Impact on Student Learning Project Emily Prescott Fall th Grade

Introduction: The Impact of Student Learning Project is based on a teacher candidate presenting their students with pre-test and post-test in four subjects. Those subjects are math, language arts, science and social studies. Teacher candidates score both test given and graph the data that was found. This graph will show any growth that the students made over time. In this project, break out data is also included. One ELL student will be analyzed outside of the class average. Each core curricula will have a written reflection that will summarize events that took place. Attached, you will find my Impact of Student Learning Project.

Reflection of Social Studies Social studies was not a strong subject for me to teach when I first walked into a classroom. The kids always complained when starting social studies. I would study and study to figure out a way to make it more engaging for students. Finally, I started getting it. We both, students and myself, started having fun during this time. I started including graphic organizers and time lines to my lessons. I also had them create their own communities and 3D maps. Social studies really comes to life when time and effort is spent putting stuff together. This was the first subject that I gave a pre-test in. It was hard to watch them panic. I had to explain to them that we haven’t covered this material and that it was okay not to know stuff. My students strive for excellence. The test that was given had 10 questions on it and they covered a wide variety of items. This test was a multiple choice test out of four choices.

Social Studies Continued: Vocabulary was one area that was big for the pre-test. It tested them on previous knowledge of harder vocabulary words. It also covered Native American Tribes and how they farmed, hunted, their tools and their homes. The pre-test class average for correct answers was a four point ten. That means that most of the students answered only four questions correctly. The post-test class average was a nine. That was a much better grade. I wanted to get the kids excited about this chapter because it tells a lot about the people who were here before us. I had the students become the teachers for that week. They had to present information on a Native American Tribe. Because the students scored an average of nine questions correct out of a ten question test, I can reflect upon that and say that the students enjoyed being taught by their peers.

Reflection of Science: I can honestly say that I did not think science was very fun when I started out in my internship. Science was never pushed when I was in school and I do not remember doing anything fun. Boy was I wrong! Science has become one of the perks of my afternoon. I love how the students are asking me every day, “What are we doing today in science?” YAY! I feel like I have completed a goal; I have got my students excited about learning. This test was a five question test that focused on topics taught throughout the science lesson. The topic was “How Does Technology Help Us Learn About Space?” When I gave the pre-test, the students had no idea what to do. The test was multiple choice with four choices for each question. We have never talked about technology in space prior to this activity. The class average for the pre-test was 1.62 questions answered correctly and the post-test was 4.14 questions answered correctly.

Science Continued: While teaching this lesson, I did use the science basal. I covered all of the basics in a 8 page lesson over the course of four days. During those four days, I also created a web- quest that allowed students to search the NASA website, on their personal iPads, to find technology that is currently being used. Having the students do a web-quest on their iPads allowed them to use technology to learn about technology. This was a great hands on tool for the ELL student in my room. This also allowed students to broaden their knowledge on current events happening in space. Did you know that rubber soles was created to help astronauts in space? Now everyone owns a pair of rubber soled shoes. I believe that allowing the students to research things on their own while incorporating the science basal, students were able to score better on the post-test that was given. Seventeen students answered four or five questions correctly on the post- test. To me, this means that students were engaged during the lesson and they enjoyed the hands on activity that was created for them.

Reflection of Reading Reading is fun to teach! Unpacking the new Florida State Standards has been somewhat fun and rigorus. It has allowed me to dig deep and try to expand the minds of 21 fourth graders. The week of the pre-test we were doing theme, so that is what they were tested on. The test had ten questions and they were fill in the blank. They had to use one theme word to answer a question. For example: Bob was a friend that would stick by your side no matter the cost. The students would have a word list to pick from and they would have to pick loyal. Prior to the pre-test, the students had never seen theme before. The average questions answered correctly on the pre-test was I was surprised by that because of the sentences that was given and the word choices that were available for answers. To teach theme I did a wide variety of activities so students could use their multiple intelligences.

Reading Continued: I put pictures together that would show a “theme” and I called them “Theme Bags”. For example: One bag had snow, top hat, carrots, coal, and sticks. The students had to say that the theme of this bag was snowman. The reason that this helped them was to know that all things have to work together for theme. If they just saw the snow, it could stand for cold or winter. But, when all of the pictures were put together students could easily guess that they had the “theme” of a snowman. Another thing that I did was use videos. Some of the video choices were, “Finding Nemo” and “The Little Mermaid.” Students watched a short clip of the movie on the computer and had to come up with the theme. There were many other activities that were completed before the post test. I believe that the visuals and group work that was completed allowed for the ELL student to excel during this reading lesson. After all of the teaching and instruction, the post-test average for correct answers was I will say that this was one of the lessons that I enjoyed better. Maybe that is why their post-test average scores soared. If I had a passion, they had a passion too.

Reflection of Math In college, math was my strongest subject. It is funny how things change over time. Now, I do not feel comfortable teaching fourth grade math. I feel like I am missing something and that I could be teaching them more strategies than I am. Math was the last subject that I took over teaching. So, the pre-test came later in my internship. The pre-test was a ten question test. They were tested on multiplication using different models. The did not do well at all. But, that is to be expected when you give a test to students and they do not know any of the material. To prepare the students, I had to teach them different multiplication models. They had to learn area model, base ten block model, distributive property, and basic two digit multiplication. This was a two week process for students to grasp.

Math Continued The students were able to do many hands on activities with math this week. We used our desk as marker boards, we played games such as, “I have, who has?”, and we also played a game on the computer with the IXL program. After two weeks of teaching and practicing, I felt like the students were well prepared to take the test. When I gave the post-test, I wasn’t sure what the outcome would be, but, I think they did very well. Out of ten questions, the average amount of correct answers was After the post-test, I knew that my students were well prepared. The break out score for the ELL student was: Pre-test: 0 Post-test: 7 I believe that this student was able to do so well because I completed a lot of Kagan Strategies for this lesson. I gave many opportunities for students to be peer coaches. This is where if students were struggling, I would find someone who had answered the question correctly on their desk to help the struggling students. Because there were more than just the ELL student struggling, it didn’t single him out and he was able to learn from different people.

Impact of Student Learning Reflection

Over the course of this project, I believe that I learned a lot of valuable information. Some of that information was positive and some of it was negative. I believe the positive side to pre-testing is that when a teacher grades the test and the scores are charted, this will give the teacher a better understanding where the student’s skills are lacking or where their weak area is. When using data on pre- test, this will help when setting up centers or small group activities because you will know where to pour your energy into trying to make sure students really get that one subject that is being taught. This data also allows you to pin point the type of question that most students are missing. My mentor taught me to chart all of the questions and tally the questions that they got wrong. When the post-test is given and scored, you tally those answers as well. After you have tallied all of the answers, you can begin to see a pattern. Then you can begin asking yourself questions: 1.Did they miss number 11 because they didn’t subtract right? 2.Are they rushing through number 2 because it is a word problem? Asking yourself questions will allow you to examine the test a little closer so you can really know your student’s strengths and weaknesses.

On the negative side of pre-test, you have the kids that worried that this test is going to go in the grade book and count against me. They were worried about missing so many problems and leaving so many problems blank. I think on every pre-test that was given, I had to go around to some students and ask why they were so upset and staring into space. They just wanted to do a good job and not fail anything. It is hard to kids to accept they know they are going to fail this test and yet we have to take it anyways. Another note, is that for teachers who already have a full schedule, pre- testing and post-testing would be looked at as if it was just one more thing them to have to do. It would be a very time consuming thing to administer. You would have double the test to grades and double the scores to keep.

In closing, I think that pre-testing is a wonderful idea but it should be at a teachers discretion. If a teacher thinks that a pre-test is a waste of time, I do not feel like they should do it. If your heart isn’t in something, normally you will find every way to get out of it, causing you to miss a pattern in errors or giving up completely. Pre-testing is a great way to get an understanding of what students know. This could help if you were in a REACH class where students might become bored because they already know it. Giving a pre-test is a good tool to use to see if lessons could be skipped because students already know how to do something. It also will allow you to know who already knows the material so that person can help you coach others.