A few weeks ago, I shared a post on social media (see below) about the Instructional Playbook that I’ve put together for my school. I was inundated with messages from people asking for a copy. My Principal was happy for me to share it (you can download a copy of the pdf at the end of the page), but I thought it’d be useful to also go through what you can do to create your own.
Why schools need Instructional Playbooks
One of the biggest sources of frustration between teachers and school leaders is due to not having a shared understanding. Whether it’s about pedagogy, curriculum, or school expectations, if everyone isn’t on the same page, they may as well be speaking different languages.
That’s where instructional playbooks come in. They provide a clear, structured way to align educators—getting everyone on the same page, both literally and figuratively!
What is an Instructional Playbook
There are many interpretations of what an Instructional Playbook is, but Jim Knight has probably had the most impact. He describes it as, “an organisational tool for coaches so they can clearly explain high-impact teaching strategies.” He also recommends that they include three parts:
- Checklists
- Table of contents
- One-pagers
Here in Australia, Bron Ryrie Jones has successfully run her Playbook Project. While I haven’t attended her course, I did speak to her about it in this episode of the Knowledge for Teachers Podcast. Bron also introduced me to The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande which has influenced a lot of my thinking around this (Jim Knight also cites this book).
Atul Gawande is not a teacher, but rather he is a surgeon, writer, and public health researcher. In it, he mentions how:
- One study found that introducing checklists reduced major post-surgical complications by 36%
- Checklists enabled pilots to fly the Boeing Model 299 for 1.8 million miles without a single accident.
Besides being a fascinating read, The Checklist Manifesto also offers excellent tips on how to build good checklists.
- Involve users in the creation
- Keep it simple
- Tailor to the situation
- Prioritise critical steps
- Use clear language
Personally, I’ve also been inspired by the work of people like Oliver Caviglioli, Jamie Clark and David Goodwin. In my episode with Jamie Clark, he describes the process that he goes through to design one-pagers. Since I lack their graphic design skills, I used Canva to create mine.
I’ll unpack my decision-making process for creating the Instructional Playbook. One of the main reasons I feel teachers appreciate them is that they distil a school’s teaching and learning principles into an easy-to-read package.
Why I developed one
From my experience running businesses, I’ve always valued systems and processes. They decrease the chances of things going wrong. When running my cafe, I created a set of steps for waitstaff to follow from the moment customers entered the premises to when they left. We also had checklists for things to do when you weren’t serving someone and what kitchen staff needed to do.
I started at Comleroy Road Public School in 2023 and began putting this together as a way to ensure good ideas weren’t forgotten. After I deliver professional learning to staff, I add to the Playbook. I have then been bringing it out in instructional coaching sessions to support different areas of focus. However, I haven’t presented it in its full capacity until the start of this year.
The purpose of this Instructional Playbook is to provide teachers at Comleroy Road Public School with a shared language around effective instructional techniques that can be used to set our students up for success. By codifying these practices it enables consistency in the implementation. It also assists in building our mental models of a core set of techniques that can be used across the curriculum.
For our school, I’m sure my colleagues would agree that we are far from the finished product, but having a shared understanding has really shifted the culture towards one where there is psychological safety, a sense of belonging and relational trust. This has meant that having a tool like an instructional playbook can be used in a manner that creates cohesion rather than chaos. Teachers don’t see it as being something that is really rigid, but as a flexible scaffold.
Having a document ensures that these techniques do not rely on any individual(s) and that these effective techniques are continued year-on-year. Often in schools, great ideas go as soon as the leading teacher/leader leaves that school. A good instructional playbook will increase the chances that these practices are sustained over time.
How to use an Instructional Playbook
Like with many things in education, it is just a tool. Having a fancy looking Playbook doesn’t mean that you have excellent classroom practice, just like having excellent classroom practice doesn’t require a Playbook. The main functions that I see for it are in instructional coaching sessions and for on-boarding new staff members.
It can also be used as a way to guide attention towards a third point. In Teaching Walkthrus, Sherrington and Caviglioli talk about how third point conversations move the teacher’s attention away from looking directly at the instructional coach and towards a document. This creates a less intimidating environment and provides a point of focus for both the coach and teacher away from each other. It also moves the conversation away from someone’s opinion.
Instructional Playbook Design Principles
As I mentioned, there are many interpretations of what an Instructional Playbook should be, but these are the principles that I’ve followed. It should be a:
- Working document: it’s never finished
- Co-constructed: I’ve had groups of teachers put together different routines
- Accessible: both in terms of language used and how teachers can actually get access to it
- Simple: only provide the key mechanisms of each aspect, not every little detail (more on this later)
- Context specific: the instructional playbook that I share with you should only be used as a model because what you put together needs to be specific to your context. It should use the language, routines, techniques and processes that are relevant to your school and no other. If you’re going to keep it general, there are already loads of resources out there that do that (TLAC, Teaching Walkthrus, One-Pagers, Tips for teachers, The Teaching and Learning Playbook), just use those.
What should you include?
If you google, “Instructional Playbooks” you’ll find a whole heap of examples. Some have similar features to this one, while others look very different. There is no right or wrong way to do it. Instead, the right approach is what works best for your school. For me, this one does not include absolutely everything. For instance, many Instructional Playbooks include lots of information about their curriculum. I decided to keep curriculum separate and just focus on instruction for this Instructional Playbook.
In the next part, I’ll describe some of the decisions that I made and why for different parts of the Playbook.
Contents
I’ve broken it up into seven sections. The Instructional Principles are like the guidelines for teachers to follow in order to enact the various teaching techniques effectively. Anyone can use a technique, but to use it at the right time and in the right way requires precision.
A general lesson structure is also included in this section.
The Primary Plays are the core teaching techniques that teachers should be using on a regular basis. It includes:
- Choral response
- Think Pair-Share
- Cold call
- Using mini-whiteboards
Teacher Tactics is one that I’ve only recently added and it describes moves that teachers can make to increase student engagement.
Routines that run are routines that operate across the whole school in a uniformed manner.
The Literacy and Mathematics sections describe aspects that happen during those parts of the day.
Finally, Setting up for success describes the processes that we have put in place to support teachers in implementing these ideas.
Instructional Principles
One of the things you’ll notice is that the ideas that are used are not unique! For instance, the instructional principles are almost exactly the same as Rosenshine’s Principles. The idea isn’t to create things from scratch, but rather contextualise it and present it in a way that your teachers will find useful.
Lesson Structure
While every teacher follows some sort of lesson structure, often we don’t have a shared understanding of what a good one looks like. My school follows the Archer and Hughes model and so I’ve just provided an overview of each aspect.
This also clears up that when we’re talking about a review during the teaching of new content, it’s not in the same sense as a Daily Review, but the emphasis is on prerequisites.
Like with our students, you also want to try and get in front of common misconceptions. So, throughout the document I’ve focused on both examples of how to do things and non-examples of what not to do.
Primary Plays
The Primary Plays help teachers understand when and why to use different checking-for-understanding techniques. It also supports them in knowing what they can do to make it better. Academic spotlight refers to the level of pressure a student may feel during the process. e.g. “Cold calling” can create anxiety when used incorrectly because the student is being called upon to speak in front of the class individually. If they haven’t been set up for success, then calling on a non-volunteer won’t work. If the teacher has taught them what they need to know and then the teacher “cold calls” then the student won’t feel as anxious.
Look Fors
These have been developed for teachers and leaders to use for observations. The way I describe it is that if at the bare minimum you tick all or most of the boxes, then you’re going to have a pretty good lesson. It’s not to be used to “pass” or “fail” teachers, but rather as a conversation starter. The teacher being observed should have access to the “Look fors” before the lesson.
One-Pagers
In one page, you need to describe the key mechanisms of that technique/routine. Things that I tend to include are:
- Why they should do it
- When they should do it
- What are the things that a teacher “must-do”
- What are the common mistakes
- In five simple steps how can they do it
Setting up for success
This section goes through this lesson preparation questions that teachers can go through before a lessons and the instructional coaching process that I follow.
In a nutshell
- Instructional Playbooks Create Clarity – A shared understanding of teaching strategies helps reduce misalignment between teachers and school leaders, fostering consistency and sustainment of instructional practices. They should be simple to use and understand, involve teachers in its creation and never finished.
- A Practical, Evolving Tool – The Playbook is a working document designed to support instructional coaching, onboarding new staff, and providing structured guidance for effective teaching.
- Designed for Context – While many examples exist, a good Instructional Playbook must be tailored to a school’s specific needs, using relevant language, routines, and strategies.
- More Than Just a Document – Having a Playbook doesn’t automatically improve instruction, but it serves as a valuable tool to support teachers in refining their practice and sustaining effective strategies over time.
Thanks for sharing Brendan, this is a really helpful blog.
This is incredible Brendan. Thanks so much for sharing your extremely hard work!!
My pleasure!