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Children First Intensive

Principal and Teacher as Action Researchers

Inquiry Team Meeting for ESO Network 14

November, 2008

Deena Abu-Lughod, SAF; Network Leader: Bob Cohen

Alan Godlewicz, Brandon Alvarez, Deirdre Burke, Freddie Capshaw, Jo Ann Benoit, Dr. Pamela McCarthy

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Agenda8:30-8:50 How can inquiry effect whole school change?

8:55-9:40 Principal as Action Researcher: Bridging to other’s experiencesText Based Discussion with Graphic Organizer

9:45-10:30 Teacher as Action Researcher: Tuning Protocol, with warm andcool feedback (Dr. Cory Labanow, X95 with Freddie Capshaw)

10:30-10:45 Break

10:45-11:25 Conditions of Learning and Systemic Change; Inquiry Team Interface (Deena Abu-Lughod)

11:25-11:40 Quality Review and Budget (Bob Cohen + principals)

11:45 -12:15 A Word from our Sponsor

12:15 – 1:00 Lunch

1:00-2:00 Goal Setting Using the Tree Diagram (X114)

Afternoon Consultations with team members

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Outcomes for the day

Understand the connection between our practice and student outcomes by:

> Applying learnings from one principal’s experience to our own> Supporting a teacher practitioner in delving deeper into his own

practice> Understanding what is meant by “conditions of learning” in the CFI

framework

Prepare for small group sharing and support at December meeting

Preview the CFI Interface and draft team responses

Review Scaffolded Inquiry “team process” tools

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Reflection Question

How can the inquiry process effect whole school change?

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Principal as Action Researcher

As you read this article, focus on the action research process that the principal experienced, not her specific topic.

What can we learn from the questions she asked, how she narrowed the focus, the hypotheses she formulated, and the actions she took that we can apply to our own Inquiry Process?

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Teacher as action researcher

Last year at this time, we asked Principal Phil Sharper to share a problem with a group of colleagues to fishbowl the use of the “Peeling the Onion” protocol.

Today, we asked 6th grade teacher Dr. Cory Labanow to share the work he and his students produced in an attempt to master a compare and contrast essay. You will all participate in the practice of the “Tuning Protocol”, which is designed to help colleagues refine their practice.

(Introduce purpose, concept of warm and cool feedback, procedure – collect clarifying questions at table, select one, go round; collect warm and cool feedback on index cards, select one, go round. Collect index cards and give them to Cory.)

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Tuning Protocol

Purpose: To receive feedback and fine tune a lesson, unit, assessment system, portfolio or other teacher work

Procedure: Presenter presents workConsultants ask clarifying questions (questions of fact to understand the context)Consultants examine artifacts.Consultants formulate warm and cool feedback and probing questions.Presenter reflects on feedback.Debrief: What did it feel like?

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Context of Student Work

8th grade

Students with special needs

12:1:1 classroom

Primarily low or mid- Level 2’s on the NYS ELA exam

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Reading Assessment Analysis

The instructional reading level of students in this class ranges from I to Y with most at levels Q and R.

According to the item responses from last year’s Acuity assessments, this cohort of students typically averaged only 20%-50% on questions related to skills of analyzing character, particularly character motivation.

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Baseline Writing Assessment Analysis

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100%

Ideas and Content (remainsfocused on a main idea,uses supporting details)

Style (excellent vocabulary,smooth flow, uses tone and

mood well)

Organization (paragraphstructure, topic sentences,

uses intro, body, andconclusion)

Mechanics/Grammar(spelling, capitalization,punctuation, grammar,

sentence structure

Writing Skill

Needs Work

Approaching

Strong

Mastery

Organization is most

significant weakness.

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Break

We wish you a joyous Thanksgiving with all your loved ones!

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Implications for unit

Since these students had difficulty with character analysis, I designed a project and individual lessons targeted to help them understand the nuances in character through writing.

The five-paragraph essay format also provided a vehicle for teaching them to organize their writing.

Are you seeing evidence of structured, textually-based character analysis in the students’ work?

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Compare/Contrast Essay Results: Classes 914, 915, and 916

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Main Idea andSupporting Details

Thesis Statement Organization Paragraph Structure Transitions Grammar/Mechanics

Criteria

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Level 4

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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.

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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.

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An example of a high leverage change

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.

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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.

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Define a school-wide focus group

Define a target population:skill, sub-skill, students

Define learning targets and short-term goals

Analyze target population

conditions of learning

Analyze systems that produced conditions of

learning

Design and implement change strategy

Evaluate and revise based on interim progress

measures

InstructionalSystem-level

Define a long-term goal

A detailed look at the inquiry process

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Figure G: The Phase II cycle

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December Sharing

Today, we helped Cory work through an issue related to the conditions of learning so he could benefit from your experience.

In December, we want each school to benefit from the collective experience in this room by working with a protocol in small mixed groups (no more than 2 people from any one school at a table; 2 presenting schools per table who will bring 12 copies of an “artifact set”), and each presenting school will pick which protocol they would like to use:

1) Adapted Descriptive Consultancy (for brainstorming)

2) Tuning Protocol (for warm/cool feedback and probing questions)

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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 the student 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.

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Design and Implement a Change Strategy

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

Make up Training: Dec. 5 at 8:30, 1 Fordham Plaza

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Where can we go next?

Proposals for effective CFI meetings:

Devote 50-60 minutes to special interest study groups?> Possible topics:

Strategies for ELL instruction (Gibbons)Effective Feedback (Brookhart) The Skillful Teacher (Safier)The Skillful Leader (Safier)Differentiated Instruction (Tomlinson)Active Literacy Across the Curriculum (Hayes Jacobs)Formative Assessment (Stiggins)

If so, should principals meet separately from team members?

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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. In December, there will be time for you to share your draft responses with your colleagues to get feedback and suggestions.

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The Quality Review

What is the experience like?

Recommendations.

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Budgets

Survival Strategies

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Time Line

TIME LINE

September•Inquiry Team Training•Support Expansion of

Inquiry Work

October•Support Schools with Data Analysis

•Support Inquiry Teams in Identifying where they are in the Instructional

Framework

November Support in Analyzing conditions

of learning•Support in designing and

Implementing change strategy

September•Data Collection and Analysis

• Expand Inquiry Work•Create teams and group norms

OctoberIdentify Target Population

Identify Skill and Sub-Skills Set Long and Short Term Goals

Identify Learning Targets

November•Analyze Conditions

Of Learning•Design and Implement an

instructional Change strategy

SCHOOLS

NETWORK TEAM

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What’s Next?

Dec. 5: Make Up Session: AIR Scaffolded Inquiry Tools (1 Fordham Plaza, 8th Floor Computer Lab, 8:30-11:30)

Dec. 18: Network CFI, Eastwood Manor (including Teacher Data Initiative for Principals in afternoon)

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Feedback and debrief; Evaluation

Please complete the Feedback Form now.

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Sponsor Presentation

Options

Curriculum Associates (Focus; Zoom In)

Rosen

Thank you Lois Sharzer

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Using the Tree Diagram

Examine the Tree diagram for middle school students: How could this model be adapted to one of your current target populations (or school or grade)?

Using either the blank Tree Diagram or the following worksheets, formulate a SMART June goal for one of your target populations. (If you haven’t identified it yet, use a hypothetical situation for practice.)

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