ECE 661

Work sample form

ANALYZING STUDENT WORK: CONTENT BASED ASSESSMENT

Grade Level: Kindergarten

Process (used for individual student evaluation or group assessment of work products)
STEP 1: Assessing and Identifying Proficiency
Read the assessment prompt and/or rubric and identify:
● What are the students expected to do?
Response: Students were given their journals to practice writing. They were
instructed to copy the simple sentence containing sight words as the teacher
wrote it on the board. The teacher reminded students to keep their letters in the
lines and to use their finger to provide space between each word.

● Which standards (CCSS or content standards) or curriculum expectations are

being assessed?
Response: Language Standards Grade K Conventions of Standard English
1A. Print many upper- and lowercase letters
2A. Capitalize the first word in a sentence, the first letter of the student’s
name, and the pronoun I

Writing Standards Grade K Text Types and Purposes

2. Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose
informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about
and supply some information about the topic.

● What assistive devices, if any, will students be able to use (i.e. calculator, ruler,
protractor, number charts, graph paper, scrape paper, etc.)
Response: Words written by the teacher, alphabet letters on the wall, and tracing
for students who struggle or need extra assistance with certain letters

● What do you consider to be a proficient response on this assessment? Exactly

what do students need to say or write for you to consider their work proficient?
Response: A proficient response would be the student copying the simple
sentence with uppercase and lowercase letters in the correct spot, almost all
letters within the lines and next to each other, and having adequate space in
between each word. A developing student would have copied most of the
sentence with uppercase and lowercase letters mostly in the correct spot, most
of the letters within the lines and next to each other, and decent space in
Adapted from: Rhode Island Department of Education & the National Center for the Improvement of Educational
Assessment, Inc.
ECE 661
Work sample form
between each word. An emerging student would have a few words with a mix of
uppercase and lowercase letters, letters spilling over the lines, and some space
in between words.

● Does the assessment give students a clear opportunity to demonstrate what

they know or have learned? Provide a clarifying statement for how…
Response: This assessment does provide an opportunity for students to
demonstrate their writing ability and understanding of letter and word
placement. While this is not independent work from the mind of the student
they are learning the importance of letter placement, how those letter groupings
form words, and the importance of having space in between the words. These
students have just begun their literacy learning and still are working on
recognizing sight words. By writing these sight words they are familiarizing
themselves with the written form of the words along with discovering how
written words are used as a form of communication. There have been
opportunities for the students to engage in free writing however it is usually a
picture with a jumble of letters put together or no letters at all.

STEP 2: Identifying Strengths and Needs if working with a group of learners

Do a “quick sort” of students’ work by the general degree of the objectives met,
developing, or not yet.

Met Students have already demonstrated

objectives consistency with key knowledge and skills
for the assignment.
Developing Students are appropriately prepared to meet
objectives the demands of the assignment.
Not Yet Students have not yet met the prerequisite
objectives knowledge of skills necessary to complete
the assignment.

Sorted lists: (Per request of the host teacher, student names have been removed)

Met Developing Not Yet

objectives objectives objectives

Adapted from: Rhode Island Department of Education & the National Center for the Improvement of Educational
Assessment, Inc.
ECE 661
Work sample form
Student B Student C Student A
Student D Student G Student F
Student E Student H Student J
Student I Student L
Student K Student M
Student N Student R
Student O
Student P
Student Q

50 % of class 33% of class 16% of class

STEP 3: Identify the prerequisite knowledge (skills) the students

demonstrated they are able to use (items may be bulleted within each category).
These are the strengths or skills demonstrated by student within each category of
your pre-sort.
Met Developing Not Yet
best quality work progressing work incomplete work
samples samples samples
● Uppercase and ● Uppercase and ● Mix of uppercase and
lowercase letters used lowercase letters lowercase letters
correctly mostly correct ● Little to no space
● Adequate space ● Some space between between words or
between each word words large amount of space
● Letters almost within ● Letters mostly within between words
lines lines, may be ● Letters are not in lines,
● Letters next to each above/under lines may be oversized or
other ● Letters near each very small
● Easy to read the other ● Missing most of the
sentence ● Can discern what words
● Letters are neat and sentence says ● Words are incomplete,
recognizable ● Letters are mostly missing letters
● Letters are oriented recognizable ● Writing is mostly
correctly ● Letters may be legible
backwards ● Incomplete sentence

Adapted from: Rhode Island Department of Education & the National Center for the Improvement of Educational
Assessment, Inc.
ECE 661
Work sample form
STEP 4: Identify the missing information/skills and the misconceptions
and/or wrong responses in the table that follows. You may need to review the
separate groups of work samples to ensure that you have no gaps.

Met Developing Not Yet

possible skills to work
on for
this group of students:
● Start using sight words
to create own sentence
● Continue to work on
letter size
● Continue to work on
letter shapes
possible skills to work possible skills to work
on for on for
this group of students: this group of students:
● Work on letter ● Tracing letters to
orientation develop appropriate
● Work on downsizing size
letters to fit within ● Different lined paper
lines to practice letter
● Copy shorter writing
sentences ● More time to write
● Use physical object, ● Assistance from adult
like finger, to help with to help focus if
spacing between distracted in group
words ● Use physical object,
like finger, to help with
spacing between
words

STEP 5: Identify Instructional Next Steps

Based on the analysis of the students work samples, ask yourself:
▪ What patterns or trends are noted for the individual or the group?

▪ Think about a range of instructional strategies that will be beneficial for the
individual or the group? Then based on your analysis of student data
(responses), within each category, identify specific instructional strategies
to be used in the support of learners in meeting the identified objectives.
Complete the table:

Adapted from: Rhode Island Department of Education & the National Center for the Improvement of Educational
Assessment, Inc.
ECE 661
Work sample form
Instructional Strategies/ Next Steps
What will you focus your instruction on for the student or students in each group?

Met Developing Not Yet

Students who demonstrated full Students who demonstrated partial Students who attempted to complete
competence in this assignment need competence in this assignment need this assignment need to focus on the
to focus on the following skills next: to focus on the following skills: following skills:

● Successfully create a
short sentence using
sight words
● Letters fit
appropriately within
the lines on the paper
● Letter shapes are
accurate
● Letters are all oriented
correctly
● Correct use of upper
and lowercase letters
● Letters are closer to an
appropriate size
● Successfully using a
tool to help provide
equal spacing between
words
● All letters are in the
words
● Placing letters are on
or in the line
● Putting space between
words
● Asking for
help/responding to
help from an adult

Self-reflection on your process (Reflect on the use of such an informative assessment tool
and how you think this tool or similar type of process could be used in your developing
practice.):

The breakdown of this tool was helpful because I was able to pause and really figure out
what I was looking for. I did find myself becoming too detailed at one point and I was able to
relook at what I had previously reflected on as the guidelines so that I was able to make the
process smoother. I could see myself using this tool to help place students in a large group
and then possibly breaking that group into smaller groups based on the strategies that I come
up with in regards to what is successful and needs work in each area. This tool could be very
helpful in analyzing individual student work because it can be as specific or as broad as I
want it to be. I can also possibly see sharing this tool, somewhat modified, with parents. The
way things are laid out it is easy enough that parents can understand where their child is at
and what areas may need help. It might be helpful to do parts of this before collecting and
analyzing student work because it could almost be used as a self-check in to see if the skills
identified are being incorporated into the lessons leading up to sample collection. It might
also be helpful to have another adult analyze the samples and provide input on skills being
met or needed. Another teacher could see something that I do not or think of a skill that could
Adapted from: Rhode Island Department of Education & the National Center for the Improvement of Educational
Assessment, Inc.
ECE 661
Work sample form
be worked on. I do think that using a tool such as this and developing my own process to
analyze and evaluate student work is important. As the teacher, I need to be able to see
student progress and where they are struggling so that I can know when to incorporate
something for the whole group and at what levels I need to individualize. Having my own
system is essential since I will be doing a lot of evaluating however there also needs to be
something that can be used if I were to ask someone else for input or that I can go back to if
needed.

Adapted from: Rhode Island Department of Education & the National Center for the Improvement of Educational
Assessment, Inc.