625 - Week #2

So the influx of data into a drama classroom is limited.  The standardized quantitative tests don’t include us and the qualitative research tends to favor students and their experience with STEM and other core subject areas.  Drama is generally an elective albeit successful of drama (and or other VAPA) courses are required for entry into the Cal State and UC university systems.  On the other hand acquisition of drama sensibilities and capabilities is difficult if not impossible to truly assess in a standardized way as you would math, history or science etc. courses.  Eric Brooks in the video that was embedded in the LearningForward.Org assigned article emphasized how data can be useful institutionally when reflecting upon how effective the teaching methods currently in practice are in leading students to learn the a common curriculum.  With that in mind, data that could conceivably be useful could come from a school with multiple drama 1 and drama 2 sections where student assessment results could be examined among all the teachers of a like subject in a PLC (professional learning community) type of setting.  But in my world, I’m the only drama teacher at the only high school in our district.  While I could certainly reach out beyond my district to find other teachers of drama 1 and drama 2, their curriculum and teaching modalities would be different than mine so doing a large scale analysis of assessment data wouldn’t be too enlightening I think.  Other conversations within a drama PLC could, no would be useful, such as things that have been tried and have wither worked or not worked, material that was particularly good to work with, etc.  However, a data driven assessment conversation not be particularly valuable, as far as I can tell based on my experience.  I’d be happy to revisit that were the right impetus to come along, but for now that’s how I’m feeling about it.  That all said, I have always been into collecting my own data directly from students both through formative and summative assessments, but also through student self-reflection and self-assessment.  I also take in casual whether solicited or unsolicited and I’m big on asking students to grade themselves.  As part of grading themselves, they have to provide specific examples of learning to justify the grade they’ve assigned themselves.  More than once a student has shared and documented learning that I hadn’t even been aware they had!  It happens like that sometimes!  I also do end of the year surveys so students have an opportunity to share their feelings about specific class activities and the class as a whole.  Most importantly, I very seriously consider all those data and many, many times have I changed my practice based on feedback and data received.
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References:
 
Brooks,Eric, (no date), Data Standard, [Website] LearningForward.org: https://learningforward.org/standards/data#.UoQfAo0bDzc
 
No Name, (no date) Professional learning that increases educator effectiveness and results for all students uses a variety of sources and types of student, educator, and system data to plan, assess, and evaluate professional learning. [Website] LearningForward.org: https://learningforward.org/standards/data#.UoQfAo0bDzc