SGO-DEVELOPMENT: Writing a Compare & Contrast Essay & Creating a Venn Diagram

Impact on Student Learning Study

Based upon a content or skill area, I assessed student learning related to implementation of individual instruction.
My grade level PLC determined our student growth objectives for reading and writing on an ELA assessment given at the
beginning of the year. For confidentiality purposes the student I identified in this impact project will be referred to as AR.
Part 1: Pre-assessment
The pre-assessment document was found and approved by our school ELA supervisor. In accordance with the
district requirements the passages that were used for analyzing reading and writing were the Coyote and the Crow
passages, and an open-ended writing response that followed the reading. The areas that were evaluated: comprehension
in reading, reasoning, organization, utilizing textual evidence in writing, and command of writing conventions; within areas
as indicated on the rubric below. ARs scores were as follows: Reading Comprehension: 0/4 in all areas and Writing
conventions: 0/3.
His abilities were determined by this ranking/scoring, which comes from a rubric for grades 4 & 5 in reading
comprehension and writing conventions that was modeled and adapted from the 2015 PARCC scoring rubric. The
response was double scored by the grade level PLC and then a final scoring was agreed upon by the PLC as a whole.

AR also has an IEP and certain modifications that we accommodate throughout the day. He is in the classroom
for reading and writing but leaves for pulled-out resource room math replacement. Up until this year he also had writing
replacement. Moving forward with this study I wanted to see how he might improve by being around his peers in writing
and how that might impact his ability to complete the following assignments.
Part 2: Rationale
Overall AR did not show signs of understanding concerning the concept of comparing and contrasting the two
literary works. Along with that clear lack of understanding conceptually, he did not show any knowledge of punctuation
usage or sentence structure. My analysis of his work comes from his writing response below. After analyzing ARs work, I
decided to focus on the concept of comparing and contrasting in one-on-one instruction.

The SGO my fifth grade team decided on was to improve rubric scores. Our objective is for 80% of students to
move up at least one rubric number over a period of 4 months. This would display that they have been able to enhance
their comprehension in reading, reasoning, organization, utilizing textual evidence in writing, and command of writing
conventions.
These different content areas fall in line with the following New Jersey Core Curriculum Standards: RL.5.1. Quote
accurately from a text, and make relevant connections when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing
inferences from the text, RL.5.2. Determine the key details in a story, drama or poem to identify the theme and to
summarize the text, RL.5.3. Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama,
drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact), RI.5.1. Quote accurately from a text and make
relevant connections when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text, RI.5.2.
Determine two or more main ideas of a text and explain how they are supported by key details; summarize the text, W.5.1.
Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information. A.Introduce a topic or text
clearly, state an opinion, and create an organizational structure in which ideas are logically grouped to support the writers
purpose. B. Provide logically ordered reasons that are supported by facts and details from text(s), quote directly from text
when appropriate. C. Link opinion and reasons using words, phrases, and clauses (e.g., consequently, specifically). D.
Provide a conclusion related to the opinion presented., and W.5.4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the
development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
My instruction one-on-one with AR was focused particularly on NJ Core Curriculum Standard RL.5.3. Compare
and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g.,
how characters interact), and Standard W.5.4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and

organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. AR initially showed no comprehension of the stories in his
response. He showed no understanding of how his opinion should be changed. He provided no text evidence or support.
The following individualized lessons targeted on these areas in conjunction with the NJ Core Curriculum Standards.

Part 3: Instructional Activities

The following are 3 complete lesson plans that were administers during one-on one instruction with AR. The basis for
these lessons came from the information identified in the pre-assessment. Lessons one was administered once fully and
then reviewed with the student on two separate occasions before the beginning of lesson two. This was done to assure
command of the concepts before moving on to more challenging work. The same structure was followed with lesson two.
After the initial lesson there were two follow-up occasions to affirm retention in the student by using varying topics each
time it was reviewed. Lesson three was conducted one-on-one with the student. Shortly following the lesson, within the
week, my whole class unit of comparing and contrasting began. As a result, AR also had one whole-class lesson to reaffirm everything we worked on so far in our one-on-one sessions together, before taking the post assessment.

MINI LESSONS
1) Individual (& 2 follow-up)
2) Individual (& 2 follow-up)
3) Individual (& 1 whole-class follow-up lesson)
STANDARDS
RL.5.3. Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details
in the text (e.g., how characters interact).
W.5.4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose,
and audience.

Lesson 1:
Procedures:
Hold up or display two different objects for the student to focus on. This will help explore the meaning of the terms
compare and contrast. These are two different types of the same thing: Juice box and milk container for a drink example,
Milky Way and Reeses for a candy example, and two tissue boxes of different size & outer design.
On chart paper I will make two columns and invite student to brainstorm characteristics of the first object (e.g., juice) and
then the other object (e.g., milk). I will invite student to add and revise information as they work, moving between the two
columns. If student needs help building the lists of characteristics, I will ask leading questions such as "How do you
decide which beverage you want to drink?" or "How do you decide which candy bar to buy?" or What do we know about
each of these items individually?
Ask student to identify characteristics that are included in both of the columns. Mark these similarities using a different
colored pen, or create an entirely new chart with the column headings of "Compare" and "Contrast."
Based on the information in the lists, have a discussion with the student on the definitions of the words compare and
contrast. Refer to examples on the charts to clarify the difference between the two terms.
Brainstorm other ways student can compare and contrast in daily life (sports teams, restaurants, toys, books, etc.). Have
student compose a list independently again using daily life topic.
Brainstorm and generate a definition of compare and contrast making sure there is understanding on why comparing and
contrasting is important by using examples as needed.
Have student write their definition at the bottom of their independent list and collect materials for next time.
Lesson 2:
Procedures:
Review information from the first session (such as the definition student came up with for compare and contrast, and how
we might be able to identify differences and similarities) as needed.
Have student decide two things to compare and contrast for writing an essay.

Using a generic paper Venn Diagram graphic organizer, introduce the Venn Diagram and its purpose. If further
differentiation is needed I will use a Compare and Contrast listing Chart Graphic Organizer before we place the items into
the Venn Diagram.
Draw a simple graphic organizer on the whiteboard of a Venn diagram (two overlapping circles).
Label the circles and brainstorm what is different about the topics and write the ideas in the appropriate circle on the
whiteboard while student is writing on their paper Venn diagram. Then ask student what is the same about the topic write
those ideas to the overlapping part of the circles.
Lesson 3:
Procedures:
Use Venn Diagram from last session or have student create a new one,
Brainstorm an interesting lead and have student give ideas. Model how to rearrange ideas and thoughts to come up with
the best and most interesting beginning and continue writing individually from there. Encourage student to refer back to
the Venn Diagram as necessary.
Share the Comparison and Contrast Rubric with student to know how essay is evaluated.

Part 4: Post-assessment
Several strategies were used to assess student learning during one-on-one lessons. Manually taking notes on
students strengths and weaknesses throughout each session provided good insight on where we needed to start next
time. Being able to collect ARs work and determine if each objective during our one-on-lessons was achieved by
evaluating the product produced was a form of assessment. The final assessment was similar to the pre-assessment,
with a much shorter passage. The objective was to compare and contrast two topics provided in the passage and then
write a coherent and cohesive passage illustrating that understanding.

Lesson 1 product:
We worked with two separate tissue boxes for the first list, and then baseball and basketball for the second list.

Things that AR identified as similarities between the two lists, AR marked with a dot.

Lesson 2 Product:
AR was asked to compare two things from life that he had experience with. AR came up with two books by the same
author. There was prompting on the first two contrasting bullet points and scripting on the first comparing bullet point. AR
completed the rest of the Venn diagram with minimal to no prompting.

Lesson 3 Product:
AR completed this Venn diagram as part of his pre-write brainstorming. Once he felt like he was done he types the
following passage that has been unedited.

ARs passage:
Have you ever heard of football or baseball? In both sports they have jerseys and helmets and cleats. In contrast in
football they have shorts and very long socks so you can't see their skin. In baseball they have pants but sometimes they
have short pants and they were long socks. These are all similarities and differences of baseball and football.
These are all similarities of these two sports. In baseball and football they were belts so they can keep their shirts tucked
in. They also were helmets in baseball they were so it can't give them brain damage they were helmets in football
because you can get concussions and like baseball get brain damaged. They both were cleats because you can run faster
on turf because the cleats press down.They both were jerseys so they can tell what team they're on.
These are all differences in these two sports. In baseball they use a diamond shape because the walls are tall and hard
to hit a homerun on a football field it would be super easy to hit a homerun every time. In baseball to score a run your
team has to be batting in the field they still gloves.In football they use sticky gloves to catch the ball better.
Well now that you know how football and baseball are alike and different you can know a lot more about both of these two
sports.
ARs learning was clear in our one-on-one lessons. I was able to mark many times the objective was met without
any prompting. When he performed in the graphic organizer and separation of ideas into comparing sections and

contrasting sections AR did well and appropriately completed the assigned task. However, in the post-assessment he
was unable to create his own graphic organizer and his writing was not coherent or developmentally appropriate. I think
this might stem from possible test anxiety, or the fact that AR was completely on his own while completely the post
assessment, whereas previously he had been secluded in a corner of the room with one-on-one help.
Final Post Assessment: This was the passage and ARs answer is below.

Part 5: Reflection
My impact on student performance appeared to increase during lessons, but could not be translated to the
evaluation. When student AR is able to make personal choices and use topics they are interested for the comparing and
contrasting, the effort and product result seems to be more genuine than when it needs to be translated from a separate
text or more formal assessment. I also think that while I did well in giving student choice and working on the topics
conceptually, we should have been working with different pieces of writing and pulling that information out. I was focused
on the concept without challenging AR to identify the evidence within the text as much, and so that is why I think AR was
unable to transfer learned skills into the assessment.
For the future I would modify lessons to require more text evidence and not focus so much on just the concept. To
meet the needs of my students who have similar issues but require access to a computer I would have all the Venn
diagrams, lists, and writing passages available online. I also would want to work with a small group of three or four

because then students would be able to help each other when theyre struggling. By using other students in the same
group the concept might be easier to understand because it will be told in many different forms.

Extension of Part 1: Pre-Assessment

These are the passages the student needed to read before being able to adequately provide the writing
sample featured above in Part 2: Rationale.