MSCIN Program,

Western Governor’s
University
D182, The Reflective
Practitioner, Task 3
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OHM2 Task Three: Targeting Professional Learning
Introduction

I am a first-grade teacher in a small Title 1 school within a small district. The class

consists of 20 students, 8 boys and 12 girls—16 of them being English Language Learners. ELLs

get pulled out throughout the day for LEP resources. Native languages spoken in the classroom

are English, Spanish, and Russian. Ages range from 6-8. Many students read and write below

grade level. Engage New York is the curriculum used for mathematics and ELA.

Implementing EBPS

Implementing Evidence-Based Practices is integrating approaches to teaching that have

been supported by extensive research. The IRIS Center compared the reasons for educational

professionals using EBPs as being similar to why doctors use EBPs to treat medical conditions.

Most people would choose a treatment that has gone through rigorous research, worked for most

people and is rated as very effective, rather than a treatment that has been used once or twice

(The IRIS Center, 2014, p.2). Using EBPs in teaching to achieve growth goals is beneficial

because lessons and goal setting are more purposeful, and credible sources have been shown to

increase student outcomes and meet learner needs because the practices are supported with

research and data.

Types of Professional Development

Teaching is everchanging as factors such as technologies, demographics, instructional

strategies, classroom and behavior management strategies continue to evolve. As an educator it is

important to stay up to date by continuing professional development. Three types of professional

development that would help me incorporate EBPs into my instructional routines include

webinars (online conference or seminar), professional learning communities (team of educators

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OHM2 Task Three: Targeting Professional Learning
working together to improve practices), and mentoring (experienced teacher who assists in the

development of and works with a new teacher).

Justification

These three types of PD are beneficial with scheduling and doing during or outside of

school hours and can also be done from school or at home. Webinars have a wide variety of

educational topics and actionable advice or training on each, so teachers can seek out topics that

would be most constructive in helping to implement EBPs. Webinars can be done

asynchronously and can be produced by the district or sought out by the teacher to further

professional development (Wolpert-Gawron, 2018). Participating in webinars is a formal format

of professional learning that supports the PL standard of sustaining implementation—"To embed

the new learning into practices,” (Learning Forward, n.d.).

PLCs are great for discussing new strategies and tactics that multiple teachers can work

together to practice and to create studies on specific topics or practices (Croft et al., 2010).

Learning communities are made up of educators with different experience levels and research

done on instructional strategies and EBPs, so when they come together to collaborate, a lot of

sound advice and data-driven information is brought to the table. Shirly Hord from the Learning

Forward Association said about the Learning Communities standard that to engage in continuous

learning for best practice, educators are encouraged to come with new ideas with supportive

evidence to better focus on student data and what the staff needs to work on next to best support

our learners (Learning Forward, n.d.). PLCs are a great resource to gather and analyze data,

implement new strategies, and support each other in professional development.

Mentoring is also a format of Job-Embedded PD that is a great resource to support

meeting personal/professional growth goals because the mentor teacher is able to observe
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OHM2 Task Three: Targeting Professional Learning
instruction and give feedback on how to implement EBPs and collaborate on how to improve

practices. “Best practice includes matching teachers of the same content area…and structuring

time for further collaboration,” (Croft et al., 2010). Also, to make this best practice, the mentor is

able to provide research-based instructional strategies and EBPs so that the teacher has the

opportunity for continuous learning.

Professional Goal

One of my current professional goals is to increase student accuracy of phonemes to 70%

of higher (on a Phonological Awareness Screening Test) by researching and implementing three

new strategies for teaching phonological awareness by the end of the 4th quarter. This screening

assessment provides us with what level the students are at individually in their understanding of

phonemes. There are 16 sections on the assessment—sections 1-8 should be completed in

kindergarten and sections 9-16 in first grade. To be able to move through reading levels and

develop fluency and comprehension, student focus needs to be on phonological awareness.

Two Evidence-Based Practices

One research based EBP that I would implement in my classroom instruction to support

my goal of increasing student accuracy of phonemes is to provide students with plenty of

practice. According to Evidencebasedteaching.org, “You need to choose practice tasks related to

your lesson goal. Doing so also gives you another opportunity to check for understanding,”

(Killian, 2019). Also, by providing students with plenty of practice I am able to review and work

with small or large groups and provide personalized feedback on phonemes that still need extra

attention.

Another research based EBP that I would implement to support this goal is to teach

strategies, not just content. Referring again to Evidencebasedteaching.org, “You can also
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OHM2 Task Three: Targeting Professional Learning
increase how well your students do in any subject by explicitly teaching them how to use

relevant learning strategies,” (Killian, 2019). Since there are a variety of learning style

preferences, the content in the curriculum and suggestions for how to teach it will not always

process the same for each student. This EBP would be particularly beneficial in working with my

goal because students would be able to continue working on their phonemes using different

strategies to gain better understanding.

Implementation of First EBP

To regularly implement the EBP of plenty of practice, I will begin by researching new

and different strategies for teaching phonological awareness and plan multiple mini lessons,

worksheets, and games to have students work through each week using those strategies. Students

are grouped by reading and skill levels so I will continue to work with groups that need extra

support in mastering the lower sections of the PAST (mentioned in my goal). Mini lessons,

worksheets and games will give students extra exposure and practice with the phonemes and I

will be able to progress monitor where they are at prior to assessments, and it will give me an

opportunity to re-explain and offer feedback during lessons or individually (Killian, 2019).

Timeline for First EBP

I will give myself one week to research strategies for teaching phonological awareness

and to plan lessons outside of the content, and to prepare worksheets and games. I will then

begin to implement these daily during ELA and Reading times. Mini lessons and small group

work will be done during reading intervention groups. Every two weeks I will assess students to

see which section from the Phonological Awareness Screening Test they are on, and I will

prepare more or new strategies for the following week. Students will also be progress-monitored
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OHM2 Task Three: Targeting Professional Learning
using lessons from “Working Out with Phonological Awareness.” I will do this for 6 weeks until

the final assessment for placement at the end of the quarter.

Successful Implementation of First EBP

I will progress monitor students in small groups and individually as they complete

worksheets and have a bi-weekly screening. Lessons from “Working Out with Phonological

Awareness” will show what students need to continue practicing. I expect to see students move

through at least one section of the PAST per week with having plenty of practice. Likewise, I

expect to see students increase their accuracy by 70% on the final screening—each section will

be passed by 70% or higher (answering 7 out of 10 questions correctly). This amount of success

will show me if I have implemented the EBP correctly and have provided enough practice.

Implementation of Second EBP

To regularly implement the EBP of teaching strategies, not just content, I will begin by

also researching new and different strategies for learning phonological awareness and use the

planned mini lessons, worksheets, and games to have students work through each week using

those strategies. It will be important to differentiate the instruction so that these learning

strategies can be used, as well as explicitly teach how to use the learning strategies as to enhance

their learning. Included in teaching these strategies we will make charts for students to refer to as

reminders. Two learning strategies that will be particularly useful with phonological awareness

are Rehearsal & Practice and Asking for Feedback. I will teach students best practice for

rehearsal (i.e., flashcards for different phoneme endings) and how to ask for feedback (modeling

what to do when stuck) prior to receiving it and this will consistently be modeled throughout the

day, daily (Killian, 2019).

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OHM2 Task Three: Targeting Professional Learning

Timeline for Second EBP

As with the timeline for the first EBP, I will give myself one week to research strategies

for learning strategies for phonological awareness and to plan those lessons outside of the

content, and to prepare worksheets and games. Each day for the following week I will explicitly

teach learning strategies for 10 minutes. I will continue to model these strategies and refer to

learning strategy charts when we do whole group and small group instruction. This will continue

for the same 6 weeks until the end of the quarter and final screening.

Successful Implementation of Second EBP

To see successful implementation of this second EBP, I will keep a log including all

students’ names, bi-weekly progress-monitoring dates and current section of the PAST each

student is on, and dates students use the learning strategies in class (flashcards and asking for

feedback or help). Every two weeks I will be able to see which students are using the learning

strategies and whether or not the strategies are enhancing their learning based off of their

progression through the phoneme sections. I will be able to add more practice and/or teach more

learning strategies that will benefit specific students as I keep track of this log. Successful

implementation of this EBP will also be shown as I keep track of how often students use the

strategies.

Achieving Goal and Improving Practice

As I apply the two EBPs—plenty of practice and teaching strategies, not just content—

students will continue to develop their skills in working independently and in small groups. I will

be able to differentiate the material for students at different reading and phoneme levels so that

they can get the practice that they need to progress through the levels. For example, I can plan
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OHM2 Task Three: Targeting Professional Learning
mini lessons, worksheets, and activities for students who need to work on segmentation and have

students simultaneously working on blending. Explicitly teaching different learning strategies

and continually modeling them will also help students to move past sections that they are

working on. If students are stuck on phoneme blending, they will be able to make flashcards or

use another strategy to help them memorize examples and nonexamples, and also seek feedback

or help as needed. Practice and implementation of these EBPs will also support instructional

transitions and make feedback more efficient.

Growth Mindset

It is important to have a growth mindset while implementing these EBPs into my

instructional practice because as with anything new, these practices will take extra planning, an

adjustment in my time and efforts, they will have a learning curve, and not all students will adapt

the same way. Therefore, having an open mind to criticism, obstacles, challenges, and growth

will help me to go back each week to the drawing board to find what works best for my students

to help us achieve this goal.

An example of a short-term success will be in the first two weeks of providing extra

phoneme practice, seeing at least 60% of my students progress to the next section of their PAST.

Another example of a short-term success is being able to log that multiple students are utilizing

the learning strategies that were taught in those first two weeks. An example of an opportunity

for improvement is students not responding to the practice lessons, worksheets, and activities

that I plan for them and needing to find more engaging strategies for teaching phonological

awareness. With that, another opportunity for improvement may be seen if students are not

progressing through PAST sections but have not asked for feedback, help, or utilized strategies

for learning and practice like flashcards, memorizing, and creating examples and nonexamples.
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OHM2 Task Three: Targeting Professional Learning
If I have a growth mindset in applying these EBPs, I will be able to use these opportunities for

improvement as ways to grow in my own learning and teaching to make the practices work in

my instruction.
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OHM2 Task Three: Targeting Professional Learning
Sources

Croft, A., Coggshall, J. G., Dolan, M., Powers, E., & National Comprehensive Center for

Teacher Quality. (2010). Job-Embedded Professional Development: What It Is, Who Is

Responsible, and How to Get It Done Well. Issue Brief. National Comprehensive Center

for Teacher Quality.

Darling-Hammond, L. Hyler, M. E., & Gardner, M. (2017). Effective professional development.

Research brief. Palo Alto, CA: Learning Policy Institute. Retrieved

from https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/product-

files/Effective_Teacher_Professional_Development_BRIEF.pdf.

Killian, S. (2019). 10 Evidence-Based Teaching Strategies - The Core List. Evidence-Based

Teaching. Retrieved from https://www.evidencebasedteaching.org.au/evidence-based-

teaching-strategies.

Learning Forward. (n.d.). Standards for professional learning. Retrieved from

https://learningforward.org/standards-for-professional-learning.

The IRIS Center. (2014). Evidence-based practices (part 1): Identifying and selecting a practice

or program. Retrieved from https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/module/ebp_01/.

Wolpert-Gawron, H. (2018). The Importance of Choice in PD. Retrieved from

https://www.edutopia.org/article/importance-choice-pd.