data analysis and feedback plan wsii.docx€¦ · web view2018. 10. 17. · data analysis. the...
TRANSCRIPT
Data Analysis
The graph below displays each students pretest percentage with their post test
percentage. As a whole, the class greatly improved from pre to post test, with several
students exceeding the standard of proficiency. What I was most proud of, is that
students who answered practically no questions on the pre test, primarily those students
who have IEPs, were able to attempt nearly every question and get at least 25% of the
questions correct. Although they might not have had the all of the steps solidified to
complete the problems, they were able to complete the initial steps. They also had
developed those foundational skills about fractions that were absent at the beginning of
the unit.
Score Level
0-14 Far
below
15-20 Nearly
meets
21-26 Meets
27+ Exceeds
I used the rubric above to determine students proficiency in the standards presented. I
made the goal that by the post test, 70% of the class would either meet or exceed. The
results of the pretest were that 96% of the class was not proficient in the standards. The
post test resulted in a little over 72% of the students meeting the standards.
Score Level Pre Test (# of students)
Post Test (# of students)
0-14 Far Below 20 5
15-20 Nearly Meets 8 2
21-26 Meets 1 8
27+ Exceeds 0 13
On the pre test, students exhibited that they have very little knowledge about the
concepts that were presented. Many expressed frustration and anxiety about not
knowing very much of the material. Specifically, they seemed to focus on the difficult
vocabulary words that were presented. This gave me an idea that vocabulary
development was something to focus on throughout the unit. Students proved on the
post test that they had grasped the majority of the concepts that were presented. The
class average went from a 31.37% to a 78.89%.
Pre Test % Post Test %
Mean 31.37 Mean 78.89
Median 24.13 Median 93.1
Mode 24.13 Mode 96.55
Overall, I was very pleased with the growth that students exhibited from the pre
to post test. The graph below displays the percentage that students grew from pre to
post test assessments. My goal was for students to achieve at least a 30% growth from
pre to post test. There were six students who did not achieve this goal. I closely
examined the tests, formative assessments, and background I know about these
students to think about why their growth was not more significant. Four of the students
scored in the nearly meets category during the pre test, and moved up into meets or
exceeds with the post test, and so I recognized that their growth was still significant in
that they were meeting the standard. The other two students exhibited limited growth
from the pre to the post test. One of the students is currently going through a threat
assessment for self harm. He is experiencing a lot of behavior challenges both with his
actions towards himself, other students, and teachers. He was absent from the class for
a significant amount of the math block of the day. I did my best to keep him on track with
the rest of the class, but his behaviors made that task somewhat difficult. I then closely
examined the other student, whose growth was about 10% from pre to post test. This
particular student is currently on an IEP. She struggles to stay focused during math
class, and so I asked her to always make sure she sat at the front of the carpet during
the mini lesson, so that she would be able to engage herself. She often chose not to sit
on the carpet, and rather wanted to sit at her own desk. This particular student generally
shuts down when she is asked multiple times to do something. I decided that I would
rather have her listen from her seat, then completely shut down. I do not think that
sitting in her own seat was a good choice, because she often began doodling during the
mini lesson. In the future, I would like to have assigned carpet seats for particular
students. I believe that there is a strong correlation between achievement and
engagement. This particular student, like many others, could benefit from a more
structured seating arrangement in the classroom. The two students who achieved
limited growth from the pre to post test also expressed their strong disinterest in math
as a subject area. I would like to find ways to personally motivate these students to
become more interested in math. The performance task was a good example of ways to
make math more authentic and interesting for all students.
I specifically looked at the English Language Learners in my classroom, as a
student teacher working towards the ESOL endorsement. The graphs below displays
the pre to post test percentage changes. I was enthusiastic to see the growth that each
exhibited, something that I think can be attributed to the use of visual models, structured
language practice, and a focus on authentic vocabulary usage. Without the
incorporation of that comprehensible input, I don’t think that these students would have
been so successful.
I chose to closely examine the student G30, who is a very beginning English
Language Learner. This particular student reads at a DRA level 6, making story
problems very difficult for her to understand. She expressed that her favorite subject is
math, but she struggles with some of the vocabulary that is presented. During the test, I
read the story problems aloud to her so that she could accurately solve the problem and
construct an answer. At times, she would answer incorrectly, but not because she was
making incorrect computations, rather that she misunderstood what the question was
asking. For example, she might have thought that the story problem was asking her to
add together the fractions, rather than find the difference. I want to continue to work with
this student on her math language skills in order to become more proficient in math. I
challenged this student to look for words like “difference” or “how much more” in order to
determine that the operation of subtraction should be used, or look for “total” or
“altogether” when using the operation of addition. As this student continues to develop
in her reading, I think that she will find a lot of success in math. It will be up to me, as
her teacher, and other future teachers to continue that language development across
content areas.
Something that I found to be very interesting had to do with student attitudes
about math. I included a survey in which students were to indicate their interest and
preference in mathematics. I then used that survey to compare attitudes with overall
post test achievement. I was not surprised when there was a strong correlation between
attitudes about math and post test percentages. Many students develop negative
attitudes about math in early grades. This can be attributed to test anxiety, poor
performance, or even the teacher’s attitude towards math. I was very conscious of how I
approached teaching math. I personally have always loved math. I did my best to show
my enthusiasm for math with the students, while still recognizing that it can be difficult at
times. By fourth grade, if those attitudes have been generally prevalent throughout
elementary school, they can be difficult to overcome and break through. I found that
celebrating the students growth from the pre to post test was inspiring to them as
students that they can be successful in mathematics.
Another aspect of the student data that I looked at had to do with students who are
currently on IEPs. I did not include students who are on IEPs for speech, but rather
those who attend LRC for reading, writing, mathematics, and behavior. Upon looking at
the graph, you can see that in general, these post test scores were much lower than the
average of the whole group. Many of these students miss significant portions of the day
as they attend the Learning Resource Center to assist them in those areas that they are
struggling, which often makes it difficult to keep them on track when they are absent
from instructions. Despite the students absences, many displayed significant growth.
Student B18 went from answering none of the questions correctly on the test, to
achieving nearly 70% accuracy. I think that math workshop was an important grouping
strategy for these students. At the teacher station, I was able to deliver content that was
at an appropriate level for these students. We were able to go back to those
foundational fraction skills, and truly solidify them before moving on to more complex
content.
Student Work #1:
I collected student work on a daily basis and scored it on a 3 point scale that involves
the categories of meets, developing, and needs work.
The first example is of a story problem that was completed after the class worked
through several examples together. Students were provided with sentence stems to
utilize in each box to help them communicate and organize their ideas.
PS #1 is an example of a piece of student work that meets. This student completed
each box with the appropriate sentence stems that were provided in order to
communicate the process and product. The process is communicated through words as
well as with an area model and equation. Finally, the correct answer is expressed in a
sentence.
PS #2 is an example of student work that would be in the developing category. This
student completed each of the boxes with the appropriate sentence stems and
appropriately communicated their method, but there were some errors in computation
that resulted from an inaccurate area model. This student is on the right track to a
correct answer but needs to pay attention to details in order to come to the correct
answer.
PS #3 is an example of student work that needs work. This student completed each of
the boxes with the appropriate sentence stems, but selected an incorrect method for
answering the question that the story problem indicates. This student used addition
instead of subtraction which lead to an incorrect answer.
Student Work #2:
The next set of student work is an example of an exit ticket that was given at the
conclusion of math workshop. I focused primarily on the top section of the exit ticket, as
the lower portion had to do with self assessment.
ET #1 is an example of a piece of student work that meets. This student correctly used
an area model to convert an improper fraction into a mixed number. The student
included labels to clearly communicate her thinking.
ET #2 is an example of a piece of student work that is developing. This student used the
strategy of drawing an area model to complete this problem, but changed the
denominator when converting to a mixed number. This student has the concept of how
to solve this problem, but made an error when expressing the answer.
ET #3 is an example of a piece of student work that needs work. This student is still
working on the basics of identifying fractions. This student flipped the numerator and
denominator and then drew a picture of a set that had 3/14 shaded in, rather than
displaying 14/3 as a mixed number.
Student Work #3:
This final set of student work is a vocabulary check in. Students learned various hand
signals that were associated with important vocabulary from the unit. For this
vocabulary check in, I showed students the hand signal, without any words, and then
asked them to write down the vocabulary word and the definition of the word. I repeated
the hand signals several times for students to see.
V#1 is an example of a vocabulary check in that meets the standard. This student wrote
down the appropriate vocabulary word with its definition.
V#2 is an example of a vocabulary check in that is developing. This student was able to
write down the definition of the word, but was unable to write down which vocabulary
word was associated with it.
V#3 is an example of a vocabulary check in that needs work. This student was able to
write down parts, but was able to give a concrete vocabulary word or definition for each
hand signal.
Overall, this student work gives me, as a teacher, information about what kind of
directions I am giving, and whether or not students know what is expected of them. I
think that I can improve on giving students clear expectations and providing them with
the tools to refer to when they have questions on assignments.
Feedback Plan
Across all grade levels, students like to know how they are doing, whether or not
they are right are wrong. Instead of simply telling students their grades or how many
questions they got wrong on the test, I am finding it to be much more constructive to
meet with students in mini conferences to discuss how they are doing. If this had been a
longer unit with less of a time constraint, I would have liked to do this with each of the
students in my class. I was really only able to do this for the students who I knew were
really struggling to either stay on task or to understand the material. During these mini
conferences, I was able to talk with the student about things they were doing well, and
then also things they could improve on. I would specifically talk with the students about
setting goals, particularly in the areas that they were struggling in. I found that when
students set their own goals, they become much more invested in the process because
the goal belongs to them and is not something that they were told.
Students also corrected their own post test. I individually shared their pretest
scores to help them understand the incredible growth that occurred throughout the unit.
As they each corrected their own tests, many students raised their hand and asked
questions about specific test questions that they answered incorrectly. I was
immediately able to provide feedback and guidance as to why the answer they chose
was incorrect. I think this helped students to once again target some of those
misconceptions that they brought into the unit.
Some students may benefit from oral feedback, but others may be able to
synthesize it better if it is written. Throughout the unit, something that I could have done
differently is provide written feedback to students on their individual assignments.
Ideally I would love to write comments to students on their exit cards with hopes of
answering questions and overall motivating them to stay engaged and interested in the
lesson. I recognize that this may be time consuming, but I think that students like to
know that their assignments aren’t just piling up on your desk. When students get
feedback, in a timely manner, I believe that they become more motivated to turn in
quality work. They will also learn things that they could do better the next time. I know
that when I was in school, if a teacher said to the class that they weren’t going to grade
something or look at it, I was much less motivated to do my best work. Although we
don’t want our students to complete assignments just to get grades, I think that it still
plays a role in their work ethic.
I believe that one of the most important things is to develop a positive
relationship with parents/guardians. I do not want the first time I contact a parent to be a
time when I have a concern about their student. I believe that the initial contact and
positive relationship that is built with a parent will make providing feedback in an area of
concern much more accepted rather than feeling like an attack. I want to emphasize
that the goal of the parents and teacher is to work together to provide the best possible
education experience for their child. When I provide parents feedback and collaborate
with them, I want to have resources available so that if parents feel inadequate to assist
their children, I can support them with tools such as books or computer games that may
make them feel more comfortable. I think that a lot of times teachers are more focused
on giving parents feedback when their student is struggling academically or
behaviorally, but I see a great importance in giving feedback on a regular basis, whether
it is positive or negative. I had the opportunity to participate in parent conferences at the
conclusion of a grading period. I was able to share with parents and guardians their
child’s progress throughout the unit that I taught. I found that when a parent is very
aware of their child’s academic struggle, that it is best to focus on the positives and
provide them with encouragement that their child is making progress, even if it is slow
and minimal.
Although I believe that teachers need to provide feedback to students, I also see
a benefit in students giving each other feedback. This is something that implemented
into my unit, and would like to implement in the future. I had students look at each
others story problems and area models and give positive feedback and suggestions as
to what they did well, or what they could possibly change. When students begin to
recognize things in their peers work that could be done differently, they begin to look at
their own work in that way as well. This results in more reflection and self assessment. If
I were to implement this into a classroom on a more regular basis, I would provide some
kind of graphic organizer where students could give feedback about things they like and
suggestions they have for changes that the student could make. Students could be
intentionally paired with others who could benefit from working through that experience
together.
Something I implemented into my lesson plans was the opportunity for students
to self assess, and to consider how they would rate themselves for the day. When
students are more reflective on their own learning, they come to recognize things that
they can do to differently in the future as well, similar to peer assessment.
Overall, I think that feedback needs to be specific. When feedback is too general,
it beings to feel inauthentic and somewhat forced. I hope to continue to improve on not
just saying “good job” to students, but instead verbalizing specific things that the student
is doing to help them learn and grow.