Kimberly McCreary

Analyze Student Work

Fall 2017

In the fall of 2017, I taught four lessons to meet our standards regarding magnets. My class has 26
students. Six students are identified and served in the gifted program. Five students are English
Language Learners. Two students are on RTI Tier 2, with strategies to help them be more successful in
Reading. There are 12 boys and 14 girls in my class.

Before beginning our unit on Magnets, a pretest was given to all students to determine what they
already knew about magnets and the concepts that would be covered in our unit. The pretest was made
up of 5 questions and focused on characteristics of magnets and how they interact with other objects.
All questions were read aloud to all students. Most of the class completed the pretest and the post test
in a whole group setting, but I did pull one small group at a later time for the two students on RTI Tier 2
and ELL students. This allowed me to focus more closely on the individual needs of these students to
ensure that they understood each question.
Here is an example of the pretest and posttest:

My class scored an average 36% on the pretest and 90% on the posttest. According to those results,
their understanding of magnets and their characteristics improved after this unit.

Here is another work sample:

It is clear when reading this student’s writing that they have a good understanding of magnets and how
they work.

And, yet another sample:

This writing sample shows that the student still

has some misconceptions about all metal being
attracted to magnets. Analyzing this work
sample allows me to know that this student
could use some more instruction to clarify that
all metals are not attracted to magnets, just
metals that contain iron.
Another sample:

This sample shows that this student has

some misconceptions about items that
are
Magnetic and non-magnetic. This
student was present for all of the
lessons and investigations of magnets
and different items, and shows through
this activity that she was able to show
what she learned through a different
Medium.

Another sample:

This sorting activity shows that this student

understands what types of items are
attracted to magnets and which are not.
This activity showed me where some
confusion surrounded certain items that
are magnetic and non-magnetic. From this
work sample, I can see that more
instruction on what makes different items
attract to a magnet might be needed.