Pat Rademacher Erik Skogsberg TE 802 8 December 2013 Student Work Analysis Part 1 Prior to this assessment, students

started reading the beginning of the Odyssey. This unit took place during the last three weeks of the trimester and was the last major unit until finals. However, one of the major goals I had not touched on for the trimester was MLA research, citation, and formatting. Therefore, I had to somehow come up with an assessment dealing with MLA that fit accordingly and practically with this unit, which didnt seem easy at first. The main goals during the Odyssey unit in reference to the courses expectations and objectives were the following: SWBAT: read actively and critically; reflect, identify, and discuss readings purpose; focus on methods of structuring an argumentative response; independently explore primary sources for the purpose of learning new information; evaluate primary sources for credibility; use the rules of MLA Citation for assigning credit to sources; explore methods of characterization used by storytellers; identify strategies utilized by storytellers in developing plot; develop a disciplined approach to identifying Universal Themes. Many of the objectives were touched on or even mastered during prior units in the trimester, particularly the unit on short stories and fiction. On the other hand, the ones dealing with research and writing had only been discussed or briefly introduced. With the limited amount of time left in the trimester, I had to somehow come up with a way to combine many of these objectives into one assessment, which brings me to the design of what I created. I knew that the assessment would have to be relevant to the unit. When looking at the days ahead and what the class would be reading, I decided I wanted to combine the assessment with a portion of the story that students would most likely find engaging. My choice ended up being the book on the Cyclops since I remembered as packed with action and somewhat controversy. Next, I had to figure out how it could intertwine with MLA and researching, writing an argumentative response, and blend with the other objectives within reading. I ended up making a GoogleDoc students had access to and could share

with me through our school accounts. Students had to access the document, make a copy, and then share it with me in order to proceed. From there, the instructions were clearly marked at the top of the page for them to complete the assignment independently. The first part of the Google document had them navigate and learn about MLA formatting and citing on their own through electronic sources (websites) by answering questions in regard to MLA. While doing so, they also had to give proper citation to their sources. This introduced students to MLA while simultaneously using MLA. If there was any confusion among students, I was circulating around the room to answer their questions and look over their responses. From there, the second part of the assessment showed students how to correctly cite the Odyssey. Once they were able to figure out these skills, it was their job to create a constructed response in regard to a prompt by using at least three pieces of textual evidence from the book. This assessment allowed me to see if students were using MLA correctly in reference to electronic sources and their copy of Homers epic poem. It also gave me an idea of how well independent researching and integration of technology worked for my classroom. It also gave me a decent glimpse of their ability to come up with a justified and well-written response in regard to an argument where they could take one of two sides. In opposition to this, this assessment did have a drawback: it didnt necessarily give me an idea of how well they comprehended the MLA content I was asking for. Although the questions were there and they had to independently answer them, it doesnt prove they understood what the questions were asking, especially since they were allowed to copy and paste as long as giving proper citation (quotation marks for direct quotes) and had never done anything with MLA prior. Although most answered correctly, its hard to tell they were able to interpret what everything meant.

Part 2 When choosing three examples of student work, I decided to go with three that varied quite a bit from one another. One of them met (and exceeded) expectations, one almost met all expectations adequately, and the other met some expectations but failed to complete others. For the most part, all students seemed to interpret the assignment in the same manner. Their responses to the questions in regard to content were similar, but it was the length, formatting, and effort that exhibited the differences between them. With this being said, I was happy to see students interpreted this assignment as I had hoped, since the directions and questions may have been initially confusing; I think I did a fine job of scaffolding and answering questions as the activity was being completed. With the design and format of this assessment, it was expected to see many patterns emerge, especially in reference to the first portion. This was because students had to answer these questions using MLA citation. In other words, almost every response in the first portion started off as According to. However, it was in the second portion of the assignment where I saw major differences. For the student who did extremely well on the assignment, she responded to the prompt by using correct citation. She also integrated the correct citation in a neatly written paragraph where the quotes and references flowed as a part of her sentences and overall response. In other words, she didnt blatantly stick quotes into her response in a random manner. In addition to this, she touched on both sides of the argument instead of taking one side. Initially, I was expecting students to take one side and provide valid reasoning to support their position. However, this student managed to prove that one side was not necessarily correct. Considering this student tends to care about school, is a solid reader and writer, and always asks for help and clarification when needed, I was not surprised with the quality of her work. Overall, there werent any weaknesses to her assignment and everything else clearly demonstrated she was competent to complete and answer all the tasks I had asked for. However, considering most students did not choose to do the second part in a paragraph, I was a bit surprised she went the distance she did to prove her point. I almost think it was common sense for her to answer the prompt in a paragraph, whether she based this on her experiences or overall knowledge about English. This students work with the assessment demonstrated her enjoyment with writing and critical thinking. The second student managed to meet the expectations for the response. Although I expected students to write a paragraph to defend their position, I didnt make this quite clear in my instructions. Therefore, since this student chose to take three quotes and simply list them rather than incorporate them into a paragraph, I was content with his work. Although he did not clearly state which side he was taking, it was easy for me to

tell where his head was by the quotes he had chosen. This student - from what I had noticed in other assessments - takes directions very literally and will complete his work to whatever extent needed for a good or decent grade. He obviously showed strengths in selecting quotes that were practical and adequate. He also did a fantastic job citing them correctly. However (and this may be my fault) he struggled with justifying how these quotes supported a particular stance since there was no other writing that went with it. Since I was the creator of the assignment and knew what he was doing, it was easy for me to understand where he was coming from. On the other hand, if an outside perspective were to look at his response, he or she would have no idea what his response meant. In regard to the last student, he failed to even complete the second portion of the assignment. He did better on the first portion than I had expected, and I was happy to see that. When I saw he did not finish the assignment, I was not shocked. Unfortunately, this student had a tendency to fail to turn things in (on time or at all) and only did work when he had time to in school. Not trying to be negative, but this students work of the assignment only reinforced what I knew and expected of him. Prior to this assignment, I had him come in for lunch multiple times and spoke with his parents, too. As much as I tried, he still didnt seem to want to put in the full effort needed. I even asked him if he would be able to finish the assignment at night from home (he told me he had internet), and he said that he would.

Part 3 For responding to all of these assessments, I included comments in Google Docs. I chose to highlight errors in formatting and then inserted a comment on how it could be corrected. At the end of the assignment, I gave students a written response about their response and the overall assessment. From there, I gave a grade out of fifteen points based on completion and effort. When responding to the first student, I didnt include comments for anything done on the MLA portion. My reasoning behind this was because there were no errors. In regard to her response using three quotes, I gave her (well deserved) praise for how well she met the expectations. However, I did include how she failed to incorporate the use of slash marks to indicate line breaks in poetry, but this was one of the least of my concerns for the assignment, and I made that known to her, too. In regard to the second student, I added two comments on the side that were short and to the point. One of the comments said reference? because the student failed to include where he had gotten the information in his response to the question. The second comment I added said ...? because he had failed to answer the question all the way through. For his response to the prompt, I said, Nice job! Other than a few errors in completing some answers and use of quotation marks, you seemed to do everything pretty well. I was hoping for a paragraph in regard to the prompt, but you still did what I asked for. Also, great job on citing everything correctly in your response. 14/15. For the third student, I inserted one side comment that said, This is where you would put your first quotation mark. Other than that, I didnt give him any side comments because he did well on everything else. This student did have a few spelling and grammatical errors, but I chose to disregard them because it was not a main focus of assessment for this assignment. For the last portion, I gave him feedback that read, Great job on the first section, but you didnt respond to the prompt :(. My intent for giving this kind of feedback was for students to know where they had struggled and where they had done well. In particular, I wanted students to know whether or not they had cited everything correctly using electronic sources and printed text. With the type of written feedback I gave, I believe it was very effective (if read by students). However, this leads me to my next point. Because I was so rushed in this unit and had to make sure students completed tasks within MLA, I failed to reflect on the activity and make sure students did as well. Rather than having students look at their feedback, I chose to move on with the text. This was easily my biggest mistake. When looking over the errors students made in citing or completion, I didnt do my job to have them go back and make the necessary corrections. This didnt allow me to take the next steps students needed. When looking back on this assignment, I dont think I would do anything differently in terms of its design and the way it was assessed. Even now, I believe this was a great hands-on

approach to introducing, learning, and applying MLA citation. The adjustment needed would be within the feedback for students. If I were to do this again, I would still assess students a grade based on the deadline that was given. However, once the grades were entered, I would take a day to have students go back to their assignments and look at the feedback I gave them. From there, I would have them fix whatever mistakes they made. After this, I would create some kind of formative assessment that allowed students to reflect on what they learned, what they need to improve upon, and what questions still remained for them. With time constraints, it was difficult to make this happen, but I probably could have by renting out the Chromebooks for one more day and including an exit ticket or journal entry for reflection. Furthermore, I think I should have added more side comments that gave praise to students, such as, Nice job on using quotations for your direct quote here, or, Excellent job on rephrasing this into your own words. I could also have spent more time in responding to the students constructed responses, letting them know how I reacted in response to their writing. This could have included comments like, Wow! I never thought of that before, or, You make an interesting point here. Can you expand on this a bit? Rather, I looked at the response as a whole and briefly touched on it. Needless to say, its difficult to give deliberate feedback for sixty kids, but it would definitely benefit them if arranged in a manner for them to read it, interpret it, and reflect upon it. Also, if I were to do this again, I would make sure I would put aside more time to focus on MLA. Although I think this activity was very effective, there was no reinforcement for its content. Instead, we simply moved on with the reading and didnt touch on MLA again until studying for final exams. When looking at the final exam questions for MLA, I believe there were two on there that werent mentioned in this assignment. Im pretty upset I failed to include these two questions because it probably made students confused about why they were on the final. Lastly, if I were to do anything else, I would have given a few handouts on MLA Citation after this activity to give students a concrete resource and to supply them with any information they didnt discover or acknowledge independently. With all this said, though, I think I did a pretty fine job of combining all the objectives necessary with the pressure I was under. I will definitely be able to reflect and plan better when Im not doing so day by day.