Alan Newman EPSY 485, De La Rue Tuesday, November 27, 2012 Assessment During Instruction Assignment

1. Context I am teaching in a suburban school very closer to a city. The suburb is on the urban side as there is a public transportation system and a large population. The school district is 60% White, 30% Black, 7% Hispanic and 3% other. There are five students in my class with learning disabilities though they are completely integrated within the classroom. About a quarter of the students within the school district live below the poverty level and qualify for free and reduced lunch. My students are in 9th grade. They should be reading at least an eighth (hopefully ninth) grade reading level with experience analyzing texts for information. They should also have some experience writing about what they read but most likely have trouble organizing that information.

2. Unit of Study a. The unit of study is one of five themes that the freshmen English classes focus on all focusing on identity. This unit of study is based all around family and how it affects identity. To focus on this idea, the class will be reading and analyzing The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, a memoir of a woman that grew up in poverty along with a semidysfunctional family. Some questions that will be focused on throughout the unit are: how does family impact ones identity? How does growing up in poverty affect a persons life? Is poverty curable? How are the effects of addiction within a family on the children and their outlook on drugs and abuse? Within this unit, students will learn and develop their skills in writing analytical paragraphs which will lead up to one larger analytical essay that answers the central question about the relationship between family and identity. Students will learn the difference between and uses of thesis statements, topic sentences, evidence from the text in addition to overall argument organization. I have identified two learning objectives from this unit to use from this assignment. They are derived from the Common Core Standards (Blooms taxonomy in parentheses): 1. 9.RL.2: Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details (Understanding, analyzing).

2. 9.W.1: Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence (Applying, analyzing, evaluating). 3. Assessment During Instruction Activity Freshman English Name: __________________

1) Look for three instances of drug/alcohol addiction in The Glass Castle (include page #):

a)________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________ b)______________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________ c)________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________

2. How do these instances impact Jeannette? Consider that she might not specifically say how she was affected but try to interpret the entire significance of the particular scene/action of character.

a)________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________ b)______________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________________ c)________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________

3. Review all of the examples and analysis of addiction that youve found in The Glass Castle. Write a topic sentence (a claim) that you could use to start a paragraph that would use all of these examples as supporting evidence. ________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________

Analysis of Items Item 1: Here the students will look for examples of specific behavior from the text that plays a major role in the development of the central theme. This relates back to the first standard because we have established the effects of addiction upon the family as a central thematic issue of the book and are now looking for evidence throughout the text or section of The Glass Castle. This item asks the students to analyze the text for examples of alcohol addiction from the father. Item 2: Here the students will look at the specific examples and try to draw higher level conclusions for how those events impact the main characters identity. The character does not say outright how her identity is changed forcing the students to make conclusions on their own. This item relates back to the second standard because the students are beginning to form their own conclusions about a central argument that they will be making about addiction within The Glass Castle. This item asks the students to apply their own knowledge of the text in order to make connections about the growth of the characters identity. Item 3: Here the students will form a topic sentence that encompasses all of the evidence and conclusions they have come to. This will assess if they are able to form a general sentence that will introduce their ideas and evidence to follow. This item relates back to the second standard which requires that the students are able to make a specific argument based on their analysis of the text. A key aspect of writing a topic sentence is that it makes an argument and is not a statement of fact. This item asks the students to evaluate their evidence to take a stance on addiction and its impact on the characters identity.

I believe that this is a fair assessment because the students will have the text in front of them to help them find examples. This is not an assessment that measures memory of what the students have read. It assesses their ability to find specific evidence about a question, form specific conclusions and then form a broader statement which will serve as their argument. Prior to this assessment, students will have multiple opportunities to practice this skill as well as a lesson which models the behavior of using evidence to create a topic sentence or vice versa. In terms of reliability, I will look at each item at a time, giving the students credit for finding examples, making a conclusion and a topic sentence that relates back to their evidence and other previous claims. I have used the Common Core standards to address the concern of validity in order to make sure that this assessment measures what the students need to know in order to be successful in a high school setting. The information gains from this assessment will be used to evaluate my own ability to teach the material and consider if the objectives need to be further reviewed. Most likely, this is a skill that students will continue to do throughout their academic careers and cannot be practiced enough.

4. Explanation a. I will use a standards based grading system to evaluate this assessment. What I really want to know from this activity is can the students take a topic, look for evidence from the text and create an argument. If they do not meet the standards of the objective, then it is important that I continue to work on this objective as we move forward in our unit. b. The students will know about this assessment ahead of time. They will have spent the previous few days doing similar activities in groups and as a class. They will have observed ample modeling of the task. After a quick review, the students will be given a majority of the class to complete the assessment. This will give them enough time to look through the text, come to their own conclusions about how each example impacts Jeannettes identity and then form a larger argument. I will allow students to ask as many questions as they want. It is important that every student in the class understands the directions and objective, especially the students with learning disabilities. I will make sure that they can read each question. There might be situations where I might point students in the right direction if they are having trouble finding evidence from the text. The most important part is the formation of their conclusions about what occurred in the story. c. Proficient understanding: The student will be able to find evidence from the text that relates back to one of the central themes of addiction and its impact on the family. They will be able to make a specific conclusion about how each piece of evidence has an overall impact on the main character Jeannettes identity. They will also be able to come up with a topic sentence that relates back to each one of their previous claims in Item 2. Adequate understanding: The student will be able to find evidence from the text that relates back to the central theme of addiction and its impact on the family. However, they will have trouble coming to their own conclusions about how those pieces of evidence

affect the characters identity and will struggle coming up with a topic sentence that encompasses all of their claims. Poor understanding; The student will be unable to find sufficient evidence from the text. They will have trouble forming their own conclusions about any evidence they might find and they will not know how to formulate a topic sentence that makes an argument. d. In terms of the class as a whole, it is important that at least three quarters of the class are at proficient for us to move on. Our overall objective for the unit is to be able to write an analytical essay that involves a thesis sentence and multiple topic sentences with multiple pieces of evidence for each topic sentence. All of this must relate back to the thesis statement. Thus, if the students cannot make independent conclusions that relate back to the evidence they found in the first place, they will not be able to reach the ultimate goal. The focus is on the paragraph until they can write the paragraph and then linking multiple paragraphs together for the essay. e. Thus if the class cannot reach this standard, it will be important to continue to do exercises like this one until the students have the skill necessary to move towards a complete essay. If a majority of the class is proficient at the objective, its important to identity the students that did not understand the material in order to give them extra support as we move forward as a class towards the larger essay about identity and family.