Melissa Farias

EDSC 591

Analysis of Student Work

Analysis of Student Work

In this particular Integrated Math I class there are twenty-eight students in grade nine and
three in grade ten. The students range from fourteen years of age to sixteen years of age. There
are seven English learners in this class and six students that wear glasses. The three tenth
graders are taking this class for the second time. The class is fairly rowdy and is trying to fit in
and make each other laugh rather than learn the material. Many of the girls are more interested
in looking at themselves in their mirrors and one student sleeps through instruction. Twentyseven of the students are Latino, one is Caucasian, two are Asian, and one is African American.
The lesson observed is an introductory lesson to solving inequalities by adding or subtracting.
The lesson observed was an introductory lesson to solving inequalities by adding or
subtracting. There is no technology available; thus, students take notes on paper in most cases.
The student observed needs guided notes to help him construct sentences and keep up with the
fast pace of instruction. He needs opportunities to discuss questions with classmates before
responding. This student is very shy, has all Fs and struggles to keep up with academics. The
age group causes some instructional challenges, including that the school is low performing and
displays below age behavior. The students really struggle with common mathematical operations
that include negative numbers. They are part of a district that allows them to move to high
school with all failing grades in middle school. Competition is not good for this group, including
the focus student.
I shared guided notes with this teacher and asked that she provide them for this lesson.
There was no hesitation and she even taught based on the information on these guided notes and
what we discussed. The notes were taken partly from Better Lessons online and the Integrated
Math I textbook by McGraw Hill, and were also created by me. The guided notes provided for

Melissa Farias

EDSC 591

Analysis of Student Work

this introductory lesson included empty boxes to be filled in. There were fill in the blanks and
practice problems. In the beginning of the lesson, the inequality symbols are introduced. The
first inequality, <, meaning was provided as less than, which students copied on their notes.
After this, the teacher asked students to think about other ways this symbol could be represented
in words. The students had thirty seconds to think quietly and write down any ideas, then thirty
seconds to share with their partners, then finally share with the class. The focus student was
actually participating alongside his partner. The smaller grouping seemed to fit him better.
The purpose of going over different ways to read inequality signs was to help students
recognize them in context and be able to write the scenarios algebraically. The teacher explained
that in life a lot of things are not definite, or an exact number. She discussed bringing twenty
dollars to the store and how unlikely it is that the exact twenty dollars will be spent. She then
asked students to think about how much could be spent and students responded with numbers
less than twenty. This helped them understand the concept of the less than inequality. The
other purpose of the lesson is for students to not only read inequalities, but solve them
algebraically and write their answers algebraically, in words, and on a number line.
The focus student I chose was chosen because he is very different from me. He is low
performing in all of his classes, receiving all Fs. He comes from a Spanish speaking family
who, five years ago, came to America from Mexico in hopes of a better future for their son. I,
being from a family born in America who speaks only English and strives for straight As, differ
from this student quite a bit. This student is an English learner, is very shy, and feels his only
purpose to taking notes it to pass a test. He gets frustrated with the fast pace of his class and
really needs lessons to be slowed down. When he gets behind he ends up not taking any more
notes because he feels he will never catch up and would rather listen.

Melissa Farias

EDSC 591

Analysis of Student Work

I felt he learned the material very well, but may not understand the meaning behind it.
When he was given problems, he was able to solve them independently. The guided notes
helped him keep up with the pace of the instruction because he did not have to write a lot. He
had to represent inequalities algebraically, in words, and graphically on a number line. This gave
him multiple representations with is especially beneficial for English learners. I feel the learning
goals were met. He was able to solve the inequalities algebraically, with no mistakes. He was
able to write the solution in words, using different words for > and <, and also used less
commonly used words by students for and . While most students would write less than/
greater than or equal to, he used at most and at least which is more used in verbal
communication. He did not seem to have any misconceptions on how to solve inequalities and
how to graph them using an open or closed circle. He may benefit from verbalizing and
discussing further what the solutions really mean.
Verbal feedback was given throughout the lesson, but no written feedback at this point.
The teacher let students discuss, then wrote up answers for students to copy. This gave them
feedback because they were able to think about it then see whether their thoughts were correct or
not. This method helped him by requiring him to first talk about it, then hear about it, and finally
see it written. Again, this gave him multiple representations of the material. If he missed it
when the teacher said it, he at least got to see it written.
Though this student seemed to understand what the lesson was about, there are some
things I would like the teacher to do to make sure he understands the purpose and what his
solutions really mean. I feel an exit ticket could accomplish this, or a group or whiteboard
activity the following day. The whiteboard could be used as a response tool that the teacher can
check and see if the concepts are truly understood by every student. This will mean that the

Melissa Farias

EDSC 591

Analysis of Student Work

teacher is monitoring student learning as suggested in Proposition 3 from the Five Core
Propositions. To understand if the students understand what the solution really means, the
teacher could do the following. If the solution was

x> 2 , it would be good to have students

list five numbers that x could be, and 5 numbers that x could not be, but make it a requirement to
include the number 2. The reason I say this is because they must understand that x cannot be 2
since the only solutions for x are numbers greater than 2. This can help the teacher see that the
English learners in her class were not confused by what it means to include or not include a
number. The focus student may be seeing patterns and writing answers that are correct based on
the patterns, but not fully understanding what he is doing.
I feel that if this teacher is going to give notes, they should be in the form of a foldable,
graphic organizer, or guided notes like this lesson. As teachers, we must be committed to
students and their learning, and giving our English learners a more comfortable way to learn
proves our commitment. (Five Core Propositions, 1989, p. 3) This student filled in everything
and got work done. He did not once seem frustrated and did not zone out at any time during the
lesson. In fact, he seemed pleased and motivated. The teacher did a great job of including a real
life example using money, and it would be nice for students to come up with their own real life
example that relates directly to their lives. This would once again give the lesson purpose
because students would see that inequalities are used every single day in many different ways.
Overall, I saw great improvement in this student. The guided notes kept him focused and
less stressed. The smaller groups allowed him to feel comfortable expressing himself. He saw
purpose in the lesson. I asked him after the lesson how he felt and he expressed that he felt good
and understood the material. This was a much better response than the one I got from him

Melissa Farias

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Analysis of Student Work

awhile back. It is amazing how little changes can change a students mindset and comfort level.
I hope that this teacher continues to use different methods to reach every student.

Melissa Farias

EDSC 591

Analysis of Student Work

References
BetterLesson. (n.d.). Retrieved November 9, 2015, from
http://betterlesson.com/community/document/3210772/inequalities-guided-notesdocx?from=search

What Teachers Should Know and Be Able to Do. (n.d.). Retrieved November 11,
2015, from http://www.nbpts.org/sites/default/files/what_teachers_should_know.pdf