Order Description
Post the interrelationships you will be looking for among the data you collect for your evaluation plan and share any change you will make to your data plan based on your learning this week. Include your thoughts about the science team’s methods in the “ Using Data to Enhance Teaching Practice and Student Learning” video program. Then, share an example of a “well-supported finding” that you would hope to be able to make based on the data you collect for your evaluation plan.

Analyzing and Interpreting Data
Think about the data sources and collection methods you plan to use to answer your evaluation questions. Based on this week’s Learning Resources—including the data sources and collection methods used by the high school science team you observed in the “Collecting, Analyzing, and Interpreting Data: Example” video program—consider the interrelationships you see between and among the different types of data you will collect. What might one piece of data tell you about another data source or type? What “data intersections” (Champion, 2005) will you be looking for in the data you collect about your program?
Which of the four categories of data mentioned by Victoria Bernhardt in the “Pause to Look at the Intersections in the Data” article do you plan to collect for your evaluation? Did any other sources of data occur to you as you considered the information related to triangulating data this week? For example, if your evaluation plan includes collecting process data about teachers’ implementation of a particular practice, are you also collecting perceptual data about how teachers think about and perceive their practice and classroom learning environment? What changes or additions might you make to your data plan?
Finally, based on your professional development program’s goals, create a best-case scenario, in which the data you collect for your professional development program provides a “ well-supported finding with triangulated evidence,” as discussed in this week’s course text reading (Chapter 9, “Interpreting Data”). Use the examples provided in Figure 9A, “Simple Finding with Limited Support,” and Figure 9B, “Well-Supported Finding with Triangulated Evidence,” to guide you in creating a visual to represent how various data types and sources might support this finding.
EDUC 7743: Evaluating Professional Development
“Using Data to Enhance Teacher Practice and Student Learning”
Program Transcript

MALE NARRATOR: In this program, you will see a real-life example of how one school uses various types of data and supports to design, implement, and evaluate teacher and student learning at their school. First, a principal provides a big-picture view of their intentional and continuous use of data to improve student achievement at their school.

JILL STAFFORD: The professional development that we plan here at Allen High School is something that is deliberate in the way that we schedule it, the way that we decide what we need. Usually, we have a focus for the year so that everything is planned around that focus so that every individual time that they will be in training is used for that purpose. And it is very deliberate so that we use the data that we collect through various means. The data that we use to determine the impact on students and their achievement varies. We often use the data from the state assessment, but we also know that that’s a snapshot in time, although the state, you know, requires us to look at that for various ways and also to analyze it in a deeper way based on objectives, based on student test-taking strategies, those type of things, but other data that we use comes from our Allen Learning Walks, where we see how the students are reacting or how many are active, what’s the percentage of active students. Also, we talk to students a lot. We have a lot of focus groups where we really get their input, talk about engagement, talk about what they like, what they don’t like, what are some things that would help in their learning or enhance their learning and allow them to feel a part of it. And that even comes from as high as our superintendent, who meets with a group of seniors every month and has time when he really looks at the initiatives that we are using in the district and how they view those and how it would help them as far as what we could use in our classrooms.

NARRATOR: As the principal explains, the school uses a variety of data sources to make decisions about educator and student learning. In this next segment, you will see the chemistry team analyze common assessment data and apply their professional learning about questioning techniques to foster higher-level thinking and learning.

MAN: What I want to focus on today is some of the things that kids are really struggling with, and one of the big pieces is– or seems to be electron configuration, and I’ve got some data here to give you guys for the last couple of years, similar test questions or test questions over the same information, but what I want to focus on in our meeting today is really designing questions in a different way, okay? And we’ve all had the opportunity to sit with Shannon and use the Bloom’s Taxonomy and rethink the way we’re asking the questions. So we want to make sure that we’re asking those questions before they actually get into the test. So here is the data. If you guys will just take one and pass that around, and what you’ll see there is kind of a spreadsheet showing the percentages of these seven questions. And we’re looking specifically at the last two years’ tests, the semester exams. And really, I just want you to look at the data, and I want you guys to tell

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me what you think the data is saying. So just take a couple minutes and look through that. Focus specifically on questions 32 through 39.

NARRATOR: As the teachers review data from a previous common assessment, they consider how different types of questions seem to affect student performance.

MAN: What numbers are really jumping out to you as far as their percentages?

WOMAN: 34, 36, and 38. It shows that they don’t know how to read the periodic table in terms of energy levels. And they don’t understand specifically S and P.

MAN: Okay, so the sublevels, they need to be able to pick those out on the periodic table.

WOMAN: I think they can pick ’em out, but I don’t think they make the connection with how many electrons are in each versus orbitals.

MAN: Okay, let’s look at 34 first. 34 asks the atomic sublevel with the next highest energy level after 4P is– If we look at the curriculum document, what do they have to know about electron configuration? Are we really asking them what they need to know?

WOMAN: Well, what does the standard say?

MAN: 6E says: “Express the arrangement of electrons “in atoms through electron configurations and Lewis valence electron dot structures.” They have to include orbital diagrams as an aide to understanding electron configurations and express the arrangement of electrons in atoms through electron configurations through calcium. First of all, do they really need to know the question that we’re asking them right now at the level that we’re asking it?

WOMAN: What’s the level of the standard that we’re looking at?

WOMAN: 6E would be “synthesize.”

NARRATOR: The teachers think together about how to rewrite higher-level questions that will lead their students to the higher levels of thinking required by more rigorous standards.

MAN: I like the idea of putting– changing the question on the semester exam, ’cause then we can actually have that and go back and look and say, “Okay, we’ve changed the way we ask this question. Did it help ’em?” ‘Cause I really think– you look at the percentage of the students that missed that question, it was 47%, almost 48% that chose the right answer, so if we can pick up the other 32%, 33% that pick that distracter, now you’re talking about 80% of the students that are getting that question correct. Which is good.

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WOMAN: And there’s probably more than one question on the final for electron configuration, so we could try it a couple different ways to see which one performs better.

WOMAN: Well, the only good thing is that they know that 4P fills before 4D, but, you know, like you said, they’re just going in that order, that energy order.

MAN: Yeah, I think if you asked them, “List the sublevels in order on the fourth energy level,” I think they’d be able to do it. I think they’d list S, P, D, and F. I think they would put ’em in those order, but when they have to actually take a step back and put it all together, put all the pieces together. That’s what they’re struggling with.

WOMAN: Yeah, restructuring them already made that for sure.

NARRATOR: The team leader, instructional coach, and other teachers continue to work together to find ways to increase the rigor of their questions. The coach then explains how she will support the team by observing and collecting data on teachers’ use of questioning with students in the classroom.

WOMAN: All right, so in looking at your tests, and Jeremy was talking about this earlier, and I’m just kind of going off what he was saying, using your tests, now how did you get your lessons to be aligned to that same rigor? Or how are you aligning your lessons to that same rigor?

MAN: I think we are expecting more of the students. I mean, we just have to make sure we’re asking those questions along the way, not just asking them the knowledge-based questions in class for bell-ringers and, you know, tickets to leave and quizzes and then, on the test, you know, smacking them with an upper-level question.

WOMAN: That’s kind of what I’m gonna be doing with Jacqueline this week. I’m gonna be working with her. We’re gonna plan a lesson together and look at the rigor of her questions as she goes through. Then I’m going to observe her and take data and collect the data, and then we’ll go back over it.

MAN: So with what Shannon just shared with us in mind, one of the things that I’d like for us to do, we’re gonna use the data from her observation of your class, and what I’d like for us to do is, for each unit, have her come in and observe one of our classes. We’re gonna, you know, kind of change it up, so have her go in and observe other classes so that we can really start to look at the data and use it for each new lesson. We’ll look forward to getting that information from your observation, and we’ll be able to use it.

WOMAN: All right.

WOMAN: And our test analysis.

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MAN: Right, exactly. That’s a good point. When we analyze this test, we’ll be able to look back and see, “Okay, they did really low here or did really well here.” And we can change the way we do it.

NARRATOR: As the coach explains, she will meet with one of the chemistry teachers to review her lesson and plan to observe and collect data on the teacher’s level of questioning. She begins by finding out about the learning objectives for the lesson.

WOMAN: Jeremy said he wanted me to come in or that you wanted me to come in, and we were gonna go through and plan this lesson together, and then I’m gonna come and collect data on the level of questioning that you do throughout your lesson. We also talked a little bit about wait time. So we’ll kind of talk about that too. So what is the standard that we’re looking at when you’re planning this lesson?

WOMAN: Well, we’re gonna– I’m gonna be doing the electron configuration, so I believe that was– and we talked about it, like you said, this morning in our meeting, 6E.

WOMAN: Okay.

WOMAN: The arrangement of electrons and atoms, which is synthesis and comprehension, a little bit of both in there. So the lesson plan is based on electron configuration, basically kind of a hands-on activity to get them practicing on the actual configuration of different elements from the periodic table.

WOMAN: Okay.

WOMAN: So–

WOMAN: Okay, so when we’re looking at it– We’re looking at 6E. I’m gonna write that down so I don’t forget. What are the nouns? What do the students need to know? When you look at that, what do they need to know?

WOMAN: Electron configuration, valence electron dot structures, those are the main focus, I guess you could say, of the lesson plan, the intended focus of ’em.

WOMAN: All right, and what is the verb that we’re looking at when look at that standard?

WOMAN: I guess that would be “express.”

WOMAN: Okay, and we talked about this earlier. What did we say was the level of Bloom’s for that?

WOMAN: Um, I guess the synthesis.
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WOMAN: Yeah, the create.

WOMAN: Create. Okay.

WOMAN: Okay, so what would it look like when students can demonstrate that they understand the big ideas and have these essential skills?

WOMAN: Um, you know, I think if– and, like, we talked about some in our team meeting. If they can understand the levels, the different energy levels and the different sublevels and that they are arranged in a specific order. And that’s kind of why the activity that I’m going to do kind of helps them see that order, you know, using the pieces of candy so that they can practice the order and kind of, you know, see it more, because, you know, the electron, the atom, the whole concept of the atom is so abstract for ’em. Once they can tell me the– you know, basically the levels of the electron configuration and specific orders, I think that would kind of show that they understand what electron configuration is, that it’s kind of the address of an electron in an atom.

WOMAN: Okay, so, like, how has it been tested in the past? And I know, since we have new standards that we’ve implemented this year, what are we thinking that it’s gonna look like in the future on our tests?

WOMAN: Well, obviously higher-level. We know it’s all gonna be going to higher-level, so that would probably– I mean, that’s probably where I would need more of, you know, your help to change those, you know, questioning strategies that I’ve been used to into something that’s a little higher-level than what it is now.

WOMAN: Okay. Okay, so it’s been mostly tested at a lower level, and we’re looking at more of a synthesis and creation–

WOMAN: Right. Right. That will definitely be something I need to focus on changing.

WOMAN: How exactly are they gonna be doing the candy to make the structure?

WOMAN: Well, I have just kind of a little diagram of the energy levels and– you know, they have to– obviously, they have to know how many electrons can fit per orbital– you know, how many sublevels are in an energy level, and they just kind of put their candy on there and place it. Once their candy’s on there, they should be able to, just looking at this, be able to write the configuration.

WOMAN: Okay.

WOMAN: So it just kind of goes hand-in-hand to practice, I guess you could say, because that’s one of the biggest things–

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WOMAN: So they’ll be putting the candy on these grey squares, and then in the blanks, they write the energy levels.

WOMAN: Right.

WOMAN: And what types of strategies do you use to ensure that all of the students in the group are mastering the objective?

WOMAN: Well, before they leave, I have a few questions on here that they’re gonna have to answer, kind of like– like Jeremy was talking about earlier, the ticket to leave, and, you know, they have to hand that in, and hopefully, you know, if there’s enough time, we would review the questions together, but if not, that would still be their ticket to leave so that I could see, you know, after I look over ’em, who’s understanding, who’s not.

WOMAN: Right.

WOMAN: So that kind of questioning strategy.

WOMAN: Okay, so you’re gonna be kind of doing– as you’re going through the groups, it’s kind of like a little mini formative assessment on different students. Okay, so let’s talk about what types of questions you’ll be asking as you’re going around this room, because, as we’ve talked about, we know what the rigor of our objectives say– of our standards say, and we know what the rigor of our test looks like, so we’re trying to match the rigor of our lessons to the rigor of our tests and our standards, so what types of questions are you thinking about asking as you’re walking around the room?

WOMAN: So I guess if– and we said the– it is create, so I guess I would need to be asking more of the synthesizing, making them maybe– Let’s see. I’m gonna have them explaining more, I guess. Would that be–

WOMAN: So having them explain–

WOMAN: Right, explain to me why, you know, why this specific activity may be helping them see the valence electrons or the Lewis structure a little more. I guess explaining, discussing–

WOMAN: Explaining, discussing, okay. Well, let’s, like, write a couple of practice questions just that you would, you know, think about asking the students as you were walking around.

WOMAN: I guess one big one would be, “Discuss the importance of valence electrons,” because, I mean, they have to know the valence electrons, because those are the ones that actually react with the other elements.

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WOMAN: Okay.

WOMAN: And I guess saying it like that, “Discuss the valence”– would that–

WOMAN: Okay, so how would they discuss the valence electrons? If you asked a student, “Discuss the valence electrons”–

WOMAN: I mean, maybe if I just– Discuss the importance of the valence electrons. I mean, they should just, you know–

WOMAN: Are you gonna have them discuss it together, like, as a group?

WOMAN: Yeah, I could do that, ’cause, you know, I’ll be asking these questions, I guess, as I go table to table, so I would– that would be one I would ask, “Discuss the importance of the valence electrons in your group.” Maybe, “Why do we need to know how to create the Lewis structure themself?”

WOMAN: So, “Why do we need to create the Lewis structure?”

WOMAN: Yeah, “Why do we need to be able to create the Lewis structure from the number of valence electrons?”

WOMAN: So how are you going to, like, wrap up for the lesson?

WOMAN: I’m gonna go around and check off that their configurations are complete and that they’ve, you know, done their Lewis structures correctly and that sort of thing. And then once I see that, you know, they’ve done this and it’s correct, then I’ll allow them to eat their candy, which is the exciting part of the whole thing.

WOMAN: All right, well, while I’m in your room, ’cause I’m gonna be coming in and observing, I’ll be using– this will be electronically, ’cause you’ll be seeing me sit back in there with my computer, and what I do is, I write your questions down, all the questions that you ask during class, so I may have to get up and walk around a little bit if you’re talking to smaller groups, and I’ll write the question down. And then what I do is, I’ll have a little tally that I’ll put in each of the six Bloom’s levels, and then it will automatically calculate the percentage of each question. And then when I come back, we’ll be able to talk about the differences in the percentages and how they match up to our standard here.

WOMAN: And see what I ask too much or too little.

WOMAN: [laughs] Well, and another thing that I can do while we’re looking at that is, we’ve talked a little bit kind of about wait time, and I brought a little handout here talking about wait time and why it’s important, and if you go into the typical classroom, a lot of
teachers tend to only wait one second after they ask a question. So they’ll ask a question,

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and they answer it or have one student answer it, and there are some students who just don’t have the process– the time to process. So what we’ve found is that allowing five seconds of wait time–and research shows that that increases the class participation, and you get more detailed answers. And it’s raising student achievement, so because we haven’t really practiced this a whole lot, one thing I can add in on– while I’m watching you, because I’ll be doing your questions anyway, is, I can just calculate your average wait time.

WOMAN: That’d be good. I’d like to know that. Sometimes I’m sure I don’t wait long enough for, you know, a lot of the questions that I, you know, may ask in class.

WOMAN: You know, we’ll look and see how your wait time is, ’cause since you’ve never had data– since you’ve never had data collected on that, that’ll be an interesting piece when we come back together.

WOMAN: Cool. Okay.

WOMAN: All right, well, I look forward to seeing you in your classroom, and then we’ll meet back together again.

WOMAN: All right.

WOMAN: All right.

NARRATOR: In the next segment, you’ll see portions of the chemistry lesson, listen to the types of questions the teacher uses, and observe as the coach records the data.

WOMAN: So go ahead and take out your candy, okay? Do not eat it, please. Okay? For the element listed on your bag, you need to go ahead and complete the electron configuration for it. All right, how we doing, guys? Okay. Oh, look at him go. Okay. All right, so you started with what level?

MAN: 1S.

WOMAN: 1S. Then it goes up to–

MAN: 2S.

WOMAN: 2S.

MAN: I have one.

WOMAN: One, right, because what was your element?
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MAN: Li.

WOMAN: Okay, Li, which has, what?

MAN: Three electrons.

WOMAN: Three electrons. Okay. What else can we determine from the electron configuration?

WOMAN: The valence electrons.

WOMAN: Valence electrons. Good job. Okay, now start writing in your configuration for me? If I have–go up to my second energy level, I’m gonna have an S and a P. If I go up to a third, I’m gonna have S, P, and D, okay?

WOMAN: All right.

WOMAN: So y’all talk about that. Remind each other.

WOMAN: Ms. Applegate, that is totally wrong, isn’t it?

WOMAN: Remember, whenever you do a Lewis diagram, what do the dots represent?

WOMAN: The electrons.

WOMAN: Which ones?

WOMAN: Valence?

WOMAN: Valence. Okay, so how many valence electron dots will you have?

WOMAN: This is right, right? It’s two.

WOMAN: Yes.

WOMAN: Okay.

WOMAN: Okay, guys, I’m handing out a ticket to exit. This is just one little question I need you to answer before you leave, and then we have some discussion questions on the board, okay?

NARRATOR: A few days after the classroom observation, the coach and the teacher meet to analyze and interpret the data collected during the observation.

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WOMAN: So here–just take a second. You’ll see that all of the questions, I tried to type them in, and you’ll have to excuse my spelling, but I was trying to hurry. Right here are all the questions, and then I have the six levels of Bloom’s right here at the top, and then I only took your wait time for your whole-group instruction, so I have that here as well as here. And then right on this side here is where the totals are, so just take a second to look at that.

WOMAN: What did we say in our previous meeting that most of the questions should have been around?

WOMAN: Okay, let’s take a look at our standards here. We were on unit five, I think.

WOMAN: Okay.

WOMAN: And so I think we said most of them were on the create level or the synthesis level.

WOMAN: Okay.

WOMAN: But there were also some questions that we could ask on the understand level.

WOMAN: Okay. Understand. Okay. Okay. Got a couple higher up there.

WOMAN: Mm-hmm.

WOMAN: Okay. So I’m noticing a majority of understand, which, I guess, is kind of what we’re–

WOMAN: Okay. Majority of understand.

WOMAN: Right.

WOMAN: Okay, so what does your data say?

WOMAN: Let’s see. 11– Is that what you’re–

WOMAN: Well, here’s your– these are your percentages here.

WOMAN: Okay, so 27% were just the remember. 39%, the understand, so that was the highest. 12% at the apply level, application. 15% at analyze. 7% at evaluate, and 0% at create.

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WOMAN: Okay, so if we look at what our standard here says, “Express the arrangement of electrons in atoms “through electron configurations and Lewis valence electron dot structures.” Okay, so we said that most of that was gonna be on the create. Is that what we said? Create, comprehend. So it’s kind of all over the place, but it is gonna have quite a bit of higher-level, because we’re talking about expressing the arrangement.

WOMAN: Okay.

WOMAN: All right? So what facts do you see when you’re looking at your questioning?

WOMAN: Well, I mean, I see a lot of how, whys, whats, which probably wouldn’t get up to the highest level I need, but I guess I was kind of basing on the, “Express the electron configuration,” by just looking at their, you know, their diagrams that they made with their candy but wasn’t really asking them the questions on that level like I should have been.

WOMAN: Well, so let’s think about, though, your lesson, you actually had them create.

WOMAN: Right.

WOMAN: Right? So they were doing the highest level in the classroom. So your actual classroom setup was a good level for the rigor.

WOMAN: Okay.

WOMAN: As far as the questioning, we probably could have some that could go higher, but I think you did a pretty good job at starting them off, and I noticed when you were doing the questions in the larger group, you had– it seemed to be more of a understand, and maybe a little higher than that. When you started doing the smaller groups, you even got a little higher. So you did a really good job when you were working with the kids in prodding them on that higher level.

WOMAN: Okay. Okay.

WOMAN: And I also think–when I was looking at your wait time, you can tell your wait time in large group was about an average of a 1.5 second.

WOMAN: So first off, can somebody please tell me, why do we need to know about electron configuration? Heather? You don’t know? Anybody want to help Heather out? Caleb.

MAN: It’s on the periodic table.

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WOMAN: Okay, it’s on the periodic table, but what does electron configuration actually tell us?

WOMAN: The orbitals.

WOMAN: Okay, okay, we’re getting there. It tells us about the electrons, the orbitals, right? What else?

MAN: How to configure the electrons.

WOMAN: Sublevels, how to configure the electrons. Okay, so it basically gives us the address, okay? Okay, so definitely need to work on that one.

WOMAN: But as you worked with the smaller groups, you did a really good job of waiting on the students to answer–

WOMAN: For them.

WOMAN: Yes.

WOMAN: Okay. And I tried to catch myself doing that, you know. When I was in the smaller groups, I did realize that, “Okay, I’m asking them a question. I’m gonna, you know, try to count as long as I can.” And then maybe possibly let them help each other out or to do that.

WOMAN: So as you were walking through the classroom and you were talking to students, how do you think that asking the higher-level questions affected their achievement? For example, the question here, the 16th– “What else can you determine from this?” How do you think them answering that type of question helps with achievement both in what they’re getting and on the assessment for the future?

WOMAN: Well, I think, obviously, if you’re moving from a knowledge-based level to that higher level, it’s gonna make them stop and have to think, process about what they know, how they’re gonna use what they know, you know, to figure out the answer, so it’s kind of– they’re applying what they know. It’s not just a, you know, a regurgitation, basically, like we said, of information, but they have to actually think and apply it to that specific activity we did or– Because it’s discussion, it gives them the opportunity to bounce ideas off their, you know, neighbors and kind of see, “Oh, well, okay, that’s a good way to think of it,” or, you know, just to help ’em out.

WOMAN: Yeah. I like these questions that you asked where you asked them, “How do you figure that out?” So how do you think asking them to explain their thought process helps them in their achievement?

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WOMAN: Well, because– it’s one of those things. When you explain something to somebody else, you may, in a sense, learn it better, you know? If I’ve done something for the first time, I may be not the best at it, because it is the first time I’ve done it, but at least if I’m able to explain it to somebody else, then I can, you know, maybe practice it more and give more ideas to that person.

WOMAN: Right. Definitely.

WOMAN: And as for the wait time, which, obviously I need to work on, but it’s one of those things, you know. The couple times that I did wait, again, they ware able to bounce ideas off of each other and look at their neighbor and say, “Okay, help me out here,” you know? Just that kind of thing. So that wait time gave ’em a little bit more opportunity to think and–when I did give ’em the longer wait time, so–

WOMAN: So how do you think, in the future, I can help you go through this process and maybe even look at getting the questions higher or looking at getting the wait time a little higher?

WOMAN: I think probably just really trying to, I guess, remember the correct verbiage to use with them when I’m asking questions, to step my words up a little bit so that I go up to the, you know, the correct level that I need to be at, so probably some ways to maybe– Maybe forming some more sentences that I can ask, kind of like the ones I did, you know, on the board.

WOMAN: The ones you did on the board were fantastic, and I noticed you used one of those as your ticket out the door.

WOMAN: Right. Right.

WOMAN: So–and how have you been looking at that data from your ticket out the door?

WOMAN: Well, that helps me see, you know, whether or not they are getting this, and like you said, that one– That specific ticket out the door question was a higher-level.

WOMAN: Definitely.

WOMAN: So not only does it let me see that they understand the material, but at the level they need to be at.

WOMAN: Right.

WOMAN: So it kind of helps me see that they’re at that specific level they need to be at for that standard.

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WOMAN: Okay. All right. So let’s think of some strategies that you could use to help you when asking these questions. What do you think?

WOMAN: I don’t know. Help me out.

WOMAN: All right, let me just kind of start you off. Like, how would it work if you put up some of the questions, even just the stems, around the room? Like, I have a teacher that I’ve worked with before, and she puts up– like, she’ll put the Bloom’s level at the top and then list some stems underneath it so that when she’s asking the questions, she knows in her head what the standard says, and so she can look around the room and say, “Okay, that– “I know this standard is create, so I can use these stems to ask these questions.”

WOMAN: Just so that I can see it just right there without having to really– Okay. Yeah. I like that one. Kind of like the word wall for the students or something. A word wall for myself so that I can–okay, okay. I like that.

WOMAN: What about for the wait time?

WOMAN: Like I said, I mean, when you were in there observing, you– I mean, I’m sure you noticed this. Some of the students immediately will answer out.

WOMAN: Definitely.

WOMAN: So again, like we discussed in our meeting, you know, maybe if I am standing closer to that student when I ask the question so that they don’t just, you know, blurt out the answer immediately.

WOMAN: And that just takes practice. That’s just really– when I started doing this, I had a wait time of, like, a second, so it really has taken me a long time to get to where I can, in my head, go, “One, one thousand, two, one thousand, “three, one thousand, four, one thousand, five, one thousand. Okay, I’m gonna look now.” And it’s not just training yourself, but training your students too to know that they have to wait until you call on them.

WOMAN: We get our configuration? Looking good. Looking good. Okay, now, it looks like on here you’ve discussed your valence electrons. Okay, how did you figure that out?

WOMAN: It’s just the bigger number–

WOMAN: Okay, absolutely. The bigger number, which means the highest energy level, right, is where you find your valence electrons, okay? So on yours, what was it?

MAN: Two.

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WOMAN: Okay, because your highest energy level was what?

MAN: Four.

WOMAN: Four. Sounds good. Okay. Looks like we got it over here. All right. Okay, yeah, and that’s another thing, training them to know that, because as of right now, you know, sometimes I’ll call on a student. Sometimes I’ll be talking to the whole class, so I need to make it apparent which one I’m doing.

WOMAN: Right.

WOMAN: So I would need to work on that for sure.

WOMAN: And I think it went really, really well. I really enjoyed getting to come see your class.

WOMAN: Thank you.

WOMAN: And I know we talked about last time about maybe the next time I come, we can start working on, maybe, some vocabulary strategies?

WOMAN: Absolutely. Absolutely.

WOMAN: I’ll look into that, and then, when I come next time, we’ll look at that.

WOMAN: Okay, sounds good.

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© Laureate Education 2011

Analyzing and Interpreting Data
Think about the data sources and collection methods you plan to use to answer your evaluation questions. Based on this week’s Learning Resources—including the data sources and collection methods used by the high school science team you observed in the “Collecting, Analyzing, and Interpreting Data: Example” video program—consider the interrelationships you see between and among the different types of data you will collect. What might one piece of data tell you about another data source or type? What “data intersections” (Champion, 2005) will you be looking for in the data you collect about your program?
Which of the four categories of data mentioned by Victoria Bernhardt in the “Pause to Look at the Intersections in the Data” article do you plan to collect for your evaluation? Did any other sources of data occur to you as you considered the information related to triangulating data this week? For example, if your evaluation plan includes collecting process data about teachers’ implementation of a particular practice, are you also collecting perceptual data about how teachers think about and perceive their practice and classroom learning environment? What changes or additions might you make to your data plan?
Finally, based on your professional development program’s goals, create a best-case scenario, in which the data you collect for your professional development program provides a “ well-supported finding with triangulated evidence,” as discussed in this week’s course text reading (Chapter 9, “Interpreting Data”). Use the examples provided in Figure 9A, “Simple Finding with Limited Support,” and Figure 9B, “Well-Supported Finding with Triangulated Evidence,” to guide you in creating a visual to represent how various data types and sources might support this finding.
With this in mind,
By Wednesday:

Post the interrelationships you will be looking for among the data you collect for your evaluation plan and share any change you will make to your data plan based on your learning this week. Include your thoughts about the science team’s methods in the “ Using Data to Enhance Teaching Practice and Student Learning” video program. Then, share an example of a “well-supported finding” that you would hope to be able to make based on the data you collect for your evaluation plan.