Evaluate 3.1.1 Differentiation

The Story Behind the Numbers

I mentioned in my previous blog that data captured by reporting tools only provide teachers with a partial profile of a student. The fuller, accurate, and typically more complex, picture is formed when the teacher interacts with the student. For the virtual instructor, communication methods may include e-mail, synchronous class sessions and discussion boards.

Several years back, before my department had common summative assessments, unified pre-tests (so students were properly placed from the beginning and did not lose valuable learning time in an ill-fitted course just to later switch classes), I noticed that after Interim A (Progress Report #1) of the 1^st Qtr (roughly 3.5-4 weeks into the 9-wk block semester) that some of my students were doing poorly and didn’t seem “to bounce back” after 1-on-1 discussions, parent-teacher-student conferences, teacher-student-counselor meetings, lunch tutorials, after-school tutorials – you get the picture – nothing seemed systematically “to work.”

There might be a spike here or there, but results weren’t consistent. This bothered me as a teacher. The students who didn’t bounce back seemed to plateau at a low level, or worse spiral downward. Many times these students became frustrated and despondent thinking “Why bother? I’m just going to fail anyway?” As an educator, I was disappointed in myself because I felt as though I had no “concrete plan/solution” to offer them.

This feeling of discontent plagued me. Around this time, the principal requested that as a school-wide goal and subsequent professional goal for evaluation, each teacher think of ways to remediate for learners getting lost in the fray. Ah, hah! The birth of “El Grupo: ¡Manos a la obra!/ The Group: “Let’s Get to Work” dubbed “El Grupo.” (I didn’t want to include “remediation” anywhere in the title.)

The purpose was to reteach concepts that were plaguing students during the previous two weeks OR to introduce difficult concepts to these students before they were taught in class, whole group. My theory and hope were that upon seeing the material a 2^nd time in class with peers the El Grupo students would have better odds of “getting it.”

Below is a snippet of actual Spanish 1 data from the 1^st semester the program was implemented. I ran the program for 14 semesters, always with 8 sessions per semester scheduled 2 weeks apart. Over the years, I tweaked it to include any Spanish student in the school taking whatever levels I was teaching that semester. I drafted a “contract” so students would take the program seriously. I incorporated an attendance clause: students could only miss 2 sessions of the program (no questions asked nor note/call sent home) and still be eligible to receive extra points for attending. Points were no longer awarded for merely showing up.  Successful completion of the session meant earning an 80% or higher on each activity covered in the session. This was pre-SMART goals so the number was arbitrarily chosen. Eighty percent is a mid-C (not the lowest B) on our grading scale.

I’m not going to go over the data in detail for the viewer is able to read the raw scores and draw her own conclusion.

Is there work to be done in terms of improving the teacher’s abilities in order to have a greater impact on student performance? Yes, no doubt! Could students do more, such as attend all 8 sessions, or at least 6? Most definitely!

What I will say is that my “doing something,” even if it were ridden with holes and false starts, propelled me to move forward in an effort to positively re-engage my flailing students in my course and to offer them a helping hand from within our sinking ship rather than just to cheerlead from the shoreline.


“The Backstory” of a Few Individual Students in this Data Group

Brittain would go on to Spanish 3 and participate in the school’s Spanish Honor Society.

TJ would pass Spanish 1 & 2 and not have the courses “bring his overall GPA down.” He graduated from high school with honors.

Sarah would go from Spanish 1 with a 77.7 on her initial Interim to go through AP Spanish (Language and Literature classes) and later minor in Spanish at the university level. I still stay in touch with her.