Creating A HighPerformance Learning Culture

1
Strand 4 Effective Remediation and
InterventionStrategies for Unmotivated Students
February 21-22, 2008
Welcome!
2
Opening Reflections

• Approach to Students Not Meeting Standards?
• Definitions?
• Who Takes Responsibility?
• What Messages Do We Send?

2
3
Session A Building a School Culture That
Motivates All Students

• Effort-based approaches
• Beliefs that support motivational cultures
• Characteristics of motivational cultures

4
Common Understandings About Culture

• Culture is intangible
• Culture is complex
• Culture evolves over time
• Culture is powerful

5
Culture is Intangible

• Cannot see, hear, or touch culture much of it is
  under the surface.
• Culture is difficult to get a handle on.
• Values, beliefs, assumptions, norms are at its
  core.

6
Culture is Complex

• Culture is multi-dimensional.
• Layers of interacting values, beliefs,
  assumptions, and norms constitute culture.

7
Culture Evolves Over Time

• Culture is dynamic, not static.
• Culture is historically transmitted.
• Culture cannot be quickly or easily changed.

8
Culture is Powerful

• Culture shapes what people think and how they
  act.
• Culture provides common direction to individuals
  in schools.

9
Building a Culture That Motivates All Students
Begins with Examining Beliefs

• A Belief is . . .
• A consciously held, cognitive view about truth
  and reality

10
Link Between Beliefs Behaviors

• Beliefs are literally how we comprehend and deal
  with the world around us.

11
Problems Inherent in Beliefs

• Our beliefs are the truth (for us).
• The truth is obvious (to us, so it should be to
  others!).
• Our beliefs are based on real , but we select the
  real data.
• --Senge, Schools That Learn, p. 68

12
Building a Culture That Motivates All Students
Effort-based
Ability-based
13
Ability and Achievement
How do beliefs about ability and achievement
affect the behaviors of teachers and other school
staff?
14
Efficacy and Effort
How do beliefs about efficacy and effort affect
the behaviors of teachers and other school staff ?
15
Assessing What I Believe

• Do I believe this is essential?
• Do I believe this is practiced at our school?
• How might you use this assessment at your school?

16
Actions for Creating an Efforts-Based Culture
That Motivates All Students
17
Interactive Teaching Behaviors

• Patterns of Calling on Students
• Responses to Student Answers
• Giving Help
• Dealing with Errors
• Offering Feedback on Student Performance
• Displaying Tenacity

18
Classroom Structures and Procedures

• Grading
• Re-Teaching Loops
• Re-dos and Re-Takes
• Grouping
• Rewards

18
19
Classroom Climate and Relationship Building

• Community
• Ownership
• Risk-Taking

20
Explicit Teaching of Effective Effort

• Time
• Focus
• Resourcefulness
• Strategies
• Use of Feedback
• Commitment

21
School-Wide Structures

• Motivational Boot Camp
• Assignment of Teachers
• Course Schedules
• Grouping
• Identification of At-Risk Students and the
  Provision of Extra Help

22
Observable Behaviors for Creating an
Efforts-Based CultureCarousel Activity

• Visit each station
• List observable behaviors related to the topic
  and specific examples or descriptions from the
  article
• Rotate to a new station
• Read the existing list
• Make additional suggestions
• Continue to rotate through all the stations

23
Aligning Research and Practice

• Needs-Driven
• Emotional Brain Power
• Here and Now Orientation
• Positive Adult Relationships
• The Power of Words

24
Needs-Driven

• Teacher vs. enforcer This behavior represents
  the best the student can do at this time vs.
  This behavior is bad.
• When students can meet their needs with
  responsible behavior, then generally abandon
  irresponsible behavior.
• To ensure success, make sure students can
• Feel safe and secure
• Feel connected to you and their peers
• Feel as if they can succeed academically with
  reasonable effort
• Feel as if they have some choice available to
  them
• Feel as if the classroom is enjoyable

25
Emotionally Active Brains

• Motivational is emotionalnot rational
• Internal motivation must be taught
• Drawn to content with strong emotional component
• Routinely help them understand relevance
• Know your students

26
Here and Now Orientation

• Establish a goal-oriented learning
  environmenttalk about goals constantly
• Define the long-range goalCreate positive future
  images
• Outline steps to meet the goal
• Create word pictures for success and achievement
• Use feeling words
• Be a salesman

27
Positive Adult Relationships

• Ongoing activities that affirm a sense of team
• Make the classroom a place where all students
  feel welcome and connected
• Routinely link what you are teaching to the
  feelings, memories, and experiences of your
  students
• Help students connect learning on a personal
  level to deepen their knowledge

28
The Power of Words

• Read page 7 of the newsletter, Making Grading and
  Instructional Changes to Motivate Diverse Groups
  of Students
• Place a star beside the words you hear often in
  your school.
• Circle the words you would like to hear more
  often.
• How do the suggestions in this article reflect
  the research in student motivation?

29
Preparation for Team De-Briefing

• Strengths We Can Build On
• Actions We Can Take to Improve
• What ideas will you share?
• What information do they need to know?
• What ideas for possible actions will you share?

30
Session B Components of a Comprehensive System
for Intervention

• Principles
• Intervention Assistance Teams
• Assessment Data
• Monitoring and Communication
• Prevention Programs

31
Principles

• Comprehensive
• Well-Organized
• Clearly Communicated
• Data Driven
• Mandatory
• Well-Balanced
• Tiers of Intervention

32
Intervention Assistance Teams

• Levels of Teams
• District
• Building
• Grade Level Team
• Teacher-Parent
• Who will serve?
• Teachers
• Deans
• Social Workers
• Counselors
• Administrators
• Others?

33
Assessment Data to Identify Students for
Intervention

• Data collected prior to entering in your school
• Standardized and other test data
• Data collected in classes about student progress
• Consistent, frequent assessments to determine
  when students need intervention, such as
  three-week common assessments
• Data for monitoring student progress while in the
  intervention
• On-going data about the effectiveness of your
  system, such as survey data and MMGW Data Tools

34
Organize the Assessment Process

• Regular consistent evidence of student academic
  progress (benchmark assessment).
• Comparable evidence that can be discussed by
  teachers and administrators (common course level
  or grade level benchmark assessment).
• Set regular intervals to collect evidence
  (establish benchmark calendar/pacing guide).
• Schedule timely review of data within a few days
  of collection (data analysis).

35
Benchmark Test Analysis
Test reliability is an ongoing process that must
be monitored as new assessments are added or
revised in any curricular program. A
collaborative process to accomplish this should
include all instructors.
Test Were Students unfamiliar vocabulary? Did
students misunderstand intent of question?
Test Repair
Instruction Did instruction align with
assessment? Were all topics covered to mastery
level?
Repair Instruction
Student Did test identify gaps in student
understanding?
Student Re-teach needs
36
Keeping Track of and Communicating Student
Progress

• Weekly grade updates
• Three-week progress reports
• Student alert forms
• Success contracts
• Conference records
• Report cards
• Daily attendance records
• Discipline records
• Other

37
Prevention Strategies

• Habits of Success
• Classroom Interventions
• Summer Bridge
• Advisory and Student Mentoring
• Transfer Programs for New Students
• Other

38
Have You Heard . . . ?

• Work with a partner and select one or two of the
  arguments against re-doing work.
• Identify the beliefs underlying the argument.
• Read the possible response in the second column
  and explain how you would use or modify it.

39
Good teaching is going on whenever students are
involved in redoing, polishing, and perfecting
their work.The Pedagogy of Poverty Vs. Good
TeachingMartin Haberman
40
Re-Doing WorkThe Research

• HSTW Assessment Findings Students who are given
  opportunities to re-do work to a level of quality
  have better student achievement.
• The National Writing Project Students learn more
  from re-writing a few essays that from writing a
  number of essays once.

41
In standards-based classrooms, students have the
opportunity to continuously revise and improve
their work over the course of several
days.Doug Reeves, Center for Performance
Assessment
42
One of the easiest ways for human beings to
avoid the responsibility of failure is to quit
trying.Lynn Canady
43
By the time many struggling students reach
adolescence, they have learned to protect their
self-esteem by saying they don't care about the
(stupid) work rather than risk proving
themselves incompetent by trying and failing.
If They Only Did Their Work, Linda
Darling-Hammond and Olivia Ifill-Lynch,
Educational Leadership, February 2006.
44
A, B, C, and Not Yet

• Read and underline aspects of the plan that
  reflect the belief systems that are part of
  high-performance learning cultures.
• What aspects of these suggested approaches would
  be relatively easy to implement? More challenging
  to implement? Why?

45
A Checklist of Actions for Setting Up Redoing Work
46
Develop Your Rationale

• Provide feedback and re-teaching to help ALL
  students meet standards
• Set high expectations
• Not giving up on students
• Develop internal motivation and persistence

47
Develop Expectations

• What will be redone
• Consider redo format
• Determine how redo will effect grading
• Set up re-teaching loops
• Develop redoing work forms
• Place constraints

48
Inform Students and Parents

• Course syllabi
• Special communication
• Presentations at orientation, open house, and
  conferences

49
Sample Letters

• Read and react to the letter to the school board
  and the letter to parents regarding A, B, C, and
  Not Yet practices.
• Would you use any of this letter to communicate
  with groups in your own district? Why or why not?
• What changes, if any, would you make?

50
Set Up Extra Help

• Required help sessions
• Inform parents
• Limit participation in extra curricular
• Incomplete workno term grade
• Asterisk term grades to indicate due to missing
  work

51
Collect and Analyze Data

• Number of students completing re-dos
• Number of students who improve grades as a result
  of re-do

52
Steps for Engaging Teachers

• Use data
• Share present practices for re-doing work
• Conduct action research
• Adopt a practice and use it fully for a
  yearcollect data on its effectiveness
• Checklist of actions

53
Preparation for Team De-Briefing

• Strengths We Can Build On
• Actions We Can Take to Improve
• What ideas will you share?
• What information do they need to know?
• What ideas for possible actions will you share?

54
Session C Intervention Strategy Planning and
Resources for Deepening Practice

• Intervention Strategies
• Resources
• Process Questions and Planning

55
Tiers of Extra Help

• More than two grade levels behind
• One or two grade levels behind
• Falling behind in courses

56
Intervention Strategy Planning

• What is needed?
• Who is the targeted group?
• What strategies?
• Who will provide the services?
• When does the intervention need to occur?
  Timelines?
• Where are the services to be provided?
• How will they be monitored and evaluated?

57
Resources

• Response to Intervention (RtI)
• Partners in Learning
• Southern Regional Education Board

58
Team Planning

• Objectives
• Time Frame
• Steps to Be Taken
• Follow-Up