CalTPAAssessing Learning Task

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Before beginning this task, read the complete directions provided in the CalTPA Candidate Handbook.

Step 1: Assessment Selection and Planning for the Whole Class Directions
To plan classroom assessment, a teacher determines his or her current point within the instructional sequence of a unit of study and identifies the student academic learning goals to measure. Ideally, assessment and instruction are linked inextricably within any curriculum. The key to using assessment effectively and efficiently in a program of instruction is to recognize above all that different types of assessment tools must be used for different purposes. (Reading/Language Arts Framework for California Public Schools, 1999, page 215) Select one class, a content area, and a unit of study to work with as you complete this performance task. Respond to the prompts below about the unit of study and its assessment.

A. Academic Content Selection

Grade Level: Kindergarten _______________ Content Area: Language Arts (English) ______ Subject Matter: Weekend Writing_____________ 1. List the state-adopted academic content standards or state-adopted framework you will cover in this unit. Common Core State Standards: Writing: Text types and Purposes Standard: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.K.2 Use a combination of drawing, dictating and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.K.3 Use a combination of drawing, dictating and writing to narrate a single event or several loosely linked events, tell about the events in the order in which they occurred, and provide a reaction to what happened. Language: Conventions of Standard English Standard: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.K.1 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.K.1.A Print many upper- and lowercase letters. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.K.2 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.K.2.A Capitalize the first word in a sentence and the pronoun. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.K.2.B Recognize and name end punctuation. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.K.2.C Write a letter or letters for most consonant and short-vowel sounds (phonemes). CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.K.2.D Spell simple words phonetically, drawing on knowledge of sound-letter relationships. 2. Describe the unit of study that addresses those standards. This unit of study focuses on writing an organized paragraph about their weekend that includes a topic sentence, three details about their weekend, and a concluding sentence. This unit starts at the beginning of the Kindergarten year and ends at the end of the year. The students will receive a paper
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that has three boxes at the top of it to sketch three things that happened in their weekend. Then, students will write their topic sentence, write details about three things that they did over the weekend, and finally conclude the paragraph restating the topic sentence. 3. What is (are) the academic learning goal(s) for this unit of study? The learner will write an adjective to describe their weekend. The learner will write a paragraph with a topic sentence, three supporting sentences and a concluding sentence. The learner will sketch three pictures depicting what they did over the weekend in sequence of first, second and third. The learner will read their weekend writing to another student and the teacher. 4. At what point in the sequence of the unit are you teaching? Check one: At the beginning of the unit of study x Between the beginning and the end of the unit of study At the end of the unit of study

B. Assessment Planning
If you are at the beginning of your unit, you will give your students an entry level assessment. If you are moving through the unit of study, you will use progress-monitoring assessments. If you are at the end of the unit of study, you will use a summative assessment. (For more information about these three kinds of assessment, see the Assessing Learning chapter of the Candidate Handbook, and Frameworks for California Public Schools, published by the California Department of Education.)

5. For what purpose will your assessment be used within this unit of study? Choose one: Entry-Level x Progress-monitoring Summative 6. Identify and describe the type of assessment (verbal response, multiple choice, short essay, oral presentation, performance task, and the like). The type of assessment used for Weekend Writing is a performance task. Each week on Monday, the students have a piece of paper that has Weekend Writing written at the top, three boxes for sequenced sketches and lines for the students to write their paragraphs. This way, it will be accessible for me to see if students are first sketching, and then using those sketches to write a sequential paragraph about what they did over the weekend. This will be collected each week in order to show growth of their writing throughout the year. 7. What will your students need to know and/or be able to do to complete the assessment? In order to complete this assignment, students will need to know a few things. First, they will need to know how to sketch in order to quickly draw what they will be writing about for reference. After this, students will need kindergarten writing skills including writing words using phonetic knowledge, letter recognition, and knowing that you write from left to right. Also, students must know how to write a basic sentence with a period at the end to determine sentences. Although not all students are going to have these skills mastered, they will have had exposure to these skills and will use them in this assessment. 8. What evidence of student learning will you collect?
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CalTPAAssessing Learning Task

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To see evidence of student learning, I will collect the paper the students complete called Weekend Writing. I will not only collect this one time, but these have been collected and saved for each student from the beginning of the year and will continue to be collected until the end of the year to show the growth or lack thereof through the year. 9. In what ways will the evidence document student achievement of the academic learning goal(s)? This evidence document will show evidence of the academic learning goals. The first learning goal states: the student will write and adjective to describe their weekend in the topic sentence. I can look at the topic sentence on the students evidence document and see if that was achieved. The second learning goal states: the learner will write a paragraph with a topic sentence, three supporting sentences and a concluding sentence. I will be able to find evidence of his by looking at the document and looking for the topic sentence, three supporting sentences that start with the words, first, second and third, and the concluding sentence. The third learning goal states: the learner will sketch three pictures depicting what they did over the weekend in sequence of first, second and third. The teacher will be able to find evidence of this by looking at the documents three boxes allotted for sketches to see if they are completed.

10. How will the student assessment evidence be measured or scored? This student assessment starts at the beginning of the school year and is over at the end of the school year. Each week students will write about their weekend on Monday on the evidence document. These papers are kept in the students file in the classroom called Weekend Writing. This way, the teacher will be able to see the progress (or lack of) during the entire school year of students writing. During certain times of year the teacher will look at recent Weekend Writings and assess them with the Weekend Writing Rubric. This rubric is measured by the Common Core Standards. If students are showing competency of the standards they will receive a 3. If they have not yet reached the standard in their writing they will receive a lower score depending on what they need to work on. If they are showing writing that depicts first grade standards then they will receive a 4. 11. Think about how you will sequence your implementation of the assessment. Describe your plan for implementing the assessment in the order in which it will occur. Address each of the following and provide a rationale for each of your decisions: Teaching strategies including, communicating the purpose of the assessment, the scoring criteria, and the procedures for completing the assessment Student activities Student grouping Materials, technology, and/or resources, including the use of instructional aides, parents, or other adults in the room Assessment Implementation Plan Communicating Assessment: At the beginning of the year when the lesson is introduced the teacher made it clear to students that Weekend Writing is something they will be doing the whole year in order to see progress of their writing. Scoring Criteria: 0 (Far Below Basic) 1 (Below Basic) 2 (Basic) 3 (Proficient) 4 (Advanced)
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Rationale Communicating Assessment: I gave the students clear direction so they know and expect that they will be writing these every Monday after their weekend. This is important for students to understand because they will be expected to do this and will have the chance to show improvement week to week. Scoring Criteria: A score of 0-2 are seen as prerequisite skills that the student should have before they are proficient, meaning they have met the standards. A 3 means they have shown evidence in their writing to meet 3

Copyright 2003 by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. All Rights Reserved.

CalTPAAssessing Learning Task

Student Activities: 1. Students will talk to a partner to brainstorm and remember what they did over the weekend. They will talk for about a minute (30 seconds each). They will do this on the rug. 2. Students will watch as the teacher models the sketch and the proper layout of the paragraph they will be writing. They will still be on the rug, whole group. 3. When I say the CCD word of the day, students will go to their seat and sketch pictures of their three main events they will write about in the three sequential boxes for 5 minutes. 4. After the 5 minutes passes, students will begin writing their paragraph with aide of a paper provided at their desk with the proper layout of the paragraph. The paper looks like this: I had a _______ weekend for several reasons. First, Second, Third, All in all, I had a ________ weekend for several reasons. *The paper also has adjectives that the students can choose from to complete their topic and concluding sentence. (25 mins) 5. When students finish writing their paragraph, they will find one student who is also finished to read their paragraph to, then find an adult (teacher or parent volunteer) to read their paragraph to. (5-10 mins) 6. Students will turn in their work to the inbox Student Grouping: Students will be with a partner in order to talk about what they did over the weekend. Then, students will be working on their Weekend Writing individually at their desks. Materials: The materials that are needed for this assessment are the Weekend Writing Worksheet and the Weekend Writing Rubric. Technology: The teacher will need a projector.

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the standards listed. A 4 shows that the student is showing writing skills that are approaching the first grade writing standards. Student Activities: 1. It is important to have students talk to a partner about their weekend because it allows them to process their weekend before they start writing. Many times students have a hard time remembering and when it comes time to write they arent able to write anything. Also, hearing what the partner says may help a student remember things they did over the weekend they might have overlooked. 2. I will model what is expected on the paper to model well written paragraphs and to make clear what is expected of students. While the teacher models what the students will be doing, the teacher is also adding commentary on good writing practices, like showing periods, where to capitalize letters and how it should be organized. This will help students because as they start writing their paper independently they will know what is expected of them as they work. 3. After giving directions, the teacher uses the CCD word of the day as a transition strategy to smoothly get students to their seats and working. They only get five minutes to do their sketches because the sketches are only an aide to the writing, while the writing is what is really being assessed, so it is important that students dont spend all their time drawing, but rather spend ample time on writing. This gives them time management skills. 4. As they start writing, students have aides to help them through the writing process. Along with their lined paper, they have a sheet that shows them the exact structure that their paragraph should have to assist them in producing a well-written paragraph. Also, to get students to write descriptively there are adjectives they can use to describe their weekend provided on the same paper. This aide gives the students a chance to practice writing a well-structured paragraph, but also gives them the chance to focus on writing details about their weekend without having to worry about how to structure it because that is already done for them. 5. Students will read their paper to another student to practice reading and listening skills, and to take ownership of their work. They read it to an adult before they turn it in to make sure they have completed the assignment and to help them if they 4

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CalTPAAssessing Learning Task

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need to make any last fixes or changes before turning in for assessment, like adding periods or adding a concluding sentence, etc. 6. Students need to turn in their work in order for the teacher to do an assessment on the work and save each weeks Weekend Writing until the end of the year. Student Grouping: Students will be in partners to brainstorm what they did over the weekend in order to first, help them remember what they did over the weekend because they have trouble doing so when they dont get a chance to think about it before they have to write. Also, hearing other students weekend events might help students remember what they did or give them ideas as to what they can write. Overall, it is a chance for students to gather their thoughts and events of the weekend to get ready for the writing of these. Students will independently write their paragraphs because this is an individual assessment so it is important that they write the paragraph by themselves in order to get an accurate assessment of their writing. Materials: This lesson requires minimal materials. The students will need the Weekend Writing paper, which will aide them more than a blank piece of binder paper by guiding them through the layout and writing process of a paragraph. The teacher will require the rubric for the writing assignment to grade after they are turned in. The rubric is in order to grade each paper in the same manner and along the same guidelines. Technology: The teacher will need a projector in order to display the weekend writing paper as it is modeled to students before they begin on their own paragraph. This will allow all students to see what I am modeling in an easy manner.

12. In what ways will you use the assessment results? The results of the assessment will be used in a few ways. First, this will help the teacher see the level of understanding in writing concepts both from individual students and as a whole class. Some students may need help with spacing for example, so the teacher can see this in their writing and can help students with this (maybe by using a spaceman tool to help them) when they write. Then, the next week the teacher can see if the students are grasping this in their new Weekend Writing. This will give me data on what are the important concepts to teach in writing, and what needs to be retaught. The assessment results will also help with progress reports or report cards because it is clear evidence of a students progress in writing. Lastly, this can be used during conferences for the teacher to have evidence to show parents on their progress, or if a student is having a hard time grasping a
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certain concept. This is important because if a teacher has evidence it speaks a lot more than just saying to a parent that a student is having difficulties. 13. In what ways will you share the assessment results with students, families, other colleagues, and support personnel, when appropriate? The Weekend Writing is collected and kept in a folder for each student weekly. They are collected from the beginning of the year until the end of the year. These assessments are taken out of the folders at different times of the year for assessment purposes. During Kindergarten team meeting every few months, the Kindergarten teachers will share these assessments with each other in order to show progress and check in too see what is working and if anything should be changed. Some changes might include changing the format or giving students more responsibility in their weekend writing, like writing two adjectives instead of one. Also, having these assessments from the beginning of the year allows the teacher to meet with students to talk about the progress they have made since then. It is important to check in with students from time to time to let them know how they are doing and what they need to still work on. Lastly, during conferences and report cards, these assessments will help become evidence for the teacher to explain a students progress and give a valid grade on a report card for parents to better understand and visually see how their child is progressing. 14. Is your assessment one that you developed, you adopted, or you adapted from another source, such as a district, publisher, Internet, or another teacher? Developed by you x Adopted or adapted from another source. Identify the source: This rubric was made by the Kindergarten teachers team at the school where this class is. They made this rubric together because they all participate in Weekend Writing throughout the year. Since they use these as a writing assessment it was important to make a rubric that focused on the areas, which were important to look at in a Kindergarteners writing. Also, the rubric can be used each time the team looks at Weekend Writing through the year to show progress towards the standards. 15. Submit a copy of the assessment and, if available, submit the assessment directions, answer key, rubric, scoring guide, and the like.

Step 2: Learning about Students: Whole Class and Two Focus Students
Directions: An important step in planning assessment is to learn about your students. Provide information about the whole class in the box below. Class Information Age Range of Students: 5-6 Years Old Total Number of Students: 19

Number of Female Students: 9 Number of Male Students: 10 6

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CalTPAAssessing Learning Task

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Directions:

Select two students from the class you described above. Select one student who is an English learner and one student who has an identified special need. Consider your selected content area when describing what you learned about the two focus students. In each of the boxed areas below, provide: A description of what you learned for each of the students An explanation of how the information will influence your academic instructional planning, including assessment Note: Single subject candidates for a credential in Languages Other Than English who are delivering instruction entirely in the target language may choose another student with a different instructional challenge rather than an English learner.

A. Student 1: An English Learner

Gender: Male _______ Age: 6 _____________ 1. Why did you select this student? This student was selected because he is at the Intermediate level, according to the CELDT test. He is an ELL student whose biggest challenge is writing and listening. He spoke only Vietnamese until he entered preschool, which is where he learned English. He is making a lot of progress with his language, but academic language is lacking, both orally and in his writing. He is not yet comfortable with using most academic language on his own and in his own writing. He is successful at asking what words or concepts are when they arise. 2. What did you learn about this students linguistic background? I learned that this student is of Vietnamese descent. His parents were not born in the United States, but this student was. His parents both predominantly speak Vietnamese at home. This means that the student speaks mostly Vietnamese when he is at home. He did not learn English until he went to Preschool and learned it there. Since his family is not fluent in English, it presents a challenge for this student to experience, speak and hear proper spoken English. In class, this student is social with other students and is showing improvement in his spoken English. He does have difficulty with speaking and understanding academic language, but is not afraid to ask to explain what a word or concept means. This is valuable because it shows that this student is comfortable in the class and is eager to learn new things. 3. What did you learn about this students academic language abilities in relation to this academic content area? This student is lacking in academic language when he writes. This is due to the fact that he has not been exposed to a lot of academic words and concepts except at preschool and Kindergarten. He does not have an academic rich vocabulary yet, since he is still learning the language. During Weekend Writing, the reason why the academic language heavy parts of this paragraph are written correctly is because he is able to copy it from another source. He would not be able to correctly structure a paragraph with academic language, like adjectives. 4. What did you learn about this students content knowledge and skills in this subject matter? As far as the content part of this lesson, this student is writing about his weekend. He will have the content accessible as long as he remembers what he did over the weekend. He does struggle with writing though, so putting his ideas down onto paper may be challenging for him. He has been doing these same writing since the beginning of the year so he has improved and is understanding the
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structure of these paragraphs more successfully. The paper that is provided that tells him exactly what to write is helpful because he can just copy those parts and focus on writing down his content, which are three things he did over the weekend. He is still getting exposure to the technical parts of this paragraph and will practice that by copying it down, but then focus on the real content of the paragraph. 5. What did you learn about this students physical, social, and emotional development relevant to this academic content area? I learned that this student is physically an averaged sized Kindergartener who is active and likes to play sports. He is a quiet student, but still continues to make friends in the Kindergarten yard. It would be more beneficial for him to step out of the box and create more communication with peers and other people, because the extra socialization and communication would greatly increase his success with his spoken English. Since he is shy and quiet he presents himself as a very calm student, but when he feels he is in trouble or he has said something wrong he shuts down and becomes less social. When you explain things to him though, he tends to open up again. 6. What did you learn about this students cultural background, including f amily and home, relevant to this academic content area? This student lives with his parents and is an only child. His parents both predominantly speak Vietnamese at home. This means that the student speaks mostly Vietnamese when he is at home. He did not learn English until he went to Preschool and learned it there. 7. What did you learn about this students special considerations, including health issues, relevant to this academic content area? After talking to the nurse, this student does not have any health concerns and has had all his immunizations he needs at his age. He is a student who loves to be active and moving. He is also very seldom sick from school. He has only missed one day of Kindergarten. His file states that he is not allergic to anything. 8. What did you learn about this students interests and aspirations relevant to this academic content area? It is easy to tell that this student is eager to learn every day that he comes to class. He always listens, does his work, and will ask for clarification if he is not sure about what a word means. Although he has a lot of trouble with writing, he always aims to improve and being able to write about things that interest him, like what he did over the weekend, will only peak is interest and allow him the structured time to work and improve on his writing skills. 9. Describe other information relevant to this academic content area that you learned about the student (e.g., attendance, extracurricular activities, and the like). This student very rarely misses school. He has only had one absence the whole year. This is important because he needs everyday of the academic instruction he can in order for him to become more confident in his writing, especially using academic vocabulary and language. After school he enjoys playing sports with his friends, especially soccer. Hes not on a soccer team, though, he only plays for fun with friends.

B. Student 2: A Student with an Identified Special Need

Gender: Male _______ Age: 6 _____________
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1. Why did you select this student? I selected this student because he has an IEP for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). He is on medicine for this diagnosed disability. He has a hard time paying attention in class and likes to call out a lot. He has a hard time raising his hand and usually says whatever he has on his mind out loud, without understanding when it is an appropriate time. He enjoys being social during times he should be working at his desk and it becomes very disruptive to students who are working around him. Also, this student shows little progress with his writing abilities. He is able to copy words, but has difficulty writing words and sentences that he writes himself. Compared to other students in the class, he is developmentally progressing at a slower rate the others when it comes to writing. 2. How is the instructional challenge that he or she presents different from that of the other student? While both students are identified to need accommodations, especially for writing, their needs are different. The first student is an EL student who does not have behavioral problems, but does have the most problems with listening and academic language when writing. The second student has some behavioral problems, and does have problems writing, especially writing his own words and sentences. Student one has only known English for a year and still has trouble understanding and using academic language in his speech and writing because he has not been exposed to a lot of it yet. The second student is a native English speaker and does not have difficulty with academic language. Student one is very respectful and has never had behavioral problems. He knows that in order to talk he needs to raise a quiet hand, and usually does to ask the definition of a word . Student two has a problem speaking out in class without raising a quiet hand, even though the teacher and the parents have tried to work with him on it. He does get incentives at home and positive affirmations when he stays quiet and raises his hand in class. 3. What did you learn about this students linguistic background? This student is a fluent English speaker. He was born in the United States, but his parents are from the UK and moved here before he was born. They have English accents and this student has a very slight accent. His reading fluency is proficient on grade level, but his spelling and writing skills are low. 4. What did you learn about this students academic language abilities in relation to this academic content area? I learned that this student has a high level of interpersonal communication skills and has on level academic language proficiency for a Kindergartener. He has the ability to communicate to the teacher and his peers. The academic language that this activity requires is provided on another piece of paper that all students get to help them remember. The student will be able to read this paper in order to help him with this academic language. 5. What did you learn about this students content knowledge and skills in this subject matter? As far as the content in this lesson, this student is writing about his weekend. He will have the content accessible as long as he remembers what he did over the weekend. He does struggle with writing and paying attention to his work though, so putting his ideas down onto paper will be challenging for him. He has been doing these same writing since the beginning of the year and understands the structure of a paragraph, but still has trouble when it comes to writing his own words down. The paper that is provided that tells him exactly what to write is helpful because he can just copy those parts and focus on writing down his content, which are three things he did over the weekend. 6. What did you learn about this students physical, social, and emotional development relevant to this academic content area? This student is physically an average size for a Kindergartener. He is an incredibly social child and enjoys talking and having conversations with other students. During recess and after school this is not
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a problem, but when he is disruptive during class it is problematic. He seems to miss cues from the teacher and from his peers that he is being disruptive and does apologize. The students seems to be aware that he is disruptive after the teacher reminds him to raise a quiet hand before speaking, but will quickly forget and talk out of turn again. Emotionally, this student has a very happy attitude and does not get angry very easily. He gets very excited about things he is passionate about and this drives his need to speak out. During Weekend Writing when students are speaking to a partner about what they did over the weekend, this is a great time for this student to use his social skills and need to comment in a positive manner. 7. What did you learn about this students cultural background, including family and home, relevant to this academic content area? This student comes from a middle class family that live in an affluent neighborhood. Both parents were born in the UK and have an English accent. Both parents are very supportive of this student and try to talk to the student about the social troubles he is having in the class. They also support him by having him write his letters and sentences as extra practice. The mother volunteers in the classroom once a week. The parents have this student on medication to help him with his diagnosed ADHD to contain his behavior. They also let him get a lot of energy out by keeping him active before and after school by taking walks, playing and riding his bike. The parents and I keep close contact to monitor his behavior problems in class because he has incentives at home if he has a good behavior report at school, which is helpful because it shows the student that good behavior is valuable at school and at home. 8. What did you learn about this students special considerations, including health issues, relevant to this academic content area? After talking to the nurse, this student does not have any health concerns and has had all his immunizations he needs at his age. He is a student who loves to be active and moving, especially with other students and friends. He has only missed two days of Kindergarten. His file states that he is not allergic to anything. This student takes medication for his ADHD once a day. He takes this at home so he does not have to worry about taking it at school. This has changed because the parents are trying to find the right dosage and medicine that will help him. For now, the dosage is one pill a day. There is a difference in behavior from the beginning of the year when he was not on medication, especially when he is writing. He can focus on his work more than he has in the past, but he still likes to talk which might not be due to his ADHD, but rather that he is a very social student. 9. What did you learn about this students interests and aspirations relevant to this academic content area? This students favorite thing to do is to play with other children. He does this often on the weekends, which is very helpful to Weekend Writing because it gives the student experiences he can write about in. This student is also very social and enjoys talking about his many life experiences. Developmentally this is very common for children. This will help this student though, because Weekend Writing is centered on the student and what they did over the weekend. The student should be engaged in this assignment because he can write about himself and his experiences in a manner that is more acceptable then shouting out in class to tell the story. 10. Describe other information relevant to this academic content area that you learned about the student (e.g., attendance, extracurricular activities, and the like). This student rarely misses school. He only has two absences during the school year. This is important because he needs everyday of the academic instruction he can in order for him to become more confident in his writing. He does not participate in any sports on a team. He is very social and prefers to play with other kids during his free time. He also enjoys riding his bike, especially to and from

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school. The activities he engages in should help him have experiences to write about when it comes time to write about what he did over the weekend.

Step 3: Assessment Adaptations for Two Focus Students

Directions: Consider your plan for assessment in Step 1, what you learned about the two focus students, and the implications for instruction and assessment that you identified in Step 2. Respond to the questions below about the two students.

1. What will Student 1 need to know and be able to do to complete this assessment? Student number 1 will need to be able to use his two papers that will help him in his writing. The first piece of paper has a guide to the structure of the paragraph and a list of adjectives to use in his paragraph. The other piece of paper has commonly used words in writing that he can use in order to assist him in picking and spelling words that might be hard or he may not know. Also, in the classroom there is a wall with sight words cut and laminated for students to take back to their desk to help them spell. He will be expected to sketch three pictures to depict his weekend. Then, he will need to demonstrate that he can copy the topic sentence and concluding sentence from the paper provided, and write three sentences in between detailing three things that happened during the weekend. He will be expected to do this because the academic language that he struggles with is provided on the piece of paper that will help him in his writing. The academic language is what he has most trouble with. 2. What will Student 2 need to know and be able to do to complete this assessment? Student number 2 will need to be able to use his two papers that will help him in his Weekend Writing. The first piece of paper has the alphabet on one side to help him produce identifiable letters in the words he writes. The second piece of paper has a guide to the structure of the paragraph and a list of adjectives to use in his paragraph so all the student needs to do is copy these areas of the paragraph down in order to focus on producing his three detail sentences. Also, in the classroom there is a wall with sight words cut and laminated for students to take back to their desk to help them spell. He will be expected to sketch three pictures to help him write what he did over the weekend. Then, he will copy the topic sentence and concluding sentence from the paper provided. After this, he will be expected to write at least one multi letter word in each of his three detail sentences about what happened during his weekend. This student can write words when he can copy them from another source, but when he has to write words on his own his writing lacks structure. He will need to focus on writing at least one word by himself that the teacher will be able to read.
For the two students, determine what adaptations you will make to this assessment that you have planned for the whole class. Describe those adaptations for each of the two focus students. If you determine that no adaptations are needed for a part of the plan for assessment, explain that decision. Respond to the prompts below. For each include: Your decisions about assessment adaptations A rationale for those decisions

A. Adaptations for Student 1: An English Learner

1. Evidence of student learning you will collect Decision The Weekend Writing paper that the student used to write about his weekend will be
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Rationale This is an assessment of the students individual abilities throughout the year in writing. This 11

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CalTPAAssessing Learning Task

collected. It has been collected each week from the beginning of the year, and will be collected every week until the end of the year.

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particular weeks paper will be checked for understanding of spelling, mechanics, and content of their writing. Also, it will show if this student has made any progress in their writing since last week, or within a few weeks.

2. How the student assessment evidence will be measured or scored Decision Rationale The scoring criteria will be the same rubric that the rest of the class work is scored upon each week. Scoring this students Weekend Writing with the same rubric will ensure that the assessment reflects his abilities during this time in the year. The rubric uses standards to assess students and it is important to see where this student is in relation to the writing standards he should be working towards.

3. The implementation of the assessment, including: Teaching strategies for communicating the purpose of the assessment, the scoring criteria, and the procedures for completing the assessment Student activities Student grouping Materials, technology, and/or resources, including the use of instructional aides, parents, or other adults in the room Decisions Rationale 1. Teaching Strategies: -Each week the student is able to practice with his handwriting and spelling. 2. Student Activities: -This student will look to the extra sheets of paper for guidance on words he can use in his writing. 3. Student Grouping: The student will be with a partner in order to talk about what they did over the weekend. Then, on his Weekend Writing individually at his desk. 4. Materials: Weekend Writing sheet, reference/adjective sheet, commonly used words sheet, and laminated sight word cards. 1. Teaching Strategies: I spend time each week working on spelling and handwriting. Spelling, writing and sounding out words happens frequently across many subjects that the class is involved in each day. The student gets exposure and practice each time. Also, the student works out of his Handwriting without Tears book weekly in order to help with handwriting. 2. Student Activities: The extra sheets of paper that the student is provided will be a great reference tool to build a more descriptive paragraph from words that are relevant to the writing and that can be spelled correctly. 3. Student Grouping: This student will be in partners to brainstorm what they did over the weekend in order to first, help him remember what he did over the weekend to get a chance to think about it before they have to write. Also, hearing other students weekend events might help him remember what he did or give him ideas as to what they can write. 4. Materials: The student will need the Weekend Writing paper, which will aide him more then a blank piece of binder paper by guiding him 12

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through the layout and writing process of a paragraph. The other two sheets of paper will give him the resources to find words that he can use in his paragraph to make it more descriptive or to aide him with words he does not know or needs help spelling.

4. Ways you will use the assessment results. Decision 1. The assessment will be used to drive the curriculum needed.

Rationale 1. This writing assessment is important to gauge how this student is doing with his writing. The teacher can see what the strengths and needs for improvement of this student is in writing (like spacing, spelling, etc.). This way, the teacher knows what instruction should be focused on based on what the needs are.

5. Ways you will share the assessment results with students, families, other colleagues, and support personnel, when appropriate. Decisions Rationale 1. The writing will be reviewed with the student. 2. The writing will be shared with the Kindergarten team during assessment meetings. 3. The writing will be discussed with parents during conferences. 1. It is important to have the student involved and aware of their writing. The teacher can discuss what the student has been successful with and also what the student need improvement on. It should not be a secret to the student, they should be aware on what they need to work on. 2. Each of the three Kindergarten classes use Weekend Writing as an assessment throughout the year. At the grade level meeting, it will be helpful for each Kindergarten teacher to be able to share the progress that the students are making. Also they can look at what strategies or changes they might have made to their assessment as the year progresses and report how it is helpful or not. 3. Since this writing assessment is given throughout the whole year, it is a valuable resource for a teacher to use to show parents evidence of a students learning and writing advancements through the weeks of school. This allows the teacher the ability to share with this students parents the areas that need improvement and how they can help.

B. Adaptations for Student 2: A Student with an Identified Special Need

1. Evidence of student learning you will collect.
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Decision The Weekend Writing paper that the student used to write about his weekend will be collected. It has been collected each week from the beginning of the year, and will be collected every week until the end of the year.

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Rationale This is an assessment of the students individual abilities throughout the year in writing. This particular weeks paper will be checked for understanding of spelling, mechanics, and content of their writing. Also, it will show if this student has made any progress in their writing since last week, or within a few weeks.

2. How the student assessment evidence will be measured or scored. Decision Rationale The scoring criteria will be the same rubric that the rest of the class work is scored upon each week. Scoring this students Weekend Writing with the same rubric will ensure that the assessment reflects his abilities with his accommodations during this time in the year. The rubric uses standards to assess students and it is important to see where this student is in relation to the writing standards he should be working towards.

3. The implementation of the assessment including: Teaching strategies for communicating the purpose of the assessment, the scoring criteria, and the procedures for completing the assessment Student activities Student grouping Materials, technology, and/or resources, including the use of instructional aides, parents, or other adults in the room Decisions Rationale 1. Teaching Strategies: -Each week the student is able to practice with his handwriting and spelling. -The student will use an office divider. -The student was given headphones. -The student is given clear directions with modeling from the teacher to show what the paragraph should look like. 2. Student Activities: This student will look to the extra sheets of paper for guidance on words he can use in his writing. 3. Student Grouping: The student will be with a partner in order to talk about what they did over the weekend. Then, on his Weekend Writing individually at his desk. 4. Materials: Weekend Writing sheet, reference/adjective sheet, commonly used words sheet, Office Divider, headphones. 1. Teaching Strategies: -I spend time each week working on spelling and handwriting. The student gets exposure and practice each time. Also, the student works out of his Handwriting without Tears book weekly in order to help with handwriting. - The office divider will help the student focus on his own writing instead of what is happening in the rest of the classroom. It will provide him a safe place to work. -The student can wear headphones in order to cancel out excess noise that might be bothering him so he can concentrate and focus better. This is also stated in his IEP. -Before the student starts, the whole class will watch as the teacher models what the paragraph should look like and contain so the directions are clear and there is not confusion. This will help him because he is more successful when directions are visually shown to him. 2. Student Activities: The extra sheets of paper 14

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that the student is provided will be a great reference tool to build a more descriptive paragraph from words that are relevant to the writing and that can be spelled correctly. 3. Student Grouping: This student will be in partners to brainstorm what they did over the weekend in order to first, help him remember what he did over the weekend to get a chance to think about it before they have to write. Also, hearing other students weekend events might help him remember what he did or give him ideas as to what they can write. 4. Materials: The student will need the Weekend Writing paper, which will aide him more then a blank piece of binder paper by guiding him through the layout and writing process of a paragraph. The other two sheets of paper will give him the resources to find words that he can copy from the sheet into his paragraph that are legible.

4. Ways you will use the assessment results. Decisions 1. The assessment will be used to drive the curriculum needed.

Rationale 1. This writing assessment is important to gauge how this student is doing in their writing. The teacher can see what the strengths and needs for improvement of this student is in writing (like spacing, spelling, etc.). This way, the teacher knows what instruction should be focused on based on what the needs are.

5. Ways you will share the assessment results with students, families, other colleagues, and support personnel, when appropriate. Decisions Rationale 1. The writing will be reviewed with the student. 2. The writing will be shared with the Kindergarten team during assessment meetings. 3. The writing will be discussed with parents during conferences. 1. It is important to have the student involved and aware of their writing. The teacher can discuss what the student has been successful with and also what the student need improvement on. It should not be a secret to the student, they should be aware on what they need to work on. 2. Each of the three Kindergarten classes use Weekend Writing as an assessment throughout the year. At meeting, it will be helpful for each Kindergarten teacher to be able to share the progress that the students are making. Also they can look at what strategies or changes they might have made to their assessment as the year progresses and report how it is helpful or not. 3. Since this writing assessment is given throughout the whole year, it is a valuable 15

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resource for me to use to show parents evidence of a students learning and writing advancements through the weeks of school. This allows the teacher the ability to share with this students parents the areas that need improvement and how they can help.

Step 4: Giving the Assessment to the Whole Class, Including Two Focus Students
Directions: Give the assessment to your class. Collect and score all the evidence of student learning from the assessment. Consider all the assessment responses and select three responses of students other than your two focus students that represent the range of achievement within the class. Label these responses as Student 3, Student 4, and Student 5. Label the two focus students assessment responses as Student 1 and Student 2. Submit all five assessment responses. Review carefully the evidence of student learning you are submitting. Briefly, explain why you selected each of the following responses to represent the range of responses in the class:

Student 1
(EL focus student)

This student was selected because he is at the Intermediate level, according to the CELDT test. He is an ELL student and one of his biggest challenges is writing. He is making a lot of progress with his language, but academic language is lacking, both orally and in his writing. He spoke only Vietnamese until he entered preschool. Preschool is where this student learned English, so he has only been exposed to it for a few years. He has made a lot of progress within that time. This student has an IEP for his diagnosed Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). He also shows little progress with his writing abilities. He is able to copy words, but has difficulty writing words and sentences that he writes himself, which can be seen in his assessment. Compared to other students in the class, he is developmentally progressing at a slower rate the others when it comes to writing. He has a hard time focusing on his work because he cannot keep his mind or body still enough to have the focus to commit enough time to his work. Instead, he tends to move around and talk to classmates. Since he is very social he like to explain what he would write in his paper, but cannot focus long enough to actually write these thoughts down in a clear and organized manner. Student number three was selected as a focus student for the middle scoring range of students on this assessment. The middle scoring students scored 3 on the rubric to show that they are Profiecient-3. I chose this student specifically to represent my middle scoring students who have met the standards for specific writing standards on the rubric. These students are proficiently writing for their grade and are working towards first grade writing standards. They understand the aspects of writing a paragraph and adding content of their own to it, but could improve in some areas of their writing. Like this students, the students in this range are hard workers and will continue to improve their writing as long as they keep working hard and expanding their ideas and content of their sentences. Student number three was selected as a focus student for the low scoring range of students on this assessment. The low scoring students scored 2 or below on the rubric to show that they are Basic or Below Basic. I chose this student
Copyright 2003 by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. All Rights Reserved.

Student 2
(SN focus student)

Student 3

Student 4

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specifically to represent my low scoring students who struggle with writing and the various components that writings has, like the mechanics, spelling and content. This student struggles with similar components of writing as the other low scoring students does, especially spelling, handwriting and content of the paragraph There were only three students who fell into this range in the class. Student 5 Student number three was selected as a focus student for the high scoring range of students on this assessment. The high scoring students scored a 3 or 4 on the rubric to show that they are either Advanced-4 or Proficient-3. I chose this student specifically to represent my high scoring students because he tries his best at every assignment he is given and this shows in his work. The hard work he does allows him to be able to put all aspects of this paragraph together in an organized manner that is clear and representative of a student who understands how a paragraph should be written, including content, spelling and mechanics.

Note: If the assessment is oral or represents a student performance, provide your description of the students responses and your written assessment of those responses, including the class as a whole, the three responses that represent the range of achievement in the class, and the two focus student responses.

Step 5: Analyzing Evidence of Student Academic Learning and the Assessment

Directions: Consider your responses in Steps 1 through 4. Think about the evidence of student academic learning from the assessment. Answer the questions below for the whole class and for the two focus students. Remember to cite specific evidence from the five responses that you have submitted. (This includes responses from the two focus students and from the three students you selected to represent the range of achievement with the class).

A. For the Class as a Whole

1. What did you learn overall about the students progress toward achievement of the academic learning goal(s) for this part of the unit? I was able to determine that the majority of the students are progressing appropriately in their writing due to the fact that all but three students received a three on their rubric. I was able to look at the students Weekend Writing to determine what the strengths and weaknesses of the overall class and each students need. I was able to find a few common problems in this assessment that will allow me to go back and specifically go over this with the whole class. Specifically, I noticed that the class needs more help with handwriting skills, and using upper and lower case letters appropriately. 2. Describe the extent to which the assessment that you planned allowed students to demonstrate achievement of the academic learning goal(s) for this part of the unit. This assessment allowed me to check for all academic learning goals of the unit. From the students writing I could see if students are applying what they have learned and practiced each week in class. Since this assessment takes place each week, I am able to see each week if the student is understanding and applying what they learned in their writing. 3. Would you make any changes to the directions or to the format of the assessment? Why? The assessment has already gone through a few changes from the beginning of the year based on the class needs and improvement in their writing. They first started by drawing pictures and it slowly evolved into three quick sketches and focused more on the detail of their writing. At this point in the
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year, I think that the assessment format should stay the same. The assessment has a small space at the top of the page for three sketches and the rest of the space for writing and since that is the emphasis I think it will still work well. Also, the lined paper is helpful for students to practice their tall, fall and small words which they need to improve on. 4. Would you collect different or more evidence if you were to do this assessment again? Why? As long as the student is present on the day that Weekend Writing is done, it will be collected from each student each week to collect as much evidence as possible for each student. I will place higher value on the work completed by individual students in order to determine what they can do without the help of a group or help at home. 5. Was the implementation and timing of this assessment appropriate for this class? Why? I do feel that the timing and implementation was appropriate for the class. The assessment covered all of the learning goals. Students are able to complete this assessment each week in the time allotted, which is important because in order to assess the whole paragraph they need to complete it in the time given. I might implement a more formal assessment with no outside help in order to get an even clearer look into individual students progress. 6. In what ways would a different type of assessment (e.g., verbal response, multiple choice, short essay, oral presentation, performance task) than what you used allow students to demonstrate their achievement of the academic learning goal(s) for this unit? A writing prompt might be another way for students to demonstrate the academic learning goals of the unit. This way, a student would be given a certain amount of time to write freely about a certain topic given in the prompt. This assessment would give a clear look at a students writing ability when given a topic and little direction on what to write. The assessment would allow the teacher too look at various aspects of writing for the individual students.

B. For Student 1: An English Learner

1. To what extent were the assessment directions and format clear and easy to follow for the student? How do you know? The directions have been stated since the first week in Kindergarten. During that time this student has been participating in hearing these directions both visually as the teacher models what is expected in their Weekend Writing paragraph, and by hearing the directions. If the student were ever confused about what was expected, the teacher would explain this to him further so he did understand. It is important for him to be able to see and hear the directions so that he has multiple modes of understanding the expectations. I know that they were clear and easy to follow because the student was able to complete the assignment and achieve the learning goals. 2. To what extent did the student achieve the academic learning goals for this part of the unit? The student showed that he has an understanding of writing a structured paragraph with a topic sentence that has an adjective he chose, a concluding sentence and three details about his weekend. He does need improvement in providing more detail in each sentence. He also was able to do a quick sketch to help him with his writing. 3. How well did the students assessment response correspond to the work the student does on a daily basis? (Was the response that you expected from the student?) Based in this assessment and work he does on a daily basis, I think this student has slightly exceeded expectations. I think the reason for this is the adaptations that were made for him in this assessment,
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because he was able to have structure and vocabulary available to him in order to support his writing. On a daily basis he may not have all of these adaptations so his content and vocabulary might not be at the same level as in this assessment. 4. What different or additional type of evidence might you need to collect for the student? I will continue to collect Weekend Writings throughout the weeks left of school in order to assess where this student is and look for improvements in his writing. It is important to also collect other pieces of writing he does in class. Weekend Writing is an important assessment piece for this student because it shows progress weekly and through the year in his writing, but it is also important to have other pieces of his writing on order to have a well rounded look at what this students strengths are in writing and what he needs more instruction/practice with. 5. What does the students response tell you about his or her academic strengths and/or needs? The students response shows that he needs continued improvement in spelling, because it shows that he is able to use letter sound correspondence, but still needs improvement. It shows that adaptations were successful because a lot of the words he uses are words he used form his additional papers at his desk. Also, he needs improvement in content. His sentences are very short and do not give much description of his activities. At this point in the Weekend Writing the teacher encourages more descriptive sentences. With these needs for improvement, this student does show improvement and strength in some areas of this assessment. One strength of his is mechanics, especially spacing and punctuation. Also, he is aware of where tall, fall and small letters should be written in the lines. 6. Based on the students response, describe next steps you would take with the student to further his or her academic achievement in the content area. This student will continue exposure to language, both academic and commonly used words he still might not be familiar with. He will do this during reading and discussion in class, throughout each curricular area because writing is used throughout these. This assessment shows that this student focus for improvement should be in continued improvement in spelling, and content/vocabulary building. 7. Describe the ways in which specific adaptations you made to your assessment plan did or did not work. The adaptations made were successful based on the performance of the student. His assessment showed that he was at a level equal and in some cases higher than the other students in the class. This shows that he was successful with the learning goals and was able to do this because he had adaptation to support his learning. They helped support his spelling, word choice and content of his paragraph. 8. In what ways did the assessment support this students language abilities? Because this student struggles with academic language, especially in his writing and speech, he was given a paper that included important information on the structure of the paragraph, how to write the intro and concluding sentences and list of adjectives that this student could pick from to make his paragraph more descriptive. Second, this student was given a secondary piece of paper that had commonly used English words that he could choose from to help him write his paragraph. If he wasnt sure on how to spell a word he could look at the paper for guidance. Also, this student was given time to talk to a partner in order to hear some suggestion of things he could put in his paper. Some vocabulary that his partner used may encourage this student to use those in his writing. 9. If you were to give the assessment to the student again, what changes, if any, would you make? Why? 19

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Since the school year is not over and the student will be doing more of these assessments until the end of the year, the assessment could be altered to support the student even more, though the ones that were already made have been very beneficial to the student. One change I would make in later assessments are to give this student access to more rich vocabulary so that he can use these to write a paragraph that describes his weekend more successfully. If he had a small book or a piece of paper with popular vocabulary a student might use to describe their weekend it would expose this student to more vocabulary, and will show him that details are important in a descriptive paragraph. This would also have picture in order for this student to visualize what the word means. Before the assessment though, the teacher will need to go over the new vocabulary on the paper in order for the student to become familiar with the word and its meaning in order to properly and successfully use it in his writing. 10. What would be your next steps in planning to facilitate this students English Language Development? The next step in planning to facilitate the students EL development is to keep introducing him to rich academic vocabulary and to explain vocabulary or concepts that might be foreign to him. This is important because the more vocabulary he is exposed to will only help him in his language development because if he feels more comfortable with this language he will start to use it more often. This will benefit him as he moves into higher grades with recognizing these words when he reads, and using them when he writes and speaks.

C. Student 2: A Student with an Identified Special Need

1. To what extent were the assessment directions and format clear and easy to follow for the student? How do you know? The directions have been clearly stated from the first week in kindergarten. Since then, I have stated the directions each week both visually, modeling what is expected in their Weekend Writing paragraph on the overhead, and by hearing the directions. It is important for him to be able to see and hear the directions so that he has multiple modes of understanding the expectations. This student has participated in listening and seeing what the expectations are for this assignment. I know that the directions were clear and easy to follow because the student was able to complete the assignment and achieve the learning goals to an extent. The student does have difficulty with writing and this did hinder him from completing one of the learning goals. It was not because of unclear directions though. 2. To what extent did the student achieve the academic learning goals for this part of the unit? The student showed that he has an understanding of writing a structured paragraph with a topic sentence that has an adjective he chose, a concluding sentence with the help of the adaptations provided. He was also able to do a quick sketch to help him with his writing. He does need improvement in his spelling and content of his three detail sentences, which are academic goals that he needs to improve on. 3. How well did the students assessment response correspond to the work the student does on a daily basis? (Was the response that you expected from the student?) This student performed close to where I expected him to perform. His classwork usually shows that same type of writing that is hard to read. He did finish this assessment, which is good because he sometimes cannot finish his classwork due to the fact that he gets very distracted in social classroom situations. When he is able to focus on his work he can focus on his writing better. 4. What different or additional type of evidence might you need to collect for the student?
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I will continue to collect the Weekend Writing each week in order to assess this student further and to see if any improvements are being made. Weekend Writing is an important assessment piece for this student because it shows progress weekly and through the year in his writing Along with this assessment it is also important to collect other pieces of his writing in order to get a better understanding of this students strengths and weaknesses are in writing. 5. What does the students response tell you about his or her academic strengths and/or needs? The students response shows that he needs continued improvement in handwriting and spelling. This students handwriting is very hard to read and because of that it is hard to determine if he is able to use letter sound correspondence to build a word. When looking at this students spelling, it seems that the student is able to copy words that he is given successfully, but the words he has to spell himself do not show that he can use letter sound correspondence. Also, he needs improvement in content. Looking at his assessment it does not seem that he can create full thoughts in a sentence. There are a few words in each sentence but these words do not create full sentences nor are they legible. When asked to read this after, he is not able to. He instead just talks about what he wrote instead. A strength of this student is his ability to copy the topic and concluding sentence to help him in his paragraph. This is helpful to him because although he may not be able to write these words independently, he will have exposure to them and the structure of the paragraph throughout the whole year. This repeated exposure would hopefully help him in remembering those words and the structure of them. 6. Based on the students response, describe next steps you would take with the student to further his or her academic achievement in the content area? This student will continue to receive extra and continued instruction on his handwriting and spelling. This student still needs instruction on letter sound correspondence, and how to put multiple sounding letters into a word. Also, this student needs continued practice with handwriting to help make his words and sentences more legible. 7. Describe the ways in which specific adaptations you made to your assessment plan did or did not work. The adaptations made were successful for this student. The office divider and the headphones allowed the student to focus more on his work then the surrounding classroom distractions. This helped him produce a more legible and thought out paragraph in the time given. Also, it can be seen that the extra sheets of paper were helpful to him because he did use that to write the topic sentence, concluding sentence, and some words in the middle paragraphs. The student still needs to work on handwriting and spelling. 8. In what ways did the assessment support this students language abilities? Because this student struggles with handwriting, spelling and content, he was given a paper that included important information on the structure of the paragraph, how to write the intro and concluding sentences and list of adjectives that this student could pick from to make his paragraph more descriptive. 9. If you were to give the assessment to the student again, what changes, if any, would you make? Why? Although the adaptations already made have been beneficial to the student, the assessment could be altered to support this student even more. This assessment can be changed as the students progresses in their writing and it actually has changed quite a bit from the beginning of the year. If in the next few weeks the student was still struggling with writing three detailed sentences by himself, the teacher may try to have him focus on writing one detail sentence that focused on writing legibly and

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sounding out words. This may help with his focus because instead of worrying about how many sentences he has to do he can focus on completing this one sentence.

Step 6: Reflection on Assessment Implementation and Student Learning

Directions: Read your response for Steps 1 to 5. Consider what you have learned through the Assessing Learning task about your students, what you wanted them to learn, their responses to the assessment, and your analysis of the evidence of student learning. Respond to the prompts below.

1. If you were given an opportunity to use the assessment again, what part(s) would you keep and what part(s) might you change? Why? If I were given the opportunity to change the assessment again I would keep a lot of it the same, but make a few adjustments based on what the needs of the class are that week. The great thing about this assessment is that it can be changed as the students progress in their writing and it actually has changed quite a bit from the beginning of the year. At the beginning, the Weekend Writing sheet was just pictures. At this point in the year though it has evolved from that to small sketches and ample room to write their full paragraph with details. This is a huge leap and by the end of the year the paper may evolve as the class improves their writing skills more. 2. If you were given an opportunity to implement the assessment again, what would you do the same and what would you do differently? Why? The opportunity for this assessment arises every week of the school year, so I am able to implement it weekly. It is essentially the same assessment in that the students are always writing about their weekend and the events that took place in their weekend, but the format of the assessment has changed due to the students development in their writing skills through the year. The Kindergarten team uses the same assessment all year because it is a great way to assess and see the growth of each student in the class from the beginning of the year when they were just drawing pictures, to the end of the year when they are writing full paragraphs. Then, the teacher can really hone in on what the needs are for individual students and the class as a whole to help them become better writers. This assessment has already shown that as a whole the class needs more work with handwriting after looking and assessing everyones papers. This is also true for individual students. The teacher can look and assess where certain students need improvements in certain areas or if they are not developing in their writing like the rest of the class. 3. What additional information about your students did you learn as a result of this assessment experience? I was able to determine that a lot of the students in the class are meeting the writing standards that the rubric states. There is a small group of students who are not meeting the standards yet and scored a 2 and below, which is good to know because the teacher can evaluate this and help the student become more successful and work towards meeting those standards. Also, this assessment has already shown that as a whole the class needs more work with handwriting after looking and assessing everyones papers. This will involve more work out of the Handwriting without Tears and re -teaching Tall, Fall and Small words.

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4. How will you use what you have learned from this assessment experience when you plan instruction and assessment in the future? I have learned that an ongoing assessment like this is a great tool to understand how a student is progressing. The teacher will be able to see and have concrete proof of the progress made from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. It also will best determine areas of writing that at student still needs help with. I also learned that giving clear directions and expectations are crucial to the students success in this assessment. If the students have not been taught how to write a paragraph then they would not be able to compete this assessment successfully. Modeling and expanding the paragraph process through the year will help students work up to writing a well done paragraph instead of overwhelming them all at once. Also, modeling what a paragraph should have and look like is another essential thing to have done before this assessment is given to remind students each week of what their work should look like. 5. What are your goals for increasing your knowledge and skill in assessment? How will achieving these goals help you become a more effective teacher? One goal for this assessment is to use the result to see what curriculum students still need more attention. The results of the students work will help me determine what the students strengths are and what areas need improvement. Also, each assessment is a way to evaluate myself as a teacher to see if I am teaching my students aspects of writing in a way that they understand, and if I am not how I can do so. Since the whole Kindergarten team is doing these assessments each week, we are able to bounce ideas off of each other to better the choices we make while teaching and assessing the students writing.

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