Here is a post of my Draft Research Project Report per EDLD 5397 - Internship for Supervision - Week 3 Assignment - Part 3.

Culture of Differentiation:

How to Get More Teachers to Use Differentiated Instruction and Make It a Part of Campus Culture

Three years ago, our campus was introduced to differentiated instruction.  Differentiated instruction was made a priority by our administration, and it was even included in our Campus Improvement Plan.  However, differentiated lessons are rarely seen in the classrooms.  A review of lesson plans from the math department showed that differentiated lessons were not used at all until administration mandated that they be included in the lesson plans at least once each six weeks.  Even after that, we see only one to three differentiated lessons each six weeks depending on the team.  One of our teams uses differentiated lessons once per six weeks.  Another team uses differentiated lessons twice per six weeks, and another team uses differentiated lessons three times per six weeks.

My vision and hope for this project is that we help more of our teachers to meet the students at their level.  We have students at different levels within the same classrooms.  If we are able to find ways to make differentiating instruction more of a part of our campus culture, then we will see teams/teachers plan with specific student needs in mind.  Their lessons will designed to accommodate their different interests, learning styles, and readiness levels.  The students will benefit from a more interesting and engaging environment.  Learning will not be frustrating.  It will be fun.  Teachers will benefit by seeing their students reach their potential.  Teachers will have to work less in their rooms since the work will be done more by their students than by the teachers.  Everyone benefits from a well-differentiated classroom.

I plan with each grade level team every time they meet to discuss lesson planning.  During those meetings I will observe how they implement differentiated lessons into their team plans.  I will note how many times they use a differentiated activity and how that lesson is differentiated (readiness, interest, and learning style).  I also observe each teacher regularly, so I will also note how that teacher implements those lessons in their own classroom.  I hope to have each teacher implementing at least one differentiated lesson each week.  That will mean a 200% to 300% increase in the implementation of differentiated instruction in the math department.

As we try to implement differentiated instruction into our classrooms, we must support our teachers during the entire process.  According to an John Holloway in an article about preparing teachers for differentiated instruction, “school leaders must provide all teachers encouragement, support, and nurturing – all delivered through effective professional development that is founded on competent training and effective mentoring and that is conducted by experienced, skilled professionals” (Holloway, 2000, p. 83).

Our instruction must meet our students’ needs.  With students from so many diverse backgrounds, there is a need to create equity in our mathematics classrooms.  Goldman and Knudsen discuss three principles that can create that equity.  Making math relevant to their real lives, including hands-on activities, and adapting to meet your students’ needs are principles that can create that equity and opportunity for all of our students (Goldman & Knudsen, 2004).

The decision making process for what topic to research for my action research project involved me and my principal.  We considered the most critical need for our students in the mathematics classrooms.  We determined that differentiating instruction for our students’ diverse needs was the most critical need for our campus.  Therefore, we decided to make differentiated instruction the focus of my research project.  We wanted to make differentiated instruction part of our campus culture.

Once my principal and I determined what my action research project would be, I communicated that vision to my department through department meetings and professional development.  Over the course of a semester of department meetings and five summer professional development sessions I made my vision of a campus of differentiated instruction clear.  Each department meeting included time to discuss the importance of differentiation and data to illustrate our students’ varied needs and backgrounds.  Each professional development was centered around differentiated instruction.  That included ways to discover the students’ varied interests, readiness level, and learning style.  It also included ways to design lessons that addressed those various needs.  This vision was also communicated to students throughout the year by interest surveys and targeted student conversations by their teacher, instructional specialist, and counselors.  Parents heard the vision during open house meetings with their child’s teacher.  Community members and other stakeholders saw the vision during our site-based decision making committee meetings throughout the year.

The strategy used for organizing the implementation of the project involved various people on the campus, but most of the duties rested with me.  There is no money available for this project.  There were some opportunities for professional development related to differentiation in our district and on our own campus.  I would follow up and help them plan differentiated lessons.  I would also plan differentiated instruction showcases for our campus with the other instructional strategiests.  I would document the frequency of differentiated instruction lessons in their lesson plans and in their classrooms.  Finally, I would model differentiated lessons in their classrooms and conference with each teacher about the learning of each child in their classes.

Since differentiation was an essential part of our school improvement plan, it became a priority for every classroom on our campus.  Our comprehensive needs assessment of the students on our campus indicated that we had students with varied academic gaps in all student populations.  We had larger groups of English Language Learners, higher mobility rates, and a higher population of Economically Disadvantaged students than any other school in our district.  Consensus was built within grade level teams about prioritizing differentiated instruction among our team goals.  Conflict was inevitable as we moved into this new frontier, but individual conversations helped teachers deal with their apprehensions.  Those conversations continue, since the resistance to change persists.  Although the resistance is declining.

Differentiated instruction encompasses the very idea of meeting the needs of students with diverse backgrounds, exceptional needs, and abilities.  Helping teachers to implement differentiated instruction into their classrooms and create a campus culture of meeting every child at their level.  Our school and community have needs that are not the same as any other in our district.  As we deal with the highest povery rate in our district, we also deal with the highest number of English Language Learners.  This project of integrating differentiated instruction into our campus culture will help meet the needs of the school and community.

References

Goldman, Shelley V., Knudsen, Jennifer. (2004) Principles for making middle school mathematics more equitable.  Classroom Leadership, March 2004, Vol. 7 (6), Found at: http://www.ascd.org/publications/classroom-leadership/mar2004/Principles-for-Making-Middle-School-Mathematics-More-Equitable.aspx.

Holloway, John H., (2000) Preparing teachers for differentiated instruction.  Educational Leadership, September 2000, Vol. 58 (1). pp.’s 82-83.

Educational Leadership - Research Course Reflection (Week 5)

Early in week one in our Educational Leadership – Research course I learned what makes action research different from conventional research.  A quote from our text describes action research as a “systematic, intentional study of one’s own professional practice” (Fichtman, 2009, p. 9).  This helped turn on a light bulb for me.  Studying my own professional practice helps me grow and focus on the things I can control.

Comments from our discussion boards and blogs helped reinforce a certain aspect of my plan.  I plan to frame my action research within the framework of an important current initiative that the school is adopting for the future.  Working within this structure can add credibility to my plan and ensure it is not thrown out for the next big thing in education.

So, going forward I need to focus on things within my control, and I need to stay within our current campus framework.

Differentiation & Cornerstone

Last week our campus hosted a Differentiated Instruction / Cornerstone Showcase for certain school leaders in our district.  Going through this process, along with a full day of reflection and planning with my instructional specialist counterparts guided by our Principal and Director of Instruction, has helped me realize how important our Cornerstone model is to my action research plan on differentiation.  

I’ve realized how imperative it is that I position our differentiation initiative within the Cornerstone framework that our school is focusing on for the next school year.  I need to show teachers that neither of these initiatives is going away.  One actually fits within the other.  Cornerstone is a framework that organizes everything that goes on in a school.  It will help lead us to make systematic decisions with the correct data, and it will help stakeholders understand how everything fits together on our campus.  Differentiated Instruction is a piece of that, and I’ve realized that focusing on differentiation independently of our Cornerstone model would be a mistake.  Using Cornerstone will help me show teachers where differentiation fits in our school.  It will help show them the type of data they should use to differentiate.  It will help them see where differentiation should play a role during their lesson planning process.  Teachers will see where differentiation can address specific skill deficiencies that some students will have.  This will lead teachers to value differentiation as a critical tool in their toolkit instead of “the next thing”.

Based on this realization, I have change action item 6 from my Action Research Plan that I posted last week.  The new action item is below.

6. Review how differentiated instruction strategies, electronic learning opportunities, and data (such as individual, group, and comparability data) fit into the Cornerstone framework.

H. Patel M. Welch (resource person)

May 23 – Aug 10, 2011

·   Cornerstone training manual ·   Cornerstone notes

·   Which of the four quadrants of the Cornerstone framework does differentiated instruction fall into? ·   How does it impact the other quadrants? ·   What kind of data can we gather in this process to base grouping decisions?

Action Research Plan

Goal: Making Differentiated Instruction a part of the math department culture.

Action Steps	Person (s) Responsible	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
1. Review observation logs and lesson plans of all math teachers to determine the frequency of differentiated lessons	H. Patel	May 1 – June 1, 2011	·      Weekly Campus Content Instructional Specialist logs ·      Lesson Plans ·      Spreadsheet to collect data	·      How many lessons per week (on average) does each teacher differentiate part of their lesson? ·      How much of that lesson is differentiated?
2. Survey the department about what the obstacles to differentiating in their classroom are.  Include a self-assessment portion.	H. Patel	May 16 – June 6, 2011	·      Survey Monkey ·      Or other anonymous survey tool	·      Does the survey stay on point? ·      Does the survey lead them to answer certain ways or is it neutral? ·      Will the teachers actually do it?
3. Collect and analyze the data from the surveys.	H. Patel	May 17 – June 13, 2011	·      Spreadsheet to collect results of survey ·      b	·      What are the obstacles listed? ·      Are the obstacles within our control? ·      How do they rate themselves compared to what the data from Step 1 indicates? ·      How do the opinions of the “high” rated teachers differ from the “low”?
4. Gather information regarding electronic learning resources available for teachers in the classroom.	H. Patel K. Sodolak (resource person) K. Massie (resource person)	March 14 – June 6, 2011	·      Open Internet resources ·      Software purchased by district ·      Software purchased by school	·      Do we currently have access to these resources? ·      Are any being utilized right now? ·      Where would I go for more information on these resources?
5. Analyze the usefulness of each electronic resource.	H. Patel	March 14 – June 15, 2011	·      Open Internet resources ·      Software purchased by district ·      Software purchased by school	·      How easy is the resource for students to use? ·      How easy is the resource for teachers to use? ·      How customizable is it? ·      What learner skills is each resource best for? ·      What are other strengths / weaknesses?
6. Review how each of the above topics fit into the Cornerstone framework.	H. Patel M. Welch (resource person)	May 23 – Aug 10, 2011	·      Cornerstone training manual ·      Cornerstone notes	·      Which of the four quadrants of the Cornerstone framework do each of the above topics fall into? ·      How do they impact the other quadrants? ·      How can these resources impact our four areas of data collection?
7. Analyze the students’ role in this overall system.	H. Patel	May 23 – Aug 10, 2011	·      Student observations ·      Student conversations	·      Which parts of this plan do the students play a role in? ·      How can the students play an active role in their own learning?
8. Summarize conclusions from the study.	H. Patel	Jun 6 – Aug 10, 2011	·      Blog ·      Weekly Campus Content Instructional Specialist logs	·      How does each area studied impact the goal? ·      What are the factors that we can control?
9. Propose an action plan for the math department considering specific campus circumstances.	H. Patel	Aug 10, 2011 – Oct 10, 2011	·      Agenda for opening department meeting of 2011-2012 year ·      New lesson plan model centered around DI through the Cornerstone model	·      What level of support will be provided? ·      What level of differentiation will be expected? ·      What resources will be provided?
10. Monitor the progress of each teacher in the implementation of differentiated instruction.  Provide feedback and reflect with the teachers during this process.	H. Patel	Oct 10, 2011 – June 3, 2012	·      Blog ·      Weekly Campus Content Instructional Specialist logs ·      Video of lessons ·      Pre & Post conference forms ·      Teacher action plans ·      Lesson plans	·      Have the math teachers grown in their willingness and ability to implement differentiated instruction lessons? ·      How often does the team plan lessons with differentiated instruction in mind without prompting?

Nine passions for inquiry wonderings

This week broke down nine different areas (passions) that inquiry wonderings may come from.  They are:

1. Staff development

2. Curriculum development

3. Individual teacher(s)

4. Individual student(s)

5. School culture/community

6. Leadership

7. Management

8. School performance

9. Social justice or equity issues

I’m not sure which one of these my inquiry, “How can I, as an instructional specialist, help teachers more effectively implement the strategies of differentiated instruction in their classrooms?” would fall into.  As I go deeper into the inquiry I’m sure I’ll find that it will overlap with all of the first six passions as well as school performance.

A side note to my action research plan is that we are implementing a Cornerstone model (Plato Learning, 2010) into our school.  This will help frame everything that occurs in our school.  I’ve discussed this with my principal, and we decided that my project on DI should be framed with Cornerstone, so that common vocabulary and concepts are used.  This will help teachers during the implementation process.  This should not be seen as anything new.  Continuity of programs, vocabulary, etc help make things seem more like “the next step” instead of “a new path altogether”.

Also, in this inquiry around DI, I will look at how all of our electronic learning resources (PLATO Learning Environment, ST Math, Fastt Math, Study Island, and Smart Tech’s Smart Response equipment) can play a part in making it easier for teachers to implement DI correctly and effectively.

Action Research Project - Problem & Questions

The problem I’ve identified for my action research project on my campus is:

Not enough teachers are implementing differentiated instruction to benefit their students’ varied needs.

The questions that I would pose to answer in my action research project are:

How can I help foster a culture of differentiated instruction on my campus?
How can teachers more effectively implement the strategies of differentiated instruction in their classrooms?
How can the students play a role in the process? (Take ownership in their own learning.)

What I've learned about action research

What I've learned about action research:

Action research is not meant to just study a situation or just to publish results for others to read about.  Action research is meant to bring about change.  Once we identify a problem, we can put the wheels in motion, in a systematic way, to solve that problem.  One of the items that spoke to me the most this week was Nancy Fichtman Dana’s comment about what normally comes to mind when we hear the word “research”.  We think of a scientific controlled setting that is void of external variables that could contaminate the results (Fichtman, 2009).  In the action research setting we consider all of the variables that exist in the situation.  After all, each student, teacher, and administrator come in with their own set of variables which contribute to the overall school climate.  The process of addressing the problem starts with asking some clarifying questions.  To answer those questions, we must gather quantitative and qualitative data from various means.  At this point reflection is key, and that is where the problem, the questions, and the data must be revisited to possibly modify the inquiry and go through the cycle again.  This process will bring about some of the best long-term solutions for our specific school.

How I might be able to use it:

I can use action research to identify some of the obstacles to differentiated instruction in my school.  We are nearing the end of our second year of training on differentiated instruction, but it does not seem to be a normal practice in most classrooms.  Action research can help me systematically identify some of the problems and solutions.

How educators might use blogs :

I’m looking forward to using this blog to capture my thoughts on my action research project.  As I collect data, I can reflect on what it means using this blog.  As I develop relationships with other educators, we can share our feedback on each other’s blogs and benefit from the insight of others.  The problems of our school must be solved by the people who work within the schoolhouse walls but not without the help of others.  The community must be involved, and in today’s world our community has become much larger.  As educators, our community stretches across schools, districts, states, and even countries.  That is a powerful pool of knowledge to draw from.

Reference

Fichtman, N. (2009). Leading with passion and knowledge: the principal as action researcher. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.