To view my Target Group Improvement Action Research Plan click on the title below:
1. Indicate what will happen from September to June, 2015-16, in your plan. Include contact with Leadership, Advisory Team Meetings (you should create a group to oversee process), professional development, assessments, and any activities (ex: parent sessions, student meetings, etc.)
September- -School starts 9/1. 2nd week start first examination period. 3rd week Meeting with parents to inform “at-risk” status. Recommend parents to get a tutor for struggling students. October- Intervention groups start. PLC collaboration time focused on best reading practices. November- Second examination period. Parent meeting to inform about student’s progress. Students exit “at-risk” status if they have reached or close to reaching end of the year goals. 1st SST is called. Administrative staff is involved in student’s case. Intervention groups continue. Possible regrouping and adjusting intervention groups. Recommend parents to get a tutor for struggling students. Possible before and after school tutoring starts. December- Winter break during the last two weeks. Students take home differentiated homework packet to work during break. Intervention groups continue. January- Intervention groups continue. Possible regrouping and adjusting intervention groups. Intervention groups continue. February- Intervention groups continue. PLC collaboration time focused on best reading practices. March- Third examination period. Parent meeting to inform about student’s progress. 2nd SST is called if student has not made significant progress. Referral for SPED testing is called if student has accumulated 3 SST’s within a year’s period with unsuccessful results. Possible regrouping and adjusting intervention groups. Intervention groups continue. Students exit “at-risk” status if they have reached or close to reaching end of the year goals. Recommend parents to get a tutor for struggling students. April- 2 weeks of spring break. Intervention groups continue. PLC collaboration time focused on best reading practices. Students take home differentiated homework packet to work on during break. May- Fourth examination period. Parent meeting to inform about student’s progress. 3rd SST is called if student has not made significant progress. Intervention groups continue. Students exit “at-risk” status if they have reached or close to reaching end of the year goals. Referral for SPED testing is called if student has accumulated 3 SST’s within a year’s period with unsuccessful results. Intervention groups end. June- End of the year. Report cards are sent home. Recommendations, resources, and possible homework packet are sent home for student to work on during summer break. Intervention groups continue. Recommend parents to get a tutor for struggling students. 2. List data to be gathered throughout the year to determine progress and guide adjustments. It can be weekly, monthly, biannually, yearly, etc. Weekly- I will use Accelerated Reader (AR) reading practice quizzes to measure quantity, quality and level of difficulty the students are reading. Also, I will gather data based on my observations during reading centers. Quarterly-I include data obtained from Renaissance Learning START test to obtain information about word knowledge, literary analysis, and reading comprehension. Also, I will use Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) results to compare students’ instructional level between testing intervals. Biannually-Students obtain a computer generated certificate if they had accomplished their initial goal for Accelerated Reader (AR). A new end of the year goal is set at this time. Yearly-At the end of the year I give the students their final examination using a series of tests such as STAR, AR quizzes, and DRA to report their reading level and areas of concern for next year’s teacher. It is expected for the next year’s teacher to follow up with the recommendations and to continue the SST’s for SPED diagnosis test to be given as early as possible the following year. 3. Describe how you will communicate progress with stakeholders (leadership, teachers, families, and students. Parents-Within the first month of classes I will give my students a diagnostic test to compare notes with the previous year’s teacher. I will call a meeting with targeted students’ parents to explain their child’s situation, explain what I need them to do to help their situation and what plan I have for their child. If the student is making consistent progress I will report with parents two more times: at the end of the first and second trimester to celebrate the students’ progress and continue with what is working. If the student has no considerable growth, I will call for an SST meeting to start documenting what is working and the changes in strategies and special accommodations that are taking place as well as the ones that will be tried. Students- After I meet with parents, I will have a short meeting with students explaining their current situation and what is the plan to follow. After that, I will meet with students quarterly to debrief testing results and their progress. Leadership- I like to turn-in a list of “at-risk” students to the Principal at the beginning of the year. If the students make considerable progress during the first quarter, they are eligible to exit the “at-risk” status. Otherwise, I call for an SST meeting and request the presence of an administrator to participate in the meeting. Check in #3
Interventions, Roles and Supports 1. Describe how leadership, teachers, families and students will be involved in this process. What role will each play? Once the problem is identified, the teacher will proceed to develop a plan with specific goals and objectives to be met by the targeted group following the SMART goals and objectives format. Although the intervention is focused on a group of students with common needs, the teacher will pay specific attention to those targeted individuals. Those individuals will be monitored closely and teacher will create and keep a progress record for them. The family is going to be accountable to help minimize or eliminate external causes. Parents need to participate in this process to see faster and more effective progress that may also result into a permanent solution rather than a temporary remedy. Students need to follow the instructions and actively participate in the process. Eliminating the external factors that are part of the root causes we should start seeing a steady progress in students who may also show signs of increasing interest in reading, engagement, and participation. 2. What are the interventions that you plan to implement based on your goals and objectives? My interventions are not going to be for target students only, instead, I will be working with target groups. I will break out my group into small groups with no more than six students sharing the same academic needs. I will meet with my target groups for 25 minutes twice a week and work on the following objectives: accuracy, fluency and comprehension. For those objectives I will use supplemental curriculum and materials that have been provided by our current adoption (Treasures). I will also use teacher-created materials to help students with fluency skills by practicing syllables, consonant blends, and vowel blends. We will also use MyLexia Core 5 for our iPads and at risk students will also have an additional day to work independently using My Reading Coach. Emergent readers will be reading with their parents as part of their homework. They will be reading daily for ten minutes, including weekends, using a teacher-created prescriptive method that helps them improve their accuracy and fluency. 3. What type of support will be needed to carry this out? For example, time, professional development, materials, etc. The school provides support to implement group interventions. Our school offers before and after school intervention for at risk students. We also have software available to help students using self-paced programs such as Read 180, MyLexia Core 5, Accelerated Reader, Sokikom, My Reading Coach. Unfortunately, not all teachers are trained to help students use these programs and students can not take advantage of them. Another problem is that it is limited the number of teachers available to tutor students before and after school hours. There is a need to increment the budget for tutoring programs that could service more students at different grade levels and subjects. When students demonstrate very little or no advancement after the teacher has identified the root causes, planed a STAR goal and objectives intervention, followed the plan an SST meetings is arranged. An SST meeting is conformed of at least one administrator, teachers and parents or legal guardians. As a result of the SST meeting, a set of strategies will be given to students, parents, and teachers. One example is trying a self- monitoring chart and have student self-monitor after explicit instructions are given. Student will check a box according to how he/she thinks he/she did. At the end of the day the student should take it home to his parents. Once enough data is gathered, it is analyzed in search of patterns and common trends to guide teachers into continuing or making adjustments of the interventions currently in place. Check in #2
Root causes, Goal and Objectives 1. Which additional data did you gather to inform your thinking on the problem? Triangulation is a good strategy that can be used when teachers are seeking for data to find what problem the students have. It takes some comparing notes and looking at the whole picture to be able to see why students are not performing at grade level. After spending more time seeking for additional data, I made some observations not only with my low students, but also with my high readers. What I observed was that high students displayed different behaviors during Drop Everything And Read (DEAR) time. Good readers seemed to enjoy reading. They were reading with accuracy, fluency and good intonation. Whereas the struggling readers were getting frustrated sidetracked, bored, and unable to read a complete sentence. That is when I concluded that the problem relied on students’ inability to perform these three skills: accuracy, fluency and comprehension. Students’ comprehension levels were not being reached because students were stumbling over every other consonant blend. They were changing words and eliminating ending sounds. These three reading skills seemed to be the reason why students were unmotivated and frustrated during DEAR time. 2. After analyzing all data, what do you believe are the root causes of the problem you have identified? Hard, tangible data is not always enough to get to the root causes for which students demonstrate poor academic performance. Many times, soft data provides that additional piece of information that can be used to triangulate. Soft data could be acquired by teacher’s observing their students. After I had targeted my at risk students, I started my observations in search of more data. Some of the components of an educational root cause that I was able to observe, were the following: · Student factors- Students presented lack of interest and motivation. · External factors- Students had inconsistent parent support at home. Homework was inconsistent and students often seemed tired and unrested. · Organizational structure- In our school we have a clear understanding of our mission for our students. Our vision is supported by the principal and reiterated to all staff during our meetings. Grade level collaboration is there. We meet on a regular basis to touch basis on where we are. Grade level teachers plan together as often as possible and exchange ideas on how to teach some difficult subjects. All teachers are accountable and we exchange and delegate some of the responsibilities. Collaboration is an important part of our panning and teaching practices. The team takes part in important academic decisions for our grade. · Organizational culture- In our campus we have a healthy relationship among all teachers and staff. Teachers and students take part of our adopted program by Stephen Covey’s The Seven Habits Highly Effective People also adapted for students to become effective leaders. · Instruction- What is most important is the instruction delivered by each teacher in his or her classrooms. When we collaborate as a grade level, we also exchange ideas on how to make our lessons more engaging, inspiring and all teachers have a clear purpose for their lessons. Our lessons are well developed and include powerful instructional routines. They also include modeling, checking for understanding and adjusting if necessary. Collaboration is the time for our students to participate and show what they have learned without being singled out and we make sure to include collaboration time throughout the day. · Curriculum- Our curriculum is aligned with our district as well as the state and common core standards. In our second grade team, we plan before the year starts and modify the plan as necessary to ensure that students are learning all concepts instead of just meeting deadlines. We touch basis and coordinate our lessons such that to ensure that every teacher is covering the whole curriculum by the end of the school year. What I was able to conclude was that, in most cases, students’ root causes were caused by external factors. Many times, the structures at home differ from the ones at school and that causes students to have more difficulty adhering to a school-home routine and acquiring good habits that may help them academically. 3. SMART Goal Goal (problem) : By the first week of June 2016, Students will achieve or approach grade level reading skills. Objective(root cause) #1: Students will practice reading accurately by reading at home with their parents for 5 minutes following teacher’s rigid method of intervention. Objective(root cause) #2: Students will learn and practice vocabulary, comprehension, phonics, and fluency by joining an in-class target reading intervention group twice a week with teacher. Objective (root cause) #2: Students will practice and develop comprehension skills by taking Accelerated Reader (AR) quiz tests at least once a week. Check in #1
Data Highlights and Target Group Identification 1. What type of student achievement data did you analyze? I analyzed soft data, based on in-class observations, and two tools to gather summative hard data: Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) and Accelerated Reader 360 along with the Standardized Testing And Reporting (STAR) for Reading. 2. What were the main findings generated from the analysis of your data? After observing my students for some time and taking notes, I have found that some students were not reading accurately and snot reading fluently. Also they seemed to struggle summarizing the stories or answering comprehension questions. When I tested my students using DRA, I identified which students were reading on, above or below grade level. Once I found if they were emergent, early, or transitional readers, I arranged the students accordingly into target intervention groups. I also crossed checked results using Accelerated Reader STAR test. I obtained information about comprehension, quantity and complexity of the books the students were reading. Also, the test results provided me with important data to determine their reading ranges. Their Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) is an important piece of information for me because that ensures that students are reading materials that are at the appropriate level. 3. Share 5 questions that the data sparked. How many target groups do I need and what students am I placing in each group? Which students just above proficiency are of concern? What support is needed for students just below proficiency level? Which group is the one that needs urgent intervention? Can I include a GATE target group in my intervention schedule? 4. Name 3 priority needs and mention which one of these seemed most urgent. Although I agree that comprehension is the ultimate goal when it comes to reading, comprehension is often the last thing listed in my priorities. My main focus is always accuracy. My priority needs are sequential and prioritized in the same order. They are: accuracy, fluency and comprehension skills. I believe that these are the most important skills that students need to become successful readers. The most urgent for me is accuracy because I believe accuracy to be the main pillar for reading comprehension. When I give the initial DRA test to my second grade students, I perform a miscue analysis. It is essential for me that students read and sound exactly what is printed on the text. When I analyze the results, I look for patterns, I go as far as finding out if they are omitting letters or endings, substituting words with similar letters, or if they are following the wrong language phonics rules, which is a very common mistake in our program. An interesting finding is the fact that students have a tendency to make the same or similar miscues in both languages. In the same way, once they fix that problem in one language, the second language follows. After I work with accuracy, my next thing of importance is the fluency and at last, comprehension. During in-class interventions with my students, I single out each focus, however, students are learning and practicing all three components of reading during our language arts time. 5. Which target group did you select to work with and why? I decided to work with the emergent readers group because they are the group that needs the most attention. They need to start early and take advantage of the entire school calendar to learn and practice reading to achieve grade level goals. I believe that reading is the main pillar for academic progress. Everything the students need to succeed academically, from this point on, is going to be acquired mainly through reading materials. I have found that poor reading skills affect students even in the field of mathematics. If they are not capable of reading and following written instructions, especially when it comes to word problems, they will be unable to draw information to solve math problems. Also, emergent readers become the disruptive at risk students who lack motivation and have difficulty following the lessons. That becomes a downward spiral cycle that needs to be stopped immediately. |