The delivery of my Pre-Assessment occured during the first week of my SLO. Due to weather, the class was remote on this day. I did not require students to join a Google Meet. Instead, I posted the test and stressed that their scores were not important. Emphasis was placed on this being only for data collection to allow me to see what they know and don't know. Students were given participation points for completing the test.

Week 1: Week 1 began with remote instruction due to the winter weather. Students were given the Pre-Test to complete and an emphasis was placed on the score not being important. There was no Google Meet. The remainder of week 1 was spent on Similes and Metaphors. The first day of this material was remote. I recorded myself talking through the material, posted it all to Google Classroom and was available on the Google Meet during each class period to answer questions, thought the Meet was not required. This was the only day of instruction given remotely, though all materials continued to be posted to Google Classroom so if a student was absent, they could still easily do the work. Because of this format, I tried to keep all lessons throughout the unit very technology driven and engaging. Every lesson included a video or song in some way. Sometimes YouTube videos were used but I also used Flocabulary songs for which I recorded my screen with the video playing so that alll studetns could access it and would post and print the lyric sheets so that students could fill them in as they watched the video. We then spent two days covering metaphors and emphasising the difference between similes and metaphors. Students were also introduced to their "I am" Poem Project. 

Week 2: Students began the week writing "I am" poems using similes and metaphors, and used any remaining time to complete their book projects that are due at the end of every month and working on any missing work. For instance, if they did not take the pre-test, this time was used to take it. The poem project required them to write 10 lines about themselves using similes and/ or metaphors. Each line had to contain at least one. They they took a quiz on similes and metaphors. The quiz consisted of a total of 10 questions, a mix of multiple choice and short answer, requiring them to identify and write their own similes and metaphors along with look at the meanings of a few key ones discussed thoroughly in class. Instruction then transisitioned to covering Personification and Idioms with two days being spent on idioms to ensure plently of time to review the many common ones and ensure that students understand that idioms can not be made up; they must be memorized as there is no pattern to them.

 

Week 3: Week 3 began with instruction on Alliteration. For alliteration, I projected a Shel Silverstein poem on the white board and as a class, we went through the poem line by line looking for the alliteration. Any of the poem that we did not get to as a class, they finished for homework. They then took a quiz on all the types of figurative language they had learned thus far (similes, metaphors, personification, idioms, alliteration). Wednesday of week 3 had technological difficulties. The Wifi was in and out throughout the building and Skyward, the school's grading system was down. Because of this, my cooperating teacher and I agreed that it would be easier to not do a lesson this day. Instead students used this time to again work on book projects and make up work. We then went into Oxymorons and Hyperbole, spending a day on each

 

Week 4: At the start of week 4, I introduced Irony. This being a harder topic, two days were spent on it. Emphasis was spent on the 3 types, situational, dramatic and verbal, and on identifying them in writing and film. Students then took another cumulative quiz. The rest of the week covered Imagery and Onomatopoeia. With onomatopoeia, students were introduced to another writing project. They had the option to write a narrative or create a comic. The narrative required 3 paragraphs with each paragraph including onomatopoeia 3 times. The comic required 6 boxes with each box containing onomatopoeia at least once. The project was a total of 24 points. 

 

Week 5: I was out of the building on Monday so students continued to work on their Onomatopoeia Writing Project. This was due at the end of class on Monday. We then spent a day briefly covering analogies and took another quiz on Wednesday. We then spent another day working with Personification to cover Email Etiquette. I gave students an example that I created, lists of rules to follow along with a list of topics that they could pick from to write their own. We worked together as a class to write an email to a personfied object (from the list) and then students had to pick something else from the list to write to and send it in an actual email from their Montinteau email to mine. I reminded students that this likely would not be graded very fast as I now had 60 some emails to navigate though. There was no school on Friday due to an In-Service. 

 

Week 6: On Monday of week 6, I introduced a Unit Project. This project was a Figurative Language Learning Menu. Students had a list of options to pick from and had to pick 2 from the appetizers category, 1 side dish, 1 entree and 1 dessert. Students were given the list, project rubric and a checklist where they would write what they picked. Adapted materials were created, requiring less pieces for the lowest class and specific students as needed. I was out on Wednesday due to the PERC Job Fair but the project was due at the end of class. My cooperating teacher collected and organized it in order to easily keep track of who turned it in and in what form (students had the option to do paper or digitial). Students lost two points per day that it is late. Thursday was spent reviewing the 11 types of figurative language covered. We played a Kahoot and I asked students follow up questions to each question that was in the game to promote and further understanding. The Post-Test was given on Friday.  

 

Attached below are the lesson plans for each week, along with the project materials. 

The Post-Test was given during the last week of my SLO Unit. The Post-Test was identical to the Pre-Test given the month prior. It was 58 points with the majority of questions being multiple choice and matching and a few short answer. After grading the group's tests, I calculated individual and class averages. Every student has shown a growth from Pre-Test to Post-Test, not including the student who is currently missing the Post-Test. Including this student in the data, with a Post-Test score of 0, there was a class average of 50.29% on the Pre-Test and an average of 81.03% on the Post-Test. This is a growth of approximately 30%. This fits with my achievement goal of a growth of at least 20%. Of the students who took the Post-Test, only 2 did not meet the goal of a score of 70% or higher. 

Attached is the data collected, showing Pre-Test and Post-Test scores and the averages for each student and the class as a whole. 

 

UPDATE April 7, 2021: The student who was missing the Post-test took it and scored a 47/58. This was a growith of over 45% fitting with my goal of a 20% increase and a score of at least 70%. Entering this score also increased the class average to an 85.5%, well exceeding the goal of a 20% growth.

 

For my SLO, I chose to focus on PA standard CC.1.3.7.F. This standard involves determing the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in grade level reading and content, including the interpretation of figurative and connatative meanings. I chose this standard because after discussing with my cooperating teacher, we determined that students needed instruction in the types of figurative language. This is a skill that is covered heavily on the PSSAs and will help to improve their writing ability. This standard best matches that focus on the types of figurative language and their meanings. Though students have been exposed to figurative language in prior grades, it became clear early on that students had not retained the information well and therefore benefited from a thorough review of all topics. We decided to collect data from my cooperating teacher's period 2 class. This is one of 4 Reading 7 classes that she teachers. This is a lower class but a group that were consistent enough in their abilities that we felt they would show the most growth over the course of the unit. Periods 4 and 5 are generally higher and period 6 is co-taught with more IEPs and therefore struggled more with the covered material. 

My goal for this project was for students to show a growth of at least 20%, with most scores being a 70% or higher as I expected students to score between 0% and 50% on the Pre-Test. As with any data there were outliers but all but 2 students met the growth requirement. One student only increased by about 15% and another student has not yet taken the Post-Test and therefore showed a drop between Pre- and Post-Test. I chose a score of 70% because my cooperating teacher and I felt this was a realisitic score after learning the types of figurative language. It is still passing without being so high that those who are generally lower would not be unable to achieve. And while a 15% growth was not what I was hoping for, knowing this particular student's learning style and the fact that they missed a lot of school over the course of the unit, this growth is still significant. 

In terms of the instructional plan, I found that the details of it had to change frequently over the course of the unit. I began with the materials for many of the topics covered already created and I knew that I would be starting with the pre-test but I didn't have much of a plan in terms of the order at first. When I realized that we would be remote for the start of the unit, I glanced through their pre-test results and chose to start with similes because it generally seemed to be a topic that most students already knew. From there, I knew that a day had to be spent doing make-up work as a significant number of students had not taken the pre-test or completed the simile material and we were thankfully in person on Wednesday of that week.  This was an issue I quickly noticed with online learning: students either didn't have the ability to complete their work or chose not to. After giving the pre-test and teaching the simile lesson, I took time to create a list that I will attach below. On this document, I listed the dates that we would be in school. I then used it to determine the order I wanted to cover the material before creating my lesson plans. I also found that this document was easy to reference if a student asked what we would be covering on particular day for any reason. At one point, I had a student ask what we would be doing for the entirety of the unit and this document made for a quick and general answer. It also allowed me to have a list of the types of figurative language we would be covering easily accessible. I mapped out the days that I would not be at school on this document and after discussing with my cooperating teacher, tried to alternate between easier topics and harder topics. I also knew that we needed to be done with the unit before April as we had to spend time reviewing other topics for the PSSAs. This schedule allowed me to create a clear and definite end date as we prepared for the following material.

In terms of the specifics of each lesson, I knew that I had to keep the material interesting and engaging. However, I also knew that having a consistent format would help both the students and myself as we progressed through the material. Because of this, with every topic students were assigned Bellwork to complete as they entered the classroom. This was often a question relating to the material covered that day but sometimes I used it as a way to review a topic that students were showing weakness with. I also knew that sometimes students needed a break so it then became an irrelevant question that still got them writing such as what they were looking forward to about the warmer weather. Students knew this would be posted to Google Classroom and where to find it as it is a habit they started with my cooperating teacher. From there, I tried to include videos in every lesson in some way. I included Google Forms for them to complete as they watched them to keep them more engaged. And we thoroughly discussed the material covered in each video. Having taught the entire unit, I know I need to go back and edit some of these forms to require less typing as sometimes students were so focused on what I was asking, and are not very fast typers, that they missed a lot of the video. However, students grew to expect these videos and even asked about them so I know that this format helped them. I did vary lessons slightly by projecting poems on the white board that we would go through as a class looking for a specific figurative language. There were also 3 projects over the course of the unit, the "I am" Poems, the Onomatopoeia Writing and the Unit Project. These allowed students to use what they had learned in a way that required different skills than the quizzes and test and I think was important in furthering their understanding.

Overall, while certain things do need slightly reworked, I think that the unit was generally successful especially given the growth of the students. The students were regularly engaged in what I was teaching, as they were asking questions and we had some great discussions. Some students did struggle but my cooperating teacher and I were able to catch them, meet with them and work with them to guide them in understanding the material as we found that these students tend to not ask for help when they need it. A lot of them want to appear tough and cool and asking questions and struggling with school does not fit with this. I did find that students across classes struggled with personification more than I expected so there was additional practice added with this topic more than others. Because of this, I think that PowerPoint will need to be reworked before it is taught again. And the video that I used in the imagery lesson was not effective; it would have been better off without a video. I did find that the switch between remote and in-person learning made the beginning of the unit in particular more challenging. However, this was out of my control and I did try to be as flexible with it as possible. I made the instructions on Google Classroom very thorough and let students know that I was there as a resource. When we returned to in-person learning, I also addressed confusions that I noticed in their work as I graded Google Forms the day they were assigned. This discussion of these confusions were key to promoting understanding.

In all, while there were difficult moments, I feel that this unit was very successful. Almost all students in my target population reached the goal I had set of a score of 70% or higher and a growth of at least 20%. Data was also equivalent across the other three classes indicating that my methods of teaching worked for the students. In the 6 weeks of this unit, we covered a lot of material with a total of 11 types of figurative language, I used data to drive decisions about bellwork, review and reteaching and I used technology to quickly switch between remote and in-person learning.