#362 – Diagnostic Teaching, with Richard Pardo

Richard Pardo, a teacher with 16 years of experience, discusses diagnostic teaching, emphasizing the importance of adjusting instruction in real time to meet students’ needs. He highlights strategies like formative assessments, reteaching materials, and using focused note-taking and other AVID strategies. Richard shares his experience with the AVID Certified Educator program, which has enhanced his teaching effectiveness by making lessons more intentional and relational. He also stresses the importance of creating a safe learning environment and using data to inform instructional decisions. The conversation underscores the value of formative assessments in guiding teaching practices and supporting student growth.

. . . Formative assessment helps us evaluate whether our plans and responsive ‘moves’ are working, while there’s still time to do something about it.

Erin Beard, in her blog post on NWEA, What Is Formative Assessment?

Resources

The following resources are available from AVID and on AVID Open Access to explore related topics in more depth:

• Accelerate Learning With Meaningful, Targeted Assessment (article)
• Address Academic Gaps (article)
• Exploring the Crossroads of Assessment, Student Choice, and Grading: Stories From a High School Science Class, with Mark Peterson (podcast episode)
• Personalize: Meeting the Needs of All Learners, with Eric Sheninger and Nicki Slaugh (podcast episode)
• Mastery Learning, with Jon Bergmann (podcast episode)

Notice, Pause, Pivot

Diagnostic teaching is encapsulated in the “Notice, Pause, Pivot” framework, which Richard Pardo describes as a way to stay responsive to student needs. He explains, “What I’m doing is I’m noticing they’re struggling, pausing to figure out what I can do to help them understand it better, and then I pivot in a way to either give them another example or reword it in a way that they’ll fully understand the information that they need to get.” Through this lens, Richard emphasizes that teaching is not about rigid plans but about maintaining consistent learning objectives while adapting methods to meet students where they are.

Listeners will also learn how Richard uses AVID strategies like focused note-taking and goal setting. They will also learn how he leverages technology for automating interventions and fosters a safe learning environment to build relational capacity. He sums up his teaching philosophy with optimism: “Every kid is more than capable of stepping up and showing you great things.” The following are a few highlights from this episode:

• About Our Guest: Richard Pardo is a teacher at Richardson North Junior High in Texas, where he teaches 7th grade AVID, AVID Excel®, social studies, and gifted and talented courses. Richard has 16 years of experience in teaching and is a member of the AVID Certified Educator program. Richard is also a big family person and loves spending time with his wife and two children.
• Valuing Education: Richard recalls, “I grew up on a farm down in South Texas in a place called Victoria, and my parents always stressed the importance of learning, and so at a young age, I kind of just understood that education was important.” After beginning his career in radio, television, and film, he says, “I quickly pivoted myself to teaching. . . . I have absolutely loved everything I do in the classroom setting.”
• Adjusting: Richard says, “A lot of times when you’re teaching, you’re always thinking about that end goal in mind, but the quote really speaks to adjusting on the fly and making sure your students understand what’s coming up. . . . It’s like understanding where the pitfalls and where the miscommunication is happening in the moment, and teaching in that moment, and pivoting to what they need.”
• Every Student Can Learn: “When you adapt and you’re using a lot of strategies, every kid can learn,” Richard reflects. “You know, every kid is more than capable of stepping up and showing you great things.”
• Diagnostic Teaching: As part of the AVID Certified Educator program, Richard has been studying a variety of best teaching practices, including diagnostic teaching—where educators consider and monitor student engagement, understanding, and outcomes before, during, and after lesson design and delivery and adapt lesson content and instruction in real time to accelerate and support students in achieving the desired learning outcomes.
• From the Beginning of the Year: Richard began diagnosing his students’ needs before they attended his first class. He researched their past test scores to determine classroom goals and priorities. One of his goals this year was to have his students improve their reading scores.
• Focused Notes Example: Richard recalls, “What I noticed was my students were doing a pretty good job, but I felt like they could be stronger in certain aspects.” In response to this observation, he implemented mini lessons to help his students write stronger essential questions, which resulted in stronger focused notes.
• Automating Anticipated Interventions: To reteach for common mistakes, Richard used technology. He developed a Google Form, which provided automated reteaching when students made an error on a digital quiz. That remediation might include a short video or a written document. After they reviewed the missed material, they could return to the question that they had missed and try again.
• Notice, Pause, Pivot: One of the strategies that Richard uses is called “Notice, Pause, Pivot.” This framework reminds him to be on the watch for evidence that students are struggling. When he notices this, he pauses, considers how to best meet the needs that he is witnessing, and then pivot in the moment to whatever strategy is needed.
• Consistent Learning Objectives: Even when pivoting, Richard points out, “The objective has to stay the same.” However, it’s important to remember that “sometimes, it does change the product. Sometimes, the product becomes something totally different, and it’s like, ‘Okay, so when I pivoted, this is what we’re going to do now.’” He admits, “Teaching is hard because, sometimes, you get that lesson, and you think it’s going to be a home run, and then . . . a lot of blank faces. That’s the everyday reality of the classroom.”
• Ways to Notice: Richard uses multiple strategies to identify if students are struggling. For instance, he’ll at times begin with a writing prompt to gauge student understanding. He might have students summarize what they’ve learned or put questions in a “parking lot” (like a sheet of paper on the wall or a digital Padlet file). Other times, he’ll notice a confused face on a student. Oftentimes, he’ll use an exit ticket to formatively measure classroom-wide achievement. He says, “When you’re teaching diagnostically, you’re always kind of looking at what they’re understanding, what they’re not understanding.”
• Relational Capacity: While formative assessment strategies are key to diagnostic teaching, Richard says, “I also think the huge key to this is making sure they’re in a safe environment. When students feel like they’re in a safe learning environment and they know it’s okay not to get something, they’re more open to tell you, ‘Hey, I’m struggling with this.’”
• AVID Strategies: Richard is a big proponent of using AVID strategies in his classroom. Two of his favorites right now are summarization and goal setting. Even simple approaches like having students give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down are effective and easy to implement.
• Peer Feedback: Richard feels that it’s also important for students to provide feedback to one another. He recently had students conduct a Gallery Tour of presentations they had created in Google Slides. He explains that when they engaged in this activity, “they had to give kudos . . . one grow and one glow to every student.” He also had students vote on the best presentation and explain their choice. He was impressed that students didn’t just choose their friends’ presentations. They were very thoughtful about their choices. “When they do that, their classmates know that they’re welcomed by other classmates.”
• AVID Certified Educator Program: Richard is grateful for his participation in the AVID Certified Educator program. While he is an established veteran teacher, he is open to learning and growing. In fact, he says, “I really feel, in Year 16, this might be the best year of teaching I’ve ever had.” He believes that the AVID Certified Educator program is a reason why. It has led him to teach with more intentionality and to combine strategies for greater impact. He shares that the group has recently been focusing on being “more retrospective while we’re creating lesson plans.”
• Applying for AVID Certified Educator: Richard further advocates for the program, saying, “If you’re out there and you’re teaching AVID right now, and you have an opportunity to become part of the AVID Certified Educator program, I would tell you to do it. . . . You’re going to find yourself not just being more intentional, but you’re going to be stronger in every asset of your teaching.” Application information can be found on the AVID website.
• Toolkit: Richard adds two tools to our toolkit. One is to make sure that you write and share strong learning objectives. The second is to use MagicSchool to help generate lesson plan ideas.
• One Thing: As his final takeaway, Richard reminds educators to “give yourself praise.” Teachers wear lots of different hats in a day, and the work of an educator is so important. It’s important to acknowledge and recognize that.