Mary Isho Knowledge of Students to Inform Teaching For my planning commentary assignment, I decided to focus on a math lesson.

The math lesson was adding on a number line. I used the following standards to help guide my exit ticket and objectives: 1. CCSS.Math.Content.1.NBT.A.1 Count to 120, starting at any number less than 120. In this range, read and write numerals and represent a number of objects with a written numeral and 2. CCSS.Math.Content.1.OA.C.6 Add and subtract within 20, demonstrating fluency for addition and subtraction within 10. Use strategies such as counting on; making ten (e.g., 8 + 6 = 8 + 2 + 4 = 10 + 4 = 14); decomposing a number leading to a ten (e.g., 13 4 = 13 3 1 = 10 1 = 9); using the relationship between addition and subtraction (e.g., knowing that 8 + 4 = 12, one knows 12 8 = 4); and creating equivalent but easier or known sums (e.g., adding 6 + 7 by creating the known equivalent 6 + 6 + 1 = 12 + 1 = 13). The objective for this lesson was students will be able to add on a number line. The assessment I chose to analyze was the exit ticket. I grouped the exit ticket by low (re teach the concept), middle (some what got it, needs more practice), high (mastered the objective). Clearly, I could group my exit tickets by not even knowing my students, but in order to understand their thinking process I needed to understand them better. Before I started planning, I wanted to make sure I knew my students very well. Being in first grade, I know it is very crucial to gain their trust and guide them right away. I wanted to be sure that I planned lessons that would cater to their needs. In order to do so, I used three different methods. I used observations, MAP data, and everyday in class assessments such as exit tickets. I wanted to explain more about assessments we use that

helps us guide our instruction because I feel that it will be helpful to understand that before I discussed my math lesson. The first thing I did was observe my students. I look for evidence of students expectations for their own success and their pace of learning. Both observations helped guide my instruction by recognizing how different all my students are. In every classroom, you will have students who are on different ability levels. I noticed some students needed more assistance than others. In the writing lesson I observed, I noticed that eleven students started with writing words before drawing their picture. I walked around and noticed six students started drawing first then writing. Four students did both. For example, one students writing stated, I love, then started drawing a picture of an animal he loved. One student did not get started at all. He kept crying and stating that his head hurts. I did more digging and found out that this student is repeating first grade. He has been taken away from his mother because of child abuse. I am assuming he is looking for attention, but it is so hard to give that when you have 22 other students. Many of our students need that extra attention. Since I wanted to analyze and teach a math lesson, I observed a math lesson in order to better plan. I noticed one particular student. She is not compliant and always refuses to do any work. I think she always reaches her frustration zone because she just does not understand what is happening around her. A different teacher pulled her out of the class, but when she got back she came to me and asked for a paper. Normally, she would not care if she had a paper or not. This particular lesson was more hands on, working with manipulative and I am assuming she was really excited about it. The math lesson I observed showed me that students care about learning especially if they

understand the material. In our classroom, we use a tracking system. Students have their names on cars. They must work their way up on the race car track. Students always start off the track then slowly move up on each color every time we see them on task. The first color is red, then blue, then yellow, and finally, green. The goal is to get on green at the end of the day. Traditional classrooms start students off on green and then move clips down, but our system is moving kids up which is highlighting positive behavior rather then negative. During the math lesson, the students who were not on green were trying so hard to get on green. Students who were already on green were talking and not really worried. Students know they can not go back on the track, but they can get on pit stop, which is moving out of the track and not being able to move your car forward. At times, the track works really well, but in the afternoons, many kids can not control themselves and if they are already on green, it is best to use a different behavior system. Unfortunately, we do not have another behavior system so if I did incorporate the track in my classroom next year, I would definitely Our data used to group students is the MAP assessment. We do not follow the scores religiously because we are in first grade and we noticed that many of our students did not know how to use a computer. They were just clicking at the pictures and not listening to the question. After receiving the MAP data, we analyzed it and categorized our class into five different groups. We had to use our best judgment to group our students because we noticed that an average student scored lower than our student with an IEP. We knew that she must have had trouble with listening to the question during the MAP test. We made sure to observe her and score her exit tickets to make sure we are

placing her in the appropriate groups. We placed students according to the following categories: operations and algebraic thinking, number and operations in base ten, measurement and data, and geometry. Also, we tried to use students RIT score to group them with students at their RIT band level so they all get instruction at their independent levels. I have attached our class MAP data to help give a better visual. In our classroom, we also use STEP data to group our guided reading groups. In order to give appropriate instruction for our students in their zone of proximal development, we decided to use multiple categories when we grouped. We grouped our students by overall score, if they were far below, below, grade level, or above grade level. Also, we grouped students by ability levels. Students who struggled with letter recognition were grouped together and students who struggles with phonemic awareness were grouped together. Other factors of grouping included: letter sounds, comprehension, segmenting, and fluency. We created tier 2 and 3 groups as well. Tier 2 interventions would be students in a small group setting that are given 20-30 minutes instruction at their independent level. Tier 3 intervention is one on one instruction usually given to students who we know would struggle with the content. Since there are 3 teachers in the room, it is easy to do that, but I could only imagine how difficult that must be next year when there will be only one teacher. Overall, our STEP and MAP assessment has guided our instruction and it seems to be working as far as grouping is concerned. I do notice that one or two students within a group of five always seem to struggle with one or two concepts. It is very hard to place students in groups especially if they had a bad day prior to the assessment. That is why having daily classroom observations and assessments are important to always assess.

An assessment that is only administered once or twice a year will not tell us everything we need to know to consistently guide our instruction. In order to do this, we need to constantly assess within our classroom. In our first grade classroom, we do not put a lot of emphasis on assessment because students should not feel stress or pressure at such a young age. Although we do use a lot of exit slips and do nows as a quick way to monitor where our students are. We always observe to notice if students are paraphrasing material into their own words. I conducted a reading lesson that reviewed retelling words and asked the students to retell a story. I walked around and joined groups to hear how tell retold the story. Also, we like to notice if students are making connections to other texts or anything happening in their lives that can relate to our reading book. We like to see a lot of text to text, text to self, and text to world connections. We feel that these are great examples of our students showing progress. These may not be submitted as actual grades, but they still help us guide our instruction. Assessments really guide our instruction and help us teach our students, but there are other important ways that guide instruction. I looked at my students academic history. I studied the assessments we conducted on them in the beginning of the year. I jotted down my observations on the students that I see as struggling learners. I asked my mentor a lot of questions. At the beginning of the school year, I made a checklist in order to gather information about my students. The checklist included my students preferred learning style (auditory, visual, or kinesthetic), and any special populations such as: 504 (legal accommodations specified for a student), medical condition, special education, speech or language therapy, or orthopedic impairment. After conducting multiple lessons that are visual, auditory, and kinesthetic, I noticed that most of my students are visual and

kinesthetic learners. I would give exit tickets right after my auditory lessons and I noticed that half the students did not get the objective for that lesson. I try to incorporate more visuals and movements throughout the lessons to keep them engaged. The first day of school, we gave our students a name assessment. Basically, we wanted to assess their handwriting and actually see if they knew their name. Everyday I always observe for students ability to understand oral and written language. I always accommodate for the needs of my learners. I take into account their lived experiences. I do that by talking to my students parents or care taker. I learned that one of my students has been taken away from his mother because she beat him. I have learned that two students need speech therapy and one student is deaf in his left ear. Another students mother wants him in special education. When planning my lessons, I make sure I take all these factors in account. Now, after knowing a bit more about my class and students, I want to really highlight the math lesson I analyzed. As I conducted the math lesson, I made sure I planned out certain questions my students may have had such as, Which way do we move to add on the number line, why do we move up to add on the number line, can we move back on the number line? I knew my kids would have trouble understanding why we add on a number line so I made sure to explain that using a number line is just another way or strategy we use in order to help us count. To do this, I introduced the lesson by having students list the ways we add. They came up with using objects such as counters, number line, hundreds chart, dice, tallies, and counting on. I made sure to do several examples with them. I did this by using the I do, we do, you do lesson outline. Before I got into the objective and lesson, I made sure to use student friendly language. Instead of

using the word addition, I used add, plus, and moving up on the number line. When it was time to execute the lesson, I knew that my students learn by examples and they learn best when I explicitly teach them the concept. I gave students multiple chances to think aloud and explain how they knew to move up and stop at a given number. I followed up by asking questions such as, how do you know that we move this direction, how did you know to stop at this number, what number did we end up on, etc. For the you do portion, I decided to make the lesson an engaging activity by using masking tape and taping a huge class number line across the room. I chose on certain students to hop on the number line as the other students were following along with their fingers on the number line on their desks. Throughout the lesson, I always went back to my objective and stated it in the beginning of the lesson, middle, and end. I made sure to make it clear that we use the number line to help us add and count. They seemed to be focused because I told them that we will add and count for the rest of our lives and that math is everywhere. It was time to administer the exit ticket. I read the directions and told the students who can read the exit ticket to go away and complete it. I asked students who needed help reading the exit ticket to listen as I read. I read the questions aloud to students who needed me to read it to them so that reading the question would not be an issue for them to complete the exit ticket. After the lesson, I analyzed my exit tickets. I noticed that many of my students were grouped in the medium section meaning they some what got it, but they need more practice. The common mistake I noticed was question 4 which was, Start at 2. Count up 15 hops. Where do you end up? I noticed that many students were relying heavily on using the number line to make hops. Most of them did not draw their hops on every

number which cause them to miscount. Many students put 18 in stead of 17. The next day I made sure to explicitly model how to hop on the number line. I drew my hops out and thought aloud as I hopped and said, Ms. Isho always makes sure she stops at every number before moving to the next number that way I know I am not missing or miscounting my numbers. Prior to starting the exit ticket, I made sure to do the first one with them. My students who are gifted finished early so I made sure to walk around and write some more problems on their paper for additional practice. I have one student with an IEP and a couple students who have a hard time focusing and getting started on their work. I had them sit at a kidney table and I made sure to guide them through the exit ticket by doing a second example with them. The exit ticket created was a formal way to assess students. It gave me a clear visual of where my students are. I grouped them into three categories which helped me guide my instruction the next day. I have 23 students in my class. Ten out of 23 students scored in the middle group meaning they somewhat got it, but they need more practice. Five out of 23 students scored in the low group meaning I had to re teach the concept. Eight out of 23 students mastered the objective and I could move on to the next lesson. After I grouped my exit tickets and saw that many students still did not master the objective, I felt discouraged. I went through the ten exit tickets who scored in the middle. I separated them by how many mistakes were on each exit ticket. I saw that most of them got 1 or 2 questions wrong and that was mostly because of how they drew their hops or arrows on the number line. Many students were confused and that made me question if my exit ticket was really appropriate for the lesson objective. Am I assessing their ability to hop on the number line or add and count up on the number line? The next day, I had a

discussion with my mentor about whether or not I should re teach the lesson whole group. We decided to teach subtracting on the number line,. Before I taught subtracting on the number line, I quickly did a do now reviewing how to add on the number line. I went on and taught how to subtract on the number line and emphasized that when we add we moved to the right, but when we subtract, we move to the left. For the you do portion, I pulled the five students who did not master the objective at all. I made sure to go over adding on the number line again. I had a different exit ticket for them which focused on just adding on the number line. For all the other students, I designed an exit ticket with both adding and subtracting on the number line. Overall, analyzing my exit ticket was very helpful, but I also conducted a lot of observations and I walked around and noticed if students were struggling or mastering the objective. The informal assessment really formed my judgment on specific students and if I think they need more focused instruction or if I feel they are confident and ready to move on. In the future, I would definitely keep using exit tickets to differentiate my instruction, but I would also use observations because sometimes students may be struggling and they may just copy from their neighbor and I would think they mastered the objective, but if I noticed that they were not focused on the exit ticket or seemed confused then that could give me more accurate data. I think that the planning commentary project really helped me open my eyes more to how much hard work and dedication it takes to actually plan and analyze data to cater and guide further instruction. Many teachers do not plan with data in mind. Now I realize the importance of always gathering data even if it something as little as exit tickets. I always can pull data up and it can support my decisions for grades and feedback. In first grade, students have not really

been used to receiving feedback, but I definitely want to start providing them with feedback so they are held accountable for their own learning. I know that keeping data such as the exit tickets can support building relationships with childrens parents. Most times parents may question why their child received a certain grade so it is crucial to have evidence. My upcoming goals for the rest of the year is to keep analyzing assessments and provide as much feedback to students and parents.

Please see below for attached documents such as MAP Data and Observation Tools.

MAP Data

MAP Data

MAP Data

Observation Tools

Observation Tools