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The one-legged conference or one-legged interview, is a change intervention
used informally to monitor a teacher's concerns and progress in putting an
innovation into practice.
You're about to see Linda, an instructional facilitator from the district office,
conduct one-legged interviews with four classroom teachers.
In the next two scenarios
Linda uses the interview technique to determine Robert and Sue's stages of
concern about a new inquiry-oriented science curriculum.
Hi Robert.
Oh, hi Linda. How are you? I'm fine, how are you?
Well, sort of busy right now. I need to get the lab set up before the bell rings,
but I'm doing alright.
Looks like you're working on the new science program.
Yes, I am. This is sort of taking up a lot of my time right now.
Every day there's a lot of preparations for all the activities for each of the
program, and
I'm sure glad I've got this planning period to get ready for the next class.
I wanted to ask you a few questions about science program. Sure.
Are you having any problems with it?
Well, I don't know as I would call them problems as such,
but it sure takes a lot of time to get ready for everybody,
because, you see, I've got students at all different levels.
Some of them are still on the first unit and just trying to finish up,
and I've got some other kids that are moving way ahead. Some of them on the
velocity of moving objects with different angles to it.
And it's just really hard keeping up with everything and where everybody is in the
program.
How do you feel about the process content element?
Well, that's just what I'm talking about in a way.
It just seems as if the process is important, and I understand that,
but some of the content is getting lost because there just isn't as much time
for it,
and I'm having trouble individualizing the instruction, because each of the
students is moving at a different pace.
I see. Would it be easier for you if you worked with the kids in small groups
instead of doing all individualized planning?
Can I do that?
Of course, you can do that. I think your goal in the end would be to get the kids
working in in individualized fashion, but to start off with, sure, you could use
small groups.
I didn't know I could do that.
I think that would help, because, you see, I've got 24 kids in each class, and
each one of them is a different point,
and if I could get them clustered together--say three or four in a group--
I think that would help a little bit. Yeah. What we'd like to do is get you used to the
program and then kind of refine it. You know, work on the fine details.
Well, if it's alright, I'd like to try that. I think it would help out.
Yeah, I'll come back in a couple of days, and we'll see how that's going.
Hi Sue. Hi, Linda! How are you doing? Oh, I'm fine.
I'm just doing some catch up work here.
I thought I'd come by and talk to you a little bit about the new science program.
Have you heard about it?
Yeah, the new science program. Right.
Have you tried it in your classroom?
I don't know anything about it,
and from what I hear from the other teachers, they're having a lot of trouble with it.
You didn't get a chance to go to the uh... workshop they had at the end
of the summer?
No. When I returned, everything was in full swing and I just really
fell out of the loop.
And so, I thought, what I'm doing in science seems to be working, so.
Um hum. You know, I like it and the students seem to be learning what they need,
and that's fine.
Well, what do you know about the program or how do you feel about it? um... Do you
think it's a good program?
I really don't know that much about it. I know it's here,
and the district wants to keep it.
But I haven't had a chance to talk to the other teachers about that or anything
else. I just know that
they're having a lot of trouble.
The other teachers? Yeah, I mean, why should I set myself up for a lot of trouble?
Yeah. Well, the program was adopted by the district, because it has such good
outcomes for students in other districts.
Uh... and we felt that if we try the program in our district that we might
be able to raise the achievement scores and science and math.
You know, they've been slipping in the last few years. Sure. So, that was our
rationale for using the new programs. Sure. Would you like some information
about that, or could I tell you a little bit more about it?
Would you be open to that?
Well...
Uh... Are they going to have any more of those workshops that I missed or anything else?
Oh yeah. We're going to be having a review workshop coming up in about two weeks
Uh... and i can make sure that you get contacted about that.
I'd really appreciate that.
Believe me, if you have any questions, please feel free to call. I'd be happy to
come help you with materials.
It is complicated enough to try to get started. You would come right into my
classroom?
Sure, if you want me to.
Wow!
If you want, I can walk through the material with you and get you started on
that, and we can build from there step-by-step.
That'd be great.
Okay, I'll certainly get that workshop information to you. Thanks! Okay.
In the following scenarios
Linda interviews Jorge and Terri to determine the innovation configuration
of a new writing curriculum.
I was talking to some of the people down at the district office who've been
working on this writing competency program,
and we decided it might be a good idea to go around talk to some of the
teachers who are using the program.
That way, we can actually see what you're doing and find out if you need any help,
and we might learn from the teachers whether there needs to be some
improvements.
We may need to do some fine-tuning. Okay.
I'll share with you what i can.
Thanks Jorge.
Could you first describe for me how you are using the program in your classroom?
Well, we're writing
to begin with uh...
we have daily writing assignments, and two or three times a week we set aside sixty
minutes
for what I would call in-depth writing.
um...
And then, on other days, I have them write three or four lines about something that
they've done or something they've studied or something that they are
studying.
One or two nights a week I send home a writing assignment that they prepare
there, and bring it back to me. So, they do have a writing lesson? Oh, yes.
Twice weekly.
Occasionally, we get three lessons in a week. These a more formal,
and I use direct instruction on the writing process.
In other days, it's more the approaches I just mentioned. Okay. Well, let me ask you
are using the source book that the district passed out during the training
session last summer?
Yes.
I find it very useful. It contains a lot of good ideas that I wouldn't come
up with on my own.
I can say that I'm using it exactly the way that the district wants or in the
same sequence, but it does contain a lot of ideas that I can pick and choose from.
That's good.
Can you tell me a little bit more about the writing projects that you're
doing?
Are you gearing the students toward the domains that the source book talks about?
Yes, definitely we do some creative writing.
At times, there is a question as to how creative the writing is,
but we have written some poetry; we've written some really short stories; and
they have written descriptions to incorporate descriptive writing.
I can't say that I claim to have covered all the domains or that we thoroughly
explored them.
I guess that's an area where I need to be a little bit more systematic,
but I do intend to cover them all before the end of the year.
Are you doing any expository writing?
Yes, definitely.
Uh... that's expository writing is useful to do in connection with social
studies and science. For example,
we've just finished covering the Civil War,
so the students are writing a report on a topic that the chose.
We've also written a couple of paragraphs on what it would be like to
be a twelve-year-old child during the Civil War.
I can't say the we've achieved excellence in writing,
but we are doing a lot of it, and the students have shown improvement
this semester.
Uh... let me see what I have here--the rubrics--are you using the rubrics?
Oh, yes. I find them very helpful
I evaluate the writing regularly myself,
but another teacher and I have made arrangements where we exchange writing
assignments, and we look at each other's students' work.
That way, we use the rubric so that we might develop a greater consistency, and
I suppose you would say accuracy,
and we hope fairness, in the way the we assess the students' writing.
It's taken some time, but we feel fairly rewarded that maybe we're doing a pretty
good job
of developing consistency in the way that we evaluate the students writing using
the rubric.
And, um...
It also gives an opportunity to talk about what we're teaching
and to talk about this program.
Do the students understand what the rubric is and how the criteria are used
for evaluation?
I have explained it to them,
and I have shared it with them.
There's still some question as to how much they understand.
I think that
they grasp more when the evaluations are favorable rather than when the
evaluations are unfavorable.
Human nature being as it is.
And students are also learning to evaluate their own writing.
Great. Thank you very much Jorge. That gives me a good idea of how you're using
the program, and I might say that you're using it quite well given the amount of
time we've been using it.
Terri, I'd like to talk a little bit about the writing competency program.
Okay, that'd be fine.
Are you using the program?
Um... yeah I went to a workshop like
last August,
and they shared a source book with us and I've looked over it some, and gotten
some ideas from it, so yeah, I'd say I'm using the program.
Okay. Are you doing anything else in your classroom around writing?
Well, in my classes, students have always written a lot, so I wouldn't say that
I'm really doing anything that differently.
Uh... I think I think more about writing now, but um... my students have always
written a lot. So, when you say writing a lot, what do you mean?
Well, I teach fourth grade,
and at that period we're teaching them to write descriptive paragraphs.
So, at that point, we're also working with their handwriting, so, of course, the best way
to get them to work on their handwriting is too write.
So, how frequently would you say, you do writing in your classroom?
Oh, we write all the time.
As far as teaching formal writing lessons, I really don't have the time to do
that as much as I'd like to, because we have to work so many other things into
the curriculum,
but like if they're working on a social studies assignment,
they'll write, and, you know, they'll have a section where they're doing a lot
of fill-in-the-blank, and then it will say, "Now, tell us in your own words..."
or something like that.
But, as far as...
Well, if you're asking me if I teach a lot of formal writing lessons, it's
probably not very often. Probably maybe two or three times a month.
And, do they keep any journal or notebook with writing activities in it?
Anything that they have to write in daily?
No, uh...
And you probably know how much pressure we're getting to really focus on
reading and math this year. So, what I do is I use writing as kind of something to
fill in the edges, but we are...
Well, our test scores was not good in reading and math, so we're really seeing
a lot of pressure coming down for us to really focus on that this year.
Okay.
So, you do um... use writing when it's convenient, or it's good to use writing...
How about
in another subject area. Uh-huh.
For some of the other subject areas that you're working with like social studies. Right.
And you do look at the sourcebook. Do you use the sourcebook as a guide? For suggestions?
I, yeah occasionally. I keep the sourcebook right there on my bookshelf,
and occasionally when I'm getting to the point where I am going to write a new unit
or something, I'll refer to it.
And there have been one or two things that I've used from the sourcebook--and
that's where I got the idea--but then I just changed up the suggestions that got
from the sourcebook. How about the idea of domains? I think they talk about domains
in the sourcebook and of course during the training.
Have you ever played with that or addressed writing projects to the domains?
Well, by domain do you
mean letters and poems and essays are you talking about cognitive domain
and affective domain?
Well, I think they're all related. It's creative, sensory, descriptive,
analytical... We did talk about that So, they are the different categories.
I do remember that we did go over that at the August
workshop.
Um... I don't use those words when talking to fourth graders. That doesn't
go very far.
But...
You know, I um, I don't know really
do my lesson plans to specifically cover domains. Like, we don't say. "This week
we're working on domain three."
But... um...
I think that in our classroom we've always had a fairly good balance of
different types of writing.
Do you use any of the rubric evaluation systems that the sourcebook suggests?
You know, I would really like to learn more about that. I don't know if something
happened in our session or what, but
they showed us the procedure, but we weren't able to practice it at all, so I don't
think it was just me.
When I left the training session, when we all did, I don't think there was...
I don't think that I could have used the rubric right there to evaluate, uh... a
piece of writing.
You know, so I don't know if there was something in our session that...
Yeah, I understand you cannot use the rubric
I've been working with this program for a while, and I think it has a lot to
offer students of it's used in a structured way,
and it might be that the rubrics are something that's transferable.
Uh... the idea behind that anyhow is transferable to some of the uh...
other subject areas that you might be working with, because it presents to
students a way of critiquing their own work, as well as a way for you to
critique their work.
Uh... that way everybody knows what you're talking about, and uh... what the
criteria are.
Yeah, and I would really like to learn more about that. In fact, I was uh... a
little surprised that nothing else was done about it after that all that August
workshop.
Okay, well I'll be glad to get some information, and I think we might get a
group of people together and just go through the rubrics
and have them practice on each other's writing samples or their students'
writing samples. Other people have mentioned to me that working with a
group of other teachers has really helped them
use the rubrics in this writing program more effectively.
Okay. Yeah, that would be good.
You know i hope that there isn't something that I'm supposed to have been
doing that I haven't done this year. I really thought that that session was
for us to get together and share ideas and then if we found something useful
to do that. Yeah.
What your goal is--is too
have student writing projects more frequently and... but it is and an informal
goal. Yeah.
And if it becomes more than an informal goal, then I think we need to be a
little more clear about that.
Yeah, I definitely would be more flexible with that.
You know, I think that they need to set the priorities in terms of: are we
going to focus more on reading and math exclusively, or almost exclusively, or do
we want to offer...
I don't know, a more broad curriculum. I don't know but I'd certainly be more
flexible about that.
Okay, well that's good.
Thanks, Terri, and I'll check on doing something with the rubrics, and I'll get
back to you as soon as I can. Okay, thanks. I look forward to that.