What students are being tested on?

Before this lesson the students just concluded their unit on The Great Gatsby. This
unit focused on the symbolism and motifs in the text and how they affect the overall
morale of the work as a whole. Within this lesson we briefly spoke about how you
contextualize a piece of writing to appropriately define its theme that its exploring.
This brings us to this lesson. For the Per-Assessment students were tested on their
prior knowledge regarding plot diagraming and how to find theme in general within
a piece of writing. When students came into class we used the first 10 minutes
students did this pre-assessment. This assessment was graded using a key for the
first four questions the last question on the other hand has multiple right answers.
The last question will be graded upon whether or not they can appropriately answer
the question proficiently and fully. (The pre-assessment scores are labeled in yellow)
Pre-assessment scores:
Grad
e
11th

M/F

10th

11th

11th

11th

12th

11th

12th

11th

11th

11th

11th

11th

11th

11th

11th

Question
Student
1
Student
2
Student
3
Student
4
Student
5
Student
6
Student
7
Student
8
Student
9
Student
10
Student
11
Student
12
Student
13
Student
14
Student
15
Student

?-1

?3
#

?4
-

?5
#

Total

?2
-

?2
#

?3
#

?4
#

?5
#

Total

3/5

?1
#

2/5

5/5

2/5

5/5

2/5

4/5

1/5

5/5

1/5

5/5

3/5

5/5

0/5

2/5

4/5

5/5

1/5

5/5

1/5

5/5

3/5

5/5

2/5

5/5

1/5

4/5

5/5

5/5

1/5

4/5

5/5

th

11th

11th

11th

11th

11th

11th

11th

11th

12th

11th

11th

10

16
Student1
7
Student1
8
Student
19
Student
20
Student
21
Student
22
Student
23
Student
24
Student
25
Student
26
Student
27
Student
28

2/5

5/5

0/5

4/5

4/5

4/5

4/5

5/5

2/5

5/5

2/5

4/5

1/5

4/5

2/5

4/5

0/5

4/5

3/5

5/5

3/5

5/5

1/5

4/5

Pre Assessment

General Pre- Assesment

0.2

10%
3%

0.4

31%

10%

0.6
0.8
1
0

17%
28%

The first graph above is a general graph of the Pre-assessment as a whole. This
graph is interesting because it shows that majority of failed the test 41% of the
class answered one or less questions correctly and 69% of the class answering 2 or
less questions correctly. The light blue is for students who scored 20%, Orange
40%, Gray 60%, Yellow 80%, dark Blue 100%, green 0%.

Male: Fail and Pass

33%

Pass
Fail

67%

The graph above breaks down the pre-assessment by only looking at the males. It is
interesting to see that more than half of all male students failed. They are 15 male
students: 10 who failed, 5 that passed. In the graph blue represents students who
passed, orange for students who failed.

Girls: Pass and Fail

Pass

39%

Fail

61%

The graph above exclusively looks at the pre-assessment of females in the class.
There are 13 girls in the class: 8 failed, and 5 passed. It is interesting that girls were
almost 50/50, pass/fail. In the graph blue represents students who passed, orange
for students who failed.
After the assessment:
Once students started to hand in the assessment I right away flipped through the
assessments and started to pinpoint the questions that seemed to be challenging
for the students. Question 3 and 4 were two of the questions right away I started to
see some confusion. Question 3 asks about the climax of the story where question
four asks about the resolution. Because of this realization I knew that once we start
to examine how a plot is formatted I would have to break it down and explain it in
depth. After a quick look at the given answers we further explore how to look at
themes. We did this by first teaching plot analysis and plot diagraming. During this
part we slowly and in depth went through the lesson. During this part of the lesson I
constantly checked for understanding in three different ways, I asked constantly if
students needed me to clarify anything, I walked around during the class work
portion and physically looked at their work, and lastly I used the formative
assessment strategy of cold calling to double check everyone was on the same
page. This helped students have a solid foundation to build from. Students learned
and mastered visual literary skills to analyze, interpret, and explain how individual
elements establish the overall meaning of a work of art both literary and artwork.
We used the text Death and the Miser, by Hieronymous Bosch and the cover
artwork that pairs with the work. Students at the end of the lesson completed
another assessment that mirrored the first. The assessments were graded and are
shown below.
Post assessment:

After the lesson was completed students completed another assessment that
mirrored the first one they completed at the beginning of class. The lesson they just
completed focused on plot analysis and contextualizing texts to conclude themes.
During the lesson we covered each question on the assessment, but I did not allude
to the assessment at any time during the lecture. When students concluded the
lesson they were handed another assessment without having the expectation of
taking another one. I did this because I wanted to test their knowledge without
them feeling like their knowledge was a means to an end. I felt that if students knew
they were going to be tested again at the conclusion of the lesson then students
would just regurgitate the information. (The post-assessment scores are labeled in
green)
Post-assessment scores:
Grad
e
11th

M/F

10th

11th

11th

11th

12th

11th

12th

11th

11th

11th

11th

11th

11th

11th

11th

Question
Student
1
Student
2
Student
3
Student
4
Student
5
Student
6
Student
7
Student
8
Student
9
Student
10
Student
11
Student
12
Student
13
Student
14
Student
15
Student
16

?-1

?3
#

?4
-

?5
#

Total

?2
-

?2
#

?3
#

?4
#

?5
#

Total

3/5

?1
#

2/5

5/5

2/5

5/5

2/5

4/5

1/5

5/5

1/5

5/5

3/5

5/5

0/5

2/5

4/5

5/5

1/5

5/5

1/5

5/5

3/5

5/5

2/5

5/5

1/5

4/5

5/5

5/5

1/5

4/5

5/5

10th

11th

11th

11th

11th

11th

11th

11th

11th

12th

11th

11th

Student1
7
Student1
8
Student
19
Student
20
Student
21
Student
22
Student
23
Student
24
Student
25
Student
26
Student
27
Student
28

2/5

5/5

0/5

4/5

4/5

4/5

4/5

5/5

2/5

5/5

2/5

4/5

1/5

4/5

2/5

4/5

0/5

4/5

3/5

5/5

3/5

5/5

1/5

4/5

Exploration:

Post Assessment whole class

4%

0.2
0.4

36%

0.6
0.8

61%

The first graph above is a general graph of the Post-assessment as a whole. The
Dark blue symbolizes students who scored 80%, green 100%, Gray 40%, Yellow
60%, light Blue 0%.

Males: Pass and Fail

Pass
Fail

100%

The graph above breaks down the post-assessment by only looking at the males.
They are 15 male students and all of the men passed in the post-assessment. In
the graph blue represents students who passed, orange for students who failed.

Femles: Pass and Fail

8%
Pass
Fail

92%

The graph above exclusively looks at the post-assessment of females in the class.
There are 13 girls in the class: 1 failed, and 12 passed. In the graph blue represents
students who passed, orange for students who failed.

1. What concepts did students have a high degree of success? Medium? Low? (3)
a. Students really understood how to find a theme in a text. In the firth question students
have a good grasp on how to explain how to and what to look for in a text in order to have
a credible idea of what a text is saying.

b. 97% of the students received a 80% or higher on the post-assessment. So there wasnt
exactly a particular place were students were noticeably struggling on the postassessment.

c. The two questions that still stumped students even after the lesson was the two questions
specifically about different elements of plot. Either questions 3 and 4 stumped 14
students in the post assessment.
2. Were there any questions that were not constructed very well or that you might change? (3)

a. Questions 3 and 4 both gave students a hard time both in the pre and
the post assessment. I think the wording of the questions might have
been the reason why the two questions were so struggling for
students. I think if I were to do it again I would change these two
questions completely or make the question multiple choice in order to
help the students restrain from straying away from what I am asking.

3. Overall, did the results demonstrate effective teaching on your part for both your overall class and
the sub-groups? (3)
a. This was my first time I using pre and post assessments in one lesson to demonstrate
students learning in a 90 min class period. I think this lesson definitely shows effective

teaching and overall student proficiency regarding plot analysis and theme. I think the sub
groups were a great way to look at data in different ways, but the sub-groups in my lesson
didnt help me become more effective because I thought other factors that arent as easily
counted were playing a role.
4. What would you change in your lesson to increase achievement results? (3)

a. I might of added some interactive components regarding pot

diagraming so that students can see the content in a different light. I
think I needed to do something of that sort because the plot questions
were narrow ended and dealt with memorization of terms and
understanding.

Pre and Post Assessment:

Name_______________________
Date_______________
Period_______

Plot Diagramming and Theme Analysis

1) What is the plot in a story?

2) What happens in the plots resolution?

3) What is the event that occurs at the beginning of the story?

4) What is going on in the story when conflict must be faced?

5) How does plot and theme work together in a piece of writing?