ANALYZING STUDENT WORK: CONTENT BASED ASSESSMENT

Grade Level: 1st/2nd

Process (used for individual student evaluation or group assessment of work
products) I believe students were tasked with individual writing assignments
with adult support, although I was not in the classroom during the assigned
writing period.
STEP 1: Assessing and Identifying Proficiency
Read the assessment prompt and/or rubric and identify:
• What are the students expected to do?
Response: Given lined paper, students were asked to write about their
favorite holiday and give reasons why.
• Which standards (CCSS or content standards) or curriculum
expectations are being assessed?
Response: The class and writing samples are from a mixed 1st/2nd grade
classroom, and represent students in both grades. The assignment
addresses 1st & 2nd grade Alaska writing standards 1, 2, 5 and 8
(https://education.alaska.gov/akstandards/ela/resources/elabygrade
/ELA%20Standards%20Grade%201.pdf &
https://education.alaska.gov/akstandards/ela/resources/elabygrade
/ELA%20Standards%20Grade%202.pdf).
• What assistive devices, if any, will students be able to use (i.e.
calculator, ruler, protractor, number charts, graph paper, scrape paper,
etc.)
Response: The wall of the classroom has an alphabet chart.
• What do you consider to be a proficient response on this assessment?
Exactly what do students need to say or write for you to consider their
work proficient?
Response: They need to demonstrate through their writing that the
holiday they’ve chosen is indeed their favorite, giving reasons why.
They should also demonstrate proper grammar, sentence structure, &
spelling conventions.
• Does the assessment give students a clear opportunity to demonstrate
what they know or have learned? Provide a clarifying statement for
how…
Response: It does give students a chance to show what they know. They
need to write about their favorite holiday, explaining why it is their
favorite, which would require them to demonstrate what they know.
STEP 2: Identifying Strengths and Needs if working with a group of
learners
Do a “quick sort” of students’ work by the general degree of the
objectives met, developing, or not yet.
Met Students have already demonstrated consistency
objectives with key knowledge and skills for the assignment.
 Developing Students are appropriately prepared to meet the
objectives demands of the assignment.
Not Yet Students have not yet met the pre-requisite
objectives knowledge of skills necessary to complete the
assignment.
Sorted lists:
Met Developing Not Yet
objectives objectives objectives
4- 2- 1-
Danica, Bailey, Paisley, Jude Adeline & Liam Hoku (paper not labeled)

57% of class 29% of class 14% of class

STEP 3: Identify the prerequisite knowledge (skills) the students

demonstrated they are able to use (items may be bulleted within each
category). These are the strengths or skills demonstrated by student
within each category of your pre-sort.
Met Developing Not Yet
progressing work incomplete work
best quality work samples samples
samples
 • Generally proper • Variable • Intro Sentence, with
spelling punctuation use some connection to
• Punctuation • Rational supporting supporting
typically included evidence and ability sentences.
• Rational supporting to make connections • Variable
evidence and ability • Intro sentence punctuation use
to make connections followed by • Appropriately
• Intro sentence supporting details connected
followed by illustration
supporting details
• Proper letter
spacing and mixed
capitalization &
lower case used.

STEP 4: Identify the missing information/skills and the misconceptions

and/or wrong responses in the table that follows. You may need to
review the separate groups of work samples to ensure that you have no
gaps.
Met Developing Not Yet
possible skills to work on possible skills to work on possible skills to work on
for for for
this group of students: this group of students: this group of students:
• Supporting details not • Consistent use of • Use of supporting
exclusive to those conventional details that directly
holidays (opening punctuation support statement
presents, playing in • Consistently correct • Proper letter/word
snow etc.) spelling spacing
• Independent work (I • Independent work (I • Proper grammar
assume they had adult assume they had adult • Spelling errors
support) support) • Independent work (I
assume she had adult
support)
STEP 5: Identify Instructional Next Steps
Based on the analysis of the students work samples, ask yourself:
• What patterns or trends are noted for the individual or the group?

• Think about a range of instructional strategies that will be

beneficial for the individual or the group? Then based on your
analysis of student data (responses), within each category,
identify specific instructional strategies to be used in the support
of learners in meeting the identified objectives. Complete the
table:

Instructional Strategies/ Next Steps

What will you focus your instruction on for the student or students in each group?

Met Developing Not Yet

Students who demonstrated full Students who demonstrated partial Students who attempted to complete
competence in this assignment need competence in this assignment need this assignment need to focus on the
to focus on the following skills next: to focus on the following skills: following skills:

• Independence in • Punctuation • Punctuation

writing conventions conventions
• Continued work on • Word & letter spacing • Letter discernment
vocabulary, automaticity • Letter and word
punctuation, and • Continued work on spacing automaticity
sentence structure vocabulary & sentence • Continued work on
• Continued work on structure vocabulary
more advanced • Work on word • Work on word
reading skills segmentation/sound segmentation/sound
blending blending
• Independent writing • Independent writing
• Continued work on • Continued work on
reading skills & reading skills &
strategies strategies

Self-reflection on your process (Reflect on the use of such an informative

assessment tool and how you think this tool or similar type of process could be
used in your developing practice.):
I think the most valuable part of this exercise is the work on sorting students into
groups. It’s helpful to look at the standards, and to create groups of students
who’ve met the standards, those that are just below, and those that need additional
help. I think this helps teachers create general guidelines of skills students might be
lacking, as well as ways to address these shortcomings. It’s also helpful in creating
small groups to better target specific skills. This is also important when thinking
about lesson planning. Differentiation needs to be taken into account to make sure
that all students are getting the most they can from the lesson. If only the highest-
level kids can grasp the lesson, that leaves a large gap in learning for the other
students. Likewise, if only the lower students are gaining new skills, the higher
achievers are missing an opportunity for growth.
It was also interesting to see that although students might be in the same category,
there are different things that they need to work on. While some “met” students
excel at providing supporting details, other excelled in creative imagery. Likewise,
the two students who were in the “developing” category showed some similar
deficiencies as each other, but were not completely similar. For instance, one
showed better word/letter spacing, while the other struggled in this area. It’s
therefore important to remember that although general guidelines can be created
for students, they are all individuals with different strengths, weaknesses, and there
for different instructional priorities.