Linda Tavares EDTC 615 MTTS Performance Data Activity Analysis MTTS Project Questions: Question #1: Describe

two patterns that you see when you look at the student averages for your Goal/Objective. (200 words) In the data collected for the writing project I assigned my third graders, there is a strong correlation between the scores earned on the pre-writing portion of the project and those earned on the rough draft. Upon further examination, I can see a correlation between the data collected for the editing assessment and the final point valued earned by the students.

When I examined the data collected for each assessment, I see a pattern with the number of points students earned for the Pre-Writing portion of the personal narrative project. Overall, the majority of the students seemed to have great difficulty with this first part of the assignment. In pre-writing, my students were asked to express an appropriate topic for writing a personal narrative. They needed to include the five-Ws which involved answering the questions: who was involved in a personal event that you experienced, when did the event happen, where was the event, what actually happened, and why did you choose to write about this experiencewas it funny, scary or adventurous? When I examine the data collected for pre-writing I notice eleven students did not score the full ten-points available. When I compare the points earned for those eleven students with the points they earned on the next step in the project, writing a rough draft, I can see that the poor grade on the prewriting seems to negatively affect the grade they earned on their rough drafts. Each of these eleven students who did poorly on the prewriting also did poorly on the rough draft. Consequently, those eleven students did not score as well on the final grade (in the publication stage) as those students who did well on their prewriting.

The points earned by the students on the editing portion of their writing pieces seemed to influence the points earned on the final point they earned for the final copy portion of their personal narratives. Of those students who earned the full ten points for their editing work, seven of those students scored higher on the final piece than those students who did not earn the full points available. Question #2: Explain what led you to these conclusions. (200 words) There seems to be a strong connection between the points scored on many students prewriting and points scored on their rough drafts. This makes sense to me because their rough draft is written using the

information they included on their pre-writing graphic organizer. If they were confused about what to include on their prewriting or is they didnt follow directions correctly, the information on the prewriting would not be useful when it came time to writing their rough drafts. This demonstrates how important the prewriting component is in the writing process. It also demonstrates that since this is the first time my third grade students have ever written using these conventional writing steps, it is most important to spend more time laying the ground work necessary for the students to have a complete understanding of what they are being asked to do on their prewriting. In the editing stage, students earned points for making the necessary corrections on their rough drafts. Students who took the time thoroughly check over their work and make changes while proofreading effectively earned more points for their editing. Since they did take the time to make these kinds of corrections (including grammatical, punctuation, and spelling), they earned more points on their final copy of the personal narratives. This proves to me editing is a crucial component in the writing process. Question #3: How does the graphic representation that you chose help you to interpret the data? (200 words) Graphic representations of data are helpful when analyzing information. Having this kind of visual representation offers the ability to instructors to quickly gauge student performances and compare their progress with others. Graphics such as pie charts and bar graphs, among others, serve to highlight student weaknesses and strengths by displaying information in a visual way. Analyzing the data using a graphic allows the teacher to detect trends and make predictions of student achievement in an quick manner (Wayman). Careful analysis of the graphic may allow the teacher to design instruction and interventions which will better meet the needs of the student. Instructors can then use the data to inform important decisions (Wayman). Inputting data into graphic form allows for decisions based on the data and using a graphic representation assists with visualizing objectives and structuring future lessons. Graphics such as bar graphs allows the instructor to take an idea that may not be visible and turns it into a visible construct that can be shared, analyzed and used for further instruction and can be easily shared with instructors who collaborate on lessons. Graphics can reflect the progress of the whole group and the progress of each individual student. Question #4: Identify and explain specific strategies you would implement to improve student performance based on that pattern. Be sure to consider strategies for the whole class, small groups of students, and individual students. (200 words) There are specific strategies I have derived from analyzing the data that I plan to implement in my classroom which should improve student performance when they are using the processes for writing: prewriting, rough draft, editing, cups, and publishing (final copy).

For this project on writing a personal narrative story, I focused on five behavioral objectives that were assessed throughout the project. First, the prewriting incorporated the idea that was expressed as an appropriate topic for writing a personal narrative and the five-Ws (who, what, when, where, and why). Ten points were available for the pre-writing. I created a power point presentation that demonstrated prewriting techniques along with the important guidelines for writing a personal narrative. I was careful to include examples of each guideline, for instance, how to write an interesting beginning sentence that would encourage the audience to read the story. Based on the data I will extend this part of my lesson to include a Smart Board activity. Some of my students did not stick to the topic and wrote off topic ideas. In the future, using the Smart Board, I will ask students to interact with the lesson and categorize samples of pre-writing ideas into ones that answer the who, what, when , where and why questions and ideas that are not acceptable. This way, my students will have a better sense of what to include in their pre-writing and what ideas are off topic. This activity should promote better understanding and as a result the students should be able to earn more points on this portion of the project and be able to lay a firmer foundation for their writing. The next step in the writing process was for the student to write a rough draft. During the rough draft phase, students wrote a story using information from their prewriting and without concern for grammatical, capitalization or spelling errors. They focused on getting their thoughts written on paper and in time order fashion. The rough draft included time order words (first, next, then and last) and an explanation of the personal event. During the editing portion students were asked to make appropriate changes to the rough draft including any missing elements such as checking and correcting spelling errors, checking their sentence structures. During editing I asked the students to peer review their writing with a partner. My data showed many students did not earn the full points for editing. In the future I will adjust my lesson in the following way to promote better understanding. I will project a sample of student writing (not any of my classroom students) and I will ask volunteers to demonstrate how to make the appropriate corrections. They will use the Smart Board writing pen application to cross out errors, reword sentences, correct spelling and grammatical errors. Taking this extra step during the editing phase will help to scaffold this lesson and offer students a better opportunity practice before being asked to demonstrate editing with their own stories. When analyzing the data, I will choose those students who earned the least amount of points and pull them to work with me in a small group setting and provide oneon-one instruction to those showing the most need. I assessed the students writing using CUPS which is an acronym for using proper capitalization, sentence usage, punctuation and spelling. The final copy product was the fifth assessment and asked for students to use neat hand writing, incorporate all the changes made throughout the writing

process, and neatly glue this final version to a sheet of construction paper which I will turn into a classroom book of personal narratives.

Question #5: What additional data would be helpful to you and why? (200 words) Additional data which would be helpful to me would be the data collected for reading and math content areas. I will be using this data collection and graphic technique for those areas to enhance my instruction and to collaborate with other third grade teachers and with our Instructional Learning Team. Each quarter I administer The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) tests and running record assessments to my third grade students to gauge their reading and comprehension levels. I will now be using the data I collect from the students to create a chart and a bar graph that will display students Oral Reading Fluency. The students scores are used to determine those who are at risk, some risk or low risk for reading abilities. The student who is at risk will require reading interventions. Using a graph to visualize my students abilities will be helpful because I can monitor progress, compare their scores and provide interventions based on the data. I will also create a chart and graph to show my students reading progress using running records. As their reading level improves, a bar graph would be a wonderful way to visualize student achievement and having this kind of record will be useful during parent teacher conferences. A graph will help display a trend student achievement. Having this kind of data representing math assessment scores would be very useful for modifying instruction and developing mathematic small groups. Much of math learning is dependent on the students comprehension of basic facts. If I create a bar graph based on small quiz-type assessments that lead up to a larger concept (test), I will be able to analyze the data from the quizzes in a visual way and change my instruction according to what concepts need to be re-iterated. For instance, when I give a quiz to my students, it always includes concepts that we are learning (repeated addition), that will lead up to a new concept (multiplication). If I use a graph to show who is struggling with repeated addition, I can form a small group which will work with me to practice this concept before they are given a test on multiplication. Having these kinds of measurable data to compare would help chart student learning growth and could show some real gaps in student learning. A graph helps to instantaneously identify the students who are struggling with concepts so intervention can be administered immediately.