Clarity: What Matters Most in Learning, Teaching, and Leading

Shared knowledge between educators breeds shared success in all systems and schools.

Comprehensive in scope, CLARITY illustrates how system and school leaders must come together to boost student achievement and build teacher capacity to learn, teach and lead. By emphasising collaborative processes, Lyn Sharratt’s detailed design demonstrates how shared knowledge, equity and expertise can make every classroom more impactful and every teacher more empowered. Readers will uncover these ‘Big Ideas’:

• 14 essential Parameters to guide system and school leaders toward building powerful collaborative learning cultures
• Case studies, vignettes and firsthand accounts from gifted teachers and leaders bring important theories and practices to life
• From all points in the organisation, a ‘line-of-sight’ directly to students’ FACES in every classroom to ensure continuous improvement
• Data-driven tasks and tools to tackle solutions needed in all facets of education

With more than four decades of research, writing and practical experience in system, school, and classroom improvement, Sharratt provides a ‘why-and-how-to guide’ to assist educators across the globe as they solve 21st century-created problems and identify the much-needed learning critical to the success of our future citizens.

Table of Contents

Introduction

• List of Online Resources
• List of Acronyms
• Foreword by John Hattie
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• In Memoriam
• Introduction by Alma Harris

PART I. LEARNING

1. CLARITY: The 14 Parameters: A Learning Framework
• The Third Teacher: Creating a Collaborative Culture of Learning
• Introduction to the 14 Parameters
• Achieve CLARITY Using the 14 Parameters
• How to Begin Implementing the 14 Parameters
• A Deliberate Pause to Create CLARITY
2. CLARITY: Knowing the FACES of Learners
• Achieving Because They Believe They Can
• Parameter #1: Shared Beliefs and Understandings
• Parameter #14: Shared Responsibility and Accountability
• Putting FACES on the Data
• Powerful Questions to Get to Know Learners and Learning
• Parents Are Critical Partners in Knowing Each Learner
• Parameter #12: Parents and the Community Are Critical Partners in Learning
• A Deliberate Pause to Create CLARITY
3. CLARITY: Collaborative Inquiry With Teachers and Leaders
• Parameter #11: Collaborative Inquiry
• The Value of Collaborative Inquiry
• When Do We Inquire Collaboratively? Professional Learning Communities at Work
• Lead in Order to Learn and Learn in Order to Lead
• A Deliberate Pause to Create CLARITY

PART II. TEACHING

4. CLARITY in Teaching: Assessment
• Parameter #3: Quality Assessment Informs Instruction
• Formative and Summative Assessment
• Debriefing Each Component of the Assessment Waterfall Chart
• Learning Walls Capture the Ongoing Assessment Journey
• A Deliberate Pause to Create CLARITY
5. CLARITY in Teaching: Instruction
• Parameter #3: Assessment Informs Instruction and Parameter #13: Cross-Curricular Literacy Connections
• Literacy Learning Is the Foundation of All Instruction
• Eight Components of High-Impact Literacy Instruction
• A Deliberate Pause to Create CLARITY
6. CLARITY: Processes That Support Collaborative Inquiry With Students
• Parameter #14: Shared Responsibility and Accountability
• Collaborative Inquiry With Students
• Collaborative Inquiry in the Classroom
• Three Approaches to Student-Led Collaborative Inquiry
• A Deliberate Pause to Create CLARITY
7. CLARITY: Using Data for Prevention and Intervention
• Parameter #6: Case Management Approach
• Prevention: Data Walls
• Intervention: Case Management Meetings
• Parameter #5: Early and Ongoing Intervention
• A Deliberate Pause to Create CLARITY

PART III. LEADING

8. CLARITY: The Knowledgeable Other—Leading Alongside
• Parameter #2: The Embedded Knowledgeable Other
• Six Evidence-Proven Professional Learning Approaches
• A Deliberate Pause to Create CLARITY
9. CLARITY: Precision in Leadership Practice
• Parameter #4: Principals and System Leaders as Lead Learners
• The Six Dimensions of Leadership
• The New Sixth Leadership Dimension
• System Leadership in Action
• School Leadership in Action
• Principal Learning Teams
• Learning Walks and Talks: Leading to Ensure the Growth of All Students
• A Deliberate Pause to Create CLARITY

Conclusion

• CLARITY: Leadership for the Future
• The FACES of CLARITY
• Afterword by Melanie Greenan

Glossary of Terms

References and Further Reading

Index