I'm not one to think in numbers. Looking at graphs and thinking in terms of scores has always been daunting to me. After doing this worksample though, I have come to understand how important it is and how much more simpler it can make things. It's nice to be able to look at a spread sheet and see the gains or losses of individual students and the class as a whole. It's also nice to see look back at reflections and se how they they went. It is easy to forget how things specifically went. Following are the things I will use in the future based on the data from this worksample. Assessing throughout your entire unit makes your lessons much more efficient. I'll be implementing pre, formative, and post assessments throughout my teaching.

Graphic organizers are great. They help students organize their thoughts in a clear way. It also made it easier for my students to write their essays having already filled out all the supporting information that they needed. What I would do differently next time is make them simpler. As I stated before, simpler is better. They do well with structure, but they need some breathing room as well. I think just having the boxes with no words telling what to put where would even be more effective--of course you would still have to show them what goes where. With the second graphic organizer I used, we had too many things on one sheet of paper. It's good to save paper, but not at the expense of the students understanding. I believe it's very important to set you students up to be as successful as you can. Put them first.

I want to do more research on how choice and personal experience affects a students work. The second essay I did, I had this in mind. I had the students write and essay comparing a personal experience with those in a story we had read. For the most part, they got excited about talking about themselves. I had them interview each other and that was also a big hit. Their paragraphs on themselves were much more detailed than those about the story, not in all cases, but in most. I will keep the data from these essays as I continue this research.

Exit cards work great. Almost every time I had the students write down what was helpful, what wasn't helpful, and what might still be confusing, I was surprised. Sometimes they would be complaining about an activity, and then they would individually write down how helpful it was and how much the enjoyed it. I would like to do anonymous exit cards as well. I was unsure if the students would actually do them if I didn't say it was for credit.