smpercival.weebly.com · web viewbased on his lack of participation, c.m. seems to need further...

Running head: ANALYSIS OF STUDENT WORK 1

Analysis of Student Work:

Determining the Next Steps for Literacy and Mathematics

Sierra Percival

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

EDEL 311

Fall 2013

ANALYSIS OF STUDENT WORK 2

Table of Contents

Abstract …………………………………………………………………………….. 3

Student Background: Personal ……………………………………………………… 4

Student Background: Academic Achievement Assessments ………………………. 6

Grade Level Standards ……………………………………………………………… 9

Artifact #1 …………………………………………………………………………. . 11

Artifact #1: Standards / Initial Strategy / Re-teach Strategies ………………………. 12

Artifact #2 …………………………………………………………………………... 15

Artifact #2: Standards / Initial Strategy / Re-teach Strategies ……………………….. 17

Artifact #3 ………………………………………………………………………………. 18

Artifact #3: Standards / Initial Strategy / Re-teach Strategies / Re-check ……………….. 20

Reflection ..………………………………………………………………………………. 27

References ………………………………………………………………………………. 30


Abstract

As pre-service teachers, we are tasked with developing an understanding of

accountability, standards-based instruction, assessment, data-driven instruction, intervention

strategies, differentiation of instruction, and student achievement. These components of effective

teaching can all be applied during a study on the analysis of student work. An analysis of student

work can be achieved through understanding a student’s background, teaching class lessons,

assessing for understanding, obtaining artifacts of student work via assessment, comparing

student achievement to the initial lesson objective/standard, determining appropriate intervention

strategies, re-teaching using an intervention strategy, rechecking for understanding, and

reflecting.

During my analysis of student work study, I conducted these steps with a student that I

chose in my Practicum I kindergarten class at Roundy Elementary School in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Through obtaining background information on my student and assessing him in academic areas, I

discovered that he is motivated to succeed, yet his academic achievement is well below his

classmates’ in the area of literacy. I felt that he would benefit by receiving individual instruction

and attention. Through this study, I was able to teach my student standards-based lessons, assess

my student, analyze my students’ work, and reteach my student as needed.


Student Background: Personal

For this study, I chose to work with a student in kindergarten at Roundy Elementary

School, named C.M. C.M. was chosen due to his apparent interest in succeeding academically,

his motivation to try hard during activities, and his low literacy achievement.

C.M. is 5 years old, and is a quiet and reserved student who is kind to his classmates.

C.M.’s first language is Spanish, and his family speaks Spanish at home. C.M. speaks English

well enough to converse with his teacher and classmates, although he usually seems reserved

during class. C.M. wears prescription glasses, but these glasses were broken and left at home

after the first couple weeks of school.

On September 18, 2013, I conducted a Reading Attitude Survey and Interest Inventory

with C.M. The Reading Attitude Survey is a series of 14 questions designed to help a teacher or

adult discover how a student feels about reading and books. It is important to know a student’s

disposition toward reading, reading skills, whether the child reads at home or not, and how the

student might be motivated to read more often. Each question is able to be answered three ways,

with a happy face, indifferent face, or sad face. Depending on the child’s answers for each

question, the teacher can circle one of these three responses. The Interest Inventory contains 16

questions, 7 of which are meant exclusively for students in primary grades. In both of these

assessments, questions are to be asked in conversation, as the student is more likely to provide

information in a more informal context. The Interest Inventory helps teachers to learn what the

student likes to do outside of school, who they read with at home, the kind of books they like to

read, what they enjoy at school, and what their hobbies are. In getting to know a student’s

interests, teachers can use those interests to motivate them in the classroom and during reading


activities.

During these surveys, C.M. was shy, but provided answers to most of my questions, and

seemed to enjoy our conversation. I learned that C.M. lives at home with his mom, dad, sister,

two brothers, and two dogs. He enjoys playing games with his brothers and sister at home,

including tag, hide and go seek, and computer games. C.M. enjoys SpongeBob and Spiderman

computer games, books, and cartoons. C.M.’s mom and dad read him books every night before

bed – typically books about SpongeBob or Spiderman. C.M. cannot yet read, but he enjoys

looking at picture books. At school, his favorite activities are story time and recess.


Student Background: Academic Achievement Assessments

In early September of 2013, C.M. was assessed by his kindergarten teacher using an early

literacy Essential Skills test. This test covered letter recognition (capital and lowercase), letter

sounds, and letter writing (for both capital and lowercase letters). C.M. scored far below his

classmates on this assessment. Many students recognized at least half of the capital and

lowercase letters, and were able to write several of them. C.M. only recognized and was able to

identify lowercase “l” and “o,” and was only able to recognize and identify the sound for “s.”

C.M. was not able to write any of the letters in the alphabet – capital or lowercase. Given that

C.M. is very shy and is not proficient in English, he may have known more of these letter names

and sounds than he reported during his assessment.

Over the course of three weeks in September 2013, I conducted three observations of

C.M.’s behavior during literacy activities. During the first two observations, I observed C.M.

during two writing lessons. During these two lessons, C.M.’s teacher wrote uppercase letters and

simple words on the whiteboard. Students each had their own small whiteboards and dry erase

markers to use at their tables. Once a letter was written on the board, students were asked to

practice writing that letter on their whiteboards. During these letter-writing exercises, C.M.

frequently seemed unsure how to write the letter on his board, or possibly could not see it well at

the angle he was sitting. He would usually glance at another student’s board to view how they

wrote the letter, and then slowly write it himself on his own whiteboard. During my first

observation, C.M. wore his glasses, but during the second observation, he was without them.

During both observations, he seemed unsure of how to write the letters that were displayed on

the classroom whiteboard. Although he wrote an “A,” “T,” and “I” correctly, he did not write


“S” or “M” correctly. C.M. wrote his “S” sideways, and wrote “M” as “W.” Since students were

not required to identify the letters they were writing on their boards, because C.M. was able to

write these letters does not mean that he could identify their names or sounds – hence why he

was unable to write them when prompted on his Essential Skills assessment.

During the second observation, the class practiced writing words on their whiteboards –

eventually turning them into simple sentences. The class was required to write “I,” then “like,”

then “cats.” C.M. displayed interesting word writing behavior. When writing “like” and “cats,”

instead of writing the letters in these words from left to right, C.M. skipped around. Writing the

letters in the following sequence: “l,” “k,” “i,” “e.” Although the final product was correct

(“like”), C.M. did not use proper directionality when he was writing these words. While writing

“cats,” he again wrote his letters in varying order, but instead of writing the letters in their

correct places, C.M.’s final product was “ctas.” As to be expected of a kindergartener, C.M. also

lacked spaces between the words in his final sentence, “I like cats.”

My third observation of C.M. occurred during the class’ morning literacy sequence.

During this sequence, students review letter names, letter sounds, rhyming words, word

beginnings, syllable blending, word endings, syllable isolation, compound word substitution,

sentence repetition, and a guided alphabet sound song. During the observation, C.M. generally

seemed uninterested in these activities. Although he participated in some of the exercises, he

stared at his shoes and barely moved his lips for most of them. Based on his lack of participation,

C.M. seems to need further instruction in letter names, letter sounds, rhyming words, word

beginnings (sound), syllable blending, and compound word substitution. C.M. participated in

syllable blending, identifying word ending (sounds), and syllable isolation. Since it was difficult


to hear his answers for this activity over the choral responses of the class, further

assessment/observation is needed to tell his proficiency with these skills.

In October 2013, I conducted five literacy assessments with C.M. I gave C.M.: the Flynt

and Cooter Letter Identification Assessment (LI), the Flynt and Cooter High Frequency Word

Identification Assessment (HFW), the Phonemic Awareness Assessment (PA), the Words Their

Way Primary Spelling Inventory (PSI), and the Flynt and Cooter Comprehensive Reading

Inventory (CRI).

Upon administering these assessments, it is clear that C.M. is in the very early stages of

the reading process. He was unable to identify more than three letters, identify or produce

rhyming words, identify words with the same beginning or ending sounds, blend sounds into

whole words, segment words, identify beginning or ending sounds, manipulate words by adding

different sounds, spell basic words, or read kindergarten sight words. However, C.M. was able to

most accurately identify syllables. He identified the correct number of syllables in 3 out of 4

words given. C.M. was also able to tell me the events in each picture of the preprimer in the CRI

assessment. However, he had a limited sense of story, and was difficult to understand in his

retelling (due to limited English proficiency). During this assessment, he was able to tell what

was occurring in each picture, and seemed like he understood that the pictures were connected in

the story, but did not use language that made the pictures flow together to form a story. For this

reason, the CRI assessment was discontinued. When identifying C.M.’s needs, it is clear that his

most immediate needs are to work on letter identification and phonemic awareness.


Grade Level Standards

For the purposes of varying my teaching experiences, I chose to teach a reading/writing

lesson, math/writing lesson, and guided reading lesson, with each of these lessons focusing on

C.M.’s needs and reinforcing his current skills. Each of my lessons revolve around the Common

Core State Standards for kindergarten in literacy and mathematics. These standards include:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.K.3 With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and

major events in a story.

C.M.’s limited English proficiency means that he may struggle with reading

comprehension. By teaching him about story elements, it may be easier for him to pinpoint and

remember elements of a story to aid in comprehension of the plot.

CCSS.Math.Content.K.CC.A.3 Write numbers from 0 to 20. Represent a number of objects with

a written numeral 0-20 (with 0 representing a count of no objects).

During my observations, I noted that C.M. had difficulty writing letters. Although this

math standard focuses on writing numbers, my lesson focuses on building the skills that lead to

number writing, such as practicing written strokes such as circles, curves, and lines. These will

aid C.M. in both number and letter writing.


CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.1d Recognize and name all upper- and lowercase letters of the

alphabet.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.2a Recognize and produce rhyming words.

C.M.’s most immediate needs include mastering letter identification and phonemic

awareness skills. These are foundational skills that must be mastered before reading can take

place. I chose to focus my guided reading lesson on these two standards which represent C.M.’s

most immediate literacy needs.


Artifact #1


Artifact #1: Standards / Initial Strategy / Re-teach Strategies

Standard

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.K.3 With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and

major events in a story.

Objective

After being read Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss, students will draw either a main character,

setting, or major event within the story, and identify it as such with 100% accuracy, given that

they have prior knowledge of what these terms mean as applied to a story.

Initial Strategy

Upon using choral reading with the class to read Dr. Seuss’

Green Eggs and Ham, we created a circle map together as a class.

This circle map included the title of the book (in the center) and

various student-suggested elements, such as Sam-I-Am, the Man, a

train, a boat, green eggs and ham, and sentences depicting the main

events of the story. During this process, main characters, settings,

and main events were explained to students, and as a class, each picture or sentence on the circle

map was classified into one of these three categories. Students were given their journals, and

were instructed to draw a picture of one of the main events, settings, or main characters in the

story, Green Eggs and Ham. Upon sharing their drawings, students identified each drawing as a

main character, setting, or event.

In his journal, C.M. drew the ham, the boat, and the car from the story. Upon being asked

whether the boat and car were settings, main characters, or main events, he verbally identified


them as settings in the story. This fulfilled my objective for the lesson, and re-teaching this

objective to C.M. was not necessary.

Possible Re-teaching/Extension Strategies

Strategy #1 – Reenacting with Puppets: In order to further grasp the

elements of a story (main character, setting, and main events), C.M. and

I could read a small picture book about Spiderman. We could then

make stick puppets for the main characters in the story and a drawing of

the setting. (These things could also be pre-made to accommodate for

time. C.M. could use the puppets and setting to retell the story. He could be asked verbally who

the main characters are (stick puppets), what the setting is (the drawing of the scene), and what

the main events are (the scenes he acted out with the stick puppets) (Tompkins, 2010, pg. 49).

Strategy #2 – Mapping Character Traits: As either an

extension or re-teaching activity, C.M. and I could focus on one

of these elements and delve deeper. For example, we could read a

book about SpongeBob, and create a SpongeBob character traits

poster. In the middle of the poster would be a picture of

SpongeBob. Around SpongeBob, we could brainstorm and write SpongeBob’s character traits

(such as, “friends with Patrick,” “has a funny laugh,” and “is a sea sponge”) (Tompkins, 2010,

pg. 305).

Strategy #3 – Story Elements in Film: Since C.M. enjoys TV shows, we

could watch a clip from one of his favorite SpongeBob or Spiderman

shows. We could then discuss the story elements that were presented in the


clip, such as Spiderman being the main character, New York City being the setting, and swinging

on webs through the streets of New York being the main event. This will help C.M. generalize

the concept of story elements across media. Discussing these things will also help him work on

his speaking and listening skills.


Artifact #2


Artifact #2: Standards / Initial Strategy / Re-teach Strategies

Standard

CCSS.Math.Content.K.CC.A.3 Write numbers from 0 to 20. Represent a number of objects with

a written numeral 0-20 (with 0 representing a count of no objects).

Objective

During this lesson, the student will practice tactile number strokes in preparation for number

writing. The student will complete a worksheet by using a pencil to trace circular lines, curved

lines, vertical lines, horizontal lines, diagonal lines, and figure eights. Given the student has been

shown these strokes previously and demonstrated making them in the air with his/her finger, the

student will complete this worksheet by using a pencil to trace all of these lines (thus making

these strokes) with 80% accuracy.

Initial Strategy

During this lesson, students participated in a lesson delivered via SmartBoard, focusing

on giving students practice making various strokes that they will need to use when writing

numbers. The strokes practiced during this lesson were: circle, curve, line, and figure eight.

During the SmartBoard lesson, students made these strokes in the air with their fingers during

imaginative activities (such as blowing bubbles, sliding down slides, and falling to the ground

like a raindrop). After these activities, students returned to their tables. Students were broken up

into Jigsaw groups, with each jigsaw group focusing on writing a different stroke with pencils

and paper. When jigsaw members returned to their original tables, they demonstrated how to

write each stroke on a worksheet given to each student. Members of each group watched


their jigsaw expert, then attempt to make the strokes themselves, with help from their jigsaw

expert if needed. This continued for the entire worksheet, which had 6 sections.

In order to fulfill the objective, students must have made each stroke when completing

each section of their worksheet. They were to trace the lines of the shapes on their worksheet,

tracing the lines with the accuracy expected of early kindergarteners. As long as students traced

the lines satisfactorily (thereby making the stroke most of the time), they fulfilled the objective.

Obviously, each shape would have to be traced for the student to fulfill the objective.

I observed C.M. while he was tracing his shapes on his worksheet. He appeared to have a

little difficulty with the curved lines (in the clouds), but was still able to trace the lines and make

the strokes satisfactorily. While tracing the last cloud (the right-most in the section), he seemed

to master the stroke. Upon completion of the worksheet, he told me, “That was easy!” I

determined that he fulfilled the objective, and re-teaching would not be necessary.

Possible Re-teaching/Extension Strategies

Strategy #1 - Shaving Cream Writing: A remedial strategy for giving students practice at

making strokes prior to writing with a pencil is to spread a thin layer

of shaving cream on a desk, and have students make strokes with

their finger in the shaving cream. This would give C.M. additional

practice making each stroke with his finger. When advancing to

making these strokes with a pencil, he could use the eraser tip of a pencil to make the same

strokes in the shaving cream. After practicing his strokes, C.M. could advance to number writing

with shaving cream. Representing numbers with objects could also be used during this activity.

C.M. could be shown a number, and make the representative number of circles in his shaving

cream, or vice versa (Tompkins, 2010, pg. 137).


Strategy #2 – Number Writing with Touch Math: An extension activity

for this objective would be to have C.M. begin number writing using the

dots from the Touch Math program to guide him. This way, by the time

addition is introduced in the first grade, he will be familiar with where the

dots are placed on each number from 1-9. Using the Touch Math dots, to

guide him, he will begin by tracing each number, and eventually be able to write the number

unaided, by picturing the number and the Touch Math dots in his mind. This strategy will also

help him when learning to represent numbers (1-9) with objects – as these objects can correlate

with the Touch Math dots (Innovative Learning Concepts Inc., 2013).

Strategy #3 – My Number Writing Fluency Book: An extension

activity for C.M. to use when remembering the order of his numbers, and

working on his fluency when writing numbers, would be to create a

number writing fluency book. This fluency book would be filled with

several grid pages. Each page would have at least 21 grid spots, so C.M.

could write the numbers 0-20 (or 1-20) on each page. Every couple of

days he could fill out a page in his book, with help from a number chart at first, and then without

a number chart. As C.M. becomes more proficient at number writing, he could be timed, and

work each day to beat his previous time. This could also be modified for representing numbers

with objects. Instead of writing numbers in the grid boxes in his fluency writing book, C.M.

could also draw objects representative for each number (like circles, squares, or tally marks)

(Mrs. Miner’s Kindergarten Monkey Business).


Artifact #3


Artifact #3: Standards / Initial Strategy / Re-teach Strategies / Re-check & Re-plan

Standards

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.1d Recognize and name all upper- and lowercase letters of the

alphabet.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.2a Recognize and produce rhyming words.

Objectives

1. Given a set of upper-case and lower-case letters that the student has learned before, the

student will name each letter on 2 out of 3 attempts, with 100% accuracy.

2. Given the student understands the thumbs up/down procedure for identifying rhyming

words, the student will identify whether two words rhyme or not using a thumbs up

(rhyme) and thumbs down (do not rhyme) procedure on 7 of 10 attempts, with 100%

accuracy.

Initial Strategy

This lesson was taught as a small group guided reading lesson, including research-based

reading strategies for students in early emergent reading levels, as outlined in the book, The Next

Step in Guided Reading by Jan Richardson (2013). This lesson included activities for each of the

following skills/concepts: letter identification, letter formation (with the letter “d”), name

recognition/letter order, identification of rhyming words, concept of word, and word

writing/sentence formation. Each one of these aforementioned concepts/skills was taught during

a series of six short activities.

http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RF/K/2/a/

http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RF/K/1/d/


The letter identification activity used during this lesson required each

student to have a small baggie of magnetic letters. During progress

monitoring assessments on letter identification, I determined which letters

each student knew, obtained these letters (from the magnetic letter bucket),

and put each student’s letters in their own separate baggies. This letter identification activity

consisted of students reviewing the magnet letters in their baggies by taking out each letter, and

saying the name of each letter as they placed the letters on the table from left to right. As

students worked with letters they already knew, this activity served as a background knowledge

activator. Next, a new letter was introduced during a letter formation activity. During this

activity, students practiced saying the letter name (in this case, “d”), writing the letter in the air

with their finger, and describing the way it is to be written (“around like a “c,” up and down”).

This added a new letter to their baggie – lower case “d.” During this activity, C.M. was able to

name all of the letters in his baggie, and did well in remembering “d” during the letter formation

activity. Therefore, I decided he did not require to be re-taught this objective.

I conducted the rhyming activity much like their

teacher does every morning. Each morning, their teacher reads

pairs of words that either rhyme or do not rhyme. For each

pair, students are asked to respond by putting their thumbs up (for rhyming words) and thumbs

down (for words that do not rhyme). C.M. has finally begun participating in this activity

recently, but frequently looks at others’ response before he responds himself. I wanted to see

what his responses would be in his small group, when he was unable to look at others’ answers

before answering himself. During this activity, C.M. seemed unsure of which words rhymed or

not. He answered incorrectly for about


half of the word pairs. I decided that C.M. needed further instruction in this area, and would need

to be re-taught.

Re-teach Strategies

Strategy #1 – Rhyming Words Picture Sort: I think it

would be a good idea for C.M. to have a concrete

representation of two words when deciding whether they

rhyme or not. This way, he can better picture the words and

think about their sounds, instead of having the words be

fleeting utterances while guessing if they rhyme. I thought that a picture word sort for rhyming

words would be a great option for re-teaching him this concept. It seems like repetition is the key

to identifying rhyme, and a rhyming word picture sort provides such repetition. An extension for

this strategy would be to combine picture and word on one card, that way, C.M. could explicitly

see how the words rhyme by viewing the same letters on the end of each rhyming word (Alvarez,

2013)(Tompkins, 2013, pg. 478).

Strategy #2 – Rhyming Words in Song: During class, C.M. loves to participate when singing

songs. I believe that singing songs about rhyming words could help

him hear the way rhyming words sound similar. By singing each

word together, C.M. might be able to hear their rhyming connection!

Singing songs will also give him practice in speaking and listening in English. Two examples of

rhyming songs are “Rhyme Time” and “The Big Pig Song” from Hooked on Phonics.


Strategy #3 – Rhyming in Spanish: As C.M.’s first language is Spanish, he may be more apt to

understand and hear rhyming words when they are in Spanish. The following worksheet provides

a chance for students to rhyme in Spanish. This worksheet would be easy to implement with

C.M., and all that I would need is a Spanish key to go through the words with him. Teaching

C.M. in Spanish might also make him feel more comfortable, and help us to establish a better

student-teacher connection. Once C.M. can hear rhyming words in Spanish, the connection can

be made between Spanish and English (Bilingual Scrapbook, 2013).

Re-check/Re-plan

To re-teach C.M., I decided to use a rhyming picture sort (strategy #1). For this activity, I

used the “Bushel of Rhymes” picture sort. This picture sort includes 32 apples and 16 baskets.

Each apple and basket have different pictures on them. There are two apples per basket. During

this activity, the student must find the two apples that match each basket. For example, the “pig”

and “twig” apples would match the “wig” basket.


I decided that 32 apples and 16 baskets to sort might be too much for C.M., especially

with his limited English proficiency and short attention-span. For this reason, I found the 6

simplest pictures/words and their matching 3 baskets to have C.M. sort. During this activity,

C.M. and I talked about each picture before we sorted them. During the activity, it was clear that

C.M. needed more practice at identifying rhyming words. For example, when asked which

basket the “hat” went in, he selected the “pig” basket. I corrected him and told him that “hat”

went in the “bat” basket. C.M. sorted some apples correctly on his own, and I would say that he

had around 60% accuracy. At the end, when all apples had been sorted correctly, we reviewed

the apples in each basket. I asked him to say the words quickly together for each basket, “bat,

cat, hat, bat cat hat, bat, cat, hat,” to help him hear how these words sounded similar. Saying

these words as fast as he could was fun for C.M., and I believe helped him to see the rhyming

connection between the words.

I believe that C.M. still needs more instruction on rhyming words. He would benefit from

repetitive activities that help him see the connection between rhyming words. If I were to re-

teach C.M. about rhyming words again, I would probably use my two other strategies – rhyming

words through song, and rhyming words in Spanish. I believe that both of these strategies will

benefit C.M. I plan on letting my mentor teacher know about my ideas, and giving him the

resources for both of these strategies so he can use them in future small group lessons with C.M.

and other students in his guided reading group.

Continued Progress

During the week after this re-teach/recheck, I had another opportunity to work with C.M.

and two other ELL students that are having similar struggles with rhyming words during a

rhyming center activity. This informal activity helped me to connect with the students and hold


their attention. During this time, we practiced completing a rhyming picture sort kit, with four

pictures on a mat, and twelve connecting blocks with rhyming word pictures on each block.

Blocks were to be placed accordingly on the mat, next to their rhyming picture, with three blocks

per picture. C.M. and the other two students could identify the pictures in English in most cases,

but in others, I asked them what words the pictures represented in Spanish. I then made the point

to introduce the English word for each picture, and together, we repeated saying each block-word

with the four mat-words to identify which words rhymed and which did not. By the end of the

activity, I believe I made a break-through with C.M. and with the two other students as well!

They slowly began to correctly place the blocks and identify which words rhymed and which did

not! By saying each word together aloud, and working as a team to place the blocks, I believe

that the repetition helped them to hear rhyme between words.


Reflection

I greatly enjoyed working on this project with C.M. Getting to know C.M.’s family life,

hobbies, interests, and disposition toward reading was wonderful! I believe that C.M. enjoyed

sharing this information with me, and as I spoke with him more and more I saw him become

more comfortable in the classroom setting. Assessing C.M.’s literacy skills was very helpful in

knowing where his needs lie. I found it extremely beneficial that I was able to structure my last

lesson solely around C.M.’s needs.

Reflection on ASW as a Whole

During this project, I developed a deeper understanding of accountability, standards-

based instruction, assessment, data-driven instruction, intervention strategies, differentiation of

instruction, and student achievement. During each lesson, I held myself accountable for C.M.’s

achievement and comprehension by assessing his understanding and determining whether he

would benefit from additional instruction in each area. During my third lesson, I used C.M.’s

assessment data to structure my lesson explicitly for his needs, and I felt that this benefited him

greatly. While researching re-teaching strategies and developing each lesson, I learned that there

are many ways to teach a concept. As a teacher, it is up to me to structure my instruction to best

help my students succeed, and differentiating instruction in each lesson is the key to each

student’s success. When teaching, I plan to use data-driven instruction to teach standards-based

lessons while differentiating each lesson to bolster student achievement in every subject area!

Connecting Best Teaching Practices to Real Work

During this project, I used best teaching practices, such as research-based instruction and

strategies, to help my student succeed. During my third lesson that I tailored to C.M.’s literacy

needs, I used research-based methods presented by Jan Richardson (2013) in a guided reading


group to focus on all of C.M.’s most immediate literacy needs. I believe that the continual

meeting of this guided reading group will help C.M. succeed in literacy – and it has already

proven itself to be effective with C.M. based on his progress monitoring assessment data for

November! Best teaching practices mean designing instruction by determining student needs and

finding researched-based methods to include in those lessons and address those needs. I believe

that this ASW assignment has given me the practice I need in doing just that.

Implementing Formative Assessment in the Future

During this ASW project, I was able to utilize a number of different methods of formative

assessment in my lessons. From journaling, to debriefing, to Kagan strategies, and checklists, I

believe that formative assessment has been one of the most important teaching strategies that I

have used during this project. Formative assessment is so important in the classroom! By

constantly assessing students for understanding – both formally and informally, formative

assessment is necessary before, during, and after daily lessons. I definitely plan to utilize the

formative assessment strategies that I have learned during this project in my next practicum,

student teaching, and when I finally have my own class. I am excited to try different formative

assessment strategies that are appropriate for other grades as well!

What Was Your Most Valuable Learning?

I believe that the most valuable thing that I learned during this assignment is the process

and value of assessing a student, ascertaining that student’s needs, finding research-based

strategies to use in instruction that are based on the standards being taught, differentiating

instruction for each student, formatively assessing students for progress/understanding, and then

re-teaching/re-checking for understanding. This project helped me piece together this process of

teaching, and gave me practice in implementing it. I believe that all teachers are called to use this


process with their students, and I plan to always use it in my future classroom. This process leads

to student success, and keeps teachers accountable for their students’ achievement!

What I Will Change when Formatively Assessing a Whole Class

Though I analyzed the work of only one of my students during this project, I still had

practice formatively assessing the entire class during each of my lessons. I believe that analyzing

the work of a class of students will be slightly more complex, but not much different than

analyzing the work of one student. When formatively assessing an entire class, it will be

necessary for students to have artifacts as a product of each formative assessment. This will

allow me to have a hard copy of their work when assessing each student’s needs. After the

formative assessment, I will review each student’s artifact and assess for understanding and

fulfillment of my lesson objectives. For those who did not meet the objective, I will categorize

their work into groups based on their needs. I will then either re-teach/re-check during small

group lessons (perhaps while the class works on centers) or design my next lessons re-teaching

the content that many struggled with. Individual work/assignments can also be given based on

specific needs. I am excited to take the process of analyzing student work to the next level during

my next practicum experience!


References

Alvarez, N. (2013, September 28). A bushel of rhymes. Retrieved from

http://www.teachingwithnancy.com/?sd_product=bushel-rhymes

Bilingual Scrapbook. (2013). Gracias: Thanksgiving math and literacy centers in spanish.

Retrieved from http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Gracias-Thanksgiving-

Math-and-Literacy-Centers-in-Spanish-977140

Innovative Learning Concepts Inc. (2013). Touchmath: The alphabet of mathematics. Retrieved

from http://www.touchmath.com/index.cfm

Miner. (2012, February 18). Number writing fluency freebie. Retrieved from

http://www.mrsminersmonkeybusiness.com/2012/02/number-writing-fluency-

freebie.html

Richardson, J. (2009). The next step in guided reading: Focused assessments and targeted

lessons for helping every student become a better reader. New York, NY: Scholastic

Teaching Resources.

Tompkins, G. (2010). Literacy for the 21st century: A balanced approach. (5th ed.). Boston,

MA: Allyn & Bacon.

smpercival.weebly.com · web viewbased on his lack of participation, c.m. seems to need further...

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