As a DPI fellow, the project I created are based on teacher professional development and bringing teacher feedback back to DPI. My initial ideas were to create a session on how to write constructed response questions and implement them into the classroom. Although many teachers have always used short answer questions in their classrooms, the constructed response questions were new to the testing and accountability process in North Carolina last year. All socials studies tests had 6 constructed response questions last year, so I knew this was an area in which many teachers would want more information and resources. I created and piloted a teacher professional development session at Wake County’s Common Core Summer Institute. Here’s a collection of the resources I made for that session: http://emilybjolley.weebly.com/constructed-response-resources.html. The pilot went really well, and I was excited to tweak the session and share it with even more teachers.
The second piece of my project was to work with Kari and Sue to create and implement a teacher survey about the MSL experience. We gathered data from teachers across the state to present to DPI. The survey implementation and data analysis (coupled with the sudden de-emphasis of constructed response questions on the new versions of tests – from 6 questions to only 1) has really taken over in importance. Our mentor is excited to see the data, and we are working towards presenting it in early April. Hopefully it will help DPI understand teachers’ perspectives as we continue to implement the new standards and the new exams.
I’m glad my projects have evolved as DPI’s focus and needs have changed. As a DPI fellow, I want to do whatever will be the most helpful and significant work in the short time I have left as a Kenan Fellow!