Laura Wipf EPS 513 2/12/13

Assessing Student Learning

I recently began teaching a mini unit on adverbs in my second grade class at Johnson School of Excellence. As this was the first time that this content had been introduced, during week one, I focused solely on adverbs that tell when and where something happened. The objective for my lesson was taken from the NWEA statement for Primary Reading: Language and Writing: Grammar and Usage - 162 Selects the correct adverb to complete a simple sentence. I began my lesson by displaying an anchor chart that had the definition of an adverb (a word that describes a verb or adjective) and questions that an adverb can answer (when, where, how, how much, or how often something happens). Next, I displayed a chart that had various sentences in which the adverb was missing (just like the exit slip on the following page). I modeled how to identify which words answer the questions when or where something happened. Next, I gave students the opportunity to take turns circling the correct adverb on my chart to complete each sentence. Lastly, they completed a worksheet, individually, that had more examples.

Laura Wipf EPS 513 2/12/13

1. Summary of Student Performance

Circle the adverb to complete each sentence. 1. We like to play ________. (where) yesterday outside over

2. School starts _________. (when) teacher there soon

Adverb Exit Slip Value: 2 points total

Adverb Exit Slip Data: 2nd Grade / Writing / 27 students assessed

50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Students with 2/2 22 0 4 Students with 1/2 0 Correct # 1. Correct # 2. Correct 22 0

1 0 Students with 0/2

Laura Wipf EPS 513 2/12/13

As seen in the exit ticket above, 22 out of 27 students assessed mastered the skill of selecting the correct adverb to complete a simple sentence. I think that this success was due to a few varying factors. For one, due to the great number of students in my class that are not yet reading at a second grade level, I read this exit slip aloud. We do that frequently in our classroom because often, we are not measuring students ability to read, but rather their grasp of a particular concept; in this case, adverbs. Some students success may have actually been a result of their searching for the adverb in the box and asking themselves which words answer the questions when or where. Other students may have merely chosen the word that made sense. Either way, I assessed the end result, not which steps they took to get there. I am guessing that if I were to have given the students an exit slip in which they had to underline the adverb in the sentence, the success rate would not have been as high. Out of the four students who missed question 2 on the exit slip, they each chose there instead of the correct answer soon. The sentence School starts there is technically grammatically correct if one was referring to the location of a school building. However, the students were supposed to identify the adverb that stated when. By choosing there, these four students still chose an adverb, just not the correct one. Three out of the four students who answered this question wrong were some of the lower-level readers in my class. I need to take this to account when analyzing my data because it is also possible that they merely circled answers at random. However, one student, David, baffled me when he got this question wrong. David is strong reader who usually pays attention to detail. However, I have noticed that he tends to rush through

Laura Wipf EPS 513 2/12/13

assignments when he is bored. Since he is academically ahead of the majority of the class, I would have expected him to receive full credit on this exit slip. The student who answered both questions incorrectly was of no surprise to me. Marquise is in the RTI process and performs academically at an extremely low level. When I collected his paper, I saw that he had circled the entire sentence for both answers and scribbled random letters around the page border. I keep all of his classwork as evidence for his IEP meeting that is coming up (hopefully soon!). Although this was day one of my mini unit on adverbs, I noticed that a few students sped through each activity. One of the most challenging things for any teacher is reaching the wide range of learners in almost every classroom. I have students who need loads of extra support, like Marquise, and students on the opposite end of the spectrum like Kernard, who scored in the 99th percentile on his NWEA MAP test in both reading and math. I saw that during this lesson, he completed his worksheet before anyone else, and his exit slip before I even read aloud the questions. I can see that he definitely needs a greater challenge. Perhaps I could have given him an exit slip in which the correct answer was not as obvious. His exit slip could have included a more complex sentence, with possible answers that are all adverbs, that all made sense, but only one of which answered the appropriate question when or where. There are three other students that come to mind that may benefit from this more challenging exit as well.

2. Using Assessment to Inform Instruction

Laura Wipf EPS 513 2/12/13

Due to the fact that the majority of my class mastered the basic skill of selecting the correct adverb to complete a simple sentence, I will change my objective for future lessons. My next steps will be to determine whether students can identify an adverb in a sentence. I think that this is a very different skill because in a sentence, there are more words to choose from than simply three words in a box, as on the previous exit slip. In addition, they will have to have a firm grasp regarding the definition of an adverb, as they will not be able to rely on selecting the word that makes sense to complete a sentence. I think that this method will be an adequate measurement for my low and high students. I can use this type of assessment as a better baseline for which students can accurately identify adverbs that tell when and where. It would even be applicable for those students who missed question 2 in my previous exit slip because it would allow me to determine whether they can locate an adverb in context. It would also decrease the chances of any student from trying to guess the correct answer. If I see that my higher-level students, like Kernard, grasp the new content immediately, I can have sentences prepared that are more difficult for him to identify the adverb. On the contrary, for my lower level students, I could give them more explicit instructions. For example, the directions could say Underline the adverb that tells when in the sentence instead of Underline the adverb in the sentence. By better scaffolding my instruction, I know that my analysis of student performance will give me more information about individual students.

Laura Wipf EPS 513 2/12/13

Once I have accurately determined whether students have learned how to identify when and where adverbs, I will teach the remaining usages of adverbs: how, how much, and how often.