Richard: Are We There Yet?

Wow. My students, para, and I have made it through the first six weeks of school and now are on vacation (thank you, balanced calendar!). Time to pause and reflect on our work together thus far.

I began the school year with a two-week review of basics for each subject, then plunged into the curriculum. I now realize that wasn’t the best idea. Why not? Because as we get into the finer details of the curriculum, I am finding that either my review didn’t work, or the students never really knew the basics to begin with.

For example, I recently gave a short essay assignment: Write a one-page narrative. The results were disheartening, to say the least. I realized my students have little-to-no working knowledge of basic grammar or writing conventions. I see now that I should have done a pre-/post-test for the review and spent the following week or so doing remediation for those ever-so-important basic skills.

I have decided to enjoy my break, then sit down to pinpoint those areas that need to be revisited. We’ll spend the remaining three weeks of our first grading period remediating while still trying to keep up with the curriculum maps (let’s just hope I remember my cape!).

While that idea scares me as a first-year teacher, I am confident in my ability to achieve this goal. My main concern is how to recognize when to move on. I struggle with knowing if we are there yet, “there” being that magical moment when students can demonstrate mastery of a skill so that I can progress to the next topic.

I then wonder if mastery is as big as its ego? Do my students really have to master everything? I know I haven’t mastered every lesson my teachers and professors taught me, yet I think I turned out OK.

If my students don’t have to master it, then when is the best time to advance? Is there a specific quantitative measure I can use to tell me when to move on to the brand-new, district-issued data collection binder I now have the pleasure of maintaining along with my plethora of other folders and reports?

I have been working on making sure I use diagnostic tests in some fashion at the beginning of each lesson. I realize I need to be give more daily formative assessments, such as tickets-out-the-door or other written assessments (so I can review them later without having to remember each student’s answers).

However, I am not really sure what to do with all that data. The obvious answer is to develop remediation activities for the students who perform poorly on post-tests and to amend my lessons to meet the needs presented in the post-test.

How do you go about that? I generally create the lesson plan in advance, giving the diagnostic on the first day along with a intro that provides students with an idea of what we will talk about and where we will end up. So how do you effectively change an entire lesson plan the day of or day before you are supposed to teach it, while still appearing prepared—or even better, actually being prepared?

Any tips or advice you can offer to help me bridge the gap from theory to practicality would be magnanimous (one of our next vocab words!).

Comments

[Tim Larrabee]

Is there an answer? If there is can I have it? As I complete my education and look at beginning my first year as a teacher I know this.

Assessment- all the time, pre-assessment, post-assessment, summative assessment, formative assessment, formal assessment, informal assessment. Use assessment to drive instruction. Use assessment to develop lesson goals. Use assessment to differentiate for each student's needs.

I am a strong proponent of Data Driven Decision Making but what data and and how much data is right and where am I going to find all the time to collect, analyze and interpret this data while still developing and delivering meaningful lessons everyday?

I look forward to working with my mentor and team to learn how to do all of this.

[Jamie]

I feel like I can really relate to your situation! I am currently doing my student teaching and will be taking over in the same classroom in August and I still find myself wondering have my students mastered the skills I want? Or they have them now, but what about in a month? I love you idea about daily exit tickets for your studnets. I would what other ways to check for understanding there are? And maybe ones more suitable for elementary?

[Richard]

Thank you all for your comments! They helped a great deal. I am sorry I wasn't able to respond to them individually, I truly appreciate the help. I will keep you posted on our progress in future posts!

[Alyssa Mackey]

I love reading that you have these same thoughts and fears. It helps me to know that I am not the only one! On top of everything you've said, it is difficult to determine what you should do if some students have mastered the concept, and other students still have no idea what is expected of them. How do you continue to teach to each student in a way that keeps them interested? I fully believe that work stations meeting specific needs could really assist in meeting different leveled student. I hope to utilize them in my future so that I can have some student work independently on activities, while I reteach specific information to those who really need it.

[Becca]

I often have similar concerns when I think my future as a special education teacher. I wonder when it will be obvious that the student I am helping has finally mastered what they are working on. It sure does seem to be a magical moment that has no real definition. I think the uncertainty of knowing when they've reached it and it's time to move onto something new is what scares me the most. You've got the right idea of pre/post-tests and doing small assessments along the way to track progress. I think that's the first step, and hopefully more answers will just start falling into place!

[Morgan]

This is an issue that I have struggled with as well, especially with students who have learning disabilities. One day, they seem to have mastered a skill they are working on, but the next day, sometimes it seems like it is all new to them. Knowing when to move on is a difficult balancing act, and often varies depending upon the student and the skill. Some skills are absolutely essential or very basic, and I'm learning that persistence pays off for these skills. For example, one of the students I've worked with who has autism really struggled with learning the colors. He did not understand, and we kept explaining it different ways, but he was showing no progress. One day, something just clicked, and he understood and knew the colors! This opened up a whole new world for him, and he could communicate much more of his wants and needs because he knew colors! If he didn't know the word for something that he wanted, he could say the color, and it would help us find out what he wanted. When I am thinking about giving up on a skill that I know a student will need, I try to remember this experience, and continue to differentiate my teaching strategies. I hope you are able to make progress in these skills that your students are working on, and maybe gain some insight as to the specific reasons they are struggling with these things!

[Nicole]

I will be student teaching next semester, so I love being able to hear what new teachers are going through. I feel like I am getting a sneak preview of the trials and tribulations of new teachers, these blogs are all rich with advice and lessons to be learned! I will keep in mind your pre/post test idea. That seems like it would be a good way to understand what your students grasp and what needs to be retaught. In classes we've talked about the issue of when to move on. Sometimes you need to just move on and not waste any more time on it when you could be learning other, more valuable skills. At the same time however, they may surprise you and you should never give up on your students. Once again, it's a crazy balance you must maintain and every situation is different.

[Janine Englerth]

I am also student teaching right now and even though we are only 3 weeks into the school year, my teacher is working on getting the baseline of the students' knowledge on the criteria we are teaching. Because it's a smaller class (being SPED) it's a little easier to see if the group overall has master the material. Once the baseline is figured out we will be teaching the material and my coop teacher tells me that she makes sure every one "masters" the information enough to where they at least understand it enough to be in the right direction of the answer when asked a question. For example: we are working the concept of monopolies in history right now and obviously John D. Rockefeller is connected to it. She said that if the students can connect him to money / oil (doesn't have to be both) and then knows to connect that to a monopoly then she feels they are on the right track. For those students who may be missing the train, keep trying different ways to express the concept and just keep repeating it. Assign homework where they have to do research, or play a group game, or assign a project where they can connect it to their everyday lives.

[Kayla]

I am student teaching right now and my teacher and I have been fumbling along with this as well. There are skills that students on our caseload had down pretty good at the conclusion of last year. Now, it's almost as if their slate has been partially erased. We are trying hard to keep up with the general education curriculum so that we can supplement it in our classroom. However, how can we move forward when the things they are learning require the skills that they are struggling with in our review. We've been keeping lots of data and reviewing at the beginning of every session before we attempt to supplement the curriculum. We wish we could say let's just move on, but if they don't have that foundation, they can't acquire the new skills either. I definitely do not think that you need to drastically change your lesson plans. I think Karyssa's suggestion of a peer mentor would certainly help you if you have that access. In the resource room, I do not have this great resource readily available. But, when they are in their regular classroom, they could definitely be paired with a higher achieving student so that they can begin to learn the new skills while my teacher and I keep supplementing to help our students master those basic skills as well. So, unfortunately I have no magical answer for you, but I am glad you asked. I will continue to look at what advice comes to your post so that maybe I can find a better answer as well. Its definitely great for us teachers to reach out to our peers too!

[Glenn]

As with any lesson one of things I find to save time is to activate the students prior knowledge- before the lesson begins. The students all have relevant prior experiences and knowledge of the topic (math, science,or reading for example). "Students with varied social and cultural backgrounds will have different schemata or conceptual structures upon which to relate new knowledge from texts" (The Reading teacher 63(4) pp. 325-329, Kathy A. Mills). Sometime all a student needs is a nudge or two to help them remember that prior knowledge.

Many times in the process of data collection people forget one of the most important elements: Just what the heck they are really measuring! Once they collect the data they are easily confused with all the statistics, simply because they have forgotten just what it actually is they are measuring.

Rick Stiggins is considered one of leading experts about effective assessment, this article would be a good place to start:

http://www.assessmentinst.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/afldefined.pdf

I have worked with many teachers who when asked about data collection respond with "Oh, I got stuff"- they literally have file cabinets full of data, but have no idea what to do with it. I have also worked with others who can tell me why they are giving a particular assessment, how they are going to analyze the results, and different ways they will respond based upon their interpretation of the data.

In your blog entry you mentioned about having to develop "remediation activities" for those who perform poorly on post tests. I always question my method of delivery when students door poorly. I ask myself "Did I present my lesson in such a way that is responsive to the learning style of the student?

Of course you cannot design 26 different written tests for 26 different students, but during the block of instruction you can present the material is such a way that the learning style of each student is used, are they concrete sequential or concrete random style of student?

[Natalie Sweeney]

Hi Richard,

As a parent, I thought you might like be aware of something that I have gone through (am still going through) with my daughter and her learning disabilities. She is 13 now and was identified as a special ed child through our county school system when she was 4 yrs old.

At outward appearance she's like any other 13 year old except her verbal skills have masked her learning disabilities. I recently had her tested at The Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore and she was diagnosed as mentally retarded. Can you imagine what a shock it is to find out after so many years that your child TRULY cannot understand math!

My daughter was tested over the years but not once did anyone ever mention the possibility that she was 'intellectually challenged'. If there's no improvements in tests year over year then it's time to take some further steps. I wish someone would have reviewed her records and made the connection of no improvement and sat down with me and explained it in terms that I could understand -- not the acronyms that teachers are so familiar with using.

Anyway, what I wanted to say to you was that sometimes, albeit probably not often, there are kids that really don't understand things and may need an extra thought on the teacher's part to sort out what the true issues could be. My daughter's teachers thought that she really was messing around and not trying, as her mother I intuitively knew different so I did what I hope most parents do -- reach out for help.

Good for you for reaching out to your student! As a parent I appreciate teachers like you who go that extra mile to make sure that kids are being given the education they need and NOT the one that NCLB dictates.

Good luck to you!
Natalie Sweeney
Bluemont, VA

[Sandy]

Depending upon the skill, Mastery can be a maker or breaker determining who gets left in the dust. If it is a foundational skill, such as reading, writing, or math facts, leaving children behind can have much greater consequences for the students than leaving them behind in regard to something like science--not that science isn't important, but science concepts are reviewed repeatedly throughout schooling and it tends not to be a subject that builds upon a necessary academic skill.

That said, how do you tell earlier if a child is getting it? Having a lot of interaction with your class, asking questions, circulating while your students work in small groups--listening for how well different students understand what they're doing, etc. can help you have a sooner clue as to who gets it and who doesn't yet get it. Having activities in small groups or asking interactive questions also helps students stay more alert, and less likely to be tuned out during the learning process. Also, interacting as much as possible will allow you to note who is struggling with the concept and intervene early with "extra credit" assignments by having that student do a special project (produce a visual, act out a skit, make a rap song, etc.) to show the concept in a unique way--often allowing the student to find a way to express the concept in his own learning style. This equates to self-teaching for the child, gives extra credit for extra effort which is often needed for struggling students (not rewarding successful achievement of a test score per se, which is often a disincentive to learning for struggling students--but all students can work on something a bit extra 'for fun' and your struggling students will likely appreciate the extra attention and concern you have for them ;-).

One thing comes to mind in regard to how to best approach an early review to help your students, is for you to provide multi-sensory learning opportunities in order to reach the widest possible number of learning styles in your students. Teachers have a tendency to teach using their own personal learning style, which may leave close to 60% of your students feeling like they haven't really learned the content.

Multi-sensory teaching is a bit more difficult with teaching of writing, but having students come up to the board to write examples, or to do little skits to act out concepts can really make the skills stick in the mind of the students. It isn't an easy thing to incorporate multi-sensory teaching activities for every lesson, but it is pretty essential for your students who have strong tendencies towards one learning style. You might find helpful information and ideas for multisensory teaching at http://www.learningabledkids.com/multi_sensory_training/Page06-multisensory_definition.htm

I don't know what grade you're teaching, but depending upon the grade and the types of skills you are teaching, you might be able to find activities on grade level by searching the Internet. Best of LUCK!

[Karyssa]

I can completely relate with your experience. As a student teacher, I'm in the learning process right now and the school I'm assigned to is working on an inclusion model for their students. This is great because it gives the students with disabilities a chance to be educated with their peers, but our problem now is fitting those interventions and remedial lessons into a class that is already moving at such a fast pace. In a general education environment, it's even more difficult to track a student's individual progress and needs because the attention is divided among so many students. One strategy we are trying now is giving the struggling students a peer mentor that is more advanced to model the skills required in the class. This may be a strategy that you could implement into your own classroom to address the individual needs shown in your initial assessments. Because the needs of students are always so unique and individual, giving students a "go-to" peer for the skills they struggle with may relieve your load enough so you don't feel like you have to adjust your lessons too drastically in so little time. I've noticed that this also reinforces not only students' use of skills, but also their use of resources. Students can learn that there are many resources for help and support. Keep sharing your ideas, because this is definitely one of my new teacher worries as well.