Data Analysis

The graph below displays each students pretest percentage with their post test

percentage. As a whole, the class greatly improved from pre to post test, with several

students exceeding the standard of proficiency. What I was most proud of, is that

students who answered practically no questions on the pre test, primarily those students

who have IEPs, were able to attempt nearly every question and get at least 25% of the

questions correct. Although they might not have had the all of the steps solidified to

complete the problems, they were able to complete the initial steps. They also had

developed those foundational skills about fractions that were absent at the beginning of

the unit.

Score Level

0-14 Far

below

15-20 Nearly

meets

21-26 Meets

27+ Exceeds

I used the rubric above to determine students proficiency in the standards presented. I

made the goal that by the post test, 70% of the class would either meet or exceed. The

results of the pretest were that 96% of the class was not proficient in the standards. The

post test resulted in a little over 72% of the students meeting the standards.

Score Level Pre Test (# of students)

Post Test (# of students)

0-14 Far Below 20 5

15-20 Nearly Meets 8 2

21-26 Meets 1 8

27+ Exceeds 0 13

On the pre test, students exhibited that they have very little knowledge about the

concepts that were presented. Many expressed frustration and anxiety about not

knowing very much of the material. Specifically, they seemed to focus on the difficult

vocabulary words that were presented. This gave me an idea that vocabulary

development was something to focus on throughout the unit. Students proved on the

post test that they had grasped the majority of the concepts that were presented. The

class average went from a 31.37% to a 78.89%.

Pre Test % Post Test %

Mean 31.37 Mean 78.89

Median 24.13 Median 93.1

Mode 24.13 Mode 96.55

Overall, I was very pleased with the growth that students exhibited from the pre

to post test. The graph below displays the percentage that students grew from pre to

post test assessments. My goal was for students to achieve at least a 30% growth from

pre to post test. There were six students who did not achieve this goal. I closely

examined the tests, formative assessments, and background I know about these

students to think about why their growth was not more significant. Four of the students

scored in the nearly meets category during the pre test, and moved up into meets or

exceeds with the post test, and so I recognized that their growth was still significant in

that they were meeting the standard. The other two students exhibited limited growth

from the pre to the post test. One of the students is currently going through a threat

assessment for self harm. He is experiencing a lot of behavior challenges both with his

actions towards himself, other students, and teachers. He was absent from the class for

a significant amount of the math block of the day. I did my best to keep him on track with

the rest of the class, but his behaviors made that task somewhat difficult. I then closely

examined the other student, whose growth was about 10% from pre to post test. This

particular student is currently on an IEP. She struggles to stay focused during math

class, and so I asked her to always make sure she sat at the front of the carpet during

the mini lesson, so that she would be able to engage herself. She often chose not to sit

on the carpet, and rather wanted to sit at her own desk. This particular student generally

shuts down when she is asked multiple times to do something. I decided that I would

rather have her listen from her seat, then completely shut down. I do not think that

sitting in her own seat was a good choice, because she often began doodling during the

mini lesson. In the future, I would like to have assigned carpet seats for particular

students. I believe that there is a strong correlation between achievement and

engagement. This particular student, like many others, could benefit from a more

structured seating arrangement in the classroom. The two students who achieved

limited growth from the pre to post test also expressed their strong disinterest in math

as a subject area. I would like to find ways to personally motivate these students to

become more interested in math. The performance task was a good example of ways to

make math more authentic and interesting for all students.

I specifically looked at the English Language Learners in my classroom, as a

student teacher working towards the ESOL endorsement. The graphs below displays

the pre to post test percentage changes. I was enthusiastic to see the growth that each

exhibited, something that I think can be attributed to the use of visual models, structured

language practice, and a focus on authentic vocabulary usage. Without the

incorporation of that comprehensible input, I don’t think that these students would have

been so successful.

I chose to closely examine the student G30, who is a very beginning English

Language Learner. This particular student reads at a DRA level 6, making story

problems very difficult for her to understand. She expressed that her favorite subject is

math, but she struggles with some of the vocabulary that is presented. During the test, I

read the story problems aloud to her so that she could accurately solve the problem and

construct an answer. At times, she would answer incorrectly, but not because she was

making incorrect computations, rather that she misunderstood what the question was

asking. For example, she might have thought that the story problem was asking her to

add together the fractions, rather than find the difference. I want to continue to work with

this student on her math language skills in order to become more proficient in math. I

challenged this student to look for words like “difference” or “how much more” in order to

determine that the operation of subtraction should be used, or look for “total” or

“altogether” when using the operation of addition. As this student continues to develop

in her reading, I think that she will find a lot of success in math. It will be up to me, as

her teacher, and other future teachers to continue that language development across

content areas.

Something that I found to be very interesting had to do with student attitudes

about math. I included a survey in which students were to indicate their interest and

preference in mathematics. I then used that survey to compare attitudes with overall

post test achievement. I was not surprised when there was a strong correlation between

attitudes about math and post test percentages. Many students develop negative

attitudes about math in early grades. This can be attributed to test anxiety, poor

performance, or even the teacher’s attitude towards math. I was very conscious of how I

approached teaching math. I personally have always loved math. I did my best to show

my enthusiasm for math with the students, while still recognizing that it can be difficult at

times. By fourth grade, if those attitudes have been generally prevalent throughout

elementary school, they can be difficult to overcome and break through. I found that

celebrating the students growth from the pre to post test was inspiring to them as

students that they can be successful in mathematics.

Another aspect of the student data that I looked at had to do with students who are

currently on IEPs. I did not include students who are on IEPs for speech, but rather

those who attend LRC for reading, writing, mathematics, and behavior. Upon looking at

the graph, you can see that in general, these post test scores were much lower than the

average of the whole group. Many of these students miss significant portions of the day

as they attend the Learning Resource Center to assist them in those areas that they are

struggling, which often makes it difficult to keep them on track when they are absent

from instructions. Despite the students absences, many displayed significant growth.

Student B18 went from answering none of the questions correctly on the test, to

achieving nearly 70% accuracy. I think that math workshop was an important grouping

strategy for these students. At the teacher station, I was able to deliver content that was

at an appropriate level for these students. We were able to go back to those

foundational fraction skills, and truly solidify them before moving on to more complex

content.

Student Work #1:

I collected student work on a daily basis and scored it on a 3 point scale that involves

the categories of meets, developing, and needs work.

The first example is of a story problem that was completed after the class worked

through several examples together. Students were provided with sentence stems to

utilize in each box to help them communicate and organize their ideas.

PS #1 is an example of a piece of student work that meets. This student completed

each box with the appropriate sentence stems that were provided in order to

communicate the process and product. The process is communicated through words as

well as with an area model and equation. Finally, the correct answer is expressed in a

sentence.

PS #2 is an example of student work that would be in the developing category. This

student completed each of the boxes with the appropriate sentence stems and

appropriately communicated their method, but there were some errors in computation

that resulted from an inaccurate area model. This student is on the right track to a

correct answer but needs to pay attention to details in order to come to the correct

answer.

PS #3 is an example of student work that needs work. This student completed each of

the boxes with the appropriate sentence stems, but selected an incorrect method for

answering the question that the story problem indicates. This student used addition

instead of subtraction which lead to an incorrect answer.

Student Work #2:

The next set of student work is an example of an exit ticket that was given at the

conclusion of math workshop. I focused primarily on the top section of the exit ticket, as

the lower portion had to do with self assessment.

ET #1 is an example of a piece of student work that meets. This student correctly used

an area model to convert an improper fraction into a mixed number. The student

included labels to clearly communicate her thinking.

ET #2 is an example of a piece of student work that is developing. This student used the

strategy of drawing an area model to complete this problem, but changed the

denominator when converting to a mixed number. This student has the concept of how

to solve this problem, but made an error when expressing the answer.

ET #3 is an example of a piece of student work that needs work. This student is still

working on the basics of identifying fractions. This student flipped the numerator and

denominator and then drew a picture of a set that had 3/14 shaded in, rather than

displaying 14/3 as a mixed number.

Student Work #3:

This final set of student work is a vocabulary check in. Students learned various hand

signals that were associated with important vocabulary from the unit. For this

vocabulary check in, I showed students the hand signal, without any words, and then

asked them to write down the vocabulary word and the definition of the word. I repeated

the hand signals several times for students to see.

V#1 is an example of a vocabulary check in that meets the standard. This student wrote

down the appropriate vocabulary word with its definition.

V#2 is an example of a vocabulary check in that is developing. This student was able to

write down the definition of the word, but was unable to write down which vocabulary

word was associated with it.

V#3 is an example of a vocabulary check in that needs work. This student was able to

write down parts, but was able to give a concrete vocabulary word or definition for each

hand signal.

Overall, this student work gives me, as a teacher, information about what kind of

directions I am giving, and whether or not students know what is expected of them. I

think that I can improve on giving students clear expectations and providing them with

the tools to refer to when they have questions on assignments.

Feedback Plan

Across all grade levels, students like to know how they are doing, whether or not

they are right are wrong. Instead of simply telling students their grades or how many

questions they got wrong on the test, I am finding it to be much more constructive to

meet with students in mini conferences to discuss how they are doing. If this had been a

longer unit with less of a time constraint, I would have liked to do this with each of the

students in my class. I was really only able to do this for the students who I knew were

really struggling to either stay on task or to understand the material. During these mini

conferences, I was able to talk with the student about things they were doing well, and

then also things they could improve on. I would specifically talk with the students about

setting goals, particularly in the areas that they were struggling in. I found that when

students set their own goals, they become much more invested in the process because

the goal belongs to them and is not something that they were told.

Students also corrected their own post test. I individually shared their pretest

scores to help them understand the incredible growth that occurred throughout the unit.

As they each corrected their own tests, many students raised their hand and asked

questions about specific test questions that they answered incorrectly. I was

immediately able to provide feedback and guidance as to why the answer they chose

was incorrect. I think this helped students to once again target some of those

misconceptions that they brought into the unit.

Some students may benefit from oral feedback, but others may be able to

synthesize it better if it is written. Throughout the unit, something that I could have done

differently is provide written feedback to students on their individual assignments.

Ideally I would love to write comments to students on their exit cards with hopes of

answering questions and overall motivating them to stay engaged and interested in the

lesson. I recognize that this may be time consuming, but I think that students like to

know that their assignments aren’t just piling up on your desk. When students get

feedback, in a timely manner, I believe that they become more motivated to turn in

quality work. They will also learn things that they could do better the next time. I know

that when I was in school, if a teacher said to the class that they weren’t going to grade

something or look at it, I was much less motivated to do my best work. Although we

don’t want our students to complete assignments just to get grades, I think that it still

plays a role in their work ethic.

I believe that one of the most important things is to develop a positive

relationship with parents/guardians. I do not want the first time I contact a parent to be a

time when I have a concern about their student. I believe that the initial contact and

positive relationship that is built with a parent will make providing feedback in an area of

concern much more accepted rather than feeling like an attack. I want to emphasize

that the goal of the parents and teacher is to work together to provide the best possible

education experience for their child. When I provide parents feedback and collaborate

with them, I want to have resources available so that if parents feel inadequate to assist

their children, I can support them with tools such as books or computer games that may

make them feel more comfortable. I think that a lot of times teachers are more focused

on giving parents feedback when their student is struggling academically or

behaviorally, but I see a great importance in giving feedback on a regular basis, whether

it is positive or negative. I had the opportunity to participate in parent conferences at the

conclusion of a grading period. I was able to share with parents and guardians their

child’s progress throughout the unit that I taught. I found that when a parent is very

aware of their child’s academic struggle, that it is best to focus on the positives and

provide them with encouragement that their child is making progress, even if it is slow

and minimal.

Although I believe that teachers need to provide feedback to students, I also see

a benefit in students giving each other feedback. This is something that implemented

into my unit, and would like to implement in the future. I had students look at each

others story problems and area models and give positive feedback and suggestions as

to what they did well, or what they could possibly change. When students begin to

recognize things in their peers work that could be done differently, they begin to look at

their own work in that way as well. This results in more reflection and self assessment. If

I were to implement this into a classroom on a more regular basis, I would provide some

kind of graphic organizer where students could give feedback about things they like and

suggestions they have for changes that the student could make. Students could be

intentionally paired with others who could benefit from working through that experience

together.

Something I implemented into my lesson plans was the opportunity for students

to self assess, and to consider how they would rate themselves for the day. When

students are more reflective on their own learning, they come to recognize things that

they can do to differently in the future as well, similar to peer assessment.

Overall, I think that feedback needs to be specific. When feedback is too general,

it beings to feel inauthentic and somewhat forced. I hope to continue to improve on not

just saying “good job” to students, but instead verbalizing specific things that the student

is doing to help them learn and grow.