Practice for Support for SLO’s

Read this scenario and apply what you have learned in the introduction. Keep notes. Discuss with a colleague. Develop a list of questions to ask your trainer.

A Conversation with Mr. Jones• You: [Praise] You’ve done a great job of laying out the data. It’s

easy to see at a glance who how your students are performing. [Analysis]: “So… what is the data telling you?”

• Mr. Jones: “Clearly, most of my students need more work on summarizing non-fiction texts if I’m to reach  my SLO by March. I have a number of students who are still struggling with fluency and literal comprehension .”

• You: [Realignment Comments: ] “O.K., let’s zero in on those weaker performers. You mentioned struggles with fluency and with literal comprehension. Did you notice any correlation between these issues and performance on the scaffolded summary items? Were there any trends that you noticed and/or connections that you noticed?”

• Mr. Jones: “Actually, no. I just looked at the scores on the summaries and got nervous. But now I see that students who were weak in either skill also performed poorly on the summarizing portion of the assessment.”

• You: “Let’s dig a little deeper to see if we can find some connections that will help you group your students into strategy groups.” [Data-Focusing Comments:] “Let’s look at the breakdown of Oral Reading and the set of skills relevant to basic comprehension. We might find some connections there that will help you group students according to their differentiated learning needs.”

[see next slide]

Oral Reading/ Comprehension Data from Mr. Jones’ DRA2 Results

A Conversation with Mr. Jones• You: [Continue probing] “What obstacles to reading

comprehension, and more specifically, to summarizing, are revealed in this data?”

• Mr. Jones: “It looks like all students whose rate of reading is poor also have trouble summarizing. It also looks like there’s a connection between reading with expression and summarizing, but I can’t tell if it’s just a correlative relationship or it’s actually causal… I’d need to know more. I do know that rate of reading impacts a student’s ability to understand text, especially when the text is complex. It’s reasonable to assume that students who read without expression are concentrating more on getting the words right than they are on understanding what the text is saying.”

• You: “It’s certainly worth exploring. Do you see any implications for instruction and for grouping your students?”

• Mr. Jones: “It looks like most of the class would benefit from reading with expression…I wonder if there’s a way to link that to summarizing. I’ll also need to work with the group of students who scored a “1” on reading rate…as a group, they are performing below goal in most areas. Most of them weren’t using text features for support…so that gives me some ideas....”

A Conversation with Mr. Jones• You: [Focus on Action Steps] “O.K., now you’re starting

to develop an instructional action plan. Next week, let’s meet to go over your action plan for instruction and progress monitoring. It should incorporate what we’ve uncovered using this data, and anything else you discover through your informal assessments. Meanwhile, I’m going to leave you with some questions to address as you develop your plan:– What are the prerequisite skills the students need to be able to do

summarize text? – Which need explicit and/or intensive instruction??– How will you sequence your instruction to ensure that skills build on

one another? – What strategies will you use for students who struggle?– How will you check for understanding and assess mastery? Are there

alternatives to the DRA2 that you might use to monitor student growth?”

When you and Mr. Jones meet the following week, Mr. Jones presents his action plan for instruction and monitoring student progress (see next 3 slides). He worked with the literacy coordinator to develop the plan, and acknowledges that he needs more professional development on effective differentiation to support struggling readers.

Mr. Jones’ Plan for Monitoring Students’ Progress Toward SLODevelop comprehension skills by reading a variety of self-

selected and assigned print and non-print informational texts, including electronic mediaObjectives Date

/ Level

Comments

Read, use, and identify the characteristics of nonfiction materials such as textbooks, appropriate reference materials, personal narratives, diaries, and journals, biographies, newspapers, letters, articles, web sites and other online materials, other appropriate content-specific texts to gain information and content knowledge

Read, use, and identify the characteristics of functional documents such as sets of directions, science investigations, atlases, posters, flyers, forms, instructional manuals, menus, pamphlets, rules, invitations, recipes, advertisements, other functional documents

Mr. Jones’ Plan for Monitoring Students’ Progress Toward SLO Identify and use text features to facilitate understanding of

informational textsObjectives Date

/ Level

Comments

Use print features such as large bold print, font size/type, italics, colored print, quotation marks, underlining, and other print features encountered in informational texts

Use graphic aids such as illustrations and pictures, photographs, drawings, sketches, cartoons, maps (key, scale, legend, graphs, charts/tables, and diagrams, other graphic aids encountered in informational textsUse informational aids such as introductions and overviews, materials lists, timelines, captions, glossed words, labels, numbered steps, bulleted lists, footnoted words, pronunciation key, transition words, boxed textUse organizational aids such as titles, chapter titles, headings, subheadings, tables of contents, numbered steps, glossaries, indices, transition wordsUse online features such as URLs, hypertext links, sidebars, drop down menus, home pages, site mapsIdentify and explain the contributions of text features to meaning

Mr. Jones’ Plan for Monitoring Students’ Progress Toward SLO Develop knowledge of organizational structure of informational

text to understand what is readObjectives Date

/ Level

Comments

Identify and analyze the organizational patterns of texts such as sequential and/or chronological order, similarities/differences, main idea and supporting details, cause/effect, and problem/solution

Identify and use words and phrases associated with common organizational patterns such as words that show chronology (first, second, third), description (above, beneath, next to, beside), cause and effect (because, as a result), sequence (next, then, finally)Use informational aids such as introductions and overviews, materials lists, timelines, captions, glossed words, labels, numbered steps, bulleted lists, footnoted words, pronunciation key, transition words, boxed textDetermine important ideas and messages in informational textsIdentify and explain the author's/text's purpose and intended audienceIdentify and explain the author's/text's purpose and intended audience

Mr. Jones’ Plan for Monitoring Students’ Progress Toward SLO

Determine important ideas and messages in informational texts (continued)Objectives Date

/ Level

Comments

State and support main ideas and messagesSummarize or paraphraseIdentify and explain information not related to the main ideaIdentify and explain relationships between and among ideas such as comparison/contrast, cause/effect, sequence/chronologyDraw conclusions and inferences and make generalizations and predictions from textDistinguish between a fact and an opinionIdentify and explain how someone might use the textConnect the text to prior knowledge or experience

Data Driven Conversations• “Discussion about the use of data “is not intended to blame

anyone; instead it is aimed at understanding a system that avoids using precise information that can guide and inform better practice. Goal-setting that uses data to monitor progress can be a threatening endeavor. Preparation and ongoing training have often failed to provide staff with the ability or confidence to believe they can succeed. This insecurity hampers every teacher and administrator including our most talented and industrious ones.” (Mike Schmoker, 1999.)

• Schools that operate as professional learning communities use formative assessments on a frequent basis to ask, “Are students learning, and what steps must we take to address the needs of those who have not learned?”

• Source: NSDC Coaches Academy http://www.co-csdc.org/news/pdf/DataDrivenHandout.pdf

Appendix: Resources to Use for Your Data-Informed

Conversations and Decisions

The information that follows includes questions and question stems to use that will open up collegial conversations about the results of student performance.

Questions for P.O. to Ask Teacher: o What questions does the data raise for you as a

classroom teacher?o What patterns do you notice in the data? Successes? Areas of need?o What are the patterns in strands or standards across all of your classes? o What do you notice about subgroup performance? What differences, if any exist among all the subgroups?o What instructional strategies or teaching ideas do you have to address areas of need?o What will you do to increase the level of student proficiency in the targeted areas?o When will you assess student learning? What common assessment will you use?

Areas of need/challenge/difficultyWhat are the students’ greatest areas of need?What do you do in your own classes to address these?What processes in programs/curriculum currently address these?Does the student data align with/differ from your own perceptions of student needs? What support do you need to meet students’ needs?

Strategies or approaches to help students learnWhich approaches do students find most helpful for their learning?Which of these do you do - consciously or incidentally?Which of these are approaches students prefer because it means the teacher does more of the work?What do you do to make students more responsible for their own learning?Which of these could be addressed through subjects/classes?Which of these approaches can be done on the spot?Which of these need preparation/further skill development on your part? 

More Questions for P.O to Ask :

Interpretation • What you are describing could mean… • Could it be that what you are saying is… • Is it possible that… Mediational • What criteria do you use to… • What might happen if… • How would it look… • What is the impact of … on students… • How do you decide… Instructional • Would you like more information; to review some options; some resources… • A couple of things to keep in mind are… • Research seems to indicate… • Sometimes it is helpful if…

Question/Conversation Starters

• Summarizing • • You have stated that your goal is… • • Let’s review the key points in our discussion… • • Tell me your next steps… • • So this is your homework… • Transformational • • Let’s try a role-play… • • Ground that assessment for me…could you make a different

assessment… • • How could we turn that rut story into a river story… • • What new “way of being” are you willing to try out… • So this is your homework… • Transformational • • Let’s try a role-play… • • Ground that assessment for me…could you make a different

assessment… • • How could we turn that rut story into a river story… • • What new “way of being” are you willing to try out…

More Question/Conversation Starters

Progress Monitoring Questions for Teachers to

Ask Themselves• What resources do I have available to monitor

student growth that were not used in my SLO assessment?

• How can I spiral the content from my Learning Objective into lessons throughout the year?

• How can I support my team and ensure that we all are monitoring student progress?

• What professional development would help me achieve my goals?

• What additional resources would help me achieve my goals?

• What are other teachers doing to incorporate their Learning Objective into lessons throughout the year?