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.
