RTI? Data Teams? Workshop model? PLC? Continuous Improvement Model? What else? Is this how you feel? It was how I felt at the beginning of this school year. However, half way through this school year, I finally saw how all these initiatives are interwoven and strive for the same thing. Now, they are my way of doing business ... a very successful business if I might say.
Over the last several years, like many other districts across the nation, we have had several new initiatives in our district. It started with Readers and Writers Workshop. This was the first initiative that stood the test of time and is still standing today. In my opinion the workshop model has become a staple because it strives to meet the needs of every student. Embedded within the model is whole group, small group, and individualized instruction.
Second in this line-up of long lasting initiatives was PLC ... Professional Learning Committees. Designed as a time to meet and talk about students, we opened our educational arms and welcomed PLCs to the family. However, we didn't really understand what they meant and how to implement them. Many years later, we have truly embraced the guiding questions: What do we want students to learn? How do we know if and when students have learned it? What are we going to do for kids who don't learn it? What are we going to do for kids who already know it?
Next came RTI ... a.k.a. Response to Intervention. In this model, we dedicated 30 minutes/day to an instructional time where all students received instruction at their level. We offered intervention classes for the kids behind grade level. We offered enrichment for those students above grade level. However, we struggled with choosing the skills to work on and delivering them fidelity.
Fourth to ring our educational doorbell were Data Notebooks and the continuous improvement model. Data notebooks gingerly entered first. We had students graph their learning. We started simple with easily graphed areas like reading fluency, reading levels, AR points, and math fluency. Next students started setting goals and tracking whether they met them. After that, students started analyzing their results to positively change academic behaviors. Pretty soon, the Baldrige model of continuous improvement was introduced. Now, teaching and learning are on improvement cycles, ensuring the best environment and and instruction for each individual student.
Last, in came Data Teams. We, as teachers, were reaching our capacity for initiatives. Our houses were full and another initiative could not fit through the door. Yet, somehow, Data Teams managed to fit through the door. Once a week, our data teams met, discussed what the students needed to know, how we were going to teach it, how we were going to evaluate it, and what we were going to do for the kids who did and didn't have it. While it was very exciting to have these discussions, it was more time outside of the school day and our very busy schedules.
At the end of our first data cycle, it all started to make sense. I could finally see how it all linked together and actually created more time to work on best practices for our units of study. I will now try to lay it out for you.
Together as a collaborative data team of four teachers, we ask the crucial questions that are PLC. What do we want our students to know? How will we know they leaned it? How will we get them there? After unwrapping the standards together, we plan only the best practices, putting together many, many years of experience and training. Those best-practices include mini-lessons, guided practice, small group instruction, and peer sharing activities. Together, we create assessments that measure our effectiveness. This is the Tier 1 instruction of RTI. After a formative assessment, given a week or two into instruction, our data team asks the next important questions of PLCs: what are we going to do with the kids who get it and don't get it. We then group all four classes into instructional groups based on the answers to those questions and deliver instruction during a dedicated 30 minutes four times per week. This is part of Tier 2 instruction of RTI. Three weeks later, we re-evaluate. Along the way, we use various tools to evaluate the effectiveness of the lessons, changing and modifying based on our data. And, as a little caveat, students set goals and track their leaning through the entire process. As teachers, we are working smarter, not harder. We are more effective at helping every student make improvement. Our team is no longer four individual classes of 25 students, but 100 of our students. And, this is just the first year.
No comments:
Post a Comment