What I am planning to do next...

Here's what I'm planning to do on my inquiry between now and the December meeting • Introduce a second reading response (other than Retelling) about Favorite Part. “My Favorite part of the story is … because…” • I will also assemble all the focal students’ reading responses and look at the progress in retelling, spelling and reading sight words. I’d like to look at what students are doing or not doing in their retelling. Once they solidify their basic retelling skills, I plan to move towards scaffolding retelling which requires them to articulate the problem and resolution elements of the retelling. I am a bit concerned about where some of my lower students are in their reading and how they will get to the end of the year reading standard and how can I get them there. More than a third of my class is reading at level D or level 6 and by the end of the year they need to be at Level I/J. What do these students need—what will need to be taught, what kind of instruction and feedback and support system do I provide for them that will get them there? More rigorous sight word work, guided reading, front loading and familiarizing them with books they will be reading at their next level, reading both non-fiction and fiction, constant specific feedback, reading comprehension work to build a strong foundation. Good Teaching is what they need right now with the specific goal of providing a strong foundation and moving them forward.

Something I think I could collect is …

Good thoughtful questions that will give me good information, such as, What is a reader? What does a reader do? Why do you read? What kinds of things do you do before you read?

For students' running records, highlight what they do, what they aren't, and seeing growth.

videotape individual independent reading and look at what strategies students are using.

What I hope that would help me know about my students learning is

see growth as readers or lack of it. Growth in comprehension and understanding of reading for real purposes.


What I’m thinking now about my inquiry is …
that my question is still unformulated. I know it is about differentiation in reading. It is NOT how do I differentiate reading? It is more... where are my students with their reading and where do they need to go? What are the students telling me about what they don't do as readers. How do I learn to read signs about where my students need to go with their reading? How can reading growth be tracked in a meaningful way?

What am I thinking now...

What am I thinking now is to do some videotaping and observing reading behaviors of my focal students. I know that running record kind of assessment is not what I am having questions about. It is the "They are reading at grade level. NOW What?" What is my job as a teacher if a student comes in reading and fully comprehending at near end standards? I understand that I have assumptions like Tomas mentioned. I know the assumption is that if they are showing 96% fluency and full comprehension, techinically it is reading proficiency. But students are at different levels.

I am realizing more and more that my question has to do with differentiation of instruction in reading which I have not done in the past and I am struggling with. I don't know where to start. What differentiation will look like?

Let me think from the point of view of student learning. What does Jasper need to do during reading time? He is a high reader. He is reading at the end of the year level in Oct. I started him out at a lower level than he is because I want him to gain background knowledge. To do so, I want him to be reading many books that are below his level in the leveled boxes. Because I don't want him to miss out on those books.

It is clear to me that I need to watch these readers carefully--videotaping seems to be the answer. I will watch them and see what they are doing and what they aren't doing. Right now, I am full of assumptions.

I am also attracted to the idea of student feedback. I really was inspired by Shelley and Sam's inquiry which is identifying what proficient students are doing and have them articulate that and to teach it to students who are not using the strategies yet.

So, if Jasper could articulate what he is doing or if I videotaped him reading and shared the video with whole class to show them what I saw him doing, that would be a good use of teaching through students. Watching his videotape will also allow for time for reflection on what I see him not doing.

I also got some good feedback regarding starting a reflective journal... or write the blog more often.

October 15, 2011

What I really want to know is...

What am I tring to do? The only thing I know for sure is that I am trying to do justice by all kids. But to reframe the question so it is about student learning...

What is the range of my students and where do they need to go? Where are Jasper, Sophia and Theodore at this point? Where do they need to go? What do they know at this point? How do I know? What do I need to teach these different students and their leveled groups?


What I really want to know is...
What piece of it matters most to me? Is it the instruction? is it the feedback to the students? Is it the scope and sequence of my curriculum? I had the feeling running records would not be the right kind of data because I want to go beyond their reading level and comprehension piece. I don't even know if what I am trying to do, anymore.

The area I decided to focus my inquiry on is the community climate in the classroom. It was important to me that along with the academic progress my students were growing as caring individuals who see themselves as part of a context or as members of a team working together… in other words... as a community of learners.


This is important to me because it is important for their well rounded growth to not only excel academically but realize that working together cooperatively is gratifying. It builds a sense of community from early on. Having tools to problem solve collectively and knowing the importance of working together as a team will help them all their lives. Being a teacher in their formative years I can give tools, power and experiences to problem solve, they will always have something to fall back on when they need to.


The question I am asking is "what is the evidence that my students operate as a community of learners? What I am doing to promote my classroom as a community?"


The context I teach in is: Racially, the student population is primarily white 72% and Asian 14%, 8% had no response, 3% Latino, 1% African American, 1% Filipino, 1% other. 0% of the student body participates in free or reduced lunch programs compared to the 15% average in California. Five percent of students are English learners.

The data I collected to answer my question was primarily incidental. I also looked at some video data and journal notebooks.

The changes I have made in my teaching practice as a result of my inquiry is the way I go about in my expectation of students, the importance I place in making opportunities for resolution of issues, empowering my students to resolve their differences, time for conversations, teaching the tools to help them in their own conflict resolution.

The changes I have seen in my focal students as a result of my inquiry are hard to identify. However, I see an overall climate of cooperation. It has been mostly a gain in my learning and the changes I plan to make in my teaching of skills and tools for cooperative learning. In the past I felt threatened by conflicts. I was afraid of not being able to know the truth if a conflict arose; not knowing how to find the truth. I also felt terribly under pressure to resolve conflict almost like a judge. I needed to know who did what; what the right resolution should be; what was a just consequence?

What I have learned from the inquiry is that the most important tool to give to students is an ability to constructively solve conflicts. I should teach them all the way along not so much to just get along but that conflicts will arise because of conflict of interests. I need to teach them how to justly approach conflict resolution with input from all parties. I also want them to learn to hear each other’s point of view. This would require thoughtful teaching through literature, class meetings, journals, problem box etc.

March 13, 2011

I feel I have good amount of data in the form of student journals. I have to glean information from them and look to see if they provide insights into their progress. I also need to record the few incidents/situations that are pertinent to my inquiry.
I have been processing separate incidents involving conflicts and conflict resolution, bullying, tattling, damaging of school property and misbehavior. Some of the incidents are significant in shedding light on my inquiry topic.

Desirable Spot on the Rug
It was time to come to the rug and I saw 2 of my girls (A and B) rush over at the same time to take the spot with the polar bear picture. In a matter of seconds both of them were crying. Both felt that the other didn’t let them sit on the spot and always took that desirable spot. In my view there is nothing more desirable than any other spot on the rug except that it is defined by the polar bear picture. It was obvious that since there was so much emotion involved, I couldn’t continue the lesson without addressing it. So, we had an instant class meeting.

In order to move forward I was going to use something that I had learned from feedback from other Mills Scholars who had suggested I make a problem box and pick a problem out and ask for student feedback on how to resolve it which I have not been able to implement. This was my opportunity to allow student input on an immediate problem and have them solve it—watch their thinking, see their reasoning, give them the experience to resolve a category of problem they know well—vying for the same thing. I restated the problem to make sure I and the students understood what the issue was and then I asked if they have any ideas for students A and B. Students had to address Students A and B directly with suggestions. It took some time to teach that piece because they tended to give me ideas instead of the students involved. There were all sand sorts of issues raised including equity for all students, desirability of the spot, fairness, systematic recording of usage, problems with some suggestions, implementation issues etc. We did not reach a solution by the end of the discussion since the 2 students involved found problems with each of the suggestions. So, at closing, I reminded the 2 students that they had heard many ideas to think about and process and figure out outside of class time, such as during recess or lunch. I noticed that by the next day, both students had come up with a solution based on a combination of suggestions from the students. They had made a chart to record who wants to use the spot and how they take turns. At this point, the issue has gone away but the experience of having students offer solution directly to the students and the students listening and responding to the feedback was a valuable learning experience for me and my growth as a teacher. It gave me a tool to go about conflict resolution.

Saying Sorry:
Another incident that stands out as an example of the effects of my inquiry on my teaching practice is how much time or attention I allow for things that have to do with teaching students to care about others’ feelings. Recently as I was leaving for lunch on a rainy day recess I overheard a student telling another one, “You are not the boss of us. You don’t get to tell us what to do.” I was proud of the student (Student X) who said it because he is a shy, easy-going student who is very compliant and unassertive and he was saying it to a student (Student Y) who is very confident and usually takes on the role to tell others what to do. However, when I turned around to leave, I noticed Student Y, crying and totally devastated. I asked the student group with (student X) about the crying student and asked them if they could figure out a way to heal her heart. (We have used the metaphor of wrinkled heart and how to heal the wrinkled heart). I left the scene and wanted to know how they were going to resolve it. Student X was refusing to accept responsibility because he felt that he was not the only one to refuse directions from Student Y and didn’t want to take full responsibility. Other students also did not want to follow the suggestions by Student Y and they supported him in refusing to comply. I overheard one of the students saying, we don’t want Student Y sad, so let’s all say sorry that she felt hurt by it. I thought that was a very interesting suggestion—one I might not have come to myself. It showed capability to take both viewpoints—recognizing that Student Y’s feelings were hurt and needed to be repaired. It also showed camaraderie for Student X’s position since he needed some support in acknowledging having hurt the feelings of another student.

Bullying
I found out recently that one of my students was bullied by 2 students from another class. I also learned that one of my students stood up for him and told the boys to stop. I haven’t talked about the incident with my students because the parents of the student who was bullied do not want to put the student in the spotlight. They do not want to highlight the incident in any way. I understand that fear of making the student self conscious and put them through considerable discomfort. Without bringing up the incident itself, my next step is to find a parallel children’s book to discuss the issue.


Measuring Success
My inquiry is a hard one to measure in terms of success for students. I realize that looking at specific/target student data keeps me from getting a sense of class climate and overall a sense of my classroom community. Initially I was switching my target students around to get a dynamic sense of how my students operated as a team/group.


Changes to My Teaching Practice
The greatest benefit to me from doing the inquiry is learning skills, confidence and tools for resolving issues that fall in the gray zone—issues with not clear cut solutions, complex issues that bring up our imperfect human tendencies and behaviors. I have come to recognize that my utopia is not achievable. The classroom is not going to be a smoothly functioning unit that will just love and work together nicely all the time, be respectful to each other, play and work together with or without supervision. That is an unreasonable expectation. My inquiry has made me more reasonable in terms of expecting things to come up that involve conflict of interest issues, intentional and unintentional hurt feelings, testing boundaries that manifest as misbehavior, breaking rules, destroying school property etc. However, the big change for me has been about feeling equipped to handle things, having the tools to resolve issues, understanding the importance of providing a forum for student input, having a classroom culture that facilitates and makes time for addressing issues and creating a place where students feel like they know each other and are comfortable interacting with each other and addressing each other when issues arise.

To sum up, I feel like I am becoming smarter at what I do. I also recognize that creating community is a dynamic process, a work in progress, requiring regular evaluation and improvement.

2-6-11

Why your question is important

Teachers share the responsibility to help children acquire skills to play and work cooperatively with their peers. I believe that working collaboratively is a skill that will ultimately be responsible for their success in their adult life and work. The skills they acquire in solving problems, being collaborative, learning from others, helping others, taking on the identity of a member of a group/team will have an impact on their success. I agree with the view that our most important responsibility as teachers is to help children be good human beings. We teach them to work as a collaborative community.

How you chose your focal students:

One of the students I chose is the student who had problems working as a team member. He lacked skills to problem solve. The others include one student who is very collaborative, helpful and a good team member. I also look at other students’ data to see how my whole class do as a team.

What data you have gathered (our hope is that by this time you will have at least four pieces of data for each focal student);

I have some video data and the reflective journal that I started mid-year.

What you have learned thus far (about your students learning, the content, your teaching):

It has been a struggle to determine how much students have grown in their identity as being a part of a community of learners just from what I have done in the classroom or what I expect of them. I can observe that they understand that during class meeting, each student gets a turn at sharing, that they have to wait for their turn, that they have the option to pass, that they will get a turn and they have to be patient and not interrupt the person talking, that if they pass they will have an opportunity again if they come up with something to share.

They understand that one of Ray is a selective mute and has different needs and we understand his need to do things differently and we accommodate his needs in every situation. They understand that Ezra is physically challenged and students help with his special needs. They also recognize that Nate needs to sit in the front and leave his spot for him or move when he joins the group. They make available the seat Henry needs in order to focus and respect that. Isn’t that what a community is? Where people recognize the needs of others and work around it? People know that we all have different needs and do what we need to do in that context?

I have learned that it is hard to assess their growth as human beings than it is to assess their growth as readers and writers. It is easier to assess academic growth because you can see that, “Oh now they are doing something that they were not doing a month ago.” How do you make that judgment about their social and moral growth and attribute it directly to what you are doing in class.

 How you have changed your teaching based on what you have learned:

Based on my inquiry I am consistently challenging my students to work as a team to achieve goals. I remind them that they are not done until their team is for things that I didn’t before. If students are working as a team on their word sort, I remind them that they are not done until all four students are done which promotes students to help the ones who need extra help, to put their differences aside in order to reach the goal, thus promoting a culture of collectiveness rather than individual gain. You are not ready to be dismissed until your entire table group is done. It promotes helping each other, especially, the ones who need extra help.

What you have noticed about your students’ learning progress around your question:

At this point, I don’t have enough insight into their perception and growth as collaborative problem solvers, team members and community members. I don’t know if they have that identity about themselves and others. I don’t know what I need to teach explicitly, what routines I should have in place, what expectations are realistic to have about what they can understand and learn about working cooperatively. I understand conflict management is a part of working collaboratively. I have come to recognize somewhat reluctantly that conflicts will continue to happen, that they will continue to disagree and fight and annoy each other, that they will do mean, un-thoughtful things to each other, that I cannot expect a complete lack of the behavior that I disapprove of. The goal should be to teach them better problem solving skills, making learning collaborative and mutual, teach them to recognize each others’ needs and strengths and learn from each other.

 
What you want to do next.

I want to carve out some questions for their reflective journal that will help me move forward in my inquiry. I was hopeful that their reflective journal will help me identify what kinds of things come up for my students around social issues, what they think of as school and classroom community, are there conflicts that I am not hearing about; do they have tools to work together; will they help each other out when someone needs help. How can I help develop empathy towards others?

I would like to identify questions that give insight into their understanding. Are there books that I can use as a launching pad for opening discussions around topics? What literature is out there to help with creating the identity I want them to take on?

1-8-11

What can I do as a teacher to create a community of learners?  What is the evidence that my classroom is a community of learners?  The question is more about me.  Well, what kind of a project is that?  I do this and this and this.  What good does that do, a list of things I can do [to create] a community of learners.  Once the question shifted to what is the evidence, that's where I started to get lost.  I feel like there's an artificialness about collecting data in this case.  I need to be recording the things I do to create a community.  I felt like last year I didn't focus at all on community building, the culture of the classroom, addressing issues that had to do with social stuff, but only academics.  If something came up then you just dealt with it. It was very rarely that I could drop everything and attend to that.  We want these kids to be better human beings.  Although it was there, that was what Julie Valdez said to focus on on the first day of school – the purpose is to create good human beings.  It was only when I was faced by a crisis, that's when I knew…the water had gone over a threshold.  So I decided I was going to do something about it, before the year started.  There's definitely more deliberateness this year…giving an opportunity to the kids to collaborate, just the class meeting aspect...teaching the patience of letting other people share.  And I think the dynamics of the classroom is different…[last year there was] complicated dynamics between two alpha males…This year there's not this dynamic…annoying kind of button-pushing behaviors…So I do think that…I've emphasized you want to treat each other how you want to be treated aspect…been trying to follow the Life Skills curriculum…get the kids to suggest the names of people who have displayed that behavior…who are the life skills stars…I let the kids decide that because…I'm quite pleased with the kids that have been picked…"so and so is really good at getting out of the game when he's out"…it's good to see the kids recognize those strengths in each other…because I wanted to focus on community building…the one piece I clearly want to do…have a conversation, class meeting…about topics, about issues in the classroom is what's needed…I feel like I need to think about what it is I want to address…[how to] treat each other….need to really pinpoint, pin down, the few issues that I want to discuss.  One has to do with treatment of each other, working together, like being like a family in a way…luckily the curriculum in first grade matches up with that...What's a family? How do people help each other?…Although I'm not happy with how the discussion is set up…I don't think it's as thoughtful…like a discussion…it becomes more like a lesson where people have the right answer…it's not going in [just teacher-student question and answer]…it's not processing something new.  What I can do in the next few weeks…use the social studies curriculum.  I think I need to…when I get to community, talk about how the classroom is a community.  I need to identify the main things I want to teach them...how they are working together like a family, care for each other as a family…put up with each other, when you're annoyed…solve problems as a family when they come up…work together to solve them…But how do I get evidence of how kids learn together…never really have the gratification of knowing they are thinking this way because I have done this.  Yeah, I guess it's worthwhile doing.

I thought this would be a good way for kids to appreciate each other…so and so is truthful because every time he is out I don't have to argue with him…they are a good friend…So that's some evidence.  

Have a little box for kids to draw their concerns for me…I can create that setup…also have some sort of reflective thing…I think I just need to give them tools…for someone to address…and respond to…teach them how to address something they don't like…I don't like it when you push me…I'm sorry…totally not sinking in…half the time it's 'XYZ, I told you not to do that to so and so!'…I think I'm talking about…community has to do with being kind and caring of each other…I think kind and caring comes when you're able to solve problems in a constructive way…able to resolve issues…and have tools to do it…to work together, care for each other…to work together to achieve the same goal…people who live together, like a family.

I think I am going to make time, fifteen or twenty minutes, have kids write about issues and drop it in the communication box.  Is something bothering them about recess?…their time to quietly think…any problems that they're having…that will be my data, what I look at…based on that, put into place.