LiteracyLens · Revised release guidance
Prepare for a
meaningful visit.
Observation and coaching guidance aligned with the recommended app changes. Screen labels may differ until the revised build is released.
1. Prepare for a meaningful visit.
Agree on a question, identify the lesson segment and review relevant look-fors. Select by task and student need rather than grade alone. A short visit is a sample, not a complete literacy-program evaluation; there is no universal minimum duration that establishes valid evidence.
Calibrate indicator decisions with another observer. Student names and identifying information are not needed.
2. Capture the task, prompt, response and feedback.
Record what occurred, what you missed and what you need to ask. If only an error is documented, investigate the teacher’s response before inferring a concern. Quiet reading or writing, thoughtful discussion, volunteers or a missing posted objective are not stand-alone teaching deficits.
Student evidence: Student responses observed during this visit. Record participation, task-specific accuracy, and examples when evidence is available.
Keep response rate and accuracy optional and unselected until supported. Use Insufficient evidence when you cannot judge. If recording counts, include attempted and correct responses; correct cannot exceed attempted. Response-rate bands are local conventions and should not penalize sustained reading, writing, listening or discussion.
3. Choose relevant instructional lenses.
Explicit Instruction
Capture the skill target, model, guided practice, response check, correction and learner retry.
Phonemic Awareness
Observe blending, segmenting or other sound work when relevant to the learner need and task; connect sounds to letters as instruction calls for it. Do not require a separate sound-only activity in every lesson.
Phonics & Decoding
Capture the printed word, taught sound-spelling pattern, prompt and response. Distinguish picture discussion for meaning from prompting a learner to guess a printed word.
Encoding & Spelling
Record how learners segment words, select spellings and apply taught patterns. A copied answer is different from independent production.
Fluency
Look for accurate, increasingly effortless reading with appropriate pacing, phrasing and feedback. Speed alone is not the target.
Vocabulary, Morphology & Syntax
Capture explanations of word meanings, meaningful word parts and sentence meaning, plus student application. Morphology complements decoding and spelling.
Comprehension
Record a question, student explanation and connection to the text or knowledge. Consider access to appropriately challenging text and discussion.
Student Practice
Separate participation, task-specific accuracy and response examples. Report the observed sample and denominator; do not generalize it to the entire class.
Intervention
Confirm a targeted learner need and the related instruction, practice and feedback. Small-group Tier 1 instruction is not automatically intervention.
Adjust the lens to the learner and task.
Kindergarten
Connect sounds to letters through explicit phonics, blending and spelling. Develop oral language, vocabulary and comprehension. Use connected text matched to taught skills as learners are ready.
Grades 1–3
Consider the taught sequence, learner need and lesson purpose. Continue sound-letter, decoding and spelling support as needed alongside language, knowledge, fluency and comprehension. Do not exclude an indicator on grade alone.
Grades 4–5
Develop multisyllabic decoding and spelling alongside morphology, vocabulary and sentence meaning. Build accurate, effortless reading with appropriate pacing and phrasing. Develop knowledge and comprehension through appropriately challenging text and discussion.
4. Make only supported decisions.
| Evidence state | How to use it |
|---|---|
| Partially Evident · 1 | A relevant opportunity occurred; accurate instruction or support was incomplete or inconsistent. Record what was missing. |
| Clearly Evident · 2 | Accurate instruction or support and student application were evident in the sampled opportunities. |
| Consistently Evident · 3 | Accurate instruction or support and student application recurred across several relevant opportunities. Cite the repeated evidence. |
| Not Observed (N/O) · non-scored | A relevant opportunity occurred, but the indicator was not seen. This does not establish absence elsewhere. |
| N/A (Not Expected) · non-scored | The indicator was outside this segment’s purpose, based on the task and student need. Grade alone is not a reason to exclude it. |
| Insufficient opportunity to judge · non-scored | The visit did not provide enough relevant opportunity to judge the indicator. |
| Unanswered | No observer decision has been recorded. This is a draft state; do not infer a rating or treat this as zero. |
Nothing should be preselected. An unanswered item is not zero. Evidence can be recorded without forcing a numerical decision. Completed evidence-only visits are Non-scored observations; coverage is separate from the mean.
5. Agree on what to revisit.
Name an evidence-supported strength, ask about the missing context and select one observable next step with the teacher. Record the agreement, responsible person and follow-up date separately from generated drafts. Review suggestions after source evidence changes.
Feedback example: Guide the student to identify the missing vowel sound, connect it to a, retry mat, then apply the same process to a new word. Check that attempt. If the original note only records the error, ask how the teacher responded and what the learner did next.
Before sharing, review report scope, contributing records, name substitution and free text. A walkthrough cannot diagnose a learner, establish overall teacher quality or show that instruction caused an assessment result.