From the Front Lines; Digging Deeper with the Pareto Diagram
What are teachers saying about implementing quality and continuous improvement in their classrooms? In a previous blog entry, I invited teachers to share their thoughts, insights and paradigm shifts that occurred from learning more about implementing a continuous improvement classroom. Dianna Geers (middle school teacher in the Cedar Rapids Community School District) shares her experiences with the Pareto Diagram... Read on!
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The Pareto Diagram: It’s more than just a pretty graph! Run charts. Bar graphs. Tallies. Scatter plots. We already use those, so why would anyone need another chart? What could a Pareto chart possibly do that others don’t?
As I traveled on the road of continuous improvement I, too, was unsure of why or how to add another chart to my box of tools. However, the Pareto has proven to be a great tool to help visualize strengths and weaknesses, but it is especially beneficial when I want to “dig a little deeper” with my data.
At the beginning of this school year, my students took a baseline writing assessment. I spent hours scoring each paper to find the skills my students had. The data was recorded, sent downtown, and I shared bar graphs with my students. They knew their strengths. They knew where they weren’t as strong. We all felt good.
Then I took the data and plugged deficient scores into the “Pareto Creator”. By focusing on points missed rather than scores earned, students were clearly able to see a breakdown of their writing skills and which ones needed the most work. When students saw that their two weakest areas were conventions and organization, they wanted to work on improving those. I was pleasantly surprised, however, when all four of my language arts classes voted to work on their bottom three areas rather than the two I had suggested. So we added sentence fluency to our writing goals, I added all three to my instructional focus, and we have been working towards improvement in those areas. We were empowered.
As we monitored growth and added to our data points, I felt the need to go further. We were growing, but why had we not mastered the skills? That is where I used the Pareto again. I took the skills--organization for example--and broke them into the different elements that the rubrics covered. A well-organized piece of writing, for instance, consists of an engaging lead, conclusion, logical sequence, effective transitions, and appropriate pacing. By breaking down the sub skills and inputting student data, my students and I were able to see clearly where we needed to focus our attention in each of our goal areas.
With data on the Pareto, students clearly see where they are weaker. I never have anyone ask me “Why are we doing this?” Students know what our goal is and how each writing lesson helps lead us to accomplishing goals that they set based on clear data.
Our Pareto hangs alongside our bar graphs in our classroom data center. It adds to the beauty of our data-driven classroom.
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Care to comment about Dianna's thoughts? We want to hear from you. Share your experiences today!
