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Bethany Crocker
December 6, 2013
EPS 513
Final Paper


I chose to use data from our report card assessment that we give our students. This
assessment is made by my mentor teacher. It is very similar to the STEP assessment that we
also give periodically. This assessment tests the students letter and sound recognition skills,
oral rhyming and reading skills (both decoding and comprehension). We also assess math and
writing skills. We give a similar assessment before every progress report and report card. This
ensures that we have accurate data of our students progress.
On the reading portion of the assessment, we check that the students can point with
one-to-one correspondence, distinguish between words and letters, and that they follow words
from left to right. We also ask them basic comprehension questions, What happens in this
story?, ask them to identify the characters in the book, as well as name the main character in
the book. All of the students were assessed with the same story, Goldilocks and the Three
Bears. The teacher who administered the assessment read the story aloud and asked the
students to point to words as the teacher read them. At the end of the story, the teacher asked
the student, What happened in this story? If the student was able to say something that
actually happened in the story, they were given a score of Well Developed. If the student
mentioned one thing that happened, and one thing that did not happen, they were given a score
of Partially Developed. If the student could not name anything that happened in the story or
said something that did not happen in the story, they were given a score of Beginning.
The students were also asked to name all of the characters in the story. If the students
said the three bears and goldilocks they received a score of well developed, if they only
named the bears or goldilocks they received a score of partially developed and if they did not
name any of the characters they scored a beginning. For the main character question, the
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students should have responded with Goldilocks. If they named Goldilocks they received
well developed. If they named the bears they received partially developed and if they did not
name a character they received a score of beginning.
This assessment was given by three different teachers: my mentor, my co-resident and
myself. We were all supposed to ask the same questions and not give any prompting, so the
test should have reliable results. However, there is no way of knowing if we did ask in a different
manner because we did not observe one another administering the assessment. The test
answers are valid because they were recorded in the same way and assessed a skill by asking
questions that are understandable and rely on students to recall information from a text that is
read aloud to them. This test assesses important skills that are part of common core standards
for kindergarten students. If students are able to answer comprehension questions about a text,
it means they are on the right track to answering more complex questions as they progress
throughout the school year. This shows the consequential validity of this assessment. It may be
argued that this assessment could be even more reliable and valid. Perhaps with only one
teacher assessing students and more questions asked of the students for the comprehension
portion of the assessment this assessment may result in more accurate data. However, for the
purposes of data collection in our classroom, because of the consistency of these assessments
and alignment to common core standards, I feel that this data accurately reflects student
understanding.
The results of the comprehension portion of the Report Card Assessment showed that
all of our students were able to recall some details from the story. Out of 21 students, 16
students scored well developed when identifying characters. Three students scored partially
developed and two students scored beginning. On the identifying main character part of the
test, 17 students scored a well developed, one student scored, partially developed and three
students scored, beginning. This graph shows the results of this assessment specifically in the
comprehension portion of the report card assessment.
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I chose to focus on two students for this reflection. These are students that I also
focused on when collecting observation data for the previous assignment. On this Report Card
Assessment, A.K (a five-year-old girl) scored well developed on all the comprehension
questions. K.B. (a five-year-old boy) also scored well developed on the comprehension
questions for this assessment.
One thing I noticed through the observation collection assignment was that these
students did not show persistence when answering comprehension questions as a whole group
on the rug during most of the read aloud I observed. When observing A.K. during a read aloud
lesson in which the students were asked comprehension questions about the main idea, A.K.
did not raise her hand during the second portion of the lesson. Also, A.K. was not able to show
that she understood the main idea of the story throughout the entire lesson.
K.B. was eager to participate during most of the comprehension lesson, but did get
distracted toward the end. His answer to the main idea question during his think, pair, share
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activity was not accurate. He did raise his hands more often at the beginning of the lesson. He
collaborated well with others during the think, pair, share portion of the assignment.
This particular observation showed that both K.B. and A.K lacked persistence when
seated on a rug for a half hour period of time. K.B. raised his hands more at the beginning than
toward the end, which suggests that he is eager to participate, but lacks persistence in certain
academic situations. If lack of persistence during lessons continues for these students during
lessons on the rug, it could affect their academic performance, especially when it comes to
comprehending read aloud assignments. There will need to be a change of teaching strategies
implemented on the rug that allow students to engage in more discussion. The amount of
persistence in the lesson was higher for these students and all students in the classroom when
they were allowed to engage in more discussion.
Of course, this lesson was not the only lesson in which I have observed K.B. and A.K.
participate. In other read aloud lessons, I have noticed that they actively participate during the
entire rug time, especially when given chances to use gestures, teacher talk is limited, when
positive narration is used frequently to redirect attention to the lesson, and when rug time is cut
down to 10-15 minutes instead of thirty.
K.B. and A.K. scored well on the comprehension portion of their report card assessment,
but when tracking observation data during a whole group reading lesson in which
comprehension skills were practiced, the students showed a lack of persistence and a lack of
knowledge about the comprehension skill. I have also gathered a few more pieces of
assessment data in order to analyze the knowledge, skills and learning strategies of these
students in the comprehension domain of language arts.
K.B. was given a running record assessment about three weeks after this observation
data was collected. When asked to recall details from the story, he was able to accurately recall
several things that happened in the story. While this did not assess the same comprehension
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skill as the observation data was was collected (main idea), it does suggest that K.B. does have
the ability to focus on a story and answer comprehension questions accurately.
Data was collected during language arts small groups for A.K. During the months of
October and November, A.K. showed persistence and accuracy during every lesson. Data was
recorded five times from October 17th to November 7th. She was able to meet the objective of
every lesson during the small group activity. Although guided reading groups had not started yet
and these lessons were not assessing comprehension skills, she did show that she was very
persistent when participating in the learning activity. She was focused during the entire fifteen
minute phonics lesson. She also very accurately showed understanding of the concepts tested.
I know that my students are all able to recall details about a text, based on the data from
the report card assessment. Most of my students (16/21 and 17/21) are able to recall even more
specific details about the text, identification of the main character. This also requires knowledge
of the term main character, which was taught for an entire week during the read aloud block of
literacy before these report card assessments were given. After observing a read aloud lesson
in which students were required to identify the main idea of the text, almost all of the students
were unable to accurately identify the main idea during this lesson. The two students I have
focused in on have also followed this trend. During the assessment, they answered
comprehension skills accurately, and during the rug time they were unable to answer the
comprehension question. In Driven By Data by Paul Brambrick-Santoyo, he mentions the eight
mistakes that matter when trying to effectively implement data driven instruction. I think that in
this case, my data does show a curriculum-assessment disconnect. Although the students may
be tested on a report card assessment in the future on main idea, the assessment given for the
first quarter did not cover main idea, although main idea was a part of the literacy curriculum for
the first quarter.
We have a variety of assessments in our classroom. These include interim
assessments, exit tickets, and checklists. In order to get an accurate picture of my students
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comprehension skills, I will need to carefully check every piece of data that I have which
pertains to comprehension. I think that the mistakes of ineffective follow-up and not making
time for data are important not to avoid, as mentioned in our Driven By Data text (p. xxvi). It is
important that I follow up on the skills students are not getting by accurately collecting a variety
of data, which is happening in our classroom, but then also following up with the appropriate
assessments and perhaps re-teaching the concept if necessary.
I know that my students can recall details and name main characters in text, but they
have difficulty identifying the main idea of non-fiction texts. Do my students need more time with
non-fiction texts? Are we spending too much time asking lower level recalling questions and not
asking students to generalize about texts enough? Do my students need less time on the rug or
more time to discuss on the rug (less teacher talk)? It seems that they are more successful with
meeting the objectives for a comprehension lesson when given more time to talk and actively
participate in the lesson. Small group activities seem especially engaging for my kindergarten
students.
Thinking about student motivation is an important part of assessment, as we learned
throughout Lorrie Shepards article, The Role of Assessment in a Learning Culture. As we think
about creating classrooms that foster learning so that students are excited and motivated to
learn, we must also accurately record data in order to inform our instruction. This is why
observation data about student behavior is also so impactful when creating lesson plans that
are appropriate and have the students best interest in mind.
As I think about both formal and informal assessments for monitoring my students
progress in the area of reading comprehension, I think about a variety of ways to collect data. I
will need to use checklists when students are on the rug answering questions and participating
in think, pair, share discussions because I can then use that data to inform my instruction. I
have not been accurately recording data when students participate in oral discussion, especially
during rug time.
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I will continue to use exit tickets on comprehension skills that ask students to represent
their understanding of the skill in a variety of ways to gage whether or not the students are
understanding. For my students, this is mostly represented by circling pictures, drawing pictures
and sometimes attempting to write a sentence about the topic. However, writing is not a very
valid assessment yet because unless I go around the room to ask every student what they
mean to write, I will not be able to read student answers and record accurate data. Sometimes,
because there are three teachers in our room, we are able to write what all the students mean
on their papers. This data would be reliable to use.
Because I have noticed that my students work well in a small group setting, I will
continue to practice comprehension skills as we read guided reading books. Each teacher takes
notes on the students understanding of the comprehension skill during the particular lesson. I
will continue to ask higher level thinking questions, not just recalling questions. Also, this is an
important time to review concepts learned in our whole group lesson.
Last, we will continue to use interim assessments such as STEP, which assess students
on comprehension skills, but not necessarily the ones that we have focused on during that
quarter. It is important that students are introduced to a wide variety of comprehension skills.
We will go over all of the skills learned in the first and second quarter in the spring. It would be
beneficial, however, make sure that the progress report and report card assessments accurately
reflect the skills practiced in that quarter. Adding on more comprehension questions that target
all of the comprehension skills practiced would provide more data that could inform our
instruction in the future.
I will continue to take observation notes on students because they provide more data
about student motivation and persistence during lessons. This will help me change my lessons
to engage more students. I can also reflect on my questioning techniques and teacher/student
talk ratio when I reflect on lessons. I hope to practice different ways of data collection
throughout my residency. As I strive to become a teacher who implements effective, data driven
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instruction, my hope is that I will continue to grow in planning more effective assessments and
collecting accurate data.








References

Brambrick-Santoyo, P. Driven By Data: A Practical Guide to Improve Instruction. (2010).
Shepard, L. The Role of Assessment in a Learning Culture. Educational Researcher. Vol. 29. No. 7.
(Oct. 2000).