Tori Cappuzzello

Dr. Dunko

ELIS 3703

28 March 2022

1. What were the formative assessment results each day in each of the content lessons that you taught?

DESIGN electronic TABLE GRAPHS to identify the results for each content. How would you use the

results the next day in your planning and why: Be very specific and correlate your reasoning with

sound research/readings from what you know about young children and learning. It is expected that

you have 3 citations. Did you expect these results? Why or Why not?

For the science lesson, the students sorted materials into “sink” or “float” categories. This pie

chart shows what percent of students correctly and incorrectly sorted the materials. Fifteen out of

sixteen students correctly sorted all of the materials, and 1/16 students incorrectly sorted the

materials. This only occurred because he was mixing up what “sink” and “float” meant. Most of
the students were able to correctly sort the materials, so I would use this information by making

sure that I gave extra support to the student who incorrectly sorted them. I would want to explain

why he missed the question and help him fix his sorting. I want to give him a chance to explain

why he thought the way he did as well during the individual conference. According to Chiappetta

(2020), “formative-feedback conferences can be used to guide students toward deeper

understanding and more polished projects by figuring out exactly where they are” (p.11). I would

also use these results to add in more categories for the students to sort materials because majority

of the students are capable of correctly sorting materials. For the next day, I would make sure to

closely monitor the one student who incorrectly sorted the materials during the previous day. If

he was having trouble, I might cut his number of categories back down to two. I did not expect

these results because I thought more of the students would not have completed this assignment

correctly or finished it. They were all on task, and this is not very common in this classroom.

However, I did expect the one student to struggle a little with this activity because sometimes he

has a hard time concentrating.

For the math lesson, students sorted M&Ms by color and counted the amount of M&Ms in of

each color. This bar graph shows that 100% of the students correctly sorted their M&Ms by

color, and it also shows that only 12 of the students correctly counted the M&Ms and four of the

students incorrectly counted the M&Ms. I would use these results the next day in planning by

having those four students count the objects out loud. I would also watch and listen to those four

students when they complete this. According to Guhl (2019), “young children are quick learners,

especially when it is relevant to their daily life. Early math skills can also be taught without any

materials such as counting everyday objects, verbally counting together, or singing counting

songs” (p. 23). All of the students correctly sorted the objects, so they are able to continue with

sorting by different attributes. I would just closely work with the students who incorrectly

counted their M&Ms. I did not expect all of the students to correctly sort their M&Ms because a

lot of the students are usually off task and have trouble focusing to complete an assignment. I

was happily surprised to see all of them engaged and working diligently to correctly sort the
M&Ms. However, I was not surprised that four of the students incorrectly counted their M&Ms.

Some of the students rush, so this is common in this classroom. If they take their time, most of

the students can correctly count objects. There are only one or two students who have a hard time

with counting or need guidance.

For the language arts and social studies lesson, students were to write a fact about the symbol of

a clover. This bar graph shows that 11 students correctly wrote a fact about the symbol, and five

students incorrectly did this. This bar graph indicates that the students in red did not have a fact

about the symbol of the clover. I would use these results the next day in my planning by having a

mini lesson about fully following the prompt. It would be about the steps to take in talking about

everything that is asked of them in the sentence. I would do this with the whole class to reinforce

the ideas for others, and I would individually help those other five students that day by giving

them extra support and prompting about the specific content they are struggling with. According
to Graham (2019), “time alone is not sufficient to ensure that students receive strong writing

instruction. In addition, goals for instruction must be identified, the curriculum content specified,

and effective instructional practices applied” (p. 288). I did expect these results because some of

the children in the class have problems fully completing their thoughts or staying on task to have

a full sentence about what is asked of them. They complete sentences with sentence starters

every morning, and some of these children do not always finish their thoughts there either.

2. When reflecting on the feedback you provided for the 2 students and the whole class

(students you taught), do you feel this effectively provided them with insight into their

learning about the content? Why?

I feel that I effectively provided the two students with insight into their learning about

each content because I was very specific of what they did well and what they need to

work on in each content. I described what they were doing correctly and provided ways

to change what they needed to work on. For example, I told the one child to slow down in

his writing. This helps to make his handwriting more legible, and I saw him attempt to fix

that. I also made sure the feedback was written and oral to attend to their learning needs. I

conferenced with them individually, so they knew my expectations and could ask

questions about what I was saying for each content area. However, I did not give them a

way to remember my feedback. I did not know that I was supposed to until reading over

this assignment. In the future, I would give them various ways to remember what I said

during class for future lessons. I have concrete ideas for that from this assignment, so this

will help.
 I effectively provided feedback to the entire class as well because I provided each student

with insight about their work in each content every day. They were given positive

feedback and ways to improve during these conferences, and I made sure they had a time

to voice their feelings as well about how they did. I gave them written and verbal

feedback to help all of the students. Some are better with reading the feedback than others

because I have a lot of students who can’t read yet. I made sure to still tell every student

verbally how they did because I wanted them to hear it. However, I also did not give

them ways to remember the feedback I gave them. I would implement that in the future

with the entire class as well.

3. How did you or will you help students use this feedback? You will want to discuss the

concrete ways you will use to remind them of the feedback and the teaching strategies

you will incorporate to have them use the feedback in a follow-up lesson.

In the future, I will help my students use this feedback by providing visuals to help them

remember to take their time in sorting the materials. This would be for science in follow

up lessons as well because they will continue to sort materials by their properties with

more than two categories. Only one of the students did not correctly sort the materials,

but I would give this feedback to everyone because there is more room for error when

there are more categories. I would also model an example of sorting materials by their

properties into more than 2 categories to help them feel more confident. For student one,

I would provide a visual for him about how he needs to slow down. This would be on his

desk, and he would also have the reminder from the entire class. For student two, I would

provide a visual on his desk for him to take his time as well.
For math, I will help my students use this feedback by giving them a visual for taking

their time in counting the number of objects they have. Only a few students struggled

with this, but some of the students will have more trouble when there are bigger numbers

involved. The follow up lesson is about less than, greater than, or equal to, so this would

benefit students. They will need to count the amount in each group, and they will need to

continue to take their time. I will model this and have them count aloud together to start

the lesson. This will help the students because they will feel more confident when they

need to count the number of objects on their own. For student one, I would tape down

how to correctly write a “5” on his desk. He has a number line as well to help him see

other numbers in case he needs to work on those as well. For student two, I would

provide a visual on his desk about how he needs to double check his counting when

completing an activity.

For language arts and social studies, I will help my students use this feedback by

providing a visual about how they should ask themselves if their sentence fully answers

the question and makes sense. I would provide oral prompting for the auditory learners as

well. This would benefit everyone when they write about what they would do as the

Easter Bunny for 24 hours in the next lesson. This will ensure that the students cover the

language arts aspect of writing a full informative sentence with a clear idea and the social

studies aspect as well. We would focus more on the writing process as well to implement

that idea, and this would be done through mini lessons too. For student one, I would give

him a visual reminder to slow down on his writing. He will also have an ABC strip in

front of him to help him write his letters correctly. For student two, I would tape a visual

reminder to his desk about how he needs to ask himself if his sentence is complete and
 his thoughts make sense. I will come over periodically to ask him this as well to keep him

on track. With all of these ways to help students to remember the feedback given, the

students will implement the feedback more than if they were not given a reminder.

4. Describe what you learned about teaching and learning related to assessment and

feedback? Please be specific and use some concrete professional citations in your answer.

I learned how important formative assessment is during the teaching process. This helps

informs the teacher’s instruction and helps the students see where they are at as well. If a

strategy isn’t working, the teacher can pivot to try a different strategy to help all of the

students. According to Ozan & Kincal (2018), “prioritizing the learning and making up of

deficiencies instead of grading… and assessing students in accordance with individual

development levels instead of comparing them to each other all help students to develop

positive attitudes toward class” (p. 108). Along with assessment, I learned how powerful

kid-friendly checklists are. It gives the child a sense of control and helps them to self-

reflect on their own learning. They can double check their work as they go, and they can

feel more confident when finished with the final product. According to Rowlands (2007),

“a tangible reminder of how to approach a particular task, a checklist can help students

internalize new processes in reading and writing, providing metacognitive cues that

scaffold development of independent control of such processes” (p. 66). With feedback, I

learned the importance of giving students concrete ways to remind them of the feedback

that was given. Students may forget easily what the teacher told them they need to work

on. However, it benefits them by having various places to look in the classroom for a

reminder. These concrete ways can be done verbally by the teacher as well. The teacher

can provide verbal prompting and reminders before the next lesson. If many of the
 students did not understand the previous lesson, the teacher can provide a mini lesson on

the previous content. Feedback helps the learner grow, and assessment helps both the

teacher and student understand where the students are at in the learning process.

5. What would you have done differently during this lesson week? Why? Be specific!

I would have provided concrete ways for students to remember the feedback I gave them

with the previous lesson. For example, I would have provided a visual about taking their

time after the science lesson and kept it up for the math lesson since they were similar

lessons. This would help the students not to make the same mistakes from the previous

lesson. I would have also given more whole group directions before having them

complete the activities on their own. I modeled at the beginning of every lesson, but I did

not tell the entire class information that they needed to know. I would only tell certain

tables and not everyone was listening. For example, I did not tell the entire class not to

eat their M&Ms. I had many students ask me during the lesson if they could, but I should

have addressed this as an entire class. I wish I would have reiterated the importance of

teamwork in my science lesson as well. The students were working in groups to make

one boat, and there were a lot of fights during it. I should have been clear that they need

to work together nicely to make one boat. A lot of the groups understood, but some of the

groups were trying to make multiple boats in one group. In every lesson, I need to learn

how to have a stronger voice. My mentor teacher and supervisor explained that I need to

be sterner with the students, or I will never gain their respect. Some of the students did

not realize I could take Dojo points away from them because they said I was not their

teacher. However, my mentor teacher explained to them that I am their teacher when I am
teaching them. I have the same capabilities as her, and they need to learn to respect my

authority. I struggle with this because I know there is a fine line between being stern and

being mean. With more practice, I plan to work on this. My lessons went very well

overall, but I need to work on a few problems to be more prepared for unit week.
 References

Ceyhun, O & Kincal, R.Y. (2018). The effects of formative assessment on academic

achievement, attitudes towards the lesson, and self-regulation skills. Educational

Sciences: Theory and Practice 18(1) 85-118.

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1179831.pdf

Chiappetta, E. (2020). How conferencing for assessment benefits students during hybrid

learning. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/how-conferencing-assessment-

benefits-students-during-hybrid-learning

Graham, S. (2019). Changing how writing is taught. Review of Research in Education 43(1)

277-303. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.3102/0091732X18821125

Guhl, P. (2019). The impact of early math and numeracy skills on academic achievement in

elementary school. NWCommons.

https://nwcommons.nwciowa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1145&context=education_

masters

Rowlands, K.D. (2007). Check it out! Using checklists to support student learning. English

Journal 96(1) 61-66.

https://www.siprep.org/uploaded/ProfessionalDevelopment/Readings/Checklists.pdf