Struggling with trying to define my problem so I am hoping that writing will help me think this through... Problem- My non Special Education 5th graders in Read 180 (intensive intervention ELA replacement block 90 min daily )are not all reaching grade level by the end of the year. This problem has been made worse in recent years when the lexile level required to be considered "Proficient" increased (not to mention increased rigor of Common Core State Standards) Impact on Students- "Still here" syndrome, lack of motivation
Part 2- Post IRB discussion with Dr. HawleyOK- so I think I may see a bit of light at the end of this tunnel.
My new and improved DQ is- The goals/objectives for this study are to explore the relationship between students attitudes and self-perceptions about reading and their reading achievement. Another objective is to examine how to bring students’ self-perceptions into alignment with their achievement. I did a survey with my students at the end of the year and found that many of their own self perceptions about their skill level were very different from mine. For the most part, the kids thought they were closer to grade level than they really are even though we regularly sent quantitative goals. I guess all that self-esteem and confidence boosting worked a little too well! :) My DQ fits well with what is happening in our Napa district as well as on the state/national level. Naturally; there has always been a focus on reading skills, but more and more studies are being done about interventions/Response to Interventions. The research I have done so far is challenging because it is such a huge topic and I find myself becoming interested in too many related areas. I found one article specifically about students who do not respond to Tier 3 interventions and it said that not much research has been done about this so I am not sure if this is a good sign for me or not? This is definitely going to be an interesting journey!
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I read a blog posted on Facebook by our new Union President (and former Kindergarten teacher at my school) about "Visualizing 21st Century Classroom Design". This posting was impactful to me because it gave me ideas for small,concrete steps to change the physical arrangement of the classroom to foster the 4 C's. As teachers, we know that seating students in "cemetary rows" prohibits students from being able to easily communicate with each other. The physical layout of this classroom looks very much like a Read 180 design (small group, kidney table, tech station, whole group) which made me feel like I am headed in the right direction!
I absolutely love the idea of lowering the bulletin boards so that kids can own that space. I am curious about the lack of "extrinsic motivators" because I believe it is important for students to see their reading goals and progress clearly posted. This visual seems like a great first step for teachers to begin thinking about how they can foster the 4 C's in their own classrooms because the physical space allows for so much flexibility. Upon reviewing the Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects, question #4 about describing the research methods seems to be the most challenging for me at this point. I am not sure which procedures will help me answer my driving question. I have started to hone in on analyzing just my 5th grade students who I have already had in my intensive reading intervention class for 1+ years, but I am not sure what data will be most helpful/relevant. My justification for finding out how to help students who do not respond in a timely way is urgent for me (I want to help next year’s students), but I am unsure how long this research process will take. I can also think of many benefits, but not really any risks to this type of research although there must be.
Having gone through California’s public education system in the 1970’s and 80’s (please don’t calculate my age) , I am impressed that I can even formulate a complete sentence. In Chapter 5 of The Flat World and Education titled “A Tale of Three States”, Linda Darling-Hammond called my beautiful home state a “cautionary tale” where “mismanagement meets aggressive neglect”. I remember hearing rumblings about Prop. 13 as a kid, but never understood it. Reading the term “disinvested” in regards to what happened to state funding during that time period made it clear to me just how CA’s ranking slid from first to practically worst in the nation.
While it is true that not all kinds of spending improve student learning, underfunding can certainly not allow the state to fulfill its constitutional obligation to provide a “minimally adequate education” (pg. 119). I find this term personally and professionally shocking. Do we expect our students and teachers to be “minimally adequate”? How can we expect our system to dramatically improve when the bar is set so low? In contrast, the language Korea uses to describe their system is “thinking schools, learning nation”. Striking difference. Throughout Chapters 4-6, Darling-Hammond describes the key to building strong educational systems is by using funds to invest in skillful teachers. This confirms my belief that student learning is all about the teacher. Parents instinctively know this, which is why our elementary school’s Open House night is a prime time for parents to shop for their child’s future teachers. One direct benefit I had never considered of increasing teacher quality and training is the impact it has on systematic change. LDH attributes Finland’s success in large part to the autonomy of the local schools. “Policy makers decided it they invested in very skillful teachers, they could allow local schools more autonomy to make decisions about what and how they teach- a reaction against the oppressive, centralized system they sought to overhaul.” (pg. 169) Trusting and training teachers like the professionals they are instead of being forced to use an “overly prescriptive curriculum” (pg. 156) seems to be a critical component of systematic improvement. Despite the bleak horror story of California’s abysmal past, these chapters actually gave me some hope about our future. Improving teacher quality is something we absolutely have control over. Incentivizing teachers to seek higher education, including National Board Certification, seems to be a relatively simple first step. Offering subsidies for high need locations would allow urban schools a better opportunity to compete for highly qualified teachers. North Carolina’s approach to recruiting high school students into the profession, especially males,minorities, math/science backgrounds, also seems to have merit (pg. 142). Of course, these are only first steps as continuous teacher training is required to truly see long lasting impact. Linda Darling Hammond’s response to what’s wrong with our education system really grabbed my attention. Having survived the years of intense scrutiny under No Child Left Behind, it seems that educators today are just now coming out of the fog of the bombardment of state and local assessments. But now what? Although many teachers felt their hands were tied with what and how they were teaching, the freedom of creating a more equitable system is daunting to say the least.
Hammond went on to say that our students today are the most tested and least examined. To me this speaks to the idea of educating the whole child and ensuring that their most basic human needs are taken care of first and foremost. Looking at a child’s data can never tell the whole story. A successful educational system will produce ”equity of outcomes” no matter how that child started their educational path. As a teacher of struggling elementary school readers, this concept intrigues me because my students are often starting at a disadvantage. Lack of preschool, having a primary language other than English, lower socio-economic status, are just a few of the hurdles that my students have to overcome. I feel an immense pressure to have them achieve the “equitable outcome” of becoming an on grade level reader by the time they are 5th grade. As the mother of a freshly turned 16 year old boy, the mere mention of the word "driving"
makes my poor old heart skip a beat. "Will he be OK?" "Is he prepared?" "Did I teach him well enough about ___________?" (insert just about any possible scenario here!) These essential questions play like a mental loop in my head as I watch him face the brave new world ahead of him. As a teacher of 3rd,4th and 5th grade struggling readers, I often ask myself these same questions about my students. I worry that my 5th graders are not prepared as I send them off into the uncharted waters of middle school. I am concerned that I didn't teach my 4th graders all of the essential skills they will need as they become the big kids on campus. The statistics describing 3rd grade as a pivotal year in reading development and predictor of future academic success pressures me to have each and every one of them achieve grade level reading. I have taught Read 180 and System 44 intensive reading intervention classes for 8 years and I have seen the power of these amazing programs. They really have transformed the lives of many of my students as they journey toward their goals of reaching grade level. However, through the years, there have also been students that were still behind despite having had received intensive reading intervention for 2-3 years. It is these students that lead me to my own driving question- "What can be done to help elementary age students who don't respond to intensive reading intervention?" More and more this is becoming a topic of conversation at district level meetings, but so far I have never received a satisfactory answer. If the student has qualified to receive Special Education services, than I completely understand that many of them will need the gift of time and cannot be expected to reach reading mastery at the same pace as their peers. Yet I have students who have not qualified for Special Education, have very supportive families, are very motivated personally, have a wonderful teacher (if I do say so myself) and still do make the expected gains. My beginning list of "Need to Knows" include:
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Dana HandI teach Read 180 at Northwood Elementary School and I am passionate about reading (obviously!) In my "free time" I love hanging out with my 2 teenagers and taking our two dogs for long walks. Archives
March 2017
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