In 2015-2016, the school counselors conducted these highlighted lessons: Kindergarten Personal Space Camp, 4th Grade Recognize, Report, Refuse, and 5th Grade Academic Project-Based Learning Unit. These lessons utilized the ASCA Mindsets and Behaviors to address two program goals.
Kindergarten Personal Space Camp [Goal #2: By June of 2016, K-5th Grade students will decrease their discipline referral number by 10% (from 74 in 2014-2015 to 66/67 in 2015-2016)].
77 students received this lesson. 83% of students were able to successfully demonstrate appropriate personal space in a drawing/writing piece. This exceeded our goal of 80%.
We compared discipline referral data from 2014-2015 to 2015-2016. We found that Kindergarten students reduced their discipline referral number by 58% (from 24 to 10). This significantly exceeded our goal of a 10% decrease.
We feel that we should continue the lesson on personal space, and that we may look for even more ways for students to show what they learned. For example, we are considering a safe kinesthetic demonstration of knowledge for the 2016-2017 school year. We also feel that such a specific lesson on one aspect of appropriate behavior was helpful to Kindergartners. Our plan is to incorporate other specific lessons, and we may incorporate some Second Step resources, as they tend to include very hands-on activities for specific behaviors.
4th Grade Recognize, Report, Refuse [Goal #2: By June of 2016, K-5th Grade students will decrease their discipline referral number by 10% (from 74 in 2014-2015 to 66/67 in 2015-2016)].
126 students received this lesson. 93% of students answered the first bullying identification question correctly, 96% of students answered the second bullying identification question correctly, and 88% of students successfully answered all 3 questions on the bullying reporting reflection sheet. All of our perception data exceeded our goal of 80%.
We compared discipline referral data from 2014-2015 to 2015-2016. We found that 4th Grade students reduced their discipline referral number by 70% (from 20 to 6). Once again, this drastically exceeded our goal of a 10% decrease. We feel that the implementation of the Second Step bullying unit (including this lesson) was highly impactful for 4th graders. Our plan is to keep presenting this lesson and the full unit.
During the 2015-2016, not all grade levels received the full 4 Second Step bullying lessons; because of the success in 4th grade, we’d like to make sure that 4 Second Step bullying lessons are presented at each grade level. We also discussed how a supplemental lesson on conflict resolution might enhance the 4th grade unit during the 2015-2016 school year.
5th Grade Academic Project-Based Learning Unit [Goal #1: By June of 2016, 5th Grade Hispanic students (Gap Group #3) will increase their scores on the reading SOL tests by 5% (from a 75% passing rate in 2014-2015 to a 79% passing rate in 2015-2016)].
*Though this unit affects more students than just 5th Grade Hispanic students, we felt that it would assist with their reading grades/scores, would offer differentiated instruction, and would partner nicely with our study skills small groups and individual planning in our Closing the Gap Action Plan. Because we needed a measurement that would affect all students for this unit, we chose to examine reading report card grades.
130 students participated in this unit. Afterward, we compared the pretests and post-tests. 5th graders increased their knowledge of time management by 55%, their knowledge of organization by 46%, and their knowledge of time management by 50%. We figured that 20% might signify a good increase, so we were thrilled that these results exceeded our goals. Additionally, students demonstrated an 82% increase in product scores between the academic and career projects. We hoped for a 33% increase (from 3 to 4), and again, were pleased by these results.
However, our students did not achieve the outcome we had hoped. When we compared above average (A-B) reading grades from 2014-2015 to 2015-2016, we found that students decreased these grades by 1%. It should be noted, though, that we found an increase in the amount of A only reading grades (see attached GRIP).
We feel we should continue to conduct Project-Based Learning in 5th grade, as our perception data indicated significant increases in knowledge, and improved study skill ratings (through product scores). We need to consider how to extend the lessons, so it is clearer to students how this connects to their coursework. We also plan to more carefully monitor and support student research during the project.