Student Support Services This is an overview of this quarters project.

The student support project for the Spring Quarter will involve working with seniors in a Honors College Prep English 4 class with Mr. Stokes. Mr. Stokes is a very accomplished teacher who has been in the classroom more than 15 years but has had little experience with up-wrapping standards. I chose to work with Mr. Stokes because I knew he would be willing to work with me as well as our planning period coincided to make the project work much easier.

Identification Phase I first started working with Mr. Stokes on unwrapping the standard to find an area of focus with his seniors in the last few weeks of school.

Student one is a bright girl but is often very “rushed” in her writing. Student two is very organized but has some “gaps” in her learning and would benefit from interventions. Student three is shy and this inhibits his writing process. Student four struggles with linking big ideas to a thesis. Student five has a hard time focusing when he writes and tends to generalize too much, writing without any specifics. I chose these five students based off of state test scores, personal history with the students, Mr. Stokes recommendations and two different writing samples.

Diagnosis Phase We started with designing the Post-Assessment when we returned from spring break. Mr. Stokes designed a writing assignment and a rubric that would entail the different aspects of the standards that we unwrapped. The writing assignment that the students were expected to write about the following question: In your essay, take a position on this question. Be certain to explore the pros and cons to whatever position you take on this problem, fully acknowledging the historical, religious, social and political factors which influence this incredibly complex question.

The Pre-Assessment was broken down into two assessments. The first assessment was a content based which tested the students knowledge about the circumstances in the Middle East, specifically Israel. The second assessment, which was more skill based, was a district writing sample that had a specific rubric and given to all seniors in the fourth quarter. This assessment enabled Mr. Stokes and I to determine what students were hitting the standards and which were not. The standards that we unwrapped at the beginning of the unit plan were are driving force in choosing the five students.

Intervention Phase Mr. Stokes and I worked on a backward design lesson from the beginning of the unit and used a template that neither one of us had used in the past. It really made us think about the desired results, assessment evidence and the learning plan. Mr. Stokes had a kid friendly rubric that he has been using throughout the school year that the students were familiar with using on previous assignments. Our interventions came in four forms. We first pulled the students in small groups to discuss the topic, used exemplars to emphasize what is expected, used peer editing as well as teacher reads of the writing, use of the rubric and reflection questions to enhance writing.

This is a copy of the rubric that was used in the self evaluation process. The arrows are pointing at the most crucial aspects that the students were to focus on during the writing process.

Post Assessment Phase The students were given their post assessment which entailed a rough draft as well as the final copy typed in Google Docs. The students worked on the rough draft and then implemented the interventions before working on the final copy. After the students completed their final copy more interventions were applied as well as a self evaluation pertaining to the process of their writing throughout the last few weeks.