🚗 Clarity on the Go: My Rant on “Fidelity”

0:03 Welcome to the Catching Up with Casey show if you are tired of chasing buy in. Frustrated with teams who can't seem to get on the same page. Or. Over the constant struggle of holding people accountable without micromanaging, this is the show for you. I'm Casey Watts, speaker, author and the creator of the. Clarity. Cycle Framework. I help leaders just like you take teams. From frustration. To. Alignment so. Teams can work collectively toward a common purpose in a committed way instead of against each other as though they are functioning in different organizations. And we do it all through the craft of clarity. Whether you lead from the middle or you were the front facing leader of your organization on this show, we bring clarity to the seemingly small things in leadership that make the biggest.

0:52 Difference because. Clarity precedes capacity. Now, with all of that said, let's dive into today's episode. Hey everybody, welcome to the Catching Up with Casey show. This is a different kind of episode because I'm coming to you from my car. Just with some thoughts that I had this morning as I was listening to some friends talk about some some situations regarding PLC's that made it seem as though the PLC's were not as effective as they were hoping or they were planning for PLC's, upcoming PLC's and really wanted them to be as impactful as possible.

1:47 So because I'm coming to you from my car, obviously you're going to hear some car noises. I hope you're OK with that, and I hope that you feel as though I'm coming to you simply from a Marco Polo, if you're not familiar with. Marco Polo. Highly suggest that you dig into it. It is a video chat platform and one of my favorite something I use nearly every single day, if not every day. OK, so let's dive into what we're bringing clarity to. We are bringing clarity to a very simple and yet very complex term and that term is fidelity.

2:30 And it is all the rage right now because there is such a push for implementing high quality instructional materials, right, Big push for that. And what's happening is so many schools are saying we want you to implement this high quality instructional material with fidelity or this curriculum with fidelity. The problem is that we're not describing what we mean when we use the term fidelity. It has so many different meanings depending on your previous experience with the term.

3:14 Fidelity. What does fidelity mean? If you looked it up in a dictionary, what would the term fidelity show as the definition? And it would be really great if everybody had the same, a common language, a common understanding of the term fidelity. But they don't. We make the assumption that people are going to know what we mean when we say fidelity. So here's kind of the the narrative that I'm going to paint when we don't really get clear, when we don't bring clarity to simple and yet complex terms that we use regularly. Imagine you're starting the year, your teachers have had training in whatever curriculum it is that you are implementing.

4:03 Or maybe they haven't had training, maybe maybe it's an existing curriculum, but you've decided this year we're really going to implement this with fidelity. So beginning of the year starts you say as instructional leaders, remember we're implementing this curriculum with fidelity. You might even say we want you to be using this daily, pick it up, use it daily. This is what we are going by on a day-to-day basis. So that that's kind of what often happens is we communicate that very simple use it daily language. But as I always say, you have to bring action to clarity.

4:50 We have to put clarity into action. So here's what happens when we don't. We've said we want you to use it daily with fidelity. So some may assume, some teachers may assume, OK, that means I'm picking it up and I'm literally doing everything that it says on a day-to-day basis and I'm getting overwhelmed because I can't fit it all in. Some people may think, OK, I'm picking up and I'm using it on a day-to-day basis, but I'm doing what I want to do from it. AKA, I'm going to say that I'm using it because I am picking it up and using it, but I'm only using pieces of it that I want to use.

5:36 Other people are picking it up and saying I don't want to use this at all, but it's going to be in my lesson plans. If you are a school that requires lesson plans, right? And so I'm going to look at the concept and because I've been teaching for X number of years, I know how to teach this content. So I'm going to teach it the way that I want to. I might use a couple of pieces here and there from the from the curriculum, but again, I know what I'm doing. I'm going to implement it the way I want. And then imagine when you get together for PLCS and people are resistant or seem resistant to engage in professional learning conversations where they're discussing data or they're discussing instructional strategies that are going to support student learning.

6:32 In the example that I that I heard from a friend earlier today, she was describing how they come together and they get frustrated that we're meeting because they don't understand that there's anything more to do. They since they have the curriculum laid out in front of them and since we have said you told us or since we have said teach it with fidelity. So the teachers are saying you told us to teach this with fidelity. We're teaching it every day. What else do you want us to do? If that is what you're experiencing, then get super clear about what your campus or district means when they say fidelity. Map it out.

7:20 Create a document that says this is what we mean when we say teach this with fidelity. Here are our non negotiables and here are the other things that you may choose to do, the other resources you might use. And it should be in the non negotiables that regardless of what curriculum we're teaching and regardless of when I'm telling you to teach it with fidelity or not, we have to meet the needs of our students. The curriculum is a guide. Best instructional practices are not baked into that curriculum. And even if they are, are we clear about what that looks like in action?

8:09 So let me let me give an example there. Let's assume that your curriculum is fantastic and the content is great, plus there are instructional strategies baked into it that are also highly engaging and support the needs of all students, of reaching all students. Let's assume that even if that's the case, and this is where I'm going to use this dreaded word, internalize. If your teachers have not internalized that, then it doesn't matter what the book says, what the content says in the curriculum. If there, if there's not clarity about what that looks like in action, then it's unlikely that those best instructional practices are going to be implemented well within the classroom.

9:08 OK, so that's, that's the episode. That's it. I hope you enjoyed that rant and I hope it resonated with you in some way. I would love to know. What? Resonated with you if something did and what other terms do you feel like in your organization or on your campus deserve clarity and require clarity and need clarity in order for people to be able to commit and for people to. Be able. To have productive and meaningful professional learning communities. OK, let me know how you felt about that. This particular episode of being on the go.

9:49 There are probably more to come. Enjoy. Hey listener, I am so honored that you listened. To today's episode. And I hope you gained something valuable from it. I'd also be honored if you did me. Three solid favors. First, subscribe to this show. I've got a lot of great content coming up and I don't want you to miss any of it. Second, be sure you're following me on social media. Platforms. You can find me at Catch up with Casey on LinkedIn or Instagram. And finally, if you were looking to book a dynamic and relatable speaker for your next. Event, conference or. Retreat I would love to bring a message about how the. Craft of. Clarity makes a significant impact on both.

10:29 Leadership. And life.