Clinical: Analyzing Data in Small Groups October 19, 2016 Narrative: ‘This 8" grade middle school science class engaged in a lesson around analyzing data in small groups. The teacher began with a recapitulation of the previous day's lesson, which focused on the question, “how does unbalanced force affect speed over time?” She reminds them that they had to begin with a hypothesis, then collect data over a series of expetiments related to the initial question. The focus of today’s work is to analyze the results using additional sequences in the scientific method, as evidenced by her ditections to “look at data first identify outliers, find averages, and check consistency of data.” ‘The teacher releases students to their small groups and they engage in answering the questions. As student work, the teacher circulates around the room fortnatively assessing, student progress, as evidenced by stops at various groups asking, “will everybody have the esact same data? What's the general pattern?” She then provides verbal feedback in the form of confirmation ot further questioning. The teacher gauges on-task behavior and responds to student questions as evidenced by spending time with many groups. ‘The teacher uses strategic grouping and measures to engage all students 2s evidenced by her explanation of the roles she assigns to each group member: facilitator, reporter, data manager, and material manages, while stil offering student choice about the role they would like to folfil, ‘The teacher invites students to teflect on their learning, working in groups to answer the questions “What have you learned? What does this show?” She continues to emphasize the actions that fulfil group roles when she states, “Facilitators Pm going to ask you to ask the question out loud” prior to launching students into group discussion. She reinforces the use of academic vocabulary multiple times, as evidenced by comments like, “What do we call it when the speed is getting quicker?” Student responds “Acceleration?” Teacher confirms, “Yes! Write it down.” Or “then it slows down and goes at a..,? Smdent: Constant? Teacher: “Constant ante, yes. All what you just said — write it down.” She approaches the tetms “balanced” and “wabalanced force” in a similar fashion. Lesson Feedback ‘The teacher was working very hard on asking questions to help students arrive at the cottect conclusion or to use appropriate vocabulary, but the questions were all DOK one of two questions, and only two were open ended questions. These questions were only used for the teacher’s formative assessment and helped her pasaphsnse or ask another question, but in her seflection she concluded that “many of the students still do not understand the difference between a balanced and an unbalanced force.” Her planned next step was to xeteach with « reading, but I wonder how the students would assess their understanding and what they ‘would articulate needing to further their understanding of this concept. Though they flexed theie metacognitive muscles with a teflection at the end, [ wonder what information the teacher gained with the questions “What have you learned? What does this show?” and how that will inform further instructional decisions,Supervisory approach I would take a collaborative approach to growth because it is clear that the teacher is using Formative assessment purposefully and working to engage more students in the learning process. I feel like 2 viable next step would be to plan on incteasing student capacity to check each other’s work, to ask questions of one another, and to more actively use formative assessment, I would ask about the teacher's perception of how formative assessment was used, provide my perspective about that, then collaborate on helping students articulate how they've used feedback in their learning and work, or how they identify gaps in theit learning and advocating for ways to improve theit learning, This work would also involve some conversations about strategic questioning, which coilld be another high-leverage entry point for the teacher’s growth. Notes: Teacher Statts with recap of previous lesson; start with experimental question andl sample graphs. Students conducted experiments and collected data Today we will look at data, Asks students to “identify outliers, find avesnges, check consistency of data” Teacher diects students into small groups Cireulates and asks probing/clavifying questions: “will everybody have the exact same data? What's the general pattern” Uses verbal checks for understanding by reiterating initial questions to three groups. “what are the patterns? Is your data the same?” Uses stintegic grouping: “I assign roles: facilitators, reporters, data managers, material managers.” “Each stndent has a ole, and they almost natusally put themselves there.” Engages in group reflection “what have you learned? What does this show?” Reinforces, coup roles: “Facilitators I’m going to ask you to ask the question out loud.” Reinforces vocabulary: What do we call it when the speed is getting quicker?” student acceleration? Teacher: yeah?” confirms correct answer and directs student to record itVideo: Analyzing Data in Small Groups 1. During the observation, I compiled my notes using/a “See-Think-Wonder" chart. The “see” column was to be exactly that - what I saw in the classroom in objective, non- judgmental terms. The “think” I tended to leave empty since it was too difficult to record evidence and analyze the evidence at the same time, but created a space for me to reflect and analyze my date later. As questions occurred to me as a result of what I was seeing, I placed those in the “wonder” column, knowing that I would built on these to form the questions I would pose during our debrief. Generalizing from the notes in my “See” column, I saw the teacher activate prior knowledge with the “experimental question” and model and then move students into groups with the task of analyzing their data around three specific areas. As the teacher circulated from group to group, she both responded to questions and asked groups questions, to which one student from the group would provide a one-word answer to her question, Students used academic vocabulary in responding to the teacher's questions, and the teacher provided praise and positive reinforcement in addressing her students. The focus of the lesson was clearly stated by the teacher, group work was used to meet the objective and the teacher's questions were centered around the core concepts and academic vocabulary needed to meet the objective. me 1 would focus my supervisory approach between collaborative and non-directive; specifically, would focus on presenting the data and encouraging reflection, Based on the teacher's intentionality with structuring her lesson for discourse, she clearly has the desire to have students be engaged in the learning. Therefore, she isn’t in need of problem- solving’ so much as refining and building on the structures she already has in place. To determine her understand/of'student discourse, { would want to hear her interpretation of the data and see ifshe picks up on the data indicating mostly one-word responses on the part of her students. Because I would be asking her to reflect on the data, ! am taking the stance of ‘reflecting’, which is closer to non-directive. Depending on her response, I might brainstorm with her ways to increase the depth of discourse (problem-solving, collaborative) or help her draw out her own tools/resources to Increase the frequency and depth of student discourse. She mentions formative assessment in passing, and | wouldlikely follow-up with that to hear more clearly how she uses formative assessment to make instructional decisions. There was a lot of academic vocabulary used, and I might want to press on how she knows if all of her students (especially those who represent special populations) understand the academic language. In this stance, Tam again asking her to reflect and therefore leaning towards a non-directive approach. Ifher answer indicated that she wasn't really sure (or her response wasn’t supported by my evidence) I might move towards a more problem-solving, or collaborative stance. oe I would focus on student engagement and discour wy fee presume that the teacher and I had prior conversations from which we would agree the iven the teacher's introduction and reflection on area of focus for this observation cycle, the lesson, she seems to be working on increasing student discourse so I would likely be focused on providing feedback around the dimension of Student Engagement. She has worked hard to set-up her class for discourse (table groups, turn & talks, assigning roles in groups) and cares about hearing from more than one student, Borrowing from the CEL 5D framework, I would highlight the following questions to ask her in our post- observation conference: * What specific strategies did you use that helped facilitate participation and student discourse? + What did the student talk reveal to you about the nature of students’ thinking? * Ona continuum between teacher-directed learning and student-directed learning, ‘where would you put this lesson? * What is the depth of knowledge revealed in student discourse during this lesson? And I would additionally ask her: + Towhat degree is the frequency, distribution and depth of student discourse meeting your expectations? + How do you use what you learn from the groups work as part of your larger system of formative assessment?