Student Assessment Project

Jordan Spitler
Setting:
I have had the opportunity to teach fourth grade at Fulks Run Elementary for part
of my student teaching experience. Fulks Run is small school that is located beside the
mountain west of Broadway. Fulks Run has very little diversity in terms of race and
school population. In fourth grade, we have a block schedule where my cooperating
teacher and the other fourth grade teacher divide the main subjects; science, math,
reading, and social studies. My responsibility is to teach science, writing, and math, and I
chose to complete my assessment in science. Although I will assess all of the fourth
grade students, I have chosen to evaluate the data from my homeroom class that consists
of 17 students. All of my students are Caucasian and are around the age of 10. The
academic achievement of the class is fairly diverse. There are 5 students that I would
consider high achievers. I have a good amount of students that fall around the
average range of achievement. I also have a few students that are academically
lower than the rest of the class. I have four students that have an IEP that I make
accommodations for on a daily basis. These students have an aide that monitors their
behavior and makes sure they are always on task during my science class. I have one
student that blurts out constantly and has a hard time controlling himself in a classroom
setting, which can be distracting to the rest of the class. My other students with IEPs
have a hard time focusing and need constant reminders and reinforcement concerning
what they are supposed to be doing to stay on task. My SPED students have ADHD, read
aloud issues, problems taking notes, OHI (other health impairments), and reading
disabilities. I have reviewed their IEPs and have made accommodations for those
students, so that they can be successful in my class.
Content/Subject/Field Area
The unit I will be planning and teaching for this assessment project is on
electricity. The SOL is
4.2 The students will investigate and understand the characteristics of electricity. Key
concepts include...
b) basic circuits;
c) static electricity;
d) the ability of electrical energy to be transformed into light and motion, and to produce
heat;
f) historical contributions in understanding electricity.
Pre-Assessment
My pre-assessment was a challenge for my students. I became very aware of how
my students test and what they are capable of doing before I taught the information.
Some of my students had prior knowledge about electricity from third grade, as well as
from a field trip they took to the science museum. My test consisted of 5 multiple-choice
questions, 5 matching, 2 short answer, and 2 labeling pictures with an explanation of

why? I had a range of grades for my pre-assessment from a student that got 15 out of 18
correct to a student that got 4 out of 18 correct. I was very pleased that all my students
were able to correctly label a closed and open circuit (question 10 and 11). I assumed
that most of my students would get those two questions correct since they know what
those words mean and can use their prior knowledge to answer them. I knew that most of
my students would get the matching questions and the circuit questions incorrect because
these questions involved new terminology for my students. Only 8 out of 17 students
answered the explanation questions concerning the different types of circuits correctly on
the pre-test. I knew that this was going to be the most challenging part of the test since
looking at the pictures and explaining them can be confusing or tricky. I passed out the
pre-test and went over each section thoroughly using the document camera to clear up
any confusion or questions the students may have had. I told my students to try their best
and to read each sections directions carefully as they were concise and clear. Some of
my students seem confused or said they did not know what some the answers were, and I
repeatedly said, try your best and make your best guess. It took my student about 2030 minutes to complete the pre-test. Overall, my pre-test scores were very low, as I
expected. I had 2 out of 17 students get a 60 or above on the pre-test. This graph
represents the questions that each student got correct on the pretest and their test score.
( Each * represents that they student got that answers correct).

1
Student
1
Student
2
Student
3
Student
4
Student
5
Student
6
Student
7
Student
8
Student
9
Student
10
Student
11
Student

2
*

*
*

*
*

33%

40%

33%

33%

*
*

*
*

*
*
*

*
*

1
3 14 15

*
*

1
2

11

1
0

53%

47%
*

53%

46%

53%
*

60%
20%
33%

12
Student
13
Student
14
Student
15
Student
16
Student
17

*
*

27%

33%

13%

80%
*

Goal Statement
For my electricity unit, 60% of my students will get the score of 70% (C average)
or above on the post-test of my electricity unit through interacting with the vocabulary
and participating during the lessons.
Means for Attaining Goals
From looking at the data from my pre-test, I knew that I needed to expose my
students to circuits and how electricity works, which means parts of the atom. Most of
my students already knew about Ben Franklin and the kite experiment that connects to
static electricity. I quickly realized that the most challenging part of my test was the
understanding of the parts of the atoms and their charges. This is a challenging concept
for fourth graders to understand and then later apply that knowledge on a test. I chose to
put the parts of an atom in the matching portion of my test to give them confidence and
options to match the correct definition to the vocabulary word. I will make sure to
emphasize in my lesson on atoms ways and examples to help my students remember the
different parts of an atom. I feel that it is so important to give them pictures of an atom of
look at, but to also have them create their own diagram to help make the information
more relevant and understandable to a fourth grader. The other part of my pre-test that a
lot of students seemed to struggle with involved naming whether a picture was of a series
or parallel circuit. The pictures were simple and easy to understand, it was just the fact
that they had never seen pictures like that before to confirm their answer. I noticed on the
pre-test that many students wrote in the explanation lines under the picture that they just
guessed. When teaching my lesson on open/closed and series circuits, I will be sure to
repeat and give many demonstrations and pictures to help the students get a firm grasp on
the circuit material. I understand that electricity is a complex topic for fourth graders to
grasp, so while planning, I will be sure to use as many hands-on and various instructional

40%

strategies as possible to get the students engaged and involved with learning the material
on electricity. I feel that after teaching these lessons effectively that my students will feel
confident about electricity.
Analyze the Results
My goal was successfully reached in that 60% of my students received a 70% (C
average) or better on their post-test. I had 12 out of 17 students achieve a 70% percent or
better on the post-test, and the other 5 students still increased their scores dramatically
from the pre-test. I had a few students who had the lowest scores on the pre-test become
some of my highest scores on the post-test. I did have some students decrease their score
from the pre to post assessment. My students that got accommodations on the pre-test
still received the same accommodations for the post-test. The graphs below show the
results of the pre-test and post-test scores, pre-test questions, and post-test questions.

Thisgraphrepresentsthecorrectanswerseachstudentgotontheposttest.(The*representsthequestions
thestudentsgotcorrect).

1
Student
1
Student
2
Student
3
Student
4
Student
5
Student
6
Student
7
Student
8
Student
9
Student
10
Student
11
Student

10

1
2

1
3

1
1

1
4 15
*

53%

80%

100%

61%

93%

80%

100%

93%

73%

93%

*
*

*
*

*
*

*
*

*
*

*
*

*
*

*
*

*
*

80%
61%

12
Student
13
Student
14
Student
15
Student
16
Student
17

100%

100%

60%

100%

*
*

66%

120%
100%
80%
60%
Pre-test
40%
20%
0%

Post Test

12
10
8
6

Questions Most
Missed

Questions answered
correctly

2
0
Pre-Test
12
10
8
6

Questions Most
Missed

Questions answered
correctly

2
0
Post Test

Post Test Analysis

This assignment was eye opening for me as a teacher who is still growing and
learning new things on a daily basis. I feel that it so important to gage your students

learning over time and see what knowledge they received from the teaching strategies
that I used during my lessons. I think that looking at the pre-test data was helpful to
know that many of the students did not know anything about electricity and what they did
know, they were not confident about. My pre-test scores were very low as I expected
them to be, but to find out that my goal was met and over half of my students achieved a
C or better on the test makes me feel that I was successful at teaching my five lessons.
My five lessons were taught every other day and not in five consecutive days. I did not
let my students study or tell them when I was going to give them their post-test, so they
could not study their material at home. This was a true test to see if my teaching was
effective or not. After looking at my post-test, I was pleasantly surprised to see the great
improvement that they had made. Every student but one improved their score and the one
student stayed the same. I am so proud of my students and how they improved over this
electricity unit. The most commonly missed question on the post-test assessment was
question number 2. This question was about static electricity and which was NOT an
example. During the lesson I taught on static electricity, we did stations that consisted of
rubbing balloons on their hair, static balloons picking up different objects, and learning
about Ben Franklin. I feel that the students got confused with the NOT part of the
question and did not use what we learned during the stations. All of my students got
question 10 and 11 correct on the post-test on the closed and open circuits just like the
pre-test. All of students got question 3 correct on the post-test as well on who discovered
lightning as a form of electricity, which was Ben Franklin. On the post-test, most of my
students got the labeling circuits and the explaining of them correct after I drilled that
information into them daily. I feel that my lessons were creative and interesting to keep
my students engaged at all times. I integrated many different types of technology,
strategies that got the kids up and moving, and hands on materials that made the students
get excited about circuits and electricity. I think this topic was intriguing to my students
since they use electricity on a daily basis. If I could do this project over again I would
spend more time on parts of the atom and make sure that my students could make their
own circuits in small groups. I had to show the students how the open and closed circuits
work since the school did not have the correct amount of material for each student or
small group of students to make their own circuits. Next time I will be sure that my
students can make their own circuits. The best thing I did while teaching these lessons
was integrating new technology and letting them draw examples of circuits on iPads.
This project made me realize that collecting data is important for teaching purposes in
order to allow you to see how effective your teaching is
on the students learning.