Pavese Part D Assessment Commentary

Early Childhood
Task 3: Assessment Commentary
TASK 3: ASSESSMENT COMMENTARY

Respond to the prompts below (no more than 10 single-spaced pages, including prompts) by typing your responses within
the brackets following each prompt. Do not delete or alter the prompts. Commentary pages exceeding the maximum will not be
scored. Attach the assessment you used to evaluate student performance (no more than 5 additional pages) to the end of this
file. If you submit evidence of learning, a student work sample, or feedback as a video or audio clip and you or your focus
students cannot be clearly heard, attach a transcription of the inaudible comments (no more than 2 additional pages) to the
end of this file. These pages do not count toward your page total.
1. Analyzing Children’s Learning

a. Identify the specific language and literacy learning objectives for the common
assessment you chose for analysis.
[For this task, I chose to focus on the assessment from learning experience 3. The language
and literacy learning objective for this specific assessment focused on identifying similarities and
differences between George Washington: America’s First President and Abraham Lincoln: Log-
Cabin President using event cards from the two texts. With this learning experience, the
students continued to build on the objectives of the previous learning experiences, as the
complexity for this objective increased. These included asking and answering questions;
retelling and recalling details; and comparing characteristics from the text. The students used
these skills to actively participate in the literacy and language learning objective. As the students
talked about and sorted the event cards, they were building on a variety of other developmental
domains. During the process, I was then able to assess how much the students learned through
an activity that was the culmination of the learning segment.]
b. Provide a graphic (table or chart) or narrative that summarizes the class/group’s learning
for the common assessment.
[The total number of students in the class while I taught learning experience 3 was twenty.
Since the beginning of the learning segment, one student left the school and another one was
absent on this last day. Each student got a chance to participate during the whole group activity
as we reviewed what we had learned about the two presidents and then sorted them into the
proper category on the Venn Diagram. After this whole group portion, the students were
directed back to their seats to work independently on sorting the event cards on the Venn
Diagram. While the students were working, I took notes at the bottom of their rubric to detail
how they were working and the level of assistance they needed from peers or teachers in the
room. Once the independent activity was completed, I scanned their Venn Diagrams and
assess their work based on the set rubric. The rubric was broken into three categories:
identifying similarities and differences; asking and answering questions; identifying the main
topic and retelling details. The grading scale was broken down into three parts: limited or no
mastery, partial mastery, and grade level mastery. The rubric directly aligns with the language
and literacy objectives that I wanted the students to learn. Overall, all the students were either at
partial mastery or grade level mastery in regard to their skills for these standards. Below, the
chart provides details about how many students were in each category. At the beginning of the
learning segment there were students who would’ve been put into this lower category, but by
the end of the common assessment none of the students were graded at limited or no mastery.
Students at partial mastery completed the activity with varying levels of assistance, while those
at grade level mastery were able to complete the activity independently. Some students were
able to sort additional event cards once they finished with the original set of 14 cards, shown in
work samples.]
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Early Childhood
Formal Limited or Partial Mastery Grade Level

No Mastery Mastery
0 8 12
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.1.9 Identify
basic similarities and differences between
two texts on the same topic (e.g. in
illustrations, descriptions, or procedures).
0 6 14
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.1.1 Ask and
answer questions about key details in a
text.
0 9 11
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.1.2 Identify the
main topic and retell details of the text.
c. Use the class/group summary you provided in prompt 1b to analyze the patterns of
language and literacy learning for the class/group.
[Throughout the learning experience, the students were able to build on their knowledge from
the previous learning experiences. A majority of students were able to retain the vocabulary that
was used from the first two experiences which benefited them when they needed to bring it all
together during this last experience. At the beginning of each learning experience, I reviewed
with the students the vocabulary and concepts that we had learned the day before. Each time,
they were able to recall quite a bit of the vocabulary from the previous day’s lesson. The
majority of the vocabulary was various forms of similar and different, along with compare,
contrast, sort. Most of the time, during the whole group activity, I reiterated the vocabulary by
asking the students what was similar or different between the event cards for the two
presidents. This was to reinforce the vocabulary and the concepts for when they had to work
independently. I noticed that the students tended to perform better when we were working as a
whole group on the carpet rather than when they were independently working at their seats.
During each learning experience there was my cooperating teacher, the aide, and myself. This
provided ample opportunities for the students to ask for and receive assistance when needed.
This common assessment was completed based on their individual activity, but the individual
activity was essentially repeating what we had completed as a whole group moments before.
Due to this, the students were able to get a good grasp on the concepts and events from the
texts since there was prior exposure during the each of the learning experiences. As with
anything, students learn best by doing or by having an example or model. Therefore, by having
those prior examples, the students were able to work through sorting the events with assistance
and by having those discussions as a whole group. By the time this learning experience took
place, there had been two formal small groups and multiple informal one-on-one instructions
and support given to a majority of the students. I believe these times showcased the importance
of adapting instruction and differentiating to meet the needs of all the students. Based on these
outcomes, the students were able to meet the language and literacy objectives by the end of
this learning segment. This is visible through the numbers shown in the table above, as
anywhere between 55-70 percent of the students were able to show grade level mastery on
each of the standards.]
Early Childhood
d. Analyze the patterns of learning for the 2 focus children. Reference the 3 sources of
evidence you collected for each of the 2 focus children.
Consider children’s strengths (what children understand and do well), and areas of
learning that need attention (e.g., common errors, confusions, need for greater
challenge).
[My two focus children showcased their knowledge and learning throughout this learning
segment. Both children were actively engaged throughout the learning segment and were
performing equal to or higher than their classmates. Focus child A receives reading intervention
five times per week and has been making strides in her reading fluency. From the beginning of
the learning segment, she showed interest in the learning experiences and wanted to continue
learning about the presidents beyond what we had learned as a group. She needed minimal
assistance from me to complete the activities and showed great understanding of the concepts.
Often, she needs assistance recognizing and sounding out written words. Once assisted, she is
able to recognize the words for the rest of the activity. Academically, she is near the higher end
of average compared to her classmates. Her lowest academic area is reading, as she has been
receiving reading intervention. She shows confidence and independence throughout the day;
and works well with her peers. Her receptive vocabulary is high, so one of my goals for her was
to offer more open-ended questions about the details in the texts. This would encourage and
support her expressive vocabulary. As her expressive vocabulary is increased, this would
benefit her reading fluency and comprehension. The Small Group clip, from Instruction Task 2,
demonstrates her interest and competency with the task at hand. She is the student left of
center wearing a black and white long-sleeve shirt. Throughout the first minute of the video, she
is very enthusiastic to share what we had been learning about and was able to easily explain
what we had been working on. As you can see, she and the other girl (student 5) are partners
working together to retell and recall George Washington’s life from the text. At Small Group
2:12, Focus Child A mentions that they should spread all the card out to be able to see them
better. From here, they needed very little assistance working their way through the cards. Their
partnership was fairly equal as they worked on the task. Focus Child B is academically one of
the highest students in the class. He is reading way above his grade level and is successful all
around. For him, my goal was to give him greater challenges throughout this learning segment.
As you can see, around Small Group 2:30, he is working more independently rather than
working with his partner, a lower level student. Again, to foster expressive language, I gave
minimal assistance to him to encourage problem-solving independently. Following the
instruction shown in Small Group, the students were then instructed to retell the story without
the event cards, flipping over one at a time as they recalled an event. This was aimed to assess
all the students, especially Focus Child B by taking away the visual clues about the text. The
students took turns, one-by-one, retelling the next event from Washington’s life. Focus Child B
was able to recall all his events and was able to assist the other students who got stuck.
Referencing Whole Group, both focus children performed well academically. Due to being
academically higher than many of his peers, Focus Child B was able to assist his peers, when
asked, throughout the instruction (0:11). He continued to assist those at his table while working
independently. However, he had to be moved to a chair (Whole Group 1:45) to help him
refocus. Looking back on this, I believe it was a lack of focus due to it being too easy for him. In
the future, I would make more accommodations for these higher students, like maybe giving
them event cards to sort independently earlier than the rest of the students. As you can see in
Focus Child A’s Work Sample, she was able to correctly categorize all the event cards, except
one set. She was even able to sort all the extra cards, students were only given 14 to begin
with. Focus Child B was also able to categorize all his event cards, and was able to identify two
additional facts about the two presidents (Focus Child B Work Sample). In order to increase the
Early Childhood
challenge for this student, in the future I could provide more open/blank cards for him to recall
facts. This would assess his comprehension and recall skills without having so many visuals.
As seen in the Observation Notes for both focus children, they did a great job recalling facts
about both presidents and made sure to include some specific details, like dates and lengths in
years. Focus Child B had a very detailed drawing, especially for learning experience 1. To
expand on the task, I had him label the things in his drawing. For Focus Child A, she is always
eager to write and illustrate. Moving forward, I would like to focus on her spelling and sounding
out skills. Having the reading intervention and continuing to give her strategies for breaking
down words will help in both reading and writing. Overall, Focus Child A needs continued
support to increase her literacy skills which will then benefit other areas of her academics.
Focus Child B would benefit from continued adaptations to challenge him during every day class
lessons. As a higher-level student, I believe he gets caught having tasks be “too easy” for him.
In the end, both students did a wonderful job with the learning experiences and exceeded the
individual goals I had set for them at the beginning of my planning stages. After the learning
experiences I was able to collect notes and complete the rubric for each student. These
comments can be found in Observation Notes, Work Sample, and the videos from Instruction
Task 2.]
e. If video or audio evidence of learning or a video or audio work sample occurs in a group
context (e.g., discussion), provide the name of the clip and clearly describe how the
scorer can identify the focus children (e.g., position, physical description) whose work is
portrayed.
[Both focus children’s evidence of learning can be seen in Small Group instruction for learning
experience 1 and Whole Group instruction for learning experience 3. Focus Child A, sitting
below the white board, can be identified wearing the black long-sleeve shirt and blue pants
during the Whole Group instruction clip at 3:22. She can also be seen in the Small Group
instruction clip wearing the black and white striped shirt. She is the left-center of the frame.
Focus Child B can be identified in the center of the frame, wearing dark sweatpants and a blue
short-sleeve shirt during the Whole Group instruction clip (0:06-0:20). He can also be seen
during Small Group instruction on the far right of the frame wearing an orange long-sleeve shirt.]
2. Feedback to Guide Further Learning
Refer to specific evidence of submitted feedback to support your explanations.
a. Identify the format in which you submitted your evidence of feedback for the 2 focus
children. (Delete choices that do not apply.)
 Written directly on work samples or in separate documents that were provided to the
focus children
 In video clip(s) from Instruction Task 2 (provide a time-stamp reference) or in
separate video clips
If a video or audio clip of feedback occurs in a group context (e.g., discussion), clearly
describe how the scorer can identify the focus child (e.g., position, physical description)
who is being given feedback.
[The feedback was given to the focus children in multiple formats. Feedback can be seen in
Instruction Task 2 clips: Whole Group and Small Group, as well as written on their work
samples. Focus Child A can be identified in the Whole Group clip directly under the white board
(3:22), wearing a black, long-sleeve shirt and blue pants. Focus Child B can be identified in the
Whole Group clip centered in the frame, wearing dark sweatpants and a blue, short-sleeve shirt
(0:06-0:20, later moved to a chair out of view). During the Small Group instruction Focus Child A
Early Childhood
can be seen wearing a black and white striped shirt and Focus Child B is wearing an orange
long-sleeve shirt. Taking into consideration their age and how my cooperating teacher typically
grades their work, the students would not completely understand how they did by looking at the
rubrics I filled out. Therefore, I wrote informal notes on the bottom of their rubric and added
Post-It notes to their Venn Diagrams. These notes were then verbally discussed with the
students to talk about their progress. The physically rubric could be sent home to the children’s
families so that they can see how their children are doing and could see what needs to be
supported at home.]
b. Explain how the feedback provided to the 2 focus children addresses their individual and
developmental strengths and needs relative to language and literacy development.
[The feedback given to the two focus children allowed them to understand their strengths and
weaknesses in relations to this learning experience. Due to their age, I decided to give my
feedback with the students verbally once I finished their assessment. Doing it this way allowed
me to have a short, one-on-one, conversation with my students. This allowed me them to better
understand what they did well and what we will continue to work on for their future lessons. By
having a chance to talk with my students individually, I was also able to adapt my feedback in
the best way the child was able to comprehend. I was able to look back at the videos from both
the Whole Group and Small Group to better understand my students. Throughout the whole
group instruction, I did my best to give all students a turn and support them at their own
developmental levels. I could see Focus Child B getting fidgety as the whole group instruction
went on since he is one of the higher-level students in the class. As a result, he was moved to a
chair so that he would be able to refocus. During the small group instruction, I was better able to
meet the needs of both the students by allowing them to work at their own pace and jump in
when they needed assistance. Focus Child A was able to sort the additional event cards on her
Venn Diagram once she finished with the original fourteen. Only one set of event cards was
placed in the wrong category. We were then able to discuss the event and she was able to
verbally tell me that it should have gone in the “both” category of the diagram. Focus Child B
was also able sort the additional event cards, as well as write in two of his own facts about the
presidents. We were able to discuss the additional facts he added by referencing additional
president books in the classroom library. For both students, I emphasized as much feedback as
I could, in the moment, during the actual learning experiences. This helps them to learn during
the process and feel encouraged to continue to do well. Having feedback during the learning
helps students know what they are doing correctly or incorrectly while there is concreate
evidence in front of them. It can be difficult for young children to think abstractly about
something that happened in the past without visual evidence.]
c. Describe how you will support each focus child to understand and use this feedback to
further their learning related to learning objectives, either within the learning segment or
at a later time.
[Each student got a chance to sit down with me one-on-one to talk about their strengths and
weaknesses so they could reflect on the learning experience. I was able to model and reference
the two texts, as well as the large event cards that were used in the whole group instruction. By
having all the materials that were used throughout the learning experiences, I was able to
reiterate the learning experiences and talk about the connections of the two presidents. Their
learning was supported in the other two learning experiences as well as building on one
another. We were able to reference their work from the prior learning experiences and review
the facts they wrote for each president. Each story that is read during shared/whole group
reading throughout the year focuses on different components of retelling the book through
various activities. Therefore, the students will be able to use what they learned in this learning
segment at apply the concepts to future stories and texts. They will be able to use similar
Early Childhood
strategies for recalling details and link them back to the experiences from this segment. Being
able to discuss key details and recall information from texts is a vital skill for children to learn to
deepen their comprehension as they read. With this in mind, we will continue to talk about
comparing and link it back to prior learning experiences just like we did when we linked it back
to a prior book (Tacky). This will deepen their knowledge and understanding about the concept
while making them more aware of similarities and differences they see in their day-to-day lives.
The more exposure they have to these vocabulary words and hands-on experiences, the more
competent they will be with these skills. At this time, I will continue to use vocabulary from this
learning segment and the method of utilizing familiar objects/people when teaching future
concepts to the students.
3. Evidence of Vocabulary Understanding and Use
When responding to the prompt below, use concrete examples from the video clips and/or
children’s work samples as evidence. Evidence from the video clips may focus on one or
more children.
a. Explain how children were able to use the key vocabulary 1 to support their learning of the
content.
For prompt 3a, refer to the evidence of children’s vocabulary use from ONE,
TWO, OR ALL THREE of the following sources:
1. Video clips from Instruction Task 2 and time-stamp references for evidence of
vocabulary use
2. Additional video file named “Vocabulary Use” of no more than 5 minutes in
length and cited vocabulary use (this can be footage of one or more children).
See Assessment Task 3 specifications in the Early Childhood Evidence Chart
for acceptable file types. Submit the video clip in Assessment Task 3, Part C.
3. Children’s work samples analyzed in Assessment Task 3 and cited
vocabulary use
[The children used the key vocabulary to support their learning of identifying similarities and
differences through the books George Washington: America’s First President and Abraham
Lincoln: Log-Cabin President. The main vocabulary throughout this learning segment was
similarities, differences, compare, contrast, and retell. At the beginning of learning experience 3,
we discussed some of the key vocabulary and were able to make a connection to a previous
lesson (seen in Vocabulary Use). Additionally, students used supportive vocabulary including
beginning, middle, end, and main topic. The students used these words, mainly through
receptive vocabulary, in order to talk about the texts and complete the activities for the learning
segment. The main purpose of the learning segment was to get the students to identify
similarities and differences about two presidents: George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.
Throughout the learning experience, I made the concepts as relevant to the students’ daily lives
as much as possible. The beginning of the week kicked-off the conversation of why we had
President’s Day off of school and we continued to discuss the lives of the two presidents as the
week continued. When the students were able to describe what was happening in the text, retell
1 This vocabulary was identified in Planning Task 1 and refers to developmentally appropriate sounds, words, phrases,
sentences, and paragraphs that children use or create to engage in the learning experience.
Early Childhood
the story using the event cards, and sort the event cards into the proper categories on the Venn
Diagram, it demonstrated their comprehension of the concept. The progress of the two focus
children clearly showcases their abilities throughout the Whole Group, Small Group, Vocabulary
Use, and Focus Child A and B Work Sample. As you can see by the end of the common
assessment, the students were able to sort the event cards, into the categories on the Venn
Diagram. For the whole class, I strongly believe the students did really well during the learning
segment by increasing their receptive. The students were also encouraged to increase their
expressive vocabulary whenever possible, in line with their own developmental levels.]
4. Using Assessment to Inform Instruction
a. Based on your analysis of children’s learning presented in prompts 1b–c, describe next
steps for instruction to impact children’s learning:
 For the class/group
 For the 2 focus children and other individuals/groups with specific needs
Consider the active and multimodal nature of children’s learning and the variety of
learners in your class/group who may require different strategies/supports (e.g., children
with IEPs or 504 plans, English language learners, children at different points in the
developmental continuum, struggling readers, and/or gifted children needing greater
support or challenge).
[The next step for the whole class would be to enhance their learning of identifying similarities
and differences by more sets of books with the same topic. The books could become more
complex and diverse to cover more themes and topics. This could be done in multiple
disciplines to tie in more interdisciplinary concepts. Activities could be done that build off the
students’ prior knowledge and familiarity with various strategies for comparing. The students do
well when concepts are relevant to their lives. By using materials that include images of
themselves, ideas from other core subjects, and facts about their school, I believe the students’
competency could continue to flourish. Finding another way to utilize some of the strategies
presented in this learning segment would be beneficial for students at any level. Using more
event or fact cards directly from texts would reinforce retelling through the use of visual clues.
Comparing more topics using a Venn Diagram would increase the students’ familiarity and
comfort with this type of comparison strategy. The students could complete class surveys where
they have to compare and analyze data about their classmates, like what’s your favorite food or
sport. From here, they could use the information to learn more about the selected topic/answers
to use it as an introduction to conversations like healthy foods or activities. The students could
also rotate coming up with a weekly survey for their classmates based on their individual
interests. This would help some of my lower level students become more interested in the
activities if they were able to pick what we were going to research and discuss. My student with
an academic IEP loves everything about Pac-Man. One week the survey could be about the
students’ favorite games. For him, I believe an activity like this would gain his interest and he
would love to be able to share his knowledge about Pac-Man with the class. For my ESL
student, we could learn more about the Cantonese language and compare it to the English
language. This would help celebrate and connect a part of his culture to the culture of the class.
By doing this, we would be encouraging and supporting the diversity of my students and making
them more informed about some of their classmates. As a class, we could also do similar
activities around other major holiday’s or celebrations to learn the history behind why we
celebrate or how people around the world celebrate differently. The next holiday is St. Patrick’s
Day. As a class, we could read stories and texts about the history behind St. Patrick’s Day and
even compare its importance to President’s Day. By linking our learning segment to other major
holidays or topics of interest for the students, the students would be able to learn more about
Early Childhood
comparing and contrasting to see that not everything needs to be the same. We could also
dissect future stories/texts that we read during shared reading time. We could compare the
situations that the characters go through to stories we read in the past. This would be beneficial
for students so that they keep in mind the life lessons that are learned throughout the year since
we would be recalling the stories periodically. For my two focus children, I believe extensions on
the topic of comparing and contrasting would help them to become even more competent with
the concept. Focus Child B, and some of the higher-level students, could be given more
independent activities where they could take the topic from the class and work to create a report
or short presentation about the similarities and differences. I believe this would give them a
chance to branch out, while still taking part in the class activities. These students are able to use
their higher-level thinking skills and would enjoy being able to work at their own pace. For my
lower level students, we could work together to research information and discuss the findings
during guided reading or small group time. This would give me the chance to work closely with
them as I scaffold and support their individual needs. Extending lessons and utilizing preferred
topic and activities is one of the best ways to keep these students interested and truly engaged
in what they are learning.]
b. Explain how these next steps follow from your analysis of children’s learning. Support
your explanation with principles from research and/or developmental theory.
[I believe that finding ways to help students make personal connections to the books we are
reading, the topics we’re discussing, or anything else in their day is extremely beneficial to their
overall learning. It is said that students who have had exposure to being read to 1,000 times
before kindergarten are developmentally higher in regard to literacy and print awareness. With
this in mind, I know that not all students come from families that have those opportunities or
means in which to have that type of exposure. Therefore, by continuing to exposure them to
literacy through books and real-life experiences, I aim to set them up for better success in the
future. By creating future learning experiences centered on the interests of my students, I hope
to build off of their strengths and lessen their weaknesses. As children are developing and
learning throughout the year, each experience will build off that of the previous ones and their
abilities will continue to develop. Children change over time, as supported by cognitive
development theories. With this in mind, consistent and repeated exposure to concepts like
identifying similarities and differences will only strengthen a child’s competence. Vygotsky’s
zone of proximal development explains scaffolding and the abilities one can reach with
assistance and later independently. By knowing each and every one of my students beyond
their academics, I can meet them with supports at social/emotional levels as well. By doing this,
their developmental levels across all domains can be met and supported at various points.
Some may need prompting at each step of the way, while others may just need assistance
getting started. The levels of support may change from day to day, yet it is vital to meet those
changes for every student. Being able to differentiate for each student in my classroom will then
carry success in to all other aspects of their lives.

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Task 3: Assessment Commentary

TASK 3: ASSESSMENT COMMENTARY

1. Analyzing Children’s Learning

Formal Limited or Partial Mastery Grade Level

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