Student #7: (Tyler)

Tyler is an only child and the youngest student in the class. He has blonde hair and blue
eyes and is a bit on the stocky side. Not so much that I would say he is overweight but he could
possibly be headed in that direction. He is a very take charge kind of kid. When you are having a
conversation with him and he has something to say he will talk right over you. He is always in a
hurry to get out whatever he has to say. One thing I have noticed about him is that he does not
articulate his words very well. He slurs them together just a bit and if he is really excited and
talking fast sometimes it is hard to understand what he is saying.
Tyler likes to play basketball during recess, but is often playing at the basketball hoop by
himself. He says that the other boys are too aggressive when they play. On Tuesdays at the
school they have Move it Marathon days. It is where the students can run laps on their lunch
break and the laps are counted up each week. The students are shooting to run a marathon this
year. Tyler will go and run laps if there is someone out there to run with him but it is not
something that he would suggest doing on his own.
I have been working with Tyler of becoming more involved with the students in class and
at recess. We play a game now where when he comes in from lunch he tells me how many laps
he ran/walked and he is always so excited to tell me that he ran/walked 4 laps which is a mile. I
love that by my encouragement he has become more excited in this activity. Getting him out
there with the other students is a way for him to become more involved with them. He now has a
group of kids that he run/walks with at lunch recess. I have gone out there with them a few times
and I noticed that when I am out there the group of students that is participating is much larger
than when I dont go.

Observing what little interaction Tyler has with the other students made me realize that if
an activity is presented to the whole class that Tyler is more likely to get involved. Creating
activities that the students can do as a group at recess has really helped to get Tyler more
involved with his peers. I think that an assessment that could be helpful to him would be to have
him try and get an activity going with some of his peers and see how he does at instigating the
activity. The way that he interacts with his peers can really show how he is learning and growing
in becoming more active with them.
Helping Tyler to become more involved with his classmates can help him with his selfesteem. If he feels comfortable with his peers and feels that he can be himself, he will be more
likely to participate in the class. Students that have low self-esteem about themselves may not
want to be a part of the class because they are afraid of what the other students will think of
them. A person with low self-esteem thinks that their peers think the same thing about them. So
if Tyler thinks that he is not smart enough to be in the ALP/GATE class he also feels that all of
his peers feel the same way about him. This will make him not want to try his best to do well in
the class. Sometimes meeting the students other needs are the best way to get them to improve in
the classroom.
At the beginning of the year Tylers Readiness levels were among the lowest in the class.
According to Mrs. Smith he has improved leaps and bounds and she would not be surprised to
see him closer to the middle of the pack now. She stated, Being in an atmosphere that
challenges him has made him have to work hard, instead of just sliding by like before.
Student #22 (Scott)
Scott is of Island decent, his father is from Tahiti. Scott is of medium build and has a
darker completion with green eyes. He is a middle child with one older brother and sister and one

younger brother and sister. He is very outgoing and loves to state his opinions. He struggles to
know when it is appropriate to speak and when he should hold his tongue. He is the closest thing
to a disruptive student this class has, which is not saying much because most of the time he just
gets excited to say something and forgets to raise his hand. He always has great ideas but thinks
they need to be shared as soon as he has them. During recess he is out on the playground playing
basketball or playing on the playground in a game of quicksand.
Scott needs to constantly be reminded to raise his hand in class. One thing that he and I
have worked on is raising his hand when he has something to say. The one problem we have run
into with raising his hand is that by the time he has been called on he has forgotten what he
wanted to say. We started a booklet for him when if he has a question he writes it down first and
then he can remember what he wanted to say. When I was teaching my lessons I had him write
down any questions he had and told him that I would answer them later. This made it so that he
was not calling out during the lesson and distracting the other students. There were time where
writing down his questions worked really well and others that they didnt. One thing that I
learned was that I had to remind him over and over again about writing down his questions. It is
something that will have to be worked on for him to learn that he should do that instead of
calling out his answers right away.
Learning to raise his hand can benefit Scott in the long run because he will be less likely
to get in trouble in class for answering out of turn or calling out incorrect answers and having the
teacher correct him in front of the class for being incorrect. I feel that at times Scott is just doing
this for the attention and that if the teacher planned her lessons around having him answer a few
questions during each lesson that it would lessen the outburst. Scott is a bright kid but needs
some attention.

Scott also needs to work on slowing down on his assignments and taking his time. He
rushes through them as fast as he can so that he can be the first to finish. This has had some
negative consequences for him. He has ended up missing problems on assignments and
assessments. He needs to take his time and read the question slowly and then go over his work
again when he is finished. I have been working with him when he turns in an assignment to send
him back to his desk and review his work. After he has reviewed it again he can turn it in. This
has helped him to get a better score on his assignments. I noticed on his last assessment that
when he finished before bringing it up to the teacher that he looked over the questions a second
time. It was nice to see that what we have been working on is becoming second nature to him.
Setting up different steps for Scott to take before he turns in an assessment or an
assignment can be a benefit to him. If he has a checklist that he follows each time he completes
something will help to remind him to double check his work and to slow down and take his time.
As time goes on I feel that it will become more of a habit for him and less of an extra thing that
he needs to complete.
Assessment #1: Literacy on Linking Verbs
This assessment was part of a lesson that I taught. I had the students write 5 complete
sentences that used 1 on the linking verbs am, are, and is. This assessment was used to see if the
students understood the correct placement of a linking verb and also if they could use the correct
linking verb in their sentence and it make sense. I chose this assessment because in our lesson we
put together sentences using the linking verbs and I wanted the assessment to align with the
lesson. I wanted the students to show me that they were capable of forming a correct sentence
using the given linking verbs.

Table 1.1 shows the breakdown of student scores from the linking verb assessment.
KEY:
Correct

Incorrect

Not turned in

Absent

Studen
t
1F

2M
3M
4M
5F

O
O
-

O
O
-

X
O
O
-

O
O
-

X
O
O
-

6F
7M
8M
9M
10 F
11 F
12 F

O
O
O
-

O
X
X
O
O
-

O
O
O
-

O
O
O
X
-

O
X
X
O
O
-

13 M

14 M
15 M
16 M
17 M

X
X
-

X
-

X
X
-

18 M

19 M
20 F

A
-

A
-

A
-

A
-

A
-

21 M
22 M

X
-

X
-

23 F
24 M

X
X

10
0
60
0
0
10
0
0
60
60
0
0
80
10
0
10
0
80
60
60
10
0
10
0
A
10
0
60
10
0
80
60

25 M
26 M

Table 1.1

X
-

80
10
0
(Provided by Mrs. Smith)

Student #19 was absent and does not have a score. Students #3, #4, #6, #9 and #10 did
not turn in their assessment. This was not a hard assessment, but the students had difficulty
coming up with ideas to write their sentences about. Even if the students were given an example
of what to write about.
Tyler struggled with this assessment. He understood what to do, but his sentences were
not put together properly. He did not use capitalization at the beginning of his sentences. The
main purpose of this assessment was to test their knowledge on linking verbs, however, the
students were asked to use them in complete sentences. If the sentence was not a complete
sentence they were marked wrong.
Scott completed this assessment with 100% however; you can tell that not a lot of effort
went into his sentences. This is one example of him wanting to finish first. If he would have
really taken his time and thought about it, I feel that he could have had some really great
sentences. One thing to do differently next time would be to give the students a topic to write
their sentences on. This way the students are able to have an idea to use for their sentence and it
also makes them think about how they can form the sentence.
One thing I took from this assessment is that the students need more practice on putting
together a complete sentence. Just because this class is an ALP/GATE class does not mean that
the students are perfect at everything. The class is so extended in some areas but as I have been
in here I have noticed that the students really struggle with some of the basics, like sentence
structure.
Assessment #2: Chapter Test, Form B

This test is from McGraw-Hill My Math volume 1. This Math program is implemented at
Riverside Elementary. This assessment is designed to check the students knowledge in different
forms of setting up multiplication sentences and solving them. Some questions ask the student to
find the unknown number by looking at a diagram. Others are story problems that have the
students set up the multiplication sentence from the information that is given in the problem and
then solve the problem that they have set up. The students also need to know how to set up an
array and know how to use the array to solve a multiplication problem.
I chose this assessment because the class had been working on this chapter for the past
week. I also taught a section in this chapter and wanted to see how each of the students did on it.
I was hoping that the students would do well on the section that I taught. They did not
disappoint. Overall, the students all did awesome on this assessment. There were a few areas the
students struggled but with a little review that can be fixed.
Table 1.2 shows each of the questions from Chapter Test, Form 3B. It also shows the
information the students needed to know in order to answer the questions.
Question #1
Find the unknown
6 groups of 2 =

Multiply 6X2
count using counters

Question #4
Use counter to model 6 groups of
6. How many counters altogether?

Question #2
Find the unknown
3 rows of 8 =
Multiply 3X8
Count using
counters

Question #5
There are 6 clowns at the
circus. Each clown is

Question #3
Use counters to model 6
groups of 5. How many
counters altogether?
Multiply 6X5
Set up a
multiplication
sentence.
Understand what
the story problem
is asking.
Count using
counters.
Question #6
There are 5 jugglers. Each
juggler is juggling 4

holding 5 balloons. How

scarves. How many

Question #7
The circus has 3 lions in each ring.
They have 4 rings in the tent. How
many lions do they have in all?
Understand what the story
problem is asking.
Setup Multiplication
sentence.
Multiply

Question #8
Mr. Martin went with his
three boys Cal, Ken, and
Kurt to the circus. They
spent $8 for each ticket.
How much did they spend
altogether?
Understand what the
story problem is
asking.
Setup Multiplication
sentence.
Multiply

Question #9
Write two multiplication
sentences for the array.
Know what an
array is.
Understand how to
read an array.
Know how to
write
multiplication
sentences.

Question #10
Use the table to solve. Kim can
choose one sandwich and one
drink for her lunch. She can have a
peanut butter, ham, turkey, or
cheese sandwich. For a drink, she
can choose water, soda, fruit juice,
or milk. How many different lunch
combinations can she make?
Understand what the
problem is asking.
Setup a multiplication
problem.
Read a table.

Question #11
Draw an array that
represents 5 rows of 6
squares. How many squares
altogether?
Know what an array
is.
Know how to draw
an array.
Multiply 5X6

Question #12
Write two multiplication
sentences for the array
above using the
Commutative Property of
Multiplication.
Know the
Commutative
property.
Write a
multiplication
sentence.
Know what an
array is.

Multiply 6X6
Set up a multiplication
sentence.
Understand what the story
problem is asking.
Count using counters.

Table 1.2

(Provided by Mrs. Ingram)

Table 1.3 shows a breakdown of the students scores for Chapter Test, Form 3B. The table
contains the students number and has an M of F designating male or female. The problems are

listed across the top of the table and each X represents a missed problem. Each represents a
correct answer.
KEY:
Correct

Incorrect

Studen
t
1F
2M
3M
4M
5F
6F
7M
8M
9M
10 F
11 F
12 F
13 M
14 M
15 M
16 M
17 M
18 M
19 M
20 F
21 M
22 M
23 F
24 M
25 M
26 M

X Table 1.3

1 11 1 %
0
2
X 91
X X 83
100
X 91
X 91
X X 83
X 91
91
X 91
100
X 91
100
X 100
X 91
X 91
X X 83
100
X 91
X 91
100
X 91
100
X X 83
X 91
X 91
100
(Provided by Mrs. Smith)

The data collected from this test shows how well the students understood the material that
they were taught. The overall all average of the test is a 96%. The high score was 100% and the

low was 83%. 6 students received 100% on the test. Tyler scored 91% and missed one question,
#8 which was the most missed question by the class and Scott got 100%.
One thing that stands out from this data is that the class did not understand question #8.
They were confused by the wording of the question. Because the question states Mr. Martin and
3 boys, the class did the multiplication with just the 3 boys. They did not count Mr. Martin in the
amount that would be needed to pay. With this data I would know that the class would need a
review on the information that was covered in this question. Making sure that the class
understands that they need to read all of the information and try and understand what the
question is asking them.
Assessment #3: Benchmark Test 1
The Benchmark Test is created by McGraw Hill and is from the My Math Volume 1
book. This assessment is given to test the students knowledge on the first 3 chapters in The
McGraw Hill: My Math Volume 1 book. The students were to know and understand proper
placement of the hundreds column, story problems using addition, ordering numbers from least
to greatest, knowing the Commutative Property, and using a model to find the sum of a number.
This test is given to the students as part of the Standardized Testing that is implemented
in the schools. I chose to use this test because it shows the learning and growth of the students
over a short period of time. When a teacher issues a chapter test the information is fresh in the
students mind and they are able to recall it better. When a Benchmark test is issued the
information can be weeks old and the test shows what the students really learned and are able to
remember.
This assessment is issued to the students on the computer and they are given their scores
as soon as they finish taking it. I really liked that the students were able to get automatic

feedback on the assessment and did not have to wait and see how they did. Tyler scored a 95%
and only missed one question. He missed question #2 which was missed by 48% of the class.
Scott also received a 95% on the assessment but he missed question #19 which was missed by
only 16% of the class. Mrs. Smiths whole class was 100% proficient on the Benchmark Test 1.
This also makes grading for the teacher so much easier. See Appendix A for the actual charts and
graphs Mrs. Smith is able to print out.
The Question Item Analysis Report shows the breakdown of each question. It shows what
the correct answer is, what answer students choose, and the class average for that question. This
data report is very helpful because it breaks down the students answers by question. The teacher
is able to quickly glance at the report and know where she needs to do a review with the students
if it is needed.
The Assignment Statistics report shows what the Mean, Medium, Low, High, and Range
of the students is. This data report is helpful to the teacher because she is able to just check one
report and have all of the information given to her. She is able to look at all the students scores
across the board without having to spend as much time grading the assessments. Not only does it
give the feedback to the students but the teacher is also give immediate feedback on how her
students are doing also.
Being able to use collected data to see how your students are doing and ways that you can
improve your lessons for them helps you as a teacher become a better teacher. You can learn
from each teaching experience and change your lessons as needed. One thing to remember is that
not every class will be the same and what works for one class may not work for another.