Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Samantha Laraia
AD 662
Context
At Pokemon Middle School there are 63 staff members including all departments and
aspects of the building. There has been a large turnover of staff throughout the last four years. In
2014, the school had nineteen new staff members, as well as a new principal. In 2015, the school
had 11 new staff members. Along with the staff at Pokemon Middle School there are currently
582 students enrolled. 52.2% of these students are female and 47.8% of these students are male.
Pokemon Middle School is fairly diverse school. The racial breakdown of the school is 50.2%
caucasian, 15.5% African American, 14.3% asian, and 13.9% hispanic. Furthermore, leadership
discovered a correlation of low achievement amongst a specific group of students within the
school.
Pokemon Middle School leadership identified target students as our ESOL, FARMS, and
SPED students. ESOL students make up 5.9% of the school, while FARMS students are 11.9%
of the population and SPED are 9.8% of the population. Administration and staff at Pokemon
Middle School are focusing on closing the gap with target students and helping them to achieve
higher on common tasks and tests. More specifically, the 7th grade team is focusing on building
collaborative conversation skills amongst the identified 21 target students. Our goal is to have
target students be more engaged and active rather than passive in their learning, have target
students use collaborative conversation skills to promote learning and participation, and to close
the gap between these target students and the rest of the 7th grade at Pokemon Middle School.
Problem
The leadership team at Pokemon Middle School looked at data for all low achieving
students to find any correlation that could help determine a problem or pattern. The team
discovered a trend that there was a high number of FARMS, ESOL, and SPED students who fell
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into the low achieving category when it comes to grades and test scores. It was decided that these
target students need an instructional focus that includes more encouragement, participation, and
Based on the stakeholder interviews (see Appendix A), students should be working
collaboratively, being encouraged by teachers, etc. Both teachers interviewed agreed that
building positive relationships and effective communication are key to helping our low achieving
Based on our SIP, instructional foci, and the stakeholder interviews, I think it is
incredibly important for there to be professional learning for all teachers in terms of how to help
(specifically with low and high achieving students), and how to make sure we are building
positive, lasting social emotional relationships with all students, but specifically our target
students.
Research Questions
In reviewing data, it was determined that the following research questions need to be
addressed.
What methods/best practices do we use to help target students reach their full potential?
It is important to determine what best practices will be most effective in working with the
target students and how teachers can incorporate these practices into their classrooms.
Professional learning about best practices and how to use these skills in classrooms with these
students is incredibly important for the staff at Pokemon Middle School. Building these skills as
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teachers and being able to exemplify and encourage the skills with the target students will build
Literature Review
There are many articles and journals that support the idea that collaboration amongst low
and high achieving students, student engagement, and social emotional relationships between
teachers and students are incredibly import to student success. There is an abundance of data
which supports all of the ideas for which I have mentioned Pokemon Middle School would
Engagement Achievement there is evidence that show students who have positive relationships
with teachers are much more engaged in their learning. For example, studies show students with
caring and supportive interpersonal relationships in school report more positive academic
attitudes and values, and more satisfaction with school (Connell, Klem 2004). This is important
to the professional learning that needs to happen in Pokemon Middle School because even
though many teachers are doing their best to form positive relationships with students, there are
still many teachers whom are only focused on the content of their subject area instead of also
focusing on the student's best interest and what is needed for them to succeed. More specifically
related to what would be the focus at Pokemon Middle School is or would be, Connell and Klem
state that in reference to their results and discussion middle school students with high levels of
engagement were 75% more likely to do well on the attendance and achievement index
middle school students with high levels of teacher-reported engagement in school were more
than twice as likely to do well on the attendance and achievement index (2004). Thus, this
helps add to the argument that students must be engaged in what they are learning in order to be
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more higher achieving. Also of importance to note is the fact that students who perceive
high, clear, and fair are more likely to report engagement in school Middle school students
were almost three times more likely to report engagement if they experienced highly supportive
teachers (2004). Thus, it is incredibly important for teachers to ensure students feel supported
and confident in their teachers classrooms in order to be more engaged and high achieving.
Furthermore, in the article Collaborating With A Skilled Peer: The Influence on the
Participation and Learning of Low-Achieving Students also supports the idea of how much it
matters that students are able to work collaboratively with one another. Gabriele and Montecinos
conducted research which examined the impact of the performance of low achieving students
during collaborative work with a high-achieving partner. This study discusses many different
outcomes, for example The results of this study indicate that low-achieving students for whom
learning goals were more salient learned more than low achievers who showed no such
preference for learning goals during unstructured collaboration with a high-achieving partner
(2001). In other words, students who made goals and were more engaged and positive about their
learning were more successful than students who did the opposite when working with a higher-
achieving student in an unstructured collaborative setting. The article also states At a more
general level, our findings provide additional support for the idea that classrooms that foster the
development of learning goals improve the quality of learning that takes place in heterogeneous
small groups or pairs (Gabriele, Montecinos 2001). It is important for students to create goals
and know where they want to be. This is important for Pokemon Middle Schools SIP plan and
instructional focus because learning goals help students stay focused and could help our low
Additionally, the article The influence of achievement goals on the constructive activity of
low achievers during collaborative problem solving in The British Psychological Society Journal
is very focused on peers working together. Gabriele mentions two factors that can influence
learning from peer help: quality of the help received and quality of the constructive activity.
Meaning that student achievement really depends on how well the low-achieving student is
working with others and how well they are able to comprehend and complete the assignment.
Gabriele states The quality of help received from the high achieving partner was not found to be
directly associated with the learning of the low achieving partner (2007). This surprised me
when I first read it- as educators we generally assume that a high-achieving student could be the
best mentor for a low achieving student. It started to make more sense to me when Gabriele also
stated ...the inconsistent and weak relationship between help received and learning often
reported in the peer learning literature may be due in part to the extent which recipients of
explanations actively use help to build a deeper understanding of the strategies used to solve
problems or study the materials at hand (2007). This helped me to see that it is important for
our low achieving students to be reflective in what they are learning; they need to know if they
are using the skills we as teachers are trying to teach them to help them achieve. One of the most
important parts of this study is when the author concludes Taken together, the findings of this
study suggest that interventions that focus on learning goals and or evaluate their comprehension
more closely show promise and provide additional support for the idea that classrooms that foster
the development of learning goals will improve the quality of learning that takes place
(Gabriele, 2007). This is incredibly important when it comes to the vision for professional
learning on these topics at Pokemon Middle School. This quote supports the idea that it is vital
for low-achieving students to collaborate effectively and be reflective of their learning. These are
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skills that teachers need to be able to exemplify for these students so they know what needs to be
Proposed Methodology
There are different ways that teachers could do professional learning about these topics. I
opinion, there will need to be macro professional learning times where everyone should be there,
and there could also be micro times. It is important that all staff be presented with the same
information and expectations in reference to what we want to do for our low achieving target
students. Professional learning needs to focus on student engagement, forming long lasting
positive relationships with students, and effective communication- all specifically relating to
target students. This can be done in a multitude of ways- videos, reading articles and discussing,
The coachs role will depend on what the staff needs. Some staff will be much more
dedicated to professional this learning process than other teachers. I think it is important that this
professional learning benefit everyone involved, but some staff with not be as engaged. In my
opinion, coaches should not only help lead staff, but also keep them engaged.
At Pokemon Middle School we have macro professional learning sessions at least twice a
month. These days could be used to discuss and exemplify best practices that we can use to help
Determine new target students for ILT August 2016 Completed list
16-17 school year for teachers
before preservice
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Teachers take best practices and Teachers Each marking Target student
implement in classrooms period? data
Appendix A
Stakeholder Interviews and Reflection
Question 1: How did we as a school identify who our target students are?
Teacher A: As a leadership team we reviewed data and realized that our FARMS
students and ESOL students were not as engaged or achieving at their full potential.
Teacher B: ILT gathered data and analyzed test scores and achievement scores. We
looked at the lower performing groups with grades, test scores, and engagement. After
analyzing the scores we noticed that our FARMS and ESOL students were much lower
enrichment, it is important to create a safe and welcoming place for students who would
Teacher B: Some ways are: equitable calling practices, planning collaborative tasks with
strategies such as jigsaw, save the last word, special grouping, cueing, frontloading
questions, etc.
roles, sentence stems, equitable calling practices, collaborative tasks that ensure
students are engaged and held accountable. Teachers also monitor participation in
collaborative groups and encourage students with probing questions and give effective
feedback. Teachers model appropriate conversation skills and students practice through
a variety of activities.
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Question 4: What methods/best practices do we use to help target students reach their full
potential?
interventions (small group pull outs/ in class differentiated assignments/etc.), one on one
contacting parents and communicating with other specialists. We also offer lunch and
after school help sessions, create collaborative tasks and scaffold the learning
Question 5: How can we continue to help target students throughout the upcoming school year?
Teacher A: We need more support from administration to help guide all teachers in what
Teacher B: In my opinion, not every teacher is doing all of the things that I mentioned in
my previous answers. Certain grade levels are better than others, and certain teachers
within those grade levels are much better than others. As a school we need to commit to
using the resources we are provided as well as the time we are given as teams to
Reflection
It was interesting to hear two different teacher perspectives about the target students in
our school and how they are identified, what the leadership team does to support these
students, and what teachers do in their classrooms. I feel like I already knew most of what these
responses would be, but I was intrigued as to how it would be phrased. Teacher A was not as
enthusiastic in her responses as Teacher B was. Teacher B was very interested in sharing as
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much longer than what is above, I had to summarize her responses in order to get to the point.
Both teachers had similar responses to the questions, but Teacher Bs responses really
helped me come up with a more well-rounded idea of what I think the school needs in terms of
professional learning on these topics. As both teachers stated in their interview responses, most
of the things that they suggested are already happening in our school. The important thing that
needs to happen is that all teachers who teach target students should be focusing in on best
practices that can help these students have more confidence in their learning and become more
high achieving.
These interview questions and responses support my idea and thoughts that Pokemon
Middle School teachers could benefit from professional learning that is geared towards helping
target students to participate more and work more collaboratively with other students.
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Resources
Gabriele, A. J., & Montecinos, C. (2001). Collaborating With A Skilled Peer: The Influence of
Achievement Goals and Perceptions of Partners' Competence on the Participation and Learning of
Gabriele, A. J. (2007). The influence of achievement goals on the constructive activity of low
achievers during collaborative problem solving. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 77, 121-
141.
Klem, A. M., & Connell, J. P. (2004, September). Relationships Matter: Linking Teacher Support to