Nowadays there is more pressure than ever to be a
responsive teacher. This means that, as kids are learning, teachers are in tune
with what their student’s understand and can demonstrate mastery of and what
they still need to practice. Gone are the days of spending 4 weeks on a unit
and moving on to the next one, regardless of student success. As teachers, we
truly are responsible for ensuring that all kids are making growth and are
responding positively to our instruction and teaching.
As a specialist in the building, I too am met with
the challenge of collecting information or data about students’ learning and
responding to the results. And this is done through a process called progress
monitoring. In this process, students are asked to complete small tasks every
couple of weeks. These tasks relate specifically to the skills being taught in the
small group. For example, if a student is working on addition math facts then
he would complete a progress monitoring task every two weeks asking him to
complete addition math facts. I then use this data to help me decide if my
instruction is working, which is shown through positive growth on progress
monitoring tasks. And then, it is up to me to respond appropriately. If all of
the students in the group are making growth, I would stay the course and continue
with what is working. For students who aren’t showing growth, it might be
appropriate to change the skill being taught, the amount of time spent on a
skill and/or how the skill is being taught.
It is amazing to see how students react to this
information as well. Each progress monitoring round, students are eager to see
if they can “beat their last score.” They work really hard to do better than
the last time in order to prove to me and their teacher that their learning has grown. And when a
student’s score goes down, it is a great chance to reflect on the reasons why
and problem solve to address the lack of growth.
Overall, responsive teaching through progress
monitoring is a simple method that typically produces high rates of learning
for all students.
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| +3 Correct on February 24th |
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| +8 Correct on March 15th |
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| +11 Correct on April 5th! Yay...she is making great growth!!! |
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