Delving into Data...Day One

So one of the tasks of the new Rice Lake High School literacy coaches is to benchmark all the "flagged" freshman, the kiddos we're worried about being our lowest readers. This is my 20th year at RLHS, and doing this benchmark instruction, is probably the best data to advance instruction that I've ever witnessed. Unfortunately, I am not the classroom teacher for most of these kids and need to pass these instructional notes on to the appropriate teachers. However, the key is that we are using focused data points to drive instructional practice. This is (unfortunately?) a newer concept. hmmmmm

Still - we're doing something! For example, after I listen to a student read aloud and answer a sequence of questions regarding a text, I can think of specific skills that need to be coached into a student. Some students need to correct their actual reading aloud skills. Others are clearly "glossing over" the words and not truly comprehending text. They need modeling, practice, and patience.

Now another data point has entered the equation. We have last week's MAPS results for the students as well. So, how is it that we have kids who were low on the benchmark and high on MAPS or vice versa? I know other data points need to be added as well- WKCE, current grade, etc.

These high school learners are complex, and what's even more intriguing is that some have developed complex coping strategies for finding success at school, in some arenas. I fear this is just going to make our "figuring out" of them even tougher.

But I keep returning to - at least we're trying something, which is more than we've done for some of these struggling readers in the past.

Delving into Data - Day Two...tomorrow!

Instructional Time, 2/3 vs 1/3

So I went to a conference last Friday in Eau Claire. The instructors were Chris Tovani and Samantha Bennett. While I gained quite a few good "take aways" on the day, the one that's really stuck with me is the 2/3 vs 1/3. Bennett professes that 2/3 of the the instructional minutes should be students reading, writing, and speaking. That means the teacher gets 1/3. So in our 80 minute period, the students should get 53 minutes, and our teachers should get 27 minutes. The point is that whoever has the minutes in their "column" is doing the learning. For example, if a teacher is just blabbing away, the teacher is the one doing the learning. That makes total sense to me. We need to make our students the active learners. (And we all could take a lesson from our marching band directors.) And then the reality of my own classroom hits me again on Monday morning. What is my instructional minutes total? I can't get that out of my head. Then, the guilt seems to kick-in when I know my minutes are starting the add-up, and my students are being robbed of their minutes to read, write, speak.

I will aspire to that notion. But I'm sure I will also wrestle with that reality.

In a similar vein, as I begin coaching, when I notice teachers who are monopolizing the "students' minutes," how will I coach them along - to hand those minutes back to the kids?

Three workshop days ahead of me in Brit Lit - focus on students reading, revising, research. Boom!