Student Learning Analysis

Students were provided the opportunity to analyze the amendments of the Constitution of

the United States of America for Constitution Day this year. Students are learning this content in

their World History class. It is important for students to know what rights they have as American

citizens. This lesson was taught in a hybrid setting, with some students learning in person and

some students learning remotely. In order to determine the overall impact of students learning, I

provided a journal question forum, the first formative assessment, to assess students baseline

knowledge prior to instruction. Following the review of the first formative assessment, I

provided students with a second assessment. The second assessment required students to phrase

in their own words the assigned United States Constitutional Amendments for the second time,

now with the additional resources given to them about the United States Constitutional

Amendments.

These assessments are aligned to the learning objective: students will be able to phrase in

their own word’s amendments of the U.S. Constitution. The state standard that this learning

objective is based on is the standard: express social science ideas clearly in written, spoken, and

graphic forms (MI.HSCE.SS.WHG.P1.4). The learning objective focusses on having students

express the social science ideas found in the 1st, 4th, 5th, and 8th United States Constitutional

Amendments. This will be accomplished by having students express those ideas in written form.

For the first assessment all students were given the same instruction. The only instruction

students received for the first assessment was myself reading off the journal prompt to students,

clarifying to students my expectations for the assessment, and the recommended format for their

journal responses. The first assessment was used as a baseline measure of students’ knowledge

about the U.S. Constitutional Amendments, prior to being taught any content or introduced to the
text or ideas found in the U.S. Constitution. The formative assessment I provided to the students

is as follows:

The Constitution of the United States of America was signed on September 17, 1787. Today we celebrate September
17th each year to commemorate its formation and signing. A big part of the Constitution of the United States of
America is the amendments that were put into place to allow the document to be so flexible and to give us our rights
as citizens. Respond to the following prompt:
Without looking up the amendments online, describe in your own words what rights are given to American citizens
in the 1st, 4th, 5th, and 8th amendments. Provide a minimum of one sentence answer for each amendment. You must
provide a minimum of 4 sentences total for your response.

As students began to submit their responses to the formative assessment, I began my analysis of

the data the students submitted. Based on students’ responses, I was able to determine their

progress at phrasing in their own word’s amendments of the U.S. Constitution, prior to learning

any material. I identified four patterns in students’ responses within the data analyzed from the

journal responses. These four patterns are best represented by the following student responses:

Pattern A Student
1- Freedom of religion and to be able to exercise your own religion freely.
4- The right to your own privacy/private information and belongings.
5- Nobody should be held accountable to a crime they didn’t commit/without word from the grand jury.
8- Harsh penalties shouldn’t be given to criminals unless it’s ruled as necessary or critical and no more extra
punishment is worthy.

Pattern B Student
The 1st amendment is freedom of speech/religion.

The 4th amendment I am not sure on what it is.

The 5th amendment has to do with criminal’s rights.

The 8th amendment has something to do with the government not being too harsh.

Pattern C Student
I am going to be honest, it has been a while from the last time I looked over the amendments. The only one I know is
the 1st, which is the freedom of speech, and also the 2nd, which is the right to bare arms. I cannot think of any more
than those two and I do not know much about them.

Pattern D Student
1- The 1st amendment is the freedom of speech or being able to talk about and say what you want in the world.
4- I do not know the 4th amendment.
5- I do not know the 5th amendment,
8- The 8th amendment I know has something to do with the law and being able to have an attorney or something with
bail.

The pattern A student was able to provide a basic understanding of some main parts of

the 1st, 4th, 5th, and 8th U.S. Constitutional Amendments. I identified that pattern A students have

basic knowledge of the chosen U.S. Constitutional Amendments from their prior history classes.

These students could not recall the full extent of the rights that the U.S. Constitutional

Amendments provide to United States citizens. For example, the pattern A student stated that the

1st U.S. Constitutional Amendment’s meaning was “freedom of religion and to be able to

exercise your own religion freely.” The pattern A student’s response was able to describe in their

own words one of the rights found in the 1st U.S. Constitutional Amendment, but their response

did not describe the freedoms of speech, press, petition, and assembly.

The pattern B student was able to provide a basic understanding of the 1st, 5th, and 8th U.S.

Constitutional Amendments. This student was unable to provide any understanding of the 4th

U.S. Constitutional Amendment. I identified that pattern B students are able to provide a basic

understanding of some main parts of the 1st, 5th, and 8th U.S. Constitutional Amendments. For

example, the pattern B student stated that “the 5th amendment has to do with criminal’s rights.”

The pattern B student’s response was able to describe in their own words a general idea of whose

rights, the rights of criminals, this U.S. Constitutional Amendment involved, but was unable to

list any of the specific rights that criminals receive. Due to a lack of prior knowledge, pattern B

students were unable to provide any information on the 4th U.S. Constitutional Amendment. For

example, the pattern B student stated “the 4th amendment I am not sure on what it is.” It was

inferred from this response that the pattern B student does not have sufficient prior knowledge to

provide a detailed response for the 4th U.S. Constitutional Amendment.

 The pattern C student was able to provide a basic understanding of some main parts of

the 1st U.S. Constitutional Amendment. This student was unable to provide information about the

4th, 5th, and 8th U.S. Constitutional Amendments and admitted that they did not remember much

about the U.S. Constitutional Amendments. I identified that pattern C students were able to

provide basic understanding of some main parts of the 1st U.S. Constitutional Amendment. For

example, the pattern C student stated “the only one I know is the 1st, which is the freedom of

speech.” The pattern C student’s response was able to describe in their own words one of the

rights found in the 1st U.S. Constitutional Amendment, but their response did not describe the

freedoms of religion, press, petition, or assembly. Pattern C students were unable to provide any

information on the 4th, 5th, and 8th U.S. Constitutional Amendments. For example, the pattern C

student stated “I am going to be honest, it has been a while from the last time I looked over the

amendments… I cannot think of any more than those two and I do not know much about them.”

From the pattern C student’s response, it can be inferred that a lack of prior knowledge is the

cause of the student’s inability to provide a response for the 4th, 5th, and 8th U.S. Constitutional

Amendments.

The pattern D student was able to provide a basic understanding of some main parts of

the 1st and 8th U.S. Constitutional Amendments. This student had no understanding of the 4th and

5th U.S. Constitutional Amendments. I identified that pattern D students were able to provide a

basic understanding of some main parts of the 1st and 8th U.S. Constitutional Amendments. For

example, the pattern D student stated “the 8th amendment I know has something to do with the

law and being able to have an attorney or something with bail.” The pattern D student’s response

was able to describe in their own words a general idea of what kind of rights this U.S.

Constitutional Amendment provides (“something [to do] with bail”), but was unable to list any
of the specific rights, such as that bail in excessive amounts is not required. Due to a lack of prior

knowledge, pattern D students are unable to provide any information on the 4th and 5th U.S.

Constitutional Amendments. For example, the pattern D student stated “I do not know the 5th

amendment.” From the pattern D student’s response, it can be inferred that a lack of prior

knowledge is the cause of the student’s inability to provide a response for the 4th and 5th U.S.

Constitutional Amendments.

Once all four patterns were identified, I determined what was required for students to achieve

the learning goal (students will be able to phrase in their own word’s amendments of the U.S.

Constitution) and standard (express social science ideas clearly in written, spoken, and graphic

forms). A strength about the instruction of the first assessment was that most students were able

to follow the instructions given for the assessment. The pattern A, B, and D students were able to

write their journal responses in the recommended response setup, labeling responses for each

amendment with a 1, 4, 5, and 8. The pattern C students chose not to follow this setup; however,

they did provide a response that answered the journal prompt. A weakness about the instruction

of the first assessment is that I did not provide a template that the students could use to provide

their responses. I determined that in order to resolve this weakness I would need to provide a

template for responses during future teaching attempts. A weakness of the first formative

assessment was that all students were unable to provide responses that showed full understanding

of the assigned U.S. Constitutional Amendments. I determined that the students needed to

examine the written text of the 1st, 4th, 5th, and 8th U.S. Constitutional Amendments in order to

provide quality responses for the assessment. The majority of students did not have enough prior

knowledge to write a description of the assigned U.S. Constitutional Amendments in their own

words. Students who attempted to describe the assigned U.S. Constitutional Amendments did not
provide complete descriptions in their responses to the journal prompt. I determined that the

journal prompt and my introduction to the journal was an effective way to determine the

student’s prior knowledge of the assigned U.S. Constitutional Amendments.

Directly following students posting their responses to the journal question, I went over

students’ responses as a class. I was able to review with students’ areas that needed

improvement, in order for them to phase in their own word’s amendments of the U.S.

Constitution. The majority of students were able to identify 1 or more U.S. Constitutional

Amendments. Most responses given for the assigned U.S. Constitutional Amendments did not

show a full understanding of the rights given to citizens through those U.S. Constitutional

Amendments. I stated to students that it was okay that they were not able to write a response for

certain U.S. Constitutional Amendments, stating that they will have another chance to phrase in

their own words the U.S. Constitutional Amendments.

I provided an additional activity/assessment to students in order to assess student’s

growth for this learning objective (students will be able to phrase in their own word’s

amendments of the U.S. Constitution) and standard (express social science ideas clearly in

written, spoken, and graphic forms), and to give students an opportunity to improve on their

responses. This activity/assessment was used to get students to achieve the learning objective and

standard. Students will accomplish this by again phrasing in their own word’s amendments of the

U.S. Constitution.
 All pattern A, B, C, and D students were given the same instruction for the second

assessment. I introduced to the students the activity sheet pictured above, asking them to

complete the table labeled number 6. The first assessment lacked a template for students to write

their responses. This second assessment’s activity sheet provided student with a template in

which to format their responses. I directed students to use the website link provided in the

document. This link provided students with the text of the assigned U.S. Constitutional

Amendments. The first assessment did not provided students with the text for any of the assigned

U.S. Constitutional Amendments. By providing students with the text of the assigned U.S.

Constitutional Amendments during this second assessment, I anticipated that students would be
able to successfully provide responses that display full understanding. The first assessment did

not provide students with much support when writing their responses. The first assessment

required students to work individually, phrasing in their own word’s amendments of the U.S.

Constitution. The second assessment worked to provide support to students when reading and

phrasing in their own word’s amendments of the U.S. Constitution. Students completed the

second assessment in groups of 3-4 students. I assigned students roles within their assigned

groups (presenter, recorder, time keeper, and leader), as a way for students to manage their

groups when I was unavailable and assisting other groups. I rotated between all of the groups

while students worked to complete the second assessment. I anticipated that these additional

supports, having both group assistance and teacher assistance, would allow students to be able to

phrase in their own word’s the amendments of the U.S. Constitution, providing responses that

show full understanding of the rights provided in the assigned U.S. Constitutional Amendments.

Additional assessment data was acquired from this assessment and helped show students

growth towards the learning objective, students being able to phrase in their own word’s

amendments of the U.S. Constitution. Given the additional resource of the text of the assigned

U.S Constitutional Amendments, all students provided a revised response to phrasing the

assigned U.S. Constitutional Amendments in their own words. After asking these students to

phrase in their own words the 1st, 4th, 5th, and 8th U.S. Constitutional Amendments for the second

time, the pattern A, B, C, and D students provided the following responses:

Pattern A Student

Amendmen Description (your own words! Consider what it means to you!!)

t

1st The first amendment is for freedom of speech, religion, assembly, press, and petition. This is
important to me because I believe it’s every human’s right to be able to practice what they believe
in freely.
 4th The fourth amendment is for the right to your own privacy such as personal documents and
property. This limits the amount of searches government officials can do without a permit. This is
important because everyone has a right to their own belongings.

5th The fifth amendment guarantees U.S. citizens specific rights, and to not testify against yourself if
you’re accused of committing a crime. No one shall be held for a crime without presentment of a
grand jury. This is critical because people shouldn’t be wrongly accused or held accountable for
someone else’s acts.

8th The eighth amendment is for excessive bail not being needed or necessary alongside excessive
fees and inflicted punishment. This is important because extra punishment isn’t necessary.
Pattern B Student

Amendmen Description (your own words! Consider what it means to you!!)

t

1st It protects several basic civil rights like, freedom of religion which is you can follow what belief
to follow of your choice, freedom of speech - you can say what you want to a certain extent,
press, petition, and assembly. 

4th The 4th amendment states that people are safe in their homes and the police can't unlawfully
break into someone's house without a written warrant. 

5th The 5th amendment states a number of rights that apply to both criminal and civil legal
proceedings. It also protects people being forced to give testimony that could incriminate them.
You have a right of silence at all times. This basically protects people against self-incrimination
(exposing yourself). 

8th This amendment is protecting criminals from excessive fines, bail amounts and doesn't allow the
government to use torture as a form of punishment.
Pattern C Student

Amendmen Description (your own words! Consider what it means to you!!)

t

1st The right to practice a religion, freedom of speech, and the press, and the right to protest.

4th The right that says for people to be secure in their houses against unreasonable searches. (they
should not be violated)

5th No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime unless on a
presentment or indictment of a grand jury. Except in cases of arising land or naval forces, 

8th Uncontrolled bail should not be required nor excessive fines. Neither should cruel or unusual
punishments.
Pattern D Student

Amendmen Description (your own words! Consider what it means to you!!)

t

1st The people of the United states have the right to freedom of religion, free speech, and press. The
other part of this is the right to peaceably assemble and to petition the government. 
 4th This is the right of people to be secure in a person, house, papers, and prohibits unreasonable
searches and requires a search warrant with probable cause and this is part of the Bill of Rights. 

5th No person should be held for a crime they did not do. They must be presented to a grand jury so
that they do not have to be compelled of a crime they did not do, or not being able to live life,
have liberty or property. 

8th Bail is not required and not always given. Also, no crazy fines given to them if it does not suit the
crime and no cruel and unusual punishments. 

Once all pattern A, B, C, and D students’ responses were collected, I continued

instruction of this assessment by reviewing students’ responses with the class. During this

review, I was able to clarify the meaning of the assigned U.S. Constitutional Amendment’s with

students and apply the amendments to real-life situations. I was also able to gauge student’s

ability to phrase in their own word’s amendments of the U.S. Constitution. The full extent of

students’ growth during this second assessment was determined in the following analysis.

The pattern A student, in their original response, was able to provide partial

understanding of the rights provided in the 1st, 4th, 5th, and 8th U.S. Constitutional Amendments.

The pattern A student was able to expand on their original response, providing responses that

showed the full extent of their understanding of the assigned U.S. Constitutional Amendments.

For example, the pattern A student stated for the 4th U.S. Constitutional Amendment that “the

fourth amendment is for the right to your own privacy such as personal documents and property.

This limits the amount of searches government officials can do without a permit. This is

important because everyone has a right to their own belongings.” The pattern A student’s

response described the rights provided to U.S. citizens when search and seizure is involved and

went above and beyond my expectation as a teacher. The pattern A student provided additional

information above what was asked, describing how the chosen amendments were important to

them. The pattern A students were able to successfully achieve the learning objective (students
will be able to phrase in their own word’s amendment of the U.S. Constitution) and standard

(express social science ideas clearly in written, spoken, and graphic forms). The pattern A

students provided responses that phrased the assigned U.S. Constitutional Amendments in their

own words and provided responses that showed that they had a full understanding of the rights

provided in the assigned U.S. Constitutional Amendments. No additional instruction was

necessary for pattern A students.

The pattern B student, in their original response, was able to provide partial

understanding of the rights provided in the 1st, 5th, and 8th U.S. Constitutional Amendments, and

did not provide any information regarding the 4th U.S. Constitutional Amendment. The pattern B

student was able to expand on their original response, providing responses that showed the full

extent of their understanding of the assigned U.S. Constitutional Amendments. For example, the

pattern B student stated for the 5th U.S. Constitutional Amendment that “the 5th amendment states

a number of rights that apply to both criminal and legal proceedings. It also protects people being

forced to give testimony that could incriminate them. You have a right of silence at all times.

This basically protects people against self-incrimination (exposing yourself).” The pattern B

student’s response described the rights provided to U.S. citizens during criminal and civil legal

proceedings. The pattern B students were able to successfully achieve the learning objective

(students will be able to phrase in their own words amendments of the U.S. Constitution) and

standard (express social science ideas clearly in written, spoken, and graphic forms). The pattern

B students showed this by providing responses that phrased the assigned U.S. Constitutional

Amendments in their own words and provided responses that showed that they had a full

understanding of the rights provided in the assigned U.S. Constitutional Amendments. No

additional instruction was necessary for pattern B students.

 The pattern C student, in their original response, was able to provide a basic

understanding of some main parts of the 1st U.S. Constitutional Amendment, and did not provide

any information regarding the 4th, 5th, and 8th U.S. Constitutional Amendments. The pattern C

student was able to expand on their original response, providing responses that showed either

full, partial, or no understanding of the assigned U.S. Constitutional Amendments. For example,

the pattern C student’s response for the 5th U.S. Constitutional Amendment stated “no person

shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime unless on a presentment or

indictment of a grand jury. Except in cases of arising land or naval forces, .” The pattern C

student did not successfully achieve this learning objective (students will be able to phrase in

their own words amendments of the U.S. Constitution) and standard (express social science ideas

clearly in written, spoken, and graphic forms). The pattern C students’ response for the 5th U.S.

Constitutional Amendment was written as an incomplete thought and was copied directly from

the original text, not phrased in their own words. Further instruction would be required in order

for the pattern C students to succeed.

The pattern D student, in their original response, was able to provide a partial

understanding of the rights provided in the 1st and 8th U.S. Constitutional Amendments, and did

not provide any information regarding the 4th and 5th U.S. Constitutional Amendments. The

pattern D student was able to expand on their original response, providing responses that showed

the full extent of their understanding of the assigned U.S. Constitutional Amendments. For

example, the pattern D student’s response for the 8th U.S. Constitutional Amendment stated, “bail

is not required and not always given. Also, no crazy fines given to them is it does not suit the

crime and no cruel and unusual punishments.” The pattern D student’s response describes the

rights provided to U.S. citizens when they are being held on criminal charges, such as on the
topics of bail, fines, or punishment for crimes committed. The pattern D students were able to

successfully achieve the learning objective (students will be able to phrase in their own words

amendments of the U.S. Constitution) and standard (express social science ideas clearly in

written, spoken, and graphic forms). The pattern D students were able to provide responses that

phrased the assigned U.S. Constitutional Amendments in their own words and provided

responses that showed that they had a full understanding of the rights provided in the assigned

U.S. Constitutional Amendments. No additional instruction was necessary for pattern D students.

All students were able to improve on their prior responses and showed a greater

understanding of the assigned U.S. Constitutional Amendments. Most students were able to

provide a response that showed that they understood the full extent of the rights provided in the

U.S. Constitutional Amendments. Pattern A, B, and D students were able to provide at a

minimum a response that showed that they understood some of the rights provided in the

assigned U.S. Constitutional Amendments. Pattern A, B, and D students were able to

successfully phrase the 1st, 4th, 5th, and 8th U.S. Constitutional Amendments in their own words

and provided responses that showed the full extent of their understanding of the assigned U.S.

Constitutional Amendments. Pattern C students were unable to phrase in their own words one or

more U.S. Constitutional Amendments. This resulted in pattern C students being unsuccessful

during this assessment. Pattern C students require further instruction in order to achieve the

learning objective (students will be able to phrase in their own words amendments of the U.S.

Constitution) and standard (express social science ideas clearly in written, spoken, and graphic

forms).

Once all pattern A, B, C, and D students’ responses were collected and reviewed, I was able

to further determine strengths found in my instruction of the second assessment. A strength of

my instruction was my review of students’ responses with the entire class. I was able to note

limitations found in students’ responses, such as pattern C students’ responses which either did

not phrase the assigned U.S. Constitutional Amendments in their own words or were missing

information. I used that opportunity to reinforce the missing information from the student’s

response and/or model rephrasing the terminology found in the text into easier to understand

terms. I also was able to use the review to provide examples of real-life situations in which those

amendments would apply to students. For example, when reviewing the 4th U.S. Constitutional

Amendment, I was able to note to students’ examples of when law enforcement can search or

seize (with a warrant or probable cause) and when you can deny law enforcement the ability to

search and seize your person or property (without a warrant or probable cause). These real-life

examples helped to further clarify the usage of these amendments to students. This provided

students, who may still be struggling with phrasing the amendments of the U.S. Constitution in

their own word’s, a reference to help guide students towards providing response that show full

understanding of the assigned U.S. Constitutional Amendments.

I was also able to determine weaknesses found in my instruction of the second

assessment. For the second assessment, I decided to take all of the changes that I determined

needed to be made from pattern A, B, C, and D students’ responses and use those to adjust my

instruction for all of the students. A weakness of my instruction for the second assessment is that

I did not provide individualized instruction for pattern A, B, C, and D students. From my

analysis of the first assessment and second assessment responses, it can be seen that pattern C

students struggled far more with both assessments. If I were to reteach this lesson to students, I

would provide individualized instruction for pattern A, B, C, and D students, as well as provide

more support to pattern C students. One potential way I could have changed the instruction of
pattern C students would be to take aside all pattern C students and work with that small group of

students. With these students, I would have read through the text of the assigned U.S.

Constitutional Amendments and worked with the students to come up with a description of the

assigned U.S. Constitutional Amendments in their own words. Pattern C students would have

benefited by working in a group setting with constant teacher observation. I would also allow

more time for pattern C students to go through the text and phrase the amendments in their own

words. Having students in a group setting with constant teacher assistance available should

provide the necessary environment for pattern C students to phrase in their own word’s the

amendments of the U.S. Constitution. An alternative way I could have changed instruction was

to pair pattern C students with a pattern A student. Pattern A students’ assessment 1 responses

showed some basic knowledge of all assigned U.S. Constitutional Amendments. This leads me to

believe that pattern A students would succeed at phrasing the amendments of the U.S.

Constitution in their own word’s during the second assessment, and would provide a positive and

helpful resource for struggling pattern C students. I would also encourage pattern C students to

use additional resources, such as a dictionary or thesaurus, as a means to breakdown some of the

challenging vocabulary provided in the text.

In conclusion, the students completed assessments that focused on having them phrase in

their own words the rights provided to citizens in the 1st, 4th, 5th, and 8th U.S. Constitutional

Amendments. The first formative assessment determined the students baseline knowledge and

their current level of understanding of the assigned U.S. Constitutional Amendments. Students

responses ranged from partial understanding of the assigned U.S. Constitutional Amendments to

showing little to no understanding of the assigned U.S. Constitutional Amendments. My

instruction for the first assessment was the same for all students. For the first assessment I
required students to work individually, I did not allow students to use any resources to complete

the assessment, and a template for students’ responses for the assessment was not provided. I

determined from these responses that students required the text of the assigned U.S.

Constitutional Amendment in order to achieve the learning objective (students will be able to

phrase in their own words amendments of the U.S. Constitution) and standard (express social

science ideas clearly in written, spoken, and graphic forms). My instruction changed between the

first and second assessment. I worked to improve upon the limitations from the first assessment.

This required students to work in groups for additional support, provided students with the text

of the assigned U.S. Constitutional Amendment’s, and included a template for students’

responses. The second assessment required students to again phrase in their own words the

assigned U.S. Constitutional Amendments. Strengths of my instruction of the second assessment

included the review of students’ responses as a class and that the second assessment responses

showed that most students were able to phrase in their own word’s amendments of the U.S.

Constitution. My instruction of the second assessment was weak in providing the individualized

instruction necessary for some students to succeed. A small group of students still require

additional small group assistance, teacher assistance, time, and resources, in order to successfully

interpret the assigned U.S. Constitutional Amendment in their own word’s. Overall, students’

responses to the first and second assessments provided rich data. With this data, I was able to

gauge students learning and growth, and use this information to modify the lessons to provide

quality instruction to the students.