Data Talks with Students

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Permalink Reply by Julie Cobb on July 20, 2011 at 9:38am

I am not admin but I am the RTI person and we tried data talks with our 7-9 kids for the first time this past year. We were pleasantly surprised at the interest level of most of the students. The had known their "scores" before but were interested and often proactive when they saw what areas were their strengths and weaknesses. Some were more surprised about the areas where they were successful. The conversations were one on one, took 2 or 3 minutes with most but generated some great conversations later.

Permalink Reply by Latasha Turner on July 20, 2011 at 12:21pm

Thanks Julie! I'm the AP and we have about 560 kids. The principal wants to divide and conquer which is fine with me! I'm working on a format to present to him. Were these talks ongoing or just at the beginning of the year? We plan to do ours bi-monthly. I've had these talks with my class when teaching elementary. I'm just curious to see how middle schoolers will respond to admin doing this with them on a regular basis. If you have any more suggestions or resources, I'd greatly appreciate it!

Permalink Reply by Julie Cobb on July 20, 2011 at 5:47pm

This is a great example of how this mode of communication takes some getting used to. 7-9 was 7th through 9th grade. We have about 950+ kids. We(admin team, counselors, myself) met with them through the social studies classes. The adminstrator in the room would talk to the class briefly and then together we worked the room, visiting with each student. The students were quite receptive to hear this info from the principals, it seemed to hold a higher level of importance for them. Unfortunately we only got to do this once as a team, however it was an opener for additional conversations between the teachers, students, counselors and APs at other times. THere were conversations with students who persisted in making unacceptable grades every 4 1/2 weeks. These were one on one with the principal.

We also started the year by going to each class and reviewing the handbook with students in all grades in a small classroom setting. This was much more effective than the typical auditorium meeting.

Hope this clarifies and provides some ideas.