IEP Meetings

Kirsten French

IEP (Individualized Education Program)- The Meeting

Description of Research:

-Who is involved?

 The parents have been invited about ten school days ahead of the planned IEP meeting. The other participants have been invited ahead of time as well.

Other participants: A district representative (director of special Ed, principal, or school psychologist), general Ed teacher, the special Ed teachers (speech therapist, learning center teacher, occupational therapist, physical therapist), a parent or guardian and If the student is older they can be involved also.

-Each student with an IEP must have at least one IEP meeting within a year of the previous meeting.

-Team leader goes over basic information and dates with the IEP participants.

What do I Agree with?

Parents have a right to know what their student is going to be working on that is different to regular Ed instruction. Also, their parents deserve to know what their students are going to be missing in the general education meeting.

What do I disagree with?

Even though the IEP meeting is designed to inform the parents and family about the information within their students IEP the unfriendliness of the paper work could be altered for the family so they can understand it. The repetitiveness of some of the parts reminded me of the Ed TPA. There could be less repeating in the actual IEP, so the people taking part in the IEP don’t have to follow so many different parts within the IEP meeting.  

How is this research applicable to you as a teacher?

As a teacher it is important to know what goes on within an IEP meeting. If teachers don’t know what goes on within an IEP meeting they could be blindsided with what actually goes on within the meeting. Having these meetings can benefit the student that has the IEP, so going to the meeting could improve the student’s education.

How is this research applicable to students?

The students are affected by what occurs within the IEP meeting, because their parents have to be able to understand what their student is receiving to sign the IEP at the end of the meeting. The students that have IEP’s are only benefitting from the IEP meeting, because all the educators that are involved within their learning are there to support that student and explain how they receiving the best care and education possible.

Homework Policies

Kirsten French

Homework Policies

Description of Research

Different styles of assigning and grading homework:

No homework is assigned, there is some, but it doesn’t count, only some problems are graded, only some assignments are graded, counts for credit just for completing, counts but has to be correct.

Is homework useful?

The countries with higher achieving students give little or no homework. America has one of the highest amounts of homework given to students each night. Homework should only be assigned when the teacher can clearly explain why they are assigning each problem they are giving to the students. Do not give homework out just so they have homework for the night.

Multiple teachers have cut homework from their class rooms and the standardized tests scores increased. This might not work for every teacher, but for some it has worked out well.

Too much homework can be counterproductive to the student’s learning. It becomes more of a source of stress for the students, rather than a source of learning. Harris Cooper, an education and psychology professor at Duke University, is best known for his research on dealing with homework. His research has shown that, in high school, more than two hours of homework a night doesn’t improve student’s understanding of the material.

What do I agree with?

I agree that homework shouldn’t be graded for correctness, unless the answers are clear and the students aren’t still learning the information. It is unfair for students to learn brand new information and then be expected to have the learning objective completed with one lesson and no practice.

What do I disagree with?

I disagree that homework should be cut from the classroom completely. I think homework provides the students with practice of new material and without homework that counts towards their grade some of the students won’t have motivation to practice.

How is this research applicable to you as a teacher?

As a teacher, this research is applicable, because homework that is used incorrectly can negatively impact the student’s learning. When teachers know what kinds of homework and homework policies best benefit the students the teachers can apply that to their curriculum so their students get the most out of their education that is possible.

How is this research applicable to students?

This research applies to students, because they are the ones who are affected by the outcomes of each piece of research that is done. As teachers it is our job to teach each of our students to the best of our abilities and knowing about what homework is helpful to students and what homework isn’t beneficial to them, affects their future. If the students have a bad experience with homework, they could possibly shutdown and not believe in themselves. It is our job to be able to give out homework that will help the students complete the learning objective and our homework policies will help with that.

Works Cited

Strauss, Valerie. "Homework: The Useful and the Useless." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 17 June 2011. Web. 17 May 2014.

"Research Spotlight on Homework." NEA. Web. 15 May 2014.

Perle, Elizabeth. "High School Homework: Are American Students Overworked?" The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 02 Nov. 2011. Web. 17 May 2014.

Teaching to the Test

Kirsten French

Teaching to the Test

Description of Research

The research mainly said no test is good enough to use as a primary basis to determine educational decisions. It is more harmful to the student’s education to teach to the test. The students may have the test information down, but they won’t be able to perform higher level thinking tasks. Also, teaching to the test can cause narrowing of the curriculum. If teachers only give a test on what is going to be on a standardized test, then students won’t get the other important parts taught to them.

It has been speculated that a standardized tests measures if a teacher is a successful and good at teaching. The research says that scores from a test don’t measure how teachers are able to convey material to their students. It has been proven that not only do students respond negatively to standardized tests, but teachers react negatively to the pressure as well. This could cause the learning environment to be negative, which would impact the students learning.

What do I agree with?

I agree that teaching to the test can hinder a student’s education to a point. There shouldn’t only be one massive assessment that grades the students overall achievement of their learning. I like the idea of including the students while creating a test for a unit. I do think schools need to have standards that they teach to, if teachers didn’t have standards to go by the students could possibly not get the valuable pieces of information that they need to be successful when they go to get a higher education.

What do I disagree with?

I disagree with the idea of a standardized test in general. Every student is not good at taking tests. As each teacher is going through the education program we are taught to differentiate the students learning to reach each student’s potential. How is one test differentiating the student’s learning? If a student is having a bad day and that could hinder their test taking abilities then that student is at a disadvantage and that isn’t measuring their full potential. This is why schools should have more than one type of test to measure the students learning. 

How is the research applicable to you as a teacher?

          As a teacher knowing how to structure class material is important, but even more important is how to structure it so the students are successful and successfully complete the learning objectives. By knowing that teaching to the test could hinder the student’s learning, teachers can prepare beforehand to not teach to the test, but incorporate the information from the test into other class material. Now that the Common Core State Standards are being used, it is a better way to teach valuable information to the students while incorporating the material that is going to be on the test.

How is this research applicable to students?

          As a student who was completely taught to the test I know firsthand how only teaching information to students that is going to be on a test can be hurtful to the student’s education. This research benefits the students, because of the research proving that teaching to the test can hinder their education. It’s great that educators are figuring out that students don’t only need to be able to construct a five paragraph essay. In the world we live in today being able to collaborate with other students, as well as be able to complete daily tasks that utilize their education from school.

Works Cited

Herman, Joan, and Shari Golan. "Effects of Standardized Testing on Teachers." CSE. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 May 2014.

"‘Teaching to the Test’ – Does It Help or Hinder Learning?" Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. N.p., May 2009. Web. 11 May 2014.

 

"What's so Bad about Teaching to the Test?" Great Schools. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 May 2014.