Walkthrough Advantage

Carol Brewer
Jan 26, 2009

When was the last time the Kindergarten teachers in your school were in a 5th grade classroom?  When was the last time your 5th grade teachers were in a Kindergarten classroom? One of the advantages of a Walkthrough is that teachers get to visit other classrooms throughout the school. The great thing about these visits is that they can be scheduled for the beginning of a staff meeting. 
For example, "The next staff meeting will begin in the Kindergarten hall in Mrs. Smith's room. We will visit all the Kindergarten rooms and then take five minutes to reflect with our partners. The focus of the reflection for this week will be how the Kindergarten teacher displayed the Student Learning Map. Next week we will begin our meeting with our 3rd grade classrooms. They have been working hard on how to display their student work to show the evidence of the understanding of the Essential Question."

Walkthroughs can be structured to meet many needs. They are typically set up for the Administrators and Leadership Team but can also be useful for new teachers, as well as grade level teachers acquiring an understanding of a particular implementation. Think of the power of a grade level visiting another grade level and then reflecting on the observation. This allows teachers to learn from the observation and implement what they have observed. The following format is suggested: