ECE 661

Work sample form

ANALYZING STUDENT WORK: CONTENT BASED ASSESSMENT

Grade Level:

Process (used for individual student evaluation or group assessment of work products)
STEP 1: Assessing and Identifying Proficiency
Read the assessment prompt and/or rubric and identify:
• What are the students expected to do?
Response: The students were asked to draw a picture of something they like or interests
them, then write their name and what they drew on the writing section underneath the
picture. Students are expected to write their name and what the item is on the paper. Capital
and letters are written in appropriate places.

• Which standards (CCSS or content standards) or curriculum expectations are

being assessed?
Response:
Writing. K. Text Types and Purposes. 2.
Writing. K. Presentation of Knowledge. 5.
Writing. K. Conventions of Standard English. 1.a.
Writing, K. Conventions of Standard English. 2. a. d.

• What assistive devices, if any, will students be able to use (i.e. calculator, ruler,
protractor, number charts, graph paper, scrape paper, etc.)
Response: Lupita, their lead teacher, informed me that these students are not spontaneously
writing so they will need some assistance. I assisted the students by writing the word that
was hard from them on a separate piece of paper so they could look at my paper and write it
on their own paper. The alphabet chart was on the wall, but they did not look at it for help.

• 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: I consider a proficient response to this assignment where students are able to write
their names and be able to write their words from left to right, and top to bottom if they need. I
also want to see that a student is able to write unassisted. Capital and letters are written in
appropriate places.

• Does the assessment give students a clear opportunity to demonstrate what

they know or have learned? Provide a clarifying statement for how…
Response: The assessment gives a clear opportunity of what they have been working on so far,
but it was also the first time they worked with me, so I was not the one to give them lessons or
work with certain aspects of their skills. My knowledge of where students are at came from the

Adapted from: Rhode Island Department of Education & the National Center for the Improvement of Educational
Assessment, Inc.
ECE 661
Work sample form
teacher and not my own teaching or lessons. I feel I would have a more accurate assessment if I
had a particular lesson on writing their name with a capital letter, writing from left to right, or
working on simple sentences. This writing assessment is a good indicator of where they are at
and I can determine what lessons or things they need to learn next, so I do feel this assessment is
helpful for me understand where my students are at.

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
Maya Adelaide
Milo

0% of class 66% of class 33% 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.

Adapted from: Rhode Island Department of Education & the National Center for the Improvement of Educational
Assessment, Inc.
ECE 661
Work sample form
Met
best quality work samples
• Every word is attempted
• Every word contains a vowel
• Work includes print that
matches/supports picture.
• Reasonable letter formation
• Phonemic approximations of
unknown words attempted.
• Print contains the message
• Spacing within words is consistent
Developing
progressing work samples
• Every word is attempted
• Left to write directionality of print
• Every word contains a vowel
• Write with minimal prompts
• Work includes print that
matches/supports picture.
• Approximated letter formation
• Print contains the message
• Phonemic approximations of
unknown words attempted
Not Yet
incomplete work
samples
• Word attempts are a mix
of upper- and lower-case
letters..
• Able to write name,
starting with a capital.
• Able to write out word
without prompts.
• Print/Picture match

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
for this group of students: for
this group of students:
o Consistent spacing between
letters within words
o Every word contains a
vowel
o Capital and lower-case
letters are used correctly.
o Consistent spacing between
letters within words
o Clear word boundaries
possible skills to work on
for
this group of students:
o Hears and records sounds
within words in sequence
(dominant consonants)
o Students is able to write
from left to right.
o Writing from left to right
o Spelling words with
common diagraphs
o Each word attempted (applicable
phoneme and grapheme
awareness)
o Print contains the message
o Voice to print matching

Adapted from: Rhode Island Department of Education & the National Center for the Improvement of Educational
Assessment, Inc.
ECE 661
Work sample form
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 this
competence in this assignment need to competence in this assignment need to assignment need to focus on the
focus on the following skills next: focus on the following skills: following skills:

Adapted from: Rhode Island Department of Education & the National Center for the Improvement of Educational
Assessment, Inc.
ECE 661
Work sample form
• Practice word structure
with upper- and lower-case
letter usage.
• Practice sentence structure
with upper- and lower-case
letter usage.
• Gain letter flexibility and
automaticity using
phonemes and graphemes
• Gain letter flexibility and
automaticity using
phonemes and graphemes
Range of instructional methods
& strategies: Shared guided
writing lessons, writing
workshops and interactive
writing, starting with
capitalization and appropriate
use of lower-case letters. Start to spelling out name from left to right.
work on sentence structure,
moving to “I” statements.
• Develop automaticity with
sound/symbol relationships
• Practice left to right
directionality and the
return sweep.
• Capitalizing first letter of
name.
• Practice spacing between
letters and words.
• Consistent word boundaries
applied
• Gain letter flexibility and
automaticity using
phonemes and graphemes
Range of instructional methods &
strategies: Guided work using
moveable alphabet to practice
Guided writing workshop and
interactive writing. Working in
pairs with students in the next stage
up.

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.): The first thing I thought when I was working with the students was how much it helped me
assess where they are at in their writing skills since I have not worked with them very much. I immediately
could tell what lessons each student needed to scaffold their learning and develop new writing skills. It was
interesting to see the one child write her words from right to left yet was able to spell her name correctly and
in cursive. I found the Step 3 was the hardest for me to accomplish until I realized it was what skills they
have. I like how the informative assessment really makes us look at different skills to see where the students
are at. I think with enough practice, these terms and ideas will be second nature and I will immediately know
what the student needs to develop, has not yet met, and has met. This was really helpful, and I really enjoyed
having the opportunity to the informal assessment on a few of the students in my class. I think with more
time and opportunities, I will be able to give a more thorough assignment to get more of a writing sample out
of my students.

Adapted from: Rhode Island Department of Education & the National Center for the Improvement of Educational
Assessment, Inc.
ECE 661
Work sample form
On a side note, I added the photo from one of the three-year old’s who observed the older students doing the
assignment. She sat down and started to draw, looked up and said, “I am doing my homework!” She didn’t
get up until it was done and handed it to me. You can see she used color to make her drawing and then pen to
write her “words”. I regret that I didn’t ask her what it was that she drew, she just came over, handed it to me
and went off to do other work. I loved seeing her mimic the older children and was interested in the work
they were doing. Left to right top to bottom.

Peer modelling – gained insight from peer proximity

Adapted from: Rhode Island Department of Education & the National Center for the Improvement of Educational
Assessment, Inc.