1.3: Analysis of Learning Trends
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Each teacher then presents an analysis of learning trends s/he saw among the children. Before the meeting, teachers had been given forms to fill out that asked them to analyze these trends, identifying strengths and areas of need for their own students. The group collates these analyses on a chart as each teacher reports his/her analysis. The first teacher to speak in this segment is Ms. Quezada. We will be visiting her class later in the film (Segments 9 and 10) and hearing more from her about the relationship between what goes on in the grade level meeting and what she focuses on in her classroom.
Tina We saw that the positive trends that we saw were that as students (Ms. Quezada) increased their knowledge in letters and the sounds, then their writing became more apparent. At the beginning of the year, we only had, we had 0% at grade level, and now with the beginning writing assessments, um, the middle year assessments we have 39% at grade level. So once they know their sounds and their letters, they'll start writing more. Gerardo Mhm. Yeah. Mona You know I want to mention that, I think that this year since we've really focused on more writing, we focused on creating lessons for the conventions, for learning conventions. Where last year, we were really into reading much more, and you know writing as well, Diana more of the communication Mona but as not as serious as you know this year we are, doing writing. Ts Mhm. Mhm. Definitely. Mona I think that we make a bigger effort. I mean- Diana Well, we're seeing the results. Mona I've seen results in my kids at this point, this year compared to last year. They're much higher. Yael Um, we saw a huge jump for the positive trends. We saw a huge jump (Ms. Estline) in the alphabet, name sound and word scores. Overall, they improved. The rhyme, and also in rhyming- Gerardo Mhm. Yael --which went from 42% putting, meaning all the children were in, almost, half the children were in the 'some' category to only 15% being in the 'some' category. And 75% of our children are in 'most', in the 'most' category when it comes to rhyming-- Gerardo Mhm. Yael --which is really a big improvement. Um, we saw the improvement um, also in blending but I think we could probably work a little more on that. Ts Mhm. Definitely. (?) SFA. Yael Because you know it's an improvement, meaning we're moving in the right direction but we're not there yet. And same with the beginning sound. We improved a little bit. We can still do more. Diana And I think we ought to maybe you know make a list like from the beginning of the year to the end of the year and develop some strategies and where they would fit in, and-- Gerardo Especially after the beginning assessment because that tells you where the kids are at and what the weaknesses are. Sandy What we really need to look at now and focus in on is what the weaknesses are so we can pick. Should we pick one or two? Diana Well, we wanted to focus on spelling and word recognition- Sandy Because we're doing that schoolwide-- Diana So lets turn the page. And, um, but that's a huge category. Sandy The blending? T? Blending. Diana Well let's say sounding out because you've got to have an ending on it. You can't just have a beginning. Gerardo Mhm. Diana You know saying it fast, all of that is sounding out or ... Spelling is a decoding and encoding process, so it's just the reverse, you know. If they can hear the sounds, then they can spell it. Sandy Okay. Gerardo Isn't sp- Sandy So blending I guess slash spelling. Gerardo Mhm. Diana The important thing is that they can hear the sounds. Gerardo Yeah, the sou-. Diana And if they can hear the sounds and they know how to write them, then they can spell. Gerardo Mhm.