Task 3: Assessing Student Learning Assessment Commentary Use the Assessment Commentary template to write a commentary no more than

8 singlespaced pages (including attachments) that address the following prompts.

1. Analyzing Student Learning

a) Identify the specific standards/objectives and central focus from the learning segment measured by the assessment chosen for analysis. Describe any changes from what was planned for this assessment as described in the lesson plans or in the Planning commentary, prompt 4. The standards used for this lesson segment and unit are from the Iowa Core Standards for Social Studies. The following standards are addressed in this learning segment: understand cause and effect relationships and other historical thinking skills in order to interpret events and issues and understand the role of individuals and groups within a society as promoters of change or the status quo. The objectives include: Identify major reform movements of the early 1800s, and examine the experience of western expansion from the Louisiana Purchase to Manifest Destiny. One portion of the learning segment that changed from the planning commentary was the last lesson. My first thoughts for the lesson after the unit 2 test included topics like the Dred Scott Case, Bleeding Kansas and the rise of AbrahamLincoln. However, I changed it because I thought those topics were too important to squeeze into a short amount of time after the test. Another reason is because the students really enjoyed the clip that I showed about the Donor party and frontier life. I thought it would be a good opportunity to expand on that and assign a creative writing assignment as well. Another thing I changed from the planning commentary was the type of writing assessment I gave at the end of the unit. Originally I thought I wanted to give them short answer essay questions. I wanted to avoid overwhelming them with the task of writing an essay from one question. The previous unit had taught me that the students were easily discouraged because they didnt feel that they had enough direction to complete the essay. Only the higher achieving students who had a lot of experience with writing essays felt comfortable with the task. I ended up requiring the students to write an essay in response to a question but I gave them much more support. I included an outline of directions in the shape of an essay outline. I described what information needed to be in each section of their essay. In addition, I provided a Venn diagram so they had a visual of what I was describing in the question. Rather than just listing out the topics they could write about, it was easier for them to have a visual. The visual, which can be seen in this TPA section, had manifest destiny in the middle of the page in a large circle. There were small circles interconnected to each other and the main circle with topics in them. The students were asked to choose two topics to describe and tell me how they relate to manifest destiny. This worked famously! The class average was 83%. In the planning commentary I planned to use a KWL chart to hand out for the slavery lesson. However, I decided to hand out the KWL chart at the beginning of the Civil War unit (the next unit).

Generic Handbook for use in 2011-12 academic year

b) Respond to prompts below to create a summary of student learning relative to your evaluation criteria. 1. Summarize student performance in narrative and/or graphic form (e.g., table or chart). The class average of the summative assessment was 83%. The table below displays the students and their scores. There were 6 points possible. Dominique Peter Wren Gustavo Rashid Jalen Chloe Moriah Amber Amanda Alex December 6 3.5 5 4.5 4 6 6 6 5 4 6 4

2. Discuss what students appear to understand well where they continue to

struggle, including any misunderstandings, errors, confusions, or needs (including a need for greater challenge). Points on the essay were most commonly missed because students did not fully describe the event they chose to write about. They were asked in the body paragraphs to describe what the event was, how it relates to manifest destiny and who benefited and who suffered. The students who scored less than 6 had trouble writing a strong introduction. I wanted the students to write a thesis statement and I think they still struggle with that concept. While they know what thesis means, they dont have a strong editing ability to go back and revise it after they write their body paragraphs. Another area where they struggle is overall attention to detail. Some students missed components of the body paragraphs despite the fact that I laid it out for them. I tried to convey the importance of taking their time during the test. A few students wrongly described events by confusing it with something else that we talked about in class. This shows me the lack of studying that took place.
3. Consider common patterns across the class as well as groups of students

with similar strengths or needs. Cite evidence to support your analysis from the three student work samples you selected. The students who received a 6 on their essay are all my regularly high achieving students, except Moriah. She is a smart and capable young lady but doesnt have the ability to focus in class. She also misses class quite a bit. When she does show up and apply herself she is an A-B student.

Generic Handbook for use in 2011-12 academic year

The students who received a 6 completed all the areas of the essay. One indicator that they are high achievers was their ability to write a strong conclusion. One of the commonalities among the high achievers was that they didnt write a full paragraph for the introduction or conclusion. I didnt specifically ask for a length on the outline because I was looking for content knowledge and the overall flow of an essay.

c) Respond to prompts below by referencing your understanding of the two focus students: 1. Describe each students individual learning strengths and challenges relative to the standards/objectives measured by the chosen assessment. Consider your knowledge of each student (e.g., prior knowledge of the content, language development, academic development, and/or special needs). Student 3, Alex, is the brightest student in this block. I believe he could easily succeed in an advanced placement setting. Alex has more prior knowledge than most students because he has an interest in history. His language development is advanced and he would like to become a medical doctor. The Iowa Core Standard for this assessment and unit says students have to, interpret events and issues, and, understand cause and effect. In my class I tried to improve upon the interpreting skill and bump it up to evaluating events and issues. Alex was able to do that which can be seen in his essay. Student 1, Rashid, is the lowest achieving student in my class. My mentor teacher informed that he is ranked third from the last in his class of about 600 students. Rashid is also an level 4 ELL student. He has only used one accommodation in class and it was for this essay. He wrote the essay outside of class and my mentor teacher was available for questions while I was teaching the other students. He lacks motivation and does not give any indication about why. 2. After analyzing each students work sample, what conclusions did you make regarding their individual learning? Cite specific evidence to support your conclusions. For Alex, it seems that he is really enjoying the class and is highly engaged with the content. This is evident because he is able to evaluate the events and issues I requested in the essay outline. He is also able to take it to the next level by making his own claim in the conclusion, relating manifest destiny to the American dream. It is also clear that Alex is a high achieving student because his introduction and conclusion describe similar ideas, yet does not simply repeat what the other paragraph stated. In addition, there are few grammatical errors in his paper. For Rashid, its obvious he is unclear about the topic that I asked the students to write about. He describes manifest destiny as, something talking about how they let people take lands This statement is evidence that for some reason he is not engaging and internalizing what we are learning in class. Although his ideas in his essay are vague, his ability to write sentences, in my experience, better than average for ELL students. From this I conclude that I needed to

Generic Handbook for use in 2011-12 academic year

monitor his attention more often and have more one-on-one conversations with him.
2. Feedback to Guide Further Learning

a) In what form did you submit your evidence of feedback (e.g., written directly on work samples, audio files, a time stamp reference for videorecording(s) in the Instruction task)? If submitted via video for Task 2, provide time stamp here. I was unable to provide feedback to them on the video clip because the student had just finished the essay. Student 1: I wrote a few comments on his paper to indicate why he would be missing points. I also talked to the class as a whole and talked about how the students performed on the essays. Student 3: I didn't have many comments for him except, "Excellent!" This student and I have a good relationship and I talked to him as he was leaving class about his essay. I told him that the only thing he could have done better would have been to write complete paragraphs (5 sentences each). I didn't make that a requirement on this essay because with the outline I was simply trying to provoke a coherent flow and I was mainly looking for substance. b) How did feedback provided to each focus student address individual student needs and learning objectives? Reference specific evidence of submitted feedback to support your explanation. I feel that my feedback was pertinent to each students assessment; however, I wish I would have given more personalized advice. For example, on Alexs essay I wrote, Excellent, because he covered what he needed to. I should have written an encouraging note to him that I know he is capable of pushing himself further. On Rashids essay I should have been sterner with him and I even could have written a note stating that he could revise it for additional points. c) What opportunities were/will be provided for students to apply the feedback to improve their work, either within the learning segment or at a later time? I saw an increase in success from unit 1 to unit 2 (this assessment) and I believe that if the students were given a similar essay they would be able to use their feedback to be more detailed in their writing. Considering the verbal feedback I gave the students I think their introductions and conclusions would be stronger for the next assessment.
3. Using Assessment to Inform Instruction

For prompts below, consider what you know about your students and the effectiveness of your instruction when designing next steps. Be sure to connect your next steps to your analysis of the student performances. a) Based on your analysis of student performance on this assessment, describe next steps for instruction for the whole class. Based on the fact that my analysis shows there is a wide gap of knowledge and ability between students in this block I believe one thing that would help the effectiveness of instruction would be to have more formative assessments. Various formative assessments will help me check the different levels of student understanding to ensure each student is improving their knowledge base. This will be different for every student.

Generic Handbook for use in 2011-12 academic year

b) Describe any individualized next steps for the two focus students. My next step for Alex would be to talk to him before the next summative assessment and remind him that he did well on the previous one, but there is always room for improvement. I would tell him to make sure and write complete paragraphs for his introduction and conclusion. For Rashid, I would check in with him before the assessment and go over what the possible essay questions could be. I usually do this with the entire class but I feel an additional conversation with him might be beneficial. After the next assessment if he did not show an improvement I would have a private conference with him to discuss any difficulties he may have and how I can better assist him. c) Explain how these next steps follow from your analysis of the student performances. As I mentioned in my analysis, Rashid is an ELL student. I feel that if I have a private conference with him to discuss additional assistance he may need, at that time we can talk about ELL services. Also, I mentioned Rashids content knowledge seemed low. I can monitor that more closely by implementing more formative assessments, both writing and non-writing assessments. In Alexs case, I mentioned above that he was my highest achieving student. Perhaps he felt that the bare minimum was enough. I dont want that to become his practice. Following up from my analysis I believe on the next assessment I could have an extension question that is optional for students who want to show their high level of content knowledge. For a student like Alex who is truly interested in history, it would give him a chance to express his personal opinion more. 4. Evidence of Academic Language- (NOTE: You may provide evidence for academic language with your video clip(s) in Task 2 OR through the student work samples analyzed in this task.. If your evidence of the key language demand is well represented in the student work samples, then respond to the prompts below. Otherwise, omit this prompt and respond to prompt 4 in the Instruction task. You must provide this evidence in at least one of the two available tasks). a) Describe evidence from the student work samples that demonstrate the extent to which students are able to understand and/or use the language associated with the identified language demand (vocabulary, function/form and instructional language) in ways that develop content understandings. The most important language demand in this lesson segment was manifest destiny. As I discussed in my previous TPA Tasks this was a complicated and academic term that involved many other topics in this lesson segment. For my ELL student, Rashid, his understanding of this concept was basic at best. Im not attributing his underachievement on the fact that he is an ELL student, I am simply pointing out that it was one more barrier for him. He wrote in his essay, Manifest Destiny is about how Americans were in power and they were going around taking peoples land and they were abusing the slaves As far as content understanding, this sentence indicates Rashid probably only retained what he heard in class sessions as he did barely any assignments that would enrich his content knowledge. Alex opens his essay with this statement, America and its citizens have always tried to strive for greatness and self-improvement. He continues to define manifest destiny related to the two topics he chose to write about. I believe the ability to show he knows what the term means and also how to create his own evaluation of the term in combination with the events on the venn diagram show a high level of content understanding.

Generic Handbook for use in 2011-12 academic year

b) Using this evidence, how well did your language supports or scaffolding promote academic language development for students with varied language levels? I believe I did a decent job at scaffolding the language demand surrounding manifest destiny. I gave the students several activities about the topic, provided visuals and gave them a short practice essay. For my average to high student learners these language supports built up their knowledge base. For my ELL student who is also a low achieving student the language supports may have been too advanced for him. I worry that I didnt do enough to promote success for Rashid. If I run into this situation again I plan to have an intervention strategy in place for ELL students SPED students and low achieving students rather than reacting when things are already going south.

Generic Handbook for use in 2011-12 academic year