Teacher Performance Assessment (TPA)

Secondary EnglishLanguage Arts

Task 3: Assessing Student Learning

Part C: Assessment Commentary
Directions 1. Save a copy of this file on your personal computer and name it ELA_Assessment_Comm_template. 2. Type your response to each prompt into this file where indicated below. 3. Format your response in Arial 11 pt single spaced text with 1" page margins. 4. Limit your response to no more than 8 pages total including prompts. Scorers will not read beyond page 8. 5. If the directions and/or prompts for the assessment are not shown on the student work samples, insert them along with the evaluation criteria (2 pages maximum) at the end of the Assessment commentary. 6. Save your file in one of the following formats: .doc, .docx, .odt, .pdf 7. Submit your file electronically.

1. Analyzing Student Learning The assessment Ive chosen to represent the standards/ objectives and central focus of this unit is the writing style response. This is a major component in the overall formative assessment process. It helps determine students skill levels and abilities, as well as how well they are progressing in the overall unit. The writing style response focuses on language and literary techniques used in the students nonfiction books. Students must be able to demonstrate their knowledge of literary techniques and how literary language adds meaning to the overall purpose, theme, and style of the book. Students must be able to demonstrate, through the use of textual evidence, the types of diction the author uses, as well as the two most frequently used literary techniques. a. Evaluation Criteria: i. Overall student performance of this assignment was average or above average. The response was worth 25 points5 sections worth 5 points per section. Student sample I collected demonstrate above-average and average quality of work. The above-average student scored a total of ____points, the student with average performance scored a total of 18 points, and the final student sample scored a total of 18 points as well. This student is placed in the Fundamentals of Writing lab class and has been identified as a struggling reader and writer.

ii. Students have demonstrated a strong ability to identify the correct types of diction used in their books. Also, they appear to understand the types of literary techniques used. What appears to be the biggest struggle for students is being able to understand how these elements of writing style impact the overall meaning of the book and its characters. Generally, students do a fine job of
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Teacher Performance Assessment (TPA)

Secondary EnglishLanguage Arts
identifying types of diction and literary techniques in the book, but may not fully understand the relationship between writing style with purpose and theme. iii. I notice a common pattern among students in terms of struggling to identify the relationships between writing style to the overall purpose and theme of the book. Many times, I see explanations such as this: Because the author has such a passive voice the imagery she uses helps you understand the story better (Sample _____). Like this students, most students can identify imagery when they see it in the book, but then make a vague, meaningless statement about the way it impacts the meaning of the book. In this case, I responded with: Does imagery add life or color to her voice? What makes you see her voice as passive? Ultimately, I want students to go a step further and make a deeper connectionhow does the vivid imagery contrast with the passive nature of this character? What is the relationship? Was this intentional on behalf of the author? Why? These are the questions I really want students to consider. b. Focus Students: i. The two students I chose to represent the focus group both demonstrate average ability and have varying levels of reading and writing proficiency.

Student 1 struggled a great deal with this assignment, and needed a lot of assistance in its completion. Student 1 has been identified as a struggling reader and writer, and has been placed in the Fundamentals of Writing Lab as a result of his below-proficient score on the Iowa Assessment Tests. Student 1 tends to demonstrate a lack of focus and willingness to stay on task while in the classroom. Despite his tendency to not focus, he is quite skilled at recalling evidence from the text. While working one-on-one with this student, I was very impressed with his ability to relate evidence to the text to specific literary techniques. His major struggle in this area, however, is taking the time to understand the connection between the two. My job, as his facilitator, was to help him focus in on specific quotes, break them down, and analyze them to determine how they show a broader meaning. Walking him through this process seemed to help him make more sense of the bigger concept.

Student 2 is an average performer in the classroom, but tends to struggle with reading comprehension. Student 2 needed little help completing this assignment, but the evidence of her conclusions show her lack of ability to form the necessary connections needed to understand the larger concepts of the unit. In the work sample, Student 2 was able to correctly identify literary language devices used by the author. Nearly all examples accurately represented the type of diction or literary technique Student 2 chose to discuss in her response. However, this student was unable to correctly explain how the authors language use added meaning to the book, and did not fully connect the relationships between her two
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Teacher Performance Assessment (TPA)

Secondary EnglishLanguage Arts
literary techniques and the how they reflect the larger purpose and theme of the book. ii. After analyzing the work from these students, I can now determine that although they demonstrated the ability to identify evidence of literary techniques used in their books, they did demonstrate the next level of understanding and meaning-making in determining how these literary techniques help the reader understand the overall meaning of the story. Student 1 demonstrated proficiency in their ability to recognize the most common types of diction and literary techniques used. However, Student 1 struggled to further analyze the reasons why the author chose to include these elements of writing style. Much like Student 1, Student 2 struggled with the same issue by not explaining the deeper connection/meaning of these elements. Overall, I chose to include these samples of work in my analysis to represent the most common struggles in this class.

2. Feedback to Guide Further Learning

a. I submitted feedback by writing comments directly on each students Writing

Style Response assignment.

b. As shown on the samples of work provided by my focus students, I made comments directly on the assignment sheet. As an evaluator, I divided my assessment into five sections, analyzing the depth and accuracy of content provided in the explanation, and the accuracy and appropriateness of the textual evidence (quotes from the book). Both students needed a type of feedback that encouraged them to further analyze the overall meaning of the book. For example, on Student 1s response, I said, How does survival and (the use of) low diction relate? What types of imagery does he provide? Why does he (the author) choose to use imagery most often? Do you think his main goal is to make the reader apart of the journey? and How does this help you connect to him (the character)? These open-ended questions will help Student 1 arrive at a deeper level of understanding. c. The writing style response outline assignment is one of three outlines students will complete throughout the Nonfiction Literary Analysis unit. These outlines were created as formative assessment tools to help the teacher and students practice relating literary concepts to real textual evidence. Once completed, they help the teacher gauge the overall comprehension level of students, and help identify strengths and weaknesses of students. The feedback I provide on each outline is used for students to reflect upon and to correct in preparation of the final unit essay. Students promptly receive feedback so they can make necessary changes or get help from the teacher. Corrections and modifications are not accepted for an improved grade, but will help improve the content of their unit essays, which is the largest assignment of the unit. If a student turns in poor
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Teacher Performance Assessment (TPA)

Secondary EnglishLanguage Arts
quality work in their essay, they could be subject to failing the class unless they can demonstrate proficiency, as required by district standards. 3. Using Assessment to Inform Instruction a. Based on my assessment of the writing style response assignment, it will be good to focus on how to make connections to purpose and theme based on the use of literary language devices. The key concept interpreting meaning once the evidence is found. This is the crucial part to work on, because it ultimately helps achieve mastery in analyzing literature. The essential question to be asked at this point is, now that weve found textual evidence to support our literary theories, how can we use this evidence to interpret the larger meaning (purpose and theme) of the book?

b. For Students 1 and 2, I plan to discuss my feedback with them one-on-one.

Because of the special needs required for Student 1, and because of Students 2 struggle with reading comprehension, it will be necessary to engage them individually and facilitate questions that will lead them to identify more meaningful explanations and responses.

c. The steps I will implement as a follow-up to the writing style analysis aid in
supporting the overall goal for the unit, which is for students to be able to accurately identify and interpret nonfiction literature using literary language devices. Students must understand how to analyze literature through the use of meaning-making from literary language.

4. Evidence of Academic Language a. Students have adequately demonstrated the necessary academic language required for them to be proficient in this unit. Many students are on target when identifying elements of writing style, but need to be more specific. For example, the first section of the writing style response asks students to identify the type of diction used by the author. Student 1 identified a frequent use of low diction. I would have liked for this student to be more specific in identifying the diction as either informal or neutral, but they are still on target. In the explanation, Student 1 mentions that the authors diction is more conversational, leading the reader to believe this is more similar to neutral diction. However, later when describing how the language adds meaning to the book, Student 1 chose a quote that contained a lot of profanity. This example would more accurately represent his use of low or informal diction, and therefore helps me understand how Student 1 arrived at his conclusion. b. My scaffolding resulted in a significant growth among the general majority of students. This is the second outline students have completed. To compare to the initial book response, the ability to identify literary techniques and apply them
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Teacher Performance Assessment (TPA)

Secondary EnglishLanguage Arts
to textual evidence has increased a great deal. For example, in my assessment of the initial book response, I found that many students did not entirely adopt the use of literary techniques. Instead, many chose to evaluate characters, conflict, and initial purpose based on their opinions rather than with the use of literary language evidence. I attribute this pattern to the fact that these were new concepts and students had not yet had adequate practice in applying them to literature. Those who were already familiar with literary language devices performed well on the outlines and had ample practice to strengthen their knowledge, while those who struggled benefited from personal feedback and daily practice activities using varying examples of nonfiction literature.

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