Formal Observation Cycle

MyPGS User Guide for Administrators in EDST lausd.truenorthlogic.com

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Overview In the Lesson Plan and Formal Observation tab, you will input the evidence and ratings from the required Formal Observation cycle for your teachers. This observation will be scheduled with the teacher and you will be required to collect evidence for and rate the teacher’s practice on 7 focus elements of the Teaching and Learning Framework.

Observation Scheduling

Once you have reviewed the teacher’s Initial Planning Sheet, you will schedule the Pre-Observation Conference, Formal Observation and Post-Observation Conference. To begin this scheduling, click into the Observation Scheduling activity.

1. Click the Edit button to begin. Select dates and times for the three events. 2. Click Save & Exit at the bottom left of the container. 3. After saving the dates in the scheduler, this activity will automatically be Marked Complete. 4. The teacher will then receive an email notifying them dates are scheduled for review.

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NOTE: The Post-Observation Conference is to be completed no more than 10 days after the observation.

Lesson Plan Review Here you will review the plan the teacher has designed for the Formal Observation lesson. You will record notes on components of the lesson plan and tag your notes to elements of the Teaching and Learning Framework. Note that any information in this lesson plan template will be auto-tagged to the appropriate focus elements in Standard 1: Planning and Preparation when you click the Auto Create Notes button.

1. Scroll down to review each section of the lesson plan. 2. Click Auto Create Notes at the top of the main container to have MyPGS automatically align

notes to Standard 1. A pop-up will inform you when all notes have been automatically tagged. 3. Click View Notes in each of these sections if you wish to separately tag additional evidence

to Standard 1 elements. In this screen, click New Note to add a new note.

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4. Remember to click Mark Complete when you are done.

Note: If the teacher chooses to complete their lesson plan outside of the platform and provide you a printed-out version or email attachment version of their lesson design, you can upload this document to the platform in the “Lesson Plan Attachments” section of this step.

Observation and Conference Notes Enter your notes and evidence from all parts of the Observation Cycle (Pre-Observation Conference, Formal Observation, and Post-Observation Conference) in the Observation and Conference Notes activity. During the Pre-Observation Conference, you will collect additional evidence for focus elements in Standard 1: Planning and Preparation by documenting the collaborative conversation you have with the teacher and his or her specific responses to the questions you have based on the Lesson Design Plan section. After observing the teacher’s practice and collecting evidence for the full duration of the lesson, you will enter notes in MyPGS and tag the evidence to the focus elements in the LAUSD Teaching and Learning Framework. Click the Observation and Conference Notes activity to begin this process. You will also see that any evidence you auto-tagged from the Lesson Reflection will be viewable here.

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You will notice that the Notes Library will default to only the seven focus elements the teacher is being rated on (3 teacher selected, 3 districted unified, and 1 cooperatively selected). You can access the Creating and Tagging Evidence document through the User Guides tab in MyPGS for further guidance on recording evidence of the observation.

NOTE: Any notes entered into the Notes Library are immediately viewable by the teacher. If you prefer to share your notes only after editing them, we recommend you work in an offline setting first. When all new entries are complete, click Mark Complete. When the step is complete, a green check mark will appear next to the name of the step on the Formal Observations landing page.

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Lesson Reflection (Optional) Review In the Lesson Reflection (Optional) Review activity, you will review the teacher’s reflection on the lesson observed.

1. Review the teacher’s responses to the reflection questions. There may also be documents such as student work samples available for you to download and view.

2. Click Auto Create Notes at the top of the main container to have MyPGS automatically align notes to elements in Standard 5. A pop-up will inform you when the notes have been successfully auto-tagged.

NOTE: Any notes entered into the Note Library are immediately viewable by the teacher. If you prefer to share your notes only after editing them, we recommend you work in an offline setting first. When all new entries are complete, click Mark Complete. When the step is complete, a green check mark will appear next to the name of the step on the Formal Observations landing page.

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Formal Observation Rating View all your tagged evidence here to determine the appropriate ratings for the teacher’s practice in each of the focus elements. 1. Once you click into the Formal Observation Rating activity, click New Observation when you

are ready to complete ratings for the teacher on the 7 focus elements. If you have already started rating the observation and you exit the screen, to return to the rating screen click on Edit next to your name.

2. A pop-up window will appear in which you will edit details of the observation. Enter the date of the Observation. Select the relevant grade, subject area, and length of observation. Completion of this screen is required. Click Save Changes when you are finished.

3. In the Observation Rating screen, enter a rating for each focus element by selecting from the Rating dropdown list. Note: you will see a red “Saving” icon briefly to let you know that the rating saved. If you do not see this icon, log out and log back in before continuing.

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4. Click on View Rubric at the bottom of each element to reference the rubric as you make your

ratings selection.

5. Navigate to other standards in the Teaching and Learning Framework by clicking on the titles

for each standard in the gray bar on the left of the screen.

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NOTE: You will not be able to mark this screen complete until you rate the teacher’s practice in each of the 7 focus elements.

Revising the Evidence

1. You may edit or delete a tagged note by clicking directly on the note. The note changes color and expands to provide additional information about when and for whom the note was created, along with buttons to Edit or Remove Tag on the right-hand side.

NOTE: Any changes you make to a note here will be reflected in the Notes Library. If you Delete a note from this screen, the note will remain in the Notes Library, but the tag to the particular element will be removed.

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2. Click New Note to capture any additional evidence regarding your rating. Any new notes will also be reflected in the Notes Library.

3. Click Edit in the Comments field to enter remarks. These notes are not private and will be visible to the teacher.

Completing the Ratings and Sharing with the Teacher

1. As an administrator, you determine when ratings are shared with the teacher in this process. In order for the ratings to be visible to the teacher, you must select Shared with Ratings in the drop-down list located in the upper left of the screen. Teachers will then be able to view not only the evidence, but also the ratings you provided for this observation.

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2. Once all ratings are complete and you have selected the share ratings option, click Mark

Complete in the upper left of the screen. The P - In Progress will change to C - Complete to indicate you have completed the ratings. If you need to make changes at any point after you’ve marked the step complete, you have the option to do so by clicking Mark in Progress. As a reminder, you will not be able to mark complete until you have rated the teacher on all 7 focus elements.

NOTE: Marking Complete and Sharing the Ratings allow the teacher to review the evidence and ratings. Only those ratings complete and shared will populate in the teacher’s Final Evaluation Report.

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Sign Off on Observation Cycle Upon completing the observation cycle, you will sign off your evidence and ratings to confirm that they have been finalized. The teacher will still be able to Acknowledge that they have received ratings even after you finalize this step. You may view the teacher’s comments here and leave comments of your own.

Review any comments left by the teacher. You may leave comments by clicking the New button in the Administrator Comments about Observation, Conferences, or Rating box.

Click Acknowledge to submit a time stamped acknowledgment of the observation cycle completion. Completing the acknowledgement process will finalize your evidence and ratings. The teacher will receive notification via email indicating that the Observation Cycle has been finalized and should no longer be edited.

You have completed the Formal Observation Cycle activities.