Section VI

The following section of my teacher work sample dictates what pre- and postassessments I used in my unit (as previously explained in Section IV). For this particular
assessment, I graded them from the very beginning of Romeo and Juliet and then again after
they had finished. My goal in creating an assessment like this one was to not only gauge their
levels of understanding in my subunit that I used for this work sample, but how well I taught
them throughout the course of the text.
Pre- and Post-Assessment Grading Criteria:
For these assessments, my goal was to give students a range of questions that they would
find the answers to throughout the unit. Of course, I also wanted to see what they already knew
going into the unit so that my teaching wasnt redundant, but many students knew not a thing
about the play, so I had ample room in which to work to help them grow. Each question is only a
point, and the questions for both the pre- and post-assessment are the exact same. The reason for
this is twofold: one, I have a guide to help me construct my lessons around the questions that I
asked them, and two, students know what to expect from the unit and what they will be learning.
Here is a copy of the assessment:

Romeo and Juliet Pre-Test

Please answer to the best of your ability, but know that the grade you get on this
will not be going in the gradebook!

1. What does star-crossed mean?

2. What is a soliloquy and who gives one in Romeo and Juliet?
3. What is a pun? Give me an example of one from the play.
4. Whats an allusion? NOT illusion. Give an example from the play.
5. Who broke Romeos heart at the beginning of the play?
6. Why does Romeo hate his own name?
7. Why does the Friar finally agree to marry Romeo and Juliet?
8. What happens to Romeo when he discovers that Juliet is dead?
9. At the end of the play, what happens to the Capulets and Montagues?
10.
What type of play is Romeo and Juliet (i.e. comedy? romance?)
Students answered the questions to completion, not necessarily for complete sentences. Since
I wasnt assessing their ability to write with correct grammar, it was more important to me that I
check if theyre understanding the content.

Pre- and Post-Assessment Results:

Here is the first set of results. In here, there are the average scores from both of the periods I
teach.

5th Period Avg.

6th Period Avg.

Pre-Assessment

Post-Assessment

This first grouping of results comes from the average of their scores for the preassessment versus the post-assessment. I taught this class for two periods, so the columns on the
left are for fifth period, and the columns on the right are for sixth period.
Next, I grouped them up into gender. As they are all roughly the same age, I thought it
would be more prudent to determine their understandings and see if gender had an effect on
anything. As this is considered a romance to some, the girls (speaking stereotypically) may have
more of a connection with. Again, Ive compiled the average scores based on gender for both of
the periods:

Boys vs. Girls Pre-Assessment

Boys

Girls

On the pre-assessment, boys did a more noticeable job on doing better than the girls. I
had a few male students who had already actually read the play, so they adjusted the averages
quite a bit. Also, some of the boys had retained more of the information that they learned in
previous years than girls for topics like puns and allusions, but that may have to do with their
memories. Overall, it was decently evident that the students didnt really know anything truly
important about the play. One of my students in particular, Rowan, had a wonderful teacher in
eighth grade where he had clearly learned quite a bit about the play. He had also demonstrated

his memory of that knowledge when he received a 9.5/10 (Side Note: I like to give students halfcredit on some answers if theyre close but not answering it fully of if theyre right, but it wasnt
the technical answers I was looking for.)

Boys vs. Girls Post-Assessment

Boys

Girls

Fortunately, they were very close in scores. The boys only scored .5 more on average
than the girls on the post-assessment. I sometimes have difficulties segregating these scores
because of what they might say about the genders, but the students performed admirably.
Overall, there was a huge improvement in students growth, and thats what I appreciated the
most.
What did these assessments tell me about their learning?
Since a few of the questions demanded that students give me an example from the play, I
learned that many of them were quite able to not only retain knowledge about puns, allusions,
and other literary devices, but that they were able to remember exact moments in the play where
they could identify them and answer correctly. Clearly, learning occurred in the unit because they
didnt know basic literary definitions, but they knew them by the end and could give a concrete
example from the play.
This play was tricky for them, and several of the students did not have a great time trying
to interpret Shakespeares language. Through group discussions and working together for a
majority of the play, they were really able to grasp the language more than they would have on
their own. This tells me, however, that I wasnt providing them with enough opportunities to
demonstrate their understandings on an individual level. I had given them an assessment on a
scene from the play in the major part of the unit, and they were able to complete the quiz with a
partner. They were not allowed to use the text, but they did have someone else as a resource.
They did very well on this quiz, but thats obvious in that they were able to have someone elses
brain to pick to do as well as they did. I initiated another quiz, a Kahoot! where they were
required to work individually, but they had the added environment where it felt more like fun and
less like an assessment. Again, I dont think this type of quiz was authentic on an individual
level. That being said, this pre- and post-assessment combination was their only access to solo
quizzing for that entire unit, and it could have thrown them off.

Overall, I only have 4 students (Kenzie, McKayla, Rowan, and Zach) from 5th period and
3 students (Cheyenne, Rachel, and Danny) from 6th period who received all ten points on the
post-assessment. This tells me that there were some students who did very well in both classes,
but I definitely hoped that my results would have been more successful. There were a handful of
students (22 total) who got higher than an 8/10, and this tells me that out of the 48 students that I
taught, more than half of them were above average. Again, I wish more students had received
full credit, but I was still very successful from the start to the end when it comes to their results.
Strengths and Weaknesses of Assessment:
While I think that this assessment was helpful in getting me some conclusive data, I also
believe there were a lot of holes in it. To start, several of my questions had to do with plot. As we
discussed a majority of the plot in class, those were basically free questions for them. For them,
these were topics that we discussed openly and often in class, so my assessing them was really
counterintuitive to my results. Yes, they helped my gain scores immensely, but its also clear that
they had already learned these things extensively throughout the weeks and it was unnecessary
for me to test them on it again. Also, some of the questions were not integral to their
comprehension of the text. For instance, question one (What does star-crossed mean?) was
helpful for them to know in the context of the play when considering fate as an outside factor to
Romeo and Juliets deaths, but it wasnt important that I ask them if it mattered in the postassessment.
I do feel, however, that the assessment had many strengths. For one, it did really test their
knowledge on important things that they should know before the end of their Freshman year.
Hardly any of the students knew what an allusion was at the post-assessment, and it was really
important to me that that was something they knew. This question was one of those questions
where the answer really mattered, and I really wanted to make sure that they knew what it was
before they left. Again, an astonishing number of students (40 to be exact) had no idea what a
pun was. Of course, they couldnt have given me an example from the play, but I still expected
them to have an idea as to what it was. In the end, Im glad that I did have some of those
questions and answers. Not only were these questions helpful in determining where students
were and where they needed to go, but it was a great guide for me to know where I needed to
take my lessons and focus some of my energy teaching them in.