Renee Fail

UED 496

Dr. Flannagan

Pre/Post Assessment Data Analysis

Part 1:

Subject: 8th-grade Advanced English

Number of Students: 23

SOLs: All the 8th-grade writing SOLs were covered in this unit and evaluated in the post-

assessment.

8.7 The student will write in a variety of forms to include narrative, expository, persuasive, and
reflective with an emphasis on expository and persuasive writing.
a) Engage in writing as a recursive process.
b) Choose the intended audience and purpose.
c) Use prewriting strategies to generate and organize ideas.
d) Organize writing structure to fit form or topic.
e) Establish a central idea incorporating evidence, maintaining an organized structure and
formal style.
f) Compose a thesis statement for persuasive writing that advocates a position.
g) Clearly state and defend a position with reasons and evidence, from credible sources.
h) Identify a counterclaim and provide a counter-argument.
i) Distinguish between fact and opinion to support a position.
j) Organize information to provide elaboration and unity.
k) Develop and modify the central idea, tone, and voice to fit the audience and purpose.
l) Revise writing for clarity of content, word choice, sentence variety, and transitions
among paragraphs.
8.8 The student will self- and peer-edit writing for capitalization, punctuation, spelling, sentence
structure, paragraphing, and Standard English.
a) Use and punctuate correctly varied sentence structures to include conjunctions and
transition words.
b) Correctly use pronouns in prepositional phrases with compound objects.
c) Use a variety of sentence structures to infuse sentence variety in writing.
d) Maintain consistent verb tense across paragraphs.
e) Use comparative and superlative degrees in adverbs and adjectives.
f) Use quotation marks with dialogue and direct quotations.
g) Use correct spelling for frequently used words.
Pre-Assessment Description: (SOLs 8.7 d-g) The students were instructed to write on a piece of

loose-leaf paper(not type) a persuasive POWER paragraph responding to the prompt, “If you

could vacation anywhere in the world, where would you go, and why?”

Throughout 6th and 7th grade, they have learned the structure of a POWER paragraph, which is

as follows:

Present your idea(topic sentence)

Offer your reason

Write an example

Explain how your reason is connected to the topic

Restate your idea

The students were graded on the presence of each of these elements in their paragraph, as well as

grammar, punctuation, and spelling. (grades are in the post-assessment section)

Part 2:

Activity 1: Brainstorm Graphic Organizer (SOL 8.7 a-f)

The students were provided this graphic organizer to brainstorm ideas for their persuasive

paper prompt. The prompt was as follows, “Our school principal, Mrs. Scherr, is planning to

invite a celebrity to come and speak to the students. Write her a letter to persuade her to invite

your favorite celebrity.” They were given 5 minutes to brainstorm their favorite celebrities and

write them in the brainstorm box. Then, students were asked to share some of their ideas with the

class. Students shared celebrities like Kevin Hart, Michael Jordan, and Billie Eilish. Then, they

were instructed to pick three reasons the celebrity they chose was a good choice. I modeled an

example for the students, I would like to invite Dwayne the Rock Johnson to speak at our school
because he is a talented actor, wrestler, and he donates to charities. The students were required to

have their thesis statement by the end of class, and for the last 10 minutes of class, my CT and I

rotated around the classroom proofreading thesis statements and making suggestions.

Activity 2: Essay Planning Graphic Organizer (SOL 8.7 g-k)

After Brainstorming the topic for their paper, the students were instructed to copy their

thesis statement into the essay planning graphic organizer. They were also instructed to title each

body paragraph after one of their three reasons stated in the thesis. Then they were provided with

independent practice time to fill out the graphic organizer. This independent practice time was

split up over the course of several days. Some students took weeks to complete this activity,

while others finished it within a few days. During the independent practice time, I would

constantly circulate, providing one on one instruction time, giving students guidance where there

were struggling, and corrections where they made mistakes.

Student Examples:

(These are a cumulation of the first 2 activities. The thesis created in the brainstorming document

is located in the thesis category in the essay planning graphic organizer.)

Phoenix Example

Krista Example

Isabella Example

Gunar Example

Caoimhin Example

Avery Example
Activity 3: Editing and Revision Checklist (SOL 8.7 l, 8.8 a-g)

Once the students had completed their Essay Planning Graphic Organizers, they were

instructed to copy and paste what they wrote into a fresh google doc in the structure of a 5

paragraph essay. Once they had completed this task, they were provided with an Editing and

Revision Checklist. This checklist was the rubric by which their final papers were to be graded.

The students were then provided independent work time to go through their papers using the

checklist to edit their papers according to the rubric and check off each category when complete.

This checklist also included a question at the bottom which asked students to highlight the areas

they felt they still needed help with. These areas included intro, body, conclusion, sentence

variety, and grammar usage and mechanics.

Activity 4: Small Groups (SOL 8.7 l, 8.8 a-g)

Using the feedback the students provided in the checklist, I worked with my CT to group

students in groups of 6 based on the areas they needed help with. Then we moved a few students

around based on their chemistry with other students in their group. We ended up with 4 groups,

and on the day of the activity, they moved in a 20-minute rotation. The 4 different stations were a

testing station, where they took a quiz, a NoRedInk station where they would complete online

grammar activities, a peer editing station where they peer-edited a partner’s paper using the

rubric, and a one on one station outside the classroom, supervised by myself. I focused

specifically on sentence variety since that is the grammar topic we had been covering in that unit.

When the students arrived at my station I would instruct them to highlight a compound and

complex sentence in each body paragraph. With the advanced classes, I had them highlight 2

compounds and 2 complexes in each body paragraph. If they could not find enough, I instructed
them to add a compound or complex sentence. While my group added to or modified their

sentences, I walked around to each student to see what they specifically needed help with. For

the students in the inclusion classes, it was mostly just helping students who had fallen behind

catch up to their peers. In advanced, I was able to go more in-depth, for example, I helped

students incorporate quotes, anecdotes, and refine the tone in their paper.

Part 3:

The post-assessment was the final 5 paragraph persuasive paper that each student turned

in at the end of the unit. I graded them using this Grading Rubric. It is identical to the rubric the

students used to edit their own papers. Out of the study subjects, all 6 improved.

The pre-assessment assignments indicated that these students could use assistance in

sentence variety and in the WER(examples, explanation, and restating idea) part of their

POWER paragraph. So throughout the activities, I laser-focused on sentence variety and gave

students as much modeling and individual assistance as possible when they were doing

independent work on the WER portion of their Essay Planning graphic organizer. And in small

groups, I was also able to check if they had properly included the WER in their paragraphs, and

guide them to do so if they had not already. The third activity, the editing and revision checklist

doubled as an informal pre-assessment, and I was able to use the student answers to guide my

last activity, the small groups by grouping students according to need and focusing on the topics

students requested.

The results from the post-assessment were positive, as displayed by the graph. However,

I believe the students will need to learn how to more thoroughly proofread their own and peers’

papers for grammar and punctuation errors. Additionally, they have a solid grasp of the POWER
paragraph structure and are using it the majority of the time, but it is not yet completely

consistent. Going forward, I would focus on grammar and punctuation, by having them exercise

it even in informal activities, like short answer questions or anticipatory sets. As for the POWER

paragraph consistency, I would provide fast feedback, and have the students revise their papers

for an improved grade after they are returned.

Student Examples:

(These are also an accumulation of Activities 3 and 4)

Phoenix Final

Krista Final

Isabella Final

Gunar Final

Caoimhin Final

Avery Final