Children First Intensive Conditions of Learning: Teachers as Action Researchers Inquiry Team Meeting for ESO Network 19 December 16, 2008, Hosted by K147 Deena Abu-Lughod, SAF; Network Leader: Vera Barone Karen Ames, Achievement Coach Randy Soderman, SSM; Sonya Brown, LIM: Linda Tom, BSM Special Presenter: Deanna Gonzalez, AP, K147

Agenda 8:30-9:00 Where are we now? Collaborative Assessment Log 9:05-9:20 Conditions of Learning and Systemic Change 9:20-9:30 Building a community of learners: Feedback Principles 9:30-10:30 Teacher as Action Researcher: Tuning Protocol, with warm and cool feedback and probing questions (Deanna Gonzalez, K147) 10:30-10:45 Break – Collaborative Data Analysis Gallery Walk 10:45-11:15 Targeted Action/Change Strategy (Karen Ames) 11:15-11:30 Inquiry Team Interface 11:35-11:50 Identifying Resident Experts 11:50 -12:00 Closing and Evaluation

Learning Intentions Reflect on and share our progress to date Provide effective feedback to adult learners Recognize the conditions of learning in the CFI framework Connect conditions of learning to change strategies/targeted action Preview the CFI Interface and draft team responses Identify resident experts

Collaborative Assessment Log What’s Working Greatest Challenge Next Steps Support needed from SAF

CAL Cross-pair Share Complete the CFI CAL and make a clean copy to submit Schools A and C share their CAL with Schools B and D respectively. Schools B and D share their CAL with Schools A and C. Schools A, B, C, D come together and share one success, one next step, their greatest challenge and what support they want from the network team. Identify commonalities. Reporter shares the commonalities with the whole group. Debrief: What do these findings suggest about our own next steps?

The three phases of Inquiry Phase I Identify target population students and one specific area of academic weakness. Phase II Bring more students into the school’s sphere of success by improving outcomes for target population students in the identified area. Phase III Ensure that the school continually brings more students into the sphere of success by improving decision-making processes.

A detailed look at the inquiry process Define a school-wide focus group Define a target population: skill, sub-skill, students Define a long-term goal Define learning targets and short-term goals Analyze systems that produced conditions of learning Analyze target population conditions of learning The intention here is to review our Theory of Change: by studying a small manageable group of students outside a school’s sphere of success and using this information to accelerate their learning, Inquiry Teams in every school: experience what is possible illuminate the characteristics of their school’s decision-making systems that have resulted in the current sphere of success Can make small improvements in those systems that make a big difference, expanding each school’s sphere of success systematically over time The Process we have employed has been to: Identify a small group of people to lead the work Identify a small manageable group of students outside of our sphere of success on which to focus the work Identify specific knowledge gaps and misconceptions that are interfering with these student’s making academic progress through analysis of granular assessment data Analyzing the current conditions under which the students are expected to learn it including: What we teach and when we teach it – the curriculum in use Who teaches it – the teacher assignment and student scheduling practices in use How it is taught – the pedagogic methods (structures, forms and formats) in use How well it is taught – the practices in use Identifying and implementing a small change in one or more of these learning conditions that will make a big difference Measuring the effectiveness of that change on the target student’s learning Analyzing the decision-making system (curriculum, teacher and student scheduling, pedagogy, and quality of practice) that resulted in the learning condition Identifying and implementing a small change in the decision-making system that would make a big difference in student learning across the school Measuring the effectiveness of that change on student learning and making adjustments where appropriate Evaluate and revise based on interim progress measures System-level Instructional Design and implement change strategy

Figure G: The Phase II cycle

Conditions of Learning Definition: The conditions under which target population students learn the identified sub-skill and learning targets in your school, and over which educators in your building have control. Conditions are created by decisions related to curriculum (what is taught), lesson design (how it is taught), teacher practice (how well it is taught) and teacher assignment and grouping (who teaches it). Our objective: To understand how the current conditions operate to produce the specific outcomes you have identified for your target population. How do these conditions operate for students who are not successful? This is not pessimistic. Your practices led you to success with the majority of students. It is a way to get beyond where we get stuck.

Tools for examining conditions of learning What: curriculum maps, lesson plans, notes from teacher interviews, low inference transcripts, student work How: lesson design, low inference transcripts How well: low inference transcripts Who: student schedules over several years Note: Even as you study the conditions of learning, you should implement a change strategy with the target population students based on your “hunches”. Your main hunch may be: we taught it, but they didn’t learn it. The study of the conditions of learning will help you prevent the reproduction of underperformance, but the target population students need immediate attention.

Warm and Cool Feedback

Warm Feedback: Do you see evidence of structured, textually-based character analysis? A) I applaud you for your bravery and for actually grading the students’ work and making critical comments. B) Clear evidence of structure. The essay has details and textual evidence. C) I liked the way you linked the similar qualities of the characters from the two stories. D) There is strong evidence of structure. The student included a thought-provoking introduction with a thesis. The body had evidence to support the thesis. E) I see good examples of textual evidence when the student compares the trait of selfishness.

Cool Feedback: Do you see evidence of structured, textually-based character analysis? A) I wonder if “eliminating run on sentences” is the most important trait the child needs to work on (the focus is mechanics). B) I wonder if the structure of the first paragraph could have been organized differently. C) It looks like Gregory has difficulty in using theme in his paragraph. He confuses theme with main characters. D) It looks like you wanted Lucas to think about what motivates the characters but I’m not sure Lucas does that. E) Review character analysis; provide specific comments referring to the rubric; give students their levels based on the rubric.

Probing Questions Probing questions help the adult learner Think more deeply Challenge his/her assumptions Consider ways to rethink his/her practice If the question doesn’t do this, it is either a clarifying question or a recommendation. Clarifying questions are questions of fact (eg, How much time did it take? Did the students use a rubric?) Avoid making recommendations (eg, Don’t you think you should…)

Formulating good probing questions Check to see you don’t have a “right” answer in mind. Make sure your probing question relates to the presenter’s focus. Stay focused on the presenter’s agenda, not your own. Try using verbs: What do you fear? Want? Get? Assume? Try using “Why”. Keep questions brief. Allow for multiple responses. Move thinking from reaction to reflection. Encourage taking another party’s perspective.

Probing questions: Do you see evidence of structured, textually-based character analysis? A) Are students being exposed to various writing styles vs the traditional way of writing and essay? B) Can you possibly provide and revisit a small group instruction with similar needs as Lucas for understanding and gaining a better grasp of character analysis and motivation, focusing on details? C) How do you think the writing would be different had the students focused on one character and analyzed the character traits? D) What’s another way to structure your feedback to Pablo so you can give him a clearer and more elaborate plan to analyze “characters even deeper” rather than suggesting he just “highlight more traits at a more insightful level”? E) Would direct quotes help support character analysis?

Tuning Protocol Purpose: To receive feedback and fine tune a lesson, unit, assessment system, portfolio or other teacher work Procedure: Presenter presents work Consultants examine artifacts Consultants ask clarifying questions (questions of fact to understand the context) Consultants formulate warm and cool feedback and probing questions. Presenter reflects on feedback. Debrief: What did it feel like?

Context of Student Work (K147) Multiple data sources indicate a weakness in Vocabulary. The 19 target population students are 4th grade high 2’s/low 3’s. Goal: 20 percentage point increase from the Fall 2008 Acuity Predictive ELA and the Spring 2009 Acuity Predictive. Hypothesis: Improvement in vocabulary will improve their overall ELA comprehension.

Focus Question

What we’ve learned from our researchers: Inquiry advances by reflecting on those factors that are within our control: primarily, our own beliefs and actions, our curriculum and our pedagogy. Inquiry obliges us to look at the conditions of learning: What is taught How it is taught How well it is taught Who is teaching it Inquiry requires us to engage external and internal resources: the professional literature and our own learning communities. Inquiry is a discipline of continuous cycles of data collection, analysis, research, action and evaluation.

Inquiry in urgent times There is urgency in our need to improve literacy, and this will happen through whole school change. Inquiry team work with 15-30 students will not necessarily impact January ELA scores, but we can expect at least 80% to make their their June goals. But what our inquiry work reveals about the curriculum, pedagogical and staffing decisions taken in a school can have a large impact if we understand how. We must activate our “sociological imagination”: shift our view from “individual troubles” to “social problems”; from individual solutions to systemic change.

Example: What is taught At one school, they wanted to improve academic vocabulary but noticed that the large investment of PD did not seem to change teacher practice. So they changed the lesson plan template so that teachers would write down daily vocabulary. This made all teachers more aware of the need to give students words to use, chose words deliberately and conscientiously, and allowed them to come together to share vocabulary strategies that worked, to agree upon tier 2 words that could be taught across the curriculum, and to monitor students’ learning through vocabulary tests, conversation, and journal writing. This was a change strategy whose effectiveness could be monitored and evaluated.

Another example: Who At a NYC High School, teachers recognized that 9th grade was a pivotal year: if students were unsuccessful in 9th grade, they were unlikely to recover. By analyzing classroom transcripts across the school, and looking at staffing patterns, they realized that the least experienced teachers were most frequently placed in 9th grade. To make an impact on 9th grade, they decided that the most experienced teachers should work with the 9th graders (instead of the honors students). In just one year, the percent of students accumulating 10+ credits in the first year increased from 65% to 71%.

February Sharing Today, we helped Deanna work through an issue related to the conditions of learning so she could benefit from your experience. In February, schools that would like to should benefit from the collective experience in this room by working with a protocol in small mixed groups (4 presenting schools, who will bring 8 copies of an “artifact set”), and each presenting school will pick which protocol they would like to use: Adapted Descriptive Consultancy (for brainstorming) Tuning Protocol (for warm/cool feedback and probing questions)

Artifact Set A lesson plan that relates to the classroom instruction on the subskill that the focus student has difficulty with. The task that is related to that lesson which relates to the subskill that the focus student has difficulty with. The work that up to 3 students produced in relation to that task. A low inference transcript taken during a lesson when that subskill was addressed. A reflection written by the classroom teacher about how the student(s)’ understanding and execution of the task relates to the teacher’s own intentions. This reflection should discuss the following: What is the connection between the subskill, the lesson and the task? What does the student’s work reveal about his/her strengths and weaknesses vis a vis the task? How did the intended teaching connect with the student’s product? What would be the next steps for the student? Reflection(s) written by the Inquiry Team addressing the same questions considered by the teacher.

Break Take a gallery walk to look at the observations and questions posed during the November collaborative analysis activity.

Network 19: Percent of Girls and Boys with IEPs

Design and Implement a Change Strategy/ Targeted Actions Once we have examined the conditions of learning, we need to research instructional strategies that might be useful for addressing the needs of the target population. The AIR Scaffolded Inquiry site will give you access to 400 abstracts related to research-based instructional strategies as well as group process documents that can help focus inquiry team agendas. The site is accessible through the DOE home page: http://schools.nyc.gov/inquire

Targeted Action: Context Clues

IQT Interface Slides By December 23, all schools are expected to complete the questions about their inquiry teams on the Inquiry Team Interface at: www.childrenfirstintensive.com In your packet, you have a printout of the questions that you will need to answer. In the remaining time, please have a look at those questions and consider your responses.

Resident Experts

Feedback and debrief; Evaluation Please complete the Feedback Form now. Did we achieve our intentions? Reflect on and share our progress to date Provide effective feedback to adult learners Recognize the conditions of learning in the CFI framework Connect conditions of learning to change strategies Preview the CFI Interface and draft team responses Identify resident experts