Saturday, Jan. 24, 2014 Routine data source and thinking.

Mills Teacher Scholars

Looking at Focal Student Progress

January 2014

The purpose of this electronic document is to give you one place to put all your work from the Saturday meeting – when you are done, please be sure to copy and paste into your blog! In this way you will have a record of your work, and the MTS group facilitators will be able to send you feedback on your work. Thank you!

The learning goal related to my area of Inquiry/Inquiry Question is:  Students will have a deep conversation about their book that pushes their thinking further than it was before the conversation.

My routine data source is:  Recorded conversations from partners.

Demonstrating Success: Reflect on what evidence you see in the routine data source that tells you how your student is or is not progressing on the indicators.

Indicators	Student Initials ______J.W.____________	Student Initials __________I.G.________
I:  Makes a claim, or states a theory	☐Met ☐Not met  ☐ Partially What evidence of student learning do you see in the student work?	☐Met ☐Not met  ☐ Partially Evidence of student learning:
II: Uses evidence to back up that claim	☐Met ☐Not met  ☐ Partially Evidence of student learning/thinking:	☐Met ☐Not met  ☐ Partially Evidence of student learning/thinking: “And now she’s like this shoplifter”
III:  Conversation stays on the same topic with more than two back and forth.	☐Met ☐Not met  ☐ Partially Evidence of student learning/thinking:	☐Met ☐Not met  ☐ Partially Evidence of student learning/thinking:
IV: Helping each other move forward.	☐Met ☐Not met  ☐ Partially Evidence of student learning/thinking:

(For more focal students, copy the table and paste in again)

Notes:

How will I change my teaching based on what I learned by looking at the data?  Direct modeling. How to back up a claim and

During your small group discussion, if a colleague takes electronic notes, ask him or her to write them here:

Background: Change in process - kids picked their own partners (friends) and books they wanted to read (all reading same book)

- pros and cons of new process

Goal - deep level conversation with partners

Indicators - 1. makes a claim/states a theory 2. uses evidence to back up claim/goes back to text 3. conversation stays on the same topic

Focal Students - switching around which kids to focus on - now, Jeanna

Refining data collection - take video so you can see if/how they are using evidence

Refining indicators:  Content: 1-claims 2-evidence Process: 1-on topic 2-adding on/going deeper back to original person

Looking at Data:

- content goals: making claims, but not necessarily using evidence to support it

- process goals have evolved (from looking at each other, talking about sme thing, talking about book, staying on topic, etc)

- some back and forth talking happening now, look at what they do when they get “stuck in the conversation”

Changes to make in teaching - be clear and model not just making claim, but showing evidence (because data showed that kids making claims but not yet supporting)

Next steps: Look into academic language around “back and forth” ; what are next teaching steps

At the end of the discussion a colleague records your answer to this prompt:

What are you thinking now?

I feel good about indicators. Dont care as much now about “Does thinking change.” Want to keep listening to conversations and focusing on these indicators. Thinking about claim and evidence as next steps for teaching/modeling. Exit ticket: “Make your claim and show your evidence.” Book conversation is oral language scaffold for written ticket and later more formal essay. Good curriculum as a guide.

Afternoon notes:

Preparation for the February meeting: Sharing your Work In Progress

1 What is your area of inquiry? What are you wondering about?

I am focusing on students having in depth conversations with a partner about their books.

2 What is your routine data source? What student thinking are you able to see in your data?

My routine data source is recorded and then transcribed conversations between some partner pairs.
I also conducted one survey about reading partners.
Finally, I have weekly journal entries, with the goal being stronger journals after the groups meet. But is that putting more partner reading than I can a)expect and b)realistically monitor.

3 What are your indicators of success? What does success look like for students on this data source?

1. students can make a claim about a character or topic in their book.

2. students can back up that claim with evidence.

3. students  are able to sustain the conversation on the same topic for longer periods of time- currently the longest I’ve heard is three back and forths.

4 What learning have you seen so far? What has surprised you?

• The first thing I’ve learned, which doesn’t exactly relate to my indicators is that having the same book and a partner of choice has helped to elevate the conversations.  Students have chosen books together, and I’m seeing more engagement around the book. On the other hand, when students aren't able to stay in the same place, which is a constant issue, then they say it's really hard to have conversations. I really don't know what to do about this.
• 
  

• The second thing I’ve seen is that they are grappling with the characters and their reasons for acting in certain ways. Almost any group I've listened to talk about the events of the book and sometimes makes a theory about a character (which is the big thing we've focused on this year.) So I've heard, I think she's selfish. So, often they are doing #1. But backing up the claim with evidence doesn't happen much.

• It’s not particularly surprising, but I’ve rarely seen students go back to the text to back up their ideas. I also haven’t really seen the ideas shift within the conversation. I’m not sure if that should be an indicator or not. I think I believe that if they stay on that the topic for a longer period of time, they will eventually shift their ideas. I wonder if I should make the explicit and look for that?
• Indicator #3- I'm still not seeing that. What I usually here is a question and then an answer.

-Some other things I've notice:

• Book choice is a big challenge.  If one person doesn't like the book or if it's not the right level for them, it's hard for them to have any kind of conversation.
• I notice kids relying upon each other to ask questions a lot.  Who is that? What is the history behind that, etc. So they are a resource for each other, but I'm not sure they are always getting used to the fullest if they aren't a proactive student.
• students want to race through their books. They finish with them quickly. I thin in the context that I have right now, which is only having groups meet once, maybe twice per week, it's hard to have a deep conversation, bc they've read so much.

5 What changes (large or small) have you made and/or do you plan to make to your teaching as a result of what you have learned so far?

I’m going to focus on modeling backing up your claim with evidence. So far I’ve only modeled making the claim.  I’m also going keep thinking about student thinking about what makes a good conversation.  We’ve already had some good growth, just in the basics of a conversation, but now we need to push a little further.
We've done some more modeling on a good conversation. I believe the model supports my strong students, who really want to do the right thing, but anyone who isn't that academically motivated, they don't care. What would motivate having a stronger conversation? If you are a ms student, why would you want to do this other than it actually helping you?

6 What are your next steps? What would you like help with from your listeners as you move forward?

My next step is model giving evidence and seeing if they start to give evidence in their small groups.  I’d also like to begin having the students write out some of their claims and reference evidence from the text. My overall goal is that partner conversations are helping students to develop their understanding about the text. So the next step is to see if they are able to write claims about the text and back up those claims.

For the February meeting, please bring six copies of your table of indicators of success (the table you filled out today) and six copies of one example of your routine data source for one focal student. You will use these to help your colleagues to be able to see the data and to give you feedback in making sense of it.

After talking with your appointment colleagues, what are you thinking now about your inquiry, your next steps, or your February talk?

Most people were asking about how I expect them to push further. I kept going back to modeling. But should I give sentence starters or a more structured conversation plan?  Should we watch some examples of conversations and see what they think the partner is doing?

By focusing on the wriitng peice am I getting away from the strong conversation peice?  Is it okay to do that?