Ellie Ellison

ELED 533
Dr. Wallace

Student Work Analysis

Context
My practicum placement this semester is a in the second grade of a small, rural Title I
school. Each grade has two classes of around 40 students per grade. My class has 17 children, 6
girls and 11 boys. The majority of the classroom is Caucasian, 2 students are of Hispanic decent,
and 1 African American student. According to my Cooperating Teacher (CT), about half of the
class has been held back at some point in their schooling already.
The physical environment of the classroom is meticulously organized, and very inviting.
The students work is found throughout the classroom, along with a fabulously decorated bulletin
board filled with current curriculum information. The learning environment is well respected, as
my CT expects a high expectation for behavior and qualities of work, the students have grown to
strive for excellence.
Student 15 is above average on his math scores in class, however his reading abilities are
very low, and he gets pulled out to work on his reading and writing, as well as his speech.
Student 16 transferred to the school at the beginning of the year and is still getting used to the
new classroom environment, and struggling to find a social circle, he has great comprehension
skills, but his fluency is very low so if he is taking a long time he will get frustrated easily and
rush through work without understanding. Students 14, 7, and 5 all have diagnosed ADHD and
thus have trouble focusing sometimes. Student 14 has an especially hard time with behavior
expectations and in math, but does extremely well in all other subjects. Student 7 (when he
remembers to take his medicine) is very calm but struggles to read and thus in all subjects he is
behind. Student 13 is an ELL student, and gets pulled out to work on his language skills.
Students 1, 2, and 3 are definitely on track to be gifted students, and read well above grade level,
and their grades and behavior across the board are outstanding. Student 1s mother is a first
grade teacher and father is a middle school teacher. Student 10 is also incredibly bright, but
sometimes struggles with behavior expectations.

Class Schedule:
8:00-8:30 am
8:30-9:15 am
9:20-9:35 am
9:35-10:15 am
10:15-11:10 am
11:10-12:10 pm
12:10-12:50 pm
12:50-1:30 pm

Morning Work
Specials
Finish Morning Work
Reading Rotation I
Reading/Spelling
Lunch
Reading Rotation II
Math

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1:30-2:00 pm
2:00-2:30 pm
2:30-2:45 pm
2:45 pm

Recess
Social Studies/Science
Pack-Up
Dismissal

Pre-Assessment
I talked with my CT at the beginning of the placement to plan my lessons and
assignments, and we decided to have the pre-assessment on place value a week before they
started the unit (in reality, they didnt end up starting the unit until two weeks later). My CT
knew that place value is a very difficult concept and wanted to see where the students faired with
their little prior content knowledge and possible understandings. Below is an image of the
worksheet the students used:

Standards of Learning
First Grade:
1.1 The student will
b) group a collection of up to 100 objects into tens and ones and write the corresponding
numeral to develop an understanding of place value.
Second Grade:

Ellie Ellison
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Dr. Wallace
2.1 The student will
a) read, write, and identify the place value of each digit in a three-digit numeral, using
numeration models
Third Grade:
3.1 The student will
a) read and write six-digit numerals and identify the place value and value of each digit

Assessment Analysis
Criterion Reference Data
Below is a graphical representation of my classs understandings of the SOLs I assessed.
There was only one question for the SOL standard 1.1 (question 1), and if they answered
correctly they earned an understanding. There were 3 questions for standard 2.1 (2, 3, and 5),
and if they answered two of the three correctly, they earned an understanding. There was one
question for standard 3.1 (question 4), and if they answered it correct they earned an
understanding. The pre-assessment used a problem from the first grade standard because the
second grade standard builds on those taught in first grade. There was also a challenge problem
to see if any were able to extend their knowledge to the third grade level.

Criterion Reference Data

17
16
15
14
13
12
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Number of students
who mastered 1.1

Number of students
who mastered 2.1

Number of students
who mastered 3.1

A little more than half of the class has an understanding of the first grade standard.
However, upon further investigation, students 11, 12, and 13 may have an understanding as it
looks like their answers were just silly mistakes. That still leaves 4 students (students 14-17)
who lack an understanding of grouping a number into tens and ones. There were three students
that mastered the second grade SOL, and even one who mastered the third grade. This data is
useful to see that a significant portion of the class at a minimum needs a reminder of the first
grade SOL, and almost all will be learning the second grade standard from a start.

Ellie Ellison
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Dr. Wallace
Norm Reference Data
This is a graph showing percentage grade received on the pre-assessment. All questions
were worth one point, however, question 5 had nine blanks to be filled, and 1/9 of a point was
given for each correct blank filled in. It is important to note that this graph does not mention
which standards they answered correctly or incorrectly.

Norm Reference Data

90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
0

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

Based on the above graph, I can see two groupings of students (students 2, 3, and 5-11 in
one group and 12-17 in the other), and two individual outliers above both groups (students 1 and
4). I will keep these groups in consideration when forming my official groups, however detail
will need to be paid to which SOLs were mastered, and how the students answered the questions.
Overall this graph shows that all but two of my students failed to understand the pre-assessment,
and the unit will need to be thorough.
Individual Qualitative Analysis
Student

Analysis

This student did a fantastic job on the pre-assessment (80%). The only question he
did not answer correctly was How many ones are there in 435. He answered 5.
Now, this was a question I put in there to try to catch the misconception with place
value and there is a 5 in the ones place, but the number is still made up of 435
ones. I would say he has an understanding of place value, and we could strengthen
his understanding of the language used, in the difference between how many
ones/tens/hundreds are in a number versus what digit is in the ones/tens/hundreds
place.

Ellie Ellison
ELED 533
Dr. Wallace
2

While this students score (38%) on the pre-assessment makes it seem like she did
not have a strong understanding, her incorrect answers showed incredible thought,
she was very close. She answered, How many ones are there in 435 with 5.
Now, this was a question I put in there to try to catch the misconception with place
value and there is a 5 in the ones place, but the number is still made up of 435
ones. She also answered What number is in the hundreds place: 40521 with
405. I thought that was very bright of her, and she was great at problem solving
since she had never been introduced to a place value higher than the hundreds
before. She also had one silly mistake in filling out the clip of the hundreds chart,
going from the 20s in the first row it ends on a 25, and she started the next row
with a 26 rather than 31. I believe she has an understanding of place value, and
could improve upon the language used in these problems, specifically in the
difference between how many ones/tens/hundreds are in a number versus what
digit is in the ones/tens/hundreds place.

While this students score (38%) on the pre-assessment makes it seem like he was
missing some understanding, his wrong answers were close, and showed some
awesome thought. He answered, How many ones are there in 435 with 5.
Now, this was a question I put in there to try to catch the misconception with place
value and there is a 5 in the ones place, but the number is still made up of 435
ones. His answer to What number is in the tens place: 791 was 79 which
showed he knows how many tens there are in the number, just not the digit in the
tens place. He also answered What number is in the hundreds place: 40521 with
4052. He did the same thing as in his previous answer, and accidently took the
number too far. He also had one silly mistake in filling out the clip of the hundreds
chart, going from the 20s in the first row it ends on a 25, and he started the next
row with a 26 rather than 31. I believe he has an understanding of place value,
and could improve upon the language used in these problems, specifically in the
difference between how many ones/tens/hundreds are in a number versus what
digit is in the ones/tens/hundreds place.

This students score was high (60%), but the incorrect answers showed room to
deepen the understanding. For the question What number is in the tens place:
791 she answered 91, and answered 521 for the question What number is in
the hundreds place: 40521. She was the only student in the class to answer How
many ones are in 435 correctly, leading me to believe she may have a grasp on the
language used when talking about place value and grouping. She has a knowledge
of where the place value belongs, but not what it is representing. I would like to
strengthen her understanding of what place value is, and her understanding of the
digit as a representation of grouping.

This students performance (40%) showed that he is grasping at the concept, and
almost has understanding of place value. He answered How many ones are in
435 with 5. Now, this was a question I put in there to try to catch the

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Dr. Wallace
misconception with place value and there is a 5 in the ones place, but the number
is still made up of 435 ones. For the question what number is in the tens place:
791 he answered 90 as well as answering what number is in the hundreds
place: 40521 with 500. This suggests that he can identify the digit in each place
value, and understands what that value represents, and just needs to work on
language used.
6

This student has basic knowledge of the place value concept (40%) showing
mastery of the 1.1 SOL and filling in the hundreds chart correctly, however does
not know what to do when presented with questions specifically pertaining to
ones/tens/hundreds place. Improvement in gaining the vocabulary knowledge to
know what the questions are asking and being able to understand just what place
value in digit representation is when linked to unit cubes will help to grow the
understanding.

This student has basic knowledge of the place value concept (40%) showing
mastery of the 1.1 SOL and filling in the hundreds chart correctly, however does
not know what to do when presented with questions specifically pertaining to
ones/tens/hundreds place. Improvement in gaining the vocabulary knowledge to
know what the questions are asking and being able to understand just what place
value in digit representation is when linked to unit cubes will help to grow the
understanding.

This student has basic knowledge of the place value concept (40%) showing
mastery of the 1.1 SOL and filling in the hundreds chart correctly, however does
not know what to do when presented with questions specifically pertaining to
ones/tens/hundreds place. Improvement in gaining the vocabulary knowledge to
know what the questions are asking and being able to understand just what place
value in digit representation is when linked to unit cubes will help to grow the
understanding.

This student has basic knowledge of the place value concept (40%) showing
mastery of the 1.1 SOL and filling in the hundreds chart correctly. She used
wonderful problem solving skills when trying to answer the problems specifically
asking about the digits of the place value, answering 35 to How many ones are
in 435, 91 for What number is in the tens place: 791, and 21 for What
number is in the hundreds place: 40521. She just picked the last two numbers
which lets me know she needs to understand the questions, and is most likely
missing the vocabulary to do so.

10

This student has basic knowledge of the place value concept (40%) showing
mastery of the 1.1 SOL and filling in the hundreds chart correctly, however does
not know what to do when presented with questions specifically pertaining to
ones/tens/hundreds place. Improvement in gaining the vocabulary knowledge to

Ellie Ellison
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Dr. Wallace
know what the questions are asking and being able to understand just what place
value in digit representation is when linked to unit cubes will help to grow the
understanding.
11

This students pre-assessment was interesting (40%). He answered the SOL 1.1
incorrectly, instead of grouping the cubes into 24 pieces, he counted up the number
of cubes, and he told me when I asked him that he did not read the directions. He
answered, How many ones are there in 435 with 5. Now, this was a question I
put in there to try to catch the misconception with place value and there is a 5 in
the ones place, but the number is still made up of 435 ones. He did answer what
number is in the tens place: 791 correctly, and was one of only two students in the
class who did so. His answer for What number is in the hundreds place: 40521
was 4, leading me to believe that because he has had no previous experience with
place values higher than the hundreds place, he assumed the number furthest to the
left would be the best representation. With a little vocabulary building, this student
can grow a deeper understanding by looking more at the language used for this
unit.

12

Although this student showed little understanding score wise (20%) she got the
first question wrong because of misreading my poorly written questions How
would you model the number 24 with the given cubes? Circle the ones you would
use: and she only circled the ones. I believe she has a mastery of the 1.1 SOL
and she filled in the hundreds chart correctly, however does not know what to do
when presented with questions specifically pertaining to ones/tens/hundreds place.
Improvement in gaining the vocabulary knowledge to know what the questions are
asking and being able to understand just what place value in digit representation is
when linked to unit cubes will help to grow the understanding.

13

This student (20%) made a very small error in the first problem, circling 23 cubes
instead of 24. I would give him an understanding of the first grade SOL, and he
filled in the hundreds chart correctly. His answer for What number is in the tens
place: 791 was very clever and he answered 79. However, he did not show the
same thought when answering the other two questions directly asking about place
value. I think building his vocabulary (especially since His limited English may be
hiding his true understanding of the concept) would best help him to grow.

14

This student (18%) was very nervous when starting the pre-assessment, and was
vocal about his doubts in his knowledge of the content. He had not previously
been exposed or gained any knowledge of the subject. He did fill in the hundreds
chart, but needs to be introduced from a grouping understanding first (and with
manipulatives), and build the knowledge with vocabulary.

15

This student (18%) was very nervous when starting the pre-assessment, and was
vocal about his doubts in his knowledge of the content. He had not previously

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been exposed or gained any knowledge of the subject. He did fill in the hundreds
chart, but needs to be introduced from a grouping understanding first (and with
manipulatives), and build the knowledge with vocabulary.
16

This student (20%) showed some promise with answers directly pertaining to place
value, but showed no understanding of the why and how of place value. To build a
true understanding of what place value is, going back to grouping with
manipulatives would be most helpful to strengthen this student.

17

This student (20%) showed some promise with answers directly pertaining to place
value, but showed no understanding of the why and how of place value. To build a
true understanding of what place value is, going back to grouping with
manipulatives would be most helpful to strengthen this student.

Grouping
After analyzing both the quantitative and qualitative data, I organized my students into
four separate groups based on their performance, what understandings they showed, and how
they answered certain questions.
Group

Objectives

Students: 1, 2, 3, 5, 11

I would like for this group to focus on the language used

when talking about place value and what it represents. My
goal would be for them to understand the difference
between the total amount of ones/tens/hundreds in a
number and the digit representation of a number. I would
also like for them to be able to distinguish between the two
when asked a question both verbally and when read.

Student: 4

She has a knowledge of where the place value belongs, but

not what it is representing. I would like to strengthen her
understanding of what place value is, and her
understanding of the digit as a representation of grouping.
By the end of the unit she should be able to verbally
explain what each digit in a number represents, and model
with drawings or manipulatives.

Students: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13

These students have a basic knowledge of the place value

concept showing mastery of the 1.1 SOL and filling in the
hundreds chart correctly. I want them to have the

Ellie Ellison
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vocabulary for place value, and link the vocabulary of
ones, tens, and hundreds back to their prior knowledge of
grouping with the base ten cubes. I want these students to
be able to correctly identify the ones/tens/hundreds place
of a number, and be able to explain verbally what the place
values represent.

Students: 14, 15, 16, 17

These students do not have an understanding of grouping

yet to build upon learn the vocabulary for place value. We
need to start their understanding with the manipulatives
and grouping with the base ten cubes, and introduce the
place value vocabulary with the grouping. My goal is that
by the end of the unit these students would be able to
correctly represent a number with base ten blocks, as well
as identify the ones, tens, and hundreds place of a number.

Reflection
This process ended up taking me a lot longer than anticipated. I learned a lot about
myself as an evaluator, what types of analysis I like best for my future classrooms, and what I
can improve upon to stream line this process to make it more effective for classroom usage.
I love using excel, and messing around with different graphs and ways to analyze
quantitative data. I have worked at the test scoring center since my freshman year, and was very
comfortable with the different ways I could look at the data. I liked seeing how the class did as a
whole on each question, as a whole based on each SOL, individually, and so on. Immediately,
groups began to emerge, and I felt I knew exactly who my groups were from that, with some
minor tweaking I noticed based on some well thought out but ultimately incorrect answers.
Moving onto the qualitative data was the hard part for me. It seemed so tedious since I
was already confident with my groups. However, after analyzing in-depth each individual and
their answers to each question, I ended up creating four groups instead of three, and
reconstructing my objectives. I learned so much from this process, but it also took me a
tremendous amount of time, and I was left wanting to be sure I use this in my future classroom
analysis, but unsure of how to perfect the process. I asked my mom, who works at an elementary
school, to see what the other teachers do. I talked to one teacher who said to make small notes,
looking for specific trends in answers, and start the grouping from that perspective, then see how
the quantitative data looks, and make small adjustments from there. I really liked her feedback
and could see myself managing that load much better, and ultimately to the benefit of my
students.