I teach a READ 180 class to high school students in grades 9 and 10. READ 180 is a reading intervention program that targets students who read below grade level. There are currently seven students in the class who are identified as reading below grade level and in need of this intervention as a result of their performance on the Scholastic Reading Inventory. The attached Instructional Design Project describes the instructional plan that will be implemented in order for students to achieve the following goal: Instructional Goal Statement E1-3/E2-3: The student will use word analysis and vocabulary strategies to read fluently. Goal Analysis Students will be able to do the following when given a passage written on their instructional level:
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Do I believe that summative assessments are valuable instructional tools? Absolutely! Do I believe that the standardized state testing assessments that are intended to serve as summative assessments are valuable instructional tools? Absolutely not!
The purpose of summative assessments should be to evaluate whether students have mastered the instructional objectives. Additionally, summative assessments should serve to assist the teacher in revising instructional plans and planning future instruction. Unfortunately, state assessments are primarily used to judge the effectiveness of the teacher and the quality of the school. This misses the entire purpose of a summative assessment. State tests provide educators with little data of value that can be used to revise instructional plans and plan future instruction. Educators are not even supposed to look at the test or discuss the test with students, therefore it is difficult to make any reasonable conclusions about the results. Teachers, for better or worse, often are forced to teach to the state test. The ultimate goal is for students to do well on that specific test. The message is clear, if my students do not do well on this test then I am not a good teacher. These tests are also frequently changed as educational leaders change their minds about how student learning should be evaluated. After a change in the test, the initial results often indicate lower than expected performance by students. But as teachers learn about the test, and are better able to teach to the test, test scores rise. The final point about these tests relates to the unacceptable amount of pressure on students to do well on a specific test. Students often are unable to even make a connection between their own personal learning and the test they are taking, they just know that it is important to do well. I have witnessed elementary age students become physically ill on testing days because of the stress that they were experiencing. Schools hold testing rallies and celebrations and send out special reminders to get plenty of rest and eat a good breakfast. Special songs are developed for students to sing and schools even provide special breakfasts for students to eat. Rewards for putting forth a good effort and not missing school on testing days are provided. Why would all these things be done only prior to the state tests? What about the rest of the school year? Isn’t it important for students to get plenty of rest, eat healthy meals and attend school the rest of the year? So, yes, summative assessments are critical tools for educators, but the state tests should not be considered to be in the class of summative assessments. Teachers naturally revise instructional materials as they move from one unit to the next, as well as one year to the next. I am not so sure that the revision process is as well defined as it should be in order to effectively improve future instruction. I believe teachers know when a segment of their lesson did not work or when students did not master the objectives of the lesson, but often do not spend an adequate amount of time analyzing data from different portions of the lesson to determine what failed and why it failed. Analyzing data from each step in the instructional design process is needed in order to improve instruction.
The components discussed above are not the only opportunities for revision but are some of the more critical components of the instructional design that should be analyzed when revising instruction. It is essential to evaluate the data, to ascertain what the data indicates and then to make adjustments based on this information. Formative assessment is not just worthwhile, it is critical to being able to effectively teach students. I am constantly assessing my students to determine where they are in regards to mastering the content of the lesson. These assessments allow me to slow down, speed up or repeat my instruction as indicated by the assessment. My formative assessments tend to be quick and fluid within the lesson. This includes listening to students’ responses to questions, as well their comments during discussion. Even monitoring students’ facial expressions and body language can serve as a formative assessment. Students often demonstrate confusion on their face or demonstrate that they are uncomfortable with the content in their body language. Students that avoid eye contact, slouch in their seats or turn their bodies away from the teacher are often trying to avoid being called on to participate in the discussion or answer a question because they are not confident in their abilities. Using apps like Nearpod, allows me to ask questions and get answers from every student, and not just the few that like to raise their hands and answer questions. It is so easy to miss that quiet student who follows all the rules, but never really participates in group discussions. When I use Nearpod, I not only get a response from every student, but students put more effort into their responses and take more pride in their responses. I like to use some form of exit ticket as well, as a final formative assessment. Getting a quick assessment of the students’ understanding before they leave the classroom is extremely valuable to me as I prepare the lesson for the following day. I think that it is important for students to self-assess their understanding at some point during instruction. Students must develop the ability to determine if they have mastered the objectives of a lesson. They must be active participants in their own learning and understand that they have some responsibility for mastering the objectives of a lesson. This formative assessment can be as simple as providing a thumbs up or thumbs down in regards to their level of understanding. Formative assessment is one of the most critical components of the instructional planning process and when done effectively occurs during all phases of instruction. Developing instructional materials can be an overwhelming task, even though it is a task that I truly enjoy. I love having the opportunity to design and create new materials for my students and my lessons. But the task can be overwhelming because it can be very time intensive. It requires a considerable amount of time to decide what the purpose of the materials will be and how to design materials to meet that purpose. There is also the time required to develop and refine the materials. The initial version of the materials is rarely perfect and often more than one revision is necessary. I would love the opportunity to design more materials if that time was provided to me. With that being said, there are several factors to keep in mind when designing instructional materials. Here are just a few of the essential factors to consider when developing instructional materials:
Do the materials align with the performance objectives and cover the content for the lesson?
Are the materials accurate and current?
Do the materials cover all aspects of instruction from beginning to end?
Is implementation of the materials feasible and are necessary resources available?
Is the quality of the materials acceptable?
I have always believed that good teaching is good teaching. I believe that good teaching occurred 50 years ago, and good teaching occurs today, as I believe poor teaching occurred 50 years ago and poor teaching occurs today. This is true despite the choice in media that was available to the teacher in the past or is available to the teacher today. Instructional design and teaching strategies are the foundation of a good education. Media enhances that foundation, in the way that the choice of materials enhances a home that is being built. If the home does not have a solid foundation, the choice of materials for the siding, roof, and windows will be irrelevant.
With that being said, I do believe that the media available to teachers today does provide teachers with more options within our instructional design. I particularly believe that media that we have available today provides teachers with great opportunities for differentiating instruction. We now have technology that allows us to more effectively remediate and accelerate student learning. Technology facilitates the ability to use small group instruction as an effective strategy. Technology also makes it easier to meet the needs of students with different learning styles and preferences. As teachers, we also must make sure that we are preparing our students for the world that they will be living in. This world will be a world that is rich with technology, and whether one believes that the technology is a positive or a negative, it is the world our students will need to navigate. Young people are growing up surrounded by technology and their future careers will likely be dependent on the use of technology. They are also growing up in a world that moves at a faster pace, requires a shorter attention span, and is information rich. As teachers, we must take these facts into consideration when designing our lessons. I view media as a great benefit to me as a teacher, but the media is only as good as my instructional design allows it to be. As a READ 180 teacher, an instructional strategy that I use every day is small group instruction. We do small group rotations every class period. Students are placed in groups of 4-5 students and spend 20 minutes doing independent reading, 20 minutes using the READ 180 computer software, and 20 minutes in small group instruction with me. This allows me to more effectively provide differentiated instruction to students. During the time that students are with me I can either remediate or accelerate instruction based on students' needs.
A strategy that, in general, I don’t use is lecturing. I spend very little time just talking while students listen and passively take notes. When working with low-achieving students, I have found this strategy to be the least effective. I try to keep my lessons very interactive, and very student-directed. I typically introduce the topic and then guide students as they do most of the work. It helps to keep the students engaged and active in their own learning. I don't believe that there is one "perfect" strategy for providing instruction, or a strategy that is always "bad." A teacher must look at the learner and the content and then determine which strategy or strategies are right for that situation. The more strategies that a teacher has in their strategy bucket the more options he or she has for meeting the needs of the student. Achievement testing exists at every level of education and has become an increasingly hot topic in education. I believe that there are benefits to achievement testing, and that achievement testing has its place in education. But I also believe that achievement testing, today, is not being used frequently enough in a manner that benefits students. I love data and think that looking at data can provide teachers with great insight into how students are learning. But micro-analyzing data has become a trend that wastes teachers' time and does not provide increased benefits. I also am not a fan of how data is used to compare one teacher with another teacher regarding how students perform. Numbers are numbers, and while they can illustrate an effect, they cannot communicate the cause of the effect.
I have witnessed elementary students get physically ill during high stakes testing. I think that this is an indication that there is too much pressure placed on young students. Songs are created to motivate students prior to high stakes testing and rallies are being held to get students excited about testing. Robo calls are sent to parents telling them to make sure students get plenty of sleep and eat a good breakfast prior to taking the tests. The problem is, if students have not been getting good rest and eating properly the rest of the school year, one night of good sleep is not going to help them on this test. I do not understand why this level of pressure is placed on young students. I feel that achievement testing should be treated like any other testing or instruction for that matter. Students should always be encouraged to get plenty of sleep and eat nutritious meals and put forth their best effort when completing their work. Treating achievement testing like something that is extra critical to a young student’s success does not meet the needs of the child. Achievement testing in the early grades should be solely for the teacher, and not involve stressing out the child. As a special education teacher, I have been expected to progress monitor students weekly in addition to high stakes testing. Progress monitoring easily takes up an entire class period every week and students are expected to show growth every week. I don't that this is the best use of instructional time. Progress monitoring is important, but I believe sacrificing a day every week for achievement testing is a misuse of time. This time would be better spent providing instruction, with monthly breaks to assess progress. There are three critical components of a good performance objective. These include the conditions, the behavior and the criteria. The condition refers to the condition under which the student will be demonstrating the skill. The materials or resources that will be available to the student need to be considered. The behavior is the specific skill that the student is expected to demonstrate. The behavior needs to be an action that is observable and measurable. The criteria refers to the expected level of performance. In other words at what level of performance is the student assessed as having mastered the skill.
The use of effective performance objectives makes it easier to develop an instructional plan and makes it easier to implement the instructional plan. The use of effective performance objectives also makes it easier for students and parents to comprehend what the student is expected to accomplish. A good performance objective lets the teacher, student and parent clearly identify when a student has accomplished the learning objectives. An example of a poor performance objective might be: “The student will know what a main idea is.” This is an ineffective objective, because it does not state the condition. The main idea of what? The main idea of a movie, a novel, a chapter in a science book? The condition is not clearly stated. Also, the word “know” is not an observable or measurable behavior. The objective does not let us know how we will “know” if the student “knows” what a main idea is. The objective does not tell us the specific behavior we are looking for. Finally, we do not know the criteria for success. At what level of performance would we consider the student to have mastered this skill? Will it be acceptable if the student knows the main idea one time out of ten opportunities? A more effective performance objective would be: “When given five short fifth-grade level nonfiction texts, the student will correctly underline the sentence that best indicates the main idea in 4 of the 5 texts.” With this objective, we know the condition. We know the student will be looking at five pieces of non-fiction text that are short and written on a fifth-grade level. We know what behavior we are looking for. We are looking for the student to correctly underline a sentence that illustrates the main idea for each passage. And finally we know at what level the student has demonstrated mastery. If they are able to correctly identify the main idea sentence in four out of five texts, the student will have demonstrated mastery. With an effective objective, the instruction plan can now be written in a manner that increases the likelihood of the students achieving the objective of the lesson. I think that one of the most important parts of my job is getting to know my students. I can’t successfully educate them, if I don’t know them. There are two levels of getting to know my students, knowing them as people and knowing them as students. First, I must get to know them as people. This means connecting with them on a personal level. What do they like to do for fun, what do they enjoy about school, what do they hate about school, what are their fears? I do this by having the students complete interest surveys, but more importantly by just talking to them and paying attention to what is important to them. I also send surveys to their parents. Knowing what is important to their parents, helps me to have a better understanding of where they come from and the world that they live in.
I also need to know to get my students, as students. That means getting to know their school history and how they have performed in the past. Their past performance does not necessarily indicate their future performance, but it does give me a picture of where they have succeeded and where they have struggled. I need to know if they have Individual Education Plans (IEPs) and if so, what their goals, interventions, and accommodations are. I look at their testing history. I want to know if, previously, they have been able to meet grade-level standards or if they have struggled to meet those standards. I look to see if there is a history of retentions or behavior problems. I compare their performance in different subject areas, to see where their strengths lie. Only after I have analyzed my learners, can I move forward with my instructional plan. Only after I get to know my learners, and understand their needs, can I develop a plan to effectively meet those needs. I can then include strategies within my lesson that will meet my students where they are and take them to where they need to be. |
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