Alicia HansonEDSC 591

Analysis of Student Work

Instructional Context

The student whose work I chose to analyze is the same student I used for my case

study. Her name is Jenny, she is 17 years old (12th grade) and immigrated to the United

States from South Korea 2 years ago. She is one of my ESL students and in the

classroom she is rather shy, reserved, and soft-spoken. During whole class

discussions/questions she rarely participates, however in small groups she cooperates and

contributes well. She frequently asks me questions in a one-on-one setting. Her shyness

causes her to dislike asking questions of me in a whole class setting. She gets along well

with her classmates and usually appears cheerful. When having to read through the

textbook or questions on an assignment, Jenny usually has some comprehension

difficulties and frequently raises her hand to ask me to help clarify meanings for her. She

has difficulty understanding more abstract Social Science/Economic terms. Once I

explain things in a more easily understandable or relatable way, she is able to work out

the answers on her own. When it comes to writing, she also has trouble incorporating

more complex Economic vocabulary into her sentences. She usually has an electronic

translator/dictionary on her desk to use during lessons and assignments for additional

language support.

Instructional Activity

The overall unit that this lesson belongs to is Economics content standard 12.2:

students analyze the elements of America's market economy in a global setting. The

learning goals for this unit deal with students being able to identify and analyze the

factors and costs of production, and also understanding that firms want to reach the ideal

level of output to maximize their profits because a firm’s desire for maximum profit is a

monetary incentive that motivates their decisions in how much of a good or service to

supply.

This lesson was on the Law of Diminishing Returns and the main activity in the

lesson is a simulation to help the students better grasp the concept of diminishing returns.

The students were put into their pre-arranged groups of 4 with their desks arranged into

quads so that each group had 2 students on either side facing each other. I projected a

PowerPoint slide containing a chart the students needed to copy and fill out during the

activity and the follow-up questions they needed to answer after the activity.  Each group

received a large stack of A4 sized scrap paper and a pile of ribbons.

For the activity, each group of students simulated being factory workers for a

company that produces diplomas. There were 4 rounds: during round 1, students had to

work individually to make as many diplomas as they could in 1 minute by rolling the

scrap paper lengthwise and tying it with a ribbon so it stayed in place. They had to be

careful to create good quality diplomas (not crushed, loose, or uneven) because only

those would be counted. During round 2, students had to work with a partner within their

group and had to divide the labor between themselves (i.e. one student rolled the

diplomas, the other student tied them) and had to make as many diplomas as they could

in 1 minute. During round 3, the groups chose 1 student to sit out and the remaining 3

students had to divide the labor to create as many diplomas as they could in 1 minute.

During round 4, more stringent regulations were placed on the factory workers to

promote safety. All 4 group members were responsible for a single part of the labor: the

first group member was in charge of only handing the paper to the second group member,

who was in charge of only rolling the paper and handing it to the third group member,

who was in charge of only tying the ribbon around it and handing it to the fourth group

member, who was only in charge of quality control by making it look as perfect as

possible. Once each round was over, I checked the quality of each student's diplomas and

approved their total produced. The students recorded their totals on their charts and also

filled in their marginal return (i.e. how many more or less diplomas they created than the

last round), total number of workers, and what stage of production they're in (based on

their numbers for marginal returns). After the simulation activity was completed, I told

the students that they could work individually, in pairs, or in their groups of 4 to complete

the follow-up questions and graph.

The evidence of this assessment documented student achievement of the overall

unit’s learning goals through the simulation portion because students realized (through

practical application) how the number of workers directly affected production output and,

as a result, affected profits. Students had the tactile experience of seeing how adding

more group members to the production of “diplomas” began to slow their output and

drive down their profits. The data they collected reflected these concepts. The student’s

responses to the follow-up questions provided evidence of how they combined

analyzation of their simulation data with critical thinking in order to correlate which

amount of workers would provide a company with the ideal level of maximum output and

thus, maximum profits. The follow-up questions also provided evidence that the students

were able to identify at which number of inputs (workers) began to produce diminishing

returns. The creation of a chart made up of the simulation data provided visual evidence

of the relationship between workers and output.

Student Work

Having Jenny participate in a tactile kinesthetic activity was one of the

adaptations I chose for this lesson. By engaging in this activity, Jenny was able to gain

comprehension of the content by doing, and was able to practice good speaking and

listening skills in the process. During the follow-up questions portion of the activity I

provided her with sentence frames and a pre-writing template/graphic organizer as an

adaptation to help her improve her academic writing. Another accommodation I

employed was giving Jenny a little more time to complete the writing portion of the

assignment, so I allowed her to take it home to complete as homework, if she needed to.

Since Jenny is rather shy and reluctant to participate in whole class activities, the

adaptation of utilizing small groups within the activity provided her with a situation

where she could feel more comfortable to engage and participate. Using small groups was

also beneficial for Jenny because it is a less intimidating setting for her to practice her

speaking and listening skills. Another beneficial adaptation that I provided for Jenny in

this lesson was my pre-arrangement of student groups. The purpose of this was to

provide her with a heterogeneous group to work with. She was placed in a group with

some more advanced students and native English speakers to help model more natural

and fluid speech and to help support her in any comprehension difficulties she may have

had during the activity and follow-up questions.

Analysis of Student Work

Jenny received an A on the assessment, her responses to the follow-up questions

indicated to me that she understood the concepts of diminishing returns and how labor

can affect output. Her academic language was simple and had grammatical errors, but

she was still able to get her meaning through and display her comprehension. I also used

my discussions with her as I checked her progress periodically to gauge my assessment of

her comprehension. Whenever she asks me any questions when she needs clarification,

she usually explains to me what she already understands in order to help me better

answer her specific questions. Her explanations give me good insight into her

metacognition and what she is learning, so through both her written responses and her

verbal explanations on this assessment I was able to surmise that she has met the goals of

the lesson and is progressing well toward the learning goals of the entire unit.

As previously stated, one of the adaptations I made for Jenny was to place her in a

small group setting with more advanced/native English speakers during the simulation so

she would be more comfortable participating in discussions since she is very shy and

reluctant to participate in whole class settings. This adaptation was successful because

she did speak with her 3 group mates a good deal and was not passive during discussions

on what was happening during each round. I believe this active discussion with her peers

helped her understand the content more thoroughly. Again, another adaptation I made for

Jenny was providing her with sentence frames, pre-writing templates/graphic organizers,

along with a graphic organizer for her vocabulary terms. This adaptation to the

assessment didn’t work out so well mainly because she chose not to utilize any of them

when completing her work. She generally only likes to use those adaptations/resources

during times when we write formal essays and not on more, I suppose, informal writing

assignments. I also provided her the adaptation of having more time to finish the

assessment as a homework assignment, but again she chose not to utilize that adaptation.

Reflection

The main theme among the learning goals for this unit are for the students to

understand the various factors that can affect supply and demand and the important role

profit and incentives play in our market economy and I believe Jenny and the rest of the

students demonstrated a good understanding of these goals after participating in this

assessment. Through their responses, many of them showed that they comprehended the

relationships between labor, output levels, and a company’s drive for maximum profit. I

learned that the simulation was of great benefit in helping the students really understand

what was being taught, I experienced the look of “ah-ha” on many faces when they were

connecting the dots between output and labor.

If I were to implement this assessment again, I would present the instructions to

the simulation and assessment in a different way. I did not have the instructions written

down anywhere for the students to see, and as a result I had to field many questions

asking for clarification, which took a lot of instruction time away that could have been

used more effectively. The instructions for the simulation are a bit complicated and long,

so I would try to simplify them and definitely have them written either on the board or in

a PowerPoint slide so the students would be able to view them as I explain them to

provide them with an easier way to understanding what they’re doing. I might also

change one of the follow-up questions because many students raised their hands and

verbally asked me to explain or clarify it for them. Specifically, it was question #5 about

how much each student would be able to pay their workers and still make a profit. I now

think that question was a bit too vague and I should change the wording or come up with

another question entirely due to the fact that many students didn’t understand it and their

responses reflected their lack of understanding. I also think I would change how many

questions there are, I think I could definitely add some more to make the assessment

better and more accurate.

Other than that, I would conduct the assessment and simulation the same way. I

would keep the simulation and data gathering portion because I believe that is the most

valuable part of the assessment. It puts the content being taught into practical application

and allows the students to much more clearly understand the more abstract concepts of

diminishing returns and output of production than they would have through lecture, note-

taking, or book reading alone. I would also keep the element of the follow-up questions

because that was the part of the assessment that let the students analyze their data and put

forth critical thinking, so it was a much more accurate assessment for me of their mastery

of the content than a simple bubble test format would’ve been. The simulation and

critical thinking questions also align well with the new Common Core standards, and the

students really enjoyed the simulation. Jenny and the majority of the rest of the students

met the learning goals and demonstrated comprehension of the topic through those

means, so I believe them to be effective.

What I learned from this assessment experience is that visual comprehensible

input is key for all students, not just ELs or Special Needs students, and that modeling

also is a very important tool to help students understand content during instruction and

assessment. I learned that modeling a simulation activity is important, though it is very

difficult to attempt to model all roles involved. This will help me in planning instruction

and assessment of this type in the future because I will need to be more creative in ways

to make the instructions much more simple and put more effort and thought into showing

the students how to engage with and learn the material instead of just focusing on what

the content is.