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Progress Report 2: Support with a group reflection

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Progress Report 2: Support with a group reflection

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1A. What do student know/able to to do (evidence based)?
1B. How did you respond when students struggle?
1C. How did you extend for student who got it?
2. How did my professional learning influence my practice?
Next Steps
1. Group Reflection: Analyze evidence from the PLC group and plan next steps.

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1A. What do student know/able to to do (evidence based)?
1B. How did you respond when students struggle?
1C. How did you extend for student who got it?
2. How did my professional learning influence my practice?
Next Steps
1. Group Reflection: Analyze evidence from the PLC group and plan next steps.

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Our strategy was the follow-up questions such as "Why?, Do you agree?, "Please elaborate", "Tell me more", during our reading and vocabulary activities.

In this strategy, teachers found success with incorporating these strategy into the routine moving forward (to show the reason for this activities).  We found persistent instructional strategies and routines important in reaching student success.  We found success (in-person class) with marking material to summarize (in their own words) where they found the answer and use it for review.  It also empowers students to ask each other when they need more information.

Challenges included the transition of students in and out of our classes, change of schedule, etc. This made it difficult for this strategy/assessment to be consistently implemented. Student buy-in was also a challenge, but students seemed enthusiastic about this strategy.

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I've been focused on building up routines with many new students who added my classes. I've been especially focusing on students marking the text, and going back to each page the next page to review. Students use their markings to summarize each page before we get into the lesson. I've been asking follow up questions and not letting students off the hook till we get to the reason for their answers.

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My posttest seemed to increase proficiency in a couple students, with most of them plateauing or leveling out. As Amy mentioned, the continuity of the class seemed a bit more disrupted of late (attendance etc.), so this may have negatively affected results. This strategy does have value, and this 'activity' will allow more mindful follow-up questions to be a regular part of class.--Scott B

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Our strategy was the "Follow-up questions such as, "Why?" "Do you agree?" "Please elaborate" and "Tell me more" during our reading and vocabulary activities."

In this strategy, teachers found success with ___________________.  We found ____________________ resources and ______________________ instructional strategies important in reaching student success.

Common challenges included __________________.

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I would say my pre-test was way more successful than the post-test for so many reasons, in particular, the time catching up new students and the transition to online learning for students who registered for in-person class, but whose classes had to switch mid-trimester to online. Student focus, attendance and engagement feels like it's tapered off a bit more as well during the past two weeks, which impacted the time and energy they put into the post-test. I had to give the assignment back to a couple students to explain more fully, even with significant coaching for students to answer with 2-3 sentences and explain well. They mostly admitted to knowing they needed to spend more time on it but wanting to at least complete the assignment. One interesting thing that came up in relation to this was taking extra time to explicitly talk about the benchmark of finding evidence. It's not a huge surprise that despite daily review of learning targets and benchmarks and frequent work on finding evidence, students struggled to think of or express any reasons why finding evidence might be a benchmark or what benchmark even means. It’s interesting to think about how the students can internalize and value the benchmark goal of finding evidence as a goal for themselves and feel motivated to explain their reasons to make their thinking clear to themselves and to the teacher, as well as to practice English - especially students who are very pressed for time, but also don’t want to spend class time - at least online - on longer tasks.
A few reflections from the post-test:

Students need more exemplars - however, even the ones I gave did not seem to have a significant impact on their writing, so I need to do some thinking/learning on how to use help students access and transfer insights and learning from exemplars to their written and oral responses.

Audio questions were more likely to contain repetition and directly reading from the text. However, one student did better at making her case via audio response.

The question that required a yes or no response, followed by explanation mostly got responses with “because”.

Students overall did show improvement, but, as I said, I had to do more arm-twisting this time around to get them to complete Schoology work in general, including the post-test, and resorted to unsubmitting the assignment for some learners to have them take the time needed to give evidence and explain their answers.

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Amy, I cannot thank you enough for your suggestions.  I've had some great success with your help.

I have been doing oral tests/post-tests and there is a significant jump in my student's ability to respond to a follow-up question.  When I first started this, there were crickets.  Only one student could respond when I would ask something like "Why?'  But with persistence and practice, most of my students are understanding they need to respond with evidence.

The best example I can give is that we are practicing Yes/No questions with do/does.  These are great because I will ask something like, "Does he have a fever?" And if the answer is no, then I ask "Why?" or "What's the matter?"  And the students are able to give a 1-3 word response as to what the true ailment is.  In fact, today, I had a student who used the word "because" which we have not practiced, so I was pretty impressed to see her thinking expanding.

So, my post-tests have been student responses to the negative in a yes/no question, with follow-up questions stating the truth.

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I have been working with the students a lot on marking up the texts with evidence. We've been working on underlining and highlighting evidence and then on choosing what part of the sentence actually answers the question and needs to be written on the line for the questions. I feel a little bit like I'm all over the place though. I have been doing this a lot, but it's a little different from where I started. On the pre-test, it became clear to me how many students needed more experience with these things. I also hope that now that I have daily prep time, I will be able to be more intentional and focused in my PLC work. Although I've been working with them, I feel a little unfocused. Tony told me to be honest!  I'll have to think through what a post-test will look like. I will keep you posted on that. 

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I have been working with the students a lot on marking up the texts with evidence. We've been working on underlining and highlighting evidence and then on choosing what part of the sentence actually answers the question and needs to be written on the line for the questions. I feel a little bit like I'm all over the place though. I have been doing this a lot, but it's a little different from where I started. On the pre-test, it became clear to me how many students needed more experience with these things. I also hope that now that I have daily prep time, I will be able to be more intentional and focused in my PLC work. Although I've been working with them, I feel a little unfocused. Tony told me to be honest!  I'll have to think through what a post-test will look like. I will keep you posted on that. 

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Just a note to say that between tech challenges, internet outages and training in new students enough to take the post-test in Schoology (which, for them, will be a pre-test), we are still wrapping up the post-test process over here and one section hasn't started it yet so I'll circle back to add an update next Wednesday or so.

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It was good to meet and share about our experiences this morning.  I always learn from listening to other teachers.

Amy, thanks again for the suggestions you made in your email.  Here is a written recap of what I shared earlier.

This week I started asking follow-up questions during informal conversations.  We talked about our favorite foods, and I was able to ask questions and have the students share more than a 1-word response.  After I practiced this with a couple of students, I could sense the enthusiasm and desire to talk more from the following students.  It went really well, and I'm excited that I now feel I have someplace to start.

Moving forward, I plan to have more informal conversations with follow-up questions (of course, more strategic and intentional behind the scenes). The outcome I would like is increased engagement and familiarity with me asking "Why?" or "What else?" with the intention of beginning to integrate follow-up questions in a more formal/academic lesson.

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Thanks for meeting today, everyone! It was so good to get ideas from you all. So far, I have been trying to extend what I already do with readings orally into written questions (why? how do you know? where do you see that in the reading? tell me more). I would like to try Beth's game idea into a conversational routine that I will eventually apply to readings. I will let you know how that goes. 

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Thanks for meeting today, everyone! It was so good to get ideas from you all. So far, I have been trying to extend what I already do with readings orally into written questions (why? how do you know? where do you see that in the reading? tell me more). I would like to try Beth's game idea into a conversational routine that I will eventually apply to readings. I will let you know how that goes. 

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After the pretest, I assessed students in adding followup questions to my written open questions.  I used a 3-point rubric to assess their proficiency.  After further instruction, scores stayed the same or went up.  Prior education and time in the class was a factor in how students scored.  This will prepare my teaching for further direct instruction, then I will assess again.

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Reflection 1 - Amy (benchmark focus: finding evidence)

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Reflection 1 - Amy (benchmark focus: finding evidence)

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After reflecting on some of the issues raised by the pre-assessment, I implemented 3 new oral practices to support students when they have assignments that require longer answers or more complete explanations.

First, we do an oral check before starting or assigning any short answer essay. We determine how long their answer should be based on the question or directions.

Second, we practice saying the line, paragraph or location of ideas, words or evidence in the text (using words like before, after, beginning, middle and end, especially for audio and video texts). We try to do this whenever we answer comprehension or other questions orally, even when it’s not required by the question, as a good practice to help each other track together when discussing text.

Third, we introduced the practice of checking regarding answers being complete by asking:  “Was that enough?” Students can put 1, 2, or 3 in the chat. 3 = You explained it very well or completely, 2 = You explained it somewhat, but I’d like to know a little more, and 1 = You didn’t explain or your explanation wasn’t clear.

We practiced with audio, video and written texts and written and recorded responses to provide diverse opportunities for practice for everyone and to support students with different learning styles.

Students had the most consistently solid results with giving full explanations when prompted on a video assignment in Nearpod with a video that was not the best sound quality and not quite on target for English level but it was a high-interest engaging video and there was plenty of evidence that didn’t rely on understanding every word.

I've played around a bit with using the Schoology highlight features to assess finding evidence, but am still trying to figure out what's the best way to use it with lagging mouse and tech skills and at a distance. I was lucky that all my students had or acquired computer access this trimester so it was more achievable than it probably will be in the near future until we get more Chromebooks. It occurred to me that a great option for differentiation would be in assessments with "highlight text". Some students could be given a version where all the words or sentences are available to highlight. Others could get a version where only some words or sentences are available to limit the options they have to choose from. I've been using this second option with all learners, but may try making two versions and seeing how it goes for the higher ones.

It's been challenging to squeeze in as many Schoology assignments/assessments around this as I’d like because of starting late in the trimester and needing to focus on other benchmarks as well. Students’ late arrival, early departure and absences and my own absences have also made it a bit challenging.

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Hi all, I got very mixed results on the pre-assessment. Some people did very well and some people misunderstood much of the test. It's hard to know what the mistakes were about. Was it the directions, the questions, the vocabulary? My next steps are to practice answering why as much as possible when we read something and to make it a routine in both asking orally and in a way that is built into the questions. I also want to more regularly ask them to underline evidence in the text. I will look carefully at the test and make sure that I am setting them up for success by building in both the format and the questioning on the test. Lenka, I'd love to touch base with you sometime to see how you test citing evidence in your class. You wondering about one of the questions I asked is also a wondering I have. Can we connect?

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Hi all, I got very mixed results on the pre-assessment. Some people did very well and some people misunderstood much of the test. It's hard to know what the mistakes were about. Was it the directions, the questions, the vocabulary? My next steps are to practice answering why as much as possible when we read something and to make it a routine in both asking orally and in a way that is built into the questions. I also want to more regularly ask them to underline evidence in the text. I will look carefully at the test and make sure that I am setting them up for success by building in both the format and the questioning on the test. Lenka, I'd love to touch base with you sometime to see how you test citing evidence in your class. You wondering about one of the questions I asked is also a wondering I have. Can we connect?

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I just wrote an assessment for Monday. I will let you know how it goes. I can tell it's going to be very hard for half of my students, but I will be very clear that it's a pre-test. I shared it with you as a google.doc. I couldn't figure out how to do it here. It wasn't working to share it as a link. I will let you know how it goes on Monday. 

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I just wrote an assessment for Monday. I will let you know how it goes. I can tell it's going to be very hard for half of my students, but I will be very clear that it's a pre-test. I shared it with you as a google.doc. I couldn't figure out how to do it here. It wasn't working to share it as a link. I will let you know how it goes on Monday. 

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I'm giving mine next week. I was too busy this week with an observation and CASAS and some personal stuff. Thanks for everything you wrote. I will use it to help me create an assessment for next week!

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Update: I loved one of the student's responses so much I wanted to figure out a way to share, so here's a link to a google doc with a few of the responses. Feel free to use the comments feature in Google docs.

Here’s a link to a PDF of the assessment if anyone would like to take a look. And here are the rubric and the sample question which don’t show up on the printed assessment.

A few reflections:

Even though I didn’t really have any aha moments during the PD day relating to this project, I noticed that when I came back to finalize the pre-assessment in schoology, the lack of an sample/example stood out, so I added an example at the beginning.

I wish I had given at least one question requiring a verbal response!

Four prompts feels like way too much for my lowest student (3 have taken it so far). It might have been better to give them just one prompt or spread it out over more days (which is what I will have to do with at least one of my students). I’d rather avoid letting them do it outside of class time when they might get too much help from others.

One student doesn’t always directly answer the questions.

Even with coaching, on this initial try, students mostly did not follow directions to write 2-3 sentences for each question. One student in particular doesn’t seem to know what is required when directions state to write 2-3 sentences for each question.

Even my higher students definitely have room for improvement with drawing more explicit connections, giving evidence by talking about the story rather than copying the story and consistently writing complete sentences.

I’m just now questioning whether I used my own rubric correctly since I think sometimes I may have given 3 out of 5 (rather than 4 for at target) because there was room for improvement in one of the areas mentioned above, which was not necessarily part of what that rubric was assessing so I’m going to go back and double-check that I’m only grading what the rubric is assessing.

One prompt asks for evidence not in the story - I did not align that one to the benchmark or use the rubric. It’s the type of insight that students have to rely on common sense or previous knowledge for comprehension. I realized later that our benchmark only refers to evidence in the story so this question was outside the scope of ELL4 target learning.

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Lenka's Reflection- Reading for Science class, in-person 8:30 class

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Lenka's Reflection- Reading for Science class, in-person 8:30 class

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I gave a pre-assessment in my in-person class yesterday. The students read a text in class together and then completed folllow up questions individually. The questions focused on using evidence to support their answers. There were only 4 students left of the usual 8, but I was able to collect enough data to get me started. One student needed help at the beginning to find the answers in the text and then completed on his own. The second student worked indepedently, but misread 2 questions and used the wrong evidence to support her answers. The third student was absent the day before and late 1 hour to class, so she was catchign up. The fourth student needed to be shown how to find the answers on 4 our of the 5 questions. She struggles navigating the packet with a staple one the top left corner and can't follow the pages once she turns them. I think I will try to make the packet more like a book for her with two staples and see if that helps. I am going to encourage more highlighting and text mark-up for the students so they pay more attention to headings, topic sentences, main ideas, etc. They do better with follow up questions about a paragraph at a time, but navigating the whole text is something I'll need to work on with them.

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Hello team, I am finding this PLC challenging with my Level 1 students, but I'm working on it.  I have said, "Tell me more" and that was completely mis-interpreted.  I have tried "why?" but this has also faced challenges, as this requires a higher level of abstract thinking.  So, what I am thinking as a next step is that I am going to be very explicit with my students and actually give them a lesson on the concept of follow-up questions.  And then put into place an easy rubric (per Scott - thanks for the suggestion!) and print it out and keep it on my desk, so I am constantly reminding myself to do this in every class.  Also, having a hard copy of a rubric will allow me to take quick notes and do informal assessing.

So this is what I have. I'm not even sure if this is what you are looking for in the Pre-Assessment reflection, but here it is!

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https://atlasabe.padlet.org/atlasstaff/e5l2jqbvq3fzrv8a

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We will use follow-up questions such as, "Why?" "Do you agree?" "Please elaborate" and "Tell me more" during our reading and vocabulary activities to increase student results on a benchmark assessment by 25%.  Pre-test will be administered by October 29th and post-test by December 10th.  

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We will use follow-up questions such as, "Why?" "Do you agree?" "Please elaborate" and "Tell me more" during our reading and vocabulary activities to increase student results on a benchmark assessment by 25%.  Pre-test will be administered by October 29th and post-test by December 10th.  

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PDP Alignment and Data: Suggested text
Baseline data is collected via a benchmark pre-assessment determined by MPS AE Curriculum teams and/or learner participation rates in learning activities.

Add a Competency: 3Bi Uses instructional strategies to engage students.

1. We will use follow-up questions such as, "Why?" "Do you agree?" "Please elaborate" and "Tell me more"  strategy outlined in our program wide professional development during our reading and vocabulary activities.
2. We will use this strategy to increase student results on a benchmark assessment.
3. A Pre-test will be administered by October 29th and post-test by December 10th to measure progress.
4. The goal is to increase student results on a benchmark assessment by 25%.

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Lenka Bragg
Angie Hanson-Huff
Scott Biros
Beth Khoury
Amy Van Steenwyck

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October 14 or 15, 2021: Collaborative Prep

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October 14 or 15, 2021: Collaborative Prep

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Draft SMART goal as a team.

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All staff professional development on activities/strategies ground in CCRS.

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Collect and share data on how your students did on a classroom assessment or shared in a discussion when not prompted with a follow up. Share it in the pre-assessment reflection column.

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Implement the strategy and share your reflection in the Individual Reflections (1) column.

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November, 18 or 19, 2021: Collaborative Prep

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November, 18 or 19, 2021: Collaborative Prep

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Read and respond to your team's individual reflections. This can be done in-person or individually as your team sees fit.

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Implement strategy again with any adjustments based on the reflections of your group. Share your reflections in the Individual Reflections (2) column.

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December 16 or 17, 2021: Collaborative Prep 

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December 16 or 17, 2021: Collaborative Prep 

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Meet during collaborative prep day and write a shared group reflection in the Group Reflection (2).

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February 17th or 18th, 2022: Collaborative Prep Day

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February 17th or 18th, 2022: Collaborative Prep Day

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Coaches will present each group's SMART goal and group reflection.

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We will use the ________________ strategy during our __________ part of class to increase student results on the _______ benchmark assessment by ______%.  Pre-test will be administered by October 29th and post-test by December 10th.

We will use the ________________ strategy during our __________ part of class to increase student participation by _______ (number)students.  Pre-assessment activity will be administered by October 29th and post-assessment by December 10th.