Class Objectives

As faculty members at Sorenson’s Ranch School we are working on revising the written objectives for each course we offer. We start by reviewing the state core standards for each content area and then add what we think is appropriate for our typical students. We know that we work with a unique group of students, and our goal is to provide the best educational experience possible for each one. Our class objectives will be based on state requirements and our experience with students of the past, as well as best practices for students who have or probably should have an IEP for some accommodations in their education. Our class objectives will help us consistently cover important information on each topic, and be flexible enough to meet the needs of our diverse students. We use a variety of instructional strategies and assessments allowing our students to demonstrate proficiency in different ways. One method we use for assessment is portfolios, which allows students to collect samples of proficient work under the direction of their teacher. Class objectives are important because they drive all of the components of the educational process. We teach our students the things we want them to know, we assess what they are learning through both formative and summative strategies, and we evaluate ourselves all based on our objectives. We use the information we gather to plan, modify, and assess future instruction. Deciding what we want our students to remember from all of the information covered helps us to organize our efforts, and it helps our students with retention of the information. Most of our students struggle with retention of information. By organizing and constantly assessing, we are able to help our students with these types of issues. We realize that having objectives is not a guarantee of performance or learning, but as I mentioned before, it serves to organize the process. There are a lot of things covered in every class at Sorenson’s Ranch School, enough to overwhelm the average student. Taking the time to create and organize what we want our students to learn during the time that we get to work with them helps us to better serve their needs.

Technology in Education

Computer Technology is an important part of classroom instruction. It is something that is more and more a part of the workplace that we are preparing our students to enter. However, there is a false assumption in education that more advanced technology in the classroom will somehow equate to better learning outcomes. There is no substitute for a good teacher in the educational process. There are many computer-related skills that can be taught to students to prepare them for the workplace. Among these are basic computer concepts, typing, word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations. At Sorenson’s Ranch School, students are taught typing in middle school classes, and the remainder in a high-school computer technology class. This requirement for graduation is not all that students need to know with regard to computer technology, but it gives them most of the basics on what employers will be looking for in a career-track position. (Donaldson) For purposes of the program at Sorenson’s Ranch School, the students are not allowed to access the internet, except to complete online college courses from BYU Independent Study. Each internet address the students are allowed to access must first be approved by the administrator of the computer network. Social networking sites are strictly prohibited from access. In addition, the students are not allowed to use email. Parents of Sorenson’s Ranch School students can email the school which can then be passed on to the students, but students must write letters to their parents if they want to send mail. The computer technology course I teach here at Sorenson’s Ranch School includes a chapter on information technology essentials, in which students learn the basics of computer hardware and software. There is also a section of the course that allows students that have no personal computer experience the opportunity to learn how the Windows 7 operating system works. The remainder of the course teaches students the Microsoft Office Suite of software. This gives the students the experience and skill development in word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations that employers are looking for in their human resources. (Donaldson) The students use each of these programs individually, which is important. Then they are allowed the opportunity to integrate the programs to be able to put objects from Word, or Excel into a Power Point presentation, for example. This integration is a level above what the basic education in the Microsoft Office Suite includes. This should make success in the workplace or at the university level an easy transition for students. Some legislators have proposed introduction of tablets, or other technology into the hands of every student. This is a course that has a high cost, but results are mixed. At Sorenson’s Ranch School, the technology is kept in the classroom, and learning about technology is structured. When students return home, they are able to have parents guide them through emails, internet usage, and social media. The basics are taught at Sorenson’s Ranch School to give students the skills needed to succeed in the workplace when they are finished with their academic studies. Works Cited Donaldson, C. (n.d.). The Top Ten Tech Skills Your Child Needs Now. Retrieved 2 20, 2015, from Education.com: http://www.education.com/magazine/article/The_Top_10_Tech_Skills_Your_Teen/?page=2

TABE Adaptive Testing at Sorenson's Ranch School

One of the principal aims of the accreditation process is identifying with some clarity the strengths and weaknesses of the school being evaluated for accreditation. Areas of strength are identified as “powerful practices” and commended in the final report. Areas needing improvement are also identified so that efforts toward school improvement can be focused and effective. Corrective measures aimed at improvement in those areas must be addressed in a report to the accreditation commission via AdvancED twenty four months after the date of the school evaluation. The primary area of focus for Sorenson’s Ranch School during this accreditation cycle is the establishment of a comprehensive assessment system which will allow us to quantify, to a much greater degree than we ever have, the progress that students make academically while they are with us. As one component of this goal, we have instituted semi-annual testing of the entire student body using TABE Adaptive. TABE stands for Test of Adult Basic Education. For years TABE has been a very reliable and widely used instrument for assessing academic achievement in adult education programs across the nation. Due to increased demand for a reliable test that could be used for students aged twelve to eighteen, the developers of TABE, McGraw-Hill, normed a version of the test for use with this younger population. In addition, the test was formatted for administration on-line, and TABE Adaptive was born. The word “adaptive” in the title indicates that the on-line test adjusts future questions based on the responses given by the student. For example, if a student misses two questions in a row, the testing software will make next question easier. If a student continues to get correct answers, the software will increase the difficulty of the ensuing questions until the student answers incorrectly. Through this process of making the questions harder or easier based on student performance, the grade level equivalent of the test subject can be more accurately determined than was ever possible with a paper-and-pencil test. TABE Adaptive results are given as a scaled score and as a grade equivalent (GE) score. Scaled scores are useful for comparison to previous and subsequent test administrations, but do not mean much in isolation. GE scores are also useful for comparison, but because they indicate a grade level, they are also instructive when used alone. For example, a student may earn a GE score of 9.2 which indicates that the student’s performance is equal to what would be expected from an average student in the second month of the ninth grade. Students are tested on reading, language usage, mathematics computation, and applied mathematics. A score is computed for each subtest, and a composite score is computed for total math and the entire battery. The bottom line for SRS is that we now have a highly accurate way to determine the academic performance of our students when they arrive and at sixth month intervals while they attend our school. New arrivals are given TABE Adaptive within about a month of their arrival and are then tested with the rest of the students every March and September until they discharge from our facility. We will use the data generated from testing to adjust our curriculum and teaching practices to better serve our students’ needs.

Developing Critical Thinking Skills

As students prepare to leave Sorenson's Ranch School, they will enter a world of complexity and change. Some students will go on to enroll in higher education and some students will be on their own, lacking outside support. These students will most likely work in several different career areas and hold many different jobs. Some of our many goals at Sorenson's Ranch are to help the student to develop a base of knowledge and to acquire the skills they need to solve complex problems and make difficult decisions. We try to help instill in them critical thinking skills. Critical thinking means that the student is progressing beyond memorizing or temporarily recalling information. It requires them to apply what they know about the subject matter for a particular problem. It also requires them to use common sense and experience during the process. Creative thinking is required during problem solving to discover all the reasonable choices, consequences and supporting arguments. During this process, out of the ordinary ideas and views outside the obvious are sough out. As we teach critical thinking in the classroom, it can be accomplished with basic activities. Some of these activities such as debating group discussions have been very useful and a great way to engage students in thinking critically when making decisions that will affect their futures. It is our goal at Sorenson's Ranch School to develop as many skills as possible to enable our students in making positive decisions and helping them to experience success.

What Messages Are You Sending?

An interesting question was once posed to a group of mathematics and science teachers at a conference that I was attending. “What do your students think is important to you?” This became the topic of much discussion and reflective thinking as teachers pondered what they truly communicated to their students by their words and actions in the classroom. Some teachers thought about the time they spent making sure that students work is organized, written legibly, and turned in to the correct location. Others admitted that neatness was not as important as correct answers and that they were not as concerned about student work being well organized. Many different thoughts were shared within the group, but the central theme of the discussion was that students’ attitudes reflect the attitudes modeled by teachers and parents. Parents and teachers are the most significant figures in a child’s education. We pass on many of our attitudes, intentionally or not, to children in our care. These may be good or bad attitudes and we may not even realize how these attitudes are being transmitted. Consider what your response is when your child seeks help with a math problem. Do you take a quick glance and tell your child that you have been out of school too long and don’t remember how to solve the problem? Do you tell him/her that you don’t know because you didn’t have to do that math in school? Do you sit down with your student(s) to search the textbook or other resources and persist until you both understand the concept? What is your attitude toward homework? What is your attitude about your student’s grades? Do they understand that you feel it important that they do well? Do you feel that it is important to be on time? When confronted with situations such as those name above, our actions transmit, and in turn transfer, our attitudes toward various subjects. If you aren’t willing to try to solve a problem that your child is being asked to solve, you may be communicating that you do not feel it is important to persist until you understand the concept. The look on your face may show that you feel that the task is painful or unimportant. In an interesting study, researchers found that college students preparing to become elementary school teachers had the highest levels of mathematics anxiety in comparison to all other college majors. Most of these students will soon become teachers who spend the minimum amount of time required on mathematics content and do so without enthusiasm. This attitude is communicated to their students and, coupled with less-than-enthusiastic attitudes displayed by parents, may become detrimental to mathematics skills development. Another attitude that seems to be more and more prevalent in American schools is that all school work should be easy. In a recent study that compared Japanese, German, and American students researchers found that while Japanese and German students expect math and science classes to be difficult and to require a significant amount of time and effort to gain proficiency, American students felt that these courses should be simple and take no more than a short time to complete. If the class wasn’t “fun,” or if the students didn’t “get” the concept immediately, it was perceived to be the fault of the teacher. These attitudes work against many of the principles driving education. Persistence in solving problems, employing a variety of strategies, and other educational goals are undermined by this attitude. One of the biggest challenges that we face at Sorenson’s Ranch School is overcoming this tendency for students to want everything to be “fun” and “easy.” Our competency-based advancement requires initiative and persistence on the part of our students. Many struggle with these aspects as they begin their stay with us. Over time, particularly as they get closer to graduation, initiative and persistence become more a part of our students’ daily endeavors. Without exception, those students who become better at self-motivation and persistance, do better as they re-integrate into their families, schools, and jobs post-SRS.

Professional Learning Communities

Professional Learning Communities (PLC’s) have been a hot topic in education for at least the last decade. Everyone seems to have an opinion about what they are, how they are supposed to function, and what they are supposed to accomplish. Here at Sorenson’s Ranch School, we have realized that even though our best efforts have always been exerted toward helping our students learn academic curricula as well as more appropriate strategies for living, without a formal structure and dedicated time to focus on specified goals, the real purposes of PLC’s are not accomplished. In short, effective PLC’s don’t just happen. They must be planned and monitored for success to follow. What exactly is a PLC? A PLC is a group of individuals who want to learn to be better at what they do. Any type of business can benefit from the formation of PLC’s, but because of the isolated nature of what teachers do (we almost never teach in front of our colleagues), PLC’s can be particularly effective in education. Simply put, PLC’s provide a venue for teachers to talk about the nuts and bolts of educating. Research has shown that when teachers get together and talk about the craft of teaching – what works and what doesn’t in various classroom environments – teaching improves. How is a PLC supposed to function? A PLC meeting is not a time to discuss disruptive student behaviors, plan faculty parties, or work out the details of scheduling conflicts. All of these issues are valid and appropriate topics for discussion at the proper time and place, but PLC meetings must focus on a narrower set of topics. We must ask and answer the right questions in order to have our PLC meeting time be as productive as possible. What is it, exactly, that we want our students to learn? Can we coordinate our teaching such that concepts learned in one class are reinforced in another class? What, precisely, are we going to do if we begin to see evidence that our students are not learning the things we have agreed upon as critical? Questions such as these tend to focus educators’ attention and concentrate their efforts on actions that directly benefit students. What should we expect to accomplish through the formation and use of a PLC? The answer to this question will vary depending on the environment in which the PLC is formed. In education, the effects of a properly functioning PLC should be observed in measurable ways such as increases in student test scores, increases in graduation rates, and increases in the number of students pursuing education beyond high school. By using data to track student performance, teachers are able to see if their efforts in PLC meetings are yielding the results they want. Because of the nature of our student body, Sorenson’s Ranch School teachers have a specialized set of challenges. Our PLC meetings help us to focus our efforts on those teaching strategies that will allow us to optimize the learning of our students while they attend our school despite whatever unique circumstances may have hampered their progress in the past.

Mastery Learning at Sorenson's Ranch

​At Sorenson’s Ranch School we use Mastery learning, which is a process where students are allowed to use a personalized process for learning. Students are encouraged to reflect on elements of the curriculum as they are exposed to them and then integrate these things, enhancing what they already know. Mastery learning tends to be a more effective option for moderate to lower functioning students who struggle to keep up in a traditional class setting. Students are allowed to complete assigned work over a period of time, while often having to maintain minimal benchmarks of completion. ​Mastery learning is also generally more versatile in a students’ ability to demonstrate mastery of a topic or concept. Instructional concepts as well as assessments are usually varied so that students can “display” their knowledge in a variety of ways. Portfolios, drawings, papers, posters and other projects are examples of alternative assessments. Master learning affords the student the ability to, often by requirement, rework assignments and assessments until they demonstrate satisfactory levels of comprehension and can therefore move on to additional concepts and/or material. Mastery learning is the preferred method of academic instruction in non-traditional, or special purpose schools. This type of instruction is more accommodating for institutions with an open-entry, open-exit type of enrollment. ​One of the challenges we face with the use of mastery learning is motivation. The concept and premise of mastery learning seems noble enough, but students are obviously more effective if they are motivated to take advantage of what can often be a slower process of learning. Students’ who are moderate to lower functioning academically, can quickly become lazy about learning and use the slower process as an excuse for why they “can’t learn”. This is usually due to the student putting off assignments that need to be completed until they do not have sufficient time, and/or desire to finish. It can come from the student lacking the necessary desire to complete the assigned work. It can stem from past academic failures or old habits that the student feels may get them out of some of the required work. It also however, can come from an honest inability to understand concepts or the ability to attach new learning to information that was previously learned. ​I think it is safe to say that that mastery learning could also be termed “patient learning” as it allows for a more personal process for learning. There are of course, both problems and benefits of this type of learning. When not properly utilized students can actually fall farther behind their peers in academic instruction with mastery learning in a given time period. When applied properly mastery learning provides a viable option for many students who find it hard to keep up with the normal academic flow or time table of a traditional school setting. Mastery learning can boost the confidence of some students who have historically demonstrated difficulties in learning, further motivating them to want to learn. ​At Sorenson’s Ranch School we have learned that Mastery learning is a good fit for the students we enroll in our program. We feel that this type of learning is adaptable by our teachers to meet the various academic needs of our diverse student body. We are most often able to help students catch up to appropriate grade level instruction and experience general academic success, which many of our students have not had in the past.