Positive Impact

on

Student Learning

Ms. Love

April 1, 2011

Part 1: Introduction to the Instructional Context and Content Focus

For my research I chose to use my fourth period advanced Language Arts class. There are 24 students in this class, which takes us about 2/3 of our available classroom space. This is a seventh grade class; therefore, all of my students range between the ages of 12 and 13. I would describe this group as a very busy class, yet a very compliant class. They are hard workers, meaning regardless of the length of content of the assignment, the vast majority of students will complete it. This is partially due to their intelligence, but also speaks for their support at home. My cooperating teacher receives more parent emails from parents in this class, than any of our other classes. These parent emails often consist of questions about improving their child’s grade, even if that grade is a low “A.”

I do not have any students in this class with exceptional needs; however, this class does present its own individual challenges. I differentiate with this class in ways that make the material more difficult because their grades and motivation have proven to me that they are capable and willing to accept the challenge. The students in this class are enthusiastic, gifted, and energetic. Because of this energy, I work to find ways to utilize kinesthetic learning. Like all middle school students they love to move around and because of their growth at this time in their life, their bodies physically need to be in motion to be comfortable. I also try to transition between activities two of three times during our 53 minute class

period. There is no way I can expect students to maintain on task through a 53 minute activity. College students cannot even do this! Transitioning between activities regularly students focused and on task throughout class.

Being a new teacher, it is difficult for me to always know what level my students are on with certain topics; therefore, when it came time to search for a topic for my project I looked to a direct source of their knowledge, their writing.  After I found run-on sentence after run-on sentence, I knew what my mission was. I am eternally grateful that I did a pre-assessment because it provided me with valuable information that I would have never otherwise known.  As it turned out, my regular students were struggling to identify complete sentences, and my advance students were able to add the correct conjunction and punctuation into the sentence.  As a new teacher, it is still shocking to take on 125 students on completely different levels.  With this knowledge in mind, I decided to add conjunctive adverbs and subordinating conjunctions to the agenda for the advanced students (the class under study) and stick to just coordinating conjunctions and conjunctive adverbs for the regular education students.  

I knew in advance that grammar is not a topic that the students go wild for, so I brainstormed for ways to spice it up and get my always antsy students up on their feet. Another challenge that I intended to overcome was the fact that students always seem to grasp grammar when they are fixing flawed sentences on a generic worksheet; however, when it is time for them to take their grammatical knowledge back to their own writing, it is as the lesson went in one ear and out the other. As a teacher, this is especially disappointing, but I saw it as a challenge. This goal, in addition to kinesthetic learning activities, had a major part in my lesson planning.

Part 2: Instructional Sequence: Pre-Assessment; Informed Instructional Plans; Assessment & Analysis

a. As I mentioned earlier, I had no indication of students prior knowledge of combining sentences other than the fact that I knew

they did not combine sentences at all or correctly in their own writing that I had graded. Run-on sentences were a major problem, especially in the regular education classes. I differentiated between the pretest for the regular education students and the advanced students. For the regular education students I focused on identifying fragments versus sentences, in addition to combining sentences with the use of coordinating conjunctions. I wanted to identify students who struggled identifying a sentence fragment because I knew if they had not mastered that skill, it would be impossible for them to know what two complete sentences were in order to combine them. For my advanced class, I made the questions more complex and elaborate. They were also asked to remove unnecessary commas from a passage. The advanced version of the pretest is included below.

____________________________________________________________

Name:_________________

Commas and Sentence Structure Pretest

Score: __/15

1. What is a conjunction? Name three.

2. You use a _______ and a ___________ to join two independent clauses.

Add commas where they are needed in the following sentences. Some sentences might not need a comma.

3. The teacher repeated the directions but I was still confused.

4. We arrived early and stayed late.

5. Alana wanted to go out Friday night but her parents had forbidden it.

6. I explained the problem to the librarian and she was able to find the book I wanted.

7. We did our best but still lost the game.

Why did some sentences not need a comma?

Mark an “X” through the commas that should be removed from the paragraph below. (5 points)

Val was almost ready to give up but she finally, spotted a light in the distance. She had been lost, in the woods for hours, yet she kept moving. The day had started out beautifully and it seemed like a good idea to go for a hike. Valerie was a person, who always tried to plan ahead. She had put some provisions in a backpack for she wanted to be prepared for a hike of several hours. She had not counted on being out, for so long. Now she was hungry and thirsty since she used up her supplies hours ago. The distant light was a signal that all would be well and Valerie hurried toward it.

Place commas where they are needed in the following sentences.

8. Scared and frightened the child began to cry. 9. After we had examined the crystals more carefully we decided that they were

all made of salt. 10.No I haven’t seen Andrew this morning.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

I am very thankful that I conducted the pre-assessment because I learned an enormous amount from the results. For my regular

education classes, I determined that all of my students, with the exception of three to five students, could differentiate between a sentence and a fragment! Thank goodness! I also learned that when it came to placing coordinating conjunctions in the correct spot with the correct punctuation, the vast majority of students were unsure. There were answers that they got correct; however, due to the inconsistency in their answers, I knew that they did not know why they were placing the commas and conjunctions where they were. Essentially, they did not know the basic rules and practices of combining sentences. This was perfect because this was exactly what I expected based on their run-on sentences. My regular education students fit perfectly with my mini-unit.

When it came time to grade my advanced students, I had a bit of a surprise. Generally speaking, they did much better than the regular education students and many advanced students scored exceptionally well. There were a few minor mix up’s as far as adding commas between a sentence and an incomplete sentence; however, the majority of them knew how to add commas and conjunctions. With this knowledge in mind, I decided that I needed to bulk up my mini-unit in order to really challenge them. Although some students had not done extremely well, no one had done so poorly that I thought they could not succeed with some extra guidance. I decided that in addition to the material of the regular classes, I would add the always challenging subordinating conjunctions to the lessons for the advanced students. The regular students would focus entirely on coordinating conjunctions and conjunctive adverbs. I gathered from their pretest results that this would be a much more manageable load for each of my classes.

B. Informed Instructional Plans:

Day One: Pre-Assessment: On the first day of our “Sentence Combining Mini-Unit” I handed students a hot off the printer pre-assessment. Needless to say, they gave me the meanest most frightened looks I had ever received. At that point, I knew the title “Pretest” was not enough of an indicator to them that they would NOT BE GRADED on this test. My regular education students panicked as they began the test since they knew in advance they would probably do very poorly. I asked students to write something for each question, even if they were unsure. The tests were very short, a front and a back; therefore, most students completed the pretest in 10-15 minutes. After the pre-assessment we shifted gears to another assignment because I wanted to calculate their grades, their prior knowledge, to see if the material was too easy or too difficult before I began instruction.

Day Two: After grading all of the pre-assessments and realigning my goals for the advanced classes, I was ready to begin instruction! The lesson plan I used on day two is pasted below!

Lesson Plan Title: Falling in Line

Concept / Topic To Teach: Combining Simple Sentences

NCSCOS Addressed:Students will be able to…

6.01 Model an understanding of conventional written and spoken expression

by using a variety of sentences correctly, punctuating them properly, and avoiding fragments

and run-ons.

General Goal(s): Students will be able to…

Create complete sentences Insert correct parts of speech. Listen to instructions and follow directions. Punctuate sentences

Specific Objectives: Students will be able to… Create complete sentences orally. Combine simple sentences by inserting coordinating (and

subordinating) conjunctions and conjunctive adverbs. Punctuate sentences correctly

Required Materials: signs to hang around students necks handouts student writing from previous class dry erase board dry erase marker parts of speech cut outs with magnets on the back

Anticipatory Set (Lead-In): “Fix me” Warm Up (10 minutes): As students enter class they will be instructed to grab a slip of paper from the basket by the door. This paper will have a four sentence long run on sentence, and on the board there will be directions telling students to fix this sentence. I will leave the directions open ended because I want to see if students have the prior knowledge to identify that the sentence is a run-on sentence without being prompted. After about five minutes I would ask place the run-on sentence under the document camera and ask students what we need to fix. If they do not

immediately know the answer I will scaffold them toward the correct conclusion. If any students did know that this was the problem, I would ask them how they fixed it.

Step-By-Step Procedures: Handout/Discussion (20 minutes)1. After our lead in activity, I will tell students to put this away while I

pass out their handout. This handout, which is included below, will be a reference for students to study by during this mini-unit. (5 minutes)

2. Board Demonstration: (15 minutes) After students receive their handout, I will ask a volunteer to come up to the board and write a simple complete sentence. Once this is complete, I will ask them to create another complete sentence with a little space in between the two sentences. After this is complete, I will ask the student to take a seat. For my regular classes, I will ask them, why is this a complete sentence. This will prompt them to identify that it has a subject and a verb, and it is a complete thought/idea. (For Regular) Next, I will erase the period between the two sentences and ask them why that is incorrect. Once they decide that two sentences must have some word, punctuation, or a combination of the two in between them in order to stand alone, I will ask what punctuation can divide the two complete sentences. (a period or a semi-colon) I will place my magnetic period and an semi colon in between the sentences and have students write down each variation of the sentence for their notes. Next I will ask them what they would do if I wanted a word to separate the two individual sentences. Most likely someone will say “and.” From here I will introduce them to FANBOYS, the acronym that represents the coordinating conjunctions. I will add my coordinating conjunction magnet in between the two sentences and ask students if that is all it needs. From here we will discuss that just the FANBOY cannot hold up

these two sentences on its own. It must have a comma as well. I will place my comma magnet in front of the coordinating conjunction, and students will copy the complex sentence in their notes. From here we will do the same thing for conjunctive adverbs. I will explain that conjunctive adverbs take on the same role as the coordinating conjunction because they can hold up two sentences; however, they are not quite as strong because they need two punctuation marks, the semi-colon and the period. We will demonstrate the same way with the magnets, and students must copy this sentence in their notes as well. (NEXT PART ONLY FOR ADVANCED) From here we will do the same thing for subordinating conjunctions. Since subordinating conjunctions are more complex as far as their placement in the sentence and the punctuation required, we will do a few different examples. We will demonstrate the same way with the magnets, and students must copy this sentence in their notes as well.

3. Sign Game: (20 minutes) While students are finishing their notes, I will pass out signs for them to wear. Each sign has a word, and there are about four of each word. The words include the following…

complete sentence period semi-colon coordinating conjunction conjunctive adverb (for advanced) subordinating conjunction

I will select a student to go to the far board and write for me. We will begin with a simple sentence and punctuation. The student wearing the “sentence” sign will come up and say their sentence and a student wearing a “period” sign will also say “period.” The student I selected to write will write the sentence as they say it. Next we will add on with another sentence and punctuation. From here I will prompt them to combine the two sentences with one of our methods (coordinating

conjunctions, conjunctive adverbs or for adavanced, subordinating conjunctions). Each time we add something new the students will read their parts in order so they can hear the sentences and the punctuation together. We will continue this for 20 minutes, so by the end we have a paragraph with many complex sentences. After class, I will type up the paragraph that the board writer created and give them to the class the following day.

Plan for Independent Practice: Writing Activity Revised (Homework) 1. For homework, students will take a piece of writing that they did the

prevoius week and change their simple sentences into complex sentences using the methods we discussed in class. They should rewrite the assignment (which is one page) with their additions. They should also underline the punctuation and conjunctions that they added.

Closure (Reflection): 1. For reflection I will give students an exit pass, which says the

following…“Did you find the sign activity helpful?

Why or why not? Did you learn from it?”

Adaptations (For Students with Learning Disabilities): I will give them copies of the notes we take.

Name: ___________________

Joining Sentences Mini-Unit Handout

Independent clause must have three things….

1. Subject: the person, place, or thing performing or doing the action.2. Verb: the action3. Complete Idea: the reader isn’t left waiting for another word.

Example: I hit the ball. Subject: IVerb: hitComplete Thought: Yes

Example: I take. Subject: I Verb: takeComplete idea: No“I take” is a fragment!

You can do three things to join two independent clauses.

1. Add a . or a ; between the two independent clauses. Example: We lost the game. It was very close.

2. Add a “ , coordinating conjunction” in between the two independent clauses.

Example: We lost the game, but it was very close.3. Add a “ ; conjunctive adverb ,” in between the two independent

clauses. Example: We lost the game; nevertheless, it was very close.

(ADVANCED ONLY) You can join an independent clause and dependent clause with a subordinating conjunction. This can be done two ways.

1. Subordinating conjunction dependent clause , independent clause.Example: Since I was tired, I decided to go to bed.

2. Independent clause subordinating conjunction dependent clause.Example: I decided to go to bed since I was tired.

Day Three:

Lesson Plan Title: “Putting the Pieces Together”

Concept / Topic To Teach: Methods of combining simple sentences

NCSCOS Addressed:Students will be able to…

6.01 Model an understanding of conventional written and spoken expression

by using a variety of sentences correctly, punctuating them properly, and avoiding

fragments and run-ons.

General Goal(s): Students will be able to… Identify complete sentences Insert correct parts of speech. Listen to instructions and follow directions. Punctuate writing.

Specific Objectives: Students will be able to… Cut out complete sentences. Combine simple sentences by inserting coordinating (and

subordinating) conjunctions and conjunctive adverbs. Punctuate their letter correctly based on their chosen conjunctions and

adverbs.

Required Materials: scissors glue sticks blank paper two copies of letter per student

Anticipatory Set (Lead-In): Review material from previous class (10 minutes):Students will turn their rewrite assignment in as they enter class for my feedback. Since students frequently initially forget the material from the class period before, we did a quick review to jog their mind. I placed the following sentences on the board.

Jenny goes for a walk.She brings her dog.They walk together

.On a piece of paper, students are to combine these simple sentences with the use of coordinating conjunctions and conjunctive adverbs. They must also punctuate the sentences correctly. I had students consult with a partner beside them about their answer. Students should talk through any differences and raise their hands with questions. I will have one volunteer come up and write their answer on the board. If it is correct, I will ask if there are any questions or discrepancies. If not, we will move on.

Step-By-Step Procedures: Back to Kindergarten-Cut and Paste Activity (40 minutes)

4. After we complete the warm up, students will each be given a two page packet containing a letter and a copy of the letter. The letter was written by a seventh grade student, and prior to printing it, I removed all of the conjunctions and punctuation.

5. Once students have received their packets, I will read through the letter aloud to them. (3 minutes)

6. Directions: (5 minutes) After they finish gawking at the fact that this student failed to punctuate their entire letter, I will explain to them that this is their job. They are to use the skills they have learned over the past few days to combine this students simple sentences. They must use a variety conjunctions and adverbs throughout their letter. The step-by-step directions are as follows. (Will be written on the board)

a. Cut out the first two complete sentences. b. Cut them apart where they first sentence ends and the second

sentence begins. c. Paste the first sentence on your blank sheet of paper.d. Combine the sentences with punctuation, a conjunctive adverb,

or one of the two types of conjunctions we have discussed. (advanced has more than one option)

e. Continue this throughout the letter using a variety of methods to combine the sentences.

7. For the next 30 minutes they are to work on their letters. I will be walking around and helping as needed.

Closure (Reflection): 2. If time permits, at the end of class I will ask students to volunteer to

bring their letters up to the document camera and read through them. As they read through their letters they will exaggerate their volume when reading the “comma and” or whatever the punctuation/conjunction may be.

Adaptations (For Students with Learning Disabilities): Students with exceptional needs will be extra attention and aid during

the planning and creation of the letter.

Day Four: When students enter class on day four I will return their writing-rewrite with comments and notes for improvement. I will have students write a quick paragraph about their response to my comments. They must include what they need to improve, and what they still feel unsure about. I will ask students what they still feel unsure about, and we will go over these issues. Next, I will provide them with their study guides, and then I will give them five minutes to look them over for questions/concerns. After the questions, I will place students into four teams and we will play Jeopardy! The categories include vocabulary, examples, finding conjunctions (in sentences), and punctuation (in the sentences). These questions were designed to challenge students and prepare them for our assessment the following day. The winning team will receive candy! I inserted a screen shot below of the actual game.

Day Five: When students entered class on day five, I asked if there were any questions based on the study guide. We discussed any issues, then students took their assessments.

What was the content focus covered in this instructional sequence? The content was the revision of run-on sentences through the addition of conjunctions and conjunctive adverbs.

What were your learning goals for the entire instructional sequence? My learning goals were to help all students go from writing simple choppy sentences to complex sentences that flow well. This is a broad reaching goal that fits all of my students from regular to advanced.

Describe instructional sequence. (all above) How does each activity contribute to students’ development of

conceptual understanding of the content focus chosen? These activities help students understand the concepts because it features activities that meet each different learning style. They also help students to bring the concepts into their own writing, rather than a generic worksheet.

What challenges are inherent in teaching this idea? A major challenge was the fact that I had a few students that did not know the difference in a sentence and a sentence fragment when we began. Without the knowledge of how to create a simple sentence, it would obviously be very difficult to understand creating complex sentences. Another struggle was the complexity of subordinating conjunctions. With the conjunctive adverbs and coordinating conjunctions the rule is basic and set in stone; however, there are two rules for the placement of subordinating conjunctions, as well as there being two rules for punctuating these placements. I knew in advance that it would be a lot of material for the advanced classes to take in during one class setting. To overcome this challenge we did extra practice with the subordinating conjunctions, and I placed extra emphasis on the fact that they needed to include them in their writing re-write in order for me to ensure they grasped the topic before the assessment. C. Assessment & Analysis of Student Work:1. I addressed my pre-assessment in depth in section B; however, my final assessment was similar in the fact that it was a test format assessment, but I incorporated writing through the students creating their own sentences using the conjunctions and conjunctive adverbs. I have seen far too many times that students can identify parts of speech or punctuate a generic sentence correctly; however, when it comes time to take this knowledge to their own writing, they are clueless. After all of my dedication to this mini-unit and their hard work, I could not allow this to happen; therefore, I included two writing portions with three sentences each for the regular education classes and three sections for the advanced classes. I was thoroughly glad that I added this portion because it allowed me to see some of the inadequacies’ of my unit through some students mistakes, and it helped me confirm that other students mastered the concept completely!

2. As far as how the students did on the pre-assessment, the grades varied greatly. In my regular classes the majority of students did very poorly. Which of course was a good thing because it mean that material was exactly what they needed to be learning; however, in my

advanced classes students did fairly well. I Since they did so well, I decided that I needed to add material and focus primarily on reviewing the coordinating conjunctions and conjunctive adverbs and make my main teaching focus be the subordinating conjunctions. On the post assessment students on average did really well in all of

my classes. There were of course some sporadic very poor grades that make you wonder where that student was throughout instruction, and how did I not notice that they weren’t grasping the topic. I have come to terms these poor grades; however, I have made the students more of a focus of mine for activities since this mini-unit. Overall, I was very excited about the results of the assessment. I have created a chart for my students in fourth periods pre-assessment grades in comparison to post assessment grades. Had I known they were going to do so well on the post assessment, I would have added in subordinating conjunctions upfront. This would have made their grades far lower on the pre-assessment, as well as making their level of improvement between the pre and post assessment far greater. You live and you learn. As a new teacher, I did not know that although they didn’t use these conjunctions correctly in their writing, they could use them properly on a pre-assessment. Even with this disadvantage, their grades still demonstrated growth and a far greater understanding of the content selected. Graphs/Data:

Chatty Kathy

Class Clown

Lovely Lilly

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Pre AssessmentPost Assessment

Rachel

JakeDavi

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MariahNick

C.Eri

nKati

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Brandon

John

Sydney

Carrey

Chloe

Garrett Jad

eNeil Jen

aLau

raLogan

Nick S.

Lauren

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is0

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Pre AssessmentPost Assessment

3. Student work : a. Chatty Kathy: I choose Chatty Kathy because she is the very

bright gifted student who defeats herself through her energy level. She is in a class with many of her friends, and keeping her on task is a daily undertaking. This student is very likeable and popular with her peers, and as a teacher I enjoy her personality. Because of this likeability, I would never say this

student is one that is hard to handle. She is simply very energetic! I selected her as a way of testing my activities to see if they were helpful for students with high energy levels. Energetic students, which lead to difficultly concentrating, are a common issue in the classroom environment today. Teachers must find ways to utilize this energy when possible and suppress it when the time is right.

Based on Chatty Kathy’s pretest it was obvious that she knew the terminology involved because she did answer question one and two correctly; however, when it came to putting this knowledge into practice, Chatty Kathy began to struggle. In one of the sentences that did not contain two independent clauses, she put a comma before the conjunction. This indicates to me that although she knows that commas are generally associated with conjunctions, as she stated earlier, she does not necessarily know when to use them in the context of her writing.

There was also an obvious inconsistency in the places that she used commas. In questions six and seven she either used the commas incorrectly or did not use one when it was needed. This displays to me a misunderstanding of the material.

She also could not correctly answer the following question about why some sentences need commas and others did not.

Her pre-assessment illustrated to me that although she does have some prior knowledge that helped her understand and

define the vocabulary, she does not have the ability to take this knowledge into her own writing.

This piece of Chatty Kathy’s work displays to me major strides in understanding after the in class “sign activity.” She has mastered coordinating conjunctions and subordinating conjunctions; however, she is still having a bit of inconsistency in punctuating her conjunctive adverbs correctly. It is my suspicion that she was at the end of the assignment, and she sped up in order to finish. Because I suspected this, I wrote for her to slow down. It is remarkable how many mistakes students make simply due to the fact that they want to finish more quickly.

My feedback indicated the points I made above; however, I was careful to also give her credit for a job well done on many of her additions.

This activity displays to me that Chatty Kathy struggled to put her knowledge into someone else’s writing. She still punctuated and used the coordinating conjunction correctly; however, she continued to struggle punctuating the other conjunctions. Because of her use of “for” in the last sentence, I can tell that she was struggling to bring her skills into the other students writing.

My feedback indicated the points I made above; however, I was careful to also give her credit for a job well done on many of her additions.

Her survey indicated what I assumed based on her work. The sign activity was very helpful for her. Since Chatty Kathy is very high energy, it is not surprising that an activity that gets her up on her feet and interacting would help her learn. Her writing after this assignment displayed the effectiveness of this activity.

She also stated that the cut and paste activity wasn’t helpful. This was indicated in through the way she struggled through it. For some students it is difficult to take someone else’s writing and add to it. I would rather her struggle with this activity and excel with the activity involving her own writing because that will obviously benefit her throughout life.

Her test grade on the final assessment was a 91%. Jade improved 11 points from her grade on her pre-assessment. This would have been a greater improvement had the pre-assessment had the subordinating conjunctions. I was impressed with Jade’s grade.

b. Lovely Lilly: This student is the kind that all teachers want in their classrooms. She has a great personality, and this enables her to have many friendships; however, when she enters the classroom, she is all business. Whenever I speak, I have her attention, and she is always following along. My biggest concern with her during this mini-unit was that it was a big shift in the way they had been learning grammar. Typically my cooperating teacher uses worksheets, and many students in this advanced class seem to grasp the topics based on the strategy well enough to do well on the assessment; however, when I noticed the obvious issue with them bringing the concepts into their writing, I developed a new plan for teaching grammar. I was worried about how some of the typically successful students might respond. Would they want worksheets again? Would they be hesitant to participate in the entire class “sign activity?” Luckily, Lovely Lilly did not disappoint me. Her grade on the pre-assessment was the lowest in the class at a 63%, and by the end of the mini-unit her knowledge had increased dramatically, which enabled her to receive a B+ on her final assessment.

Lovely Lilly’s performance on the pre-assessment was very surprising. She had far less background knowledge than the other students in the class. Based on numbers one and two, I could see that she did know an example of a conjunction; however, she did not know how it is used in the sentence and the punctuation it must be paired with.

Based on numbers three through seven, it is obvious that she knew the parts that were supposed to be used, but she did not know how or when to put them together. There were major inconsistencies that led me to this belief.

Lovely Lilly displays why she is such a fantastic student through this assignment. She displays humongous strides in concept understanding after only one full day of instruction.

She struggled a little bit with the rules of when to use a comma with subordinating conjunctions; however, I assumed that would be an area that students would need extra practice with.

As far as my comments for Lovely Lilly, I wanted to keep them really positive with the checks, but also make sure she not overlook the things that she needs to improve on in order for her to do well on the final assessment.

Lovely Lilly did a very nice job with this assignment. The only issue she still seemed to have after more review was the punctuating with the subordinating conjunctions.

My comments with this piece really emphasized the reason why it was incorrect because this was a repeated mistake. Another issue I saw with this mistake was that she put the comma in the middle, which is incorrect when the subordinating conjunction is in the middle of the sentence.

Lovely Lilly’s survey of the activities was as I would expect based on her personality and her understanding of the concepts by the end of mini-unit.

She admitted in question one that she did not understand previously, which was obvious by her pre-assessment score.

She also displayed that she found both of the activities helpful, which is displayed through her activities throughout the mini-unit.

Number four asked Lovely Lilly if she felt comfortable with these concepts at the time of the post assessment, and she answered “yes.” She was right! She scored an 89% on her post

assessment. That is a 26 point increase, in addition to the fact that there were many concepts added on after the pre-assessment.

c. Class Clown: I selected this student because although he is a very intelligent student, he is a hand full. Notoriously known as the class clown, this student frequently gets the class off track and distracted. Although he is a very likeable student, I can count on him getting my students off on a tangent. When I was thinking about potential challenges with this mini-unit and this student, I wondered if perhaps the Class Clown would be too over stimulated by the activities to get anything from there. Worst of all, I wondered if his over stimulation would keep everyone from focusing.

Based on the Class Clowns pre-assessment score of 66% it is safe to say that he was unfamiliar with the proper rules and terminology associated with conjunctions. On questions he was probably confused with the difference between conjunction and compound word because the examples he gave were compound words. He inserted commas in questions three through seven. This indicates that he knows a comma is needed, but he doesn’t know when it is needed and when it is not.

The following question also offers insight into his thought process. He responds that some sentences do not need commas because you do not need to pause when you say it. This is obviously a very basic and unreliable rule.

Based on this pre-assessment I knew we had a long way to go with the class clown’s understanding of this topic.

The Class clown did really well on this assignment! I was very happy to see this because initially I was really nervous that the activeness of the “sign activity” would be too overwhelming for the class clown. Although I could tell he had a good time throughout the activity, it appears that he really took in the information.

There were some slight issues with the placement of a comma with the subordinating conjunction. Although I wanted the class clown to notice the rule in the context of his own writing.

The class clown also had a problem with placing a fragment after a conjunctive adverb. This was a fairly common issue in

the class; therefore, I indicated it on his paper, and we had a class discussion about why this is incorrect.

I felt that my feedback for the class clown was positive yet thorough.

This was a very impressive assignment for the class clown. Although he did not get through as much of the assignment as other students did, most likely due to his talkativeness, everything he did was correct.

He used the conjunctive adverb and the subordinating conjunction correctly and punctuated them correctly! He did not include the coordinating conjunction; however, this one is the most basic, so it does not really concern me that he did not include it.

Once again, my feedback was mostly positive. The only improvement I offered was the addition of the coordinating conjunction.

The class clown showed the most improvement of anyone in the class. His grade on the pre-assessment was a 66% and his grade on the post assessment was a 100%! I was so impressed with his progress! He really showed me that although he may be distracting, he is getting the information. The look on his face when he received his grade was amazing! I could he was proud of himself because he had worked hard.

He commented on the survey that the cut and paste activity was not helpful. I think this was probably too much for him based on the fact that he did not get very far on the assignment. It might have been two unstructured for him. Even if he did not feel that he took very much from the activity, his grades display that he

did!

Part 3: Teaching Impact Reflection

What does the performance of the class on your two assessment activities demonstrate about your impact on student learning? There are a few things that my results illustrate about me as a teacher. The results of my pre-assessment indicate that I am able to roll with the punches and switch things up when I see that my students, advanced in this case, are not being challenged to their ability level. The fact that the advanced students had different goals than the regular courses demonstrate my ability to differentiate activities based on academic ability. The results of my final assessment indicated that I did in fact have a positive impact on student learning! All of my students, other than one, improved their grade from the first assessment to the second. I met with this student after the assessment, and we went through the entire test discussing what happened. I allowed him to do test corrections. In my advanced classes the students all seemed to truly grasp the material, with an average grade of 92%. The class activities I evaluated and provided feedback on indicated the areas that they were struggling with, in addition to their improvement throughout the lessons. My assessments also indicate a few areas of improvement I could make. One issue students still struggled with on the final assessment was remembering that after a comma and a conjunction there must be an independent clause. If I was teaching this mini-unit again, I would elaborate more on this issue. I might even give it an entire day of instruction and review because as you can see through the collected work, even my advanced students struggled with this.

What does the work of the three students suggest about the next steps of instruction? The work of the students and the fact that they did grasp the material proves to me that they are ready to take this knowledge into their writing. Before going directly into this writing unit, I might spend a day reviewing the commonly made mistakes like the independent clause issue mentioned about. I think

that this would be especially helpful for my regular education students; however, I think that after only a day of review, students would be ready for the writing unit. This mini-unit should really enhance the complexity of their writing because before all of their sentences were either four line long run-on sentences or short choppy sentences. This writing unit would be a great opportunity to really hammer out any issues through peer review, and also give students an opportunity to demonstrate to me what they learned through our mini-unit.

After reviewing student responses what would you do

differently if you were to repeat this mini-unit? As I mentioned earlier, one issue students still struggled with on the final assessment was remembering that after a comma and a conjunction there must be an independent clause. If I was teaching this mini-unit again, I would elaborate more on this issue. I might even give it an entire day of instruction and review because as you can see through the collected work, even my advanced students struggled with this.

What does the performance of the three students indicate

about your impact on student learning from your perspective? After reviewing the work of these three students, I was overjoyed. This does not mean that I did not see issues and things that need addressing; however, I saw improvement through each piece of work, and they made major strides and growth from their pre assessment and post assessment. This tells me that although there is room for improvement on my pacing and emphasis on certain topics, I did succeed in having a positive impact on these students!

How does your instructional sequence address 21st century knowledge, skills, and dispositions and the extent to which your

assessment activities contributed to your students’

development of these? The ability to write competently is as much a 21st century skill as it was a 19th century skill. Regardless of the time period, people will always need to be able to express their thoughts in a clear and concise way. Ms. Killian always tells students that they do not want to turn in a job application with writing and grammar errors. This is also true of a college admission essay or a note to your child’s school. Whether it is right or not, our ability to write correctly is an indication of our intelligence and education; therefore, I think that this mini-unit on sentence structure is developing 21st century skills. The emergence of technology has solved many of our common writing problems; however, spell check will not fix our students simplistic sentences. My mini-unit and assessments helped enhance these skills through practice of the students and constructive feedback provided by me. I personally think that this is a extremely important skill that will help my students throughout life on any path they decide to take.