Data+Driven+Decision+Making



In looking the **School Improvement Plan (SIP**) for my school, New School for Community Service, it is evident that our weaknesses fall into three categories – low achievement and varying ability levels; lack of parental support; and low attendance levels. Low achievement and varying ability levels lend themselves well to the online experience in either the synchronous or asynchronous settings. We can **differentiate** in either setting -

In the synchronous setting we can develop our prompts so that they can be reflected upon in various ways by different learners:

In my Jazz History Unit I differentiate the material this way:

For my **visual learner** I would present -

I. Swing, The Early 1930's



Use these vocabulary words and names to build a narrative of Jazz in the 1930's:

Swing Big band Duke Ellington Benny Goodman Charlie Christian Lionel Hampton Rhythm Section Improvistion

Here are some links to help you: []

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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">For my **kinesthestic learner** I would do this:

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">I. Swing, The Early 1930's

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">Go to the library and research these vocabulary words and find recordings of these people. Write a narrative of what you found.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">Swing <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">Big band <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">Duke Ellington <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">Benny Goodman <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">Charlie Christian <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">Lionel Hampton <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">Rhythm Section <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">Improvistion

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">Next, videotape yourself dancing to this video:

media type="youtube" key="62ZSQUyU00s" height="349" width="425"

In the asynchronous setting we simply can develop learning prompts custom tailored to suit the needs of the individual student, and remain under the umbrella of the DPI core standards.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: auto;">

Lack of **parental support** can be looked upon as a symptom of low achievement. Offering online courses is an excellent way of curing the problem and eliminating the symptom…it is completely possible that as students work on courses remotely in the online mode, that parents could be close by, observing, teaching, and/or learning with the student. By providing regular feedback, we as teachers team with parents to help develop success in students. At the very least, we as teachers can become a sort of “surrogate parent” because we provide feedback at times other than when the student is in the school setting…

According to Virgil Varvel in the March/April 2001 Pointer and Clicker article – Facilitating Every Student in an Online Course, online offerings require that the facilitator possess certain attributes. Among those are timeliness – the necessity of the facilitator to regularly check for student posts and respond appropriately in a previously specified amount of time. Motivation beyond the grade is also important. This can be accomplished by building in “discovery” type activities. For example, a student could be asked to find a website, ask a question of their own, or expand on a current or previous posting. The facilitator must also make their presence felt. This not only relates to timeliness, but can be used as a means to have students get to know their instructor by providing students with biographical information or other personal experiences which would give students a “mental image” of who the instructor is. In all cases the instructor should be a model for effective communication in the virtual environment, and provide encouragement, especially if students fall behind.



With regard to the **SIP**, **attendance** might be reported (or not) in a different manner because of the online experience. The question becomes, if a student is successful in the course should their attendance be reported at 100%? Or should attendance as a measure not reported in this case? I believe that as online courses for students become more common, and as students become proficient at them, attendance as a reporting measure on the **SIP** should improve.