Download as
Adobe Acrobat
Microsoft Word
Rich Text Format

Included are working with data activities that have been successfully used in the pilot sites. There are also links to additional activities and links that are potentially powerful but have not been used at the three pilot sites.

Activity 1- Data Analysis
Activity 2- Analyzing and Reflecting on Student Work
Activity 3- Teaching/Learning Journal
Activity 4- Data: Putting it All Together with Inspiration
Activity 5- Data: Analyzing Professional Development
Activity 6- Measuring Your Learning Target (Goal)

Activity 1 - Data Analysis

This activity provides practice identifying and clustering themes or categories in qualitative data such as excerpts from journals, reflections, interviews, discussions, etc. The attached data is from a transcript of a discussion.

1. Read this excerpt through once without making notes to get a sense of the data.
2. Read through again making margin notes of the themes or categories you find.
3. Select the first theme/category and highlight your margin notation(s) of that theme with one color. Then read through the text highlighting (with the same color) text excerpts that fit or support this theme/category.
4. Continue with the other themes/categories.

The next step would be to compare the themes/categories that emerge from this excerpt with those in other data sources. Synthesizing the analysis of three different data sources is called triangulation.

During this process you will compare the results of data analysis with the questions you are investigating in your project. The categories/themes that emerge may lead you to pose new questions that you want to investigate further or support findings you did not expect.

In your portfolio you will present your finding-a synthesis of your data analysis-supported by a few key pieces of data. These data pieces might be examples of student work, brief excerpts from journals, reflections, interviews, discussion notes, etc. You might organize your findings around the question(s) you investigated and the student learning and professional development goals you set.

Transcript of Discussion For Data Analysis Activity #1

TOP

Preparation
Collect one exemplar and one contrast paper from elementary, middle, and high school. Duplicate copies for each participant for this activity. In addition, have participants bring student work from their classroom to work with in this
session.

Purpose
This activity helps participants learn how to analyze student work diagnostically. The protocol for this activity may be used with any student work, at any grade level, for any content area. Instead of "grading" the work, participants analyze student work to identify and prioritize next steps for instruction and to identify of one or more possible problems or aspects of student learning. This activity can be used to establish a project focus when Setting the Stage and Developing Individual Plans.

Process
Participants carefully review student work, independently respond to questions like the ones below, and then discuss their responses with the group.

• What does this student know? What evidence supports this conclusion?
• What doesn't this student know or what does he/she misunderstand? What evidence supports this conclusion?
• What can this student do? What evidence supports this conclusion?
• What can't this student do? What evidence supports this conclusion?
• What knowledge, skills, or processes does this student need? What supports this conclusion?
• Which learning need should be addressed first to have the greatest impact on this student's learning? What strategies could be used?

Reflection and dialogue
Most of this activity involves reflection and dialogue.

Protocol for Analyzing and Reflecting Student Work handout

TOP

Activity 3- Teaching/Learning Journal

Preparation
For two weeks prior to this session, ask each participant make daily entries in a teaching/learning journal reflecting on student learning in his/her classroom and then bring his/her journal to use for this activity.

Purpose
This activity is used to gather and use data to establish a project focus.

Process
For two weeks, ask each teacher (or administrator) to record and to reflect daily on teaching and learning in his/her classroom (school) that day. These journal entries may include: discussions of classroom activities; anecdotal notes on students performances and behaviors; reflection on what worked and what didn't; hunches; concerns; and "wonderings" (i.e., "I wonder…").

At the end of the two week period, ask participants to review their journals looking for patterns, trends, recurring concerns or students behaviors, etc. They may choose to use color coded highlighters to identify specific examples of each trend or pattern.

These data can be combined with analysis of student work and other data to select a focus for the individual project.

Reflection and dialogue
After participants complete their analysis independently, have them share with a partner or in small groups. Allow time at the end for reporting out insights or conclusions to the larger group.

Reflective questions like these will help guide the discussion.

• What similarities and differences did you find in the data patterns or trends among your own data sources? What surprises did you discover?
• How do these patterns and trends reconcile with your perceptions about student learning in your classroom (school)?
• What similarities and differences did you find among the patterns and trends in your group?
• What hunches or "wonderings" do you have about these findings?
• What questions would you like to explore?

TOP

Purpose
This activity may be used when Setting the Stage or Developing Individual Plans to compile, analyze, and synthesis data to establish a project focus.

Procedure
Have participants review the results of previously completed data analysis of teaching/learning journals, student work samples, student reflections, observations, etc. Ask each participant to use Inspiration software to create a concept map (web) of the student learning needs in his/her classroom (or school) as evidenced in the data analysis. Participants should include specific data as evidence of each student learning need.

Reflection and dialogue (Individually or in small groups)
Have participants analyze their concept maps (webs) using questions like the following.

• Which identified learning need has the most supporting data?
• Which learning need is most important to students' success in your classroom (or school)?
• Which learning need do you find most interesting or compelling?

Extension
This extension is especially helpful when Developing Individual Plans. Ask each participant to create concept map of the identified learning need for his/her project. Ask them to include hunches as to why that is so, best guesses as to interventions that might work, and ideas for ways technology can support this learning need. Participants with two or three ideas for a project may create a web for each idea to help them select the best focus for this project. The resulting concept map presents the essence of an individual teacher research (inquiry) project plan.

Using Data for Focus Activity Handout

TOP

Purpose
This activity may be used when Setting the Stage or Developing Individual Plans to help participants to assess their personal professional development needs and to set professional development goals. The project director can use individual participant's learning needs as a guide for designing appropriate session activities.

Process
Have participants review and reflect on the results of the technology and learning self-assessment they completed. These questions may be used to guide their thinking.
    

• What are your strengths?
• What areas would you like to improve?
• Which needs areas interests you most?
• What student learning need have you identified for your focus?
• What do you need to know and be able to do in order to attain your student learning goal?

Reflection and dialogue
This is a reflective activity. Participants may want to share their reflections, questions, and concerns with a partner.

Extension
The extension of this activity would be helpful when Developing Individual Plans. Ask each participant to brainstorm two or three or more things he/she would like to know more about or to learn to do. Next, have participants select at least one goal directly related to the student learning goal plus one or two others that interest them. Then, have
each person use word processing to list or Inspiration to web professional development goals with strategies for achieving each identified need. This extension will identify the essence of an individual professional development plan.

See Assessment Tools for a further description and handout for this activity

TOP

Activity 6 - Measuring Your Learning Target (Goal) Activity
Guiding School Improvement with Action Research by Richard Sagor, pp. 52-57

This activity will help you set a target (student or professional development goal) and then clearly define, by establishing a rating scale, what successful attainment looks like.

1. With a partner (or triad), read and discuss pp. 52-54.
2. Complete the activity on pp. 55-56.

TOP

When we look at student work, we usually focus on "grading" the work either by checking right and wrong answers or scoring against a checklist or rubric. The following protocol analyzes students' work by considering what they know/don't know or can do/not do. Grading or scoring is not addressed at all. Rather, the purpose is to gather information that will help the teacher (and students) identify what to do next-what NOT to emphasize as well as what SHOULD be emphasized next.

Begin with the context and focus of the assignment or task.

• What was the standard or student learning outcome it addressed and did the students attain it?
• What powerful learning or engaged learning indicators can you identify?
• How could this activity be improved to make it even more powerful?

Next, identify what students know, can do, and need to do next.

• What did you want the students to know or do as a result of this activity?
• What do your students know? What evidence do you have that this is so?
• What do your students still need to learn? How do you know?
• What can and can't your students do? What evidence do you have this is so?
• What will you do next to help these students?

TOP

Using Data for Focus Activity Handout

Review, analyze, and reflect on data from these sources:

• Teaching/Learning Journal Reflection
• Read through your journal entries and look for the patterns or themes that emerge from your journal entries. Look for themes, problems, or questions.
• Student Powerful/Engaged Learning Activity Reflection
  Review notes and reflections on the powerful/engaged learning activity you did with your students.
• Profile Self-Assessment Reflection

Additional data source for last years' group

• Next Steps from 1999-2000 Professional Portfolio

After reviewing, analyzing, and reflecting on the data as described above, use Inspiration to brainstorm a possible focus(es) for:
     

• Yearlong Action Research Project
  1. the focus for your action research project OR
  2. the data sources and data collection strategies that will help you answer your research question(s) OR
  3. other aspect of your project.
          
• Inquiry Exploration
  1. area, problem, or puzzlement (I wonder…) AND
  2. hunches (I think that…) AND
  3. technology use(s) you want to explore.

Share in small groups to get ideas and feedback. Revise as needed. Print and save.

TOP