Curriculum Walks: A Unique Lens into Lakota Learning

Weekly “learning walks” led by Lakota’s curriculum team are providing district and school leaders with important information and observations about classroom learning to help inform future decision-making about student instruction.

“It’s all about creating opportunities to observe authentic, everyday moments in our classrooms. We want to see firsthand the learning environment our students experience across all different buildings, grade bands, learning levels and even subject areas,” said Keith Koehne, Lakota’s executive director of curriculum and instruction, who started the collaborative process before the pandemic and is excited to reinstate them this year.

“To make instructional decisions in the best interest of our students means actually seeing the opportunities and challenges our students and teachers face on a daily basis in the classroom and making decisions accordingly,” Koehne continued.

By the end of the school year, every Lakota school will have hosted a learning walk, where instructional leaders at both the district and school level come together to do just that. At each stop, the full group includes some combination of curriculum directors and assistant directors, principals and assistant principals, innovation specialists, MTSS supervisors, staff overseeing Lakota’s real world learning partnerships and many other roles. Leaders are permitted, and actually encouraged, to attend learning walks at buildings outside the scope of their daily work. 

Breaking into pairs, the group spends about an hour visiting some combination of the school’s learning spaces, in the end collectively visiting most classrooms at that school. Each group spends about 5-7 minutes in each room, focusing most of their attention on speaking to students about their learning.  Also, knowing that it is difficult to see the full picture of a lesson in such a short time period, the team encourages teachers to post outside of their classrooms a summary of the lesson plan and some context for what students have been doing prior to the visit.  The visitors then gather some simple, anonymous information to help the school leadership team provide feedback to their teachers and staff.  

“It should come as no surprise that we remain hyper-focused on personalized learning, so most of the information we gather connects to things like student engagement, choice and ownership, as well as evidence of targeted and data-driven instructional strategies,” Koehne said. “We’re also looking for real world connections and overall impressions of the classroom  environment.”

Following the classroom visits, participants come back together for a full group debrief. 

“This is where we connect the dots and have some great discussion about what’s working well and in some cases, where we’re running into challenges. We learn from one another, exchange ideas and problem solve together,” said Koehne, who then takes nuggets from those conversations forth to future “learning walks” at other host schools. “The walks have become a great tool for sharing best practices among our buildings.” It is also the absolute best part of my week!”

A Spotlight on Lakota West’s Learning Walk

At Lakota West’s main campus learning walk at the end of September, the group noted all different examples of the high level of student engagement and positive learning environments they observed across all different class types. 

Lakota West’s leadership team also spent significant time sharing the success they’d encountered in a very short time with a course they are calling their “targeted NEXUS.” The approach is the next iteration of both high schools’ NEXUS bell, which was introduced last year to give most students a dedicated bell each day to get extra help in a core subject area. 

Through the new targeted NEXUS option, one class might include students seeking credit recovery in all different types of math courses, for example. The classroom teacher of record specializes in that subject area and can provide support and instruction to students who are working through the online course at their own pace and tackling different content all at the same time. 

Lakota West Assistant Principal Cathy Bella also sang the praises of their innovation specialists, reiterating the value they bring to their teaching staff. “They are truly difference-makers and deserve a lot of the credit for the progress we’ve made at West in terms of more personalized learning,” Bella said. “They have a certain rapport with our teachers, who lean on them and count on them when it comes to putting personalized learning strategies into action.”

The discussion led to other instructional strategies that Lakota West has found effective, including regular, yet informal teacher-led professional development sessions opened up to all staff on some mornings. Bella also applauded Principal Ben Brown for his intentionality in strengthening the culture among staff, citing such strategies as a new theme to set the tone each year. She also noted the formation of two new groups this school year: the “Founding Firebirds” to pay homage to members of West’s staff who helped open the building over 20 years ago and the “Firebird Farm System” to honor homegrown talent, or Lakota alumni, among their staff.

“The ingenuity that takes place within every single one of our buildings is amazing,” said Koehne, reflecting on the handful of learning walks he’s participated in so far this year. “To be able to share that with one another for the benefit of our kids is the advantage of being in a district our size. We have no choice but to keep sharing and learning from one another.” 

Be on the lookout for more school spotlights as this year’s “Learning Walks” continue.