Introduction:

At the start of the second semester, students were introduced to our first unit centered

around reading, interpreting, and analyzing poetry. For one of my main formative assessments,

which took place in the middle of the unit after a series of smaller formative assessments, I had

given students a worksheet that included a poem and three comprehension questions in order to

gauge student ability and understanding of being able to read and annotate a text for understanding

and be able to identify at least two of the five figurative language devices within the poem. Students

were directed to annotate the text, identify at least two figurative language devices, and then reflect

on the three comprehension questions found at the end of the sheet. Prior to this, students were led

through a series of mini lessons and workshops centered around these elements: how to properly

annotate, types of figurative speech and how to identify them, and pulling meaning from a poem.

From this assessment, I collected data from student understanding and ability regarding this

assignment arranged in categories including advanced, proficient, basic, and below average.

The first section of this analysis is titled “Learning Goals and Standards” which will detail

the specific standards tied to this formative assessment, as well as each objective, clearly written,

to detail the expectations of student learning which are clearly connected to a state or district

standard.

The second section of this analysis is titled “Substantive Analysis of Student

Understanding” which will detail how the assessment produced a rich data set useful and sufficient

for substantive analysis of student understanding of the selected learning goals identified in section

one. This data set will be discussed and analyzed to show what steps were taken in response to the

results.
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The third section of this analysis is titled “Analysis of Assessment Data and Student

Feedback” which will include an analysis of student thinking and illuminate important aspects of

student understanding based on the data collected. It will detail how the assessment is tied to

specific state standards and detailed examples in the student work that show both individual

student thinking and broader patterns of student understanding. Data and student work samples

will be analyzed in order to clearly show patterns and significant insights.

The fourth section of this analysis is titled “Subsequent Instruction Informed by Analysis

of Student Thinking” which will detail conclusions about the post instruction steps that are clear,

specific, and include appropriate and effective strategies that align with both individual student

needs and the broader patterns of student thinking.

The fifth section of this analysis is titled “Additional Assessment Information Produced to

Determine Student Growth” which will detail follow-up attempts made in the process to identify

changes in student thinking. Assessment information will illuminate changes in student thinking

and detail the student feedback given in response to the collection of the data.

Section 1: Learning Goals and Standards

Near the beginning of the poetry unit with ninth grade students, I conducted a lesson

centered around explaining and modeling how to identify and interpret context clues within a poem

or other work/text and then I distributed a formative assessment that would target student ability

to identify and define certain context clues, determine the meaning of unknown words, and

interpret meaning from a ballad poem. After I identified the specific state standards that I wanted

to use for this specific lesson, I created targeted, clear, and measurable learning goals that aligned

with each of the state standards which are coordinated as follows:

A. Students will be able to define and apply context clues.

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B. Students will be able to decipher the meaning of unknown words.

1. CE 2.1.3 Determine the meaning of unfamiliar words, specialized

vocabulary, figurative language, idiomatic expressions, and technical

meanings of terms through context clues, word roots and affixes, and the

use of appropriate resource materials such as print and electronic

dictionaries.

C. Students will be able to identify, define, and pull meaning from a ballad.

1. E 3.2.2 Identify different types of poetry (e.g., epic, lyric, sonnet, free verse)

and explain how specific features (e.g., figurative language, imagery,

rhythm, alliteration, etc.) influence meaning.

With these standards and objectives in tow, students began developing the skills and tools

necessary for pulling meaning from a poem and building an understanding and appreciation for

reading and writing poetry. Students were introduced to the concept of context clues and building

the skill of being able to decipher the meaning of unknown words using the context clues explained

and modeled in class.

Section 2: Substantive Analysis of of Student Understanding

To gather insight into each student’s prior knowledge about their understanding of context

clues and meaning making while reading a text, I started out with an explaining and modeling

lesson in which I explained specific context clue vocabulary terms and then demonstrated how

these terms are applied to a text in order to conjure meaning from the text that they are exploring.

As I modeled, I made sure to show my learning and understanding of these vocab terms out loud

as I annotated a poem to show why and how I was using these terms to increase my understanding
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of what was going on in the specific poem. I then stated the big idea which was that learning the

meaning of a word through its use in a sentence or paragraph (aka context clues) is the most

practical way to build vocabulary, since a dictionary is not always available when a reader

encounters an unknown word. The first formative assessment was informal and took place during

the duration of this explaining and modeling activity in which I actively asked probing questions

and paused as I was conducting the activity for the students. I would ask students why I may have

annotated a certain way or how/why I came to a certain conclusion based on my “out-loud”

annotations and thought processes. This helped me gain insight into the progress that my

explaining and modeling activity was in building up student understanding prior to the formal

formative assessment in which they would conduct and complete on their own. I also would pause

and ask students to help me annotate the poem and explain why they told me to annotate a certain

way or notice a certain element within the line of poetry. I noticed that during this time, many

students were asking clarifying questions such as “how did you know what that word meant?” or

“how did you know what was going on at X point in the poem?” to their classmates who suggested

a certain clue or made a specific annotation. This enabled me to target any weak points or areas of

greater targeting as I was explaining and modeling. This also ensured that I was able to answer

these clarifying questions and explain my own thinking more in depth so that students would have

a greater understanding of how and why they were using these context clues while reading can

amplify their understanding of a poem.

After this explaining and modeling activity, I distributed the formative assessment that

students were to complete on their own which would inform me on each student’s own individual

progress in terms of using context clues to amplify their understanding of a text. This worksheet

was titled the “Context Clues Worksheet” and directed students to answer specific context clues
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questions after having read a poem titled “The Jaberwocky” by Lewis Carroll. Prior to this

assessment, however, I had students listen to the poem and read it individually before making any

annotations or answering any questions. This was one of the context clues rules that were explained

in the lesson: Read a poem multiple times before coming to any conclusions about meaning. After

distributing and collecting the formative assessment, I inputted the data that I had received into a

data set for analysis. It became abundantly clear to me that even more time needed to be focused

on the differences between tone and mood based off of the data provided by the formative

assessment given that around 65% of the class had correctly identified or showed a basic

understanding of mood and tone within a work, as well as being able to give an in-depth

explanation of their findings and poem meaning-making.

With this information, I gave another formative assessment titled “The 5 Steps Worksheet”

which was delivered after a revisit of the five steps to annotating and another context clues lesson

that targeted mood and tone, as well as explained and modeled another poem for meaning making

that included whole class and small group discussion. The students were given two poems to

annotate and identify poetic devices. The specific directions were to “Use the 5 Steps to Annotating

Poetry using the two poems below. Annotate the poem, looking for at least 2 examples of figurative

language and at least 1 sound device that are listed below.”

After receiving the data from this assignment, the results were better. 96% of students fell

in the ranges between basic-advanced understanding of context clues, figurative language device

identification, and meaning making while reading poetry, while 4% fell in the below average

category. The students who fell in the below average category were to meet individually with me

so that I could probe and guide their thinking for progress in this area while other students

continued progressive coursework that further targeted these skills. Moving forward, I needed to
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ensure that students had the opportunity to work one on one with the poetic devices and pulling

meaning making from poetry, so we spent a lot of time with various types of poems both

individually, as a whole group, and with partners identifying, labeling, and working with the

content.

Section 3: Analysis of Assessment Data and Student Feedback

As far as my interpretation and assessment of student understanding throughout this

formative assignment, I was able to decipher between a student falling under the category of below

or basic versus proficient or advanced because of their ability to correctly identify the figurative

language device being used within the poem and their reasoning behind how it affected and

furthered their understanding of the poem. Some students incorrectly identified a figurative

language device but were able to thoroughly explain how the underlined or circled element of the

poem added to their understanding while other students were able to correctly identify, lebel, and

give reasoning as to why a certain figurative language device was used. Throughout much of the

formative assessment, many students had issues identifying the following terms correctly:

assonance vs consonance, alliteration, and hyperbole. In reference to these aspects, I knew I needed
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to revisit these terms in order to help students understand how to correctly identify them and what

their purpose was within the poem. In order to do this, I had placed students into groups of five so

that students who had a strong understanding were mixed in with students who did not have a

strong understanding of figurative device identification and I had them participate in a stations

activity which had targeted assignments and activities that targeted each of the figurative and

sound devices in hopes that they could learn from and work with and alongside each other.

During an acknowledgement of this data which I had given in a mini lecture prior to these

stations, I told students the real world purpose of and the big idea to these poetic devices and poetry

meaning making in general: Poetry meaning making has the ability to help in understanding

different perspectives and can help students respect and understand the viewpoints of people across

the globe. Likewise, identifying the figurative and sound devices used within a poem helps you to

better interpret the message of the poem by better enhancing what the speaker is trying to describe

and illustrate. I then projected a poem on the board after the stations activity was over, and had

called on students to come up and annotate in depth while explaining the annotations and decisions

that they made to the class. As they explained, I added in my own thoughts and probing questions.

Section 4: Subsequent Instruction Informed by Analysis of Student Thinking

The next day in class, I had students play a game, similar to a quiz but informal, in which

I put various terms or definitions up on the board and had students compete in teams to correctly

answer, identify, or change the definition or term to be correct. I also included lines of poetry on

the board that included some sort of specific device in the line that I would then have the students

correctly identify and explain their reasoning behind how they identified the device. I also would

have lines of poetry on the board and would ask each team to explain their own interpretations of

the poems in a turn and talk and then have one member from each team give their own
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interpretation of the poem in terms of the group’s consensus. Not only was this another informal

formative assessment in which I could interpret the understanding of the class as a whole in terms

of these concepts and skills, but it was also a good activity for students who were still struggling

with certain skills since they could work and collaborate their thinking in groups as well as hear

the explanations of the other teams. Because working in teams of four can be less feedback for me

as far as individual students go, I made sure to make it a rule that each student in the team would

be made a “spokesperson” for their group and would have job of answering the question on the

board and being the one to give their reasoning and explanation when they presented their answer

to the group. The group would then help the student come to a correct answer if they were incorrect

or they would explain how they agree with the answer given. The spokesperson would share their

original answer with me when speaking, as well as explain the new answer after having

collaborated with their team of peers or they would explain how their answer remained the same

after speaking with their peers and then give a reason why they chose to keep their answer the

same. This rule helped me to ensure that each student was being challenged to think on their own

but also collaborate with their team members who may notice a wrong direction in the student’s

thinking and be able to redirect them towards a correct answer.

Section 5: Additional Assessment Information Produced to Determine Student Growth

After the class as a whole seemed to be at at least a high basic level of understanding or

higher, I had given them a final assessment that acted as more of a summative assessment in which

students were to choose one of the five poems that they had written over the course of this unit,

have that poem peer edited, revised the poem, annotated the poem, and identify and correctly label

any poetic devices used in the poem and submit that and a reflection to me for a grade. 80% of
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students met the requirements of this activity and fell under the proficient-advanced category and

were able to correctly identify the (at least) two figurative language devices and sound devices

within their poem, as well as annotate their poem in depth to amplify the meaning of their poem

using the five steps that I had taught them in an earlier lesson. 18% of the students fell under the

basic category and were able to correctly identify at least one of the devices from either category

and show somewhat of a thorough annotation of their poem. 2% of the students, however, fell

under the below average category and were unable to correctly identify the devices being used or

failed to correctly utilize the five steps of annotation; these students were met one on one with and

further aided in this skill in a conference day in which I had all students sit around my desk and

had them work on an additional skill assessment with me and explain as they went. These students

were given guided notes to keep and reference throughout the rest of the unit that would help them

correctly use, identify, and pull meaning from various elements of poetry that we had learned in

class. I shared my feedback with students as far as any areas of growth and areas that needed

further help and targeting and restated the “why” or the big idea to this content and these skills.

Each student received thorough individual feedback as far as their ability to complete this

summative assessment in which I explained why or why not their answer was correct or incorrect

and commented on their abilities to pull meaning from their poem.

Conclusion:

Overall, from the beginning of this assignment and these formative assessments, students

progressed as a whole class from the categories of lower basic to higher basic/proficient. Students

who were unable to tell the difference between tone and mood at the beginning showed

improvement in their abilities to decipher between the two, as well as explain why they were used

and how their interpretation of the two added value to the poem. Students who struggled with
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correctly identifying types of figurative language and sound devices showed significant

improvement in their ability to do so towards the end of the unit. Still, there was around 10% of

each class who struggled with their ability to identify certain specific figurative language or sound

devices and I will continue to work on those skills with those students by regular conferencing and

more targeted lessons. All of the evidence that I collected throughout this unit helped me to

understand that as a teacher, I need to ensure that my students are receiving a well-rounded mix of

visual and auditory directions when it comes to identifying, labeling, and pulling meaning from a

poem. Many students heavily benefitted from the mix of all three and being able to see my own

thinking as I annotated a poem or identified a poetic device. I also learned that differentiating

instruction so that students are working in predetermined groups of proficient and basic

understanding individuals helps so that students are able to collaborate with one another to problem

solve, as well as give students individual time to think through and use these skills on their own

with my feedback to help probe, monitor, and progress their understanding is just as important.

Also, allowing there to be time to explain why poetry matters and allowing students to choose and

select poems that are meaningful to them in order to better help and encourage them to utilize the

skills learned in class to pull meaning from a poem is also very helpful when trying to maintain

student attention and engagement. Overall, I will continue to work on my ability to deliver my

content to students in a way that amplifies their retention of certain skills and content based abilities

and better utilize formative assessments to inform my teaching in the future.