Running Head: COMPETENCY 2 MCMASTER 1

Competency Paper Number Two:

Planning, Preparation, Instruction, and Assessment
Priscilla McMaster
Regent University
27 February 2021
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Introduction
When I was trying to figure out how best to fulfil competency B, “Planning. Preparation,

Instruction, and Assessment,” I assumed it would be as simple as finding a skill to give pre and

post assessments on and some lessons in-between to hit the skills. I have found that the reality of

this is much more complicated. I designed a mini unit on poetry to help prepare students for their

upcoming writing SOL. I used two weeks of instructional time to hit some of these poetry skills

mentioned in the VA DOE English SOL 8.5 while doing other instruction on things like

brainstorming SOL prompts and figurative language. I chose to include a poetry unit so close to

the writing SOLs because one of the main things my students have issues with in their writing,

besides being unable to write thesis statements, is that they have trouble elaborating on their

points in an essay or creating a voice. When the students completed the short poetry writing

activities, I created for them they were able to use awesome figurative language and create lots

of details. I wanted to teach the to overcome that disconnect and begin to write in a similar way

in their essays. Thus, I created this mini unit to show them how to use figurative language in

their essay writing, to meet the skills on the pacing guide, and to exposes them to the SOL 8.5 a

and e.

Artifact 1

The first artifact that I am submitting are screen shots of the scores, which can be found

at the end of this document, for each bell of the pre and post assessments. These results show the

percentage of correct responses per question in each bell and then the overall trend of for the

bell. From the first glance of the scores it is easy to see where I went wrong in terms of creating

two complimentary assessments. I added more questions to the post-assessment than I had in the

pre-assessment which resulted in students receiving worse scores in the post-assessment than
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they did in the pre-assessment and has to change the way I look at the results. Taking a look at

the percentage of students with the correct responses to the questions that are both assessments,

there is a mostly upward trend. Just focusing on two contrasting bells, 5th bell which is inclusion

and honors 4th bell, there are improvements. Looking at these two results in terms of the lessons

that followed the pre-assessment, it is clear that where there was more focused instruction and

practice of the specific skills, there was a greater level of improvement. During this unit I

modeled how to identify alliteration in a poem, had students identify different types of figurative

language in authentic texts, and write their own haikus. The biggest jump in scores corresponds

to almost directly to the amount of time that skill or SOL was addressed in class. Skills like

rhyme patterns and meter were included in the lectures but not practiced as they are not as

necessary for Eighth graders to know, and did not support my intent to have students improve

their writing with figurative language. While the difference in responses for Bell 5 can be

somewhat accounted for based on the amount of student participation, the same students and the

same number of students took part in Bell 7’s assessments and those scores can be interpreted

with ease.

5th Bell (Inclusion) Pre (Based on 17 students) Post (Based on 20 Students)

% of correct responses % of correct responses

What is meter? 23.5% 20%

What are the different 47.1% 60%

rhyme patterns called?

What is alliteration? 52.9% 65%

A poem containing 17 76.5% 95%

syllables and following a
pattern of 5-7-5 syllable
lines is called a…
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What is an onomatopoeia? 82.4% 80%

Honors 4th Bell Pre (Based on 15 Students) Post (Based on 15 Students)

% of correct responses % of correct responses

What is meter? 33.3% 60%

What are the different 40% 86.7%

rhyme patterns called?

What is alliteration? 73.3% 100%

A poem containing 17 93.3% 100%

syllables and following a

pattern of 5-7-5 syllable

lines is called a…

What is an onomatopoeia? 86.7% 100%

Artifact 2

The next element I am submitting for this competency is the mini-unit plan I created in

unison with the pre and post assessments as well as some examples of student work from the

unit. This unit was completed over less than two weeks and was frequently spaced out with

lessons on the multiple-choice portion of the then upcoming SOL. It was important that students

be exposed to as much useful instruction before their exams as possible without overemphasizing

the tests themselves. I used our class novel Night by Elie Wiesel, poems by Amanda Gorman,

Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, and Naomi Nye to give students examples of the impact of
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figurative language can having on writing and to discuss the different types of figurative

language. I began the unit with a lesson on Amanda Gorman’s inaugural poem, “The Hill We

Climb,” as a way of hooking the students into poetry by introducing it with the works of a young

contemporary poet. I also included a video of Gorman’s interview with Carson Daily as the hook

to that lesson to give the students background information before the class watched Gorman’s

performance of the poem at the Presidential Inauguration. While the lessons where students

completed mixed SOL review skills were developed by my cooperating teacher, Mrs. Hartman, I

was able to develop all of the poetry lessons myself. The next lesson had students complete the

pre-assessment described in the previous section and then as a class I took them through a pear

deck lesson on each of the skills included in the curriculum framework for the SOL. After that I

had them write their own haikus using a picture of a rainy window as a prompt to stay with the

theme of haikus traditionally being focused on nature. The following lesson, I also had my gifted

and honors students complete a free verse poem activity. My plan for their haikus and free verse

poems, were to use some of their poems as student exemplars to show them their capability to

use figurative language and then help them bridge the gaps between poetry and their prose. This

lesson using their poems was delayed due to district wide changes, but I did mention in other

lessons that the purpose of studying poetry now was to be able to write effectively in their

essays.

Some examples of student haikus and free verse poems are…

“Beware the pale castle to the west of the woods
Be careful of the abandoned shadows within
Yet respect the ghosts who reside in the halls
And the wildlife in the trees once night time hits” – Student A

“Asian culture is one of my favorite things.

The buildings are beautiful and their amazing architecture.
Sushi, an amazing creation of this culture, is delicious
Overall its amazing the people food and buildings almost everything is amazing.” – Student B
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“Old castles are creepy

Their creaking crooked doors and their aging aperture
It makes perfect sense to be fearful and fly out of there
Just make sure no ghouls or goblins get you on your way to go.” – Student C

“the days of sorrow

come flooding with the hard storm
drown the hope of sun” – Student D

Each of these examples are unedited and take directly from the students’ submissions for these

assignments. I believe these examples are proof that with a little prompting these students are

capable of using figurative language well. Another element that was a part of this unit was

having students analyze poetry, connecting it to their personal experience as well as the

nonfiction novel I am reading in class with them, and identifying figurative language. All of this

is included for the purpose of allowing students to see how figurative language works as they

read it, write with it, and analyze it.

Mini Poetry unit plan

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

8th 9th 10th 11th 12th

Asynchronous • Amanda • Mixed SOL • Poetry Pre- • Mixed
Gorman review Assessment SOL
interview • Writing • Intro to review 19
with Carson warm-up Poetry Pear Quiz
Daily 19 Deck • Free Verse
• Amanda Asynchronous Lesson poem
Gorman • Haiku activity for
Inauguration activity 4th and 7th
poem video bells
• Amanda (gifted
Gorman enrichment
poem strategies)
activity Asynchronous

15th 16th 17th 18th N/A

Asynchronous • Mixed SOL • Mini-lesson • Figurative
review 20 on Black language
History lesson
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• Brainstorm connections • Poetry post-

prompt 24 to WWII assessment
• Gimkit • Chapter 3
review part 2 of End of mini-unit
games Night
• Maya
Angelou’s
“Caged
Bird”
activity
• Exit Slip on
connections
between
novel and
poem

Theory to Practice

The major pieces that affected the plan of this unit and its assessments were that it would

improve their writing to use figurative language to include detail, to help guide students as they

transition from concrete thinking to more abstract thinking, and that it would give me ample

opportunity to provide students with feedback on their writing before their SOL. In Burroway,

Stuckey-French, and Stuckey-French’s book Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft, 2015,

they discuss how one of the most important rules for high quality writing is to “show not tell”

(p.22). Using this as a guiding principle for how to instruct students on writing, my goal was to

get them comfortable with figurative language so they could begin to use this writing rule in their

essays. Using Piaget’s cognitive development theory as a loose guide, I was aware that many of

my eighth-grade students are transitioning from more concrete levels of thinking and trending

more towards being able to understand more abstract ideas (Bergin & Bergin 2018, p. 99). In

order to support their development in this area, as well as prepare them for their SOLs, I wanted

to begin to challenge them to not just read a text but to start to see how it can be applied to their

own life and understanding. Which is why I had two different activities where the student was
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asked to find personal connections to a poem which in concrete terms had nothing to do with

their life. The final piece of theory I used to influence this unit was from Dean, Hubbell, Pitler,

and Stone’s Classroom Instruction That Works, in which they discuss effectiveness of not just

providing feedback for students, but also asking inferential questions to encourage higher level

thinking in students (p. 54-5). I included exit slips in this unit where I had students, for example

look for connections between Maya Angelou’s poem “Caged Bird,” and Wiesel’s novel Night. In

addition to that, I had students engage with graphic organizers designed to help them learn to

analyze poetry.

The purpose of this unit was to teach concurrent lessons on figurative language, poetry,

grammar, and writing so that students could be successful in their multiple skill writing SOL and

in future writing endeavors. Using research on cognitive development, writing principles, and

instruction as a guide I worked to create a good foundation for student to use in their essays, and

to be carried forth into the next unit of focus on reading. I have used the data from these lessons

to plan instruction going forward to ensure that students are able to succeed by putting an

emphasis on skills that are applicable to their eighth grade assessments, and can be built upon in

future lessons.
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References

Bergin, C. C., & Bergin, D. A. (2018). Child and adolescent development in your

classroom (3rd ed.). Cengage Learning.

Burden, P. R., & Byrd, D. M. (2019). Methods for effective teaching: Meeting the needs of all

students (8th ed.). Pearson College.

Burroway, J., Stuckey-French, E., & Stuckey-French, N. (2015). Writing fiction: A guide to

narrative craft (9th ed.). Pearson.

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Gifted 4th Bell

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Honors 4th Bell

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Inclusion 5th Bell

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General Education 6th Bell

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Gifted 7th Bell

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Honors 7th Bell

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Gifted 4th Bell

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Honors 4th Bell

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Inclusion 5th Bell

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General Education 6th Bell

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Gifted 7th Bell

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Honors 7th Bell