Data,+Intervention,+Multiple+Exposures

Data, Intervention, and Multiple Exposures Data: Data this, data that, "What is this mystery data everyone has been talking about?" Many of us have had this thought. The data is simply the information we have collected for decades; we are choosing to use it differently. The data we collect on a daily basis about our students' learning. We are really concerned with formative data, summative data, and outside audit data. However, if we focus on the first two, we will find we do not need to focus on the outside audit data.

Every assignment our students complete should either be used for data collection or response to data previously collected. This is what is meant by meaningful assignments. How often have we heard, “Make sure your homework assignments are meaningful?” When we are focused on the learning and making data-based decisions, all assignments are meaningful. Intervention: This is the "BIG ONE!" The efforts we put breaking down the indicators, building assessments, designing quality lessons, and collecting data mean nothing if we do not provide intervention for those students not proving mastery. Remember, it is not our job to sort our students, but rather to provide each student a rich learning environment where learning is the ultimate goal. We have seen classroom and school cultures change very quickly when this type of attitude is embraced. People have said, "It is not an option for students not to learn." What an awesome idea. This idea is reality when we collaborate and develop a plan for those students in need of more guided practice. These types of plans often involve many teachers and school leaders, but are well worth the effort. Remember we planned for this in our lesson design; it should be built-in to our curricular map. *Before school Multiple Exposures: Once all formatives have been mastered and the summative given, we find that some learning has not transcended time. In these cases we need to create an avenue to continue exposing our students to the indicators of lowest mastery. Short-cycle assessments work well to help accomplish this goal. For example, in sixth grade math the indicators from the summative that students performed poorly are recycled through a weekly homework throughout the year. Now this creates a homework assignment that is meaningful, it is in response to data, and then used for data collection again. This will look different for all teachers, but the idea is to continue exposing our students to the items they have not learned well.
 * After school
 * Recess
 * Study Hall
 * Science Lab
 * Math Lab
 * 20 minutes a week in own classroom
 * Guidance office
 * Differentiated Instruction
 * Guided lab sheets to be done individually
 * Technology assisted learning