Adult Learning Practices at My School

Being an adult learner at my current site has changed significantly over the past six years. When I began at my school I felt like the practices used for adult learning were ineffective. Our professional development was consistently brief and discontinuous. I can remember one instance where we had one introductory training on teaching students growing up in poverty and then never heard or saw any information regarding this again. In another instance, we had a training on arts integration and then heard nothing about it again until the next training which was months away. Thinking back on how we, as adult learners, were expected to adapt any of the information presented with so little information and/or follow up, it is not surprising that many teachers felt as though we were unable to really use anything we were supposed to be learning.

The way that Zepeda presents adult learning is much more closely aligned to the way that my school works on initiatives now. For one, our learning is now more individualized or self-directed. This has allowed us to choose what we feel will be most productive to further enhance out practice. We have some freedom to participate in informal or incidental learning as presented by Marsick and Watkins. When we do our work in committees or in focus groups, we are given a chance to frame our learning and interact with each other through implementation and reflection. The shift in focus we have seen at my school is tackling learning in a much more context-based situation as presented by Hansman.

As our school has moved forward these past several years, we have begun to see the learning of teachers through the lens that many of the authors this week have presented. Whether through an individualized approach so we can focus on the information we feel will benefit our practice most or through the reflection we regularly incorporate, our learning practices are much more effective. The change that has taken place has given me a new perspective on how we should approach teacher development and has made me realize what effective professional development looks like. Our practices are not perfect, but they have moved in the right direction thanks to a change in administration and teachers who have spoken out to make our learning more productive.

EDU6600 Pre-Assessment Reflection

Leading the Change in Today's Schools

The Hilty, and Hirsch and Hord texts offer some great components of successful shared leadership as a means for changing our schools. Some of the components of successful shared leadership include group members having a shared vision or goal, having the freedom to research innovative practices and the support to implement those practices, and allowing members to utilize the strengths they possess. The idea is that schools want to ensure that students experience a democratic school that prepares them academically and socially for life in both the business world and the community in which they live. The approach from the side of a teacher, administrator, and community member must be united in vision and allow for work together while feeling as though influence is bidirectional. 

Some schools approach this through a research, implement, reflect, refine, sort of cycle. This approach can end up being self perpetuating and may result in significant change in the long run. Other schools work to change their schools through the work of small groups of people who are working to figure out the most effective practices and structures for their school. These groups may also be successful if there is a leader who helps guide the groups work while allowing for bidirectional influence. There are many other ways in which schools may choose to create change for the better. Regardless of the mode, all members must have some level of buy in for this work to be successful. 

Another aspect that is important to enact any sort of change in a school is that all members must hold the belief that all students can achieve success while being held to high standards. This belief is a must for any school that desires their students to experience a democratic education. There is definitely an element of social justice within the requirement of high standards for all. Though not all schools have the same resources and not all students have the same preparation, all students can be held to high academic and social skill standards which may help to provide a high quality educational experience for all.

In my experience, leadership has been somewhat limited to those in positions of power. There are many initiatives in my district that are sent to our principals with little direction or resources for implementation. My school has several small groups that work on different district initiatives and we do our best to achieve what is required of us, but I cannot help but feel as though there is a better approach. I work on the Family Engagement team at my school and we have worked to help increase the number of opportunities families have to engage with the school, but have made little headway. Most events are not well attended and some are even not attended. This has led to some members feeling rather hopeless about the work we do, including myself. I am not sure what I would change about the way in which this committee operates, but I feel that there must be a way to increase the engagement of our students' families with our school. Another area of leadership that I have been a part of is the Shared Leadership Team. This team consists of one teacher representative from each department, the principal, academic dean, family liaison, and counselor. My experience was very negative and most meetings resulted in our principal taking charge and pushing her agenda through (this administrator has since left our school and I have since left the Shared Leadership Team). There was definitely a unidirectional path of influence and it was rather clear that those in a position under the principal had little or no influence on the goings on within this team; it was "shared leadership" in name only. 

Through this course I hope to see examples of effective shared leadership from my peers. I also hope to learn about the elements that are necessary to build a community of collaboration and allow for equitable bidirectional influence. I also hope to further deepen my understanding of what it means to become a teacher leader within my school building.

End of Course Reflection – Standards-based Assessment EDU6613

Prior to this quarter, I have had limited practice using standards-based assessment, especially as it pertains to formative assessment. Having taken courses on instructional strategies, I have learned about various formative assessments, but not really how to incorporate it into an overall unit structure. Through this quarter, we have seen the value of formative assessment and how to incorporate this in our unit plans. We 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.  

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

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.

Meta-Reflection for EDU6524 - Curriculum Design

Starting this program, I felt comfortable discussing a curriculum, but not really critiquing or altering a curriculum. As this year has progressed, I feel my ability to do just that has grown with each passing course. During this past quarter I have begun to feel quite comfortable with both critiquing and altering my curriculum. With the initial discussion about what actually constitutes a solid curriculum I was forced to look deeply at the curriculum I am using. Luckily, I had some practice with this during this past school year as I participated in a curriculum adoption. I found this adoption process, along with the discussion and points of view of my peers, to be invaluable in helping me to determine what elements of my curriculum and lesson planning are good and what things need tweaking.

To start, I had to determine what my curriculum had going for it and what areas needed support or adjustment. Upon completing this (Module 1 Paper), I began looking at the standards, at least the major ones, to determine what is essential to the unit I was looking at in detail. This work is not something I have too much experience doing, but found that through our classwork and the guidance of my peers and professors that this was something that I felt comfortable doing. I was able to pare down the eight standards covered to a focus of three standards (Module 2 Paper). Moving forward, this ability to recognize the standards central to a unit is going to serve me well as knowing what is necessary for my students to understand and what is extraneous, or at least not as important, is vital.

Moving forward, we see began looking at learning targets and designing lessons. My school requires learning posted for student information, but we have not had much work around the aspects of a quality learning target. Through the readings, particularly (Knowing Your Learning Target), we see what it takes to have an effective learning target. The anecdote of driving somewhere without knowing where to go or how to get there really struck me as a key reason why having an effective learning target is so important. To guide my students as well as possible, I need to ensure that my students know where we are heading in a lesson and how we will know we are there. This learning and practice will prove instrumental in becoming the teacher I want to be.

To get students to achieve the learning target, we see the importance of engaging students in the learning. We first created brief engagement activity explanations and then completed several full lesson plans. This portion of the class proved to be the most challenging for me. I feel comfortable putting lessons together, but I often lack diversity in engagement plans. This is something I know that I struggle with and want to improve and as we created plans with more details I received several strong ideas and suggestions to change things up from my normal lesson routines. These ideas, although strong, are still difficult for me to plan and are pieces of my practice that I will be focusing on the years ahead. To show my progress, I have attached my brief and full lesson plans (Unit Plan). These initial plans and changes to my plans represent the most significant portions of my learning in this course.

Finally, the aspects of differentiation, evaluating learning and adjusting plans comes into play. These portions of planning are areas where I feel I have a bit of experience, but I definitely want to improve. One of the differentiation techniques (see lesson 6 in my unit plan) I borrowed from a peer (Erin Hocevar-Ortiz) is to create a handout of the definitions previously learned, including the terms we will define during that lesson, for students to tape into their journals. This acts as a resource for students to refer to and will help increase the use of the academic language. I also switched an exit ticket for an assessment problem creation (an idea from How to Keep Kids Engaged in Class)

to aid in evaluating student learning (see lesson 2 in my unit plan). This represents another shift in my focus from having students solve problems to them creating problems to show they understand how polynomial multiplication. These two examples of adjustment represent another step I have taken this quarter in improving my practice.

All of the work undertaken this quarter in Curriculum Design really has been beneficial to my overall process in planning lessons and units. Looking at program standard nine, evaluate and use effective curriculum design, I found many connections to the work completed in this class. We worked through a unit from start to finish, looking at strengths and weaknesses, essential standards covered, learning targets and preassessment, engagement activities, and complete lesson plans. This practice will allow me to move forward in my practice to become the teacher I want to be. 

Frondeville, T. (2009). How to keep kids engaged in class. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/classroom-student-participation-tips

Moss, C.M., Brookhart, S.M., & Long, B.A. (2011). Knowing your learning target. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar11/vol68/num06/Knowing-Your-Learning-Target.aspx

Survey of Instructional Strategies - bPortfolio Meta-Reflection

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 during the first two quarters of this program. 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.
Starting out the quarter 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 I found the article by Scheuerell (2010) which outlined a classes 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.
Moving forward through the quarter I was struck by how many instructional strategies I have not used, or used with regularity, even though they are easily applicable to my practice. The other presentations we saw demonstrated in class 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. 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 work. 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 as well as my comfort and ability to coach or lead my peers in a community shift in practice. All of these readings, presentations, and (often) difficult tasks we completed this quarter have been so influential on the way now I think about teaching and my place as a teacher leader. I know that I have a ton 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 in class, 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