Inquiry Work: With Adults in the Midst of Hot Mess

So: I've been thinking a lot about failure. My failures. My schools failures. The district's failures. And it's got me kinda bummed out.

Perhaps that is a big 'duh' but I am so frustrated with the daily "time robbers" (to use Sarah Ward's lingo) that are structurally created. Instead of observing teachers and collaborating we're covering each other's classes, spending PD time to train for new common core assessments that were just dropped on us two weeks ago, completing too many jobs... and few of those are directly related to children!

Why this venting? you so accurately ask.

In my inquiry of teacher-teacher work these external factors create a current that has a stronger impact on adult learning than on student learning. My classroom is a bay: I can create boundaries whereby other distractions are minimized because I'm teaching.

Adult learning is deep open ocean - subject to the tempests within a school. And right now my school is a perfect storm.

Instead of leading the PD I'd developed to train 11 members of my team we were instituting emergency procedures... in April. Oy.

In speaking with Claire two weeks ago she asked me questions that caused me to reflect on some of the barriers in my adult-learning inquiry work. I said that if I could go back in time and do something different I might select a different project locus because of the tumult in the larger school environment.

While I wouldn't abandon my inquiry I would approach it differently - in a more formal, structured, codified way whereby I had an inquiry team. Perhaps my colleagues could have self-selected to engage with me in task initiation inquiry projects.

But I believe that to be the challenge of urban education: the ability to build, to be proactive, to remain creative in the face of a system that is engineered to prevent such success. This year - in much of my work, not just this inquiry - has felt like building sandcastles a little too close to the tide. Great things are happening... but they're washing away in the trauma, violence, and structural neglect. One of my focal teachers made amazing progress with a student - getting her to be independently successful in a gen ed class for the first time in years. A wonderful accomplishment! However, that student left the district at winter break.

In looking forward to doing this work in schools like mine I have some ideas... and I suppose that ain't nothin'.

First: This mindful reflective teacher-based inquiry should happen in all schools, even in tempestuous disasters like mine. This may seem counter intuitive to some folks. I, however, believe that best practices are nutrients for educators: we don't wait until someone is satiated to feed them, we can't wait for failing schools to be stable to implement excellence.

I am, though, a proponent of finding a language to discuss the spectrum of need within and across schools and a corollary for types and degrees of structural support around how to implement inquiry work (or any other PD focus).

In searching for an existing schema I came across some of the following resources:

I would start any teacher in such an environment with this framework from Tom Daccord... I certainly wish I had.

link: http://www.edudemic.com/failure-is-mandatory-creating-a-culture-of-innovation/

Failure Is Mandatory: 

Creating A Culture Of Innovation

Daccord first three key steps are as follows:

Strategy #1 – Remove the Fear of Failure

Strategy #2 – Create Skunkworks

Strategy #3 – Promote Success

I do believe that I was doing these thing, but in an inconsistent and informal way. I also think that these things are particularly helpful for adult learners and schools in crisis, but they are mandatory for inquiry work that spans both.

Teacher Social Stories?

Maybe I should make social stories to show how to use these strategies....?

(duh)


(doh)

March: Tweaking... not Twerking My Inquiry

After your small group conversation, this is where I'm at:

I think I should have run an inquiry cycle on how to get students to properly place punctuation. No, not really (although they do need that!). This is still the biggest time suck for me, and (clearly more importantly) the most negative moment of school-based relationship for students, and it keeps them from learning, and it devalues the learning of peers. So I believe with cosmic fire in my soul that this is important work – building teacher capacity. Claire and Jana were rock stars and built space for some new ideas to grow: namely that I should elicit my focal teachers in partnership by sharing my own messy work (video of me introducing some discussion role cards #medium fail) as well as encouraging them to pick some focal students to use the strategies on.

Also wondering…

• Could I frame this inquiry in terms that we’ve already established (FAT City, professionalism points, choice, and long fuse?)
• Teacher self-inventory of where students fit on the spectrum of student engagement?
• Teacher self-inventory of where they are on the indicators?
• Does TFA or ELP have any tools/models for this discourse?
• Should I take frequency data on student referrals/ when they come to me/ when teachers come to me?

Moving is Good for Learning

Not new.

Not rocket science.

Still not being used: Movement in academic classes.

"Studies suggest that regular physical activity supports healthy child development by improving memory, concentration and positive outlook. For example, researchers found that children who had an opportunity to run 15-45 minutes before class were less distracted and more attentive to schoolwork. These positive effects lasted two to four hours after their workouts." 

read more:
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/move-body-grow-brain-donna-wilson

Organic Intersection: Trauma and Task Initiation

Always included in my spiel regarding the motivation for my MTS project I allude to the affective and socio-emotional barriers to initiating school-based tasks.

Thinking forward - toward formalizing that framework I think it might be prudent to brush up on and incorporate in my teacher-training some evidence of how trauma impacts children at school. Consistently, my challenge is to find research and, more importantly, interventions that are appropriate and feasible at the high school level with few resources. Nevertheless, I shall expand my theoretical lens to explicitly incorporate what I'd implicitly relied upon. When thinking of the neurological demands of task initiation and maintenance trauma and stress engender responses that are in opposition to traditional school demands. In Helping Traumatized Children Learn, a free online publication (link below) the from the Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative (TLPI), a collaboration between the Massachusetts Advocates for Children and Harvard Law School:

The great risk for children who live in violent homes and who routinely 
operate in survival mode is that this way of functioning can permeate 
every aspect of their lives and can even take on a life of its own. 
According to brain researchers, when children encounter a perceived 
threat to their safety, their brains trigger a complex set of chemical and 
neurological events known as the “stress response.”47 The stress response 
activates a natural instinct to prepare to fight, freeze, or flee from the 
unsafe event. Under normal circumstances these responses to stress are 
constructive and help keep a child safe.

However, when a child operates in overwhelming states of stress or 
fear, survival responses that may be fully appropriate in danger-laden 
situations (e.g., shutting down, constantly surveying the room for 
danger, expecting to fight or run away at a moment’s notice) can 
become a regular mode of functioning. Even when the dangers are 
not present, children may react to the world as if they are.48 Unable 
to regulate heightened levels of arousal and emotional responses, they 
simply cannot turn off the survival strategies that their brains have been 
conditioned to employ (TLPI).

Neurobiologist Bruce Perry and his colleagues at the Child Trauma 
Academy explain that the most developed areas of a child’s brain are the 
ones used most frequently. When children live in a persistent state of 
Traumatized children may anticipate that the school environment will be 
threatening and constantly scrutinize it for any signs of danger. Their mission is to 
avoid this perceived danger and pain.18 Helping Traumatized Children Learn
fear, the areas of their brains controlling the fear response can become 
overdeveloped.50 These parts of the brain may direct behavior even in 
situations in which it would be more appropriate for other parts of the 
brain to be in charge. It is important to note that the areas of the brain 
active in fearful states are different from those active in calm states, and 
it is predominately the areas active in calm states that are required for 

academic learning.

To that end: here's a collection of articles that speak to my work and the challenges I'm experiencing.

Trauma Sensitive Schools (TLPI):

http://traumasensitiveschools.org/tlpi-publications/download-a-free-copy-of-helping-traumatized-children-learn/

Separating the Child from the Trauma:

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/13/separating-the-child-from-the-trauma/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

Trauma informed approach to behavioral disorders in SPED:

http://edsource.org/today/2014/new-trauma-informed-approach-to-behavioral-disorders-in-special-education/56753#.UwPG82JdWDo

Iowa Schools hire their own full time psych:

http://wcfcourier.com/news/local/education/schools-trying-to-fill-gaps-in-child-psychiatry/article_59917c3c-26b7-590a-92c9-1af57bad338a.html

January MTS

Mills Teacher Scholars                                                                                                                                   

Looking at Focal Student Progress

January 2014

The purpose of this electronic document is to give you one place to put all your work from the Saturday meeting – when you are done, please be sure to copy and paste into your blog! In this way you will have a record of your work, and the MTS group facilitators will be able to send you feedback on your work. Thank you!

The learning goal related to my area of Inquiry/Inquiry Question is:

My routine data source is:

Demonstrating Success: Reflect on what evidence you see in the routine data source that tells you how your student is or is not progressing on the indicators.

Out of Class

In Class Walks out

In Class Not Working

In Class Working Stalls and Gets Stuck

In Class Working Redirectable

In Class Working Independently Focused

Indicators	Teacher Initials __________________	Teacher Initials __________________
I: Directions include: Future sketching CHAMPS? Red Book indicators? Positive Behav-Value praise Reinforces BEFORE off track?	☐Met ☐Not met  ☐ Partially What evidence of student learning do you see in the student work?	☐Met ☐Not met  ☐ Partially Evidence of student learning:
II: initiates contact when a student is off track (add adjectives? Using reflection, __?, ??)	☐Met ☐Not met  ☐ Partially Evidence of student learning/thinking:	☐Met ☐Not met  ☐ Partially Evidence of student learning/thinking:
III: Uses Job Talk	☐Met ☐Not met  ☐ Partially Evidence of student learning/thinking:	☐Met ☐Not met  ☐ Partially Evidence of student learning/thinking:

Indicators	Student Initials __________________	Student Initials __________________
I: Starts task after directions given	☐Met ☐Not met  ☐ Partially What evidence of student learning do you see in the student work?	☐Met ☐Not met  ☐ Partially Evidence of student learning:
II: Asks for break before switching tasks OR Asks for help before getting off task	☐Met ☐Not met  ☐ Partially Evidence of student learning/thinking:	☐Met ☐Not met  ☐ Partially Evidence of student learning/thinking:
III: Starts working independently within 2 minutes OR Asks on-task follow up questions (clarifying/procedural) OR Asks for help (scribe, alternate task)	☐Met ☐Not met  ☐ Partially Evidence of student learning/thinking:	☐Met ☐Not met  ☐ Partially Evidence of student learning/thinking:

Notes:

Lowering affective filters

Lowering academic demands

SDC sheet

Meeting students where they’re at: what that means

Think aloud on behavior case examples

How will I change my teaching based on what I learned by looking at the data? SPED workshop 1/29 First Thursday Workshop 2/6 Standing Date to observe focal teachers Co-observation with focal teachers

During your small group discussion, if a colleague takes electronic notes, ask him or her to write them here:

Reflection:

Saliency of minimal demands in SDC class, slow pace, wait time

If the structural pieces are in place, there will be fewer conflicts

Track positive feedback/affirmation?

Using the spectrum as working documents with focal teachers to build a shared language to discuss this inquiry field

At the end of the discussion a colleague records your answer to this prompt: What are you thinking now?

Action Items:

Student continuum on/off task behavior

Teacher continuum for directions and intervention + indicators?

Sped. Department training around behavior

Departmental observations

Do observation triangles with focal teacher and debrief

Afternoon notes:

Preparation for the February meeting: Sharing your Work In Progress

1 What is your area of inquiry? What are you wondering about?

How much more effective and efficient would we be as teachers if students understood and complied with directions and persisted through difficult academic tasks? At the heart of this inquiry I’m talking about resilience. I actually dislike the term – I think it’s often used as a weapon to nullify the very concrete impacts of structural oppression. Resilience will not end poverty – ending poverty will end poverty. You dig? But, I’d like to re-cast resilience in a film other than an urban blockbuster action –comedy. Resilience belonging to target populations isn’t helpful. Resilience as a lifelong human skill – that needs teaching, refinement, and regular practice – is a universal thing that will make our world better.

I depend on partnering with teachers. I depend on partnering with students. Even when – especially when – I’m not in the room. The general education setting is almost always the context that adult life is lived in. The success of my teacher partners to persist in the face of student refusal is a critical skill for educators. The concept of getting started and persisting with work that is challenging is a critical skill for students – to both ensure their academic growth as well as to insulate them from disciplinary action. Giving children and teachers to work together is my job as a special education teacher.

And before any effective teaching can take place student affect must be amenable to learning.

Ay, there’s the rub.

In order to scaffold the first layer of instruction – getting started on work – I selected task initiation as a critical domain and specific strategies to go with it.

2 What is your routine data source? What student thinking are you able to see in your data?

My data source is consistent: just tally marks on the form above. I should possibly incorporate some sort of reflective feedback piece to incorporate the inner life/thought process of the focal teachers.

3 What are your indicators of success? What does success look like for students on this data source?

Success looks like students on task! And, if they aren’t it looks like teachers making strategic attempts to get students back to work.

4 What learning have you seen so far? What has surprised you?

I have seen teachers start to use the language of our work, our intervention terms with other teachers. Yippiee!

5 What changes (large or small) have you made and/or do you plan to make to your teaching as a result of what you have learned so far?

I would like to videotape myself in order to teach examples and non-examples with my focal teachers.

I also need to keep having workshops!

6 What are your next steps? What would you like help with from your listeners as you move forward?

How can I become more consistent with observation and feedback? Do I need to alter my data sheet?

After talking with your appointment colleagues, what are you thinking now about your inquiry, your next steps, or your February talk?

I really need to do a better job teaching my teachers the strategies. Perhaps using Zoe’s language of linking behaviors to values and a teacher (me) modeled think aloud. 

New Links!

I added some cool new links to the list that are all about executive function and supporting students with challenging behavior.

Look at the bar to the right: "Amazingly Cool Things" and/or watch the videos (top right).

Huzzah 2014!