McKenzie Traver

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SLA

Student Learning Analysis

Section 1: Goals & Standards-
● Introduction:
For my student teaching assignment, I was assigned to be in a second-grade classroom in Warren
Consolidated Schools. There are 25 students in my classroom, most of them girls. I have been working side by
side with my mentor, Jennifer Pisha since the beginning of January to teach multiple subjects to the students.
After looking at students' needs, I decided to choose the subject of writing as what I was going to focus on for
this SLA assignment. The writing lesson was taught to the whole class, but I chose to focus on three students
that I thought would show the most growth for this assignment. After analyzing these students’ writing, it isn’t
where it should be at the 2nd grade level. Writing is an essential skill that is incorporated in every subject area.
These students were observed through different assessments throughout a couple of weeks.
The writing objectives for this assignment are,
 Students will be able to clearly state their opinions by providing reasons to support their opinion.
 Students will be able to have correct grammar and punctuation in their sentences.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.21 Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or book they are writing
about, state an opinion, supply reasons that support the opinion use linking words (e.g., because, and, also) to
connect opinion and reasons, and provide a concluding statement or section.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.2.5 With guidance and support from adults and peers, focus on a topic and strengthen
writing as needed by revising and editing.

Although this was taught as a whole class, I decided to focus on these three students. After analyzing
their work, and discussing with my mentor, we decided these students would show the most growth. All the
girls are at different learning levels.

Sumaya She is one of the “high-flyers” In the classroom. She

always gets her work done, but she rushes through
her work and makes careless mistakes for herself. I
would love to see her take more time rereading her
work and being more independent fixing her
mistakes. Sumaya is great at stating her opinion and
giving reasons to back it up. She needs to grow in
using better punctuation and capitalization.
Erin She enjoys writing when she is getting one on one
instructions from the teacher. She can be careless
with her mistakes. Sometimes, even after I give her
multiple corrections, she forgets to correct them. Erin
can give her opinion but struggles to back it up in her
writing.
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Liana Most of the time she can provide good punctuation

and capitalization. Liana also provides her opinion
clearly but needs help giving reasons to support her
opinion. Liana needs to make sure her sentences are
complete and make sense to what point she is trying
to make.

Section 2: Assessment Information Gathered-

The pre-assessment that was given was found online. I found the template of the opinion writing; I just
adjusted it by providing lines for sentences. (Opinion Writing Template )
Before I modeled the worksheet with the class, we talked about what opinions are. Our topic for this writing
piece was, “In your opinion, which is more fun writing or drawing?”

This was my model that was presented during a whole group discussion. The directions were that each student
had to have at least four sentences. The sentences were lined out as such,
1. State your opinion
2. Reason
3. Example
4. Restate your opinion

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The assessment provided the following information:

Sumaya
Sumaya followed the directions. Before Nevershe caughtFew Sometimes Mostly Always
Pre-Assessment (18/20) 0 1 2 3 4
herself, she didn’t capitalize every letter in the
A capital letter is used at the
beginning of the sentence. Sumaya originally forgot to
beginning of each sentence.
put a period
Proper in one is
punctuation ofused
her sentences.
at the Her sentences are
endcomplete, her opinion is stated clearly, and she has
of each sentence.
reasons backing it up. Sumaya’s biggest issue is that
she rushes herself and wants the teacher’s attention to
Sentences are complete.
fix every error without looking over her own work,
first. When she does take her time, she can catch those
Opinion is stated clearly.
minor mistakes.

Reason(s) backing opinion.

Erin did not follow all the directions. She is

Erin lacking 3 sentences. She has very tiny
Never Few Sometimes Mostly Always
handwriting.(8/20)
Pre-Assessment With this small of handwriting,
0 1 2 3 4
sometimes it is hard to decipher whether she is
Acapitalizing
capital letter all
is used at the in the beginning of the
her letters
beginning of each sentence.
sentence. The one sentence she does have, there
is a punctuation
Proper period at the is end
usedofat it.
theHer
end sentence is not
ofcomplete and doesn’t make sense. Her opinion is
each sentence.
stated, but there isn’t a reason to back up her
Sentences
opinion.are complete.
Erin admitting later to me that she was
confused with the directions of this assignment.
Opinion is stated clearly.

Reason(s) backing opinion.

Liana did not follow the directions. She did capitalize

every beginning letter after a period. Her sentences are
not complete. She needs to reread her writing before
submitting it, so she can fix her mistakes. Her opinion
is stated clearly, but she does not back it up.

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Liana Never Few Sometimes Mostly Always

Pre-Assessment (13/20) 0 1 2 3 4
A capital letter is used at the
beginning of each sentence.
Proper punctuation is used at the end
of each sentence.

Sentences are complete.

Opinion is stated clearly.

Reason(s) backing opinion.

Section 3: Analysis of Student Thinking-

After analyzing the data that I collected from the
pre-assessment, I was surprised with a few of the results.
I was surprised that 2/3 of the girls struggled with
providing reasons to support their opinion. Something
positive I found from this was that all three of the girls
are determined and want to become better writers. When
this assignment was passed back, I pulled the girls
individually and discussed what their “glows and grows”
were in their writing. I shared with them their pre-assessment rubric and showed them exactly what they were
missing. By doing this, my students now have their individual goals in mind for what they are going to
accomplish moving forward!
Work Samples:
Samaya was given the directions as a whole group. She
was then the first one to complete this activity. When she
handed it to me, I immediately noticed that she didn’t
capitalize the correct letters. She also forgot the
punctuation at the end of the sentence. These are the
same issues from the pre-assessment. When it comes to
Sumaya’s creative writing ability, she can produce an
opinion and give supportive reasoning. Based on these
results, I knew my instructional focus moving forward
was going to be on punctuation and capitalization.

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Erin was given the same opportunity as

Sumaya. She did provide punctuation but
did not write the correct punctuation for
number 3. Likewise, she did not capitalize
any of the letters at the beginning of the
sentence. Similar problems were present in
the pre-assessment. Reflecting on the pre-
assessment, I know Erin struggles with
capitalization, and providing reasons to
back up an opinion. Based on these results,
I knew my instructional focus moving
forward was going to be on those areas.

Liana has a capital letter at the beginning of

every sentence. She has a period at the end of
every sentence. She can clearly state her
opinion but struggles with providing reasons
to support her opinion. In this work sample,
this was an independent activity that the
students had to summarize their story that is
on the front side of the page. As you can see,
Liana can set the tone of her writing, but lacks
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supporting details. Based on these results, I knew my instructional focus moving forward was going to be on
how to better our writing through details.

Section 4: Future Instruction-

After analyzing the data, I developed an instructional plan to ensure my students would be successful
with being able to clearly state their opinion by providing reasons to support their opinion. Also, students will
successfully be able to have correct grammar and punctuation in their sentences. The plan was broken down
into these following parts…
 Punctuation and Grammar

- Most of the class, and 2/3 of the girls struggle with punctuation and grammar. Every
morning, we have the students work on
their printing packets independently.
This gives them the chance to have that
constant motion of copying sentences
with the proper capitalization,
punctuation, and grammar.
- In addition to that, I wanted the students
to create their own six-word sentences
with their spelling words. Then, I told
the students to go back with a
highlighter and highlight every
capitalized letter, spelling word and the
punctuation that ends the sentence. This
is done independently, but I do work
with students that need extra support
with ideas.
*Every day in the afternoon, the students have independent work time where I can have small
groups over, or work with students individually with whatever they might be having a tough
time with.

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 Opinions and Reasons

-This activity was presented as a

whole group. It was modeled
first, then the students attempted
to do a “See. Think. Wonder.
Write” independently. This
activity allows them to come up
with their own opinion as to what
they see, think and question
when I show the class a certain
picture.
-The reasoning aspect comes into play
with this activity when we share aloud.
After I give the students time to think
about their “STWW,” I ask for
volunteers to share their writing. Then,
the students must come up with the
reasons as to WHY they chose their
“see, think, and wonder.”

 Organization
-When I initially introduced the pre-assessment, I just modeled my expectation on how I wanted the
response to be. After reviewing the pre-assessments, I can tell the students need help organizing their
thoughts into words on paper.
-It was obvious that my modeled sentence structure wasn’t enough, so I needed to provide my students
with a visual that may be familiar to them. I drew my students an anchor chart like the one below called
the “OREO Opinion Writing.” This gave them something easy they can remember to organize their
opinions into writing.

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 Details
-The students overall need to add more details to their writing. By doing this, they will have an easier
time finding reasons to support their opinion in their writing.
-For the activity below, the students had to come up with a “How to…” do a task. They had to list the
steps and add details to the steps to make the task easy for anyone to follow.
-After the students finished their rough draft of their “How to,” I went through them all and added more
detail to each paper. I did that to model how adding details makes their paper much better to read and
easier to follow.
-Overall, this activity took us about 2 weeks to complete. We’ve been working on it independently and
with partners. The students also had chances to work with me one on one and in small groups to
complete their writing.

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McKenzie Traver
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SLA

Sumaya Never Few Sometimes Mostly Always

Post-Assessment (20/20) 0 1 2 3 4
A capital letter is used at the X
beginning of each sentence.
Proper punctuation is used at the X
end of each sentence.
Sentences are complete.
Opinion is stated clearly.
Reason(s) backing opinion. X
Section 5: Additional Information Gathered to Determine Student Growth:
The post-assessment that was given was identical to the pre-assessment with the same whole group directions.
Additionally, the students have had more exposure to writing opinion pieces, such as the anchor chart that is
visual for the students to see in the classroom.

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Sumaya has made so much progress! After a

lot of punctuation and capitalization practice,
she was able to produce writing with no errors
in those areas. She took her time during this
assessment and reread her work before turning
it in.

Erin Never Few

Post-Assessment (20/20) 0 1
A capital letter is used at the
beginning of each sentence.
Proper punctuation is used at the
end of each sentence.
Sentences are complete.
Opinion is stated clearly.
Reason(s) backing opinion.

Erin has bloomed so much as writer! After having

my first writing conference with Erin, she
explained to me why her pre-assessment was so
poorly written. She was confused by the directions
because she came in late from being pulled for
extra support. Erin is shy and has a hard time
asking for help in a whole group setting. She
thought we were writing our opinion on a previous
conversation that was had before she left the
classroom. But, after having many workshops with
her working on her writing, I could tell Erin can
write in complete sentences and state her opinion
with supporting reasons, if the directions are made
clear to her.

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Liana has shown so much progress with her

writing. She has learned to slow down and follow
directions so she can give forth her best effort.
She has gotten better at making complete
sentences, but she did forget to add one period to
a sentence. Liana has also improved at providing
reasons to back up her opinion.

Liana Never Few Sometimes Mostly Always

Post-Assessment (18/20) 0 1 2 3 4
A capital letter is used at the
beginning of each sentence.
Proper punctuation is used at
the end of each sentence.
Sentences are complete.
Opinion is stated clearly.
Reason(s) backing opinion.
Conclusion:
Overall, I am beyond happy with the results of the assignment. The whole class made improvements, big
and small. As far as the three girls I analyzed, they all improved majorly in different ways. Each of them has
learned to take their time, reread their work, follow directions, and ask questions if they need help. By doing
those things, they have taken their writing to higher levels than before.
If I were to teach this lesson again, I would do a couple of things differently. For instance, I would have
made sure Erin was caught up on what to do when she walked into the room. I would have also given more
examples of providing reasoning to support an opinion. When I first assigned the “How to…” writing

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assignment, I was naive to believe the students could add details to their writing without sitting down with them
and helping them brainstorm.
Moving forward, I would have a day prior to writing just to brainstorm ideas. I think the students would
have benefited enormously by jotting down their ideas and then branching out from those ideas. To sum it all
up, I am thrilled with the data that was collected and how the students have grown into such confident,
awesome writers!

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