What are we learning?

1. What are we learning?

2. One-word summary OPTIMISM!

3. We try to remember • Our over-riding purpose in asking teachers to fill out the case study form and other records is to stimulate rich conversations and thinking about the students • We would provide similar outlines for teachers to discuss and record what they are doing even if we never collected any of it • We want to change experiences for students – it’s about what happens in classrooms, not about building a data base

4. Qualitative data sources • Case studies • Who are the students? • What does our individual student data look like? Record of questions and actions • What are teachers investigating? • What are they doing? • What are they learning? • Reflections from facilitators and participants

5. What are we learning … • About the case study students? • About our groups? • About teachers’ questions? • About strategies and approaches teachers are trying? • About our data? • About what’s next?

6. The case study students • Not a random sample – they do not represent anyone except themselves • Our data reflect teachers’ perceptions – we only know what teachers chose to record. • The summary is based on my interpretation of teachers’ records. • This is neither more or less accurate than any other record – it just is.

7. Visualize … • As I talk about the students, please record your impressions and ideas in a visual format – sketch, web, doodle … • I’m not going to show you the “list” of characteristics until later, so that you can construct your own vision …

8. Strength and optimism • 450 of the luckiest students in BC • Incredibly diverse • Some people might be surprised to learn that most of them are holding on to their own sense of optimism. Their teachers see most of them as: • motivated, hard workers – they want to learn • social—they like being with their friends, they are often described as “kind” and “caring”, and they are well-liked by others • Having a tonne of strengths and passions – they are often creative, physically gifted, artistic –

9. The flip side • Very few are characterized as “unmotivated” , having social problems • There were only a handful where teachers seemed unable to identify a strength or passion (and I’m sure, by now they can!)

10. Strength and optimism • Many of these students really like books and stories – those who are not able to read the books themselves, like to listen • And they want to be better readers • They are generally happy and have appealing personalities – teachers often describe them as “happy” “bubbly” “sweet” “funny” • There are, of course, a few who are visibly angry, unhappy, and sometimes “frightened” – but not many

11. Comprehension and oral language • In describing their literacy and other strengths, teachers often noted strong oral language and comprehension (often listening comprehension.) • BUT they were just as likely to identify these are areas of concern.

12. But … • With all of these strengths, why are teachers concerned? • In most cases, the students were identified as “struggling with reading” “reading below grade level” “pre-literate.” Not surprising – that’s what we asked for! • Looking further into how teachers described them, the most common description was that they lacked self-confidence, or, in many cases, had a lot of anxiety. • They were also often described as unable to self-regulate – unfocused …

13. And their reading? • Where teachers offered more specific notes about the ways in which students were “struggling”, they most often mentioned: • comprehension • decoding • knowledge of letters and letter sounds (mostly K-1) • And, of course, we noticed the enormous overlap between self-regulation and use of reading strategies (for both comprehension and decoding)

14. CS4YRCS • SD5-K-CS1 • SD5CS1 • SD6CS1 • SD8CS1 • SD10CS1 • SD19CS1 • SD20CS1 • SD22CS1 • SD27CS1 • SD28CS1 • SD33CS1 • SD34CS1 • SD35CS1 • SD36CS1 • SD36CS2 • SD37CS1 • SD37CS2 • SD38CS1 • SD39CS1 • SD40CS1 • SD41CS1 • SD42CS1 • SD43CS1 • SD44CS1 • SD45CS1 • SD46CS1 • SD47CS1 • SD47CS2 • SD48CS1 • SD49CS1 • SD50CS1 • SD51CS1 • SD52CS1 • SD53CS1 • SD53CS2 • SD54CS1 • SD54CS2

15. SD57CS1 • SD58CS1 • SD59CS1 • SD60CS1 • SD61CS1 • SD62CS1 • SD63CS1 • SD63CS2 • SD67CS1 • SD68CS1 • SD69CS1 • SD69CS2 • SD70CS1 • SD71CS1 • SD71CS2 • SD72CS1 • SD73CS1 • SD74CS1 • SD75CS1 • SD78CS1 • SD79CS1 • SD81CS1 • SD82CS1 • SD83CS1 • SD84CS1 • SD85CS1 • SD87CS1 • SD91CS1 • SD93CS1

16. SD37CS1 • SD37CS1A.pdf • SD37CS1B.pdf • SD37CS1C.pdf • SD37CS1D.pdf • SD37CS1E.pdf • SD37CS1F.pdf • SD37CS1G.pdf • SD37CS1H.pdf • SD37CS2 • SD37CS2A • SD37CS2B • SD37CS2C • SD37CS2D • SD37CS2E • SD37CS2F • SD37CS2G • SD37CS2H

21. Another sample

23. How many of each? • Currently, 459 – expect about 10-12 more • K = 53 Gr. 2 = 138 • Gr. 1 =154 Gr. 3 = 90 • ‘Other’ = 24 • M=268 F= 189 • Aboriginal = 128 ELL/ESL/ESD = 72

24. Inquiry Questions: Counting … • From 42 districts • Approximately 250 questions • Sometimes one question among several people • Sometimes one question for each participant • Many questions deal with more than one aspect (e.g., self-regulation and comprehension)

25. What are teachers asking about? • Look at two aspects: what is the intervention/change in teaching practice (the independent variable) • What is the anticipated result or change in the students’ literacy (the dependent variable) • To date, I have coded for the IV – what are teachers trying or changing? • In terms of the students, a scan indicates that teachers are most concerned about improving comprehension, engagement and confidence – but also many focusing on decoding/accuracy, oral language (especially K)

26. What practices are teachers changing and exploring? • Developing self-regulation • Developing comprehension strategies/approaches • Developing social-emotional skills • Developing decoding strategies/skills • Direct teaching • Developing oral skills • Increasing/changing “talk” in the classroom

27. More changing practices • Increasing choice • “Personalizing” learning • Changing/increasing conferencing • Working on joy and passion • Peer support • Parent support • And many more!

28. Question Sampler • Individual • Read the list, looking for • Question that you would like to working on • Question that surprises you • Question that would be relatively easy for you to offer advice • A personal favourite—you would like to meet and talk to this teacher … • Meet in group of three – aim for diversity • Share some of your choices and reactions (not all) • Choose one question: what advice would give?

29. SRL-Samples • How can we help anxious students to develop coping strategies that alleviate pre-existing anxiety toward reading so that they can be calm, focused and alert? • If I model self-regulation strategies while reading will students begin to use them on their own? • If I use self-regulation techniques will the students be able to engage in what is happening in their thinking in order to deepen their questions and connections with their peers? • What techniques can we use in the classroom to help students to self regulate their behaviour before, during, after reading? • How does involving students in setting small, measurable and specific reading goals affect their skills and confidence? • How do we help students develop the confidence and strategies that will enable them to struggle through the difficult parts to build their literacy skills?

30. SE-samples • If I explicitly teach social-emotional strategies focused on building a safe classroom community, in what ways will students become more engaged confident readers?” • If we explicitly teach the concept of learning as a journey, in what ways does this increase students’ confidence and engagement during the reading process? And in what ways does this lower anxiety for our most vulnerable and anxious readers? • What happens to students’ motivation and engagement when I implement t1-1 reading conferences

31. Comprehension: Samples • How will the explicit teaching of monitoring comprehension strategies and decoding skills impact the student’s comprehension of text? • How will explicitly modeling and teaching connections improve reading and engagement with print? • How will asking questions during reading, help with student engagement and comprehension? • Will using a variety of graphic organizers help students recall main ideas and supporting details/summarizing in a variety of texts? • In what ways will students access reading and writing strategies and work independently once explicitly taught to do so?

32. Choice • How does interest-based choice affect engagement and recall in reading? Will their engagement and recall increase?   • If we provide daily opportunities for students to talk about the books they have chosen, in what ways will they becomes more engaged, motivated readers?


33. New ways of working • How will having at least one positive daily interaction with an adult impact student social emotional development? • What happens when I provide one to one reading check-ins on a daily basis? • What differences will I notice in my teaching of reading when I let go of judgments and embrace the joy of learning? • Will strategies developed by a collaborative, reflexive classroom team increase students' reading success? • What differences do I notice in students' engaged sustained reading if I facilitate interest based inquiry projects?

34. And more … • In what ways can we incorporate students’ interest in Aboriginal culture into literacy instruction to promote engagement? •  How can I use talk structures to guide rich discussions that create increased engagement and oral language skills? • If students read to an engaged, attentive listener for 10 minutes on a daily basis and discuss concrete connections to own experiences and/or other stories with the listener, will reading fluency and comprehension improve?

35. OPTIMISM!