Is there such thing as D.Y.I. Data Driven Instruction?

If a school isn't data driven, are there ways that a teacher can use the strategies in their own classroom?  While reading "Driven By Data," I kept wondering how a teacher would use data if the school district was not also "driven by data." Then there was a little section that did say that if this was the case that teachers need to take matters into their own hands and focuses on assessments, analysis, and action.

               Teachers need to assess their students all the time in different ways and forms.  Two of the most important forms of assessment are in-the- moment assessment/ formative assessment, which covers material the students are currently learning as well as interim  assessment, which covers all material covered to that point of the test.  The next step is for teachers is analyze how well the students are learning and doing on the assessments. If teacher notice another teacher is getting better results from their students, then the struggling teacher should learn from the better teacher and use some of their ideas.

               Also the data driven teacher needs to be able to understand the analysis and take action to fix. One great way for teachers to put action to the analysis is to see where students are struggling and have notes open to remind them and question these students during class. This way the students have time in class to practice where they are struggling. Another great method that is hardly, if ever used in the classroom, is to divide the class into groups so that the students that understand the concept work independently , while the  few students that are struggling get attention from the teacher in a smaller setting.  Finally, teachers can get feedback from their students on how they feel they are doing in class. Teachers can give students a handout and after the handout is complete and answered are reviewed, there can be a student reflection handout. This reflection hand out can demonstrate the concept  being taught in each question, if the student got it correct or not , and why they got it wrong (careless mistake or didn't know how to solve). This is a great idea to do because it has the students take ownership of their learning.

               However, while it is said teaching data on your own can be done, how realistic is it? Teachers have little time to teach the students and little time to plan and grade students work to start. Without teaching taking over your whole life, are these strategies discussed in the book realistic and doable?  They say so, but I am not 100% convinced. 

Assesing the Situation

                  Data can be a very useful tool for teachers to asses if there students are learning the material being covered. However, data does't always have to be test with number results. Data can be any type of feed back the teacher receives by assessing the students. One great way for teachers to asses their students in class is to ask questions and gauge the responses of the students. This type of feed back is immediate and allows the teacher to see what students are getting it and what students are not. This way the teacher can either continue to cover the topic and or move on. Another great type of assessment are handout during class. Data can be produced from these handouts in a number of ways. Firstly, the teacher can again have the students give the answers a loud in class and see who is answering the question correctly. Another way the teacher can collect data can be to collect the handout, not for a grade, but just to see which students answered correctly. This would be a great tool because the teacher can quickly go through the handouts and then focus the the next days lesson on some of the things the students were having troubles with on the handout. 

                    While in the field, I feel like some teacher are great at naturally including these styles of data collection into their lesson and utilizing them effectively. However, I have also seen many teachers use these styles of assessment, but never return to the topic when they know that many of the students are struggling. I think that teachers need to understand not only the importance of data collection, but also the proper use of the information it provides.    

How to help in the Adelphi Community after Sandy

This week has been a crazy one! Sandy has come to New York and left her mark. I am so thankful that my area was not hit as bad and we only lost power ( till November 15 the latest I am told). My thoughts and prayers are with everyone affected during these hard times. Since there are many people on Long Island who are in desperate need of toiletries, canned food, and warm clothing, the Adelphi Community in the Garden City will be hosting a collection today at their blood drive. Here are the following details: 

When: Saturday November 3rd from 9:30 am to 7 pm
Where:  University Center Ballroom             1 South Avenue             Garden City, New York 11530

If you live close by and can help out, please donate! Everything would be greatly appreciated to help out after these hard times.

Teaching to the Test???

                           After doing some reading about data driven instruction, I have thought and pondered about many things about what I have read. In the book I have been reading, its explains the value of teachers making assessments first in order to be able to teach students to the rigor of the test. When reading the book this information all seemed very convincing but I still wasn't completely sold. One thought I had was, well how often do or would teachers really make tests and then teach according to the test? I did some further reading and realized what this book was saying... TEACH TO THE TEST. What how can this be, is this really what data is about? I have learned over and over again in all my education courses that this is the worst thing ever, but really what is the difference about data? 

                     Teachers are supposed to analyze data, look for where students are struggling on the the test (where the data came from) and differentiate their lessons so there is improvement on the next test. However, maybe teaching to the test isn't as bad as we think. Maybe teaching to the test in a way that has the students use critical thinking skills and other valuable thinking tools could be beneficial to the students. In the article I was reading, What's so bad about teaching to the test? by Great Schools Staff, it talks about some different ways of thinking about "teaching to the test." If you have the time, it's entertaining read. 

Data, Data , Everywhere Data

                         Today students are consistently taking tests from elementary school through high school. After these students take all of these tests, where is the data? Who gets it? What do they do with it? What is the point of students taking all of these tests if the data isn't being put to some type of good for the students taking the test?
                         This weekend I was talking with some teachers and they were talking how students are taking tests from 3rd grade to 8th grade. One talked how their students had been taking different state test for two weeks straight! I thought how crazy! I asked if they ever received Professional Development (PD) days to actually sit down and analyze the data. The response I received was somewhat interesting. The teacher told me that they were actually having a PD day coming up. She was told that everyone was going to review the data except for the 8th grade English teachers( which she was). These teachers were being sent to the high school to help analyze other teachers data. How strange!? The teacher was very disheartened by this because she wanted to see the data her students produced in order to differentiate her lessons and help the students in her class.  However, this wasn't happening.
                        It is important for teacher to review and analyze their students data  because they are the ones teaching the students. Therefore, data driven only works when a school systems realizes this fact.

PSAT Time..Fun, Fun for everyone

                    Today, in school the students had to take the PSAT and I got to watch/help proctor it. Before the students took the test, I surveyed the room to see what their facial expressions were telling me. Some students look nervous, some seemed tired, some, well, were sleeping, and others could care less and were waiting for the teachers instructions. When the students started taking the test all faces looked them same...concentrated. They were all working hard and answering the questions in order to finish before time was called.
                    I was able to get my hands on one of the test and skim through to see what seemed to be so perplexing. The first section was a reading comprehensions section, I continued to look through, then it was math, then back to reading, then back to math, and so on for five sections. Each section was 25 minutes long, except the last section of reading which was 30 minutes. After looking through the test I wrote down some questions I was thinking. Is switching "subject" helpful to students or harmful? In other words, would having students do all the reading and then all the math be better than switching back and forth between the two topics?  Another thing I thought was that the most of the questions pertaining to the reading passages had the line number that the question was referencing and only 1 or 2 questions were asking about the meaning of the passage  Therefore, would kids score better if they used the strategy to read only the lines the questions were asking, answer those, and come back if they have time for the others? If they did score better with this strategy, then what are we really testing, a students strategy or their ability to comprehend a reading passage? One math question really sparked a thought in my mind. The question asked the students to read the words in a box and select from the four choices the corresponding equation that matched the words. When I first read it, I thought how easy is this, but then I thought well maybe not for an ESL learner or a student that has trouble reading. Well, this question really has nothing to do with math at all, if you can read, you will get it and if you don't read well, you might make a mistake. How is this assessing the students math skills?
                  Finally, since only 10th and 11th grade students take the PSAT, I was wondering where the 9th and 12th grade students where? I found out that the 9th grade students were at a career day assemble and the 12th grade student were coming in at 11, after the test was finished. I thought this was the strangest thing EVER? The seniors, the students that should be thinking about what career they want to pursue, were at home and missing all of the valuable information that many of them might have been interested in while the freshman where there to be "babysat" as one teacher put it to me. I did not understand the logic. But who am I, just a student observer, I guess.

Stressed OUT!

          On a different note other than data, today I had class and noticed that one of my peers was visible upset. I prodded a bit and they opened up to me. They were upset about where education was going and how many games, hoops or whatever you want to call it are involved these days.  They were upset about the strict regulations and policies when talking to students or dealing with them. How, today, if you don't cover your ass, you might get screwed by everyone; the students, their parents, other teachers, your superiors, and the list is endless. Why did education have to get to this point? How did so much nonsense get in the way of education?  I feel that being a teacher has become and is becoming increasingly more stressful and overwhelming throughout the years. Teachers are people,they have families, they make mistakes, have their own problems and at the end of the day teaching is their job. While teaching is an important job and they should know that their is a lot of hard work to do it correctly, what is the purpose of adding extra unnecessary stress? Teachers have enough stress trying to manage all the needs of a class and planing lessons that will cover content and interest students.