instructional consultation

instructional consultation - Transcript

INSTRUCTIONAL CONSULTATION Running Head INSTRUCTIONAL CONSULTATION

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INSTRUCTIONAL CONSULTATION PAPER 3

Geetika Agarwal University of Missouri Columbia Columbia Missouri 65211

INSTRUCTIONAL CONSULTATION Bergan and Schnaps 1983 described Instructional Consultation as behavioral

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consultation in situations designed to modify teacher behavior to enhance the learning of all students in a class Rosenfield 1987 extended the concept developing underlying assumptions and incorporating content and skills into a stage based problem solving process and stated that Instructional Consultation brings the school psychologists as consultants and the teachers as consultees together to focus on school based academic and behavioral concerns One of the unique aspects of instructional consultation is the focus on academic concerns within an ecological framework requiring a collaborative focus on the interactions between the student s entry level skills the design of instruction and the actual task that student is asked to perform rather than on a search for an internal deficit in the student Rosenfield 1995 A teacher s referral is not viewed as a request to determine a student s disorder or as a prelude to special education placement instead it is viewed as a normal function within a school community when either learning or behavior or both of a student or students are not progressing at an acceptable pace As is evident the assumptions of Instructional Consultation stand in direct contrast with the refer test diagnose mode our schools operate from The focus of the paper is to understand the instructional strategies practiced by the two consultees Ms Kilmetz Ms K and Ms Finley Ms F with special emphasis on the Language Arts and Reading curriculum A specific strand was selected in each of the areas to understand the phenomenology of their classrooms Both the teachers were asked questions about the objectives standards in their area and the lessons plans associated with the strands

INSTRUCTIONAL CONSULTATION Additionally they were also asked about the assessment progress monitoring and the

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methods employed to chart the progress made by the students To gain a better understanding of the curriculum for language arts and reading certain issues were discussed with the principal of Lange middle school During my conversation with the principle I was told that owing to the nature of the curriculum and the extent of overlap in the objectives and associated expectations Language arts and Reading is treated as one area and is assigned to one teacher Although both my consultees taught Language arts and Reading for the purposes of this paper we focused on one area Ms K who teaches grade 6 talked briefly about the Language arts and Ms F teaches grade 7 discussed the Reading curriculum Both the teachers presented similar reactions towards the curriculum and stated that it was very broad and difficult to translate into classroom instruction Ms F stated that it was easier for her to track state standards because of her training at the university She added that the standards followed by the district were vague and difficult to understand Ms K expressed a similar concern with the curriculum The vagueness of standards objectives did seem to be a consistent difficulty for the two Additionally Ms K stated that both by its nature and shear number of the standards it is difficult to progress monitor the students performance

In the Language Arts domain Composition was the selected strand The subcomponent was Independently selecting and applying writing strategies appropriate to task

INSTRUCTIONAL CONSULTATION e g generate topic pre write research draft The objectives under this sub component include either the introduction exposure with a high level of support or Focused instruction that is long and deep Two of the eight objectives introduced at this level are Compose based on audience purpose and context with emphasis on the ability to evaluate ideas in relation to audience and Differentiate between and apply revision and editing strategies

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Focused instruction that is long and deep is required for the following objectives Understand process writing Generate a topic for writing workshop in class writing time Apply prewriting techniques Revise utilizing feedback from a variety of readings including self Editing for sentence structure mechanics usage and spelling Provide constructive revision and editing feedback for peers

The curriculum doesn t require any independent assessment of the proficiency at Grade 6

In the Reading domain Ms F choose to focus on the current lessons being taught and indicated the various sub domains and specific rubrics it could be classified into Taken together six of the nine sub domains were discussed in the reading curriculum These are Independently select and apply appropriate comprehension strategies for reading a variety of texts

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Monitor comprehension identify confusion and apply repair strategies in order to self correct comprehension of print and non print text



Monitor and read fluently with appropriate phrasing and effective expression Expand and apply vocabulary skills in context Apply knowledge and understanding of literary elements and techniques in a variety of texts and modes

Like the Language arts curriculum some skills are introduced in Grade 7 while as other be furthered by a more focused instruction which is sustained and in depth Additionally a number of skills have to be assessed for individual proficiency competencies that have to be introduced at Grade 7 level are Synthesis draw from multiple texts to compare and contrast themes characters and ideas answer specific questions support and positions Expand and Apply vocabulary skills in context identify and comprehend dialect slang and foreign words identify and define content specific vocabulary explore how the English language changes as a result of historical and cultural events and connections and analyze and draw conclusions about the addition deletion of words and the changes in meanings of words over time Most of the skills in the six standards require focused instruction and some of them require proficiency assessment at Grade 7 The

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Instructional Consultation emphasizes writing good objectives Some of the guidelines of doing the same are Two or more teachers agree on how mastery is demonstrated Measurable include a quantitative component to make it measurable The task to be mastered should be specific in nature The objective should contain a condition an observable behavior and a criterion for acceptable performance Looking at the objectives it become evident that the teachers are required to objectify and write their own goals for each of the lessons An objective with a loosely written condition behavior or criterion of performance will give an inaccurate or incomplete picture of the student s performance and hence lead it incorrect conclusions about his her instructional mismatch Hence it is important that the teachers master the skill of writing good instructional goals Since the teachers had voiced their dissatisfaction with the curriculum and the objectives associated with it I asked them about the process of formulating the objectives Both the teachers stated that the state department of education defined the objectives with no involvement from the teachers The principal further added that the district has individual coordinators for the five core areas who are responsible for facilitating the communication between the state department and individual school in their districts The coordinators are involved in the process of curriculum development and also ascertain that all the state standards are being meet by the schools in the district Although the intention of the

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coordinators is to communicate the expectations to the teachers clearly in reality there was an evident disconnect and gap between the real classroom translation of the standards If apply Instructional Consultation was to be applied in this middle school the teachers in addition to the principal will become an integral part of the Instructional Consultation team IC team With its emphasis on data collection and data driven decisionmaking it becomes absolutely necessary make the teachers a part of the decision making cohort This was also resonated by Sylvia Rosenfield in her video on Instructional

Consultation

The curriculum defined by the district for both Language Arts and Reading is extensive and has numerous competencies to be mastered or introduced at the grade levels 6 and 7 When asked about keeping track of these objectives Ms K stated that it is impossible to do so on paper and that she has learnt to mentally keep a track of the objectives She stated that there is no written grid or document where she makes a note of all the competencies covered thus far Ms F reported that it was easier for her to keep track of the state standards owing to her training as a teacher She found it difficult to chart the district standards The teachers also added that this was a difficulty experienced by the others in their department Evidently both the teachers shared their difficulty in keeping record of the standards objectives Tied in with the question of tracking the objectives were the associated guidelines for mastering these objectives and the specified time frame with each of the requirement Ms F

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stated that the district has specified specific time frames in terms of grade levels for each of the various objectives and has also specified the grade level at which it should be mastered and an assessment for individual proficiency be conducted She stated that majority of the objectives are introduced in the elementary classes and are taught with intensive instruction during the middle school When asked a similar question Ms K stated that the time frame for these standards run across many years She added that unlike Math Science and Social Studies curriculum Language Arts has longer time frames for mastering the objectives and gave a few examples from the curriculum

After talking to the teachers and the principal about the curriculum and the standards I got the impression that the teachers were essentially trying to make some method out of the madness The teachers had no control over the formulation of the various requirements set by the district It is at the school level that the teachers have the liberty to plan their lessons and choose the text that best fits with their style and meets the requirement at the same time The variability of these lesson plans was evident during my discussion with the two teachers While focusing on different aspects Ms F shared her lesson plans and the outlines for some of the major units She also shared the grading rubric used for each of these units She further added that her classes and lessons were fairly flexible and receptive to the progress made by the student in her class She stated that sometimes she has to cross over various units to meet a particular standard At other times she reported going back the previous lessons and classes to either review or reintroduce the concepts to the students Interestingly she added that the

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standardized assessment of the state i e MAP testing guides her lesson plans and revision schedule as she likes to revisit some of the key concepts for this testing When asked about the lesson plans or guidelines used for her classes Ms K stated that she doesn t have the lesson plans for any of her language Arts classes and that she makes them as the class progresses She stated that she uses different pattern each year and does not follow any standard protocol for the various units She however shared a scoring grid used for one of her assignment While discussing lesson plans and school s policy for the same it wasn t very clear if it was required of the teacher to plan her lessons ahead of time The principal mentioned that the head of the department and the other teachers meet once a year before the beginning of the session to discuss the teaching material and strategies and share their ideas He also stated that the teachers tend to collaborate a lot in their teaching Ms F stated something similar and talking about teaming up with another teacher for some of her lessons Ms K was also practicing collaborative teaching with another teacher in grade 6th This was an interesting and health practice as it gave an opportunity to maintain some parallel across sections on the course content while maintaining its individuality Team teaching also seemed supportive to the teachers who found it difficult to plan instruction

Data collection is an integral part of instructional consultation However even before an assessment can be made it is very important to have an objective and clearly stated expectation This will ensure that the fluidity experienced by the teachers with respect to the

INSTRUCTIONAL CONSULTATION 10 standards is removed and the progress be made measurable Many a times teachers are held responsible for poor instructional practices In such a situation it is important to look at the basic curriculum and place the teaching in the context of either a poorly written or a welldefined curriculum Such a perspective will give a better insight into the current level of instruction In addition to that any further recommendations and suggestion made to the teacher will take into account some of the practical limitations experienced by them It will help engender trust and confidence in the teacher towards the team and the consultation process Following along the problem solving process the second stage of problem identification and data collection will also call for an in dept understanding of the curriculum and the associated weakness

Talking from an experiential perspective I have come to develop much more respect and honor for the teachers in language arts and reading department The abstruse nature of the standards surely makes an everyday teaching a challenge and it is very easy to blame the teachers for the falling grades and less that optimal instruction It also became evident to me that by blaming the teachers we will only be passing the buck which is a defeatist attitude

As our conversation progressed I asked the teachers about monitoring the progress of the students Ms K stated that it is impossible to keep a track of all the students on all the various standards and objectives She denied maintaining any record of the same except for the grades that they get for their assignment I further asked her about the way in which their

INSTRUCTIONAL CONSULTATION 11 performance and proficiency was assessment to which she mentioned using state standardized testing like the SRI and District writing assessment However both of these tests only indicate the level at which the students are reading and writing and doesn t give a detailed information on their performance on the various objectives Ms K also stated that some of the standards are very difficult to assess Instructional Consultation states that a criterion can be of various types It can be either as a percentage ratio rate duration or latency Either of these methods can be used by Ms K to monitor the progress of the students in her class Ms F resonated similar feelings and stated that there are many standards and it is a lot of work to assess them She however added that her assessment of the student in constant and she does both formative and summative assessment meaning that the assessment looks at both the components and the over all objective She also talked about the two standardized tests administered in the district to assess the grade level performance of all the students in reading and writing

Progress monitoring gives important data about the students and is an essential component of Instructional Consultation Regular meetings are mandated to evaluate the implementation of a plan as it provides an essential insight into the effectiveness of the intervention In the absence of such a requirement a lot of time effort and resources can be exhausted with minimal to no results Drawing from this ideology it is very essential to incorporate regular assessment milestones More content driven areas like math science and

INSTRUCTIONAL CONSULTATION 12 social studies have regular assessment and checkpoints specified in the curriculum Likewise language arts and reading should also have assessments at a regular interval This would not only give the teacher an insight into the progress made by the student and the effectiveness of the instruction but would also help them identify any difficulties and concerns early one Additionally the teachers will be able to specify the area of difficulty A more thorough skill analysis can be undertaken if the assessments are conducted at a regular interval This is also know as the stair step method where all the skills that needs to be mastered before the target skill are stated clearly and it is possible to assess the student s performance on the required prerequisite skills

During the conversation with the principal and the teachers it was stated that the teachers had the liberty to choose the text and the activities to cover the specified area in their classroom Such a freedom is interpreted as both an opportunity and a constrain by the teachers They shared their frustration in the interpreting some of the objectives to make it into a lesson plan and stated that a specific text or a guideline will increase their efficiency many folds Out of curiosity I inquired about the level of interaction and exchange between the teachers regarding the lesson plans They stated that department has been divided into various teams who interact with each other and often teach together The teams are made on the basis of individual preferences and style of teaching They further stated that working in teams does help them work through the difficult parts of curriculum Ms F stated that a

INSTRUCTIONAL CONSULTATION 13 teacher who is new in the building usually picks up these unwritten norms of finding their own text be able to work in a team etc Ms F who is a first year teacher stated that she has incorporated some new activities in her teaching She stated that she has introduced book clubs or reading workshop also called a literary circle this year A group of four to five students are grouped together and are asked to choose from a set of books Ms F stated that she spends a lot of time in selecting the text as the students in her class at are different reading levels She stated that often times she matched the students reading level with the book so that they can make the most of the instruction and the activities In addition to this she stated that she wants to match the children s maturity level and be able to give then books that are educational informative and fun at the same time This she stated is achieved after careful review of a number of books over the summer Ms F clearly understood the importance of matching the text with the student and still challenge them appropriately It is evident that she is receptive towards a child s emotional development and helps build their life skills She intends to educate them on some of the issues that children in her class at their age are faced with e g teenage pregnancy drugs etc Ms F outlined the various standards that could be meet through this activity and stated that although this is the first she has introduced this in her classroom and the response of the students has been very positive which has encouraged her to continue this further When asked about the method used in monitoring the progress of the student in the various groups she shared a grid which has a list of all the competencies e g be able to draw inferences give example from the text etc which were to be meet though this activity She

INSTRUCTIONAL CONSULTATION 14 stated that during her weekly interaction with the groups she is able to identify if the student has exhibited any of the skills She makes a check for all the competencies and the child has exhibited and missed The method though simple was very informative as Ms F could describe exactly where the students where and their progress The only thing that was missing in her table was time documentation Since she had not added a date on which the child exhibited a skill it can be difficult for an outsider to understand the rate of progress exhibited by the student Ms K also gave an example of her lesson plan and although she didn t have a lesson plan she shared a scoring grid used for the assignment in one of her lessons She stated that the assessment is a onetime affair and there is no progress monitoring Also the students are given a cumulative grade which is difficult to subdivide into the individual categories It will help to guide Ms K to chart the student s progress in individual categories as it would give her a better insight into their performance and the effectiveness of her teaching

As regards the variety in the instructional methods both the teachers seem to be using multiple methods and various mediums in their instruction Both of them used books media presentations and discussion in the instruction as much as possible Their intention is to make the learning as fun and interesting as possible and they are always willing to make changes into the present method of teaching to the benefit of the students From an Instructional Consultation perspective it would be helpful to look at the lesson plans used by the teachers and help them define objective instructional goals Though

INSTRUCTIONAL CONSULTATION 15 Ms F seem to be using some method of assessing the progress of her student adding a time line to those goals will complete her data collection which will convey more detailed information Ms K however needs to be introduced to a method that will help her manage the progress of the student in her class As if now she keep a mental checklist of the same to have them down in paper will not only relive her of excessive pressure but will also bring forth some of the strengths and weaknesses in her everyday instructions Although the curriculum is vague it can t be excuse for a mismatched instruction in the classroom The learner student can not be a causality of the mismatched instruction One of the tasks of the IC team would be to help the teacher formulate their lessons based on the standards and as the need arises match it to the students needs Ms F seems to be practicing something similar in her reading classes by matching the book with the child s reading level Although it s a challenge task and very time consuming in ensured satisfaction for both the child and the teachers APA and NASP require that the school psychologists be trained in Instructional Consultation and it would be helpful for the school to involve their school psychologist and work towards providing a matched instruction

INSTRUCTIONAL CONSULTATION 16 References Bergan J R Schnaps A 1983 A model for instructional consultation In J Alpert J Meyers Eds Training in Consultation pp 104 119 Springfield IL Thomas Rosenfield S 1987 Instructional Consultation Hillsdale NJ Erlbaum Rosenfield S 1995 The practice of instructional consultation Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation 6 317 327