Inquiry: A Study of Continuous Improvement (2nd Edition)
ACT ON THE RESULTS Identify the Make My Purpose Write the Work Question Public PLAN
Reflect on Describe the the Action Plan Process Success Partners Refining structures, conditions & processes leading to powerful Parent-School Partnerships resulting in student success Illustrate Identify the the Data Findings
Review Analyze Related
the Data Implement Practices & Literature DO THE STUDY the Action Plan & Collect Data
Schools and their families participate in a thriving, collaborative partnership ensuring the success of the child, where partnership activities are supported by the SUFS Office of Student Learning.
The mission of the SUFS Office of Student Learning is to assist and support the establishment and maintenance of structures, conditions and processes within schools that sustain collaborative partnerships with parents and families to ensure the academic, social and emotional success of every child; while at the same time, upholding the belief that the ultimate responsibility for the education of the child resides with the parent.
Table of Contents
Welcome from Dr. Carol Thomas 1
What is Inquiry? 3
Identify the Purpose PLAN 8
Write and Refine the Question(s) PLAN 9
Describe the Action Plan PLAN 10
Identify the Data PLAN 11
Review Related Practices and Literature PLAN 13
Implement the Action Plan and Collect Data DO THE STUDY 14
Analyze the Data DO THE STUDY 15
Illustrate the Findings DO THE STUDY 16
Reflect on the Process ACT ON THE RESULTS 17
Preparing to Make My Work Public ACT ON THE RESULTS 18
Directions for Study Write-Up ACT ON THE RESULTS 20
Sample Continuous Improvement Studies
Empowering Parents to Educate their Children
Author: First Grade Teacher 24
Building School Culture and Parent Involvement through a
Book of the Month Club
Author: Elementary School Principal 31
How will Early Parent Connections Affect, Improve or Encourage
Behavior and Performance?
Author : Third Grade Teacher 35
Office of Student Learning
Dear Colleagues,
I want to thank you for your commitment to the power of parent-school partnerships where parents and teachers are working together for the success of the child. You are to be commended for your willingness to study the structures, conditions and processes in your school that support and encourage those partnerships.
Last year you engaged in collaborative work to identify specific goals and objectives as well as to establish goal teams to implement those objectives. A natural next step is to examine the impact those processes or structures have had on your school community collectively or individually. To help you accomplish that task, this guidebook has been developed, entitled “Inquiry: A Study of Continuous Improvement”. We will refer to this as the Inquiry Guidebook.
Inquiry, the study of one’s own professional practice, is a well-established method in educational research and is also referenced in educational literature as “action research” or “practitioner research.” For the sake of the work we are engaged in, we will discuss the process of inquiry through the creation of a Continuous Improvement Study. This is a constant reminder for us that this work does not have a beginning or an end; rather, it is ongoing with one improvement growing from a previous improvement process. Creating a Continuous Improvement Study is a way for you as a teacher to make public what you are already doing: asking questions about your practice, making changes to your practice, and determining whether those changes have improved your practice and impacted student learning.
Using this booklet as a guide, you will intentionally study one of your practices related to your school’s Parent- School Partnership Plan and seek out change by reflecting on what you are doing. With the Inquiry Guidebook, you will identify one of the Parent-School Partnership Plan objectives that is most important to you, frame questions that you want to answer related to that objective, consult established relevant research, implement an action plan, collect and analyze data, and then share the resulting new knowledge with your colleagues. This new, shared knowledge will help all educators to improve their practice.
By cultivating this continuous improvement stance, teacher and administrator quality will be enhanced, and your students will benefit.
The pages in this book will help you structure your Continuous Improvement Study, ensuring that this important work is captured and easily recorded for others to read, thereby allowing them to grow in their practice.
Again, thank you for engaging in this most powerful and personal professional development!
Yours in learning together,
Dr. Carol Thomas Step Up For Students Vice President, Office of Student Learning
Success Partners 1 Inquiry Guidebook
NOTES
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Excerpt from Inquiry: A Districtwide Approach to Staff and Student Learning (2011) Nancy Fichtman Dana, Carol Thomas, & Sylvia Boynton What is Inquiry?
Inquiry is the systematic, intentional study of one’s own professional practice (see, e.g., Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1993, 2009: Dana & Yendol-Hoppey, 2009). Inquiring professionals seek out change by reflecting on their practice. They do this by engaging in a cyclical process of posing questions or wonderings, developing and implementing a plan of action based upon relevant literature or practice, collecting data to gain insights into their wonderings, analyzing the data, taking action to make changes in practice based on new understandings developed during inquiry, and sharing findings with others (see the Inquiry Cycle on the front cover).
Components of the Inquiry Process
The process of inquiry enables educators to tie their own learning directly to the learning of the children they teach. Let’s look closely at each component of the inquiry process.
Wondering/ Question Development
A wondering is a burning question an educator has about his or her practice. Teaching (and learning) is an incredibly complex endeavor. Because of this complexity, it is natural and normal for many issues, tensions, problems, and dilemmas to emerge in classrooms and schools. Rather than sweeping them under the carpet and pretending they don’t exist, educators can embrace and celebrate these problems by naming them in the form of a question and making a commitment to do something about them. Wonderings can be individual, emerging from a single teacher’s classroom dilemma or a single principal’s desire to improve his or her administrative practice, or they can be collective, emerging from a team of teachers, administrators, or an entire school who wish to work together to improve some aspect of schooling. Examples of an individual teacher’s wonderings might be “How will the facilitation of authentic learning through an online learning community in my fourth-grade classroom contribute to my students’ development of positive attitudes toward learning as well as their achievement?” “How will using role play and simulations increase my students’ understanding of historical events?” “What are some strategies I could utilize to facilitate better literature discussions?” Examples of an individual administrator’s wonderings might be “How do I use learning communities as a tool for teachers and myself in the transformation of the writing curriculum in my school?” or “What role does instituting a school-wide meeting play in creating a caring school culture?” An example of a team or school-wide wondering is “How do we create more culturally responsive teaching across all of the classrooms in our school, and what happens to student achievement as a result of implementing culturally responsive pedagogy?” Finally, an example of a shared, administrative team wondering might be “How can we make the district-mandated classroom walk-through process more meaningful to our work as principals?” Framing a wondering in the form of a powerful question is a critical component of the inquiry process because the question drives the quality of the work. For more information on the development of wonderings, see Chapter 2 of The Reflective Educator’s Guide to Classroom Research (Dana & Yendol-Hoppey, 2009) and Chapter 3 of The Reflective Educator’s Guide to Professional Development (Dana & Yendol-Hoppey, 2008).
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Data Collection
Because the emphasis of job embedded learning is on systematic, planned, intentional, and regularly scheduled efforts to embed the adult learning in a school system into teachers’ and administrators’ daily work, data collection is defined simply as “capturing the action that occurs in classrooms and schools.” Although some of the most pervasive data in schools today include quantitative measures of student achievement, such as performance on standardized tests, progress monitoring tools, grades, and other assessment measures, data can come from many different sources and may include the following:
• Field notes o Scripting dialogue and conversation o Diagramming the classroom or a particular part of the classroom o Noting what a student or group of students are doing at particular time intervals o Recording what a teacher is saying • Student work • Documents (e.g., lessons plans, IEPs) • Interviews • Focus groups • Digital pictures • Video • Reflective journals • Blogs • Surveys • Critical friend group feedback
Given the complexity of teaching and learning, it is important for educators who engage in inquiry to collect multiple forms of data to gain insights into their wonderings. In addition, one form of data that should be an essential part of all educator inquiry is literature. Although we often don’t think of literature as “data,” it is a useful way to think about how the inquiry work occurring throughout a school is informed by and connected to the work of others. No school exists and operates in a vacuum. Hence, when educators conduct inquiry, their work is situated within a large, rich, preexisting knowledge base that is captured in books, journal articles, newspaper articles, conference papers, and websites. Looking at this knowledge base on teaching and learning as an existing “given” for data is important to inform practice.
Data Analysis
As a part of the inquiry process, data analysis is defined simply as creating a picture of what you have learned in relation to your wondering based on a systematic look at your data. Quantitative forms of data (data that take the form of numbers) are usually analyzed using graphs and charts that track the change in “numbers” over time. Qualitative data (data that take the form of words) are usually analyzed in four steps. To begin, inquirers read and reread their entire data set, with no other objective than to get a descriptive sense of what they have collected. The goal of this first step of analysis is to describe the inquiry data using the following questions: “What did you see as you inquired?” “What was happening?” and “What are your initial insights into the data?” The description step may be accomplished by talking it through with other educators, writing it out or choosing a combined approach and taking detailed notes. Next, inquirers begin the sense-making step by reading their entire data set and asking questions such as, “What do I notice?” “How might different pieces of my data fit together?” and “What pieces of my data stand out from the rest?” The answers to these questions begin the process of grouping or sorting data by 4 Success Partners Inquiry Guidebook theme, category, pattern, or some other organizing unit. Sometimes inquirers get stuck at the sense-making stage and need some prompts to help begin this sense-making process. The figure below offers some organizing units that can serve as prompts during this phase of the analysis. To decide on organizing units, educators may take notes in the margins of their data. Data may be physically cut apart and placed in discrete piles or categories. Still another strategy to use during this step is to group data by using a different color marker for each theme or pattern identified and to highlight excerpts of data that fit different patterns.
Examples of Organizing Units Chronology Key events Various settings People Processes Behaviors Issues Relationships Groups Styles Changes Meanings Practices Strategies Episodes Encounters Roles Feelings
The third step of the qualitative analysis process is interpretation. In this step, statements that express what was learned and what that learning means are constructed by looking at the patterns that were coded and asking and answering questions such as, “What was my initial wondering and how do these patterns inform it?” “What is happening in each pattern and across patterns?” and “How are these happenings connected to teaching? To students? To the subject matter and the curriculum? To the classroom or school context?” The findings from this step can be illustrated in a number of ways, including but not limited to the following: themes, patterns, categories, metaphors, similes, claims/assertions, typologies, and vignettes. The figure below (“Strategies for Illustrating Your Findings”) outlines possible illustrative techniques and provides examples from teachers’ inquiry.
Strategies for Illustrating Your Findings
Theme/Pattern/Category/Label/Naming –A composite of traits or features; a topic for discourse or discussion; a specifically defined division; a descriptive term; set apart from others. Examples: collaboration, ownership, care, growth
Metaphor – A direct comparison between two or more seemingly unrelated subjects, in order to suggest a similarity. Example: Central administration is the glue that holds a professional development program together.
Simile – A comparison of two unlike things, usually using the word “like” or “as”. Example: Creating a district-wide professional development program is like putting together an intricate jigsaw puzzle.
Claim/ Assertion – A statement of fact or assertion of truth. Example: Inappropriate expectation discouraged many of the learners in my classroom and hindered my effectiveness as a writing teacher.
Typology – A systematic classification of types Example: Different uses for puppets – instructional, entertainment, therapeutic
Vignette – A brief descriptive literary sketch Example: The Struggle for Power: Who is in Control? The children were engaged in conversation at the meetings, jobs were continuing to get done, but there was still a struggle around who was in control. With the way the class decided to make a list of jobs, break the jobs up into groups, choose the people they wanted to work with, there were breaks in communication. Conflicts were arising with the groups. Everyone was mostly aiming to get “their own” way.
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These strategies help illustrate, organize, and communicate inquiry findings to an audience after the fourth step (implications) is completed by answering such questions as (1) “What have I learned about myself as a teacher/ administrator?,” (2) “What have I learned about students?,” (3) “What have I learned about the larger context of schools and schooling?,” (4) “What are the implications of what I have learned for my teaching/ administrative practice?,” (5) “What changes might I make in my practice?,” and (6) “What new wonderings do I have?”
Taking Action and Sharing Learning with Others
Once data are analyzed, educators take action based on what they learned through the process and then share their learning with others. Sharing can be accomplished in faculty meetings, grade-level meetings, publications, blogging, conferences, and/or inquiry showcases. Regardless of the venue in which work is shared, sharing is important for a number of reasons. First, the process of preparing findings to share with others helps all educators to clarify their thinking about their work. In addition to clarifying the author’s thinking, sharing findings gives other professionals access to their thinking and the opportunity to question, discuss, debate, and relate. This process helps educators and their colleagues push and extend their thinking about practice as well. Clarifying, pushing, and extending thinking are not the only benefits of sharing. Fellow professionals also benefit from the knowledge colleagues create through engagement in the inquiry process. Although the individual steps in the inquiry process just described in this section (formulating a question(s)/ wondering, collecting data, analyzing data, taking action, and sharing with others) are important, the ultimate goal of engaging in the process is to create an inquiry stance toward teaching. This stance becomes a professional positioning, where questioning one’s own practice becomes part of an educator’s work and eventually a part of the district culture. According to distinguished educational scholars Marilyn Cochran-Smith and Susan Lytle (2009), a legitimate and essential purpose of professional development is the development of an inquiry stance on teaching that is critical and transformative, a stance linked not only to high standards for the learning of all students but also to social change and social justice and to the individual and collective professional growth of teachers. (p.46) By cultivating this inquiry stance toward teaching, teachers and administrators play a critical role in enhancing their own professional growth. As a result, teacher (and administrator) quality is enhanced, with the ultimate beneficiaries being students.
Reference
Cochran-Smith, M., & Lytle, S. L. (2009). Inquiry as stance: Practitioner research for the next generation. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
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NOTES
Success Partners 7 Inquiry Guidebook
Continuous Improvement Study
PLAN (Use Module 12) Identify the Purpose
The first step in a Continuous Improvement Study is to outline the purpose, which you develop before you begin your study. Through the process of developing this study, you, as a teacher researcher, gain insights into your objective. The “do-ability” of your study becomes clear as you commit yourself to one main idea. Through the development of this study, you develop a sense of direction and know where to go next (Dana & Yendol-Hoppey, 2009). Your study should be clearly related to a process or structure identified in your Parent–School Partnership Plan that impacts student success. This work can support your accreditation plan or school improvement plan.
Purpose for your study List the Passion Profile you selected that most closely resembles something you feel passionate about related to your Parent-School Partnership Plan. Think about: Why is this profile important to you as it relates to your school’s plan? Where do you see a need for change in your practice related to this Passion Profile?
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Continuous Improvement Study
PLAN (Use Module 12) Write and refine the question(s) related to your school’s Parent-School Partnership Plan.
Considerations for the development of your study question:
Is my question clearly articulated? Did the question focus on my professional work related to engaging parents in their child’s learning? Is my question something that I can do rather than trying to ‘prove something’ to others? Did I ask something I really didn’t know? Did I ensure my question is not a simple, dichotomous (yes/no) question in order to honor all the complexity that teaching entails? What would I like students or parents to do differently; what are the results or outcomes I want? What might I try to do differently in my teaching practice (including changes in any aspects of curriculum, instruction, assessment, classroom expectations, etc.)? What indicators might I look for to see if what I’m doing differently is helping create the desired results?
Question(s)
Examples: How will ______affect ______? What would be the impact of ______on ______? The first blank could describe the practice that might make a difference (the cause); the second blank could name the desired effect. (You may also discover that you have sub-questions as you work through your main question.)
Original wording:
Method
NOTE: You may want to meet with others to refine and re-write your question. Here is a sample of the refining process:
What I Would Like to Have Happen: I would like students to be able to write a cohesive biographical sketch. An Obstacle to Reaching this Goal: Some students don't seem to know how to structure or correct their writing. A Big Question I Have about This: What teaching strategies will help my students recognize the gaps and mistakes in their writing? A Narrower Question I Have about This: How can I help my students write better transitions?
Final wording:
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Continuous Improvement Study PLAN (Use Module 13) Describe the Action Plan
This section describes the details of your action plan and should include information concerning the design of the action plan and the frequency and duration of the methods, strategies, and materials that will be used. This section should paint a word picture of what you, as the teacher-researcher, will be doing.
What will be done to answer your question(s)? (p. 9) Here is a sample action plan based on the revised question described on p. 9: Revised question: How can I help my students write better transitions? An Action Plan/ A Teaching Strategy I Want to Try Out: I will have my students do peer editing with a guide sheet that helps them locate transitions and missing transitions. Sources of Data: Early and final drafts; peer editors' comments. Narrower revised question: What is the impact of transition-focused peer editing on the quality of transitions used in student writing?
What will your action plan look like? (materials needed, methods and strategies)
How often will you implement the action plan? (daily, biweekly, etc.)
How long will your action plan take? (Plan to be ready to analyze a sample of your data in February.)
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Continuous Improvement Study
PLAN (Use Module 13) Identify the Data
What types of data will you collect? How might you get other teachers, administrators, or parents/families to help you figure out what the data means? Remember that your data can be a combination of qualitative and quantitative.
Qualitative data suggestions: field notes/observations, parent focus groups, student interviews, photos, video, surveys with open-ended questions, student work samples, parent discussions, teacher log/daily reflections.
Quantitative data suggestions: attendance logs, surveys with closed-ended questions, standardized test results.
Considerations for identifying data: Did I carefully consider all the sources of data that could potentially give me insights into my question when I designed my action plan? Did I use three or more data sources to gain insights into my action plan (i.e., field notes, student work, interviews, focus groups, pictures, journals, blogs, student performance on tests or other assessment measures, colleague feedback, surveys)? Refer to page 4 for various data sources.
Data Source Type Data Details When Example: Homework Survey Quant. Develop parent survey November Send survey to parents December & March
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Examine the differences between Qualitative and Quantitative data. Qualitative Data Quantitative Data Overview: Overview:
• Deals with descriptions. • Deals with numbers. • Data can be observed but not measured. • Data which can be measured. • Colors, textures, smells, tastes, • Length, height, area, volume, weight, speed, time, appearance, beauty, etc. temperature, humidity, sound levels, cost, members, • Qualitative → Quality ages, etc. • Quantitative → Quantity
Example 1: Example 1:
Oil Painting Oil Painting
Qualitative data: Quantitative data:
• blue/green color, gold frame • picture is 10" by 14" • smells old and musty • with frame 14" by 18" • texture shows brush strokes of oil paint • weighs 8.5 pounds • peaceful scene of the country • surface area of painting is 140 sq. in. • masterful brush strokes • cost $300
Example 2: Example 2:
Latte Latte
Quantitative data: Qualitative data: • 12 ounces of latte • robust aroma • serving temperature 150º F. • frothy appearance • serving cup 7 inches in height • strong taste • cost $4.95 • burgundy cup
Example 3: Example 3:
Freshman Class Freshman Class
Qualitative data: Quantitative data:
• friendly demeanors • 672 students • civic-minded • 394 girls, 278 boys • environmentalists • 68% on honor roll • positive school spirit • 150 students accelerated in mathematics
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Continuous Improvement Study
PLAN (Use Module 13) Review Related Practices and Literature
Educators model their instruction on other educators’ successful practices. They also use professional literature to become well informed on what current knowledge exists in the field on their topic and/or practice. Try to have three or four good sources of information about your topic.
Considerations for the development of your research related to your action plan: Research can include a discussion with another educator about their successful practice. Research can include articles used in Success Partners modules. Major online research sources: • Google Scholar: http://scholar.google.com • Thomas B. Fordham Foundation: http://www.edexcellence.net/publications/ • Education Trust: http://www.edtrust.org/ • Brooking Institution: http://www.brookings.edu/ • North Central Regional Educational Laboratory: http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/
Title or Description Source (book, magazine, Highlights used to guide your thinking of Practice journal, educator)
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Continuous Improvement Study
DO (Use Module 14) Implement the Action Plan and Collect Data Use this page to record your data collection process when implementing the action plan.
Are your data sources helping you answer the question? Do you need to collect additional data? Is there something that needs to be tweaked or changed?
How are your students and parents responding?
Are you on track to analyze data starting in February?
Develop a system for organizing your data: Excel spreadsheet, labeling your data with date information, folders, etc.
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Continuous Improvement Study
DO (Use Module 14) Analyze the Data What have I learned from the data I have collected? In order to draw conclusions, you will need to analyze your data.
DATA ANALYSIS Creating a “picture” of what was learned from the data
Analyzing Quantitative Data - Compiling and dropping ‘number’ data into a graph or chart Analyzing Qualitative Data (refer to page 4 for a detailed explanation of qualitative analysis) Step 1: Description – Read and reread your entire data set to get a descriptive sense of what you have collected. Step 2: Sense-making – Read your entire data set and ask: • What sorts of things are happening in your data? • What do you notice? • How might different pieces of data fit together? • Is there some data that does not seem to fit, is unusual, or causes you to pause? (TIP: Don’t discard data that does not seem to fit. This may be very informative to the question.) Step 3: Interpretation – Construct statements that express what you learned and what that learning means by asking: • What was your initial question and how do these patterns answer it? • What is happening in each pattern and across patterns? Do you notice any themes? • What does the data that does not seem to fit tell you? • How will you illustrate your findings? Step 4: Implications – Discuss findings by asking: • What have I learned about myself as a teacher? • What have I learned about parent/family – school partnerships? • What have I learned about the larger context of schools and schooling? • What are the implications of what I have learned on my teaching? • What changes might I make to my practice? • What new questions do I have?
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Continuous Improvement Study
DO (Use Module 15) Illustrate the Findings
Considerations for the development of your findings: Did I select a strategy for illustrating my findings to others (i.e., themes, patterns, categories, metaphors, claims, vignettes) that best captures what I learned through the inquiry? (refer to page 5 for examples) Am I confident my findings came directly from my data? Am I careful to avoid any personal bias? Did I address/explain data that didn’t fit?
Teacher Researcher Learning/Data Analysis What does my data show? What are my results? How does my data answer my research questions? A wonderful way to think about your study is to write. As you formally write about your research, you may learn something very important about your families, students and their learning, something you may have missed had you not considered your words on the page.
Continuous Improvement Study
Creating your CIS Plan
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Continuous Improvement Study ACT ON THE RESULTS (Use Module 15) Reflect on the Process
In this section, describe implications based on your intervention, which can be used to initiate further study.
Considerations for the development of your reflection: How will my practice change based on what I learned through this study? Do I have a plan for further assessing, reflecting upon, and/or studying the changes in my practice? Did I weave what I know now, based on literature and related practice, into my analysis and interpretation of data? Did I reflect on what I learned about the teacher-research process in addition to reflecting on what I learned about my practice?
State what was learned and your resulting change in practice.
Implications for Practice
Possible next steps – what I’m wondering now
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Continuous Improvement Study ACT ON THE RESULTS (Use Module 15) Preparing to Make My Work Public
It is important to tell others about what you learned through your inquiry. For this module, you will draft your continuous improvement study write-up following the outline found on page 20 in this guidebook. You can also refer to the samples in the back of the book. In addition, you will choose one of the following options to present your work at the Celebration Showcase in May: create a tri-fold poster board, bring a school artifact, design a brochure, or create something electronically to show others what you studied and learned through this process. If interested in displaying your work on a tri-fold poster board, a format is provided below for your convenience, but any variation is welcome!
Title of your Inquiry
Supporting Data Relevant Research Question(s)
What did you So What, Now What did you do? learn from your What? What steps did you take to study? Next Steps answer your question?
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Continuous Improvement Study
Directions for Study Write-Up
Reminders – delete this box before publishing
o Be sure you don’t identify families/students by name in your report. Use pseudonyms of “Family one,” “Student two.” o Active links, such as email or websites can be used. o Type in Calibri 11 pt font.—Single space with one double space between paragraphs. o Specific write-up suggestions are included in the body of each section. This document contains the minimum number of paragraphs; you may choose to expand further.
Title of Your Study
Your Name, Your Position, Your School
Your E-mail address
School Year
Purpose (use page 8)
Write one or two paragraphs that:
o Describe the problem you were trying to solve. Give us a little history of the problem and try to describe the problem in specific terms. o State and explain the purpose of your study. Tell us what you are trying to learn and why this interested you. For example, were you led into this action research because of an idea you got from the professional literature? Did a conversation with colleagues lead you to investigate your question? Did work within the Success Partners process lead you or was it another professional development opportunity that got you started? Tell us that as part of your explanation. o Use research and conversations with experts to support and strengthen your purpose. (use page 13)
Question (use page 9) Clearly state the question that you studied. Also list any sub-questions you may have.
Methods
First Paragraph(s): (use page 10)
In these first paragraphs, tell us what you did in your action plan (e.g. implemented powerpoints during family events, one in English and one in Spanish). This should be brief but try to be specific enough that another teacher might be able to have a framework for trying a similar project.
Following Paragraph(s): (use page 11)
In further paragraphs, tell us about your data collection. Include what data you collected, how you collected it, when you collected it, and from whom you collected it. For example, if you were doing a family survey as an action plan related to possible family events, you would
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state that you examined survey data and then made changes in the school calendar of family activities based on the data.
Findings/Data Analysis (use page 15)
Your findings are the results of your data analysis. Here you will describe what you learned after analyzing your data. Remember, analyzing your data requires you to categorize it and/or represent in some visual format (chart/ table/ graph) and then to carefully review it to look for patterns, possible conclusions, and puzzles. In sharing what you learned from your analysis try to avoid a long list of conclusions. Instead, look for ways to cluster your conclusions with supporting details as evidence. The findings section may be the longest part of your write-up, but this varies. You might use a paragraph structure or you might write two or three conclusions with supporting bullets below each conclusion. You can make your findings more powerful by including excerpts from your data (e.g. quotes, graphs).
Reflection and Future Practice (use page 17)
Here you share why what you learned is important. Think about the following questions to help you write this section:
o What have you learned and how will you use this learning in the future? o What findings surprised or concerned you? o What new or continuing questions do you have? o What recommendations would you make to other teachers? o Reflecting on your own practice, how has this inquiry study impacted your learning and understanding of your practice? o How will your practice improve as a result of this study? References (use page 13)
Here you will provide a bibliography of any books, articles, or interviews referred to when reviewing the literature during your research process.
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SAMPLE
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
STUDY
WRITE-UPS
Success Partners 23 Inquiry Guidebook
Empowering Parents to Educate their Children
First grade teacher
School Year 2010 – 2011
Purpose
Many of my students come from homes where parents want to help them, but often times are not equipped to do so at home. This is especially true for students who are striving in reading. Both the parent and student become frustrated as a result. Every January, I give families a Family/Student Satisfaction Survey. Sections included in the survey include parents’ opinion about homework, assignments class work and classroom atmosphere. When asked What might have been (might be) done to make this year a more pleasant and productive experience for your child? One parents response was “I really don’t know. I am seriously sad that I feel like I can’t help him.” The comment led me to wonder if parents are provided with structured activities to assist their child at home, would it increase the parent’s ability to assist their child and as a byproduct, would this increase the students’ self-efficacy and achievement? The student who this inquiry is centered around was previously retained in kindergarten. When he arrived in late September to my classroom he was identified as homeless. His primary care giver is his mother who is in and out of jobs frequently. He is a potential retainee in first grade because he is not meeting grade level expectations. He tells his mother that he “is dumb and can’t learn.” Research by Castle (as cited in Baker, 2003) stress the need for teachers to include parents in improving the self-concept of children with reading difficulties. He later writes that teachers should not assume parents know how to help their children who are struggling. Providing guidance to parents of such students will help parents gain confidence in their ability to help (Baker, 2003).
Question/ Wondering
How will empowering the parent(s) of a striving reader by providing structured home activities help increase… a) The parent’s ability to assist their child b) The student’s self-efficacy and achievement
Methods
In order to implement this project I decided to send home activities with the student weekly (every Wednesday) for him to do at home with his mother. I used a combination of FCRR (Florida Center for Reading Research) Activities and reading games with a specific focus for each activity phonics or phonemic awareness. Along with each activity I included a log that had an explanation of how to use the activity, a couple ways to praise the child, a chart with the following headings: dates played, person who played with the student, did the student enjoy the activity, did the parent find the activity beneficial to the child, and how the student responded to praise. See sample take home activity log below.
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Word Steps: Make/ blend and read words
(Remember to take 2 pictures)
Directions: 1. Use the red word steps mat and the red letters to make words with –op at the end 2. Use the orange word steps mat and the orange letters to make words with –ot at the end 3. Use the pink word steps mat and the pink letters to make words with –ip at the end Challenge: Make words on the white mat with other endings –at, -am Praise! *Point out the positive things he does, don’t point out his mistakes. *Share his accomplishments with your husband and children. Write each day Who worked with Did he enjoy the Did you find the How did he that you work on him on the activity? activity beneficial respond to the the take home activity? to him? praise? activity
Comments/Concerns/Questions
*Please complete and return this sheet and the take home activity on Wednesday.
Thank you,
[teacher’s name]
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For data collection, I plan on collecting the activity log each week, parent surveys, student survey, and pictures to document use of games at home. I created a folder for the student to take home each week with the activity.
Take Home Activity Brief Directions Select a card. Use the clues and beginning letter sound to find the object in Activity 1: Initial sounds the bag. Say the name of the object and listen to the first sound you hear. Continue until all cards are used. Focus on final sound Activity 2: FCRR Letter Sound -Name the picture and say the last sound that it makes. Put a counter on Pyramid the letter for that sound. Keep playing until all the letters are covered.
-Using the letter cubes, make the word on each card. Read each word that Activity 3: Making Words you make. *Give child specific praise by saying something like, “you tried really hard to_____.”
Challenge: Make the words again, but this time cover the picture and then read the word.
Activity 4: Phonics Windows -Place the Phonics Windows card over your paper and fasten together with a paper clip. -Write your answer in the Phonics window holes -Turn the card over and check your answers.
Challenge: Make a sentence with the words you make.
Activity 5: FCRR Word Steps -Use the word steps mat and the letters to make words with –op, -ot, -ip at the end Challenge: Make words on the white mat with other endings –at, -am -Praise! *Point out the positive things child does, don’t point out his mistakes. *Brag about him to your husband and children.
Activity 6: Learning Letter Sounds -Listen to song number 4-Letter Sound Song and Chart -Sing and follow along using the ABC chart. -Praise! *Emphasize the effort, not the outcome- compliment child on his progress
Activity 7: Build Words -Cut the letters apart -Use the letters to make(build) the words on the bottom of the page -Read the word you make and then read the word list - Praise! *Use your body language. Instead of telling child that he is reading well, give him a gentle rub on the back and a smile
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Findings/Data Analysis
Baker, Sonnenschein and Switkin penned, most children start off with optimism and interest in learning to read. Those who experience difficulties quickly develop a concept of the self as a poor reader and their motivation for reading declines (as cited in Baker, 2003). Self-efficacy can be defined as “the belief in one’s capabilities to achieve a goal or an outcome” (Kirk, n.d.). Students with low self-efficacy do not believe that they can be successful and may avoid tasks that they think are challenging. In the article Self-Efficacy: Helping Students Believe in Themselves the author identifies four sources of self-efficacy which are strategies that teachers can use to build self-efficacy; mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, verbal persuasion and emotional state. The first is mastery experience-successful experiences boost self-efficacy, while failures erode it. This is the most robust source of self-efficacy. I wanted the student to “play” each activity and succeed at it. Furthermore, I felt that including specific praise with the activities would be the verbal persuasion needed. The last areas emotional state- positive mood can boost one’s beliefs. Having him work at home with his mother may be a less stressful atmosphere and create a positive mood for him to succeed. In the article How to Praise Your Kids Logan Ward suggest that parents may be addicted to praising their children and that in time they will expect praise all the time, which diminishes its power. He includes 10 best ways to praise; don’t overdo it, be specific, emphasize the effort not the outcome, focus on the feat, point out the positives, don’t brag, share achievements with spouse, tell the truth use body language and avoid sarcasm (Ward, 2001). I included one or two ways to praise with each activity. Although he is still not meeting grade level expectations, he is making slight progress. His progress cannot be attributed exclusively to this inquiry project as he receives intervention two times daily.
Conclusion 1: All parents want their child to be successful. If teachers begin to empower parents it will have far reaching effects. • During the last phone interview the parent said, “I could not get through to him before the games and I would get frustrated. After you sent them everything got so much better. It really worked, it actually did work. Now he’s like mommy lets read this book. I think I’m more patient with him. You don’t understand, I am so grateful because I did not know what to do with him.” She also said, “We went to the Supermarket the other day and I had him look for words like soda, little words that I knew he knew because of the games. He found it and I was happy. And I know it’s because of the games. They helped me to help him actually, it’s fun too. I don’t know who likes it better me or him. Sometimes I want to do it longer.” • I did not know that as a result of sending home activities that it would motivate the student to want to read books with his mother.
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• I also did not know that the parent would use it as a catalyst to engage her child in using the everyday environment as a way to extend the activities such as what she did with him in the supermarket. • Empowering parents and establishing a strong home school connection is beneficial to student achievement.
• The earlier in a child’s educational process parent involvement begins, the more powerful the effects. The most effective forms of parent involvement are those which engage parents in working directly with their children on learning activities at home. Parents need specific information on how to help and what to do. • When I surveyed the child I asked, do you think you did good with the games? How do you know? His response was “Yeah, because like, um, every time I played them I felt good.”
Conclusion 2: Being consistent as a parent may be difficult, and inconsistency can have negative implications. • When asked “do you think you were consistent with doing the activities? Why or why not?” she reported “not really.” She said that she did it every other day during the week and sometimes on the weekend. She said, “he liked it, but I did not want to overwhelm him. I did not want to turn him off to it because he liked it.” She asked me if she should have done it every day with him. She went on to say that “he is the baby of the house, the youngest.” Sometimes he used to cry and complain and his brothers and sisters would want to do it for him. • I wanted him to see a connection between what occurs in the classroom and the importance of it. Also that learning occurs beyond the walls of the classroom and that his parent values what we do in class. • According to James Lehman in the article Consistent Parenting: Unlock the Secret,”many parents, through no fault of their own, don’t really have an understanding of how important consistency is” (Lehman, n.d). He continues to say that consistency is one of the main requirements for kids to learn how to predict things. When parents are not consistent, children can become aggressive and hostile or compliant and passive. In this case, the student became compliant at home and at school often trying anything to get out of doing a task that he perceived to be challenging.
Conclusion 3: Outside factors are often barriers to what needs to be done and what is actually done by parents.
• Throughout the four month inquiry project, I only received one activity log from the parent. At times I did not believe that they were actually working on them at home. I was reassured when I would speak to her on the phone or she would write a note like, “Dear [teacher’s name], I know I was supposed to return the game, but I think it’s helped a lot better than some of the other ones. Do you mind if I hang onto it till Monday?” • I would sometimes call and write notes and not receive a response for days only to see a note in his agenda book several days later saying, something like, [teacher’s name],I am so sorry I have not returned you call, but I don’t have a phone because I’ve been saving my money to move out of this trailer park. You can call me on my sisters phone after 1pm today.”
Reflection and Future Practice
• In the future, I would like to do this with the families of the 5 most striving readers in my class. By doing so, I would have more data to work with and would be able to compare things such as the parents consistency on students achievement. On one hand, I wished that I would have done it like that to begin with, but then I think about what led me to this wondering was a genuine cry for help from one parent.
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• I would have liked to have gone to the home once a week to interact with the parent and child offering additional support and receiving immediate feedback on each activity. This may have helped to offer consistency for both parent and child. • I should have been more detailed about how frequent to do each activity and for how long. That was the only thing the parent suggested. • A new question that this raised for me is what is the effect of parents’ consistency and parenting style on student achievement? • At first I felt that somehow I had failed, but then I thought about those things that are within my control and those that are not. For instance, I was not able to control the fact that the student moved twice during the duration of this inquiry project. As teachers we often feel that we can change or fix everything. When things don’t work out the way we intend, we become bothered. If we take time to remember that there are some things that we cannot control and direct our time and energy on the things we can, we will not feel that we have failed after trying to change things are we are not able to control. • To follow up, I will send home suggestions of activities to do over the summer to continue to empower her to work with him.
References
Baker, L. (2003).The role of parents in motivating struggling readers. Reading and Writing Quarterly, 19. doi: 1010801/10573560390143049
Delisio, R, E. (2005). Education World: Planning for Parent Involvement. Retrieved December 12, 2008, from http://www.educationworld.com/a_admin/admin/Admin421.shtml
Kirk, K. (n.d.). Self-efficacy: helping students believe in themselves. Retrieved March 2, 2011, from http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/ affective/efficacy.html
Lehman, J. (n.d.). Consistent parenting: Unlock the secret. Empowering Parents, Retrieved March 2, 2011 from http://www.empoweringparents.com/ Consistent-Parenting-Unlock- The-Secret.php#
Parent Teacher Association of Connecticut. (2008). What is Parent Involvement? Retrieved March 23, 2008 from http://www.ctpta.org/parenting /parent_involvement.htm
U.S Department of Education. What Research Says On Parental Involvement in Children's Education: Epstein's Framework. Retrieved December 12, 2008 from, http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_What
Ward, L. (2001). How to praise your child. Parents, Retrieved January 8, 2001, from http://www.parents.com/toddlers-preschoolers/development/social/how-to-praise-your-kids/?page=2
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Building School Culture and Parent Involvement through a Book of the Month Club
Elementary School Principal
School Year 2010 – 2011
Purpose
Building strong relationships between school and home is critical for student success. I wanted to study the effects of a school to home monthly book that promotes our school’s core values. Each month a book is introduced to the school by the principal aligned to the month’s character theme. This book is personally delivered to each classroom with a special letter from the principal sharing his thoughts about the message. The classroom teacher conducts a read-a-loud and classroom discussion with the book. The book is then sent home with each student along with a response journal providing families with the opportunity to reflect. With almost 70% of students on free/reduced lunch we have invested many resources to promote positive behavior and parent involvement feeling that these are critical ingredients for student success. I often wondered, can a book unite the school community and impact culture? In Carmen Farina’s book A School Leader’s Guide for Excellence, a book of the month structure promoting community and the school’s core values is centerpiece. I have also worked with several very successful elementary school principals that used a similar structure with success. Some key questions that I tracked consisted of the following: Do classroom teachers feel this program improves student motivation and behavior which in turn impacts student achievement? What did the students learn from these books? Do they feel more motivated at school? Do the books create a stronger link between school and home?
To measure these questions, I used “soft data” through surveys and reviewing journals.
Question/ Wondering
How will involving our school community in a character based take home book of the month affect student behavior and motivation at school?
Methods
Ten books were selected with input from our character education committee. These books were aligned to our monthly character theme. Each classroom was given a parent response journal and book bag for easy transport between school and home. At the beginning of each month, I personally delivered the book to each classroom along with a letter I wrote describing why I felt the book was so important. To inform our community, the book was highlighted in the school newsletter, website and through a community phone call. Teachers shared the book with the class and followed up with a class conversation discussing the meaning. Each student took the book and response journal home to read and reflect with their parents.
The data collected consisted of “soft data” through student, teacher and parent surveys. Journals were also reviewed to observe parent comments observing trends and key points.
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Findings/Data Analysis
The data clearly showed positive trends from students, teachers and parents. Almost all students enjoyed receiving the monthly book and believed the messages emphasizing respect, responsibility, honest, caring and self-motivation helped them. See Table A. Data from the teachers displayed a similar trend but not to the same extreme degree as with the students. No teachers gave negative feedback on the five questions asked. All teachers agreed that the book helped to improve student motivation and behavior to some extent. Most tended to agree, but not strongly agree on the positive impact. They did strongly agree that the book of the month structure fostered a stronger school to home connection and improved student’s value of good books. See Table B. I was very encouraged reviewing the journal entries from parents. It was apparent that many families spent a sizable amount of time reading the book and having a meaningful reflection. Most comments were directly tied back to our monthly character theme.
Table A
Student Question Yes No
Do you like the Book of the Month Program 100% 0%
Having a Book of the Month Program that teaches our Commitment to Character traits helps 95% 5% me to act more responsible?
Reading books that teach our character traits like self-motivation and responsibility helps me 95% 5% to do better with my school work by trying harder?
I enjoy taking home the Book of the Month and reading it with my parents? 100% 0%
Table B
Teacher Question Strongly Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Agree Disagree
Student behavior at school has improved after reading the 10% 80% 10% 0% 0% books.
This program has improved the overall culture at school 30% 70% 0% 0% 0% promoting respect, responsibility, honesty, caring and self- motivation.
Student motivation to be more engaged and responsible 10% 70% 15% 5% 0% with school work has increased.
The program improves the school-home connection. 50% 40% 10% 0% 0%
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Journal entries from parents showed that 99% wrote positive responses from the book with students in grades K-5.
Reflection and Future Practice
Data collected showed the value of this inquiry. It clearly fostered to closer school to home structure, had an impact on student behavior and motivation, and united the school each month around a special book. I feel the data collection process was somewhat weak, especially with parents as everything relied more on soft data sources. It was difficult to always obtain “hard data.” A major intent was to increase parental support to foster a tighter connection between school and home. It was apparent that the parents who traditionally are involved in school were the ones that tended to respond the most in the journals. This was expected. I am not satisfied with the data concerning the less involved parents which are the ones we really want to reach.
I plan to design a more detailed parent survey to go home next year to provide a clearer picture on parent perspectives with a special emphasis placed on how effective this structure is with our students coming from poverty. This is really the missing piece as the data did confirm the strong student and teacher support. Another change for next year pertains the selection of books. I asked our teachers to choose titles that they feel will have the most impact on student behavior and motivation. In summary, one of my goals as a school principal is to build connections with those less involved parents and motivate students coming from disadvantaged and at-risk backgrounds. My question will focus more on this specific audience.
References
Farina, Carmen, A School Leader’s Guide to Excellence: 2007
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How will Early Parent Connections Affect, Improve or Encourage Behavior and Performance?
Third Grade Teacher
School Year 2010 – 2011
Purpose The purpose of this inquiry is to improve parent-teacher communication by starting immediately - first day of school with positive communications to parents that will help to encourage positive student behavior and performance. Being in a 97%+ free and reduced lunch elementary school has been characteristically predicted to have low parental involvement. I wanted to encourage parental involvement in my classroom and with my team teaching partner’s classroom. As a new teacher in this school, I was weary of hearing patterns from other teachers that their students had parents that lacked desire and involvement for classroom behavior improvements because of outside life stressors or because of negative experiences for them with school when they were young.
New teachers may either contact parents regularly with negative telephone calls or be intimidated from contacting parents to discuss behavior problems or lack of classroom participation and work completion. I wanted to start with positive communications and discuss potential problems early so that parents understood my intent was for positive student participation and achievement. I wanted to encourage parents to inform me of any of their concerns. I wanted to partner with parents to encourage consistency and positive reinforcement incentives. I was glad to learn that it was important to my principal as well, to have teacher and parent contacts improve this year at our school.
I wanted to learn if early communication efforts, would make a difference for individual student and group classroom behavior, and make a difference in student performance. I wanted to improve my initial approach to communicating with parents by not waiting until September or later to begin initial contact and receive their communication in return. Trust is not automatic and not determined after one meeting or one conversation. I believe teachers make the mistake of not establishing a trusting relationship with family of students, and instead rush into discussions of student behavior improvement. We are strangers in many ways to students, and more so with parents; therefore, trust is an important factor in getting support from a parent.
Even though parent communications has been talked about in best practices literature and experienced teachers have positive and negative conversations about parental involvement, I wanted to experience the effect of more intensive personal efforts in my second year teaching full time. It was important to me because during my first year of teaching in this particular school, I dealt with incredibly well-behaved students, highly competitive students, and students with severe attention disorders, also students with personal problems that affected behavior and yet, had inconsistent parental involvement.
Question How will early parent connections affect, improve or encourage student behavior and performance?
Data Collection Methods: I started the year by keeping a log of every parent, family and caregiver contact for each student. By co-teaching, I had to keep data for 40 different student-family contacts. I sent home
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positive notes with students the first day of school and included my name, school telephone number and explained that I was available for communication every day. Data collection methods include a Communication Log of all Parent Communications, Follow- up Discussions with Parents/Caregivers, Teacher partner, School Behavior Specialist, School Social Worker, School Guidance Counselors, School Behavior Assistant, School Nurse, and other school specialists.
On the first day of school, I sent each student home with a positive note. During the first week, I sent each student home with a second note of something personal and positive that I noticed about each student. By the second week of school, my teaching partner and I sent home a note requesting parent teacher conference sign-ups and gave parents a letter with a month of options for them to choose three separate dates that would work for them before or after school. The note included a questionnaire, [outside of the one given on Open House night], and it included a poem about parents and teachers being partners. I sent thank you notes home with students every time a parent sent in supplies. I sent thank you notes for parent’s attending the school Open House, field trips or stopping into the classroom to say “Hello”.
I attached strip notes in agendas that stated: “Your child had a great day of learning today!” “You child was caught being nice today!” or “Your child made great choices today!” I met parents at our school Open House and relayed the importance of working with them as a team. I explained that we together would be successful helping their students achieve and improve, if we were available to each other for communication. I provided a packet for individual parent teacher conferences, which included a parent – teacher partnership poem, a checklist of specific calendar dates and times for conferences for parents to choose from during the months of August, September, October and November and a pre-conference form to retrieve parent opinions and student information.
Every time I saw a student doing something positive, I sent home notes to parents. I identified potential students who would need intervention services as early as the first month of school for both classes and spoke to school specialists, social workers, guidance counselors for their involvement in anger management groups, self-esteem groups, behavior reinforcement data, etc. I contacted parents for any issue that involved their student, as early as I could. I created different quick notes to send home for days when students were well-behaved in class and followed up with telephone calls to parents. I referred to our class as Superstars. I followed through with commitments made to students and parents and held parents accountable for their end of the teamwork partnership.
Whenever I made a telephone call to parents about a negative behavior or concern; I made a note to find a reason to call parents to inform them when something positive occurred to balance the contact. Whenever it was necessary to inform parents, even daily, (if that was requested by a parent or not), of behavior problems, my team-teacher and I did so. Whenever a student received an “A” or “B” on any exam, project or paper; I sent home a pre-typed note stating, “I earned an A today!” or “I earned a B today!”
Findings/Data Analysis After evaluating how developing early relationships with parents would influence the behavior and performance of students, particularly with motivating students to try their hardest academically.
In my experiences, parents want involvement with their student’s education, regardless of a lack of apparent concern or lack of initial response to telephone calls. Our school demographics changed this year to 97+% free and reduced lunches and with that come a lot of preconceived 36 Success Partners Inquiry Guidebook
expectations on lack of parental involvement. Many parents of my students work difficult hours, many are single parents and raising multiple children [some have more than five]; therefore, my fourth grade students have more home responsibilities at home and more emotions. Many may be alone for hours when they return home. Behavior problems in school can be related to issues beyond their control that are occurring at home. I learned that: • Becoming a partner rather than a nuisance to a parent is critical to the success of certain students. • Enlisting the support of school supportive personnel is also critical to the success of many students. • Being understanding and supportive is necessary to enlist parental support and assistance. Paying attention to a student’s positive behavior with friends can also lead to opening the door to communication with the student and parents. Many parents have way too much on their plates to take in anything else that has work-attached to it. I often started conversations with empathy and understanding about raising children, because I am a parent and raising my children alone. Making the effort to make positive communication with parents, even when conveying information that they do not want to hear, is vital for the success of relationship building.
Because I began the school year sending notes home the first week of school introducing myself, rewarding positive behavior in class and discussing expectations, I believe parents felt relief and appreciation. I did not know for sure until the school sent home the Title I Home Survey and many of our classroom parents wrote about how much they appreciated the teacher communications received from my teacher partner and myself. It was rewarding to learn that all of the extra efforts and time was not wasted.
Together with my team teacher, nearly 25 conferences were held by early October and another 10 by early November. By February, we had met all but two student’s parents or caregivers and spoken on the telephone to all parents multiple times. We met parents before, during the day
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and after school hours to accommodate their schedules. I sent the calendar list of dates and times in two separate notes for those parents who did not respond initially to encourage meetings.
Students have demonstrated improvements or negative changes in behavior when telephone calls are made. If repeated telephone calls demonstrate lack of improvements with students, further inquiries were made into the student history with former teachers, related to exceptionalities. What surprised me was learning that even with all of the efforts, misbehavior still occurred; however, parental involvement remained consistent for all but three students. Those three were parents that were not readily available, even with social worker and behavior specialist involvement. When students knew there would be follow-through with telephone calls or trips to the car circle by teachers to parents about behavior, lack of effort or an amount of inappropriateness, there was consistency. When students knew that positive improvements were recognized, most tried harder to remain consistently trying. Data regarding records shows that during certain months, students misbehaved more than others. November was a very difficult month; yet the other months started to balance out with negatives and positives. After the winter holiday break, students expectedly had some difficulties readjusting to returning to school and during the FCAT preparation months. Surprisingly, the last two months remained balanced with behaviors. I expected more difficult behaviors after the state FCAT was over; which did not occur. The most difficult behaviors occurred during the first few months of school and were territorial or related to power struggles.
Explosive anger issues stopped completely before November, which we believe was entirely related to regular parental contact and weekly social worker interventions. Initially, we had quite a few students with a lack of self-control and years of data in their school files that supported they had continuous issues with anger. All positive days were strongly emphasized and students overall grades also improved and became more of a focal point. Consistent behavior plans and consistent consequences for inappropriate behaviors both at school and home resulted in an improvement in behavior and performance for most students. I applied Love and Logic techniques, positive behavior plans for certain students and some CHAMPS programs so that there were new opportunities for students to shoot for.
Final Reflection I would highly recommend to other teachers to have a formal and relaxed program of intervention with parents. I would highly recommend positive communications to start and end the school year. It is so important to show empathy and understanding to students and parents. Not all parents and not all students will respond to communications too. Teachers need to be prepared for a lack of responses as well, and have a backup plan to communicate in writing when necessary.
References Perry, Theresa, Steele, Claude, and Hilliard III, Asa. 2003. Young, Gifted and Black, Promoting High Achievement Among African-American Student. Massachusetts. Beacon Press. CHAMPS: A Proactive and Positive Approach to Classroom Management, 2nd Edition Pacific Northwest Publishing; 2nd edition (2009) Allington, Richard and Cunningham, Patricia. Classrooms That Work. 2010. Pearson. Fay, Jim and Funk, David. 1995. Teaching with Love and Logic. Love & Logic Press, Inc.
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Success Partners 39 Inquiry Guidebook