While my reflections may have gone a bit deeper than you would be interested in, I thought perhaps I would post about the Quality Indicators discussed in Week 5. I truly believe the indicators gave validation to what I am doing through my action research, but also to help see the plan as an ever revolving blueprint. We were asked to read Chapter 6, The Continuing Journey as “Head Learner,” in the Dana text, and carefully review the section “What Are Some Quality Indicators for Practitioner Research,” pp. 179 – 186.
My thoughts on the Quality Indicators:
Quality Indicator 1 is Context of Study. When sharing my action research, it is important to include details that relate to the context of my study, such as the school, teachers, students, curriculum, and of course the content of the action research. As an instructional coach assigned to 3 campuses where my action research will take place, it is important to show these details because each of the three campuses vary in student populations and grade levels so I would expect to see varying results between the campuses.
Quality Indicator 2 is Wonderings and Purpose. When the action research is presented by the researcher, the topic must make a relevant case to the needs of the school and be connected to pertinent literature in education. When reviewing the questions to ask as the researcher, I was hesitant at first that perhaps my action research was to “prove something” but when one reviews any literature by Dr. Robert Marzano on effective strategies implementing they can see that effective strategies is not about proving something, it is about impacting the teaching so that students are successful. This case is relevant to the campuses based on data already obtained through our district wide curriculum audit.
Quality Indicator 3 is Principal Research Design (Data Collection and Data Analysis). As the researcher for my action research project, I believe this is a quality indicator I have covered very well. Data in an action research project can be collected in the form of student work, test scores, field notes, or even interviews. As I conduct my action research, data is collected daily through classroom walkthroughs looking for evidence of effective instructional strategies. Interviews/Surveys will be completed to gain an understanding of teachers who may have a better grasp and understanding of Marzano’s 9, and student work and assessment scores will be the data that is reviewed to see the impact the teaching had on their success. An additional step in my action plan is to analyze data with teachers so they can see areas of need and together we can discuss suggestions to improve those areas. All participants can see the timeline that is embedded within my action research plan.
Quality Indicator 4 is Principal-Researcher Learning. Once the action research plan is complete, the principal researcher must present the findings of the inquiry. Included in this report should be statements- supported by data- discussing the findings, as well as any discrepant data. Through out the report, the researcher should weave reading and other experiences that relate to the topic and/or about the process of inquiry research. It will be interesting to see what findings I discover on perceptions teachers have about effective instructional strategies and the CARA cycle as they participate with me in my action research project.
Quality Indicator 5 is Implications for Practice. When the current research is complete, the researcher should determine what changes have taken place because of the research and what future change will occur because of these implications. I like to believe that my action research plan is based off another initial action research. This past school year our district participated in an outside sourced curriculum audit. Based on the findings and implications from this audit, I was able to create my action research focused on one finding – implementing effective instructional strategies. Through my action research plan, teachers on my campus (with my support) will be able to reflect on previous teaching and make impactful changes to help students be successful. As we work through my action research plan, my wish would be that teachers see the importance of effective instructional strategies, see how students can benefit from them and would wish to change their own practices to grow themselves professionally.
Happy Week 5! Let the ACTION BEGIN!!
* Dana, Nancy Fichtman (2009). The Continuing Journey as "Head Leader." In Leading with Passion and Knowledge: The Principal as Action Reasearcher (pp 179-186). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Friday, July 6, 2012
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
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.
Monday, June 25, 2012
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.
“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.
Sunday, June 24, 2012
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