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Greetings, International School Teachers and Leaders,

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Greetings, International School Teachers and Leaders,

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Go to MiniPD MiniCourses to find out more about the course above.

Key areas: Data-driven Decision Making, Data Protocols, Using Assessment Data to Respond to Learner Needs.

- Scroll along for bite-size reads around using data to improve student learning. Scroll each day up and down to read the full pro-tips.

Thank you MiniPD Coaches, IB and Non-IB educators, who have co-constructed this calendar with the MiniPD Team.

Stay safe and well.
The MiniPD Team
www.minipd.com

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Try A Fidelity Walk

Kristy Beam, MiniPD Coach says,

Implementing an initiative?

Conduct a fidelity walk - collect data on one or two "look-fors".

What you see happening in the classrooms can help guide next steps.

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Join the MiniPD Twitter slow chat

Using Your Data
@FariaMiniPD #MiniPDchat

The MiniPD Team

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Use a Data Driven Dialogue Protocol

To help make informed decisions, consider:

Working in multi-disciplinary teams to address concerns around student learning

Creating data events where two plus team members meet

Scheduling times to interact

Using a Data Driven Dialogue protocol to make meaning of report data and avoid feelings or assumptions

https://nsrfharmony.org/protocols/

The MiniPD Team

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Leverage Data Dashboards

Data dashboards can help us access and interact with data at a glance through clear and simple visualizations.

The MiniPD invites you to consider some questions to get the most out of your data:

Are you work collaboratively in data teams?

Do you need to develop data literacy in your teams?

Are you regularly training teachers to use data dashboards?

Do teachers frequently observe each other in instructional practice in light of their collaborative data analysis?

Have you built in expectations around data analysis in your teacher professional growth structure?

- MiniPD Coaches can support you one-on-one or in small groups.
- Sign up for free and meet our Coaches who can support you

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Build Momentum

Kristy Beam, MiniPD Coach says,

When implementing a new initiative, early successes build momentum!

Look for projects that guarantee positive results.

Set small achievable goals.

Analyze successes to replicate what went right.

Celebrate everything!

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View Your Marking as Data

Tom Brodie, MB Curriculum Coordinator & MiniPD Coach, says,

Your marking is data

Mark with improvement in mind

Use Flash Feedback

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Listen to the Interview with Matthew Johnson:
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My study of feedback began in earnest on a sunny afternoon during my third year of teaching. I was living in California - much to the envy of my midwestern friends and family - but I was also harboring a secret, a secret that was troubling me that afternoon. The secret was that while my social media pictures showed me at the beach and hiking past redwoods, those excursions were rare, maybe once-a-quarter outings. Instead, the vast majority of my days were spent doing exactly what I was doing in that moment: responding to and grading papers.

For the better part of my first three years as a teacher, student papers acted as the chains that shackled me to my desk day after day. Like Tantalus, I could see the beach gleaming through a crack between the apartment buildings next to mine, but when I looked at the towers of student work in front of me, the sand and waves receded out of reach. Maybe tomorrow after I chop these essay stacks down I would tell myself once again.

That afternoon though, for reasons I don't fully understand, something inside me finally snapped and I admitted to myself what I'd long known unconsciously: I didn't want to live like this anymore. I was drowning, submerged under a never-ending torrent of student work in need of feedback and assessment. I didn't want to leave the classroom, but I also didn't want to stay if it meant that my next forty years would endlessly orbit stacks of student work in the way that my first three years did.

That night, in a last-ditch effort to stay a teacher, I began to read whatever I could find about responding faster and better to student work, and it didn't take long for me to realize that I was far from the first teacher to resent living a life with papers at its geographic center. In fact, the very first article of the very first volume of the The English Journal in 1912 begins with a simple question written in all caps: CAN GOOD COMPOSITION TEACHING BE DONE UNDER THE PRESENT CONDITIONS?

The answer given by the author, Dr. Edwin M. Hopkins? "No." There were simply too many students and papers to manage. By the way, it is worth noting that Dr. Hopkins had 100 students. I currently have 158.

And the problem is that Dr. Hopkins wasn't fully wrong, then or now. The issue largely comes down to feedback, which is an essential part of good teaching-not just for composition, but for any content area. Just like the conditions in Dr. Hopkins' time, our present conditions make providing quality feedback incredibly difficult. This is because effective feedback generally shares a handful of characteristics: It is given regularly, returned in a timely manner, and written in clear language. It also works best when students are in the midst of creation, as opposed to as a postscript on final drafts once they finish.

When one digs down, the logistics of providing regular, timely, and formative feedback are absurd when one has 158 or even 100 students. Take my classes: Each minute of feedback I provide to each of my 158 students takes a time investment of over two and a half hours. That means reading and responding to one essay or project or test in ten minutes-a blisteringly fast speed based on the teachers I've talked to-will take over 25 hours. Even if a teacher works 60 or 70 hours, sacrificing countless evenings and weekends to student work, there exists a hard cap on the amount of feedback a teacher can give if it's only given in big chunks on big assignments.

Of course more global feedback on larger assignments is important, and there are ways to get more efficient and effective with that feedback (I wrote a book largely on this subject, Flash Feedback: Responding to Student Writing Better and Faster-Without Burning Out, and this very site has excellent suggestions here, here, and here), but if teachers want to provide timely, regular, formative, and meaningful feedback, we need to diversify our practices.

Feedback, after all, is just a teacher's response to something, and we can meaningfully respond to different assignments in a multitude of ways, many of them only taking a minute or two. I call these practices Flash Feedback, and while they come in small packages, they can pack a serious educational punch.

Characteristics of Flash Feedback

Teachers can take countless approaches to Flash Feedback. The exact structures will depend on the discipline, students, and teacher, but the most efficient and effective Flash Feedback tends to share these four characteristics:

It focuses on one or two learning objectives. A long history of scholarship argues that feedback, even on large assignments, should generally focus only on a manageable number of topics, no more than a few. Covering too many topics tends to overload students, so they learn no lessons (or no lessons deeply) and it takes longer, making it the exact opposite of Flash Feedback.

Students do the heavy lifting. Teachers often fall into the trap of correcting work for students and doing more reflection on student work than they require the students to do. Kelly Gallagher and Penny Kittle call this Helicopter Teaching, and while it generally comes from a place of wanting to help, it often holds students back for two reasons: First, when students don't have to work for an answer, they are less likely to remember it. Second, the time it takes to correct student work and solve problems for the students severely limits how much feedback the teacher can give them. For Flash Feedback to work, students must be the primary ones finding answers, patterns, and approaches, as the teacher plays the role of the guide standing well off to the side.

It utilizes systems and technology. Feedback often has a lot of redundancies that can be mitigated with better systems or by using technology, and even little efficiencies add up. For me, each 15 second increase in efficiency saves me 40 minutes when taken on the scale of all of my students!

There is a spillover plan and time allotted for special cases. There will inevitably be times when a student's specific needs won't fit within the system and structure being used by the teacher. This is why having a clearly defined spillover plan/time will help to make sure that the needs of one or two individuals don't derail the plan for the rest of the class.

Three Ways to Do Flash Feedback

In my classes, and especially during the time when I'm writing this-an era of emergency distance learning when time is tight-there are three types of Flash Feedback that I find myself coming to again and again: Targeted Response, Micro-Conferences, and Wise Interventions.

1. Targeted Response

My students, like most people, tend to struggle with comma usage. My approach to helping them with commas used to be to circle and correct every comma error I found in every paper, but this never led to much progress and it took a tremendous amount of time.

Now I mainly use Targeted Response, which is where the teacher focuses an assignment and its feedback solely on 1 to 2 targeted learning goals. When it comes to commas, my students write a very short one-page paper about anything they want in any genre. It is called the Comma Paper, and its only criteria (and the only thing I give feedback to) is that they must include at least four correctly used examples of each type of comma we studied in class.

To speed my assessment of and response to these papers, I have students turn them in on Google Classroom. That enables me to use the Find Function (Command-F) to highlight all of the commas in the piece, so I can quickly scan for comma issues. It also allows me to pre-populate two comments in the comment bank (if you don't know how to do this, here is a quick tutorial). One is a short congratulatory note for students who had no comma errors. The other is a message where I tell students the number of comma errors and let them know that to get credit for the assignment, they must find the errors and fix them during the class time provided.

By keeping the scope of the paper and feedback focused and using the technology tools available, I can give specific, individual, and meaningful feedback in less than a minute per student, and the best part is that the deep focus on commas leads to more student growth in one short paper than a year of circling and correcting commas ever did!

2. Micro-Conferences

Conferencing is one of the most celebrated pedagogical tools, and there is good reason for that. It is a rare one-on-one opportunity to offer individualized instruction and feedback, fix misconceptions, build relationships, and give students the opportunity to be heard by a caring adult. Like written feedback though, the logistics of conferences can be daunting in most classes. My classes meet for 210 minutes each week and average 32 students. This means doing a five minute conference with each student takes over 75 percent of the class time that week.

While larger conferences are sometimes worth this time investment for me, I can only do so many if I want to cover everything else I need to do. Enter the Micro-Conference, which is a conference that is done in a fraction of the time (generally 1 to 2 minutes) by being focused and carefully structured.

One of my favorites is one I do around paraphrasing, which is another deeply important skill that students tend to struggle with. Here's how it works:

1. Students write a rough draft of a paper with paraphrasing, like a research paper, and bring it to class.

2. As a whole class, we read and discuss mentor texts with strong paraphrasing.

3. Students take out their own drafts, pick a page to work with, and then highlight each moment of paraphrasing they see.

4. They then rate their paraphrasing in their paper from 1 to 10, based on the mentor text we read, and write at least four sentences justifying their rating.

5. Once students have rated and reflected on their work, they call me over and we quickly conference. I generally start conferences by asking students to share their ratings and what they noticed when comparing their work to the example. We then use those thoughts to plan an actionable path forward together. My role in this is mainly that of the gadfly - asking questions and helping the student to orient in the right direction - and while I try to keep the conferences to no more than a minute, most generally wrap up naturally in that time without feeling rushed.

Like the Targeted Response, everything about these conferences is designed to maximize time efficiency. The students have already laid the groundwork and highlighted the paraphrased sections, allowing us to jump right in at a high level. Further, by focusing just on paraphrasing, a minute is not too short to go deep, answer questions, and figure out meaningful action steps forward for the student.

3. Wise Interventions

Wise Interventions is a practice that came out of Stanford and the University of Virginia, among others, and the idea behind it is that while shifting negative student mindsets, beliefs, and behaviors is often painstakingly slow, in the right circumstances it can also happen incredibly quickly. The key to these moments of rapid positive change is that if teachers can find the exact moments that fuel and perpetuate negative student beliefs/mindsets/behaviors and disrupt them, sometimes it can open students up to better alternatives in surprisingly little time.

Probably the most famous example of this was a study of Massachusetts middle schools that found that students did twice as much revision on an essay when they each received a sticky note on the top of their essays that read "I'm giving you these comments because I have very high expectations and I know that you can reach them," versus those who got a sticky note that read "I'm giving you these comments so that you'll have feedback on your paper."

The researchers theorized that the reason for why one sticky note-the product of no more than a few seconds work - would have such a large effect on student mindsets and behavior was that many students in the study might have felt the teachers didn't believe in them. Those narratives were disrupted by a note coming just at the moment they were preparing for teacher disappointment once again via the teacher comments, which in turn cleared the way for those students to put in more work.

I use a number of Wise Interventions in my classes, but my favorite with feedback is one called "I'm so sorry about the rain." It comes from Daniel Coyle's book The Culture Code, and the basic premise is that a study out of Harvard found that people were 422% more likely to let a stranger borrow their phone if the stranger prefaced asking for the phone by saying "I'm so sorry about the rain." The reason this rather banal comment about the weather led to a striking shift in behavior was likely that it was enough to signal a relationship, which changes nearly everything about how a brain responds to a request.

I have found that little personal things that take only a few seconds to write-like quickly referencing something a student said in class or an aspiration the student shared at some point-can often have the same effect on students, especially those who are wary of writing, and shift the attention and care they give to feedback on that paper and beyond.

By being focused and carefully structured, Flash Feedback allows us to make feedback a part of class that is as regular as the bells in the halls. It also allows us to teach many more personalized lessons each semester; gives us regular points of contact with students, which have been shown to improve performance and relationships; and best of all, can be done quickly, allowing teachers to break those shackles to student papers and take a day at the beach every once in a while.

Come back for more.
Join our mailing list and get weekly tips, tools, and inspiration that will make your teaching more effective and fun. You'll get access to our members-only library of free downloads, including 20 Ways to Cut Your Grading Time in Half, the e-booklet that has helped thousands of teachers save time on grading. Over 50,000 teachers have already joined-come on in.

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Flash Feedback: How to Provide More Meaningful Feedback in Less Time

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If we want to provide timely, regular, formative, and meaningful feedback, we need to diversify our practices. These three strategies pack a lot of punch in very little time.

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Build Student Assessment Literacy

Building Assessment Literacy in our students is key when helping them to take ownership of their own learning.

One way to do this is to have metacognitive conversations with your students about their assessment results. Help them to understand 'how' they arrived at the assessment result they earned.

Are they happy with it? Great! How can they replicate the process to ensure strong grades on the next assessments?

Are they unhappy with their grade? Ask your students to articulate the process they used or the approach they took to arrive at this grade. Then, have them articulate where can they make a change in their approach so the next time they can expect a different result.

Dawn Summerfield
Summerfield TEC
MiniPD Coach

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Use Data To Transform Learning in International Schools (5 minute read)

- So how can we use data to transform learning?

- Watch the recording, continue to learn with a coach 1-on-1 or in small groups, read articles, and access resources: create an account at no cost here.

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' What defines an excellent school is that it continues to ask, "How well are we doing, and how do we know?" and "How can we improve?" [...] Data is the key to answering these questions .' (Hagan & Nordmeyer, 2013)

Using data transform learning at different levels. But it is not data alone that is transformative, it is how we use data that is the key to unlock transformative practice. As we go forward on our data-informed journeys for continuous school improvement, one concept to bear in mind is Ethics. We all need to be mindful that we continue to act with respect and responsibility in the data we use. After all, it is our children, our students, who sit at the center.

So data can help us to become stronger and more effective. Leadership teams can use data across departments, divisions, or schools to help us look at curriculum and programme effectiveness. Teachers and teaching teams can use data to drive decisions about the instruction and interventions to take with students in classrooms.
So how can we use data to transform learning? What is one action you can take to shift your own practice to be more data-driven?
Consider a new perspective or a shift in your own approach to using data. For example, Dawn Summerfield, MiniPD Coach, shares strategies for talking about data with parents, for building assessment literacy in students and for using data to set goals with students (See Day 7, 20 and 22).

2. Think Big - Connect Professional Learning to Student Outcomes
How are you using data to measure the impact of professional learning on student outcomes?
In Measuring the Impact of Professional Learning on Student Outcomes, Shauna Hobbs-Beckley, MiniPD Coach, highlights, " Research shows that quality professional learning overtime can lead to better student outcomes. " She outlines a data process to measure the impact of professional learning on student outcomes and stresses that, " Until we make it a regular practice to measure the impact on student outcomes, our educational systems will not change ." She addresses two key questions: " How can schools measure the correlation between professional learning and student outcomes? " and " How do they determine the data that is needed to show the connection? "

Action: Read Shauna's article which outlines 6 steps to guide you in how you can measure the impact of professional learning on student outcomes.
Do you organize your data analysis in collaborative teams?
Ed Haden and Jon Nordmeyer, in No Data Left Behind (2013), highlight the work of Boudett et al., to stress the importance of collective teamwork as an essential part in effective data analysis and use.

Action: Work with colleagues in data teams. Or at the school level, look to establish a data team to model best practices first, and then scaffold through your school Professional Learning Communities to support improvement in data use.

Follow the Single Source of Truth Principle
Are your data points based around one location?
Adam Morris, as one of our MiniPD Coaches experienced in effectively using data in schools, highlights, in his article Data Management, that, " Breaking the single source of truth principle threatens trust. " He explains that this " principle is about ensuring that there is only one location for updates of certain data points to occur ." He adds, " If there is only one location for certain data points to be updated [...] the rest of the data simply updates itself based on that source [...] the result is that all of the data are now 'in sync' ."

Action: Reflect on your data to check that you and your team are following the single source of truth principle.
Do you use a protocol to guide discussions?
In A Six-Step Data Protocol for Instructional Planning, Kristy Beam, MiniPD Coach, recommends using a student data protocol, a series of steps for analyzing student data. The article takes us through a step-by-step process with a clear goal in mind: "The goal is to get to where you have open, transparent conversations [...] You want data to become a collective. 'This is our data. This represents us. ''"

Action: Reflect on if your school uses a data protocol effectively. Read Kristy's six-step data protocol and recommendations in her article above. Alternatively, you can consider other protocols linked in her article, such as, Looking at Data Protocol , Oakland Unified School District Data Protocols , The Ounce Classroom Observation Data Dialogue Protocol and the School Reform Initiative Data Driven Dialogue.
Are you using essential questions and an inquiry process to decide what data to collect?
In his article, Data Analysis and School Improvement, MiniPD Coach, Eric Pollock, discusses taking a cautious approach to data, along with the use and impact of data warehousing and analysis tools. He highlights the important role of inquiry, to ask questions around data, and advocates an Essential Questions Approach to help us make decisions on the kind of data we may need and how we intend to collect it.

Action: Consider the extent to which you use an inquiry process around your data. Build faculty capacity by providing continuous professional learning opportunities for teachers to make sense of student learning information that has been centralized in your school data warehouse.

Use Multiple-Data Points
To what extent is your data collection providing a comprehensive view?
In Understanding Data Use in Schools, Chris Hayden, MiniPD Coach, invites us to consider many aspects of data use. One key area he addresses is around the scope of data that we use in data-informed decision making. He highlights the formative measures of p rogress as key to driving learning. He writes, " Educators and school leaders should constantly look to evidence (i.e., data) to evaluate the impact of classroom practices, policies and interventions. Data considerations should include not only numerical quantitative measures but also qualitative measures and so considerations of data might be better related to or described by a focus on evidence. "

Action: Consider the different sources of data you use. For multiple source selection see Day 24. Take steps to build a deeper understanding of student learning in order to make well informed decisions, remembering that no single data point can be sufficient. Collecting multiple data points can work towards ensuring you have deep and rich information.

By taking intentional actions we can move forward in our improvement journeys, to build our own data related knowledge and skills sets, and support more impactful and efficacious data-driven teams. We build the capacity in ourselves, our teams and our schools, to use data more effectively to transform student learning outcomes.

Join the Conversation

We invited educators from around the world to join us in a Coaches-in-Conversation on our theme, Using Your Data, in February 2022. We will post the recorded conversation here during the 3rd week of February.

Wanting to further the conversation?

Needing a thought partner? A critical friend? Schedule one-to-one coaching sessions with any of our inspirational MiniPD Coaches above about areas that can support you to drive engagement in your classroom with your students!

Want to keep connected?

You will receive a newsletter at the beginning of each month with pro-tips, tools and resources.

You will have access to information on live events and our bite-size action-based calendar created for, with and by our community of international school educators.

You can access articles published by MiniPD experienced Coaches, IB and non-IB international school educators, on topics that matter to you.

You can connect with our experienced Coaches quickly and easily for ongoing one-to-one supportive conversations.

Want to learn more?
Using Your Data
What topics matter to you?

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Use Data To Transform Learning in International Schools - MiniPD

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' What defines an excellent school is that it continues to ask, "How well are we doing, and how do we know?" and "How can we improve?" [...] Data is the key to answering these questions .' (Hagan & Nordmeyer, 2013) Using data transform learning at different levels.

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Revision + Analytics = Learning

Adam Morris, MiniPD Coach & Schools Technology and Integration Director, Faria Education Group, says,

OSC study app (formally SMARTPREP) has background analytics matched with curriculum content, so students can self-assess in which areas they are rocking it, and which areas may be red flags.

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With flashcards, revision guides, and videos.

The OSC Study app is an all-in-one study solution, combining over 8,000 SMARTPREP flashcards, 3,000 Studynova tutorial videos, and 24 OSC Revision Guides across 10 IB Diploma subjects (more in development) to provide the most powerful revision resource available for the modern student and teacher.

Building on decades of experience and creativity across the OSC, SMARTPREP and Studynova teams, OSC Study is designed by expert IB teachers. It is built to enable a fluid knowledge exchange between teachers and students, making it easy to study at home, in school and anywhere in between.

Experience OSC Study for yourself, today

Broad DP coverage. Expanded continuously. All included.

OSC Study revision materials are produced by educators from leading IB world schools. Collectively, their experience ranges from subject and group coordination, to participating in curriculum reviews and authoring for the main publishing houses. Most of them are also experienced IB examiners, so they can show you what you need to know in order to achieve the best results on your exams.

Try it now and experience 10 IB DP subjects for yourself. Start your free 7-day trial now without any obligation to purchase.

OSC Study comes with a ton of features that allow learners to organise all content according to their needs and preferences. And educators can do the same.

Add study notes to any card, page in the revision guide or any video. Access all your notes from a preview screen and sort through them any way you'd like.

Create folders to organise the app's content according to your needs.

Search for key terms to immediately access all content, notes, folders, and exercises from one convenient place.

Study tools alone aren't enough. OSC Study is fully integrated with ManageBac to connect you with your students. The app makes it easy and quick to plan the next class, prepare students for assessments or tailor homework assignments. Anytime and anywhere.

Log in to OSC Study with your ManageBac credentials.

Build OSC Exercises by selecting the flashcards that match your teaching points. You and your students will have instant access to them on any device.

Coming soon for revision guides and videos.

Schedule your free 25 minute 1-on-1 demo with ManageBac today to see how OSC Study engages students. Available 24 hours a day, Monday through Friday.
Schedule your free demo now

We want you to experience OSC Study for yourself. Start with a free 7 day individual or school-wide trial without any obligation to purchase, or request a paid 1 year school-wide access today.

We also offer individual access, for 3 months, 6 months or 1 year.

School Subscription

US$39per year and user

or

CNY 318per year and user

or

Individual trial

Free 7 day access

Interested in purchasing OSC Study for yourself?

School-wide trial

Free 7 day access

10 tips for using OSC Study in class

Students respond well to varied presentations and their interest is peaked by learning technologies. The OSC Study app is designed so it can be used effectively in class and beyond. We put together a compact presentation that contains 10 hand-on examples of how you can use the app.

So much more than an app!

OSC is proud to facilitate a smooth and successful user experience from content quality to the technical aspects of using our platform. Our goal is to make our users' journey secure, successful and rewarding.

24 hours, Monday through Friday - via phone and email. It's the same support team that helps you with ManageBac.
support@managebac.com

Your school's data is private - and that's how we treat it. We are 100% GDPR compliant.

Top FAQs

In case you missed anything.

Can I experience OSC Study for free?

To access OSC Study, you will need to have a ManageBac account.

All ManageBac users - students and teachers - are able to access OSC Study for free. You can use our single sign-on (SSO) with ManageBac, allowing you to dive into OSC Study right away using your ManageBac account. Upon your first login, you will have a free 7-day trial with full access to all contents.

If you don't have a ManageBac account, you will be able to sign up through OSC in the near term. Until then, access to OSC Study will be exclusively available to ManageBac users.

Try OSC Study for free now.

Can my school buy full access for all its students and teachers?

For schools, OSC Study is available at a special rate exclusively through ManageBac ( learn more).

Why does OSC Study content meet such high quality standards?

OSC Study resources are created by IB professionals. Our content contributors are or have been active teachers, examiners, workshop or revision course leaders. Many of them have worked for other renowned publishing houses, like Oxford or Cambridge University Press. The Mathematics flashcards have been created entirely by the popular IB Mathematics publisher Haese Mathematics.

Which resources are included in OSC Study?

OSC Study features SMARTPREP IB flashcards, OSC Revision Guides and Studynova Videos, jointly covering 10 IBDP subjects (more in development).

What subjects does OSC Study cover?

OSC Study provides resources for 10 IBDP subjects:
Maths A&A, Maths A&I, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, ES&S, History, Business Management, Economics and Spanish B. Subjects we're currently developing are: Sports, exercise and Health Science, Psychology, Geography, French B and English B. As they become available, we will add them to your account as free updates.

I'm our school's ManageBac admin. How do I enable OSC Study?

Unless you requested a school-wide trial or are subscribed to OSC Study / the ManageBac Plus package ( learn more), you cannot enable OSC Study. To enable OSC Study, follow the steps below:

1. Log in to ManageBac

2. Go to 'Settings' > 'Integrations'

3. Select 'OSC Study'

4. Click on the 'Enable' checkmark

5. OSC Study is now enabled, allowing your teachers and students to benefit from the exercise functionality.

My school purchased a school-wide license for SMARTPREP IB App. How can I access OSC Study?

All SMARTPREP IB App subscribers will automatically benefit from OSC Study. There's nothing you need to do.

How does OSC Study assess studying progress?

We strongly believe in the philosophy of self-assessment to promote learning. This is why we've included buttons that allow you to assess your confidence level for the flashcards and to mark revision guide pages as read or not read. Videos are automatically marked as watched when you're done with them. This drives your learning log and feeds the statistics on how you progress.

Can I use OSC Study with my mobile, tablet and computer?

Absolutely! You can access OSC Study with all mobile, tablet, and computer devices. OSC Study is a web app that is accessed via your web browser. The design is responsive, which means that the user interface automatically adapts to the screen size of your device, displaying the same interactive features and content.

Do I need to be connected to the internet to use OSC Study?

Yes. In the current version, OSC Study will require you to have an internet connection.

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With flashcards, revision guides, and videos. The OSC Study app is an all-in-one study solution, combining over 8,000 SMARTPREP flashcards, 3,000 Studynova tutorial videos, and 24 OSC Revision Guides across 10 IB Diploma subjects (more in development) to provide the most powerful revision resource available for the modern student and teacher.

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Fine Tune Your Delivery With AssessPrep

Adam Morris, MiniPD Coach & Schools Technology and Integration Director, Faria Education Group, recommends:

As a proctoring tool, real-time analytics with AssessPrep are built-in. It helps you determine whether students have a common misconception on a specific question.

You can also create assessments that prompt students to enter tabular information for a bar or line graph.

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AssessPrep allows Teachers to easily create online assessments & exams directly from your ManageBac Classes. Together with our built-in QuestionBank and the OSC Study App, Teachers can now access thousands of pre-built formative, summative and past exam paper questions for the IB Continuum.

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AssessPrep allows Teachers to easily create online assessments & exams directly from your ManageBac Classes. Together with our built-in QuestionBank and the OSC Study App, Teachers can now access thousands of pre-built formative, summative and past exam paper questions for the IB Continuum.

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CLICK HERE TO WATCH Using Data: MiniPD Coaches in Conversation (60 mins) with Adam Morris, Cristophe Gigon and Mihai Catrinar. No cost.

- Watch the recording, continue to learn with a coach 1-on-1 or in small groups, read articles, and access resources: create an account at no cost here.

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Improve Student Outcomes

Tom Brodie, MB Curriculum Coordinator & MiniPD Coach, says,

What do you want your data to do - improve student outcomes.

To do this it must inform.

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Listen to my interview with Joe Hirsch (transcript):
Sponsored by Kiddom and Pear Deck

As teachers, we pretty much give feedback all day long. We tell students how they can improve on assignments, we praise them for things they're doing well, we correct their incorrect responses, and we redirect them when they behave in ways that aren't helpful to learning.

And that's just the students. We also give feedback to our colleagues, although in most cases, these exchanges don't happen as often or as freely as they probably should. We receive plenty of feedback as well, from our students, their parents, our administrators, and our peers. And we encourage our students to give feedback to each other, albeit with pretty uneven results. Really, the experience of school could be described as one long feedback session, where every day, people show up with the goal of improving, while other people tell them how to do it.

And it doesn't always go well. As we give and receive feedback, people get defensive. Feelings get hurt. Too often, the improvements we're going for don't happen, because the feedback isn't given in a way that the receiver can embrace.

It turns out there's a different way to give feedback that works a lot better, a way of flipping its focus from the past to the future. It's a concept called "feedforward," which was originally developed by a management expert named Marshall Goldsmith. As far as I can tell, not a lot of educators are familiar with the practice of feedforward, and I really think if we learned how to do it and started using it more consistently, it could make a huge difference in how our students grow and how we grow as professionals.

In this week's podcast, I interview Joe Hirsch, author of The Feedback Fix: Dump the Past, Embrace the Future, and Lead the Way to Change. ( Bookshop.org | Amazon). In the book, Joe digs deep into the practice of feedforward and shows us how and why it works. You can listen to our full conversation in the player above, read the full transcript, or stay right here-I'll give you a quick overview.

What's Wrong with the Way We Give Feedback?

When we give feedback to our students, or when our co-workers or administrators give feedback to us, the focus is on the past. "People can't control what they can't change, and we can't change the past," says Hirsch. "And that happens to be the focus of most of the feedback that we give or receive."

More specifically, backward-looking feedback doesn't often get good results for three reasons:

It shuts down our mental dashboards. "When we get negative feedback about something that we can't change or control," Hirsch says, "our brains flood with stress-inducing hormones, cortisol, that trigger our threat awareness and put us on the defensive. The parts that are responsible for executive function, for creativity, the parts that allow us to sort of set our agendas and make rational decisions, essentially we are in a state of mental paralysis."

It focuses primarily on ratings, not on development. Most of feedback's time and energy is spent on looking back and rating (or grading) performance that's already over, rather than focusing on what can be done from now on. "When feedback consists of an impersonal set of performance standards, we're overlooking the essential goal of feedback, and that's to create positive and lasting improvement."

It reinforces negative behaviors. "When we hear about flaws that we can't fix anymore-because they're in a past that we can't change-it creates a feeling of learned helplessness, the feeling that we are unable to do anything about our future. Instead of committing ourselves to improvement, which is what we would hope would happen, we hold onto this debilitating view of who we are instead of focusing on who we are becoming."

What is Feedforward?

When we give feedforward, instead of rating and judging a person's performance in the past, we focus on their development in the future.

Suppose my student is writing an essay. Instead of waiting until she is finished, then marking up all the errors and giving it a grade, I would read parts of the essay while she is writing it, point out things I'm noticing, and ask her questions to get her thinking about how she might improve it.

In his book, Hirsch takes this broad concept of feedforward and defines six components of it, six specific characteristics of feedforward that make it so effective. He refers to these by the acronym REPAIR (regenerates, expands, particular, authentic, impact, refines).

So let's take a look at each of these. If you want to implement feedforward well, it should have these attributes:

It REGENERATES talent.

The most effective kind of feedforward helps people see opportunities for growth-ways they could take on new opportunities and roles. "At the simplest level," Hirsch writes in his book, "it leads to the unmistakable feeling that we're moving forward in our professional and personal lives. Getting positive feedback about our performance may feel good, but it doesn't break new ground. It merely confirms what we already know about ourselves and our talents, essentially holding our growth in check. But when feedback gets us thinking about how to spread that talent to others, it has a multiplying effect."

So when we notice that a student is developing a strength or an interest in an area, instead of just pointing that out, we might give the student an opportunity to enter their work in some kind of competition, publish it in some way, or share it with others in a presentation, rather than simply keeping it to themselves. This helps students see themselves in a new light and gets them thinking about ways they could grow.

It EXPANDS possibilities.

Effective feedback starts with what is and helps add to it, expanding what's possible, rather than simply pointing out problems. In his book, Hirsch describes a concept used by Pixar studios called "plussing." When Pixar's creators get together to review a day's work, they are expected to give each other feedback to improve the work. What makes these sessions so effective is one important rule: Participants can't point out a problem without proposing an alternative, saying "What if?" to a problem.

This concept of "plussing" could work wonders in staff or committee meetings: When we are discussing possible solutions to an issue, rather than shooting down ideas that might not work, we could add to them by making small tweaks. "That's an interesting idea. What if we made this small change and tried that?" This technique would also work beautifully with project-based learning tasks, when students may need to come up with several ideas for solving a problem before arriving at the best solution.

It is PARTICULAR.

Far too often, feedback is given in an "information dump," with lots of criteria being measured and reported on at the same time. This can be a pretty ineffective way to help people grow. "There's a limit to how much we can absorb and operationalize in any given time," Hirsch says. "Feedforward is really about picking your battlegrounds strategically and selectively." He advises us to make feedback an ongoing process that is embedded in the day-to-day work, and to only focus on a few things at a time.

So rather than wait until an assignment is done to point out all the ways a student can improve, find ways to give them specific pointers while they work, and only one thing at a time, so students can process and act on it right away.

It is AUTHENTIC.

No one particularly likes giving criticism. "We see problems, we see pitfalls in other people, and we know it's a problem," Hirsch says, "but we don't want to be mean, right? We don't want to crush them. So the tendency is to either avoid giving feedback altogether or to disguise it as a praise sandwich, where we basically slip one piece of criticism in between two very, very surface level gauzy praises."

The problem with that approach, Hirsch explains, is what's called the recency effect: People remember most the thing they heard last. So when you tack on some praise after delivering constructive feedback, the person doesn't really absorb the critical part as well as they would if you'd just given it to them more directly.

Hirsch recommends a more direct approach: Describe what's happening, explain why it's a problem, then prompt the person for a solution. "When delivered this way," Hirsch explains, "it puts people at ease, it takes them off the defensive. It is clear, it is concise, it's locating the problem, it's looking for solutions together. People don't want a praise sandwich. People want the truth."

This approach could work with academic situations or classroom management problems: If you're dealing with a student who is disrupting class, describe the behavior you're seeing, explain why it's a problem, then ask the student for ideas on how to solve it. It sounds really simple, but if what you're doing right now isn't giving you the results you want, it's worth a try.

It has IMPACT.

One of the reasons people don't make progress after receiving feedback is that they don't necessarily know what to do with it. "If you want feedback to make an impact," Hirsch notes, "you have to put it in terms that people can operationalize." In his book, he cites studies showing that regular feedback doesn't typically result in a transfer of new skills or habits, but when that feedback is combined with coaching, the transfer skyrockets to 95 percent.

So if a student regularly forgets to bring materials to class, rather than simply telling him to change, help him make a specific plan for improvement. Ideally, that plan should have lots of small steps to make it achievable, and the student should take the lead in developing that plan.

It REFINES group dynamics.

"Feedback is a team sport," Hirsch says. "It is not just something that happens one to one. It happens in groups and across and within organizations. And when we dump that command and control nature of traditional feedback, we make room for something much more collaborative and shared."

So rather than give feedback in a top-down, hierarchical model, open up more pathways for people to get feedback from their peers, even those whose jobs might on the surface have little in common with our own. In his book, Hirsch borrows a term from management circles known as "creative abrasion," which is what happens when people with opposing views work on the same task together. Although it can result in more conflict, the contributions from different points of view usually produce a higher-quality product in the end.

This idea can play out in a lot of educational settings: Instead of just having our department head observe our teaching, why not get feedback from someone who teaches a completely different subject? When students go to the same peers for feedback on their work, have them seek out the opinion of someone new, or consider getting the input of a group of students from a different class or grade level entirely.

There's nothing simple or straightforward about telling people how to improve. So it's no surprise that we're still figuring it out and finding new ways to refine it. If the feedback you're giving to your students, your coworkers, and even the people at home isn't having quite the effect you intend, try shifting to a feedforward approach. Doing so can help us, as Hirsch says, stop seeing ourselves just as who we are, but who we are becoming. ♦

Learn more about Joe Hirsch on his website or visit his LinkedIn page. Teachers who read The Feedback Fix should also grab this free Discussion Guide for Teachers to help apply the book's principles to your own work.

Come back for more.
Join our mailing list and get weekly tips, tools, and inspiration that will make your teaching more effective and fun. You'll get access to our members-only library of free downloads, including 20 Ways to Cut Your Grading Time in Half, the e-booklet that has helped thousands of teachers save time on grading. Over 50,000 teachers have already joined-come on in.

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Instead of rating and judging a person's performance in the past, feedforward focuses on their development in the future.

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Embed Data into Instruction

Pooja Madhuri Gollapalli, MiniPD Coach says,

How do you know that the students are attaining the skills that are being taught? Many times, it is "I think, I feel, I saw" and is not anything that is supported by data.

The art of teaching has to blend with the science of teaching. Most of instruction must be developed based on this data analysis.

Actionable items -

1. Identify the trends in student and class performance.

2. Identify what the trends mean to you.

3. List and discuss what is the focus for you for the session.

4. Make a plan to identify the areas where the students need greatest help.

Read more on card 19

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Jump back into the MiniPD Twitter slow chat

Using Your Data
@FariaMiniPD #MiniPDchat

The MiniPD Team

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Ensure Students Read Your Feedback

Tom Brodie, MB Curriculum Coordinator & MiniPD Coach, says,

Is your student data for you or your students?

Make your students work for their grade so they read your feedback and improve their outcomes.

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I have a confession to make: I am terrible at handing back papers. That sounds silly, right? I mean, you literally just hand the paper to the kid whose name is at the top.

But teachers everywhere know how disheartening that small act can be. (It can't be just me, right?)

There are the eye rolls and the whispering to each other of "What did you get?" and "She gave me a ___." Next thing you know, the paper you spent so long reading and marking has been shoved into the abyss of the backpack or tossed carelessly in the recycle bin.

Wow, glad I put so much time into that assignment, said no teacher ever.

I honestly got to a point where I would just wait so long to give things back, the kids would kind of forget, and then so would I. Oops.

In English I ask my students to write a lot. I don't grade everything they write, but when it comes to the "big essays"-the graded, polished drafts-what grade they will receive becomes the sole motivator for their writing. This frustrates me, and, in my opinion, distracts them from what they should actually care about: writing.

This intense focus on the all-important grade was my least favorite part, and it was definitely what kept the stack sitting on the counter behind my desk...for an embarrassing amount of time. It really bothered me that kids didn't care about the feedback I put on their essays, not just because I took the time to do it, but because I did it to help them. I want them to grow as writers, and most of them do throughout the year, but so many only seem to care about that number.

I won't lie: It made me angry. Not only did I feel like I had wasted my time, I felt like they just didn't care. And then the snowball of thoughts would start: How will they survive if they don't care about feedback? What's going to happen in college? Or when they get jobs? Ugh! I'm done!

After dealing with this for about nine years, I couldn't take it anymore. I either had to get over it or fix it. Since I'm not usually one to give up, I set out to find a way to get my students to actually read their feedback and care less about the grade.

The Fix for Ignored Feedback

The solution was remarkably easy and accidentally originated out of my laziness (score one for being a little lazy!). Last year, kids had turned in essays on Google Classroom, but rather than pasting a completed rubric into their essay as I usually did, I made hard copies of the rubric and wrote on them. This meant that I could return papers with comments but without grades.

And from this a whole new system was born: Return papers to students with only feedback. Delay the delivery of the actual grade so student focus moves from the grade to the feedback.

The simple act of delaying the grade meant that students had to think about their writing. They had to read their own writing-after a few weeks away from it-and digest my comments, which allowed them to better recognize what they did well or not so well. The response from students was extremely positive; they understood the benefit of rereading their essays and paying attention to feedback. One boy said, "Mrs. Louden, you're a genius. I've never read what a teacher writes on my essay before, and now I have to."

The Plan

1. Grade the Papers
After collecting student papers, grade them (hard copy or electronic) as you usually would with comments on the written piece, but keep the rubric separate.

2. Plan Independent Work
Plan accordingly by creating opportunities for students to do independent or group work for a few days when it's time to return papers to students. This is probably the most vital part of the process, because it will give you time to conference with individual students.

3. Return Papers
When you finish grading the papers, return just the written work to students, not the completed rubric. When I first tried this with students, I put the following directions up on the board when I returned the essays:

Read over your whole essay, including what you wrote and my comments.

Write THREE observations based on your reading and TWO follow-up questions to discuss with me at our conference. Ask about comments, how to improve things, how to do things differently, etc.

Use the rubric (posted online) to grade yourself.

Be ready to discuss all of this.

I now incorporate these instructions into the student copy of the rubric. Below is one page of that rubric, which includes the reflection section.

4. Time to Reflect
Return the essays during class, allowing time to explain, time for kids to read their essays, and time for them to clarify if needed. Encourage them to go slowly. ( Bonus step: Walk around and listen. Hear the difference. Honestly, you probably won't hear a lot of talking or comparing. If they are talking, it will be to themselves about what they are noticing.)

5. Conference with Each Student
This step is where the magic happens.

Since you've planned for independent work, you will have time to meet with each student individually. I do my conferences on a large whiteboard-painted table; I have found that since moving these from my desk to this table, our conferences are more productive. I'm not distracted by the stuff on my desk, kids are able to spread out (Chromebook, reflection, essay, etc.), and as a bonus, we can use the surface of the table when we need to do some planning. These meetings don't have to be more than a couple of minutes per student.

When kids get to my table, I start with "What do you want to talk about?" and let them guide the conference. It is so cool to hear what they have to say. So many of them make comments like "I can't believe I did <insert careless mistake>" or "I'm sorry I turned it in like this" or "I'm embarrassed; I see so many mistakes!" Or my favorite: "You specifically told us not to do this." The level of reflection is deeper than any I've ever encountered. I assure them that it is fine and I don't expect perfection, but on the inside I'm so excited that they're seeing the things I see.

Next they usually ask questions. This is exciting because some of their questions make perfect teachable moments! I have watched many students grow this year from these conversations. Take Alex, for example. He writes the wordiest sentences I've ever read, but he's gotten to the point where he puts his own comments on his essay as he writes so we can discuss while he's still in the writing stage. At least half of these are related to wordiness. I'm excited that he's learned to identify it, if not quite how to fix it yet.

Finally, I end by asking students how they graded themselves according to the rubric. I enjoy this part because more often than not, they were much harsher on themselves than I was. I then share the rubric with the grade and the rest of my general comments. For once, kids are usually happy about their grade because it was higher than they expected, contrary to the old days when they'd say "she gave me C" but they thought they deserved an A.

6. Revision
I always offer students the opportunity to rewrite their essay. Above all else, my goal is to help students become better writers. If this means they have to do it a couple of times, then so be it. Depending on the assignment, these are the usual requirements:

The student must meet with me 1 to 3 times (depends on the student and the essay) before it is due. These meetings are quick "check-in" style meetings: What are you planning to do? What have you done? What questions do you have?

The student must make substantial revisions, not just grammatical edits.

The student must turn in the original and the updated draft on time.

And that's it! Okay, looking back over what I said, it sounds like a lot, but really it's very easy for you. I think this is the best change I have made to the writing process in the last few years. Students have become more reflective ( and sympathetic of how long it takes me to grade-haha! ), their writing has improved, and I return papers much more quickly-and happily-than ever before. ♦

Stick around.
Join our mailing list and get weekly tips, tools, and inspiration-in quick, bite-sized packages-all geared toward making your teaching more effective and fun. You'll get access to our members-only library of free downloads, including 20 Ways to Cut Your Grading Time in Half the e-booklet that has helped thousands of teachers save time on grading. Come on in!!

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Delaying the Grade: How to Get Students to Read Feedback

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You spend hours marking and commenting on student work, and then they don't even read your feedback. The solution is all in how you time it.

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Revision + Analytics = Learning

Adam Morris, MiniPD Coach & Schools Technology and Integration Director, Faria Education Group, says,

The Learning Analytics Collaborative provides a great run down of the how data-driven approaches can support various functions in schools.

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LIVE EVENT: WATCH THE RECORDING

USING YOUR DATA
MiniPD Coaches in Conversation took place on February 17th, 2022. 5:00 pm UTC.

Go to our blogpost on data and scroll down to view the live event recording

Access all live events recordings here

Find Data Coaches to support you!

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' What defines an excellent school is that it continues to ask, "How well are we doing, and how do we know?" and "How can we improve?" [...] Data is the key to answering these questions .' (Hagan & Nordmeyer, 2013)

Using data transform learning at different levels. But it is not data alone that is transformative, it is how we use data that is the key to unlock transformative practice. As we go forward on our data-informed journeys for continuous school improvement, one concept to bear in mind is Ethics. We all need to be mindful that we continue to act with respect and responsibility in the data we use. After all, it is our children, our students, who sit at the center.

So data can help us to become stronger and more effective. Leadership teams can use data across departments, divisions, or schools to help us look at curriculum and programme effectiveness. Teachers and teaching teams can use data to drive decisions about the instruction and interventions to take with students in classrooms.
So how can we use data to transform learning? What is one action you can take to shift your own practice to be more data-driven?
Consider a new perspective or a shift in your own approach to using data. For example, Dawn Summerfield, MiniPD Coach, shares strategies for talking about data with parents, for building assessment literacy in students and for using data to set goals with students (See Day 7, 20 and 22).

2. Think Big - Connect Professional Learning to Student Outcomes
How are you using data to measure the impact of professional learning on student outcomes?
In Measuring the Impact of Professional Learning on Student Outcomes, Shauna Hobbs-Beckley, MiniPD Coach, highlights, " Research shows that quality professional learning overtime can lead to better student outcomes. " She outlines a data process to measure the impact of professional learning on student outcomes and stresses that, " Until we make it a regular practice to measure the impact on student outcomes, our educational systems will not change ." She addresses two key questions: " How can schools measure the correlation between professional learning and student outcomes? " and " How do they determine the data that is needed to show the connection? "

Action: Read Shauna's article which outlines 6 steps to guide you in how you can measure the impact of professional learning on student outcomes.
Do you organize your data analysis in collaborative teams?
Ed Haden and Jon Nordmeyer, in No Data Left Behind (2013), highlight the work of Boudett et al., to stress the importance of collective teamwork as an essential part in effective data analysis and use.

Action: Work with colleagues in data teams. Or at the school level, look to establish a data team to model best practices first, and then scaffold through your school Professional Learning Communities to support improvement in data use.

Follow the Single Source of Truth Principle
Are your data points based around one location?
Adam Morris, as one of our MiniPD Coaches experienced in effectively using data in schools, highlights, in his article Data Management, that, " Breaking the single source of truth principle threatens trust. " He explains that this " principle is about ensuring that there is only one location for updates of certain data points to occur ." He adds, " If there is only one location for certain data points to be updated [...] the rest of the data simply updates itself based on that source [...] the result is that all of the data are now 'in sync' ."

Action: Reflect on your data to check that you and your team are following the single source of truth principle.
Do you use a protocol to guide discussions?
In A Six-Step Data Protocol for Instructional Planning, Kristy Beam, MiniPD Coach, recommends using a student data protocol, a series of steps for analyzing student data. The article takes us through a step-by-step process with a clear goal in mind: "The goal is to get to where you have open, transparent conversations [...] You want data to become a collective. 'This is our data. This represents us. ''"

Action: Reflect on if your school uses a data protocol effectively. Read Kristy's six-step data protocol and recommendations in her article above. Alternatively, you can consider other protocols linked in her article, such as, Looking at Data Protocol , Oakland Unified School District Data Protocols , The Ounce Classroom Observation Data Dialogue Protocol and the School Reform Initiative Data Driven Dialogue.
Are you using essential questions and an inquiry process to decide what data to collect?
In his article, Data Analysis and School Improvement, MiniPD Coach, Eric Pollock, discusses taking a cautious approach to data, along with the use and impact of data warehousing and analysis tools. He highlights the important role of inquiry, to ask questions around data, and advocates an Essential Questions Approach to help us make decisions on the kind of data we may need and how we intend to collect it.

Action: Consider the extent to which you use an inquiry process around your data. Build faculty capacity by providing continuous professional learning opportunities for teachers to make sense of student learning information that has been centralized in your school data warehouse.

Use Multiple-Data Points
To what extent is your data collection providing a comprehensive view?
In Understanding Data Use in Schools, Chris Hayden, MiniPD Coach, invites us to consider many aspects of data use. One key area he addresses is around the scope of data that we use in data-informed decision making. He highlights the formative measures of p rogress as key to driving learning. He writes, " Educators and school leaders should constantly look to evidence (i.e., data) to evaluate the impact of classroom practices, policies and interventions. Data considerations should include not only numerical quantitative measures but also qualitative measures and so considerations of data might be better related to or described by a focus on evidence. "

Action: Consider the different sources of data you use. For multiple source selection see Day 24. Take steps to build a deeper understanding of student learning in order to make well informed decisions, remembering that no single data point can be sufficient. Collecting multiple data points can work towards ensuring you have deep and rich information.

By taking intentional actions we can move forward in our improvement journeys, to build our own data related knowledge and skills sets, and support more impactful and efficacious data-driven teams. We build the capacity in ourselves, our teams and our schools, to use data more effectively to transform student learning outcomes.

Join the Conversation

We invited educators from around the world to join us in a Coaches-in-Conversation on our theme, Using Your Data, in February 2022. We will post the recorded conversation here during the 3rd week of February.

Wanting to further the conversation?

Needing a thought partner? A critical friend? Schedule one-to-one coaching sessions with any of our inspirational MiniPD Coaches above about areas that can support you to drive engagement in your classroom with your students!

Want to keep connected?

You will receive a newsletter at the beginning of each month with pro-tips, tools and resources.

You will have access to information on live events and our bite-size action-based calendar created for, with and by our community of international school educators.

You can access articles published by MiniPD experienced Coaches, IB and non-IB international school educators, on topics that matter to you.

You can connect with our experienced Coaches quickly and easily for ongoing one-to-one supportive conversations.

Want to learn more?
Using Your Data
What topics matter to you?

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Use Data To Transform Learning in International Schools - MiniPD

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' What defines an excellent school is that it continues to ask, "How well are we doing, and how do we know?" and "How can we improve?" [...] Data is the key to answering these questions .' (Hagan & Nordmeyer, 2013) Using data transform learning at different levels.

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Take a Look at Notion.so

Adam Morris, MiniPD Coach & Schools Technology and Integration Director, Faria Education Group, says,

Are spreadsheets your jam? Have you ever wondered if there could be something better?

Do you use word processors and spend too much time fussing with the formatting?

• Check out Notion.so, a wiki solution that includes widgets
• One of these widgets is a powerful database

Notion has excellent tutorials, consider spending some time digesting if this tool suits your data workflows.

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Embed Data into Instruction

Pooja Madhuri Gollapalli, MiniPD Coach, says,

ManageBac helps you with various built in analytics.

If you are an admin for your school's ManageBac account, then you can utilize the student engagement analytics to understand various student activities that includes, last login, submission of tasks, online sessions joined, and even attendance.

Below is the link to understand this feature in detail - https://help.managebac.com/hc/en-us/articles/360049953672-Monitoring-User-Engagement-Analytics

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Introduction to Engagement

Providing high-level views of your school community engagement

Tracking engagement, especially during remote or hybrid learning, is critical to ensuring the success of students.

With our Engagement Analytics you are able to quickly get a high level overview of all the students and where they are in terms of their engagement with learning, based on their activities in ManageBac. You will be able to quickly identify those who are in need of intervention and direct reach out.

The analytics allow you to see how many tasks and lessons have been completed along with last login, attendance and more coming soon. Based on these data, students will be identified in one of four categories, allowing easy identification for who needs immediate support, who needs come guidance and who is highly engaged with their learning.

Engagement Analytics will support teachers, administration and counselors as they work hard to support student learning. By tracking the analytics through actual student work within ManageBac, it removes the need to manually identify and provides the real time data needed to plan the best learning experience for students.

Managing Student Engagement QuickStart Guide

Accessing Engagement Analytics

Engagement Analytics can be found via the Engagement Analytics tab on your admin user Dashboard left menu.

Programme: Select the academic programme at the top of the page, such as IB Diploma.

Term: Filter for a particular Academic Term at the top-right dropdown.

Overall Engagement Status

Under Student Engagement Analytics, students will be grouped by their overall engagement status, into one of the 4 categories:

Hover over the i on each status to read the criteria to the status. You can navigate directly to a student's profile to follow up or review their coursework by clicking on their name.

How is the Overall Engagement Status Calculated?

A student is placed in a particular overall engagement status if they meet at least one of the criteria for that status. If they meet criteria across multiple statuses, they will be placed on the bottom-most status.

In the example above:

Thus on the overall status, she will appear as Not Engaged, as it takes priority.

What are the Criteria for each Engagement Status?

Each engagement status has its own criteria. The criteria are provided below:

Not Engaged

At-Risk

On Track

Highly Engaged

How is each Criteria tracked?

Each criteria tracks specific elements. The elements are provided below:

Last Login

Calculated by any active session to ManageBac made by the user. This is based on student activity in the system each day, and is not affected by 'Remember me for 30 days' or Single Sign On activity. To learn more about how we calculate 'Last Access' data, click here.

Online Lessons Joined

Calculated by if the student actively joined the Online Lesson link in ManageBac, for those scheduled with past dates in the given academic term.

This does not measure the attentiveness or time spent in the Online Lesson.

Online Lessons are only counted in the Engagement analytics if they are linked to a unit and are started in Presentation Mode. Otherwise, they do not count towards the tally of Online Lessons and do not affect student engagement analytics.

Task Completion

Calculated by dividing the number of tasks the user has submitted files for by the number of tasks with the dropbox enabled. Any task with dropbox not enabled is not included, as there is no direct action point for the student to take on ManageBac.

This only looks at tasks with due dates in the past for the given academic term. Tasks with forthcoming dates are not included, as the due date for the student to upload has not happened yet.

Homeroom Attendance

Please note: There is no direct assessment of Homeroom Attendance provided here, and it does not impact where the student falls in their Engagement Status. However, recent attendance status of Present, Absent, Late or Sick are provided for context, as this may have impacted why the student was unable to attend Online Lessons, Login to ManageBac, or Complete Tasks required.

Sorting & Filtering Engagement

Sorting Students

Click the Sort dropdown to sort by:

Alphabetically: The default sort option. This lists students alphabetically by their Last name.

By advisor: Students will be grouped by their Homeroom Advisor. If you are assigned to any students, they will appear at the top of the list under Your Students

Filtering Students

Click the white Filter button to expand the filter options.

Classes: Select for particular grade & class levels (i.e. Selecting Grade 8 will filter for Students in Year Group Grade 8 and their Grade 8 classes)

Engagement: Select to view particular Engagement statuses for Not-Engaged, At-Risk, On-Track and Highly Engaged

Click the blue Filter button to confirm your filter selection. Click Reset to clear the filter.

Searching for Students

You can use the search bar to find a particular student by their name. Any selected Sort or Filter options will remain.

Sending Student Engagement Reminders

If students are falling behind or need additional support, School Administrators are able to select students individually or by cohort, and send them personalized bulk email & mobile push notifications.

Review the default reminder template at the top-right via Edit Student Reminder Template.

You can customize the notice to provide additional guidance or next steps for your users via the text box and using rich-text editing options. Click Save Changes. Clicking Reset to Default will remove any edits you have made, and return to the default provided by ManageBac.

Select the individual students you wish to remind via the left-hand check-box, or click the box at the top to select all from those you have filtered, such as Not-Engaged.

Click Send Student Reminders. Note, this will instantly send the reminder email notification.

Engagement Analytics Permissions

Student Engagement Analytics are available to Administrators on your school's account. It is also possible to permit teachers and advisors to access according to their Permission Settings. Permission options include:

Full Access allows teachers to view Engagement Analytics for all Students.

Class Members and Homeroom allows teachers to view Engagement Analytics only for the Students in their Classes and Homeroom.

None does not allow teachers to have access to Engagement Analytics.

Students & Parents do not have access to view Engagement Analytics or Statuses.

Configure Default Permissions

Via Settings > Permissions, Security & Privacy > Teachers & Advisors > Default Permissions

Configure default permission settings for all teachers & advisors at your school via Settings > Permissions, Security & Privacy > T eachers & Advisors > Default Permissions.

Configure Individual Permissions

Via Teachers & Advisors > Individual Permissions

Configure settings for particular teachers & advisors at your school via Teachers & Advisors > Individual Permissions. Find the user's row, and select from the dropdown under Engagement Analytics. Click Save Changes to confirm.

Configure Permissions for a specific Teacher or Advisor

Via their user profile

Configure settings for a particular teacher or advisor by searching for their name in the global search bar. Click on their name to navigate to their profile > Edit Profile > Permissions. Select from the dropdown under Engagement Analytics. Click Save Changes to confirm.

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Tracking engagement, especially during remote or hybrid learning, is critical to ensuring the success of students. With our Engagement Analytics you are able to quickly get a high level overview of all the students and where they are in terms of their engagement with learning, based on their activities in ManageBac.

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Use Data to Set Goals

Dawn Summerfield, MiniPD Coach says,

Successful Goal Setting requires strong data management strategies. It can be extremely effect when done with short term targets in mind.

Checking in on the goals we set with students often gets lost in the business of the school year.  Here is a strategy that might help to manage the goal setting process:

1. Put into your calendar all the dates you will incorporate goal check-ins into your lessons.
2. Create an email template and schedule it to go out to students in advance of their goal check-in appointment.
3. Have students calendar the dates when they are going to self-reflect on progress.
4. Give students a template of reflective questions that can be used when they do a self-reflective check on progress.
5. Involve parents! What are we expecting parents/students to do at home.

Dawn Summerfield
Summerfield TEC
MiniPD Coach

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Share a story of impact on Using Your Data Twitter chat

- How have you used data to transform learning?
- Share a real story.

@FariaMiniPD #MiniPDchat

The MiniPD Team

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Use Strategies for Talking to Parents About Data

Dawn Summerfield, MiniPD Coach says,

Talking to parents about their child's data can be a challenging and stressful task. Here are a few strategies that can help ease the conversation.

Know what you want your message to be when you talk to parents. Progress? Growth? Achievement?

Consider sharing curricular strengths rather than scores

Use the data to engage parents in helping students to improve areas of weakness

Build common protocols across teams/grade levels/departments highlighting what you plan to share with parents

Enlist parental support with at-home learning

Include parents in the Assessment Literacy partnership you are building with your students (See February 7)

Dawn Summerfield
Summerfield TEC
MiniPD Coach

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Data Walls & Digital Data Walls

Work in teams to make data-informed decisions about the instructional strategies you will use and the interventions you will take.

Data walls can be useful to help teams track student progress using visual representations.

Consider these points for a non-digital data wall - they can still be a useful tool to keep in mind:

Confidentiality - use professional learning spaces or areas accessible to staff only

Identify common assessments - diagnostic, formative or summative

Connect data to individual students - use coloured sticky notes and dots to help identify patterns

Identify patterns and learning goals - find generalizations, exceptions, contradictions, surprises and points of puzzlement

The MiniPD Team

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Collect Data with Purpose

Start with questions - What do you want to know? Who will need the information to take action?

Select multiple data points - Ensure the data provides a rich and deep view

Consider data with purpose - What are the most relevant data sources to use?

This table (attached) from Body of Evidence, by Boudett, City and Murane (2008) can provide a useful reference of different kinds of data sources.

The MiniPD Team

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Build Vocabulary Lists

Adam Morris, MiniPD Coach & Schools Technology and Integration Director, Faria Education Group, says,

Use this free tool to quickly build vocabulary lists:

• Turn any Google Doc into a vocabulary list
• Share the vocabulary list with your students to allow them to take notes with it

Check out RDPT by James Abela
Check out video tutorial by Flipped Classroom

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Data Through An Ethical Lens

Data is about real children, so what questions might we need to keep in mind when we engage with data?

Do we use data with an understanding of the levels of sensitivity of the data?

Are we respecting confidentiality?

Are we holding ourselves to account to collect, organize and use meaningful data as part of best practice?

Are we mindful as we communicate information?

If the answer is no to any of these questions, what might shift so that we use our data though a more ethical lens?

Data honesty, accuracy, ethics and objectivity are key.

The MiniPD Team

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Act and Assess

Ed Hagen and Jon Nordmeyer in No Data Left Behind they give sage advice that still stands today,

"Assess honestly and generate new key questions to celebrate and share with students/teachers/parents."

"Allocate time, funding and resources based on data analysis."

"Adapt instruction and professional learning processes to address for growth."

"International school are in the unique situation of building their own budgets." (Hagan & Nordmeyer, 2013)

The MiniPD Team

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Build a Culture of Data Use

Chris Hayden, MiniPD Coach, recommends:

Toolkit for a workshop on building a culture of data use

From IES, Institute of Education Sciences, Regional Educational Laboratory Program.

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REL_Tookit for Workshops on Building Data Culture

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Next? Explore the MiniPD resources Focusing on Feedback.

Feedback focused:

#MiniPDchat on Twitter

Padlet Calendar for daily-actionable strategies and practical resources

Blogpost and articles from MiniPD Coaches

Free live session with experienced MiniPD Coaches in Conversation

1-1 Coaching sessions via www.MiniPD.com

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What are educators saying about MiniPD coaching for continued professional learning?

"We got answers to our questions and we surely have more to ask as we proceed."

Get connected at minipd.com