Maintaining Momentum and
Course Corrections:
Understanding and Communicating Student Learning
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Purpose of this Session
Participants will be able to…
• Explain what students can and cannot do with
respect to a given standard.
• Identify next steps once skill strengths and
deficits have been identified.
• Focus on high impact and high control areas
for supporting student growth.
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Talk About It
• What are the biggest barriers to using student
work as a form of data?
• How do you typically talk about students’ ELA
skills at the high school level?
• How much impact does a teacher have on a
high school student’s ability to read closely,
write well, speak and listen effectively, and
think critically?
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3
A “Locus of Control” Reminder
“When it comes to student performance on
reading and math tests, a teacher is estimated to
have two to three times the impact of any other
school factor, including services, facilities, and
even leadership.”
Rand Corporation
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4
The Logic Model
If we
Analyze our assessments
and a standard
Articulate a learning need
Identify a high impact and
high control root cause
Create a plan to address that
cause
Then
The student’s skill level will
improve.
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5
Analyze
Assessments
Determine
Learning
Needs
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Identify
Root
Causes
Develop a
Plan
6
Activity: Assessment
Analysis
• Step 1: Modeling: Sample Assessment Map
• Step 2: Analyze the Assessment Map for Unit
10.1.3. Focus on the following assessed
standards:
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.2
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.9-10.2
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• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.2
Determine a theme or central idea of a text and
analyze in detail its development over the
course of the text, including how it emerges
and is shaped and refined by specific details;
provide an objective summary of the text.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.9-10.2
Determine a central idea of a text and analyze
its development over the course of the text,
including how it emerges and is shaped and
refined by specific details; provide an
objective summary of the text.
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Analyze
Assessments
Determine
Learning
Needs
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Identify
Root
Causes
Develop a
Plan
9
Talking About Student Skills
• Our work is the same as our students’ work:


Make a claim about what a student can and
cannot do with respect to a specific standard.
Support that claim with evidence from the texts.
• We need to be able to articulate clearly how a
student’s skills change over time.


What can a student do today that he or she could
not do yesterday?
What does a student still need to learn to do to
meet a standard?
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10
Try This: Student Work Analysis
For each piece of student work
• 3 minutes: Each member of the group looks at the
work silently against the rubric, annotating and
making observations.
• 5 minutes: The group discusses their findings and
comes to a consensus about the work.



What can this student do with respect to this
standard? What in the student’s work tells us so?
What is this student struggling with? What in the student
work tells us so?
For each sample after the first one, what can this student
do today that he/she could NOT do yesterday?
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11
Analyze
Assessments
Determine
Learning
Needs
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Identify
Root
Causes
Develop a
Plan
12
Do Less Of
• Orienting around
compliance
• Just holding
students
accountable
• Focusing on the
numbers
Do More Of
• Orienting around
skills
• Pairing
accountability with
explicit instruction
• Focusing on the
work and the
standard
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13
Try This: Think About Root
Causes
What may be contributing to this student’s
learning need?
• Read the Classroom Practice Reflection in
your materials
• Silently brainstorm potential reasons for this
student’s current level of skill development.
• As a group, discuss your ideas


What is your claim?
What is your evidence?
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14
Impact
Impact and Influence
Influence
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15
Talk About This
• What did you notice about most of the causes
you identified?
• Which causes did the team identify first?
• Which causes were the easiest to talk about?
• Which were more difficult?
• Did you find yourself resisting any areas of
discussion?
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Analyze
Assessments
Determine
Learning
Needs
EngageNY.org
Identify
Root
Causes
Develop a
Plan
17
Try This: Course Correct
Learning
Need
Root
Causes
Standard
Supplemental
Learning/
Remediation
Approaches
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18
Vetting Your Thinking
• Connect with another pair or with your table.
• Take turns sharing your plans. As you do so,
explain:

How will following this plan address the causes
you identified? How will following this plan help
this student develop the skills he/she needs
according to the deficits you identified?
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19
Discussion and Reflection
• How might the process of developing
learning plans like this help educators
affect student learning?
• How can this process help us
communicate with students? With
parents?
• How will you help other teachers do this
kind of thinking?
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Q&A
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Online Parking Lot
Please go to
http://www.engageny.org/resource/network-teaminstitute-materials-may-13-16-2014
and select “Online Parking Lot” for any NYSED
related questions.
Thank You!
CONFIDENTIAL – DO NOT CIRCULATE
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Pulse Check
Please go to
http://www.engageny.org/resource/network-teaminstitute-materials-may-13-16-2014
and fill out the Plus/Delta for today’s sessions.
Thank You!
CONFIDENTIAL – DO NOT CIRCULATE
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