Category: Instructional and Student Data

When Should Core Curriculum Be Supplemented?

No curriculum will meet all of your current students learning needs. And what you found successful last year may not be successful this year. The core curriculum for any subject should be reaching 80% of your students. Changes should be made to increase student retention of intended outcomes, when less than 80% of your students are not retaining intended outcomes of core curriculum. There are usually different variables of an instructional lesson that may have a negative or positive effect on the core curriculum.

One tricky part of education and the effectiveness of instructional lessons is the background knowledge that both the teacher and the student bring to the lesson. Each person has had a different set of experiences and exposures before entering the classroom. Teachers can glean from their 13 years of formal-required education. Educators also bring their collegiate educational experiences, and their natural temperament and abilities into the planning and delivering of instructional lessons. In addition, teachers should be seeking ways to improve how to best meet the needs of their current students. This is why professional development is so vital to the process. Professional development may be gained through many different platforms, such as: (a) observation of instructional lessons, (b) self-study, (c) collaboration/discussions with colleagues or community members, (d) college classes or seminars, and or (e) trial and error. Most educators will seek to improve their craft on their own.

In relation to the K-12 students, each are unique individuals that usually require different types of instruction to really grasp and gain ownership of a taught skill. To meet 80% of your current students’ instructional needs in the classroom does not require that each student have a personal instructional plan. But this does mean that written and published instructional lessons may need some differentiation to meet the learning needs of your current students. If you know that most students learn better by taking notes, then taking notes of important details should be added to a lesson. If you know that most of your students need a few more mini lessons to digest and own a skill, then this change should be made. Written and published instructional lessons usually follow a systemic pattern, like teaching students letter names and sounds before asking them to decode CVC words. If students do not own letter-sound correspondences before teaching them how to decode words, most students will struggle and the decoding lesson will usually take many months to grasp. Some skills may be introduced and practiced as new skills are being taught, which may make the art and science of each instructional lesson a challenge. Educator professional development and background knowledge usually increase the ease of developing each instructional lesson to best meet the needs of students in your classroom.

A note of importance, usually only 5% of students on average will be able to grasp, hold onto, and use a new skill after the first lesson. If you do not have the definition of an average classroom, then students taking ownership after the first lesson will be different. Student ability changes with each subject, meaning that some students may be able to learn new skills in reading easier than they can in science. Data gathered today may not look the same tomorrow. Calculating the 80% should include multiple points of gathered data.

 

 

Observation – A Powerful Tool

Teacher observation is a powerful tool available to assist educators in providing the best instructional practices for a student or groups of students. Teachers usually keep anecdotal notes to help ensure accuracy of their observation. An anecdotal note is a written account of a person’s perspective of what they have witnessed through a variety of different venues. The notes are then used to create a more valid picture of student abilities, both socially and academically. Educators will have a clearer view of those differences when we take the time to write down our observations.

Teachers might take notes of social interactions, classroom environment, and student personalities. This piece of the observation pie is critical to the success of student outcomes. Some students have interventionist at home, some don’t. Some students may be able to sit for instruction longer than others. Some students may need more movement to accomplish the task placed before them. Some students work better with other students than their neighbor. Some students love science, but dislike all other subjects. These differences should become part of teacher considerations for instructional practices in the classroom.

In addition, teachers might take notes about traits that they witnessed during instruction or when students are independently working. They might take notes about their letter knowledge or decoding skills. Teachers might take notes about comprehension of passage read or ability to use the information read. They might also take notes about their reading fluency, like are they stopping to sound out each word or are they skipping and adding words.

Teacher observations are a vital part of the response to intervention (RTI) or multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) process. Anecdotal notes assist in writing academic goals for Tiers 1, 2, and 3. Anecdotal notes assist in the decision process of whether a student should be given a diagnostic assessment(s) and what types of these measurements would be most viable for this student. Written notes also assist in progress monitoring as they work towards their goal(s).

Teachers might establish key traits to watch for during the day-to-day practices in the classroom. Student learning level will help establish the traits to look for, like in kindergarten students should know their phoneme and grapheme correspondences. Student learning goals will also assist in the development of the key traits that you may look for during the school day.  Observing and making note of which students are able to name each letter and its sounds or not being able to decode words will help to establish which students will need additional instruction or have mastered the skill in this area. Teachers might use this information to establish small group instruction or further assess student capabilities in this area.

Teacher observations usually help to validate different types of assessments that educators use for a variety of reasons. They might use them to measure student growth overtime. Assessments may also be used to measure teachers’ ability to develop and deliver student instruction. They might also be used to find students who may be struggling in literacy acquisition. Assessments may also be used as a diagnostic measurement to dive deeper into student learning abilities. Unfortunately, these assessments are just a picture of student knowledge (on a particular day and time, this student is capable of reading or writing at this level). Students have good and bad days. Their absorption and use of taught skills may adjust during their good and bad days. Usually, students who have ownership of their skills will be able to use them on bad days, but not always. This often creates false-negative data that needs to verified.

Teacher observation is a form of validity to validate assessment outcome. Research supports the use of this tool to validate student progress and best instructional practices. Teacher perceptions of student social behaviors may play a significant role in the preparation and delivery of instructional lessons and in the prediction of later reading achievement (Wanzek, et al., 2013). When teacher observations of student reading abilities are combined with student assessment data the validity of the assessment results increase (Snowing et al., 2011; Speece et al., 2011; Wanzek, et al., 2013).

Teacher’s knowledge and experience usually have a play in the strength of their observations. Educators gain their knowledge:

  • through their environment – both past and present
  • during environmental interactions
  • participating in professional development – personal research, attending conferences, college courses, or teacher collaboration, reading
  • while making observations
  • through creating and developing purposeful instructional opportunities for students

Each person snaps pictures of moments throughout their daily journey. People use those moments to make quick or more well thought-out decisions. Educators may use the power of their snap shots to increase student academic success.

Gathering and Using Student and Instructional Data

Giving assessments, tests, exams, quizzes, etc of any kind is a WASTE OF TIME if educators do not analyze and use the outcome or data to improve student instruction and learning. Students usually have no want to take tests of any kind, as taking assessments usually leads to unnecessary anxiety and stress. There should be a valid reason for gathering the data—not so that it looks nice on paper or sits in a drawer. Each educator may rely on particular type of assessment more than others. Some types of assessment are mandated by law at state or federal levels. Some types of assessments are established by the district, others by an individual school, and others by the classroom teacher. Each piece of data helps to develop a “picture” of a student learning and achievement abilities and of teaching instructional practices. Multiple forms of data should be gathered over 5-to-6-week period to develop a solid picture of student ability. Time should be spent to ponder the outcomes and how this data may improve student mastery of information.

There are different types of data that may be gathered to assist educators in developing and delivering worthy lessons.

  • Observation data is usually gathered and recorded as anecdotal notes. Teachers might use charts to ensure information is gathered about a certain topic or action. Some teachers may also use a notebook to record on-going notes. These observations may be used to increase the validity of assessment data, to make changes to instruction, or to make a diagnostic diagnosis.
  • Curriculum-based measurements (CBM) are assessments that are derived from adopted or classroom curriculum. CBMs are written in different formats to gather different types of data related to the topic studied. CBMs often have a variety of questions, such as multiply choice, true/false, essay, or matching questions. CBMs might be written by non-educators, classroom teachers, or educators.
  • Summative assessments measure the amount of information that a student has retained in relation to the information taught in a lesson or group of lessons about a particular subject. Summative assessments are often used at the end of a unit.
  • A portfolio assessment is a group of specified assignments, usually related to a certain topic, study or skill focus. This type of assessment has the ability to show different types of skills that may not be visible on other types of assessments that may need to be measured for student success.
  • Formative assessments provide on-going feedback to instructors about how they might improve their instruction of information. This type of assessment also informs teachers of student learning abilities and achievement. Formative assessments are also used to show students weaknesses and strengths in relation to topic assessed.
  • Diagnostic assessments are used to evaluate individual student abilities in order to identify strengths and deficits of a particular academic domain (Ray, 2017, p.13). These types of assessments are used more to determine student deficits that may lead to a learning diagnosis, like processing of information issues.
  • Progress monitoring verifies how much a student has grown in relation to a particular topic or skill. The monitoring also gives instructors knowledge about the effectiveness of this particular instruction and possible directions for future instructional lessons of this nature. Progress monitoring typically takes place every two weeks. Progress monitoring is used primarily for students receiving intervention instruction.
  • Standardized assessments or measurements assess student academic level in relation to other students of the same age or grade level. Often these measurements are developed using a “bank” of questions that are randomly chosen for a particular test. There are different types of standardized assessments that are used for different purposes, such as diagnostic and teacher or district accountability. These measurements are norm or criterion-referenced.

Each type of assessment provides clues about student academic success and teacher instruction. The assessment outcomes should be analyzed through the lens of the intended outcome or purpose of assessment.

References

Ray, J. (2017). Tiered 2 interventions for students in grades 1-3 identified as at risk in reading. (Doctoral dissertation, Walden University). Retrieved from https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/3826/

 

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