Please Click on the title "Target Group Improvement Plan" below to access a researched intervention plan that I have in place for struggling readers.
Check in #4 - Calendar, Monitoring Plan and Communication Plan
Indicate what will happen from September to June, 2015-16, in your plan. Include contact with Leadership, Advisory Team Meetings (you should create a group to oversee process), professional development, assessments, and any activities (ex: parent sessions, student meetings, etc.) First Trimester: *Initial meeting with parents and students from target group to discuss why we are taking a proactive approach. The hard data from SRI and AR will serve as evidence that we need to have interventions in place. This meeting will allow me to collect soft data that will be useful in helping me find root causes that will determine my approaches during my interventions. *SMART goal and its objectives will be made clear to parents of the students in the target group. *Key roles for all stakeholders will be clearly established to ensure success of the students in the target group. *Calendar of data collection and analysis will be communicated to all stakeholders. *A calendar of interventions will be shared with all stakeholders. *Action plan will be implemented. *Necessary modifications will be made depending on whether or not students are making progress. *Celebrate successes every 6 weeks. Second Trimester: *SMART goal and its objectives will be revisited by all stakeholders. *Necessary modifications will be made depending on whether or not students are making progress. *Students will be able to articulate the progress they have made and what steps they have taken towards that progress. Celebrate successes every 6 weeks. Third Trimester: *Continue to closely monitor progress through data collection and analysis. *Continue to make any necessary adjustments that will help the intervention plan be more effective. *Celebrate that students are meeting their end-of-the year goal. List data to be gathered throughout the year to determine progress and guide adjustments. It can be weekly, monthly, biannually, yearly, etc. Hard Data: *AR Quiz Results (weekly) *STAR Test Results (every 6 weeks) *SRI (once at the end of every report card period: 3 times a year) *Weekly Fluency Paragraphs *End-of-the Week Assessments Soft Data: *Parent and Student Interviews *Anecdotal Notes Gathered Through Small-Group Instruction *Finding Root Causes If I No Progress Describe how you will communicate progress with stakeholders (leadership, teachers, families and students). I will communicate with the students who are in the target group in person on a daily basis. I will communicate with parents via e-mail and in person during our scheduled parent-teacher meetings which will take place every 3 weeks up until December. After December these meetings will take place every 6 weeks. Some parents prefer to communicate through Schoology, a learning management system. I will communicate through Schoology if that is their preference. I will communicate our progress to our principal via e-mail every 6 weeks so that she is in the loop. 1. Describe how leadership, teachers, families and students will be involved in this process. What role will each play?
Leadership will play a very active role in this process because students will not be merely passive learners, but rather active participants in the creation of their learning experience. Teachers, families and students will be involved in this process as a team in which everyone involved has very important ideas and knowledge to contribute toward the success of the student. Each stakeholder will be held accountable and meetings will be held on a regular basis to ensure everyone has the support they need in order to meet previously agreed-upon expectations. Expectations will be clearly stated from the start so that all stakeholders know their responsibilities. Teachers will provide students, and their families, with resources that support the SMART goal and its objectives. Families will support their students as outlined on either the SST, 504 plan, IEP, or just a simple mini-contract that they co-create with the teacher. Students’ roles will include steps that help them achieve the objectives that support the SMART goal. Everyone will be held accountable to realistic responsibilities that will result in students achieving success. What are the interventions that you plan to implement based on your goals and objectives? Based on my goals and objectives the interventions that I plan to implement are as follows: Interventions for students, specifically focusing on a target group: Students will work on: *fluency through weekly fluency paragraphs *daily small-group instruction with the target group *developing comprehension question skills Interventions for faculty/staff: * training on how to use AR 360 * training on how to read/interpret data and how to use that data to decide on next steps Interventions for Families/communities: * workshops on how to interpret data that is being automatically e-mailed to them every time their child completes an AR quiz What type of support will be needed to carry this out? To carry this out, I will need a whole school year. Throughout the school year I will need professional development, and a support person I can contact, with regard to AR 360, SRI, mylexia.com and any other on-line resource available for developing reading skills. As far as materials, I will need the AR license to be renewed so that we can have continued access to it throughout the school year. 1. Which additional data did you gather to inform your thinking on the problem?
In order to inform my thinking on the problem I had to look deeper into root causes and gathered the type of data an educator can only find out by asking questions to all stakeholders involved. I thought it was quite interesting that whenever I asked parents if their child had ever had an SST, they asked me what that is. That led me to believe they have never had one. I explained the process to the parents, and they looked very interested and said that they had never been involved in an SST for their child. However, when I asked their teacher from last year I made the following discoveries: I also discovered that everyone in this target group has had SSTs year after year. One student has a 504 plan for ADD/depression and another is in the process of having a meeting scheduled so that he can also have a 504 plan because he suffers from migraines, which cause him to have a high number of absences. The first of these two students is the only one who has not really made any progress with his reading this year. He started this school year reading at a 3.2 and is currently reading at 3.4, according to STAR. However, according to SRI he is reading at a 2.4. He has remained stuck with his comprehension and inferencing skills. All the other students have made steady progress, even though they are still below grade level expectations. In class, they all put forth their best effort. However, the student with ADD/depression has to be constantly redirected to the task at hand and has to have things explained to him more than once and in more than one way. He seems to be thinking of something else. He does not seem present. He used to take different medications while the doctors were trying to figure out if he has ADD or depression, but the medications were just negatively impacting his behavior and making the condition worse. The doctors are still not clear if he has ADD or depression. He seems to want to try his best, but gets very easily distracted by his thoughts. I also personally interviewed each student and the ones that have made tremendous progress this year, but are still below grade-level, have a great perception of themselves, along with a “can-do” attitude. One of the boys feels he could do better if he would actually study at home and he gave me specific examples of what it means to study and what it would look like. The child who has ADD or depression just kept shrugging his shoulders not really answering any of my questions. How students perceive themselves gave me great insight to inform my thinking on the problem because if they believe they can master something, they will! However, if they don’t show interest in school, they won’t meet expectations. It just confirms what we already know. Students need to be motivated. 2. After analyzing all data, what do you believe are the root causes of the problem you have identified? Comment on: organizational culture, external factors, organizational structure, student demographics, instruction and preparation, and curriculum. The root causes of the problem I have identified cannot be a blanket statement. Each child has their own unique situation going on at home and as educators we can only address what is within our sphere of influence. However, this does not mean we ignore what is outside of our control. What is outside of our control is referred to as what is within our sphere of concern and it is very important that we acknowledge it and validate it so that we can understand where each child is coming from and come up with a solution that works for each child depending on their own unique situation. Our school’s organizational culture includes developing Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits schoolwide and instilling the 7 Habits within our students. This helps all students feel welcomed and like they belong to something bigger. But it’s a lot more than just belonging to something bigger. Through the 7 habits, our students are set up for success on a daily basis as we validate their successful attempts to fit in to the school culture by contributing through their daily participation and projects and by being empowered to enrich each others’ lives through example. Their leadership skills go a long way. External factors, such as a supportive, or unsupportive, community, has a direct effect on student academic progress. At our school we are very fortunate that we have excellent external factors. We have a very strong community that holds many events and fundraisers to benefit our students. Many weekends are filled with fun activities that our students look forward to participating in. Our students definitely benefit from positive external factors. Unfortunately, my target group cannot participate in many of these activities because their parents also work on weekends and, as much as they want to, cannot take them to all these wonderful events. I determined that this was another root cause to the problem I identified. At our school we have a very strong organizational structure where staff model polite and courteous relationships amongst adults as outlined by the 7 habits. We expect students to act a certain way and we are very conscious of the behavior we display and address any disagreements in private, away from students. Everyone is clear as to what their expectations and job responsibilities are so that the school can run smoothly. We are very fortunate to have many happy parent volunteers who come to support everyone’s job from coordinating extracurricular activities, to supporting the librarian, office staff, running off copies for teachers, to coordinating and assisting in before and after school activities. We have many supports in place that strengthen our organizational structure. I have noticed that the parents who volunteer most, have children who perform better academically. Unfortunately, because my target group has parents who are very hard working people, they cannot dedicate as much time to helping them out with their homework. I discovered that that was another root cause to why they are not meeting academic expectations. One of the parents told me they cannot handle so many kids. This particular parent has three kids at home and was feeling overwhelmed and felt she could not dedicate one-on-one attention to her child to help them meet academic expectations. Right now instruction and preparation at our school is experiencing a shift from instruction that involved paper and pencil with CA state standards, to injecting technology in the classroom, keeping the SAMR model in mind, and adjusting to Common Core and NGSS standards. We are going through a transition phase. Every teacher is on board and everyone is contributing, sharing and collaborating as much as is possible with the little bit of time we have. Lack of time is definitely a root cause to not having stronger instruction to support my students the way I would like them to be supported. I have all these great ideas for strong lessons, I even dream about them, but very little time to prep. It is very frustrating. I hope this summer to be able to prepare at least the first three months of school for the upcoming school year. That would be great. The curriculum is for fourth grade. However, if students come to fourth grade without the prerequisite skills they need to be successful, the gap will just get larger. Switching in the middle of their elementary school careers from CA state standards to Common Core has created a gap in our students’ education because some things that were prerequisite skills, or concepts, before are no longer. And some things that were NOT prerequisite skills, or concepts, before, now are and students now come with a gap in what they know and should know. Apparently it has affected some more than others. My target group has definitely been affected by this sudden shift in curriculum, therefore creating another root cause to the previously identified problem. Student Demographics for Riverview Elementary SchoolAsian Asian: 12 (3%) Black: 8 (1.69%) Hispanic: 162 (34.18%) Multiple Race: 12 (2.53%) Native American: 8 (1.69%) Pacific Islander: 3 (0.63%) White: 269 (56.75%) Female: 261 (55%) Male: 213 (45%) 3. Based on an outcome you would like to attain for the target group, write 1 goal and 2-3 objectives that support that goal. (Create a SMART goal – specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, timely. SMART goal: 100% of my target group will be reading at a 4.1, or higher, by December parent-teacher conferences (December 1, 2015). 2-3 Objectives to support SMART goal: *students will work on their fluency through weekly fluency paragraphs *students will take weekly AR quizzes and score 80% or better each time *daily small-group instruction with the target group *develop comprehension question skills I will have evidence that the target group has met its goals through the results of their end of the first 12 weeks STAR test. I will also use SRI to calibrate whether or not my target group has met its goals. 1. What type of student achievement data did you analyze?
2. What were the main findings generated from the analysis of your data? The main findings generated from the analysis of my data include a huge discrepancy between one data source and another. For example, some students proved to be at grade-level with the STAR assessment, however, when I looked at their data from the SRI results, they were reading at a second grade reading level. For others, the STAR data indicated they were reading at 3rd grade while the SRI data revealed they were reading at a 5th grade level! For the majority of the class, both SRI and AR were more or less showing consistent results. But for some, if they were remarkably low readers according to one assessment, the other assessment would indicate they were reading at higher levels. I’m not sure what is causing those inconsistencies. 3. Share 5 questions that the data sparked. *What are the next steps for each student? *Even though these students are about a year behind in their reading, some have made significant improvement since the day they started 4th grade, while others are not improving, they are just remaining stagnant. What is causing some students to remain stagnant while others are showing significant improvement and will probably reach their reading goal by the end of the school year? *What have their experiences been like in the past, regarding reading? (This will yield soft data that can help me determine which approach to take.) *Even though I am focusing on their English reading, I can take a look at their Spanish DRA to determine what types of comprehension questions they still need more work on and help them develop those skills, since they are transferable skills. *As I cross-check the data, the data shows consistent results for some students, but for others it shows that they are more successful depending on the assessment being used. How can we close that gap of inconsistency? Should it be closed to reflect the student's true potential? For one particular student, the SRI reflects that they are reading at a fifth grade level, while the Renaissance reflects that they are reading at a third grade level. Traditionally, students score lower on the SRI, but in this case, this student scored two grade levels higher. Could there have been other factors involved that caused the student to have a lower reading score with the Renaissance assessment? *Why does one set of data reveal a certain reading score while data from another source reveals a very different reading score? *What steps could I take to close that gap so that both assessments indicate a higher reading score? *Is one test longer than the other and students are just clicking on any answer to get it overwith? *What do I need to focus on to support my students’ reading skills and consequently increase their reading levels? *Are students understanding the questions? 4. Name 3 priority needs and mention which one of these seemed most urgent. *Key ideas and details *Inference and Evidence *Summarize a story, drama, or narrative poem, describing the main characters, details, and key events including conflict and resolution From these three priority needs, the one that seems most urgent is: Make inferences about characters' actions, traits, and motives based on details found in a story or play. According to the data, everyone in the target group seemed to be missing that element, which leads me to conclude that it is the skill that is most urgent at this time. 5. Which target group did you select to work with and why? The target group I selected involves the five lowest readers who are not meeting grade level expectations. The reason I am choosing that particular target group is because they are the group of students who needs the most amount of support in order to meet grade level expectations, reduce their frustrational level, and increase their self-esteem by having them experience academic success. They will have input with respect to creating their new reasonable reading goals. I have found in the past that when I empower my students with participating in co-creating their new academic goals, they feel more motivated to take steps that help them reach, and in some cases exceed, their academic goals. |
Cristal HerreraI am taking EDL 690 : Methods of Inquiry at SDSU as part of my Master's Degree Program. ArchivesCategories |