Elementary Mathematics for Washington

Assessment Commentary
Copyright 2013 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. 1of 7| 12pages maximum
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Assessment Commentary Directions: Respond to the prompts below (no more than 12 single-
spaced pages, including prompts) by typing your responses within the brackets following each prompt.
Do not delete or alter the prompts; both the prompts and your responses are included in the total page
count allowed. Refer to the evidence chart in the handbook to ensure that this document complies with all
format specifications. Pages exceeding the maximum will not be scored.
1. Analyzing Student Learning
a. Identify the specific learning targets measured by the assessment you chose for
analysis.
[The specific learning target measured by the assessment I chose for analysis comes from
Lesson 1: The students will compare two two-digit numbers by analyzing number names
and selecting the larger number by correctly (orally and written) identifying the number by its
number name and by the number of 10s and the number of 1s.]
b. Provide the evaluation criteria you used to analyze student learning.
[The evaluation criteria I used to analyze student learning are as follows:
1. Does the student actively participate in and contribute to whole class and pairs
discussions?
2. Can the student correctly identify the number of ones and tens blocks to match a given
number?
3. Can the student write the numerals that match their written number name?
4. Can the student clearly and accurately explain his mathematical reasoning and
demonstrate his understanding of the steps he took to solve a problem?]
c. Provide a graphic (table or chart) or narrative that summarizes student learning for your
whole class. Be sure to summarize student learning for all evaluation criteria described
above.
[This chart describes each piece of criteria included in my Evaluation Criteria for my formal
assessment of lesson 1. The levels describe the extent to which each student met or did not
meet the criteria. Level 1 is the lowest and refers to students who have not met the
standard. Level 2 describes students who are progressing towards the target, but are not
excelling. Level 3s are students who meet and excel beyond the standard. The data above
shows that most students are progressing steadily towards the learning target. This is to be
expected. There are a few students who do not yet meet the criteria I have provided, for
various reasons. There are also a group of students who rapidly met and excelled beyond
the learning target. This was a smaller group but still a significant portion of the class.]

Criteria 1:
Participation
Criteria 2:
Identifying
blocks
Criteria 3:
Writing
numerals
Criteria 4:
Mathematical
reasoning
Level 3 6 9 14 6
Level 2 9 5 0 6
Level 1 0 1 1 3

Elementary Mathematics for Washington
Assessment Commentary
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d. Provide a graphic (table or chart) or narrative that summarizes student understanding of
their own learning progress (student voice).
[During the first lesson, students had a rather strong understanding of the concept of ones
and tens place value. I was able to discern this by eliciting student voice; as I asked
questions and had students model their work, I found that my students could very easily
select the digit found in either the ones or the tens place.
However, when I asked students how they knew which number was larger in a pair of
two, two-digit numbers, many of the students were not able to clearly articulate their logic. I
believe this is largely due to their young age. Many students voiced that they knew which
number is larger by referring to number lines found around the classroom.
By the end of the lesson, my students could explain that they chose the larger number
by first looking at the digit in the tens place. Whichever number had the larger digit in the
10s place would be the larger number. However, if the digits in the 10s place were the
same, then the students would look to the digit in the 1s place to determine the larger
number. A small portion of my students were able to clearly voice this logic, but almost all
students were able to demonstrate their understanding using a combination of verbal
reasoning and pointing and demonstrating using their books.
My assessments show that student understanding of their own learning progress
improved throughout the lesson segment, but it is still something that I must continue to
build on during student teaching so that my students will have a strong foundation in
monitoring their own learning. In the future my ELLs, struggling readers and low-performing
students in particular will need the most intensive guidance in regard to monitoring their own
student voice.]
e. Use evidence found in the 3 student work samples, student self-reflections, and the
whole class summary to analyze the patterns of learning for the whole class and
differences for groups or individual learners relative to
conceptual understanding
procedural fluency
mathematical reasoning or problem solving skills
Consider what students understand and do well, and where they continue to struggle
(e.g., common errors, confusions, need for greater challenge).
[Evidence of feedback is written on the student work samples, which are submitted as Task
3A.
In reviewing my student self-reflections, I found that as a whole my students felt very
confident in their work. Most of my students demonstrated high conceptual understanding as
they were able to apply the concepts learned in the lesson to correctly write the numerals
that matched the number name. Over three quarters of my students completed the
assessment entirely correctly. Logically, the students who did not perform as well on the
assessment also had much less robust reflections than the students who did perform well.
Only a couple of my students had difficulty with procedural fluency. For the most part
students understood the task and what they were supposed to do, regardless of whether
they were able to do it correctly. When I asked students to explain to me how to solve each
problem, almost every student was able to describe the theory with varying degrees of
completeness. This demonstrated to me that many of my students were well on their way to
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developing and verbalizing their mathematical reasoning and problem solving skills, and
also showed me which students need additional support and opportunity to develop this
skill.
Sample student 2 is a low-performing student and his assessment showed that his
conceptual understanding is still developing. He is also a struggling reader, so reading the
number names was difficult for him and he was not able to consistently write the number
that matched. Even coloring the correct number of blocks was difficult for him. However, I
believe that in this particular instance with this particular student, his low performance on the
assessment was more of a problem of self-motivation rather than difficulty of the
assessment. His self-evaluation demonstrated the same thing: when I asked him what we
learned in the lesson, he stated that he did not know. When I pressed him a but further, he
said that it was about coloring blocks. This tells me that he does not understand the
concepts. Because procedural fluency in this case is dependent upon conceptual
understanding, he also demonstrated low procedural fluency. His work shows that he
understood the structure of the assessment but he was not able to complete the work.]
2. Feedback to Guide Further Learning
Refer to specific evidence of submitted feedback to support your explanations.
a. In what form did you submit your evidence of feedback for the 3 focus students? (Delete
choices that do not apply.)
Written directly on work samples or in a separate document
b. Describe what you did to help each student understand his/her performance on the
assessment.
[To begin with, each student can look at their point totals to get an overall understanding of
how well he performed. For example, student 1 scored 16 out of 17 points total. This gives
the student a basic overview of how well (s)he performed.
Within my feedback I gave specific examples of what the students did well and what they
got wrong. Giving this specific feedback instead of simply marking the problem wrong allows
me to engage my students in addressing the areas where they need to progress. I also
addressed specific strengths that I noticed in my students work to praise them for their hard
work and to show them what I am looking for. For example, in Student 1 Work Sample my
student underlined the word numerals which demonstrated to me that the student was
carefully reading the instructions. I wrote Underlining shows me you read this carefully!
Great job. This feedback will help reinforce the students habits in monitoring his own
learning progress.
On Student 2 Work Sample the student colored six 10s blocks to match the number
name sixteen. It is difficult to see in the copies, but on the originals there are 6 tens blocks
colored. I wrote Here you colored blocks to show 60. That is different than sixteen. The
sound close, though. Next time lets ask your learning buddy to help read it. I wrote and
communicated this specifically for this student because I know he struggles with math, but
even more with reading. His attempt to do the work shows me that he did try his hardest but
was unable to correctly read the number name. He sounded it out, but not entirely correctly.
I specifically suggested that he ask his learning buddy for help because I know this student
typically has no problems asking for help, but it appears that he needs more practice in
asking for help when he is not certain.
On Student 3 Work Sample the student did an excellent job demonstrating his
understanding of the lesson. He scored 100% on this assessment. On the very last problem
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the assessment showed three houses on a street numbered 71, 73, and 75. The problem
asked the students to draw an arrow on the street to show which way would lead to house
number 58. When I spent time with this student to help write his self-reflection, I asked him
which part he liked most in the lesson. He answered that he really liked the house problem
and that he had changed the numbers on the houses so that he could do the problem again.
This gave me feedback to the type of problems that this student particularly finds engaging.
Next to this problem I wrote Great explanation to me, thank you! I see you wrote new
numbers so you could do this problem again. You must really like it! I want the student to
know that I appreciate his interests and that I am happy that he took the initiative to continue
his learning even though he finished the assessment.
Through the assessments, I wrote feedback to specifically address misconceptions
among students work samples. My feedback is specific but positive. My students should
feel that I am constructively helping them to improve in their learning. I also made a point to
praise my students for the positive demonstrations of learning and self-monitoring shown in
their assessments. Using this feedback, each students assessment can be used to help
them continue learning.]
c. Explain how feedback provided to the 3 focus students addresses their individual
strengths and needs relative to the learning targets measured.
[To all students but especially to student 2 who is a struggling reader, I addressed their
individual strengths and needs relative to the learning target in a manner that showed off
their strengths to them and really emphasized that I was proud with their work. I did this
because I want my students to feel confident in their math skills. This is especially important
to me because math has such a negative stigma as children grow older and progress in
school, but my students currently are so excited about math and they always exclaim to me
that they are mathematicians and they love math. This is such a delicate love that I want to
nourish rather than distress.
However, it is very important to me that my students are not cushioned from the truth.
My feedback is honest and I tell students where they are not performing well. The
importance of my feedback is so that the student and I are on the same page as far as
where we need to improve, and we must work as a team to successfully enhance the
student learning. I will take the information I have found from these assessments and use it
to help me plan my next lessons, spending time to address the misconceptions seen
consistently in my students assessments.]
d. How will you support students to apply the feedback to guide improvement, either within
the learning segment or at a later time?
[I will support students to apply the feedback to guide improvement as I spend time in class
discussing the common errors of the class. Many of the students commit the same errors, so
it will be beneficial to all students to spend time reviewing the more difficult concepts. My
students will have more opportunities to continue practicing these skills throughout later
lessons, as well. I will work individually with my struggling readers, and I also believe I will
see an improvement in math as reading ability improves. My students ]
3. Evidence of Language Understanding and Use
You may provide evidence of students language use from ONE, TWO OR ALL
THREE of the following sources:
1. Use video clips from Task 2 and provide time-stamp references for language use.
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2. Submit an additional video file named Language Use of no more than 5 minutes in
length and provide time-stamp references for student language use (this can be footage
of one or more students language use). Submit the clip in Task 3 Part B.
3. Use the student work samples analyzed in Task 3 and cite language use.
When responding to the prompt below, use concrete examples from the video clips (using
time-stamp references) and/or student work samples as evidence. Evidence from the clips
may focus on one or more students.
Explain and provide evidence for the extent to which your students were able to use or
struggled to use language (selected function, vocabulary, and additional identified
language demands from Task 1) to develop content understandings.
[In my video clip named Language Use my students have a short demonstration of the
extent to which they were able to use language. In this video clip, I am reviewing the
important academic language that my students learned in the previous days lesson. At
00:06 I ask one student to explain to me what the term digit means. This student has a
difficult time explaining the term, so I call on another student to help her out. The second
student gives a stellar definition at 00:19 when he says digits are like 1 through 9 and 10
through 100. 1-9 is one digits and 10-100 is two digits. This demonstrates excellent mastery
of this students conceptual understanding of language use. At 00:36 I ask my students to
define the term numeral. It was very important that they understood the term because within
the student journal the term numeral is used quite often. I had explained to the students that
in this case, numeral is another way of saying number. I called on a student to define
numeral and he quickly responded that numeral means the number. (While the terms
number and numeral do have slightly different distinctions in higher math education, my first
graders do not need to have such distinctions made at this point.)
At 00:48 I change angles and ask my student to give me an example of a number that is
greater than 23. I ask this so that students can demonstrate their procedural fluency. This is
a bit of an informal assessment, however only targeted to a couple individual students. Even
though I only asked a couple students to provide me with examples, asking the question
gave all students the opportunity to think of a number themselves.
At 01:02 I ask a student to give me an example of a number that is less than 20. Initially
she answers 33. I corrected her by saying that 33 is an example of a number that is
greater than 20 and asked the original question again. I quickly realized that this student had
been absent the day before when I taught the academic language, and called on another
student. I repeated the question and asked her to describe what less than means so that all
students could have a quick reminder of the term. The second student was able to correctly
define less than by saying that it means like a number that is smaller. I praised her answer
and finished the review segment.
This quick assessment gave me an understanding of which students were able to
demonstrate mastery understanding of the academic language, as well as which students
were still struggling with the terms. This helped me to know which students I needed to
spend additional time with explaining the terms so that they could understand the journal
pages. If the student does not understand the academic language used in the lesson, they
cannot be expected to correctly complete the work. My students who demonstrated their
understanding of the academic language were my helpers in explaining the terms to the
struggling students.]
4. Using Assessment to Inform Instruction
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a. Based on your analysis of student learning presented in prompts 1ce, describe next
steps for instruction to impact student learning
for the whole class
for the 3 focus students and other individuals/groups with specific needs
Consider the variety of learners in your class who may require different
strategies/support (e.g., students with IEPs, English language learners, struggling
readers, underperforming students or those with gaps in academic knowledge, and/or
gifted students needing greater support or challenge).
[Based on my analysis of student learning, I would take a few next steps for instruction to
impact student learning. Because I realized that some students (Student 3 Work Sample in
particular) had difficulty reading the problems even after I had read all the directions to the
class as a whole before beginning the assessment, I will spend more time reading the
directions slowly and carefully and making sure that students know to ask their learning
buddy or a teacher for help if they are not sure they have read the directions correctly. This
will help to lower anxiety for ELLs, students with IEP, and struggling readers.
In regards to my students with math IEPs and who struggle with reading, my analysis
shows that typically they are not able to complete all their work. This appears to be because
these students have a difficult time reading and many students are still struggling to write
numbers. Moving forward, I believe that using an alternative assessment (eg. shortened,
oral) would assist in positively impacting student learning and helping students to be
successful. As other academic areas strengthened, these students could slowly move off
alternative assessments and back into general assessments. This will also be an
improvement I can make in assisting underperforming students and those with gaps in
academic knowledge. Some of my underperforming students are simply unmotivated
learners and are falling behind the class even though they are highly intelligent and capable
students. Starting these students with small chunks of assessments instead of long and
overwhelming assessments will help to build their endurance and allow them the opportunity
to prove to themselves that they can do their work with assistance from their learning
buddies and teachers.
Based on my analysis of my gifted students needing greater support or challenge, I
believe that creating additional math centers would be a very positive impact on student
learning. Math centers can provide additional practice for students and be a reward for
completing their work and help to stimulate the minds of my gifted students. I can
incorporate various math concepts to be used as engaging activities and with provide
enough variety that students not only are kept busy and out of the hair of the rest of the
class, but they will be learning, which is the very most important factor in centers. Students
can work individually or in pairs and will know the procedures for engaging in centers before
centers are opened for business.]
b. Explain how these next steps follow from your analysis of student learning and student
self-reflections. Support your explanation with principles from research and/or theory.
[These next steps follow from my analysis of student learning and student self-reflections
because they are research based and specific to my students learning needs. One of the
most important things to consider is the learning environment. My students must always feel
safe and un-threatened, and should feel confident in themselves and their work as much as
possible. When a student feels anxiety (even from factors outside the classroom) they are
Elementary Mathematics for Washington
Assessment Commentary
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All rights reserved. V2_0913
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permitted only pursuant to the terms of a written license agreement.
unable to learn to his/her maximum potential. This next step is supported from research on
the affective filter completed by Krashen, 1982.
Additionally, I believe that it would be very worthwhile for the future to teach my students
how to teach other students. While lectures, reading, audio-visuals, discussions, and
practice by doing are all very important factors in retention rates of students, the number
one way for students to retain information they have learned is by teaching the concepts to
other students. Some of my students are already excited about helping to teach their
learning buddies, but based on my analysis of student assessments compared with actual
student learning (self-reflection, whole-class discussions, and one-on-one conferencing with
me), I can see that often these helpers end up giving their struggling buddies all the
answers instead of helping to teach the concept itself. By spending time and training these
students the right way to help teach their buddies, my teaching students would benefit both
themselves and their pupils.
My analysis showed me that many of my students still had a difficult time visualizing
abstract concepts. In my next steps, I would continue to use manipulatives during the
instruction and while students practice, but I will make them more available to all students
and encourage students to show their work using manipulatives whether or not they think
they need to. It is easy for many of my students to make a mistake while doing work in their
heads, but if they are using manipulatives on their desks to work problems, not only are they
are more likely to notice their own mistakes and correct them, but I am also more likely to
see where the reasoning problem lies and help the student correct themselves. This concept
of using manipulatives for all students, but as especially helpful tools for ELL students is
based on research done by Crandall (1987) in which it was found that English Language
Learners learn best using concrete objects, graphics, and manipulatives to clarify and
reinforce new concepts.
The idea of using alternative assessments to evaluate my students learning is based on
the research done by Craddock & Mathias in 2009 that found that offering various options
of assessment over traditional methods may more appropriately [assess] different types
of learning processes, may address the ideology of catering to differences in students
learning preferences and styles, and may also enhance learners psychological approaches
to learning.]
Lesson 1 Assessment
Lesson 1 Assessment