Evidence of Student Learning

Evidence of Student Learning

Monti C. Katrib
Towson University
Spring Semester 2017

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Evidence of Student Learning

Part A:
School Description
Sudbrook Magnetic Middle School is a 6-8th grade magnet school located in Pikesville,

Maryland. Sudbrook has a total of 1,005 students and 65 full-time teachers, making the student-

to-teacher ratio around 15:1. Of the 1,005 students, most are African American (60.3% of the

student body), 17.7% of the students are Caucasian, 9.0% are Hispanic, 9.0% are Asian, 3.7% are

mixed race, 0.3% of the student body are Native American, and 0.1% are Pacific Islander. Below

is the ethnic distribution at Sudbrook Magnet Middle is represented below.

Ethnic Distribution at Sudbrook

4% 0% 0%
9%
9%
60%
18%

African American Caucasian Hispanic Asian

Mixed Race Pacific Islander Native American

Many students at Sudbrook have moved to the United States relatively recently (within

the past 3 years), and because the school is a melting pot of so many different cultures, the

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Evidence of Student Learning

environment is a very safe and accepting environment, where students are able to celebrate

themselves and their peers. 33.7% of the student population is eligible for free and reduced meals

at school, which includes breakfast and lunch. This percentage is slightly less than the Maryland

average which is 38%. The gender distribution of Sudbrook is 60% female and 40% male. This

differs from the general gender distribution of Baltimore County Public Schools, which consists

of 48% female students and 52% male students. Sudbrook Magnet Middle School is a vibrant

and stimulating learning environment and students can choose from 4 magnet programs

including visual art, performing arts, foreign languages, and environmental/earth/space sciences.

Sudbrook, like many other middle schools in Baltimore County, functions on an A-Day/B-Day

schedule, each day consisting of 4 periods.

Class Description

Ethnic Demographics of Sudbrook vs. O'Keefe's 1B Class

Sudbrook Column1
70.00%60.30%
58%
60.00%
50.00%
40.00% 17.70%21%
30.00% 14%9.00%
9.07%0%3.70%0.30%0.10%
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
0% 0% 0%

This grammar unit plan focusing specifically on

pronouns, was given to Mr. James OKeefes 1B (B-Day, first period)6th grade, inclusion

English/Language Arts class. This is a very diverse group of 29 energetic and enthusiastic 6th

graders. In terms of gender, there are 18 (62%) girls and 11(38%) boys. This data is an almost

exact representation of the gender distribution of the school in general. The ethnic demographics

of the class very closely reflect the ethnic demographics of Sudbrook Middle School as well,

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Evidence of Student Learning

with more than half of the students in class being African American. The bar-graph below is a

visual representation of the students who were given this unit plan compared to the overall ethnic

distribution of Sudbrook Magnet Middle School.

This class contains several English Language Learners who benefit from ESOL services

at school, these students include 7 students out of the total 29. There are three levels of ESOL at

Sudbrook, and my students vary in levels based on their English language proficiency. While

several students in the class receive ESOL services, there are also many students who are

bilingual and whose parents do not speak English, who do not receive ESOL services. In this

group of students 4 students have an Individualized Education Plan (IEP); 3 for specific learning

disabilities and one for an emotional/behavioral disability. When considering what will work best

in the classroom in terms of assessment, instruction, enrichment, practice, etc. it was crucial to

consider the wonderful abundance of diversity in this classroom! The diversity of this class

contributed positively to the learning outcomes of all students, as each student offered a unique

perspective to the classroom, particularly during the discussion and whole-group pieces of this

unit plan.

Depending on the lesson being taught during the period or the assignment the class is

working on, the inclusion teacher, Mrs. Caroline Fortunato and myself, Mrs. Fortunatos student

intern, pull the students with disabilities and occasionally the ELL students and work with them

in a small group, resource room setting. For the purposes of this unit plan, the students were not

pulled from the class, as both teachers at hand and I concluded that these students would benefit

more from staying in the inclusion classroom setting with their peers. However, the specific

accommodations and modifications listed on each students IEP were addressed and provided

within the inclusion setting for this unit plan. When planning and executing the lessons in this

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Evidence of Student Learning

unit plan, it was crucial to consider first and foremost my students in the classroom and the

diversity of learning styles that are inevitable in any learning environment. The unit plan

included 3 lessons each introducing a different kind of pronoun and briefly reviewing the

previous pronoun(s) taught the day before. The pronouns we focused on in these three lessons of

the unit plan were personal, subjective/objective/vague, and possessive. Each of these lessons

closely aligned with the CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.L.1 Demonstrate command of the

conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. This 6th grade

Common Core standard challenges the students to use their knowledge of the English language

to choose the correct vocabulary, in this case pronouns, when writing and/or speaking. This

pronoun unit plan is a part of a year-long series of several different grammar lessons, most of

them being mini-lessons, that will review and teach the 6th graders grammatical and English

language skills that they will be expected to have in 7th grade and beyond. In these three lessons,

my students identified pronouns within a sentence, activating and strengthening their knowledge

of using context clues in sentences. Along with that, my students practiced replacing nouns in

sentences with the appropriate pronouns. Several interactive activities including, online games,

videos, purposeful movement around the classroom, think-pair-share, and guided practice

reinforced these skills allowing smoother transition to the next lesson, the next day.

During each lesson, as a whole-group, we went over several examples of the pronoun(s)

being taught, and I invited students to come up and share their own examples of sentences using

the specific pronoun(s). By doing this I could challenge students to think critically about their

word choice, and in some cases students used sentences about personal experiences as examples.

Some of these examples also directly came from the unit 3 novel that the 6th grade students are

reading, Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz-Ryan, this connection to pronouns and the novel

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Evidence of Student Learning

displayed not only comprehension of the story, but also some prior knowledge the students had

about the purpose of pronouns. Students who are a little more advanced, had the opportunity to

share, and on the other hand students who perhaps did not grasp my examples completely had

the chance to learn from their peers. Learning from peers often proves to be successful in the

classroom, especially when learning a new skill, this was certainly the case all throughout this

unit. This type of collaboration among students was a goal I had in mind and a consideration

when developing my objectives for my unit plan.

The following objectives were created with the students in mind. I wanted to make sure

that every student would be able to access the knowledge needed to complete the task at hand

during the lesson. Students could keep track of all of their progress and notes over the course of

this unit by creating and utilizing a pronoun foldable, with each flap containing a different kind

of pronoun, the definition, examples, and examples of the pronouns used in a sentence.

Objectives:

Day 1, Lesson 1: Personal Pronouns

I can identify, define, and use singular and plural personal pronouns in a sentence.

Day 2, Lesson 2: Subjective/Objective & Vague Pronouns

I can use my knowledge of sentence structure to accurately use the correct forms of

subjective/objective pronouns in a sentence.

I can identify vague pronouns in a sentence and learn how to avoid them in my writing.

Day 3, Lesson 3: Possessive Pronouns

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Evidence of Student Learning

I can choose the appropriate possessive pronoun(s) to use in a sentence, based on the

personal pronoun given.

Over the course of the three lessons, students were given multiple ways to express the

knowledge they have gained and their progress towards reaching the objectives. Many of the

students do not perform best when asked to write, and so to alleviate the tediousness that writing

could create in the classroom, students were able to verbally respond to questions during whole

group instruction and during think-pair-share opportunities. During the second lesson after

whole-group instruction, each student was given one or two post-it-notes with a sentence on

them and an underlined pronoun. Students were responsible for deciding if the underlined decide

which poser (subjective, objective, or vague) to place their post-it-note. We then went over

several of the post-it-notes as a class.

Part B: Assessment Plan

Pre-assessment Tools

Pronouns are introduced for the very first to students in the primary grades of schooling.

However, specific pronouns and their purposes are more thoroughly explained and taught in

sixth grade. Due to this I decided to probe my students prior knowledge by first having a class

discussion on pronouns, I asked the essential questions: What is a pronoun? What do pronouns

do? What are some types of pronouns? and observed that most students know what pronouns are,

and what they do. However, 0% of the class could name specific types of pronouns. My second

pre-assessment, was a short pronoun quick-check that was a half-slip of paper with 4

questions: 1 multiple choice, 1 true or false, 1 fill-in-the-blank, and a short answer question. The

pre-assessment was put in as an ungraded assignment out of 4 points.

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Evidence of Student Learning

Pronouns Quick-Check Name:

1. Which of the following is not a pronoun?

a) me b) girl c) you d) he

2. Identify the pronoun in the sentence: Tia and I went to the movies on
Tuesday.
_______________

3. What is the difference between a subjective pronoun and an

objective pronoun?

4. TRUE or FALSE: Personal pronouns allow writers and speakers to refer

to themselves or other people or things.

The average score on the pre-assessment was a 68.75% or 2.75/4. Only 4 students received a

100% on the pre-assessment, which is something I kept in mind while planning future lessons,

because I wanted to make sure that I gave these students opportunities to be challenged. On the

other hand, 4 students received 0% on their pre-assessments. The following images are two

samples of students completed pre-assessments. The first student received a 2 out 4, and the

second student received a 3 out of 4, which averages out to be the class average which was a

2.75 out of 4.

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Evidence of Student Learning

The student above scored a 50%, or 2 out 4 on the pre-assessment. Subjective/objective and

vague pronouns were not introduced to this group of students until the second lesson of my unit

plan, however I wanted to see if the students could give an educational guess, if they knew the

definitions of subjective, objective and vague. Many students left question #3 blank.

The student above received a 3 out 4 on the pre-assessment, which many other students received

as well. I found that many students answered false for #4 which was the incorrect, so I made

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Evidence of Student Learning

sure to consider this when going over the definition of personal pronouns. I re-worded the

definition I gave later in the first lesson to be more easily understood.

Table of pre-assessment results:

An x means the student answered the question correctly.

Table of Student Pre- #1 #2 #3 #47

Assessment Data
Student 1 x x x
Student 2 x x x
Student 3 x x x
Student 4 x x
Student 5 x x x
Student 6 x x
Student 7 x x x
Student 8 x x x x
Student 9 x x x x
Student 10 x
Student 11 x x x
Student 12 x x x
Student 13 x x x
Student 14 x x x
Student 15
Student 16 x x x
Student 17 x x x
Student 18 x x x
Student 19 x x x
Student 20 x x x
Student 21 x
Student 22 x x x x
Student 23
Student 24 x x x
Student 25 x x
Student 26 x x
Student 27
Student 28 x x x x
Student 29

Formative Assessments

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Evidence of Student Learning

After gathering data from our introductory unit lesson and a review of sorts on

pronouns in general and their purpose in the English language, both written and spoken, I could

develop different activities, informal, and formal assessments that would suit the needs and

unique learning styles of my students. While also developing these mini-assessments with the

students success in mind first and foremost, I wanted to make each lesson engaging and fun,

because grammar can be potentially a very dry subject to teach and learn, if one does not spice

up the lessons a little bit. The students seemingly had fun with the assessments planned, and the

pressure was at a lower-rate because the students could use their foldables, where they gathered

notes either from writing them or cutting and pasting them in. Allowing students to utilize the

foldables they made, instilled a sense of accountability for their own success on the assessments,

they knew that they would be able to use the notes they had, so it motivated them to take notes or

in the case of lesson #2 some students pasted in the notes for subjective, objective, vague

pronouns. I found that allowing students to use their notes benefited most students, because they

had followed along during the power-point presentations each day and were able to copy down

notes, including their own sentences. However, note-taking proved to become tedious for several

students and thus a handful of students did not take enough notes, to fully utilize their pronoun

foldable. As a result of this observation, I would certainly lessen the amount of writing students

are required to do, during instruction. Day 1 required some note-taking and the actual

construction of the foldable itself.

On day 1 of the unit plan, I modelled how to make the foldables that the students would

use during the following lessons in the unit. While the foldables were not entered as a grade into

the gradebook, I monitored the students notes in them after each lesson to ensure that they were

collecting the information they would need to be successful on the end of unit assessment. The

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Evidence of Student Learning

purpose of the foldable was also to serve as a future resource as well for the students as they

progress academically throughout 6th grade in ELA, specifically the grammar piece. When

introducing this foldable, I had to take into consideration that some students might lose theirs or

it could get ruined somehow or some students would not take notes in them as often as expected.

To prepare for these inevitable realities that could present themselves after the first lesson, I

made several extra foldables and printed out the notes (definition of the pronoun, examples of

that pronoun) for students to paste into their foldables if they missed the notes for some reason

during class. I did these things, because the main purpose of the foldable was to help them on

future assessments involving pronouns. The formative assessment for day 1, was looking

through every students foldable to see if they copied down the notes on personal pronouns. I

was also checking to see if the student understood the appropriate use of personal pronouns in

sentences, and I checked this by looking at the examples in sentences they wrote into their

foldable. Many students used more than one personal pronoun, accurately in a sentence, which

indicated that they understood the role of personal pronouns (the most commonly used pronouns)

in written language.

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Evidence of Student Learning

This is a sample of one students foldable which they glued into their 6th grade grammar

notebook at the front of the notebook. Students handed back their notebooks after gluing in their

foldables so that they would remain in class, lessening the possibility of students misplacing

their notebooks/foldables.

On the second day of the unit, during the second lesson which was on subjective,

objective and vague pronouns, students could express their knowledge gained in multiple

different ways. Due to the variety of activities in this lesson, I would say that students were most

engaged during this lesson, however this was also the toughest lesson for them because we went

over 3 different pronouns in one lesson (subjective/objective and vague). Each activity which

served as informal assessments, or quick-checks for understanding rather, directly linked to

Maryland College and Career Ready standard (MCCR), essential skills and knowledge under the

L1.CCR Anchor Standard Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English

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Evidence of Student Learning

grammar and usage when writing or speaking. These essential skills and knowledge included

the following:

Apply an understanding of the relationship between the use

and form of personal pronouns i.e.,
o subjective pronouns as subjects and predicate
nominatives
o objective pronouns as objects of prepositions, direct, and
indirect objects
(taken directly from http://mdk12.msde.maryland.gov/share/frameworks/CCSC_Language_gr6-
8.pdf )
The end goal for the second lesson was that students would be able to explain the

difference between subjective and objective pronouns, and would be able to identify when a

sentence contains a vague pronoun. Subjective pronouns replace the subject noun in a sentence

and perform the action of the verb in the sentence. On the other hand the objective a pronoun

that could confuse the reader because it is not clear what noun/subject it replaced in the sentence.

The example I initially gave to the students was, When Lily saw her friend, she smiled. She, in

terms of this sentence, would be considered the vague pronoun because it could refer to Lily or

Lilys friend. I asked the class how we could potentially correct the sentence to make it less

vague, and one student stated that we could change the sentence to, When Lily saw her friend,

Lily smiled. We followed up with this skill later in the lesson and when students partook in

purpose movement around the classroom, when they sorted sentences based on the underlined

pronouns, and when the whole-group took a mini-quiz on Kahootit!

For this particular lesson, I differentiated the note-taking piece for some students. All the

students with IEPs struggle with writing in a timely fashion, as do some of the ELL students; all

together this makes up about one-third of the class. Due to this I printed small slips of paper with

the notes on them, so that the students could simply listen and comprehend what I was teaching,

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Evidence of Student Learning

instead of worrying about copying notes down in time. This proved to be successful for the

students, however it would have made more sense to make enough slips for the entire class to

paste into their foldables, because it took the students more time than expected to copy down

notes. This led me to print enough slips and pass out slips to all the students for this purpose, the

next time I taught this lesson which was the next day to Mr. OKeefes 3A class, and this proved

to make the lesson run a lot more smoothly and the students grasped the difference between

objective and subjective pronouns more, because they could focus more on listening and

understanding, rather than writing.

After students pasted or copied down notes in their foldables, I probed the entire class to

give verbal examples of sentences with a subjective or objective pronoun, and I asked the

students who did not give examples, to identify what word in the sentence was the pronoun. This

went well, however I think it would have been more effective for students if I had invited the

student sharing, to come up to the Elmo Document camera and write down their example as well

as verbally state it, that way the information could be shared in multiple ways. This was one way

I could gauge students learning up to that point in the lesson, before moving on to the purposeful

movement piece of the lesson. Once I had a good idea that the majority of the students could

identify and define subjective, objective, and vague pronouns, we moved on to the first official

formative assessment. Each student was given one or two post-it-notes, and when I gave them

the directions for the activities the students were responsible for placing their post-it notes on the

correct poster (subjective, objective, or

vague) based on the underlined word in the

sentence. Students were allowed to collaborate for this

activity, which proved to be helpful for some students, as

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Evidence of Student Learning

some students who had trouble reading the sentences were able to seek help from a classmate

who could read the sentence out loud to them. During this learning-check of sorts, I monitored

the class and walked around answering any questions that the students had. I also noted common

trends in where students placed the post-it-notes, when they were placed incorrectly. I do not

think the students noticed until I pointed it out to them, but I created a little answer key for

myself by putting a small s for subjective, o for objective, and v for vague on each post-it

so that I could easily identify where each post should be. Most students placed their stickies in

the right spot, however I realized that some could have gone in vague as well as objective or

subjective.

The pictures below were the outcome of this activity.

The next mini-assessment the students partook in during lesson 2 was a Kahoot game

online, that every student could participate in, and they all had fun answering the questions! It

was an end of lesson assessment

that kind of wrapped up what we

had learned, and it was a quick

and fun way to see what the

students retained from the

lesson. Kahoot games are always

a popular form of a quick-check

with students of any grade-level. Based on the results after each question, I could tell that the

students understood what subjective and objective means in terms of pronouns, however they

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Evidence of Student Learning

needed some extra practice identifying them in sentences. This is something I considered when

moving on to the next lesson, the next B-day.

During the third lesson, which was on possessive pronouns, students followed the same

routine where we went through a power-point and the students gathered notes, however this time

the only thing students were responsible for was writing the definition of possessive pronouns:

Possessive pronouns are pronouns that indicate ownership of something. The examples and

types of possessive pronouns was provided to them, and they pasted them into their grammar

notebooks. The formative assessment that was a 4-point grade was a possessive pronouns maze.

Students had to use their knowledge of possessive pronouns, personal pronouns and sentence

structure to choose the correct words in the maze to make their way from start to finish. Before

letting students work on this, I modelled what it should look like, because the sentences in the

maze were random and all unrelated to the one previous, I knew it would be confusing for some

students. We highlighted our way through the first sentence together and chose the appropriate

pronoun to progress through the maze.

Each sentence in the maze was worth half a point and there were 8 sentences in total,

making the highest score a 4/4. The lowest score was a 75% or which only 1 student received.

Four students received an 87.5% or 3.5/4, and the other 24 students received a 100% or 4/4. I

was very happy with these results, as were the kids, and I think being able to use their notes and

each other helped them succeed with this assessment. It was also somewhat guided because there

were certain words that presented themselves as obviously the non-logical choice. I was very

proud of all the students, because this assessment at first glance is very confusing, but they

performed very well! The following pictures are samples of student work:

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Evidence of Student Learning

The words that

should have been highlighted in the maze were as follows (the possessive pronouns are in

yellow).

1. Our dog is trespassing on their territory.

2. Though the teacher explained his perspective, it did not help my confusion.
3. Please draw a triangle and then measure its angles with a protractor.
4. The barbershop quartet members sang their next song.
5. Most people blink their eyes about fifteen times a minute.
6. When you move your muscles contract and relax.

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Evidence of Student Learning

7. My signature is not my name.

8. The octopus lifted its tentacle.

The maze activity, the

Kahoot! game, purpose movement-pronoun sort activity, and foldable progress were all

indicators that the majority of students would be able to perform well on the summative

assessment to be given at the end of the three lessons.

Summative Assessment

The summative assessment planned for this unit was very similar to the pre-assessment

with an additional question, making the test a total of 5 questions. However, the first question

which was a fill-in the blank question had three parts, making the point value for that question 3

points. The remaining questions were all multiple choice with the exception of one question-- 3

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Evidence of Student Learning

that asked the students to circle the possessive determiner (type of possessive pronoun) in a

sentence. The average score on the assessment was an 80% or 5.6/7, which is greater than the

average class performance on the pre-assessment which was an 68.7%. I am pleased with the

student growth from start to finish, however I noticed some common trends with the answers

many students answered incorrectly. The most frequent question students answered incorrectly

was question #3, which was not at all assessed on the pre-assessment. The question was as

follows:

3. Circle the possessive determiner in the following sentence:

That is your red scarf, it is not mine.

Most students who answered this question incorrectly, circled the word mine which is a

possessive pronoun because it replaces the noun, however it is not the possessive determiner

which comes before the noun. Looking back, this is something I believe I definitely should have

reiterated multiple times in my third lesson on possessive pronouns. With this being said, most

students grew in their knowledge of pronouns from start to finish which was my ultimate goal,

however the results of the summative assessment in terms of percentages are not completely

comparative to the pre-assessment, because the summative was worth 7 points while the pre-

assessment was out of 4 points. Also, the pre-assessment did not address possessive pronouns,

while the summative did. Overall the students performed better on the summative assessment

than they did on the pre-assessment, which was expected however, the percentages are a bit off

because the pre-assessment was worth less points, so it was not a clear comparsion in terms of

percentages. In the future, I would consider this while planning my summative assessment, to

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Evidence of Student Learning

assure that gathering data is a more smoother process and more accurate.

Average Student Growth: Pre-Assessment vs. Summative

20
18
18

16
14
14

12

Number of Students 10
8
8

6
4 4 4
4 3
2
2 1

0
0%-20%
0 21%-40% 41%-60% 61%-80% 81%-100%

Percentage Score
21
Pre-Assement Column1
Evidence of Student Learning

Along with calculating average student growth based on how many students got a certain

percentage on the pre-assessment versus what they received on the final assignment, I calucated

individual students growth from pre-assessment to summative. However, when calculating

growth percentage, I realized that there would be some flaws considering the different point

values of each assessment and the fact possessive pronouns were not included in the pre-

assessment. For example, if a student got 3 out 4 or 75% on their pre-assessment, and 5 out 7 or

71% on their summative, then technically they did not grow if it is strictly based on the

percentage. However, this does not mean the student did not grow in their knowledge of

pronouns, because one of the questions he or she got right could have been on a possessive

pronoun question. With all of this being said the majority of the class grew in their learning,

indicated by percentages of growth, and

all students grew in their knowledge

based on observations during activities,

and the graded possessive pronoun

maze.

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Evidence of Student Learning

Part C: Instruction

Lesson 1: Personal Pronouns

A lot of planning with my mentor teacher and general educator (Mr. OKeefe) took place

while preparing this unit plan. For the very first lesson I reviewed pronouns and introduced

personal pronouns. I created the objective using student-friendly language that would be

comprehensible and accessible to students. While giving the lesson, I asked one of my students

to read the objective out loud to the class and then asked another student to repeat the objective

using their own words. This indicated the students understood what our goal was the lesson that

day. We watched a SchoolHouse Rock video about pronouns and how they take the place of

nouns in a sentence and when we speak, and then I asked students to explain what pronouns are

by calling on some students to answer. I then introduced the note-taking tool we would be using

for the next three lessons, which was a pronouns foldable. I modelled how to create the foldable

and monitored the students as they were making theirs to make sure they were making them

correctly. After I was sure that everyone made one I projected mine of the document camera and

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Evidence of Student Learning

wrote pronouns on the very first tab, and wrote the definition on the back of that tab;

Pronouns take the place of nouns. I then introduced personal pronouns to the class and stated

that they allow the writer to refer to themselves or other people or things in their writing, and I

wrote down that definition under the next tab on the foldable labeled Personal. I stated that

there are singular and plural pronouns and asked the students what singular means and what

plural means, to check their background knowledge of those two terms. I then probed the

students with questions like, If I was talking about myself in my writing, what words could I

use instead of using my name? Many students called out I or me, which are the answers I was

looking for. We then wrote these down next to the definition of personal pronouns in our

foldable, and went over several more singular and plural examples of personal pronouns. I then

allotted time for Think-Pair-Share when students collaborated with their elbow partners to

come up with sentences using a personal pronoun. To challenge the students, I invited them to

think of a sentence using as many personal pronouns as they could, while still creating a logical

sentence. After students had time to discuss their sentence examples, several students shared out

their examples, many of which were very-well constructed and some that were also funny and

got the students engaged. After this, I asked students to write down two sentences that they came

up with and they underlined the personal pronouns in each of their sentences. We closed out the

lesson by refering back to the objective and restating the definition.

LESSON 1

Personal Pronouns!
About This Lesson
Description

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Evidence of Student Learning

-This lesson is the first of many lessons on pronouns, with an emphasis on pronouns and what
they do, along with personal pronouns (the most common type). A pronoun is a word that
replaces a noun, and a personal pronoun is a word that allows the speaker or writer to refer to
themselves or other people or things when writing. At the beginning of the lesson, we will view
the "Schoolhouse Rock" video on pronouns, before getting into direct instruction. During whole-
group instruction, students will be creating a foldable that we will be working on throughout the
next several classes at the beginning of each period. This foldable will be utilized as a study tool
for the students, as well as a graded assignment at the end our grammar unit on pronouns. As
students progress in their writing and grammar skills, knowledge and mastery of pronouns will
allow them to become even more efficient and effective writers and communicators.

-The class I am giving this lesson to consists of a diverse and enthusiastic group of 29 sixth
graders! There are 7 ELL students in the class, 2 of which have a specific learning disability.
Throughout the lesson, the appropriate accommodations will be provided to the students. In
addition one student in our class has an IEP for an emotional disability, and another student
including the two ELL students has an IEP for a specific learning disability.

-I am hoping that this lesson and the lesson following will help the class grow confident in their
knowledge of pronouns and when to use them! :)

Prerequisites

-Before this lesson takes place, students should have some basic knowledge on what common
nouns (general places or things, ex: city, boy, tree) and proper nouns (Baltimore, Sam, pine tree)
are. I am predicting that many students will already have some idea of what pronouns are,
however, we will be reviewing them in this lesson anyway.

Estimated Time

30 minutes

Potential Use
Purpose:

Classroom Instruction

Grades:

Content Areas:

English/Language Arts

25
Evidence of Student Learning

Common Core:

English Language Arts

Language

o Conventions of Standard English

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.6.1 (grade 6): Demonstrate command of the

conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or
speaking.

Goals
Instructional Goals

-Students will be able to identify the purpose of pronouns in the English language.

-Students will be able to identify singular and plural personal pronouns and use them in a
sentence.

Objectives

I can identify, define, and use singular and plural personal pronouns in a sentence.

Variability

-This class is very diverse in terms of learning styles and preferences. Many students do not
enjoy taking notes or lecture-style instruction, so I made sure to include other instructional
methods in this lesson such as videos, and discussion-based learning. My students with IEP's and
my ELL students benefit a lot from repeated instruction, and directions represented in multiple
ways, so I will verbally state the expectations as well as have them projected on the document
camera. Along with this I will walk around while students are note-taking and I and Mrs.
Fortunato (inclusion teacher) will assist students who struggle with writing with this piece of the
lesson.

Assessments
Formative Assessments

-At the end of the lesson I will check the students' foldables to see the examples of sentences
using personal pronouns, they came up with.

26
Evidence of Student Learning

-At the beginning of class, while we are reviewing pronouns in a general sense, I will take note
of how many students have a strong grasp on the purpose of pronouns in order to determine, how
much time we need to review. However, because personal pronouns are the most basic and
common type of pronouns, the lesson itself is kind of a review.

Summative Assessments

-This lesson is 1 of 3 lessons to be taught, and while there will be formative assessments,
because this is an introductory lesson students will not be assessed with a summative assessment,
but rather at the end of the 3 lessons. I did not want to give the students a graded assignment
without proper practice with the skill at hand first.

Instructional Methods
Opening

Hook

-Students will view the "SchoolHouse Rock: Pronouns" video on the overhead screen.

-While students are watching the video, I will pass out 4 sheets of construction paper to each
student, which they will be using later on in the lesson to create their pronoun foldable.

Introduction

-I will ask a student to read off our objective for the day which will be the first slide of the
powerpoint we will be referring to during the lesson.

-I will ask the class what pronouns are and what they do. If students are able to provide the
correct answer "pronouns take the place of a noun", then I will move on to personal pronouns for
the lesson. If not, I will briefly go over the definition/purpose of pronouns and give an example
of a noun a pronoun could replace (example: The girl could be replaced with "she").

-Before getting into the main part of the lesson, I will model how to create the pronoun foldable
we will be using for this lesson and the following two lessons.

-I will walk around the classroom as I am folding the four sheets of paper to monitor the
students. After I have stapled the foldable together I will project what it should look on the
document camera.

-On the very first tab on the foldable I will write "pronouns" and underneath I will write
"Pronouns take the place on nouns".

-Students will write this or a variation of this definition into their own foldable

27
Evidence of Student Learning

During

Introduce New Knowledge

-I will refer to our objective for the lesson "I can identify, define, and use singular and plural
personal pronouns in a sentence."

-I will state that personal pronouns allow the writer to refer to themselves and other people or
things in their writing.

-I will write this definition in my foldable, and project it on the document camera to model what
it should look like.

Pose Leading Questions

-I will probe the class by asking, "What words could you use in your writing to refer to a friend,
yourself, or a pet?"

-I will take note of the students responses, and give feedback on their responses.

-I will state that there are several different types of personal pronouns, and which pronouns you
use depend on what person you are talking in, in your writing.

-I will ask students what singular and plural mean, just to make sure they understand these terms.

-I will open up my foldable and list examples of plural and singular personal pronouns and the
students will list some examples on their foldables as well.

-I will walk around the room to make sure students are writing, and will assist any students who
need assistance with taking down notes.

Guided Practice

-Once we have gone over some examples of personal pronouns the students will take about 2 or
3 minutes to come up with sentences using personal pronouns. This will be a "think-pair-share"
activity. I will challenge students to use more than one pronoun in their sentence examples.

-After the allotted time students will share their sentences out loud, if they wish to.

-Finally, students will write two sentences in their foldables uses at least 1 personal pronoun in
each sentence.

Closing

Review

28
Evidence of Student Learning

-I will refer to our objective and ask the students what we learned today.

-I will review the definition of pronouns and personal pronouns.

-I will ask the students to give some examples.

-Students will close their foldables and pass them to the aisles so I can collect them and keep
them in the classroom.

-I will instruct students to sit quietly and patiently until Mr. O'Keefe (general educator) gives
them further instruction.

Materials
-Construction Paper

-Document camera

-Pencils

-Stapler

-Schoolhouse Rock Video

http://www.schooltube.com/video/b107082c0278a820f5b3/SchoolHouse-Rock-Pronouns

Lesson 1 Reflection

Overall I think this lesson went well, however there were some aspects that I needed to

improve on and plan more thoroughly before giving the next lesson, during the next B-day.

Showing the Schoolhouse Rock video at the beginning of class, proved to be useful in reminding

the students what pronouns are and the role they play in a sentence (replace the noun). While

showing the video, I passed out the materials for the day to each student which eliminated the

prospect of wasting any instruction during the lesson, which I think was a good idea. Once the

video ended, I asked the students what a pronoun is, and they all replied, a word that replaces

the noun, this was an effective way of assessing the students prior knowledge or in some cases

listening comprehension of the video! However, letting the students call out instead of picking on

individual students to answer essential questions, sparked a few sidebar conversations making it

29
Evidence of Student Learning

hard to pull the class back in to move on to the next piece of our lesson. During the next time I

gave this lesson, to the other class I modified my directions for this piece, and instead asked

individual students, after talking it other with an elbow partner for a couple of minutes. One

aspect of my lesson that I believed I went well was the construction of the foldables. I was

expecting this to be a little tricky and time-consuming, however because I modelled exactly how

to make it, step-by-step and then walked around to assure each student had successfully made

theirs, this process went smooth!

Lesson 2: Subjective/Objective and Vague Pronouns

Lesson 2 on subjective, objective, and vague pronouns was the meatiest lesson out of the

three given, because we were going over 3 pronouns in one lesson. Like lesson 1, I started off the

lesson by having a student read the objectives on the board which in this case were, I can use

my knowledge of sentence structure to accurately use the correct forms of subjective/objective

pronouns in a sentence, and I can identify vague pronouns in a sentence and learn how to avoid

them in my writing. Before I went into the main portion of the lesson, I wanted to review

personal pronouns which was taught the previous B-day, and state that these pronouns could be

subjective or objective, which I thought would be confusing and proved to be a little bit. For this

lesson, I printed out slips of paper with the notes on them for my students with IEPs who all

struggle to write and for the ELL students as well. While, these students benefited from simply

pasting the definitions and examples into their foldables I realized all my students could have

benefitted from this, so that they could focus more on listening and understanding instead of

writing. After we went over the definitions and examples, including vague pronouns which

simply are pronouns that could confuse readers because they do not clearly replace the subject of

the sentence, students participated in an activity where they each got a post-it note and had to

30
Evidence of Student Learning

place it on one of three posters based on what the underlined pronoun in their sentence was. I

went over several examples on each poster and asked students if they agreed or disagreed with

where the given examples were placed, if they disagreed I called on a student to place the post-it

note on the correct poster and explain why it went there. This was a quick way I could assess a

students understanding and thinking. After this activity students participated in an online

Kahootit quiz reinforces what we had learned and again, briefly assessing students knowledge

gained from the lesson. Overall students performed well on both activities.

LESSON 2

Subjective/Objective & Vague Pronouns

Description

-This lesson is the second of several lessons to be given on the topic of pronouns. This lesson
will focus on subjective, objective, and vague pronouns. Subjective pronouns replace the subject
noun in a sentence, they perform the action of the verb (he, I, it, she, you, they, we). While
objective pronouns replace the object of a sentence and receive the action of the verb (him, her,
me, them, you, us). Vague pronouns are pronouns that are kind of confusing in that they do not
explicitly address the subject of the sentence. For example, in the sentence, "The nurse saw the
patient when she arrived.", the pronoun she could mean the nurse or the patient.

-In this lesson, the students will be filling out their next tab on their foldable for
subjective/objective and vague pronouns. A brief power-point presentation projected on the
overhead will allow the students to see pronouns in these three forms, and from there we will
continue to practice identifying subjective, objective, and vague pronouns as a class.

-Students will get a further and more in-depth look at what pronouns do, and how they can
effectively use them in their sentences. Along with this, students will learn about vague pronouns
and what they look like in a sentence, and hopefully, from this lesson, students will avoid vague
pronouns in their sentences, in order to communicate clear ideas in their writing.

-I will be teaching this lesson to a class of 29 energetic and enthusiastic sixth-grade students.
Three of these sixth graders have classroom and testing accommodations for Specific Learning
Disabilities (3 students), and 1 student has accommodations for an Emotional Disabilit). All
students benefit from verbatim reading of instructions, and 2 students are allowed a scribe if they
please. All of these accommodations will be provided during this lesson, along with further
differentiation for advanced learners and our 7 ELL students as well. I am confident that all
students will thrive during this lesson!

31
Evidence of Student Learning

Prerequisites

To successfully start this lesson, students should have background knowledge on pronouns and
their purpose in writing. They should also be able to identify what a personal pronoun is, as they
will be mentioned again in this lesson, but presented in different contexts. They should also
know what a complete sentence or idea looks like, in order to write their own examples of each
pronoun.

Estimated Time

30 minutes

Potential Use

Purpose:
Classroom Instruction
Grades:
6
Content Areas:
English/Language Arts
Common Core:
College and Career Readiness: Anchor Standards

Language

o Conventions of Standard English

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.L.1 Demonstrate command of the

conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or
speaking.

Goals
Instructional Goals

-Students will use their background knowledge of pronouns and sentence structure to identify
subjective and objective pronouns.

-Students will be able to use the correct form of subjective/objective pronouns in a sentence.

-Students will be able to identify vague pronouns and learn ways to avoid them in their writing.

Objectives

32
Evidence of Student Learning

-I can use my knowledge of pronouns to identify the subject and object pronouns in a
sentence.

-I can use my knowledge of sentence structure to accurately use the correct forms of
subjective/objective pronouns in a sentence.

-I can identify vague pronouns in a sentence and learn how to avoid them in my writing.

Variability

The class I am teaching this lesson to consists of many different types of learners and thinkers.
Some students are visual learners and need to see in the information in writing to best understand
the information being taught, while some students learn best through auditory instruction. Along
with these types of learning, because sixth graders tend to be very energetic, I wanted to
incorporate an activity that will allow them to move around and work with their classmates.
Along with different learning styles, this group of young learners come with varied levels of
background knowledge and skills, which is the impetus for the structure of the lesson to be
given. Before getting into the main part of the lesson, I will do a quick verbal review of our
previous lesson, and ask the students what a pronoun is. This lesson involves many different
activities that will hopefully promote student learning and growth, I wanted to include activities
that would engage the students and meet all learning needs represented in the class. My ELL
students particularly benefit from picture supports included within the lesson, and formative
assessments, for this lesson it would be the Kahootit! game. However, picture supports can help
reinforce sigh-word recognition and vocabulary for all students, so I always try to include picture
supports when possible.

Author's Reflection

As I worked through this section, I realized I wanted to make sure the goals and objectives were
flexible enough to allow all students the opportunity to achieve them. I did this by leaving the
objectives/goals open-ended, by not using words that would require students to perform a
specific task like "write, recite, or draw". By doing this, success is more accessible for every
student, because they have options rather than one specific way to learn and express their
knowledge. Including multiple means of representation and multiple opportunities for expression
is good practice in all lessons, for every group of students.

Assessments
Formative Assessments
-I can use my knowledge of pronouns to identify the subject and object pronouns in
a sentence.

-Towards the end of the lesson students will participate in a Kahoot game, that will allow them to
practice identifying subject, object, and vague pronouns. After each question in the game is

33
Evidence of Student Learning

answered I will be able to get a general sense of how many students understand the concepts
being assessed.

-I can use my knowledge of sentence structure to accurately use the correct forms
of subjective/objective pronouns in a sentence.

-Students will be asked to share out examples of sentences with subject/object pronouns or they
can write them down in their foldable. Students will also have the opportunity to see these
pronouns in the correct form during our activity where students will receive a sentence and will
have to place it under the right type of pronoun, depending on which pronoun in their sentence is
highlighted.

Summative Assessments

-This specific lesson does not include a summative assessment, although at the end of our lesson
series with pronouns, the students will turn in their pronoun foldables for a grade (mostly to
make sure it's completed) as they will use these as a study and reference tool in the future.

Instructional Methods
Opening
Anticipatory Set

-I will active students' background knowledge by referring to our previous on personal

pronouns.

-I will ask students to call out some examples of singular and plural personal pronouns, and say
that we will be looking at the same pronouns today, but in a more structural sense.

Introduction

-I will say that among personal pronouns there are subjective, objective, and vague pronouns.

-I will ask the class "What do you think subjective pronouns are? What are objective pronouns?
What do you think vague pronouns are?"

During
Introduce New Knowledge

-As a class, we will flip through a power-point on subjective, objective, and vague pronouns and
discover what each pronoun looks like in a sentence, and look at examples of each.

-With vague pronouns, I will explain that they simply are placed in a sentence in such a way that
the reader might wonder what noun they are referring to. For example, "When Lily saw her
friend, she smiled." She is a vague pronoun because we do not know exactly who smiled, Lily or
her friend?

34
Evidence of Student Learning

-As we finish up the power-point we will fill out our foldable tab for
"subjective/objective/vague" pronouns. Students will write in the definitions for each, however I
will have printed slips of definitions for our ELL students and our students with IEP's. I will have
enough for the whole class, just in case.

Guided Practice

-We will transition into our interaction activity in which each student will receive a sticky note
(advanced learners may receive two), and each will have a sentence with an underlined pronoun.
Each student will place their sticky note on one of four posters: subjective, objective, vague, or
unsure.

-Once every student has place their sticky note on a poster I will briefly scan each poster to
check (I will have an answer-key). If I see one that is misplaced I will ask the class if they know
where it should be.

-For the poster labeled "unsure", we as a class will go over where they should be placed.

Closing
Closing

-To close this lesson, students will participate in a Kahootit! game on their personal school
devices, this will allow me to see what I need to reteach or review during the next lesson.

-After the game is finished students will close their devices and I will come around to collect
their foldables.

Review

-I will ask the class what pronouns we learned about today, and what they all mean.

-I will direct students to sit quietly and watch for Mr. O'Keefe's instructions.

Materials
Materials and Supplies

-Student foldables (created by students during our previous lesson)

-Student devices

-Sticky notes

-Giant chart paper

-Glue sticks

35
Evidence of Student Learning

-Definition strips

Lesson 2: Reflection

Of all three lessons, lesson 3 was the most extensive and time-consuming, however there

were many aspects that went smoothly, and a few that went not so great, that I reflected on

following the lesson. One aspect of the lesson that I thought went well, was the purposeful

movement activity where students placed sticky-notes on one of three posters based on the

underlined pronoun in the sentence on the post-it note. Students seemingly enjoyed getting to

move around and collaborate with their classmates in order to successfully make their match,

however there were some organizational parts of this activity that could have been improved

upon. For example, when giving directions to get out of their seats and match their sticky-note to

the appropriate poster, I did not instruct them to return to their seats when they finished, and

while some students naturally did this anyway, other students used this as an opportunity to

socialize with their friends in other parts of the classroom. I made sure to direct students back to

their assigned seats the second time around, to the 3A class and this proved to make the transition

to the next activity easier. Following this activity, the class participated in an online Kahootit

game reviewing what they had just learned from the lesson that day, and I was happy to see the

students showing what they know in a way that appealed to them! However, while clicking to the

next question in the game, I realized that I should have been walking around monitoring student

screens to make sure they were on the website they were supposed to be on. Overall, I was

pleased with the outcomes of this lesson and I recognized a few areas that I should and can

improve on.

Lesson 3: Possessive Pronouns

36
Evidence of Student Learning

My final lesson out of the three was on possessive pronouns. I started off the lesson by

showing a short clip from Finding Nemo where the seagulls repeatedly say mine, in hopes

that the students would catch on to the word. I then asked the students what word they heard

repeatedly and everyone yelled out mine, mine, mine in a fashion like the seagulls in the video.

I stated that mine is a possessive pronoun and those were the pronouns we would learn about. I

had a student read out the objective and asked another student to repeat it in their own terms.

Before getting into my power-point, students received the notes they would need for the days

lesson and the assignment they would be completing at the end of the lesson. While going

through the power-point I wanted to take my time explaining that under the term possessive

pronoun there are two types: the determine and the pronoun. The possessive determiner comes

before the noun, examples are my, your, their, his, her. The pronoun, look other types of

pronouns, replace the noun, examples are mine, his, hers, theirs, yours, ours. I then probed the

students in a whole-group discussion, with asking questions such as: What possessive determine

would you use, to describe something that is yours? The students all said my, and I asked

them why they chose that pronoun and not mine. The students explained that mine replaces

the noun and is not a determiner because it would not come in front of the pronoun. I then asked

the students to take a few minutes to talk to an elbow partner to come up with sentences using

the determiner my and the pronoun mine. Looking back, I believe I should have had students

verbally share out their examples as well as have some students write them down and project

them on the Elmo. I modelled what the students would be doing with the possessive pronouns

maze and allowed them 7 minutes to complete it independently before collecting it. I made it

competitive and stated that whoever finishes first and has successfully chosen the right words to

finish the maze, wins! This appealed to the 6th graders, and their relatively competitive and very

37
Evidence of Student Learning

fun nature, I ended up giving each student a prize when they came up and I checked their maze,

because I was very proud of their hard work, on what could have easily been a complicated

activity. After students were finished their mazes, they were allowed to login to their devices to

play a pronouns game online. I definitely think I should have moved around the classroom at this

point to make sure that the students on their devices were on the website they were supposed to

be on, I also could have inserted the link to the game onto BCPS One, via a lesson tile. Despite

this the end of the lesson went very well, and I was happy to have two other adults in the room to

help monitor behavior including on-task behavior. To finish out the lesson, we referred back to

the objective and I announced that there would be an open-note test next class assessing their

knowledge on all of the pronouns we went over the past three classes. Several students, while

transitioning back to Mr. OKeefes portion of the period, expressed how much they enjoyed the

unit and the activities we did. This was certainly a confidence boost and I was happy to see that

my instruction had a positive impact on the students learning and that I was able to incorporate

students interests.

LESSON 3

Possessive Pronouns!
About This Lesson
Description

-This lesson is the third of 3 lessons to be taught to a group of 29 sixth graders in an inclusion
classroom setting. Of the 29 students 7 are English Language Learners, and 4 students have IEPs
(3 for specific learning disabilities and 1 for an emotional disability. Accommodations for
students with IEPs will be given during this lesson, to ensure that all students have access to
reach to objective and learning goals.
-In this lesson we will be learning about possessive pronouns. Possessive pronouns indicate
ownership of something and there are two types: possessive determiners which come before the
noun, and possessive pronouns which replace the noun.

38
Evidence of Student Learning

-This lesson has been planned according to the students' progress with the past two lessons, and
it has been determined that the class as a whole is ready to move on to possessive pronouns.

Prerequisites

-Students should know the purpose of pronouns in sentences, "to replace the nouns."
-Students should know what personal pronouns are.

Estimated Time

30 minutes

Potential Use
Purpose:
Classroom Instruction
Grades:

6
Content Areas:
English/Language Arts
Common Core:
English Language Arts

o Language

Conventions of Standard English

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.6.1 (grade 6): Demonstrate command of

the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when
writing or speaking.

Goals
Instructional Goals

-Students will be able to choose the appropriate possessive pronoun to use in a sentence given
the personal pronoun.

-Students will be able to tell the difference between a possessive determiner and a possessive
pronoun.

Objectives

39
Evidence of Student Learning

I can choose the appropriate possessive pronoun(s) to use in a sentence, based on the
personal pronoun given.

Variability

-This class learns in many ways. For this lesson, I wanted the students to focus more on listening
and understanding than on writing down notes. For this reason, I printed out charts with the notes
on them for this lesson, so that students could simply paste them in and have more time for
whole-group discussion with examples and higher-level thinking questions.

Assessments
Formative Assessments

-Possessive pronoun maze

-In class examples of possessive pronouns used in a sentence (I will get a general understanding
based on student responses).

Summative Assessments

Following this lesson students will take a 7-point assessment, assessing their knowledge of
personal, subjective, objective, vague, and possessive pronouns.

Instructional Methods
Opening
Hook

-The students will watch a video from "Finding Nemo" where the seagulls say "mine, mine,
mine, mine" repeatedly.

-While students are watching the video, I will pass out the materials for the lesson (possessive
pronoun chart, and possessive pronoun maze)

-I will ask students what word they heard repeated in the video and explain that "mine" is a
possessive pronoun and we will be learning about possessive pronouns today.

Introduction

-I will choose a student to read our objective out loud for us. I will then ask another student to
restate the objective in their own words.

During
Introduce New Knowledge

40
Evidence of Student Learning

-While going through the power-point, I will state the definition of possessive pronouns which is
"Pronouns that indicate ownership of something."

-I will mention that there are two types of possessive pronouns: possessive determiners that come
before the noun and possessive pronouns that replace the noun.

Ex: "That is your red scarf, it is not mine." your is the possessive determiner because it comes
before the noun, and mine is the pronoun because it replaces the noun.

Pose Leading Questions

-I will ask students to look at their charts and talk with a partner to come up with examples of
sentences that contain possessive pronouns. I will tell them to make them about themselves, and
their own experiences.

-We will share some examples out loud as a group, and students will write down two examples in
their foldables, underlining the determiner and/or pronoun.

Independent Practice

-I will instruct the students to look at the maze in front of them.

-I will model how to navigate through the maze using a highlighter to highlight the correct words
that make the sentence logical, I will point out when I highlight personal pronouns and the
corresponding possessive pronoun.

-Students will work on this independently.

-If students finish early, they can play a pronouns game online, where they must pop balloons
that have pronouns in them. On the top of the screen there is a sentence, with one or more
pronouns, for students to use as a guide each time a new

Closing
Closing

-I will collect the possessive pronoun mazes.

-I will ask students what we learned today, and ask them what possessive pronouns indicate in a
sentence. (ownership)

-I will announce that they will be taking an open-note assessment next class on all the different
pronouns we have learned in class.

-I will instruct students to sit patiently and quietly, while waiting for Mr. OKeefes instructions.
(each pronoun lesson is at the beginning of class, usually the first half)

41
Evidence of Student Learning

Materials
Materials and Supplies

-Foldables

-Highlighters

-Pencils

-Finding Nemo video

-Mazes

Lesson 3: Reflection

The final lesson, on possessive pronouns, was the shortest lesson of the three, but

probably the most successful in terms of organization and behavior management. Behavior

management is a skill that I need to improve on yet I was able implement some of the strategies I

have learned from mentor teachers, supervisors, and other members of my cohort. During this

lesson, when the class became noisy and chatty, instead of trying to talk over the whole group

ultimately contributing to the noise levelsI simply said, Ill wait till everyone is ready., and it

worked. I also flipped the lights on and off to get the class attention in a non-verbal way. Both of

these strategies worked well with my students in this class and because I implemented them, the

lesson started and ended as scheduled and every student completed the exit card given to them.

When assigning the exit card, which was a possessive pronoun maze, I modelled exactly what I

wanted the students to do, and I walked around answering any questions and monitoring student

progress and knowledge of the subject matter. The students all did very well on the maze, which

was an indication that they understood what possessive pronouns are and how to identify which

one to use in a sentence when indicating a person or things possession of an object.

Part D: Analysis and Instructional Decision-Making

42
Evidence of Student Learning

Based on the results of each lesson and the student results from the formative assessments

that took place during those lessons, I could adjust instruction for the next lesson, to best suit the

needs of the students in my class. For the most part every student performed relatively well on

the assessments in this unit. The average score on the pre-assessment was a 2.75 out of 4, and I

noticed the common trends in incorrect answers to be in question #3 and question #4.

3) What is the difference between subjective and objective pronouns?

4) TRUE or FALSE: Personal pronouns allow speakers and writers to refer to themselves or

other people or things when they write and speak.

Many students left the question regarding objective and subjective pronouns blank, which was

expected as these pronouns were brand new to them, before the second lesson of our pronouns

unit. However, several students I think could infer the difference between the two based on the

root words in both: subject in subjective and object in objective. The last question which was a

true or false question, was answered incorrectly by many students and I believe it was because it

was worded in terms that may not have been completely student-friendly. It also could have been

because they were not familiar with personal pronouns yet, and perhaps they guessed false.

Out of the 29 students 4 scored 100% on the pre-assessment, which was out of 4 points. These

students included student 8, student 9, student 22, and student 28 as listed in the table below,

which can also be found on pages 9 and 10. Given this data, I paid close attention to where I

could differentiate instruction and activities to challenge these four students. This appeared in my

lesson during the activities especially. For example, during the purposeful movement activity that

took place towards the end of lesson 2 on subjective/objective and vague pronouns, I

intentionally gave these 4 students and others as well, two post-it-notes rather than just one. I

43
Evidence of Student Learning

also allowed the class to work together to match their post-it-note to the right poster, in this way

the more advanced students could help their peers and reiterate their own learning through

teaching! On the other hand, there were also 4 students who scored a 0 out of 4 on the pre-

assessment, and I took these four students in consideration as well when planning my lessons,

the note-taking piece, and the activities. For every activity, I allowed students to use the notes

they had printed or written down in their foldables. This kept each student accountable for their

own success, and while some students did not need to reference their notes, being able to use

their notes proved to help many students including the 4 students who scored a 0 on the pre-

assessment (students 15, 23, 27 and 29). Overall, based on the pre-assessment results, I could

infer that the majority of my class had a general understanding of what pronouns are, some

examples of pronouns, and how they are used in writing and verbal communication.

Table of pre-assessment results:

An x means the student answered the question correctly.

Table of Student Pre- #1 #2 #3 #47

Assessment Data
Student 1 x x x
Student 2 x x x
Student 3 x x x
Student 4 x x
Student 5 x x x
Student 6 x x
Student 7 x x x
Student 8 x x x x
Student 9 x x x x
Student 10 x
Student 11 x x x
Student 12 x x x
Student 13 x x x
Student 14 x x x
Student 15

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Evidence of Student Learning

Student 16 x x x
Student 17 x x x
Student 18 x x x
Student 19 x x x
Student 20 x x x
Student 21 x
Student 22 x x x x
Student 23
Student 24 x x x
Student 25 x x
Student 26 x x
Student 27
Student 28 x x x x
Student 29

In terms of the final summative assessment for this lesson, the average score was a 80%

or 5.6 out 7 questions answered correctly. In comparison to the average percentage scored by my

class on the pre-assessment which was a 68.75%, the average rate of growth for the whole class

was 11.25%.

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Evidence of Student Learning

Average Student Growth: Pre-Assessment vs. Summative

20
18
18
16
14
14
12
Number of Students 10
8
8
6
4 4 4
4 3
2
2 1
0
0%-20%
0 21%-40% 41%-60% 61%-80% 81%-100%

Percentage Score

Pre-Assement Column1

I realized while calculating this percentage that the grading scales for both the pre-and

summative assessments was not the same, so the average growth rate could have been not 100%

accurate in representing the knowledge gained for the unit. The pre-assessment was out of 4

46
Evidence of Student Learning

points and the summative was out of 7 points. I also took into consideration the fact that the

summative was an open-note assessment and some students did not utilize their notes and/or

some students did not gather adequate notes during whole-group instruction or when I printed

out the notes for the class, some students did not glue them into their foldables or lost them.

Moving forward I would more closely monitor students notes while teaching, instead of

standing at the front of the class. When addressing students achievement in terms of progress

toward the Maryland College and Career Ready standard (MCCR), essential skills and

knowledge under the L1.CCR Anchor Standard Demonstrate command of the conventions of

standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. These essential skills and

knowledge included the following:

Apply an understanding of the relationship between the use

and form of personal pronouns i.e.,
o subjective pronouns as subjects and predicate
nominatives
o objective pronouns as objects of prepositions, direct, and
indirect objects
(taken directly from http://mdk12.msde.maryland.gov/share/frameworks/CCSC_Language_gr6-
8.pdf )
Based specifically on lesson 2s activities, that went in depth about subjective, objective, and

vague pronouns, I can confidently state that the students as a whole expressed their gained

knowledge and progress toward the standard. In terms of trends in achievement or rate of growth

with certain groups of students in the class, there were no gaps or outliers in terms of race or

gender. I came to this conclusion after carefully analyzing the data from each assessment or

quick-check during the unit. Collectively as a class, almost everyone improved!

Part E: Reflection and Self-Evaluation

47
Evidence of Student Learning

Overall I learned a lot about my students and myself as an educator throughout this unit

and when reflecting after the summative assessment was given. One of the most important

lessons I learned was that it is effective to create engaging activities for the students, but with

that being said the teacher needs to have expectations, rules, and explicit instructions to go along

with these activities, otherwise the behavior and results might prove unideal. I also learned that

taking notes and writing, should never be the focus of a lesson unless handwriting and note-

taking skills align with the instructional goals of the lesson. Note-taking became problematic in

this unit, especially on the second day, during the second lesson when we went over 3 types of

pronouns (subjective, objective, and vague). I provided printed out notes that were identical to

what I wrote into my foldable, but only to the students with IEPs and ELL students, which

proved to help them listen and focus more, because they did not have to worry about copying

down every word I wrote. I realized immediately as I watched the students take notes

meticulously, that I should have printed out the notes for every student to glue into their

foldables. Due to this realization, I printed out enough slips for the next lesson I gave on day 3,

which was lesson 3, and this left us more time to practice the essential skills for that given

lesson.

One major aspect that helped me plan this unit was collaboration with the general

educator, Mr. OKeefe, and my mentor teacher, the inclusion teacher, Mrs. Fortunato. Mr.

OKeefe knows his students well and understands what works and does not work in terms of

instruction with this unique group of students. As a new-year teacher, he also had some tips on

managing behavior as well, which is in general a major goal of mine as a future teacher. I have

never been a particularly loud or assertive individual, however I have learned tips from talking

48
Evidence of Student Learning

with teachers about ways I can manage behavior with non-verbal strategies as well (flipping off

the lights, clapping, or just waiting silently for the noise to lessen).

Finally, overall, I learned what works and does not work with my students in this class.

While they enjoy fun activities and academic freedom to express their knowledge in creative

ways, my students also crave structure and want to know what to do and what I expect from

them. This unit has allowed me to find a happy medium between engaging the students based on

their interests and needs and giving a lesson that will allow them to gain knowledge in such a

way that they will be able to retain the information gained, so they can use it later on! I loved

teaching this group of students and I learned a lot about myself as an educator.

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