructing arguments and/or supporting opinions
- Planning for questions at different levels of cognitive challenge
- Considering students’ needs to match the level of questions to ask or level of prompting to provide
- Explicitly teaches skills that students are required to use as part of an assignment
- Providing opportunities for students to learn, practice, and master academic language
- Asking questions to stimulate discussion that serves different purposes (e.g. probing for learning and understanding, helping learners articulate their ideas and thinking processes, stimulating curiosity, and helping guide students to question)
- Using knowledge of content to design assignments that support students to extend their learning
- Using knowledge of content and students to match students to relevant and appropriate assignments
- Allow think time for responses
- Designing assignments that include multiple ways for students to demonstrate their learning (examples: writing, reading, speaking and student discourse)
Delaware Smart Card for Classroom Observations
Performance Area #1
Learning Environment:
To what extent does the classroom environment support all students to learn?
1.1 Structures for Learning
- Routines and procedures
- Behavior expectations
- Instructional time
- Student behavior
1.2 Positive Classroom Climate
- Interactions
- Student attention
- Ownership and responsibility
- Student perseverance
1.3 Equitable Access
- Expectations for learning and achievement
- Participation
- Consideration of interests/perspectives
- Classroom supports
Performance Area #2
Engagement in Learning:
To what extent does the instruction support and engage all students?
2.1 Objectives for Learning
- Aligned and student-friendly
- Accessible, communicated and revisited
- Understood by students
- Criteria for success
2.2 Presentation of Information
- Sequencing and pacing
- Learning experiences
- Misconceptions anticipated
- Use of explanatory devices
- Activating and summarizing learning
2.3 Checks for Understanding and Feedback
- Monitoring progress and adjusting instruction
- Options for demonstrating understanding
- Teacher feedback to students
- Student self-assessment
- Opportunity to redo, relearn, and reassess
Performance Area # 3
Maximizing Learning:
To what extent do all students retain and apply their learning?
3.1 Rigorous Assignments
- Alignment to objective, content, and learner
- Relevant and meaningful
- Differentiated and supported
- Application of content
3.2 Questioning and Discussion
- Alignment to objective, content, and learner
- Wait time and prompting with questions
- Students support answers
- Students generate questions
- Class discussions
3.3 Academic Language and Vocabulary
- Teacher models
- Explicitly taught
- Students use to explain and elaborate thinking
