Data-Driven Decision Making (DDDM) Using A Grade 8 Poetry Unit

1. Data-Driven Decision Making (DDDM)Using AGrade 8 Poetry Unit Sandra Fortner, Ed.D.

2. Why look at data? • “Before plowing through curricula and textbooks, teachers must have a clear idea of strengths and challenges for a particular group of students.” Douglas Reeves, Ph.D. Accountability in Action, 2000, p. 50

3. Data and School Environments • In a constructivist’s classroom, “curricular activities rely heavily on primary sources of data and manipulative materials.” Brooks & Brooks In Search of Understanding: The Case for the Constructivist Classrooms, 2001, p. 17

4. DDDM Learning Process • Find the Data • Analyze the Data • Establish Instructional Goals • Identify the Desired Result(s) • Determine Acceptable Evidence • Implement Unit of Study • Examine Post-Data and Reflect

5. Find the Data • Using a mid-year Test for Higher Standards, I examined the grade level averages for grade 8 poetry reading SOLs.

6. Analyze the Data • The grade 8 poetry average for SOL 8. 3 was 60%. • The grade 8 poetry average for SOL 8. 4 was 56%.

7. Establish Instructional Goals • Based on the data, establish realistic goals that can be measured. • Tell who - the grade of students and subject. • What they will master. • When they will master it. • How it will be determined.

8. Poetry Unit Goal #1 • The percentage of grade 8 students scoring at proficiency or higher on Communication Skills SOL 8.3 Poetic Elements will increase from 60% to 76% by the end of the unit, as measured by the 3rd quarter exam poetry section to be administered on March 27 and 28, 2009.

9. Poetry Unit Goal #2 • The percentage of grade 8 students scoring at proficiency or higher on Communication Skills SOL 8.4 Comprehension: Poetry will increase from 56% to 75% by the end of the unit, as measured by the 3rd quarter exam poetry section to be administered on March 27 and 28, 2009.

10. Identify the Desired Results What is it that you want the students to understand?

11. Overarching/Enduring Understandings: Linking Understanding by Design principles of backward design with Data-Driven Decision Making to determine desired results- * Represent a big idea having enduring value beyond the classroom. * Reside at the heart of the discipline. * Require uncoverage (of abstract or often misunderstood ideas). * Offer potential for engaging students. Wiggins & McTighe, Understanding by Design, 1998, p. 23.

12. Poetry Unit Overarching/Enduring Understandings • Students will understand that in reading and analyzing poetry, we need to search for how the poet uses the form or structure of a poem to communicate feelings, tell a story, or convey a character’s perspective about the world.

13. Topical Understandings: Students will understand that: 1. the structure of a poem contributes to its meaning. 2. Poems tell stories.

14. Overarching Essential Questions: • The provocative and multilayered questions that reveal the richness and complexities of a subject (Wiggins & McTighe, Understanding by Design, 1998, p. 28.)

15. Poetry Unit

16. Topical Essential Questions • 1. What messages do poets of the Harlem Renaissance convey? • 2. How do the elements of poetry contribute to the meaning of a poem?

17. Declarative Knowledge:What facts, concepts, generalizations, and rules/principles do you want the students to master? Poetry Unit Students will be able to: 1. Interpret the meaning (theme) of a poem. 2. Analyze a poem for the sound elements (alliteration - consonance and assonance, rhythm, rhyme, word choice, dialect). 3. Interpret author’s style, purpose, and tone (sarcastic, objective/impersonal, solemn, humorous, personal/opinion). 4. Use mathematical sequencing to analyze the pattern of a poem.

18. Procedural Knowledge:What skills, procedures, and processes do you want the students to master? Poetry Unit Students will be able to: 1. Read a poem using dialect. 2. Categorize and compare/contrast the elements of poems by various poets. 3. Interpret the meanings of poems 4. Create a poem using all the elements. 5. Discuss and explain poetry from the perspective of different poets. 6. Work cooperatively in groups. 7. Analyze poetry for tone

19. Determine Acceptable Evidence • “If a sound curriculum plan…then the teacher needs specific information about the extent to which each student demonstrates proficiency on key academic content standards. Teacher-made materials, observations, performance assessments, or other evaluative tools can be used to assess student progress.” Douglas Reeves, Ph. D. Accountability in Action, 2000, p. 50

20. The Importance of Feedback • “Feedback, in fact, seems to have more impact on the learner’s motivation and choice of adequate learning strategies than it has on their cognitive processes.” Confessore & Confessore, Guideposts to Self-Directed Learning, 1992, p. 170. Therefore, students receive continual feedback during the unit.

21. Implement Unit of Study

22. After the unit, I looked at each goal, formulated the post-data scores, and compared them to see if students were successful. Students were successful with this unit. Grade level averages from the exam averaged 80% for SOL 8.3 and 77% for SOL 8.4. Examine Post-Data

23. Reflection • Reflection revealed that students were motivated with this unit. * Only those elements of poetry not mastered the previous year were taught. *Using Tupac’s poetry from the 1980’s and comparing it to Langston Hughes’s poetry proved fruitful. *The authentic writing task as poet laureate of Norfolk resulted in some moans and groans, but developed quite a lot of dendrite growth! *Addressing the multiple intelligences, providing student choice, and cooperative learning motivated the students, too.

24. References • Brooks, J. G. & Brooks, M. G. (2001). In search of understanding: The case for the constructivist classroom. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. • Confessore, G. & Confessore, S. (1992). Guideposts to self-directed learning. King of Prussia: PA. Organization Design & Development, Inc. • Reeves, D. (2000). Accountability in action: A blueprint for learning organizations. Denver, CO: Advanced Learning Centers, Inc. • Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (1998). Understanding by design. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.