As an Academic Specialist for my elementary school, part of my responsibility is to analyze school wide data. I have learned how to find patterns and trends in quantitative data both with a birds-eye view of the school down to digging deeper into individual student's data. I have appreciated having this opportunity to learn how to use data to inform instruction at a systematic level and help teacher's use the data to make sure their student's are placed in the correct programs and interventions. It is helpful to have an objective person (other than the classroom teacher) look at the quantitative numbers and offer conclusions about what the data suggests. Our district has a relatively new forum called "DataCom" in which each school presents their data to a panel of other school sites, superintendent, etc with the goal of sharing progress towards our school goals and learning from other sites.
In working on my research paper, I felt comfortable with analyzing my students' quantitative data, but I was at a loss as how to summarize my qualitative findings based on their written comments on an end of year survey. I always felt that qualitative methods were exclusively subjective (as the graphic above demonstrates), but it was very interesting to look at student comments to find trends/patterns with an almost quantitative lens (counting/tallying certain words that were repeated). I was able to see categories and group them together which helped focus my attention on the bigger picture. A part of the analysis still was subjective because I was interpreting what the student meant by their comment because I have known many of my students for several years. Meeting with Dr. Hawley was eye-opening who suggested writing about the qualitative method by introducing the data, writing the student quote and then analyzing each comment. While I still believe that teachers should use quantitative data to inform their instruction, I see how qualitative data is a useful part of good teaching and learning.
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My Driving Question: What impact does students’ attitudes and self-perceptions have on reaching proficient reading levels in intensive intervention for 1+ years? In the process of doing research related to student attitudes and the challenges with reading achievement in younger elementary age students, it did not take long until I came upon the work of Carol Dweck and the concept of growth vs. fixed mindset. As the graphic above demonstrates, the overarching concept is that intelligence can be developed and is not a static or merely genetic. This idea has been confirmed by the latest brain research which shows the plasticity of the brain and how neural pathways are created and strengthened. Teaching students to be metacognitive about their thinking patterns can foster this growth mindset and how to handle the inevitable "failures" that are part of the learning process. Pinterest has hundreds of creative ideas of how teachers are encouraging their students to turn those "I can'ts" and "I'll nevers" into "I'll try another way" and "This may take some time to learn". The business community is also latching onto this concept as a way to increase productivity and creativity in the workplace (this graphic is from a business website) I just returned from an AVID 3 day college readiness training which focused on critical thinking and the inquiry process. Low and behold, our presenter told us that AVID Elementary is based upon Carol Dweck's book "Mindset: The New Psychology of Success". This has been a powerful experience for me as a teacher this summer to see connections between the latest brain research, our district's vision (4 C's, PBL, etc. ) and what is happening on a daily basis at my site and own classroom with AVID strategies. I feel revitalized and eager to use some of AVID's resources to help my own struggling reader's develop the connection between their own self-perceptions and reading achievement. Having the extra push of doing quantitative and qualitative action research is scary, but at the same time I know that it will force me to dive in and not let this important work take a back seat to all of the daily business that tends to pile up on my desk! Video Highlights
2. John Seeley Brown - A new culture of learning
3. Howard Gardner - Five minds of the future
4. Sir Ken Robinson - Challenges the way we're educating our children.
5. Daniel Pink - The surprising science of motivation
In my search for common threads among these videos, I found myself metacognitively thinking about my own neurological connections and trying to make those synapses fire! Brain research is definitely a fascinating area that teachers should understand better. Two important threads that stood out to me as a teacher of struggling readers is the idea of fostering creativity by preparing students to be wrong and the importance of intrinsic motivation. These two concepts fit perfectly with my driving question of self-perception and reading achievement. Growth mindset seems to also support creativity since perseverance and making mistakes is encouraged. Philosophically I completely agree with this idea, but our educational system and my own classroom is not designed this way since student achievement is based on their quantitative scores (Reading Counts quizzes, Reading Inventory, Read 180 software grading reports) How do we teach students to want to make mistakes when those very "mistakes" on their assessments are what is keeping them in intensive reading intervention?
The other idea I found intriguing is that incentives kill creativity and don't work. More importantly they can actually cause harm. As teachers, most of us realize that extrinsic motivators should be temporary and that intrinsic motivation is the ultimate goal. How to make that happen is still a mystery to me. I especially related to Daniel Pink's concept of mastery- the desire to get better at something that matters. How do I show students, especially my "whatever" attitude 5th graders, that reading skills actually do matter and there is a real sense of urgency for them to improve? One reason students like being in my class is that I offer many different ways for them to earn rewards, but those sweeter carrots only work for some kids. How do I make this shift in my teaching so that kids truly have the desire to get better at something that matters? Any and all suggestions are welcome!!
After finishing Darling-Hammond's Flat World, the policy that could effect the most change in education, especially here in the Napa Valley, is #4 "Strong professional standards and supports". I strongly agree with the career ladder model that she describes in Ch. 9. The current system's message is "Those who work with children have the lowest status; those who do not have the highest." (pg.318) I have worked as a 50% TOSA for the past 2 years as an Academic Specialist and I felt this firsthand. Although I love the concept of teacher coaching, it still seems odd to me that it requires excellent teachers to leave the classroom. If teachers had the support they needed from teacher coaches with the 10 hours a week of joint planning time, I think real change could happen. I found the Benwood Inititative very interesting (pg.321-322). The idea of combining financial incentives along with creating collegial professional communities seems like a great beginning step for our district. Even in our relatively small district, we have high-need schools. Money alone would not be enough to keep high quality teachers because we all know that we need other teachers for support. Teachers at my school often comment about what a positive group of people we are who are always ready to help each other out. My school is poised to make the next step forward because we already have highly trained, passionate teachers but we have too much on our plates and not enough time to "digest" it together. 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! https://prezi.com/t6ciktvsohoq/case-study-collaboration-vs-cooperation/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy
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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