FRAME’s benefits also go beyond the classroom because it helps build the kind of teacher efficacy that is crucial if schools want to retain exemplary teachers and offer the best learning experiences to students. By creating an everyone-can-improve motto, teachers know that they are a work in progress and that they can continue to hone their craft as they move forward on their educational journey. Terry Bramschreiber (2012) writes, “When teachers observe and learn from one another, better teaching practices, more student learning, and more positive evaluations result.” Therefore, applying FRAME to peer observation and feedback among teachers is a natural next step. Using FRAME for teachers’ peer observation and feedback gives them the opportunity to utilize guiding questions as a means to gather anecdotal data from peer observations and reflect on those data. In addition, the guiding questions encourage conversation between or among teachers that might not otherwise take place. Creating space and time for peer observation and feedback among teachers allows them to reflect on and hone their practice, build teacher efficacy and teacher empowerment, and make specific changes as necessary, all within a risk-free, nonjudgmental, teacher-driven environment.
Finally, FRAME gives administrators the opportunity to help teachers who may need extra support. Because FRAME is a specific approach meant for all content areas and all grade levels, the developing teacher can follow the structured protocol to gain effective strategies. According to the Inclusive Schools Network (2015), principals’ responsibilities include “ensuring educational strategies are in place that support effective learning for all students. They serve as a facilitator, guide and supporter of quality instructional practices.” Therefore, as facilitators and guides, principals can offer the FRAME protocol to ensure strategies that empower the developing teacher and help establish an exemplary classroom experience for students.
The Creation of FRAME
FRAME’s foundations started in the classroom. As an instructional coach and reading specialist for my school, I am often asked to observe student teachers in various departments so I can offer feedback and recommend literacy strategies that will enhance their lessons. A biology teacher in my school once asked if I would observe her student teacher. The student teacher taught three class periods of tenth-grade biology. On this particular day, students were presenting on a topic of their choice. They were able to choose from reproduction and cell division, heredity and genetics, evolution, and ecology. The classroom teacher felt another set of eyes would benefit the novice teacher.
On a Monday morning, I walked into the biology classroom about ten minutes before the bell, ready to observe the student teacher preparing students for the first day of presentations. I expected to see her in the hall greeting students. However, she had not yet arrived. Her door was open, and students were milling about, but she was not there. About five minutes before class started, she walked in, went straight to her computer, logged in, and told students that they should get in their groups and get ready to present. She took off her coat, grabbed her clipboard, and motioned for the first group to stand in front of the class.
She called this first group to begin presenting. The group members appeared unsure and nervous, stumbling through their presentation. I wondered if they could have benefited from a structured introduction to the class—an organized beginning meant to prepare them for the learning ahead. I later learned that student groups had been given three days of in-class time to work on their presentation, including conducting research into the topic and creating a visual for their presentation. However, even though students had been given the directions and had class time, they still seemed apprehensive.
After each group presented, the student teacher listed a series of things the students should have done (for example, “You needed to speak louder” or “Your slide was difficult to read” or “Did you proofread your slideshow?”). Because she directed most comments toward presentation techniques instead of content, I wondered what the goal of these presentations was. What were students supposed to know and be able to do?
At the end of the presentations, she read a list of the students who were presenting the next day. After that, the bell rang, and the class was over.
During the class, I took specific observational notes that I would share with the student teacher to help her modify the classroom culture and gather explicit feedback from her forthcoming student groups. When I reflected on the class and my notes, I realized that students had missed out on a culture of learning, a structured method to begin class that would have supported their understanding of the work they were doing. Students had missed the why and the how—the relevance—of their vital work.
Similarly, this student teacher knew her content and was excited to have students share what they had read and researched with their peers. However, she missed the valuable opportunity to connect with the students. As I looked around the room, I noticed there were no learning intention and success criteria posted for students to observe. These should be written the day before and posted where students can see them throughout the lesson. If the teacher is busy writing the learning intention and success criteria as students walk in the door, students may see them as trivial.
Consider this from the students’ perspective. Although it was obvious they would be presenting that morning, what was the point of the presentations? Why did they create them? Why was it necessary to share the information with their peers? Without a learning intention and success criteria, these questions were not asked, discussed, or answered. In addition, due to time, the student teacher couldn’t share a personal greeting with them and detect, perhaps, their anxiety about the presentation. If she had, she could have suggested some mindful breathing techniques as students took their seats. Once students had taken their seats, she could have begun what would become the ten-minute FRAME protocol—asking students to read and paraphrase the learning intention and success criteria to determine their understanding of the task; modeling briefly the process of an exemplary presentation, such as what makes a captivating beginning, a riveting middle, and a compelling ending; and acknowledging the difficulty of the research work or recognizing the trepidation students might feel about presenting to their peers. Because this protocol was not put in place, students were uncertain about the ultimate goal of their presentation and why it mattered. I was excited to collaborate with this student teacher to help her realize the value of that connection.
I went to the second day of student presentations to determine if what I had witnessed the day before was an anomaly or standard procedure. Unfortunately, the pattern repeated itself. I met with the student teacher after that second class and shared some of my observations and ideas with her. I hoped to help her reframe the remaining set of student presentations. Using my notes, I explained what I had seen and offered the following suggestions.
• Since she had stated no learning intention or success criteria, we could work together to write an explicit learning intention and success criteria for the remaining presentations.
• If time was an issue for her in the morning, perhaps she could walk around to student groups as they were getting organized and say hello or give students a conversation question, such as, “What movie best describes you?” that could begin building a classroom community.
• I offered to demonstrate how she could call on two or three students and ask them to paraphrase the learning intention and success criteria for greater student understanding, thereby helping students unpack the what of the work they were doing.
• I offered to help create a minipresentation she could show to the students. Viewing a finished presentation, maybe even two or three slides, might help alleviate anxiety and support students in the how of the learning.
•