There is nothing quite like summer pre-service – its busyness, its energy, its sense of optimism. The year is a blank slate, with the potential for school growth and student achievement higher than ever.
However, It’s also an important moment to marry excitement and optimism to concrete systems and achievable goals. If we don’t, we can only hope for student success.
At FCI, we offer two resources, our Action Steps Guide and Beginning-of-Year Observation Checklist, to support school leaders (and teachers) at the beginning of year. More on each below.
Action Step Guide:
What is it?
The Action Steps Guide is designed as a trajectory of core teaching practices for the novice to most seasoned teacher. It breaks high impact teaching strategies into those focused on classroom management (left column) and those related to instruction (right column), as well as those we propose should be covered during pre-school summer months, in quarter 1, and in quarter 2 and beyond. While not intended to be followed in any one set sequence, the guide reflects a general order we’ve seen across many schools and teachers, and leaders can pick and choose focus areas based on the demonstrated need of each teacher they support.
How to use it?
We recommend school leaders take stock of the needs of their teachers (returning teachers based on spring 2026, and new teachers based on the initial days of summer preservice), then cross-check these needs with their professional learning plan from now until December. Instructional coaches can do the same for each coachee and try to embed a few mini practice cycles of the highest priority skills before school starts. For schools that are newer to coaching or with a higher teacher: coach ratio, there’s value in the simple act of having teachers self-reflect on their strengths and goals for the year ahead.
Once the school year begins, a leadership team school walkthrough can be a simple yet powerful way to create alignment. Observe each classroom, ask members of the team to identify the top strength and top action step using the Action Step Guide, then spar and land on an aligned area of focus. From here, all instructional coaches should carry this guide with them during classroom observations to focus their attention on these priority areas for action steps and teacher practice. Again, for schools with more limited coaching capacity, ask teachers to record segments of their instruction (any iPhone can do this!) and identify one strength and one growth area using this document.
Beginning-of-Year Observation Checklist
What is it?
The Beginning-of-Year Observation Checklist offers instructional leaders observable metrics to assess levels of time on task and student engagement for each teacher they coach. Ensuring high levels of on-task and engagement is particularly critical in the opening weeks of the school year when teachers establish the foundations in their classrooms that enable rigorous instruction and transformative learning to thrive.
How to use it?
We recommend that school leaders share these metrics with their full teaching team, and then review this tool with their instructional coaches, asking them to observe classrooms with this checklist in hand 2-3 times in the opening weeks. From there, coaches should run regular feedback meetings with their teachers around areas for improvement.
These checklists can also be used in the aggregate: for example, grade-level leads can determine the needs of their grade-level team, or school leaders can review them to identify trends to address in whole-staff professional learning.
For schools that are still building their instructional coaching program, teachers can use the checklist, too. Ask them to pair up and observe one another, or have grade level teams circulate each other’s classrooms for similar outcomes.
Establishing an aligned vision of teaching excellence – and some coaching methods to help build this excellence – is crucial in converting August’s optimism into concrete, meaningful student growth. We can’t wait to hear how these tools support and are sending much success in your school launch.