OK. Confession time. I've never watched an episode of Friends until this summer. Yes, I was shamed into it by by daughter who was absolutely appalled that I had very little context and hadn't watch even one show from start to finish. I must admit it's definitely a reflection on our culture and how to navigate society. It's actually very very humorous and deep at the same time. I didn't know what I was missing. I allowed to expand my horizon in ways that I hadn't realized before.
In this particular episode the men are arguing over who's stronger and who could beat the other up. In the end it didn't really matter it was their relationships and individual strengths that made them a supportive team.
Working through instruction day to day is sort of the same. You need the whole to take care of individual need. You are looking for evidence each day to determine if you've taught your learning intention. However, it's the data that proves the point along with the authentic student work that backs it up. Stating a point without evidence is an editorial. Evidence needs to indicate where a student is in relation to the progression of the learning. You've entered your second week of data collection using the average of daily formative assessment. Take time to check and see if that data correlates to your MAP results in reading and math. Are the percentages within 5-7 points? If not what is your analysis and what are your next steps? Can you solve the problem together and if the data is aligned why is it? What are you doing to make this happen?
Quality evidence informs the team about what is happening in your classrooms now. It should make your team to think reflectively, stimulate dialogue and debate. It gets you all to think critically around the why, what and how students are learning.
Consider the following as reasons and rationale for your team to engage in Phase II "How do I know if students are learning?" (adapted from Bloomberg and Pitchford 2017)
- Improves the quality of teaching. If students are to learn they need access to the curriculum (common core standards). In order for you and your team to be clear is to know where your students are in comparison to the learning progressions. You need to gather evidence to know what they can do. You then have the opportunity to design lesson for all. Hattie(2009) says a key "signpost' of excellence in education is when teachers engage in "critical reflection in light of evident about their teaching."
- Improves student learning. We learn when we file new ideas or information into what we already know and then can readily retrieve it when we need it. Discovering what we know is found as you gather evidence through feedback from you and also from the student. Finding this data is not just for you but also for kids. Getting feedback from teacher and peers based on success criteria is evidence which leads to analysis and in turn, accelerates learning.
- Is a springboard to collective action. Analyzing your evidence means noticing and deciding. It's important to professionally talk about it however, it's only intellectual unless you follow it up with action. The action needs to be based on the evidence to make sure you get the most bang for your buck. If the evidence is old or too general(not specific to a learning intention/success criteria) then you run a pretty good chance that you actions may not be effective. Make sure your data is timely, relevant and specific!
Preschool will focus on improving student learning. We will have high expectation for our students. We will monitor student progress and plan large and small group instruction based on their needs.
ReplyDeleteThe Fifth Grade team is focusing on question 3: Is a springboard to collective action. We spent a lot of time last week looking at how our students were doing on their math DFAs, and deciding what action we were going to take in response to this. We ended up spending some intervention time on reteaching the concept, and planned additional ways to respond to students who needed even more support.
ReplyDeleteWe also had an interesting discussion about whether or not our assessments were truly assessing the standard or not.
First Grade: This week we are focusing on number 3, creating a springboard for collective action. We are looking at DFA's and CFA's this week and discussing how we can incorporate some new activities and jobs in small group differentiated instruction time to meet the needs of all students.
ReplyDeleteThird grade will focus on #3 A Springboard to Collective Action. We have a wide array of kiddos and we want to determine best ways to scaffold student learning for those who are not proficient and find ways to push those who are proficient.
ReplyDeleteL. Anderson- Music Class
ReplyDeleteEach grade level has worked diligently on grade level SC so this week they will be asked to "demonstrate what they have learned through various activities that cause them to reflect, demonstrate and grow."
Kindergarten
ReplyDeleteWe both saw a dip in our literacy data this week. We used the weekly sight word for one of our checkpoints and we both said that we noticed many students were able to remember the previous weeks sight words, but couldn't remember this weeks sight word. We think this is due to having more experiences and practice with the previous weeks sight words vs. only a few days of practice with this weeks word.
4th Grade will continue to focus on #3 as we look at our data. We are spending time this week reteaching concepts from Unit 1 Math DFAs and CFAs before moving on to Unit 2. Paul and I both noticed concerns in our reading data. We think this dip is due to lack of motivation to try and over scaffolding so we will plan ways to accommodate both areas in hopes that this week's data will be more reflective of what the students can truly do.
ReplyDeleteSecond Grade-
ReplyDeleteWe will focus on #3 as we look at our data. We would like to both be more timely and give more relevant feedback. Conferring with students while learning is going to make the biggest impact on the achievement.