Naomi Sarelis

Student Learning Analysis

Troy High School
Sharon Berlin-Fitzhenry

Student Learning Analysis- Anatomy & Physiology

The focus of my Student Learning Analysis (SLA) was to ensure that my Anatomy and

Physiology students (10th - 12th grade) were able to identify and explain the process of how

muscles in our bodies contract. There were two formative assessments that were given in two

consecutive days, as we worked through our muscle unit. I began the muscle unit with talking

about the anatomy of a muscle before introducing the physiological aspect. When teaching

material like the muscles, it is easier for students to comprehend when they see how structure

and function relate to each other. When I had given these two formative assessments we had just

finished a mini unit on the structure of a muscle including a muscle histology and lab and were

beginning the mini lesson on how a muscle contracts physiologically.

The purpose of these two formative assessments were to see how much students were

understanding and to see how they connect the material together. Since Anatomy and

Physiology is an elective course, there are not any state standards; however, I can apply the

Next Generation Science Standard (NGSS): HS-LS1-2 From Molecules to Organisms:Structures

and Processes. This standard is regarding life sciences and states that students will “develop and

use a model to illustrate the hierarchical organization of interacting systems that provide specific

function with multicellular organisms”. This standard is applicable to both of these formative

assessments because the students are explaining how the structure of the muscle relates to its

function inside of our bodies.

From talking to my mentor teacher, I learned that students struggled with comprehending

the process of how the muscle contracts. I wanted to assess my students' understanding through
the mini lesson units on muscles so that way if there is a misunderstanding, I could provide

additional instruction before the summative assessment. Throughout this mini lesson I began with

a question set (question set link ​here​)where students worked through the material prior to me

lecturing on the material. I don’t prefer a lecture style in the classroom; however, that is how my

mentor ran her high leveled Anatomy and Physiology classes. Students also worked on

completing this question set after my lectures since I broke my lectures up so it only was about

half of the hour. I also used the High Leverage Teaching Practice of Tasks, Texts, and Learning

Learning Goals, where I edited the original Chapter 8 Muscle powerpoint. A few highlights I want

to point out that I changed were: I broke up bigger paragraphs into more slides so the information

was more tangible, I added more videos showing the information I was teaching, I also utilized

many GIFs to also aide in my instruction of the material and lastly, I added more images to make

the powerpoint more engaging (link to powerpoint ​here​). I wanted to make the information as

engaging, resourceful, and informational as I could to aid in the students overall understanding.

The goal of these serial lessons were: students will be able to identify and describe the structure

and functions of the muscular system.

Prior to me administering these two formative assessments, I would do periodic check ins

throughout my lecture where I would have students use the fist to five method so I can visually

see their understanding at that point in the lesson. A fist meant that the student was not

understanding what was being taught and a five meant that the student felt totally confident with

the material. On the first day I taught students about the structure of the sarcomere and we went

through multiple images and videos all illustrating the key components of the structure. I began

the next class period with a formative assessment on sarcomeres (link to sarcomere formative
assessment is ​here​). Students were instructed to work on the first question individually which

listed out the key terms of the structure of the sarcomere and students were instructed to

correctly draw and label their diagram. After I noticed most students had finished, they then

moved on to the second and third question that had the students compare and contrast their

drawings with their neighbor. I then had the students turn in their papers, and asked them how

they felt using the fist to five method. After hearing what aspects they think they did well or poorly

on, I displayed an image of a correctly labeled sarcomere to facilitate a discussion before

beginning my lesson for the day.

I divided the formative assessment of the structure of sarcomeres into four categories:

1)students were able to correctly draw and identify all parts of the sarcomere, 2) students were

somewhat able to correctly draw and identify all parts of the sarcomere (properly identifying more

than three of the terms), 3)students were somewhat able to correctly draw and identify all parts of

the sarcomere (identifying less than three of the terms), and 4) students were not able to

correctly draw and identify all parts of the sarcomere. I broke these categories down into a bar

graph to display the results

I gathered for each

category (Figure 1)

My sample of students

consisted of two hours of

Anatomy and Physiology

classes that consisted of 33

students. The data to the

pie chart below, shows that there was a really small division between the 51.5% (Figure 2) of the

majority of students who were able to correctly draw and identify the majority of the structure of a

sarcomere, and those who could not. This tells me that some students were able to do this task,

but there was a good majority that could not. With this knowledge, I looked back at their

responses and diagrams to see what some

common errors were. I concluded that some

common errors were correctly drawing and

labeling the difference between myosin and

actin and then correctly drawing and labeling

the differences between the I and A bands (light

and dark bands). These were also common

answers when I asked the students to reflect on

their drawing after they did the formative

assessment. Given that these distinctions are significant, I wanted to make sure that students

understood the differences.

After hearing the verbal feedback the students gave me, we went over the structure of the

sarcomere together as a class. I asked them to answer questions such as: “What is the thick

filament?” (myosin), “What is the thin filament?” (actin), “Myosin is what kind of filament?” (thick),

“Actin is what kind of filament?” (thin”, “The I band is light or dark?” (light), “The A band is light or

dark?” (dark), “What band is light?” (I band), and “What band is dark?” (A band). As a class, the

majority of students were answering when I was asking these questions. Too add on by the

repetition, and the question being asked two different ways the students felt more confident with
their understanding. I did a fist to five to gage their comprehension after going over the

sarcomere together as a class and the majority were either a 4 or a 5. The next lesson for the

day was explaining and describing how a muscle contracts - what the steps are and what

happens at the physiological level. While lecturing I would consistently pause, ask students if

they had questions, and repeatedly do a fist to five to gage understanding.

The next day, after introducing and explaining how a muscle contracts, I gave my students

a formative assessment that instructed the students to explain how a muscle contracts using key

terminology listed (muscle contraction formative assessment can be found ​here​). Their response

should include knowledge from their previous learning about the structure of a muscle as well as

their new knowledge about key components in making a muscle contract. The purpose of this

formative assessment was to see how students were processing and connecting the material to

explain how a muscle contracts.

I divided the results into four categories: 1)students were able to correctly explain a

muscle contraction and identify

all key terms, 2)students were

somewhat able to correctly

explain a muscle contraction

and correctly identify three

correct key terms, 3)students

were somewhat able to correctly

explain a muscle contraction

and identify less than three key

terms, and 4)students were not able to correctly explain a muscle contraction and identify the key

terms. I represented these four categories in a bar graph (Figure 3) to show the results I gathered

for each category. My sample of students consisted of two Anatomy and Physiology classes that

had a total of 30 students combined. I also

made a pie chart to demonstrate the overall

understanding of the majority of the students

who could correctly explain a muscle

contraction compared to those who could not.

The data showed me that 56.7% (Figure 4) of

the students could not correctly explain and

identify the role of key terms in a muscle

contraction. Even though I was not able to

assess the data in the moment, I was able to verbally ask my students how they felt after taking

the formative assessment and using the fist to five to gage how they felt. Their verbal feedback

consisted of them explaining that they had a hard time explaining the role of calcium, troponin,

and tropomyosin in terms of a muscle contraction; however, they did tell me they were confident

with the cross bridge concept where myosin heads attaches to the actin filament.

When I analyzed the data later, these same misconceptions were represented in their

responses but what stood out to me was that the vast majority of the students could differentiate

between myosin and actin as well as explain how they attach via a crossbridge. This is significant

because the day before only 51.5% of students (Figure 2) could correctly draw and identify the

key elements of a sarcomere. This showed me that through my reiteration of the differences
between myosin and actin from the day before, helped students with understanding the how

anatomically of a muscle contracting. Even though there were improvements from the previous

formative assessment, the formative assessment on muscle contractions really demonstrated

that students had a difficult time explaining the role of calcium, troponin and tropomyosin. With

the verbal feedback I received from the students, I started the day by showing the muscle

contraction video animation again that highlighted these key differences that were asked of them

in the formative assessment. I then went back through the powerpoint incorporating more images

and videos to really aid my instruction of a muscle contraction. While I was going through the

material, I used the fist to five method to visually see the students' understanding and I would

also pause and ask for students to ask questions which some did.

Throughout the lesson, I would consistently ask questions like “What does calcium do in a

muscle contraction?” (calcium binds to the troponin), “What does tropomyosin do?” (it exposes

the binding sites), “Tropomyosin and troponin are what” (they are both proteins), “What element

is needed in order for a muscle contraction? (calcium) and more. By me backtracking the

material, explaining the material in many different ways with different resources, students told me

they felt more confident with their understanding.

We were not able to finish the entire muscle

unit due to the COVID-19 school shutdown;

however, the students were administered a

quiz after the muscle contraction lesson and

the data showed that overall there was an

80% average (Figure 5). The scores between

the two hours showed me that both hours were either near or above the overall average score

representing their comprehension of the material. In conclusion, the final data represents that the

vast majority of students were able to understand and retain the material of the structure of a

sarcomere and how the muscle functions at a physiological level.