Making Data Visible: Methods for Using Data with Kids to Rapidly Accelerate Progress

[Notes from a session with Shana Frazin from TCRWP]

What are you doing right now to make data visible to kids?

Rule #1:

(Team meeting room in school-Data Wall)
Every child has a magnet with their name. Each grade is a different color. The graph moves from level A to Z.

Her noticing: We exploded into conversation with lots of noticings and questions after seeing this. When is the last time we reacted that way about data? What about this caused that reaction?

Rule #2:

What does that mean? Use it to plan instruction.

As teachers, we need to reclaim data so we can use it an make it powerful in our own classrooms.

A Data Collection Story: Ms. Puckett's 4th Grade
*Study done around the whole class conversation after a read aloud.

• The set-up
• On-demand: Do your smartest, strongest talk work. The group of teachers around the room are going to listen to your talk.
• The data
• Lens One: Participation
• Who talked? How often?
• Lens Two: Characters We're Studying
• Tally who are they talking about? How often?
• Lens Three: Elements of Story
• What kinds of things were they talking about? Character? Plot? Setting? Movement through time? Change? Symbolism?

• The reveal







• After 5 minutes of study, the data was revealed to students. Then students made plans.
• 
  
• The goals
• Based on the data, make some goals to work on
• Setting goals without data is why kids often struggle.
• Kid Goal samples:
• My goal is to talk in the conversation.
• Talk more about setting.
• To speak more.
• To add more about the people in the story.
• Try to talk more about other characters.
• I should only talk once so others can share.
• The outcome
• HUGE, HUGE growth in 1 day!

Transcribed the conversation to look at it through more lenses:

Reading Skills:

Lens: Retell vs. Idea

Retell	Ideas

Whole class next day, shared quotes from kids from yesterday.  (Ex: Say was injured.)

Class sorted: Is it a retell or an idea?

Lens: Vocabulary

Lens: Citing Text

Based on data, what are 2, 3, or 4 prompts 

• In the text, it says...
• What's another way to look at this? (alternate perspectives)

Develop Systems, Routines, and Structures

(Yearlong charts that are laminated, and changed by using post-its)

• Class Grid: multi-purpose
• Jot Lot with kids names on it
• Track data with tallies
• Characters We're Studying Chart
• Tally who we are talking about
• Words to Think, Talk and Write About... Chart 
• Vocab needed for think, talk, and write about fiction is NOT in fiction. (Ex: altruistic)
• Talk Trail
• Teacher has pad of giant post-its and jots down ideas that kids are having, and putting it up on the class talk trail so kids can see (makes it visible to kids)
• As we add on to ideas, add tallies to post-its so it can be visible
• Fresh, New Phrases
• What are the exact phrases that are going to lift the level of talk from where they are
• Ex: I agree with the idea that _____ because...

Opportunities for Transference

• Fiction --> Nonfiction
• How might this look differently? Subtopics instead of characters? Elements of NF instead of elements of fiction?
• Talking about... --> Writing about...
• This transformed her conference with kids
• Characters
• Elements
• Reading Skills
• Whole Group Conversation --> Partner Work --> Club Work
• Other ways to make data visible
• We're missing the boat if we're the only ones looking at the data

Think about ways you can make data visible to children

Chart she shows to the whole class throughout the year.

How Are We Doing? Studying Reading Levels and Benchmarks
	Below Benchmark	Benchmark	Above Benchmark
September P	25	3	0
November Q
January R/S
March R/S
June S/T

If you're not comfortable doing this with reading levels, what about stamina? Growth?

If we have have data, let's look at data. If all we have are opinions, let's go with mine.

-Jim Barksdale, former Netscape CEO