Reflecting on Tests of Change

As a school team, please work together to respond to the following question:

• Thinking about the work you’ve done from the beginning of the school year, what have you adapted, adopted, or abandoned as you’ve worked to use comprehension tasks with your students?

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You might consider linking to any relevant documents (such as task sheets) or including images to help illustrate your test of change.

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Please add your work to the slide with your school’s name. If (for some reason) your school is not there, please create a new slide. Your slide can look however you’d like.

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Adamson High School

Tests of Change - We have continued to work with online resources, such as Nearpod and PearDeck, to facilitate moving from task sheet to essay.

The most recent test of change was moving from task sheet to essay using the poem “At Dusk.” Our student samples include the entire lesson cycle from introduction of the poem to writing the essay. The progression of student engagement is evident in students’ responses to Quick Writes and a DOL of STAAR-formatted questions The multi-paragraph essay combines students’ previous responses, along with prewriting ideas, to answer a STAAR-formatted question related to the “Big Question” of the Unit 3 curriculum.

At Dusk Student Sample 1

At Dusk Student Sample 2

Atwell Middle School

Adopted

• Using more graphic and picture slides
• Helps to springboard the students writting process.
• Helps them to infer and think deeper.
• Genre Task sheets
• Helps to eliminate doing one for every skill.
• Slide task sheet
• Accommodates distance-learners
• Holds distance-learners accountable

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Adapted

• Students test in the Zoom meetings
• Able to ask questions.
• Text to audio reading passages
• More time efficient.

Abandoned

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David W. Carter

Adopted: Scaffolds for ELs, 504, SpeD

• Audio Recording of the passages
• Text to speech software
• Spanish translations
• Modified classwork and test

Abandoned:

• Students completing their assignments outside of class

Adapted

• Students complete (75% done in class) their assignments during the Zoom meetings
• Students test in the Zoom meetings, so that they can ask questions.
• Checking students progress during and after the lesson.

Test of Change Examples:

Modified Test:

Example 1

Example 2

Spanish translations provided by

www.deepl.com

Text to Speech Software:

Natural Reader

Quick write to Essay Template

Student Work 1 (EL)

Student Work 2 (EL)

Student Work 3

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Dr. Billy E. Dade Middle School

Tests of Change - We are navigating more efficiently with online resources, especially NEARPOD, KAMI, and Google DOCS. Tasks sheets have been transitioned into PowerPoint presentations.

Adopted ~ VIP Scholars, Unidentified VIP Scholars, ELLs, 504 scholars, … ETC.

• Teacher Read Aloud Passage
• KAMI reads passages to scholars
• Modify assignments and exams
• Extend Time for Students to complete assignments
• Parent/Teacher & Student Conferences on a Regular basis

Abandoned

• Allowing students to complete exams outside of class!

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Garcia

Tupac and Nipsey Hussle?

We used “The Rose that Grew from concrete” by Tupac and “Dedication” by Nipsey Hussle to work on comprehension task sheet.

Wins:

Students we able to understand the complexities Tupac’s poem and really apply it to themselves. They we able to see the recurring theme in Dedication by Nipsey Hussle. Students had much more to say about Dedication. We believe the length of the text may be a factor

Challenges: Students were quick to write summaries instead of answering the questions. They were able to use more text evidence with Dedication.

Kennedy Curry

J. F. Kimball

• Adopted
• Nearpod, Jamboard, Peardeck
• Hybrid learning environment
• Virtual task sheets
• Adapted
• Breakout rooms (small groups)
• intention to use task sheets weekly (if curriculum permits)
• Virtual annotation strategies
• Landing pages for easier student access
• Assessment methods
• Virtual intervention methods
• Abandoned
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Lincoln Tigers- ms.johnson & ms.Earvin

Adopted Adapted Abandoned

-Modifying classwork/task sheets to effectively teach and engage students virtually

-Virtual whiteboards, & virtual annotation

EX: use of Nearpod, Peardeck, interactive powerpoints, and notebooks/journals,google slide manipulatives

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Gx06qg9LaCBVLj_dNQoghhyxEjc3FrifinIXLqwQ07g/edit#slide=id.gb77c1016b1_0_128

-transitioning from physical small groups to break out rooms in zoom.

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-turning assignments into google forms, docs, and interactive powerpoints

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-audio for text selections

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EX:https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1zX7t1UwarpwZd0-0vltv1YoPp8DfgyU77iC6PFbMMnw/edit

• Heavy teacher led instruction (boring)
• Whole group discussion(break out rooms /read,think,talk,write instead)
• Hard copies(text,assignments,tests)

North Dallas High School

Adopted: 1-1 breakout rooms for online students for writing feedback/conferences, partner work as opposed to group work, Kami annotation

Adapted: Changing Task Sheets from Google Docs to Google Slides, PearDeck as engagement tool, sentence stems for group work on Zoom

Abandoned: Google doc Task Sheets, lecture-intensive lessons, asynchronous assignments

Marsh

Task Sheet Ex1

Task Sheet Ex2

Task Sheet Ex3

Student Work Samples

Reading Queries Handout

Spence

Spence Middle School

Adopted

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• ELAR using IFL Task Sheets for writing tasks regularly
• Gallery Walk for ELAR
• Incorporating reflections more often in weekly that include using outside sources for support
• More student samples for exemplars for students to emulate

Abandoned

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• 3 or 4 steps for ELAR - reduced to 2 steps
• Requiring ELAR to be complete revision/editing every time
• Giving students IFL sheet with all tasks at one time

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Adapted

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• Gallery Walk for Pre-AP
• Adapted a Pre-AP Project Based Learning with Design Thinking Civil Rights Project to include IFL format http://tiny.cc/dreampbl
• Came up with scaffolding for ELAR which at first glance looked like less requirements, but the work was richer - we achieved quality over quantity

Student Sample from December IFL: http://tiny.cc/iflamerica

Wilmer Hutchins

Modified task sheets to one note.

Reading texts aloud with students.

Having students do more of the cognitive work.

Using different platforms depending on the engagement of students.

Using texts more relevant and interesting to students.

Providing more opportunities for students to write.

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WT White