Data Meeting #1 Reflection

As a classroom teacher, I collect data on a daily bases through physical (paper-based classwork, exit check, or quizzes) or online assessment. Data not only connect me to my students’ learning, but also reflect my practice of teaching. Like Venables mentioned in How Teachers Can Turn Data into Action, “ Data aren’t everything, but they present the best, most reliable way to see where students currently are in their learning and to identify instructional actions to get them to where we would like them to be”.

In our first data meeting, we were able to present and comment each other’s data through Google docs. Sacha, the leader of this week, created a Google doc for us to collaborate simultaneously for Notice and Wonder questions. Since we all agree to use her data as a sample for this meeting to analysis, she explained her data to us first before we formalized the exploratory questions together. This is the first time that I do feel the benefits of online group work. I’ve learned how to share, edit and comment on Google files, use Google hangouts to collaborate, and write exploratory questions based on what we’ve noticed and wondered from the data presented.

• Our first exploratory question (see below) is based on the observation of the fact Notice statement, which is “students are struggling with mastering the concepts taught over the six week period”.

• The exploratory questions from number two to four are formulated based on the 4 wonder statements (see below)

• The exploratory questions of number five and six are about teaching interventions that the teacher is going to apply to in her future teaching.

Notice statements

1. More female students were tested for this assessment.

2. Female students outperformed male students on the interim assessment.

3. Students are struggling with mastering the concepts taught over the six-week period.

4. Students on a whole performed better on standard 7.NS.A.1 add and subtract rational numbers.

5. Students scored poorly on 7.EE.A.1 Add, Subtract, Factor, and Expand Linear Expressions.

Wonder statements

1. We wonder why the students did better on Number Sense than Express and Equations.

2. We wonder why our female students are doing much better on the Math assignment than the male students.

3. We wonder why students are performing better on real life application questions.

4. We wonder if the teacher expectations for students on certain standards are too low.

Exploratory Questions

1.How are presently teaching Express and Equations, and why do our students perform so poorly on them?

2.How are teachers presenting the materials to the students so that they can best understand the concept?

3. What, precisely, are the students having difficulties on regarding Express and Equation?

4.How are the teachers presently differentiating the standards and concepts so that all the students can be successful?

5. What kind of remediation should we provide to help students perform better next time?

6. In the future teaching, What parameters are important to look at when determining what interventions to use and how to best apply them? (Race, Gender, Grade Level)

Reference

Venables, Daniel. (2014). How Teachers Can Turn Data Into Action.