Independent,+Responsible,+and+Accountable+Students

** October 11, 2010 **
 * Professional Learning Communities In-Service **

** 1. **** SMART Goal ** ( ** S ** pecific, ** M ** easurable, ** A ** ttainable, ** R ** ealistic, and ** T ** imely): 75% of 6th and 7th students will be able to follow directions independently, demonstrating responsibility and accountability in a lab, studio or classroom environment.

**2.** **Rationale:** Through classroom observations students cannot follow simple one step or multi-step directions despite being provided with oral and written instructions. Students are not independent thinkers and do not display responsibility or accountability for their own learning.

**3.** **Action Plan** **4.** **Group Member Names:** Debbie Corso, Christine Collister, Kristen Wollenberg, Debbie Ziegelman **5.** **Which Middle School goal does this impact?** Goal #2
 * **Activity** || **Person Responsible** || **Timeline** || **Outcome** ||
 * Keep tally of questions asked immediately following instructions given || Debbie, Debbie, Chris, Kristen || October-June, restarting each MP ||  ||
 * Oral instruction test- step by step instructions given; students submit and teacher reviews accuracy of the results || Debbie, Debbie, Chris, Kristen || October-June, restarting each MP ||  ||
 * Written instructions test- same as above but the instructions are written || Debbie, Debbie, Chris, Kristen || October-June, restarting each MP ||  ||
 * Exit Card- students will write down the instructions of a demonstration or lesson and teacher will assess the accuracy of the students submissions || Debbie C. || October-June, restarting each MP ||  ||
 * Marking Period Portfolio- Students are asked to retain items that will be collected at the end of the marking period. || Debbie, Debbie, Chris, Kristen || October-June, restarting each MP ||  ||

__** November Meeting **__ An oral instruction test was given to the classes. Our findings showed that when the students know they are being held accountable (grade), they can follow oral directions independently and correctly. When not held accountable, students continue to ask questions and cannot recall oral directions. Our discussion during this time - how are we able to motivate students to become independent and responsible regardless of whether or not a grade is being earned?

__** December Meeting **__ Written directions - Students are unable to comprehend written directions independently. How do we successfully get students to read and understand written directions on an individual basis? Better results in comprehension of written directions are found when the directions are read aloud as a class. Discussion - provide students with both oral and written sets of directions in order to meet the needs of various types of learners.

__** January Meeting **__ Budget presentation - no plc meeting

__** February Meeting (we met on Friday, March 4 during the lunch block instead) **__ Do all teachers, academic and special, find that students are having a difficult time being independent, responsible, and accountable or is it isolated to the special areas only? This question led to our discussions for this meeting. Focusing on portfolios, we find that approximately 1/2 of the students will organize their portfolios when instructed to do so. Again, if the portfolio is going to receive a grade, most students will then follow through with the organization. What are the intrinsic benefits of being organized and following instructions independently? Our discussion included possible answers to these questions in addition to how are we able to encourage students to follow instructions without it being tied into a grade. We plan on using exit cards on recalling the instructions (from the beginning of class) as a means of assessing their comprehension.

__** March Meeting (March 22, Day 2 during the lunch block) **__ Reviewed portfolios and exit/entrance cards during the past month. We are still finding that approximately 1/2 of the students are able to recall the necessary information or organize a portfolio unless it is tied in with a grade. Debbie C. used the instructions for getting the studio ready for clay as an entrance ticket to the classroom. Findings included that 1/2 of the students were able to recall the necessary information without being prompted. An additional 1/4 were able to recall the necessary information with prompts. The remaining 1/4 were unable to recall the information at all.

How are we going to be able to reach our original goal? Discussion included the possibility of grading more items as a means of motivating students to pay attention, however we really want the students to be intrinsically motivated without tying it to a grade. Other incentives to follow directions may include special privileges for the students who, through teacher observation, are able to follow direction best. We are hoping to increase our numbers to more than 50%, resulting in a more efficient lab, studio, or classroom environment.

__** September Meeting (September 21, after school) **__ The discussion went to "tweaking" the goal of this group. Lori Jones joined our group, and gave us info about her PLC in the high school last year. After much discussion, we are considering changing the focus more to researching students' motivation and appreciation of the arts classes in this school. Students this year seem "stuck" in our classes since they are not having any study halls in the schedule. We as teachers are "stuck" with students that do not want to be there. A suggestion to hold the students more accountable by grading their class participation on a regular basis was brought up.

How can we get our kids to appreciate our classes?

__** October Meeting (October 10th, during the In-Service) **__ The discussion opened up with the question of how this goal can be measurable. While this idea is extremely valid and important to us, the idea of having our students appreciate and understand the importance of what we are teaching them, we find it a difficult thing to measure. Questions posed and dissected were:
 * What is appreciation? And will students' appreciation have them focus more in the classes?
 * How can we have the students focus on the activities and assignments in class? Is the idea of appreciation too subjective to measure?
 * How are we going to measure this goal?

We discussed a specific issue: "students getting done early because they did a sloppy job and they don't want to do any more". What do you do with that student? Lori and Debbie developed a section of the students grade (Lori: //Progress//, Debbie C.: //Studio Processes//) where students are graded regularly on their behavior, their conduct, how they are moving along in the projects and how they follow directions. Lori counts it at 10% of the students' grades. Debbie C. counts it as 20% of the students' grades. We find that to be helpful in motivating the students somewhat. Jenn C. came in to help us. She suggested polling, interviews, essay, surveys as a means to measure. Polldaddy.com is a Website providing a format to create polls online. So the next time we meet, we're going to compile some formats as a means to measure the students' appreciation based on Jenn's recommendations.

__** November Meeting (November 23rd, before school) **__

We discussed what our objectives were from the last meeting: to compile some formats as a means to measure the students' appreciation based on Jenn's recommendations. We explored Polldaddy.com, and created a survey that we are going to have the students complete. The questions that will be asked are:


 * 1) 1 Do you think you can learn something in this class that is valuable or important to you?


 * 1) 2 If you answered yes to question #1, write what you think you will learn that is valuable or important.


 * 1) 3 If you answered no to question #1, what would you recommend so that you ARE able to learn something that is valuable or important.

We will discuss our results next time we meet. Hopefully, the poll will create an open dialogue between the students and the teachers so we can find so ways that we can increase student interest.

We also were discussing the disadvantages of the existing schedule and how it affects the students' motivation and interest. Some issues with the schedule is that none of the arts teachers are on a team and do not have the same peer support as the other teachers. It is difficult to create curriculum connections that may increase student interest since we teach students from all the teams. Nor do any of the teachers know what arts teachers even do since we do not meet with them regularly, so team teachers cannot even "promote" what students are learning in our classes. Another issue is that the 7th and 8th grade students didn't have a choice to take the semester "electives"; they HAVE to. Any students that don't play an instrument or sing HAVE to take those courses. In addition, the interest levels vary tremendously. (For example, an 8th grade student chose to not play in band this year because they wanted to take Graphic Design instead, versus a student who may need a study hall cannot have one, and is forced to take the elective courses.)

__** December Meeting (December 15th, before school) **__

We were discussing the thought of changing our FOCUS to something more POSITIVE, since many times at the meeting we find that it becomes a complaining session without any solutions, strategies or plan. We decided to switch the focus to MOTIVATION...how can we MOTIVATE the STUDENTS in our class. One way that was discussed was through theatrics and humor; to entertain the students. And "sneak the lesson in" as the students are having fun. Debbie Z. researched in an education book that the NUMBER 1 element that motivates students is CREATING RELEVANT LESSON PLANS. We should create lessons:
 * that relate to the students feelings
 * that students can make connections in their lives to
 * that students can create personal associations with
 * that students can apply to in real-life scenarios

We can MEASURE MOTIVATION through OBSERVATION:
 * the art classes have MOTIVATION as one of the categories on which the students are grading for each assignment.
 * create a SURVEY to give to the students (In PARTS OF THE LESSON, have the students respond if the LESSON was BORING/OK/INTERESTING/EXCITING)