What Does the Data Show?
Looking at the graphs from Teaching Strategies Gold below for the 2018-2019 school year, students made tremendous gains across all 6 domains: social-emotional, physical, language, cognitive, literacy and mathematics. After analyzing the data, I realized that my carefully planned lessons, developmentally appropriate activities, and classroom climate positively impacted the children. In the Fall 2018, 11 students (84.62%) were below expectations in the area of social-emotional, 3 students (23.08%) were below expectations in the area of physical, 7 students (53.85%) were below expectations the area of language, 8 students (61.54%) were below expectations in the area of cognitive, 6 students (46.15%) were below expectations in the area of literacy and 8 students (61.54%) were below expectations in the area of mathematics. Throughout the school year, I engaged in a variety of methods to improve students skills. These included many opportunities for play, modeling, scaffolding, inquiry-based learning, differentiation, and explicit instruction, as needed. I also offered students many choices on a daily basis to support their learning through discovery. By spring 2019, students exhibited tremendous growth with 9 children (64.29%) meeting social-emotional expectations, 12 children (85.71%) meeting physical expectations, 10 children (71.43%) meeting language expectations, 13 children (92.86%) meeting cognitive expectations, 10 children (71.43%) meeting literacy expectations and 8 children (57.14%) meeting mathematics expectations. As depicted in the Spring 2018/2019 graph below, several children exceeded expectations in these different areas.
During the 2020-2021 school year, I was a fully remote teacher. In order to stimulate children’s interests and encourage their active participation, I incorporated a variety of activities, including music, games, dancing, reading, sharing, and movement in our daily calls. I provided students with choices for each day’s asynchronous activity and modeled ways in which students may complete them, encouraging students’ assistance and incorporating their ideas. I differentiated lessons during small group instruction and in break-out rooms. I met frequently with families to provide at-home ideas to support their child’s growth. While data for Fall 2020 is unavailable (I did not assess every dimension due to getting to know children via remote learning) I have included graphs from Winter 2020/2021 and Spring 2021 showing my assessment of students in the following dimensions: language, cognitive, literacy, and mathematics. In Winter 2021, 7 children (46.67%) were below expectations in the area of language, 4 children (26.67%) were below expectations in the area of cognitive, 2 children (13.33%) were below expectations in the area of literacy, and 4 children (26.67%) were below expectations in the area of mathematics. By the spring 2021 checkpoint, only 1 child (7.14%) performed below expectations across the four dimensions while 12 children (85.71%) met expectations in the areas of literacy and language, 13 children (92.56%) and 9 children (64.29%) met expectations in the areas of cognitive and mathematics, respectively.
