Post on 21-Oct-2014
description
transcript
reading plus®
Product Path
Rick Cusick @rickcusick
rick@readingplus.com
The Way to do is to be
this prezi with help from lao tzu & stillwater
All art work © Jon J. muth all rights reserved
reading plus®
jump off point
the poisoned applet
The way
Story Mapping User Experience
[Paper] Prototyping
Usability Testing
User Personas
Collaborative Wire-Framing
agile godfather
www.agileproductdesign.com
@jeffpatton
Storymap as backlog
A Well Organized Backlog:
•Descriptive
•Prioritized
•Stories sized right
experience / Release
Dashboard
Log In
User Story
Sub Task
Business Logic
User Story
UI Details
Messages
Read Messages
Business Logic
UI Details
UI Details
Reply to Messages
Business Logic
User Story
UI Details
UI Details
Stories
Select Story
User Story
UI Details
Read Story
User Story
Business Logic
Questions
Answer Questions
Business Logic
MVP
M2
M3
Pragmatic personas
user research personas
Goal: To help her students see their potential and have new
focus in their lives.
Background
Meredith is a Reading Specialist at Deer Valley Middle School. She has been
teaching for 5 years. She recently received her Masters in Reading after taking
evening and summer courses for the last 3 years. Meredith works with the
school’s lowest performing students for intervention and remediation; she
needs to increase their test scores before they can move on to high school.
She is not currently married and has no children.
Attitudes
Motivations
The bene!ts are real. “They don’t
know it’s happening to them as
they’re doing it, they’re just enjoying
reading more and they notice their
“They pay attention to the print,
actually looking at the text. That
doesn’t come naturally to them.”
Kids say in math class they’re able to
read a problem faster and under-
Frustrations
Average comprehension display leads to misconception.
“Teachers aren’t digging in to see where that score came
from, they’re just scanning.”
Just after student levels up, they’re immediately going to
have a lower score. “They’ve just gotten an award and
there’s a setback....Everything changes at once on them.”
put a hold on a student who’s always away so he doesn’t
bring down my scores.”
“Exception” students’ grades get factored into the class,
bringing down the average.
Skill sheets are helpful for other teachers, but aren’t geared
to the standardized tests. “They look "imsy to me, not
substantial.”
Copy-and-paste between Reading Plus and grade book
doesn’t work, “because it’s in Java, that’s why.”
Some kids try to get around using it, ask their moms to do
Key Behaviors
Developed own curriculum and shares it with other read-
ing specialists after hours. “The system was failing them.”
Finds any reason to send a note to her students. “They love
getting messages. It’s personalized, individualized to
them. They don’t get a lot of that. Sometimes it unites the
whole class....I think it’s the best part of Reading Plus.”
Has previously looked for passages in Creole or Spanish
and assigned to a student to read. “Are they a poor reader
or is this a language barrier?”
“Squeeze out as much time as I can in the lab.” Students
that need more time can !nish up in her classroom.
Walks around the room and observes while the students
use the computers.
Tells students to raise their hand as soon as they level up.
Gives her an opportunity to praise them and gain some
recognition in the class.
As soon as she’s back in the classroom, prints out the cer-
ti!cate and pastes it on the wall immediately. She also
gives the student a prize – a frisbee, pencils, nail polish,
footballs, armbands – whatever she’s collected. They’re
happy to get the smallest thing.
Gives incentives. If every student does their sessions for 9
weeks, they get a pizza party.
Changes grade level and pre-reading rate when a student
is struggling; always discusses the issue with the student
!rst before making any adjustments.
At the beginning of the year, gives every student in her
class 5 rereads automatically. “I see no reason why these
should be so limited.” Notices students saving up their
rereads, afraid to use them too soon. They take guesses
earlier on instead and it ends up lowering their score.
Knows who to give easier worksheets to; print them out,
student answers in writing, then she grades it and they
discuss it together.
Doesn’t touch the PAVE rates. Once changed the max scan
rate because a student was complaining about it.
Regularly records scores in each student’s agenda book.
Encourages students to use Reading Plus at home to get
extra practice or make up a missed session. If they don’t
have a computer or DSL at home, sends them to the
school library.
Knows which of her students is an “exception” and isn’t
expected to earn above 70%.
When students read above an 8th grade level in the !rst
semester, they “level out” of Reading Plus in the following
semester and get to take an elective instead.
Periodically explores new teacher theories online.
Has explored several online teacher communities,
impressed with EdModo.
School uses TeacherWeb, but she would rather use her
own thing. “I like playing and experimenting with stu#.”
Shares with other teachers over lunch what new resources
she has found.
Contacts Reading Plus whenever she had a problem
(“‘Need Help?’ on the green screen gives you the number.”)
Previously participated in Project Smart. The district gave
her a blog where she would post ideas, assignments,
encourage kids to comment. No longer doing it.
Attends one statewide and one national reading confer-
ence every year.
“I’ll do whatever it
takes to help my kids.”
ENTHUSIASM:
READING BACKGROUND:
TECH SAVVY:
HIGH
MEDIUM
HIGH
MEREDITHTrained Teacher
Age 30 Phoenix, AZ
“Teaching someone how to read is
the best thing you could ever do for
somebody.”
“When you close your door, do what-
ever it takes to get your kids excited
about reading.”
“I am mesmerized by this program.”
“I didn’t like the previous program we
were using. It was terrible, it’s awful.”
“I connect well with my kids. I give a
lot of accolades.”
“I tell my students, ‘You’re not reading
on a 1st grade level, you’re missing
strategies from the 1st grade.’”
“I tell my kids that things will open up
for you [being a better reader] ... Sign-
ing a contract on a home, !lling out
an application, learning the rules for
a new job.”
“All of a student’s teachers are work-
ing together towards a goal.”
“I would have loved to work for last
year’s principal for the rest of my life.”
There has been a lot of administrative
turnover in her school the last three
years. She wants to be a stable force.
Goal: To be the highest performing reading department in
the county.BackgroundDebra is Boynton Beach Community High School’s Department Chair of
Reading. She !rst learned about Reading Plus in an email blast. Upon attending a
workshop she thought, “I like this. This is going to work.”
She convinced her principal to try the pilot program, and they purchased a
license the next year. Debra is married with two teenage children and has a Masters in Reading.Attitudes
Motivations“This makes our department more legitimate.”
County is very data driven: state testing for reading comprehension 3x
year; benchmark test 2x year; FCAT (comprehensive assessment test) 2x
year (closely related to graduation rate).
Diligent students are getting 18+ on the ACT
The principal paid for the program and is eager to see it work.
“Silent reading is so hard to evaluate because you can’t see it.” “Without Reading Plus, I don’t know if
a student is actually reading or com-prehending.”
“These kids who were never success-ful, never got a pat on the back, they
get their !rst reward and their face lights up.”
Sees tremendous progress among ESL and special-ed students.
FrustrationsNeed to get teachers and students bought into the program.Constantly !ndings herself encourag-
ing teachers to take greater advan-tage of all the options. “If teachers
would use all that Reading Plus has, they would bene!t.”
clear them. “If they aren’t checking then they can’t respond to the prob-
lem.”Wishes she could send a message to
multiple classes; needs spellcheck.
puters to use Reading Plus at one time.
Any time she has to edit enrollment
Key BehaviorsRuns the high school reading pro-gram, oversees all reading teachers,
has three of her own reading classes.Started using Reading Plus in 2005/06
with the lowest 25% achievers in the school and saw a major improvement.
Following year tried it with the whole school in both the Reading and Lan-
guage Arts classes.“At !rst the teachers weren’t sure they could do it because they’re not com-
puter savvy.” She sat with each teacher and walked them through it.
Demos the program to students using a fake student account that she set up
Logs in to the Management Interface every day, multiple times a day.
Sometimes at home at night.Manages the system for all teachers using it – Reading and Language Arts
– but only really monitors the Reading teachers who she oversees.Looks to see when the teachers have
last logged in. When sees that stu-dents have logged in much more
recently than teacher: “Well that’s a red "ag!”
Hardly has to say anything to the stu-dents anymore when they enter the
classroom. “They just sit down and get to work.” “Other teachers are always
wondering why it’s so quiet in my classroom.”
Tells students that they’re expected to achieve scores of 80% or higher. “At
our school we don’t aim for Cs, we aim for Bs.”
Bumps up students in 9th grade so they can see what it will be like in 10th
grade.Frequently making tweaks by stu-
dent: harder vocab; longer stories; slower speed. “Teachers don’t want to
do it so I do it for them.”Flips back and forth between compre-hension score and CLOZE score to
compare. Gives students more rereads when they ask for them.
Uses the Notes & Messages feature to write an entire class and let them
know if they’re on track as a class. Also writes personal notes to students who
are doing well to say “good job.”Keeps printed copies of all of the
Reading Plus skill sheets in binders for the Reading teachers to use.Walks around to observe other classes
using Reading Plus; brings students candy, “You did a great job.”Sets up competitions between the
classes; whoever gets the highest average comprehension for the quar-
ter gets an ice cream party; top three classes get donuts.Set up Reading Plus enrollment for all
classes, all teachers; moves students between classes as necessary. “If the
student is in the database, it’s easy. If they’re already enrolled in a class, I
need to unenroll them in the admin area.”
Unenrolls all students from all classes at the end of each year “I’m a real
Internet junkie.” Looks for worksheets online (Googles main idea work-
sheets). Attends education technology con-
ferences and uno#cially advocates for Reading Plus while there.
“You can’t do anything if you can’t read.”ENTHUSIASM:READING BACKGROUND: TECH SAVVY:
HIGHHIGH
MEDIUM
DEBRASite AdministratorAge 46 West Palm Beach, FL
Quote on her wall: “Reading is to the mind as exercise is to the body.”
“I was frustrated by not knowing how they were doing.” “Teachers have to know their stu-
dents.”Believes it works. “Of my students
who had failed the FCAT between 1 and 4 times, 43% passed – and I attri-
bute that to Reading Plus.”Concerned about adoption. “Some teachers don’t want to use it.” “You have to change the teachers’
minds about how the students learn.”Proud to be an advocate. “I am the
Reading Plus queen.”Believes the site admin’s role is to “monitor and motivate.” “A lot of
Reading Plus is enthusiasm and get-ting them turned on.”“I love that you can maneuver it.”
“Student’s anecdotes aren’t enough; data tells the story.” “What you put into it, you get out of
it.”
The Story Map is the User Experienceis the Product Backlog
is the Release Plan[is the Sprint Backlogs]
Personas reflectwhat is most Valuable
decide up frontwhat is of highest Valuenot when writing code
outcome > output
usability testingrequires real users
who experience the designevolving Design is a team sport
facilitation is fundamental
Takes everything that happens as it comes
walls to screens
outcome
“The kids know it’s just a beta, but they were wondering if
they were allowed to do their Reading Plus
at home tonight.”- beta class Teacher
Bad panda
Faces the decay of its fruits
Communicating UX Goals in a Distributed Agile Team
Everyone loves a Specification / Requirements
Changing Tools / Process is Hard
learnings
What you take with you
QA & UX/IxD needed to be on the Delivery Team
Development & Design Convergence toShared Understanding > Documentation
Documentation Simplifies Release Preparation
Culture Colors Process, and is What You Ship
Facilitation & Collaboration as Foundational
Feathered sprints
Rick Cusick @rickcusick
rick@readingplus.com