Analyzing Student Learning

Recently, I have been investing time in really using assessments to improve communication--and provide rigor in the classroom by providing valuable feedback. By using assessments as a way to build and strengthen classroom focus on learning, I am also seeing how organizing data is extremely useful in developing meaningful lesson plans.

Lately, I saw how my students were engaged in opinion writing--and I wanted to connect that with the standard regarding author's purpose. I developed a mini-series within our Reading Workshop unit: Why do writer's tell stories; there were three trade books we focused on to understand and illustrate author’s purpose. For each book students created a writing/illustration piece that I used for assessment. The following was a mini book they created (defining themselves as authors/illustrator) in response to Wangari's Trees of Peace by Jeanette Winter. 

For this specific summative assessment, students were to illustrate their opinion of this author’s purpose and write a connecting sentence. Therefore, the rubric connects writing and drawing within the rubric.

Objective: Students will be able to identify the author and the author’s purpose (AP).

Emerging                     Developing                  Proficient                                Exemplary

No illustration             some illustration         matching illustration               matching/labeled pic

No idea of AP              can identify AP          can identify AP                       specific/identify AP

On this assignment, as a whole the class can identify the author and illustrator, yet nearly half still have difficulty communicating the author’s purpose. Overall, what students found challenging was creating sentences that were self-created (beyond prompt). 3/4^th of the class was able to draw an illustration that matched their completed sentence frame. The challenge of higher order thinking to think about purpose is to be expected as the objective is both an application of the kindergarten standard and looking ahead to 1^st grade and the objective to understand author’s purpose:

0.2.6.6

6. Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text.

6. Name the author and illustrator of a text and define the role of each in presenting the ideas or information in a text.

To have this be a valuable assessment, I wanted to focus on three students to identify needs of differentiation of future lessons:

An emerging reader: was able to copy the sentence frame structure and attempt to complete the sentence. However, they were unable to draw an illustration that matched their sentence frame. In order to improve, this student(s) would need to be able to share their work (with both peer and teacher) to communicate their reason. My focus for this student is to ensure that they understand the meaning of the sentence they are creating.

A developing reader: was able to complete one or two sentences yet were still unable to match their illustration—which was taught for several days. My focus for this reader is to have practice communicating their connection between writing and drawing. The expectation for kindergarten is that students can identify the role of the author and illustrator. Therefore, in the future after this lesson I will provide more opportunity to narrate their reason for drawing and writing.

An exemplary reader: was able to write beyond the prompt—by understanding the author’s purpose and writing opinion. I saw similarities that these readers are creatively writing (phonetically) with confidence, and also matching their illustrations. Often their illustrations had labels and extraordinary detail to demonstrate focused, intentional thinking. My focus for this reader is to have them share their opinions verbally.

Overall what still needs to be worked on is the connection between their identification of the author/illustrator and their opinion of the purpose. Identifying this concept will take practice so we will be identifying author’s purpose of students’ favorite books from home. This will provide an opportunity for engaged scaffolding, and the shared experience of communicating with peers. I see from this assessment that students are comfortable with the concept when they are given the answer so to speak in a sentence frame or prompt. My goal is for them to be confident readers, continually thinking for themselves about what they have just read. Students may confuse their own opinion for the author’s purpose so the challenge is to have them think empathetically about why the author would have written the text. They can do this with any book that they read, so this concept is something that I will bring up in guided reading groups, individual conferencing and also in morning meeting (opportunities outside of shared Reader’s Workshop).

While these assessment projects take time and are definitely work to prepare, they are well worth the time and effort--and really my goal is that students are the ones working hard. These assessments provide scaffolding for higher-order thinking and conceptualization of larger ideas.