Running head: CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE ASSESSMENT TECH 1

Culturally Responsive Assessment Techniques

Joanna Aviles-Jawhari

OTL 565 – Cultural Responsiveness in the Differentiated Classroom

Colorado State University – Global Campus

October 9, 2019
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Your Name: Joanna Aviles-Jawhari CSU-G Course: OTL 565

Subject / Course: English

Learning about a moment in the life of Maya Angelou. Learning about
Topic:
figurative language, sensory language and imagery language in text.
Lesson Title: Mrs. Flowers by Maya Angelou
Level: Grade 8 Lesson Duration: 45 minutes

SUPPORT YOUR CHOICES THROUGHOUT EVERY PHASE OF THE LESSON WITH RESEARCH THAT SUPPORTS
ITS EFFECTIVENESS

Common Core or State Standard(s):

Language:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.8.5
Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word
meanings.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.8.5.A
Interpret figures of speech (e.g. verbal irony, puns) in context.

ELA & Reading:

Reading/Comprehension Skills. Students use a flexible range of metacognitive reading skills in
both assigned and independent reading to understand an author’s message. Students will continue
to apply earlier standards with greater depth in increasingly more complex texts as they become
self-directed, critical readers. The student is expected to:
(C) reflect on understanding to monitor comprehension (e.g., summarizing and synthesizing;
making textual, personal, and world connections; creating sensory images);

Description of Lesson (Learning Task) as currently taught without attention to personalized learning:
The teacher will read aloud the story “Mrs. Flowers” by Maya Angelou while the students follow
along. Mrs. Flowers is an excerpt from the story “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” which is
an autobiography story. Students will learn new vocabulary and use context clues to develop
meaning to unknown words and learn literary elements found in the text such as idioms, similes,
sensory language and imagery language.

Learning Target (Objectives, Student Set Goals, and/or Essential Questions):

Essential Question:
- How does friendship affect people?
- What kind of friend am I?
- How can a person’s influence affect what we do with our lives?
- How can true friendship change lives?

REVISED Learning Task

(Remember to consider relevance and career/workforce readiness skills around what is being taught
AND personalized learning for diverse student groups within your classroom.) NOTE: Identify strategies
that would meet the needs of diverse learners who are performing above or below the majority of the
students in the class.

Number of Days: 2
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Learning Task Differentiation Details

Detail the personalized learning opportunities you will include to address each of the following
components in the space provided. Remember to support your decision-making with research.

Academics:
Students struggling with reading: A recording (MP3) of the story will be played in class while the
students follow along in their books.
After reading and discussing the story Mrs. Flowers, students will decide if they want to work in
pairs or in groups of 3 to fill out a chart for imagery language and sensory language. They are to
locate text and fill in the chart.
Anderson (2016) mentions that students who are given choices in their learning are engaged
more. When students are more joyfully engaged, their brains are able to process learning and
store it in long-range memory more effectively (Willis, 2006).
http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/116015.aspx

Health and Wellness:

Provide entrance slips for students to have them write answers to questions. The results will help
the teacher determine which students to group that need more one-on-one time with each other
and understand any particular areas in the lesson that needs to be reviewed over from the
previous class.
Place students into groups of 3 or 4. Students will work together to choose a part of the story to
act out. Students will write a short script.
Marzano (2001) suggests that in active classrooms children work together. When students are
working in groups, they model behavior exhibited by their current and previous teachers (Braniff,
2011).
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c1cd/dc5547efb174be53c1c9ea50aa7a1d9be3ee.pdf

Exit slip:
Students will write down their answer on a sticky note and stick it on the bulletin board with the
displayed question. Question: In what ways would you help a classmate who was new to the
school and didn’t speak to anyone and was always alone in school?
Leigh (n.d.) mentions that exit slips are a way to grab student ideas. “They can lead to self-
reflective thought which in turn can strengthen individual interpersonal communication skills”
(Bafile, 2004).
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ996265.pdf

Social-Emotional Development:
Activity: Starting Positive - Students will help tape a blank sheet of paper to the back of their
peer. Then, students will have 5-8 minutes to walk around the classroom to write about a positive
quality that makes that person a good friend or person. Students that need more time to write can
express themselves face to face with that person instead. Once the time has passed, each person
will remove the paper from their back and read each positive comment made (Edutopia, 2017).
https://www.edutopia.org/article/13-powerful-sel-activities-emelina-minero

Culture and Language:

At the school IT lab, students will decide to create a PowerPoint or slide show of vocabulary
words and definitions, the figurative language words or sensory language words with a
translation of it written in Arabic, along with any photos or graphics to help with remember the
word and meaning. Another option is for them to create a booklet of vocabulary words with the
translations.
“Research has shown that switching between languages and translation happens instinctively to
all language learners and the native tongue language is actually an important resource in second
language learning” (Mahmoud, et.al., 2018).
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https://www.academia.edu/37588779/The_Mother_tongue_and_Translation_in_English_Langua
ge_Teaching
Living Situation:
Students will work in pairs (students that do not have internet at home will be paired with a
student that is skilled using the internet) to research about on the author Charles Dickens and the
story that he wrote, The Tale of Two Cities.
Class activities to encourage peer work and the use of technology is to “pair students who are
tech savvy with students who are less familiar with computer use. Regularly incorporating
computer work into classroom activities ensures that students get consistent access to the
Internet, which is vital for maintaining skills and knowledge over time” (TeachThought, 2019).
https://www.teachthought.com/technology/6-ways-support-students-without-internet-access-
home/

Cognitive Skills:
Pre-assessment:
Write a list of 5 vocabulary words including the definitions on the white board. Students should
copy the words and definitions and match the correct meaning to the word. Have students swap
copybooks for correction. Assess the results by having students raise their thumbs up or thumbs
down.
Research has shown that students learn and perform better when teachers use assessment
information when assigning individualized work (iNACOL, 2017, pg. 15)

Assessment Method
How will you determine if the personalized learning components you chose impacted student
performance, engagement, and/or achievement? Describe that assessment technique here.
Remember, you will need to perform the assessment after implementing the lesson and report the
results using a visual data display.

An assessment of Peer Assessments and Self-Reflection will be part of a summative test. The
summative assessment will determine how much has been learned from the lesson. The results of
the summative test will determine if any part of the lesson needs to be retaught or readjusted.
Black and Wiliam (1998) “… conclude that ongoing assessment by teachers, combined with
appropriate feedback to students, can have powerful and positive effects on achievement.”
“Students also took part in self-assessment and peer-assessment activities, which required that
they understand the goals for learning and the criteria for quality that applied to their work”
(National Academy of Sciences, 2001).

SOURCES: Add a References page at the end of this document for the
research/sources you used to determine your strategies above (begin on a new
page and follow the APA guidelines in the CSU-Global Guide to Writing and APA).

YOU WILL COMPLETE THE FOLLOWING SECTIONS IN MODULE 4, AFTER THE

LESSON IS TAUGHT
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Self-Reflection for Continuous Improvement:

Explain what went well in the implementation of your lesson. What changes would you make to
improve based on student data and/or evidence? A visual display of the student achievement
data must be included (i.e., table, graph, chart, etc.). What are the next steps for the students in
your class, a group of students, and/or an individual student to ensure EVERY student is
proficient? What are the next steps for you in becoming better at differentiating your
instructional approaches for all learners in your classes? Use research (Module content and 1-2
articles from outside sources) to support your choices and ideas.

Self-Reflection

At the start of the class, as a pre-assessment, I asked students to copy vocabulary words and

definitions from the whiteboard and write it into their notebook. Once completed, I gave them

instructions to match words to the definition. If the student was not familiar with a word, to do

their best to figure out the word’s definition. This assessment was created to gauge student

knowledge of a few of the vocabulary words presented in the story Mrs. Flowers. Students

swapped notebooks for correcting. As they were correcting the notebooks, a class discussion was

held on the words and their definitions.

Students 6 out of 6
correct
Students 1 - 4 correct
out of 6
Student 0 correct out of
6

Figure 1. A pie graph of the pre-assessment of vocabulary words and definitions for the story of Mrs.Flowers.

Once completed, I had students raise their hands for a count. The final results: a classroom

size of 25 students, 32% of the students were familiar with all of the vocabulary words and

definitions; 48% of the students somewhat knew the words; and 20% of the students did not

know any of the words. Therefore, the result proves that the majority portion of the students did
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not know the vocabulary words. This is evidence that the vocabulary words need to be taught and

explained further. However, reflecting back when the pre-assessment was created that the

outcome may have been slightly better if one extra definition had been added. So that, if one was

wrong then it would only have off-set that one word instead of two.

After reading and discussing the story elements and using context clues from the text to gain a

better understanding of the words, a post-assessment was given of the same words and

definitions.

Students 6 out of 6
correct
Students 1 - 4 out of 6
correct
Students 0 out of 6
correct

Figure 2. A pie graph of the post-assessment results of the vocabulary words and definitions story of Mrs. Flowers.

Based on the result of the post-assessment, the techniques used of discussions, think-pair-

share, and using context clues, improved the results of the formative pre-assessment. Over 60%

of the students had all six of the vocabulary words correct, while 24% of the students received

less than 6 words correct; and a smaller percentage of 8% did not grasp the meaning of any of the

vocabulary words. I have recognized that the students at the school have very low comprehension

skills and vocabulary word development. This has to do with the fact that students are not

exposed to the English language often and do not practice it outside of school. Glende (2013)

mentions in a research that, “There is strong evidence that children learn and acquire language in

culturally specific ways, which aligns with the sociocultural theory of literacy acquisition (Meier,

2003).

I have realized for students to become proficient in their reading comprehension skills and
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develop word vocabulary is that there is a process to learning, which is through interactive

discussions (class, peers, and in groups) and orally saying the words so that they can practice and

hear the words. Another aspect of vocabulary building is that connections should be made to

relate with the word. There is a need for more modeling and scaffolding that needs to be done in

the classroom, and whenever possible have them translate it in their own native tongue.

The next objective of the lesson was about creating sensory images through sensory language

and figurative language. Students were given a chart to fill out and scan through the text to locate

words that express the five different senses. Originally, the plan was for students to write the

answers on the chart in English, but then I decided it would be helpful for them to translate

and/or summarize the located text into their own language. All of my students are English

Language Learners and Arabic is their first language. So I had them fill out a part of the chart in

Arabic. “Research has shown that switching between language and translation happens

instinctively to all language learners that the native tongue language is actually an important part

in second language learning” (Mahmoud, et.al., 2018).

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Diagram 1.Sensory Language Chart for Mrs. Flowers with student translations.

In conclusion, I have learned that I need to create more activities for my students to discuss and share

their findings in the English language, and if needed, they should communicate and translate words in

their own native language. For the students who did not do so well in both the pre-assessment and post-

assessment, a plan needs to be developed to simplify or focus on 2-3 words instead of 6 vocabulary words

and the meaning. More scaffolding needs to be done and modeling should be done with them for

improvement to happen. Unfortunately, the way the classroom set up is teacher-focused with little student

activity. Furthermore, it is difficult to give one-on-one time with struggling students. I have found that
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students have not developed independent learning, responsibility and ownership for their learning. This is

something that desperately needs to be changed. I have made some small changes in the way I conduct

and teach my class which is by creating peer and group work activities and holding many discussions in

the lessons.

Evidence of Implementation:
Attach student work, photos of the lesson in progress demonstrating student
motivation/engagement, and/or any other evidence as proof of implementation. Remember to
maintain student confidentiality (e.g., names removed) and follow school policies around
student photos, for example.
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Photo 1. Student work of pre-assessment vocabulary word and definition from Mrs. Flowers.
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Resources

Glende, L., (2013). Vocabulary and words study to increase comprehension in content areas for

Struggling readers. [PDF file]. Retrieved from

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/6fb4/ce82369c7f25617da7ba574a88ccbcc8c05f.pdf

Mahmoud, A., Attia, A., Faraj, A., Abdel-Kareem, K., Mahjoub, M. (2018). Ajdabiya
University. The mother tongue and translation in english language teaching. Retrieved from
https://www.academia.edu/37588779/The_Mother_tongue_and_Translation_in_English_
Language_Teaching