Alicia Hanson

EDSC 591

Analysis of Student Work

Instructional Context
The student whose work I chose to analyze is the same student I used for my case
study. Her name is Jenny, she is 17 years old (12th grade) and immigrated to the United
States from South Korea 2 years ago. She is one of my ESL students and in the
classroom she is rather shy, reserved, and soft-spoken. During whole class
discussions/questions she rarely participates, however in small groups she cooperates and
contributes well. She frequently asks me questions in a one-on-one setting. Her shyness
causes her to dislike asking questions of me in a whole class setting. She gets along well
with her classmates and usually appears cheerful. When having to read through the
textbook or questions on an assignment, Jenny usually has some comprehension
difficulties and frequently raises her hand to ask me to help clarify meanings for her. She
has difficulty understanding more abstract Social Science/Economic terms. Once I
explain things in a more easily understandable or relatable way, she is able to work out
the answers on her own. When it comes to writing, she also has trouble incorporating
more complex Economic vocabulary into her sentences. She usually has an electronic
translator/dictionary on her desk to use during lessons and assignments for additional
language support.
Instructional Activity
The overall unit that this lesson belongs to is Economics content standard 12.2:
students analyze the elements of America's market economy in a global setting. The

learning goals for this unit deal with students being able to identify and analyze the
factors and costs of production, and also understanding that firms want to reach the ideal
level of output to maximize their profits because a firms desire for maximum profit is a
monetary incentive that motivates their decisions in how much of a good or service to
supply.
This lesson was on the Law of Diminishing Returns and the main activity in the
lesson is a simulation to help the students better grasp the concept of diminishing returns.
The students were put into their pre-arranged groups of 4 with their desks arranged into
quads so that each group had 2 students on either side facing each other. I projected a
PowerPoint slide containing a chart the students needed to copy and fill out during the
activity and the follow-up questions they needed to answer after the activity. Each group
received a large stack of A4 sized scrap paper and a pile of ribbons.
For the activity, each group of students simulated being factory workers for a
company that produces diplomas. There were 4 rounds: during round 1, students had to
work individually to make as many diplomas as they could in 1 minute by rolling the
scrap paper lengthwise and tying it with a ribbon so it stayed in place. They had to be
careful to create good quality diplomas (not crushed, loose, or uneven) because only
those would be counted. During round 2, students had to work with a partner within their
group and had to divide the labor between themselves (i.e. one student rolled the
diplomas, the other student tied them) and had to make as many diplomas as they could
in 1 minute. During round 3, the groups chose 1 student to sit out and the remaining 3
students had to divide the labor to create as many diplomas as they could in 1 minute.
During round 4, more stringent regulations were placed on the factory workers to

promote safety. All 4 group members were responsible for a single part of the labor: the
first group member was in charge of only handing the paper to the second group member,
who was in charge of only rolling the paper and handing it to the third group member,
who was in charge of only tying the ribbon around it and handing it to the fourth group
member, who was only in charge of quality control by making it look as perfect as
possible. Once each round was over, I checked the quality of each student's diplomas and
approved their total produced. The students recorded their totals on their charts and also
filled in their marginal return (i.e. how many more or less diplomas they created than the
last round), total number of workers, and what stage of production they're in (based on
their numbers for marginal returns). After the simulation activity was completed, I told
the students that they could work individually, in pairs, or in their groups of 4 to complete
the follow-up questions and graph.
The evidence of this assessment documented student achievement of the overall
units learning goals through the simulation portion because students realized (through
practical application) how the number of workers directly affected production output and,
as a result, affected profits. Students had the tactile experience of seeing how adding
more group members to the production of diplomas began to slow their output and
drive down their profits. The data they collected reflected these concepts. The students
responses to the follow-up questions provided evidence of how they combined
analyzation of their simulation data with critical thinking in order to correlate which
amount of workers would provide a company with the ideal level of maximum output and
thus, maximum profits. The follow-up questions also provided evidence that the students
were able to identify at which number of inputs (workers) began to produce diminishing

returns. The creation of a chart made up of the simulation data provided visual evidence
of the relationship between workers and output.
Student Work
Having Jenny participate in a tactile kinesthetic activity was one of the
adaptations I chose for this lesson. By engaging in this activity, Jenny was able to gain
comprehension of the content by doing, and was able to practice good speaking and
listening skills in the process. During the follow-up questions portion of the activity I
provided her with sentence frames and a pre-writing template/graphic organizer as an
adaptation to help her improve her academic writing. Another accommodation I
employed was giving Jenny a little more time to complete the writing portion of the
assignment, so I allowed her to take it home to complete as homework, if she needed to.
Since Jenny is rather shy and reluctant to participate in whole class activities, the
adaptation of utilizing small groups within the activity provided her with a situation
where she could feel more comfortable to engage and participate. Using small groups was
also beneficial for Jenny because it is a less intimidating setting for her to practice her
speaking and listening skills. Another beneficial adaptation that I provided for Jenny in
this lesson was my pre-arrangement of student groups. The purpose of this was to
provide her with a heterogeneous group to work with. She was placed in a group with
some more advanced students and native English speakers to help model more natural
and fluid speech and to help support her in any comprehension difficulties she may have
had during the activity and follow-up questions.
Analysis of Student Work

Jenny received an A on the assessment, her responses to the follow-up questions

indicated to me that she understood the concepts of diminishing returns and how labor
can affect output. Her academic language was simple and had grammatical errors, but
she was still able to get her meaning through and display her comprehension. I also used
my discussions with her as I checked her progress periodically to gauge my assessment of
her comprehension. Whenever she asks me any questions when she needs clarification,
she usually explains to me what she already understands in order to help me better
answer her specific questions. Her explanations give me good insight into her
metacognition and what she is learning, so through both her written responses and her
verbal explanations on this assessment I was able to surmise that she has met the goals of
the lesson and is progressing well toward the learning goals of the entire unit.
As previously stated, one of the adaptations I made for Jenny was to place her in a
small group setting with more advanced/native English speakers during the simulation so
she would be more comfortable participating in discussions since she is very shy and
reluctant to participate in whole class settings. This adaptation was successful because
she did speak with her 3 group mates a good deal and was not passive during discussions
on what was happening during each round. I believe this active discussion with her peers
helped her understand the content more thoroughly. Again, another adaptation I made for
Jenny was providing her with sentence frames, pre-writing templates/graphic organizers,
along with a graphic organizer for her vocabulary terms.

This adaptation to the

assessment didnt work out so well mainly because she chose not to utilize any of them
when completing her work. She generally only likes to use those adaptations/resources
during times when we write formal essays and not on more, I suppose, informal writing

assignments.

I also provided her the adaptation of having more time to finish the

assessment as a homework assignment, but again she chose not to utilize that adaptation.
Reflection
The main theme among the learning goals for this unit are for the students to
understand the various factors that can affect supply and demand and the important role
profit and incentives play in our market economy and I believe Jenny and the rest of the
students demonstrated a good understanding of these goals after participating in this
assessment. Through their responses, many of them showed that they comprehended the
relationships between labor, output levels, and a companys drive for maximum profit. I
learned that the simulation was of great benefit in helping the students really understand
what was being taught, I experienced the look of ah-ha on many faces when they were
connecting the dots between output and labor.
If I were to implement this assessment again, I would present the instructions to
the simulation and assessment in a different way. I did not have the instructions written
down anywhere for the students to see, and as a result I had to field many questions
asking for clarification, which took a lot of instruction time away that could have been
used more effectively. The instructions for the simulation are a bit complicated and long,
so I would try to simplify them and definitely have them written either on the board or in
a PowerPoint slide so the students would be able to view them as I explain them to
provide them with an easier way to understanding what theyre doing. I might also
change one of the follow-up questions because many students raised their hands and
verbally asked me to explain or clarify it for them. Specifically, it was question #5 about
how much each student would be able to pay their workers and still make a profit. I now

think that question was a bit too vague and I should change the wording or come up with
another question entirely due to the fact that many students didnt understand it and their
responses reflected their lack of understanding. I also think I would change how many
questions there are, I think I could definitely add some more to make the assessment
better and more accurate.
Other than that, I would conduct the assessment and simulation the same way. I
would keep the simulation and data gathering portion because I believe that is the most
valuable part of the assessment. It puts the content being taught into practical application
and allows the students to much more clearly understand the more abstract concepts of
diminishing returns and output of production than they would have through lecture, notetaking, or book reading alone. I would also keep the element of the follow-up questions
because that was the part of the assessment that let the students analyze their data and put
forth critical thinking, so it was a much more accurate assessment for me of their mastery
of the content than a simple bubble test format wouldve been. The simulation and
critical thinking questions also align well with the new Common Core standards, and the
students really enjoyed the simulation. Jenny and the majority of the rest of the students
met the learning goals and demonstrated comprehension of the topic through those
means, so I believe them to be effective.
What I learned from this assessment experience is that visual comprehensible
input is key for all students, not just ELs or Special Needs students, and that modeling
also is a very important tool to help students understand content during instruction and
assessment. I learned that modeling a simulation activity is important, though it is very
difficult to attempt to model all roles involved. This will help me in planning instruction

and assessment of this type in the future because I will need to be more creative in ways
to make the instructions much more simple and put more effort and thought into showing
the students how to engage with and learn the material instead of just focusing on what
the content is.