InTasc #1
The teacher understands how learners grow and develop, recognizing that patterns of learning and development vary individually within and across the cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional, and physical areas, and designs and implements developmentally appropriate and challenging learning experiences
Pre- and Post-Assessment Analysis
This pre- and post-assessment analysis is from a unit on triangles in a 9th and 10th grade geometry class. A pre- and post- assessment is designed to measure growth on the same content before and after a lesson or unit. Students took a pre-assessment at the beginning of class followed by a post-assessment after completing a lesson on the learning targets assessed in both. The pre- and post-assessments contained the same questions listed in a different order. There is an in-depth analysis of larger trends across one class period as well as of three student samples; one low, medium, and high scoring.
This artifact demonstrates an understanding of how learners grow and develop because it shows growth over the course of a lesson designed to teach specific learning targets. It also shows how learning and development vary individually through an analysis of three students’ work: one low, medium, and high scoring. All students showed growth to varying degrees, as described in more depth in the analysis. It analyzes how students grew their understanding of the learning targets. It also was used to determine where students needed to continue to grow in later review sessions before a summative assessment.
This artifact was a very illuminating experience. It was my first time implementing a pre- and post-assessment. I was surprised by how much I could discern from a short, multiple-choice assessment. By intentionally designing distractors to catch specific mistakes, I was able to determine which learning targets students had the most difficulty with and what specifically was causing those mistakes. This gave me a very clear idea of what areas students had shown growth in and what required additional instruction. My cooperating teacher and I could then use this data to make effective instructional decisions.
Project-Based Assessment
This project-based assessment was designed for a unit on simplifying radical expressions in an Algebra I classroom. In groups of 2-3, students create an educational video teaching others how to solve problems with radical expressions and explaining their steps as they go. Groups are given a set of problems to solve and record their solutions with accompanying explanations using Screencastify.
This artifact demonstrates an recognition of how students’ learning and development vary individually within and across the cognitive, linguistic, social, and emotional areas by incorporating meaningful group work into a review activity. Students’ cognitive development is assessed through the accuracy and reasoning of their solutions in a varied way from the typical modes of assessment. Variance in linguistic development is accounted for in the varied ways students can express their ideas in the video, choosing to talk, use text-to-speech, or translators. Social and emotional development are incorporated as well through their contributions and interactions with groupmates.
Students learn best when they can learn from each other and communicate their thoughts effectively. This activity gives them the opportunity to do that and be creators and sharers of knowledge rather than just receivers. Group work is also key to their social and emotional growth and development. As educators, our responsibilities extend outside of teaching content to teaching behavior and social skills organically through activities like this one.
Differentiated Review Day - Polygons
This was a differentiated review day before the unit test on polygons in Math 6. Student work up until that point was assessed for all students across three sections of Math 6. Each student was assigned to two stations to target specific skills and knowledge based on that analysis. The first station was on area of parallelograms, the second on area of triangles, and the third on perimeter of parallelograms and triangles. There was also a brief whole class review on congruency statements.
This lesson provides evidence of implementing developmentally appropriate and challenging learning experiences. By differentiating the review activity and assigning stations based on strengths and needs, each student has been given a developmentally appropriate and challenging experience catered to their varied levels of learning and development. Some students start with foundational instruction on area and use paper cutting to visualize how the area of a parallelogram relates to the area of a rectangle while other students are showed new strategies such as tracing the outline of a shape to determine which lengths make up the perimeter.
This review activity was very important to me because I was looking for a way to address the wide range of strengths and needs that I was seeing in assessed student work and felt I had found a good solution. I realized I knew what each student needs so I thought I could assign them specific instruction and practice to prepare them individually. Then I could group them with those instructional groups and focus on two main skills that each student needed to work on. It was my first time attempting a review session like this, and the stations turned out to be a success.