1.  Identify the learning goal with which your students were most successful.

My students were most successful with the learning goal in lesson 2, “Students will understand that a personal narrative can be fiction or nonfiction.”  If I look only at the data graphs, I would not choose this goal as the one with which my students had the highest level of success.  This is not the graph that shows the highest percentage of students who demonstrated full mastery. 

Through reflection on my performance and as well as that of my students, I can clearly see that this is an area where my students showed the most growth.  Using the pre-assessment data, only 40% of my students knew that a personal narrative can be fiction or nonfiction at the beginning of the unit.  Through formative assessment I discovered that by the end of that lesson plan, 100% of my students met this goal. 

a. Discuss at least two plausible reasons for this success, addressing your goals, instruction, and assessment.

I collected this data through a combination of formative assessment and reflection.  Documenting formative assessment data requires a high level of organization on my part.  I took the time to create a simple, powerful, versatile electronic form to collect formative assessment data.  I did not rely on my memory of the experiences.  I made sure that I can print the form I created in order to make a quick conversion to a pencil and paper formative assessment if necessary.  I put an enormous amount of thought into how this form would make my instruction more effective.  That effort paid off for me, which means it paid off for my students.

Another reason for this success is that I used an anchor text for this goal that clearly demonstrated the concept I was teaching them.  “The Wednesday Surprise” is an engaging story that could be fiction or nonfiction.  With students still gathered around me on the floor, I asked them to tell me if this was a fiction or a nonfiction story.  The class was split approximately in half on their initial response. Quite a few students realized immediately that it could be fiction or it could be nonfiction.  They indicated this by their unwillingness to fully commit to an opinion, which sparked further conversation.  The question was thought-provoking and we had a wonderful group discussion about it. 

Another reason for this success is that I used what I learned about students in the moment to guide my instruction.  It didn’t take very long for all of the students to have that “ah-ha” moment.  I seized that moment to remind my students that we had just read a personal narrative, and we cannot tell for certain whether it is fiction or nonfiction.  Then we expanded on that concept in order to bring their thinking into the real world of actually writing our own personal narrative.  We discussed the visual cues that lead us to make assumptions about fiction vs nonfiction, such as illustrations instead of actual photos.  Students admitted that this was a factor in leading them to believe the book is fiction.  We talked about the fact that we often illustrate our own real experiences right in our own classroom.  We pointed out that this doesn’t make our experiences fictional simply because we draw rather than use actual photography.  We discussed the “realistic fiction” genre.  Students gained a higher level of knowledge on this genre, the learning goal, and the related writing concept.  

2.  Identify the learning goal with which your students were least successful.

My students were least successful with the goal “Students will understand how to use the Ideas and Content trait to organize thoughts and ideas for a writing assignment.”  This lack of success was very clear in the graphed data.  This was a goal in which students’ level of mastery was obvious by their performance on the independent practice of completing a brainstorming and main idea graphic organizer. 

a. Discuss at least two plausible reasons for this lack of success, addressing your goals, instruction, and assessment.

This was our first day of using a graphic organizer in this unit.  Students had background knowledge on graphic organizers.  I took steps to check for understanding of the concepts that go into successfully using a graphic organizer.  I based my assumptions on students’ ability to verbalize a basic level of knowledge that would foster success of this goal. 

I learned that when teaching a writing concept or skill, the ability to talk about how to demonstrate mastery is not the same as the ability to actually demonstrate mastery.  The written work is truly the most informative assessment for this goal.  Mastering this goal requires specific types of thinking skills.  I believe that all students can master these thinking skills.  However, doing so comes more easily to some students than to others.  There are a few people who possess the innate ability to brainstorm, and the comfort level to write down an idea that comes to them in this process without the fear that what they’re doing won’t be good enough.  Fear and lack of self-esteem can be huge barriers to mastering brainstorming and the use of graphic organizers.

Two students out of 31 in my class demonstrated comfort with that process really early in the independent practice portion of the lesson.  The remaining 29 students experienced varying degrees of discomfort.  I had over-estimated what they could do when I released them.  Peer groups were a great benefit to these students.  Many of them ultimately wrote down ideas they got from peers.  This is a natural part of cooperative learning and was what I expected to see.  However, I had a large percentage of my class still not feeling comfortable with the brainstorming and organizing process at the end of that lesson.

Another reason for this lower level of mastery was my choice of graphic organizers.  I used a format that my students had never seen before this lesson.  I had used this same graphic organizer for guided practice in this lesson.  My mistake was in thinking that the window of guided practice spent using this format would be enough exposure for these students.  I assumed students would be able to translate what we completed together into a successful experience using the same format independently.

A third reason for students’ lower level of success with this goal may be that I did not know them well enough as learners to make informed decisions about what methods and tools would foster the highest level of success. This is something that comes to highly effective teachers with time and effort.  I had begun to proactively learn about them during the two weeks I was with them prior to teaching this lesson.  However, it was clearly not enough.  This is a testament to the benefit of spending 182 school days teaching one group of students every day.  With each passing day, week, and month we deepen our relationship with our students and, therefore, our ability to predict what they need as learners in order to master the goals and objectives that align to the academic standards we use to guide our instruction.

b. Explain what you would do differently or would improve to enhance student performance in the future.

In order to enhance student performance in a similar lesson plan in the future, I would use a more familiar graphic organizer format.  My students were not accustomed to using any graphic organizer on a regular basis.  Students can learn to use many different formats, but there is a learning curve that I need to consider when planning instruction around a graphic organizer.  Students’ level of comfort with integrating graphic organizers into their learning is definitely an important part of their ability to demonstrate mastery.  I will not set a goal in which students need to demonstrate mastery by successfully completing a graphic organizer using a graphic organizer students have never seen before.  I will reflect upon what I know about students’ actual level of mastery in integrating graphic organizers into a learning experience.  I will then choose the graphic organizer I assign with careful attention to what best suits students’ needs and abilities.  I might also offer students two or more choices of graphic organizer formats if appropriate for the lesson plan.  These were important factors that reduced the likelihood of full mastery of my goal.