Standard 8 - Present Professional Practice to Colleagues

Teacher leaders will present professional practice for the review of colleagues.

As I reflect on my time in the Teacher Leadership program, I am reminded of where I began and where I have ended up. Prior to this program, I was not at all comfortable presenting information to my peers, especially things related to educational practice. I felt as though I did not have enough knowledge and experience to deserve the attention of my peers. As I have progressed through this program, I have grown in my confidence and knowledge and am now able to present information to peers and not feel out of my element.

Through classes like Accomplished Teaching and Survey of Instructional Strategies, we constantly and consistently researched various teaching practices that would work well in various classroom settings. In Accomplished Teaching, we looked at various teaching strategies that culminated in our Synthesizing Elements of Accomplished Teaching final paper. My focus at that time, as has been throughout this program, is figuring out how to differentiate well. Looking at differentiation as a means to open access to my content, math, has been a goal I have pursued for a while now. This goal is also something that most, if not all, teachers in my building are working toward as well. This is a pursuit I can help lead with the tools I have learned in this program.

Some of the differentiation tools I was introduced to through the Survey of Instructional Strategies class. The differentiation skills we learned dealt with what Hattie (2012) dubs, “Multiple Ways of Knowing” (emphasis in original, p. 113). There are many points of information in this particular section of the text, but the one that I find myself drawn to time and again is, “Materials presented in verbal, visual, and multimedia form provide richer representations than can a single medium” (p. 113). Utilizing multiple representations is something that I have worked on with my instructional coaches. During this program, I had the opportunity to work on implementing a Nonlinguistic Lesson Plan where student utilize a visual representation of functions that outline what they are and how to figure it out.

Another element dealing with differentiation we looked at deals with cooperative learning. Dean, Hubbell, Pitler, and Stone (2012) state, “cooperative learning provides opportunities for students to interact in ways that enhance and deepen their learning” (p. 37). In creating a lesson for cooperative learning, I had to work with fellow math teachers to utilize their knowledge of groupings. This shift to group learning was not easy for me and is not something I have done regularly. The utilization of nonlinguistic and cooperative learning are things that I could bring back to my school and help to engage teachers in shifting their focus and practice. This shift actually started in my work with my fellow math teacher on the collaborative inquiry project. We worked on helping our students to increase their confidence and persistence. Through the differentiation strategies mentioned above, we were able to begin helping students elevate their understanding and confidence.

In relation to helping others to improve their practice, I also had several opportunities to present information to our peers in class. Sharing our practice and things to look out for was beneficial for both the individuals presenting and those observing. This practice of presenting to our classmates was great practice for presenting to people at my school. It also helped drive home the difference in teaching students versus teaching adults. I have not had a ton of experience with teaching adults, so all the practice I have had through various presentations has been great for understanding that for adult teachers, learning occurs best when they can work collaboratively. When we worked together with people from different content specialties or different age levels, we were provided a view into the professional duties and practices of those we do not often see. As Zepeda (2013) states, “learning communities must be ready to confront the fragmented way in which schools are organized (e.g., departments, grade levels, and specialty groups such as gifted and talented), and they must be committed to working alongside each other as a collective to provide support” (p. 84). We must all work toward improving our schools. To do this, my role as a teacher leader must be to bring teachers together to tackle an issue within our school and to help others raise their level of practice together. It is always easier to work on a difficult situation or fix a long-standing issue with the help and support of our peers.

Dean, C., Hubbell, E., Pitler, H., Stone, B. (2012). Classroom instruction that works: Research-based strategies for incrasing student achievement. Colorado: McREL.

Hattie, J. (2012). Visible learning for teachers: Maximizing impact on learning. New York: Routledge.

Zepeda, S.J. (2013). Professional development: What works. New York, NY: Routledge.

Standard 2 - Promoting Student Growth

Standard 2 - Teacher leaders analyze learning to promote student growth.

Reflecting upon my practice prior to partaking in the Teacher Leadership program, I realized that my ability and consistency with analyzing learning was rudimentary. This is an area in which I have definitely seen growth in my practice. A quote I reflected upon in my standard three post is also quite fitting here. Sagor (2011) stated that, "even the most celebrated teachers, who are teaching the highest-achieving students, leave their classrooms frustrated, feeling that despite their best efforts, each individual student didn't progress as far as he or she might" (p. 1). This feeling of frustration is one of my motivating factors for pursuing a graduate degree. I wanted to further my ability to gauge where my students are at any given time so that I can adjust my lesson and help more students achieve more.

My pursuit of bettering my ability to analyze learning began immediately with the Accomplished Teaching class. One of my goals at that time (and one that continues to be a goal of mine) was to strengthen my ability to differentiate within my classes. Where I teach, students often come to school many years behind in their math skills, while a few come multiple grade levels above. This imbalance of mathematical skills results in classes where students are often separated by more than five grade levels of prerequisite knowledge. To combat this, I have to determine how to make the learning both accessible and challenging for each lesson. One of the activities that helped me see a different perspective was when we were paired with another teacher and had to analyze and provide feedback for a lesson plan. I was paired with a high school English teacher and was not convinced that this would be beneficial. I was wrong. Working with this teacher provided me with several ideas about how I could make the lesson more interactive and relevant to my students. The lesson I taught dealt with solving systems of equations. This is an area in Algebra that is applicable in more than one way. My collaboration helped me to see a couple different applications that I had not thought about so that my students would have more access and buy in with this content.

One area that has helped me to better analyze student learning has come from formative assessment. Ensign (2012) states that a good way to check understanding is through the use of an exit ticket which, "allows the teacher to quickly see who has mastered the day's lesson and who needs more support in the following days" (p. 160). Through my studies in this program, I have been able to increase my repertoire of formative assessments and become better at recognizing where those can be placed in a lesson. One piece of evidence came from our learning progression created in the Standards Based Assessment class. This allowed me to visualize and plan a collection of formative assessments within a unit of study.

As I progressed through this program, I further developed my ability to determine how a particular intervention effects student learning. I started this with my Applying Action Research class where we learned what to look for when researching strategies to utilize in our classrooms. This led to a strengthened ability to figure out whether an article presented a valid approach or not. My final product from this class allowed me to show the level to which my understanding of valid research has improved. This helped guide me when I planned and executed my action research project the following Winter. Going through this research project allowed me to put into practice the use of technology with formative assessment. While this was not as successful as I had hoped, it led me to a better understanding of what will be necessary the next time I utilize technology to find out where my students are at in their understanding. 

All of the things I have learned throughout this program, relating to promoting student growth, have been useful, but cannot be utilized without the ability to relate my analysis to my students. One of the most important pieces to feedback was presented to me by Chappuis, "Effective feedback directs attention to the intended learning, pointing out strengths and offering specific information to guide improvement" (2012, p. 37). This is important because if students do not understand what my formative assessments are telling students, there is not point to utilizing them. Students need to have a clear idea of where they are in their learning. Additionally, Morris and Chikwa (2016) have found that there is not marked difference between students receiving written feedback and audio feedback. This is valuable because in my daily lessons, I incorporate audio feedback constantly. Finally, research performed by Hudesman et al. (2013) states that, "The research we have reported on, when taken together with an ever growing body of other work, has demonstrated the importance of integrating formative assessment and metacognition with academic content instruction so that students can optimize their learning" (p. 12). The work we have done in this program related to formative assessment, along with the importance of reflection we have seen time and again, are both vital to strong analysis of student learning. The tools we have learned in this program are going to allow me to better evaluate students learning and adjust to help my students grow as much as possible in my classes.

Sources:
Chappuis, J. (2012). How am I doing? Educational Leadership, 70(1), 36-40.
Ensign, J. (2012). Teacher-initiated differentiation. Teaching Children Mathematics, 19(3), 158-163.
Hudesman, J., Crosby, S., Flugman, B., Isaac, S., Everson, H., & Clay, D., (2013). Using formative assessment and metacognition to improve student achievement. Journal of Developmental Education, 37(1), 2-13.
Morris, C, & Chikwa, G. (2016). Audio versus written feedback: Exploring learners ' preference and the impact of feedback format on students' academic performance. Active Learning in Higher Education, 17(2), 125-137.
Sagor, R. (2011). The action research guidebook: A four-stage process for educators and school teams. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Standard 10 - Understand Research-Based Instructional Practices

Standard 10 - Teacher leaders understand effective use of research based instructional practices.

Prior to entering the teacher leadership program, my previous experiences with instructional strategies have been limited to interactions with instructional coaches, undergraduate education and any research or instruction I have taken part in independently or in PLC's. Survey of Instructional Strategies was the key class dealing with utilizing research based practices. Initially, I did not think the course would be as interactive as it has been. Throughout several lesson plans, videoing, reflection on lessons, and the reading and additional research we completed, I have found the course to be a very “hands on” experience. During the course I also gained a lot of information from my peers through their presentations, lesson reflections and reading and research reflections.

The quarter started out with our partner presentation concerning Cooperative Learning Groups, I found the information to be pertinent and attainable for my practice almost immediately. I have not used group roles and structures in the past, but found my lesson, Cooperative Learning Group Lesson Plan, utilizing these to be very easy to implement. This introductory period also led to our learning about Cues, Questions, and Advanced Organizers. I found this to be a great way to aid in my students' understanding of various mathematics theories. In my lesson, Advanced Organizer Lesson Plan, I had my students complete an entry task that required them to look at the difference between a linear situation and an exponential situation. I have performed these types of comparisons before in my classes, but using a situation where students have some type of context was a shift in my practice. Both practices were a part of the Dean, Hubbell, Pitler, & Stone (2012) text and were great resources for helping both myself in my lesson planning and my group for our expert strategy presentation. The example of Mr. Washington's class (p. 39-41) was a great guide to how a teacher may use the cooperative learning groups strategy. I found further help in our additional research where an article by Scheuerell (2010) outlined a class's use of cooperative group learning where students did research to find out about the history of their city. Another article I found spoke to the use of both cooperative group learning and advanced organizers (Box & Little, 2003). Box and Little found that the use of both cooperative group learning and advanced organizers improved the self-concept of students. These findings are of high interest to me as this is a portion of what I based my collaborative inquiry project on, improving student independence and confidence.

As we progressed through the quarter I was struck by how many instructional strategies I have either not used, or not used with regularity, even though they are easily applicable to my practice. The presentations we saw demonstrating various strategies are ones that I feel I have not utilized enough in my practice. Both the note taking strategies and the nonlinguistic presentations showed me a method for providing access and differentiation that I need to be utilizing on a regular basis. The two lesson plans I provided with this section of the class both included the use of a nonlinguistic representation. The first used a picture of a “function robot” that provided a visual to my students about what we are really doing when we solve a function (Nonlinguistic Representation Lesson Plan). In the second of these lessons I used a graphic organizer, a flow chart, that showed different circumstances where a relation is a function (Choice (Nonlinguistic) Lesson Plan). Both of these lessons used the information we saw and read about in chapter 5 of Dean, et al., and they required me opening up my practice to include visuals (visual representations are not what I usually desire, so this is not something that has occurred naturally in my lessons). While these representations are not the only nonlinguistic representations, and I admittedly did not employ them in the best way possible, they did represent a stretch for me instructionally. They are also methods of access that I plan to use in the future with my students both during the remainder of this year and in future years. I furthered my understanding of nonlinguistic practice in my research for this session through the article by Singleton & Filce (2015). In this article, the practice of using graphic organizers is discussed, specifically as it pertains to increasing understanding for students with disabilities. This article helped me in that although it is specific for students with disabilities, the practice and benefit can be applied to students who are currently struggling as well.

In addition to the numerous instructional strategies we saw in class and through reading Dean, et al., I feel as though the Hattie reading, and class instruction and discussion related to this, was enlightening. I found chapter 4 in Hattie (2012, p. 41) to be particularly intriguing and relevant to my current practice and the students I have right now. The lead up to the lesson is one of, if not the, most important pieces of the lesson and planning and there are so many things to consider, especially when it comes to the way my students are coming into my class or a lesson. As I was looking through the self attributes described starting on page 44 of Hattie, I found that so many of my students are in the “low” section when it comes to these issues of self. This is part of the reason that throughout this class, I have been so interested in ways that I can increase the confidence of my students and their independence. Moving forward, I will be researching ways in which my colleagues and I can work to improve the confidence and independence of our students.

Additionally, the mind frames that Hattie presents in chapter 9 (p. 182) I found to be both inspiring and a bit overwhelming. To be effective both in the classroom and as a leader of change there is so much that needs to go into my practice. The focus on learning rather than teaching is what helps ease the workload in my mind. The idea that the learning of students comes first and foremost, regardless of teaching style or preference or whatever, can be an important motivating factor for all teachers. The quote on page 185 I found to be particularly striking, "I have almost reached a point at which I lose interest in discussions about teaching - not because it is not important, but because it often prevents important discussions about learning" (Hattie, 2012). I like this because it is so easy to get wrapped up in a discussion or debate about how something is taught when what students are learning, or not learning, needs to take precedent. As a math teacher, the article I found by Bruster (2015) drove home the need to place learning first. In the article, Bruster found that with the interventions she use, the five students she was working with became enthralled with reading and writing poetry, even though they all "hated" reading coming in. In placing the learning first, she was able to have students read and write the pieces that they wanted to and still see remarkable improvement in these students. I have to find ways in which I can place the learning of mathematics, a subject many, if not most, loathe, above all else and make adjustments to my practice for my students to learn as much as possible.

Finally, I believe that I have grown in both my instructional ability, and my comfort and ability to coach or lead my peers in a community shift in practice, as evidenced in my leading of the collaborative instructional inquiry project. My colleague and I worked on strategies to increase student confidence and persistence. Leading this work helped me to see the growth I have made through this course and program. All of these readings, presentations, research, and (often) difficult tasks we completed throughout this program, have greatly influenced the way I now think about teaching and my place as a teacher leader. I know that I have much to learn and I hope I always feel that way. I also know that I have some influence over those around me and that if I can find my way through implementing and normalizing some, if not all, of the strategies we learned throughout this program, I will be able to be a leader in helping my school to a place of renewed energy and of higher learning.

Bolkan, S., Goodboy, A. K., & Kelsey, D. M. (2016). Instructor Clarity and Student Motivation: Academic Performance as A Product of Students’ Ability and Motivation to Process Instructional Material. Communication Education, 65(2), 129-148. doi:10.1080/03634523.2015.1079329

Box, J. A., & Little, D. C. (2003). Cooperative Small-Group Instruction Combined with Advanced Organizers and Their Relationship to Self-Concept and Social Studies Achievement of Elementary School Students. Journal Of Instructional Psychology, 30(4), 285-287. http://ezproxy.spu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip&db=eft&AN=507867547&site=ehost-live

Bruster, D. B. (2015). Poetry and Writing: Improving Fluency and Motivation for Students with Developmental Dyslexic Traits. Reading Improvement, 52(3), 93-99.

Dean, C., Hubbell, E., Pitler, H., Stone, B. (2012). Classroom instruction that works: Research-based strategies for increasing student achievement. Colorado: McREL.
Hattie, J. (2012). Visible learning for teachers: Maximizing impact on learning. New York: Routledge.

Scheuerell, S. s. (2010). Virtual Warrensburg: Using Cooperative Learning and the Internet in the Social Studies Classroom. Social Studies, 101(5), 194-199. http://ezproxy.spu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip&db=eft&AN=53004482&site=ehost-live

Singleton, S. S., & Filce, H. G. (2015). Graphic Organizers for Secondary Students With Learning Disabilities. Teaching Exceptional Children, 48(2), 110-117. http://ezproxy.spu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip&db=eft&AN=110716471&site=ehost-live

Standard 11: Utilize Assessment in a Standards-Based Environment

Standard 11 - Teacher leaders utilize formative and summative assessment in a standards-based environment.

Prior to this program, I have had limited practice using standards-based assessment, especially as it pertains to formative assessment. I had taken courses on various instructional strategies, so I have learned about various formative assessments, but not really how to incorporate it into the structured an overall unit. Through this program, and specifically the standards-based assessment class, I have seen the value of formative assessment and learned how to incorporate this in our unit plans. The course began looking through Embedded Formative Assessment (Wiliam, 2011) and creating our learning progression. 

This process of looking through the trajectory of a unit and determining what the steps in the progression of learning looks like was a new task, particularly laying it out in some sort of format other than just looking through the book or curriculum provided. For me, this represented a start to really looking deeply at the focus standards of a unit and laying out what each step in reaching that standard looks like. My learning progression (Learning Progression) began as a rather well-defined process to get from one step to another, however, I was not sure how to determine whether my students had learned the material. I was afraid that my assessment of student understanding would not tell me what students had learned, similar to the story of Jy (Wiliam, 2011, p. 47). Through feedback provided by my peers, I was able to create formative assessments that I believe will be beneficial in correctly determining where my students are at in the progression. We then looked at ways to incorporate peer and self-assessment into the learning. This was once again aided by feedback received by peers and the professor and the opportunities that I have provided, I believe, are quality and will help me and my students a great deal to gauge learning. 

The other major area we looked at was through our assessment into action paper. For this, I decided to research how to provide quality feedback to my students. This was a focus because I feel like I have either provided feedback that is too specific and does not really require thought to figure out, or too vague and is not useful in helping my students get to the next level of their learning. In order to figure out how to provide useful formative assessment, I found some good resources that allowed me a bit of insight into what it means to provide quality feedback. One of the articles I found provided some great information with a quote, “Feedback functions formatively only if the information fed back to the learner is used by the learner in improving performance” (Wiliam, 2012, p.120, emphasis in original). This quote really struck me because I had not come to the realization that it does not matter what sort of feedback I provide if it is not useful to help students improve their understanding. In my paper, (Assessment Into Action), I looked through several different resources, mainly articles by a couple authors, Dylan Wiliam and Susan Brookhart. Both authors have similar approaches to providing feedback which boil down to about three elements; feedback occurs while students are learning, feedback is appropriate for the understanding of a student (not too high or too low), and feedback must be used by students. One more element that I really had not thought about was provided by Brookhart (2012), where she asserts that feedback, “can’t work if students don’t have an immediate opportunity to use it” (p. 26). This was another element of new learning for me as I did not really think about immediate practice being necessary to build learning (although this seems a bit naïve now). The elements necessary for feedback to be high quality and effective are really informative and important to my practice moving forward. 

This course really helped out with my approach to assessment, particularly formative assessment. We were constantly working with program standard 11, utilize formative and summative assessment in a standards based environment. This work is really important for me in becoming the teacher I want to be and will have a high level of impact on my practice moving forward. I will be able to utilize this information in any class and at any level. Overall, this class has provided me with a great deal of information to help improve my teaching, my analysis of where students are in their understanding, and ways that I can provide feedback to students to help them improve their understanding. Ultimately, my students will reap the benefit of this shift in approach as they will be able to build on their understanding far more independently than they could previously.  

Additionally, my progression through the teacher leadership program has allowed me to become further adept at assessing where my students are in their understanding in a variety of ways. The importance of formative assessment has been emphasized time and again throughout this program and as Bolkan, Goodboy, and Kelsey (2016) state, "Despite instructors doing their best to provide students with effective instruction, some may be surprised to learn that their teaching does not result in the outcomes they had imagined" (p. 130). As I have developed as a teacher through this program I have learned that assessment must have several characteristics, namely that it must be related to an educational goal, easily understandable, useable, timely, constantly occurring and consistently occurring (Wiggins, 2016). Whether formative or summative assessment, students must be able to utilize the feedback provided in order to build on their understanding to meet or exceed the standards required.

Bolkan, S., Goodboy, A. K., & Kelsey, D. M. (2016). Instructor clarity and student motivation: Academic performance as a product of students’ ability and motivation to process instructional material. Communication Education, 65 (2), 129-148. doi:10.1080/03634523.2015.1079329

Brookhart, S. (2012). Preventing feedback fizzle. Educational Leadership, 70 (1), 24-29.

Wiggins, G. (2012). Seven keys to effective feedback. Educational Leadership, 70 (1), 10-16.

Wiliam, D. (2011). Embedded formative assessment. Solution Tree Press, Bloomington, In.

Wiliam, D. (2012). Feedback: Part of a system. Educational Leadership, 70 (1), 31-34.