Data Driven Instruction: How?

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Just in case you're not sold on the idea yet...

Data driven instruction not only benefits your students and classroom as a whole ( as explained in last week's What & Why post) but it makes the best use of your instructional time, too. For example, if a pre-assessment determined that 85% of your students already know how to convert inches to feet, then spending an entire class period on inches to feet is essentially waste. Instead, a quick refresher before breaking into small groups with extension or intervention is a more productive option. Skipping the specific lesson all together might also make sense. You could move on, giving the 15% scaffolded support with an inches to feet chart to fill in their learning gap, and plan to circle back to those students in a small group to hit this skill at another time. Alternatively, a test or quiz might show that a majority of your students still did not master a concept after a several lessons or an entire unit. You would determine at that point if the material is covered again in the curriculum or if you need to plan more time on the concept while offering those who did master the material an extension or other opportunity to keep them engaged. Finally, Summit makes pulling Checkpoints and PFAs data SO EASY. Grouping students by project progress allows you to provide targeted support where students need it the most. These are just a few simple examples, but the main idea is- you can take your students so much farther when you put the data to work!

My hope is that now you want to implement this practice, you believe that you can reach all of your students, and you're ready to give data driven instruction a try. If so, start here:

1️⃣ COLLECT YOUR DATA

⭐️ Standardized Assessments: RISE, KEEP, Acadience

⭐️Summative Tests & Projects

⭐️Informal or Formal Observations

⭐️Formative Assessments AKA practice

⭐️Anything that gives you information about your student is DATA!


2️⃣ BREAK IT DOWN

🎯 Most recent Standardized Assessment results (for core subject teachers) is a great place to start. Kindergarten has KEEP results, K-6 has Acadience Reading, K-3 has Acadience Math, and 3-9th grades have RISE results. These assessments are great places to see your students starting points and you can begin to sort your class into initial groupings. These groups are not hard set and should change throughout the year, but knowing who is generally below/on/above grade level in these measures will give you a sense of what each student needs (or probably will need) right from the beginning. 

  • Use this data to look for big picture trends like learning gaps. 
  • Use this data to plan lessons to fill in learning gaps or offer extension based on mastery. 
  • Use this data to form leveled learning groups.  


🎯 Summative assessments like PFAs, test, quizzes, and Final Products tell you about student mastery of a unit objective. You taught it for weeks, but did how well did they get it? What are they missing? This data is your answer. 

  • Use this data to form small groups to reteach or extend a specific skill. 
  • Use this data to determine specific content to include in spiral reviews. 
  • Use this data to give students individual feedback about overall progress and specific mistakes. 

 

🎯 Informal observations are another solid data point. As you get to know your class(es), which students seem to struggle with tasks? Are the struggles content specific? Can the student focus and work independently? Do your academic observations match what the standardized data reveals or do these 2 data points together now paint a different picture for any students? Student needs start becoming more clear. 

  • Use this data to pair with what you know about academic achievement to form a whole student picture
  • Use this data as talking points when communicating with parents.  
  • Use this data when considering a Child Find referral. 
  • Use this data to determine specific scaffolding or differentiation materials.
  • Use this data to consider a student's best "entry point" to content based on what their learning style might be. 


🎯 Formative assessments give day to day data about the effectiveness of your instruction and if I was going to choose one area to put my time into analyzing, it would be formative assessments on the regular. These are simple measures such as an "exit ticket", a practice page, center work, or something more in depth like a Summit Checkpoint that allow teachers to collect information about student learning that can guide future instruction. This data is your day to day way to see if your students "got it"...or not.  Need formative assessment ideas? Click for 56! 

  • Use this data on a day to day basis to evaluate the effectiveness of your instruction. 
  • Use this data to determine how well daily learning objectives were met.  
  • Use this data to provide specific and timely feedback about a student's progress with content.  
  • Use this data to help student set individual goals. 
  • Consider how students can take ownership of their learning by tracking their own progress with this kind of data. 


3️⃣ PUT IT TO WORK

Once you have a clear(er) picture of your students' academic levels and overall needs, then you can plan your instruction accordingly. All students will have the same learning objective for a lesson but the pieces within the lesson can be different. Consider small learning groups, differentiated material, scaffolded support, and/or extension. All of these things can exist within the parameters of any learning objective with the intention to keep all student within their "Zone of Proximal Development". It all depends on how you want to set things up but once you do, watch achievement improve and (in theory) behaviors decline.  


Coming Soon: Part 3 | "Data Driven Instruction: _______" 

(I'm still deciding which direction to go with this blog series!)

Catch up: Part 1 | "Data Driven Instruction: What & Why"