Where It All Started

Evidence of Teacher Use of Effective Instructional Practices

January 2012

Instructional Strategy	Percentage of Classroom
Specific learning goals/objectives	11
Corrective Feedback	10
Reinforcement of effort; recognition	33
Well-constructed cooperative learning	2
Cues and prompts	12
Advance Organizers	4
Non-Linguistic representations	7
Kinesthetic activities to increase student acheivement	2
Mental Pictures (by students)	0
Physical models of concepts (manipulatives)	7
Summarizing	3
Note-taking	6
Time for practice, review, application	21
Homework with a clear purpose	0
Comparing, classifying, metaphors/analogies	3
Generate and test hypothes (students)	0
Clearly explain hypotheses and conclusions	0

• Reinforcing and recognizing students’ efforts was the most common strategy.
• Giving students time to practice, review, or apply was the next most common strategy; however, this consisted of giving students seatwork in the form or worksheets or workbooks or other low-level assignments.
• The remaining strategies were either not observed or found in fewer than 10 percent of the classroom visits.

UPDATED: Action Research Plan - Implementing Effective Instructional Strategies

Based on conversations with our district assistant superintendent and the principal from campus of my target population, revisions to my action research plan are included below (in red). I encourage each of you to post comments as I continue to describe the process and progress implementing the plan over the upcoming months. Thank you each in advance for your comments and critiques.

 

Reflections of Comments

Below are reflections based on comments I have received from others concerning my action research project.  Thank you all for joining me on the journey and please continue to comment as we all move towards progress with our action research projects.

“Figuring out how to help our middle school students be successful is very important.”


• This commenter couldn’t say it any better. We must find the tools to put into students hands to help them understand the learning and to engage them and make them eager for the information we have for them. The diagram below shows how students respond when we use certain instructional practices. Which are the most effective? Where do you as teachers want to be?

“Your blog is very well-written! I also think you bring a very valid point up by stating that if you are not interested it will be unsuccessful. Great job!”

• Thank you for your kind words. I believe that in anything we do, if we are not interested we already prepare ourselves for failure in whatever endeavor it may be. One peer from my cohort was surprised by the challenges that most interns were experiencing were teacher resistance – that is most likely a cause of not being interested in the change being presented. I also mentioned to them that some are just teacher leaders, others aren’t. I hardly ever receive resistance from teachers who are ready to impact their teaching and to help students be more successful rather than making excuses why something is not working.

“I am positive that I could have benefited from someone in your position when I first began teaching and sometimes even now when I am at a loss of what to do with certain TEKS, etc. I am interested in seeing how your year comes along. I know as a classroom teacher, we often get in a rut and we do tend to give out an excessive amount of worksheets - sometimes from lack of knowledge of how to use a hands on approach with certain skill areas. Good luck!”

• I love what I do and love working with willing teachers because they do want fresh ideas. It’s tough when I get to the reluctant teachers and the teachers who see me as just an evaluator who is out to get them and knit pick the negative. The curriculum is my favorite part. As I change over to just 3 campuses this year because we added additional coaches, I'm looking forward to building relationships by assisting more with questions about the standards rather than jumping straight into classroom walkthroughs. Your comment is just proof that not only do the new, first year teachers benefit from my position, but sometimes it is the veteran teachers that need our support, if not more.

“As teachers we are sometimes un aware of the ineffectiveness of teaching relying only on worksheets. In our Montessori curriculum we teach students from the concrete to the abstract providing them with hands on learning. Education is changing rapidly and the state has issued us as educators a mandate TEACH WITH MORE RIGOR!!! We can't be effective teachers and expect our students to excel if we're watering down instruction with meaningless worksheets.”

• Last week I trained a group of teachers on using Thinking Maps. For at least 20 minutes we debated on why Thinking Maps are not graphic organizers. When I was finally able to get them to give me a chance and at the end of the day if they still didn't believe me, we could continue the debate. By the time the afternoon session came and I had them applying Thinking Maps to their own grade level content I kept hearing comments such as, "My kids can't do this!" One teacher in particular that had started the earlier debate I asked, "But they could do graphic organizers?" It was like a light bulb came on - she got it!!  We can't keep saying, "our kids can't do this." We have to give them the tools they need to dig deeper into their learning. After a brief conversation when we all came back, they finally understood why Thinking Maps are a thinking tool to put in the hands of the kids and why they provide a deeper level of understanding. It's not a context but a thought process which is where we hinder so many students because we keep falling back on, "I've always done this, they can do this, they can't do the higher rigor stuff" i.e. watering it down. To say I was stressed out from the morning thinking I wouldn't get through to them would be an understatement, but I could not have asked for a better "ahha" moment from the teachers. They wanted to know if all the teachers in the district would be required to take the training!

* Two of the above comments came from my blog and two from the discussion board. While the two blog comments did not lead to revisions on my action plan, I did realize some areas that needed to be included on my plan based on the discussion board comments and from reviewing other peers plans. One revision I made based on the discussion board comments was “Lunch and Learn.” Lunch and Learn is short sessions to share effective instructional practices so that teachers have fresh ideas to implement in their classroom. By modeling one quick practice through a 15-20 minute session while they eat lunch, they can take that back to their classroom to use in instruction. It is one practice, not multiple as they receive in a more formal staff development setting. Another revision I am making to my plan based on reviewing other blogs is to survey my teachers on what they feel are their strengths and weakness are and to gain an understanding of their knowledge and experience of Marzano’s Framework of Effective Instructional Practices.

Action Research Plan - Effective Instructional Practices

Lessons Learned

Does it have a purpose? Who is going to benefit? Are you focused?  Are you interested?

As we narrowed down our decision on a final action research plan we needed to answer at least the first two questions, but once you dig into it a bit deeper, you can't help but ask yourself, "Are you focused? Are you interested?" If you are not interested in your action research project then you will lose focus and once you lose focus, you lose sight of your purpose.  If the ones who are supposed to benefit from the project do not see the value through you, they, too, will lose focus or interest and how are they supposed to benefit from that? 

An action research project's purpose combines 4 elements.  The purpose:
1. tells of a problem or goal.
2. is focused.
3. is reasonable and feasible.
4. is ethical.

The beneficiaries of you action research are you key stakeholders - the students, parents, teachers, campus administrators, district level leaders, school board, and the community at large.  At the completion of an action research project, the stakeholders will be better off.

While I kept these questions in mind during my selection of an action research project, I was able to narrow my action research down to Effective Instructional Strategies.  This action research can combine previous trainings through the Dana Center, a tool our district instructional coaches will use this upcoming year - Marzano's Becoming a Reflective Teacher, and our district guidelines for peer coaching on our assigned campuses. Even though I have an extremely high interest in researching implementation of Web 2.0 tools and technology in the classroom, it ultimately came down to the fact that technology is an effective tool when used in the classroom.  So with a slight tweak, I can incorporate two choices into my final decision of researching Effective Instructional Strategies.

EDLD 5301: How Educational Leaders Can Use Blogs

Blogging - a powerful collection tool.  Blogging - a way to capture thinking over time.  Blogging - a personal pensive to store thoughts.

As administrative leaders, you can use blogging for many purposes including:

* Data collection - collaborative comments, combine text, images, and links to other sites.
* Capture thinking on your own practices.
* Model a love of writing with students on your campus
* To share and encourage the use of  instructional strategies.

By administrative leaders using blogging as they lead, they are bringing inquiry into their practices.

EDLD 5301 - Action Research and How I Can Use It

There is a difference between the traditional research and action research. Action research is leaders and teacher navigating a change. Educators study and reflect on student learning as related to their own teaching. Action research is a process as an effective tool for improving teaching and learning. As teachers reflect on their own teaching strategies, their teaching is strengthened. They gain self confidence and self efficacy. Action research should be seen as the extension of good teaching, validating effective teaching practices used in the educational setting. The primary goal of action research is to improve student learning by developing and refining the skills of teaching.


The steps of action research include:

1. Educational leaders or teachers identify a learning problem
2. A collaboration of learners develops and implements an action research plan.
3. Data is collected and analyzed so that a change can be implemented. Teachers are ready to take action!
4. As results are noticed, they are used and shared to continue improvement to student learning.

Action research is a process that requires facilitation and coaching. As an instructional coach my day-to-day focus is providing instructional assistance to teachers, assist in curriculum writing, and work with teachers and campus administrators in the use of student assessment data for instruction, and work to increase vertical and horizontal communication and teaming. Currently in my position, our team has two research techniques we are using that follows the basic steps of action research. We have used the Dana Center Walk Through CARA cycle where a leader will collect data on instructional strategies and practice occurring in a classroom. The coaches analyze the data then we reflect with the teacher group on the data. As a collaborative group, an action plan focused on student achievement is created. The cycle is repeated after the teachers have had ample time for implementation of changes in their classroom. Recently, Dr. Robert Marzano released a book entitled, Becoming a Reflective Teacher. Focused on 41 areas and/or practices of teachers in the classroom, teachers reflect on their own teaching so that they can set a plan of action for change into place in their classroom.

As our district moves forward with addressing findings from a recent curriculum audit, an action research will be the tool that we need to begin addressing those findings. Two findings in the forefront of my mind as I work with teachers daily will be Effective Classroom Strategies that Engage Students and Implementing a Plan to Guide Design, Deliver, Monitor, and Evaluate the Written Curriculum.