Qualitative Data
Part two of the evidence of dramatic student growth in this section of my portfolio focuses on qualitative data. Student growth is demonstrated through a combination of artifacts that give insight into the literacy-building activities students completed throughout the school year. The work in this section comes from 3rd and 4th grade Spanish classes which, as mentioned previously, received 45 minutes of instruction in Spanish on a weekly basis.
While the assignments in this section are of a similar nature, the work spans the course of the school year. Themes change throughout the year; however, all activities provided students with opportunities to strengthen literacy skills and develop communicative competence in Spanish. To demonstrate student growth, I reference student work on similar activities spanning various themes studied in our class. I focus on student work from the end of the school year; in particular, I analyze the written assessment students completed to accompany their reading assessment described in part one of this section of my portfolio.
While the assignments in this section are of a similar nature, the work spans the course of the school year. Themes change throughout the year; however, all activities provided students with opportunities to strengthen literacy skills and develop communicative competence in Spanish. To demonstrate student growth, I reference student work on similar activities spanning various themes studied in our class. I focus on student work from the end of the school year; in particular, I analyze the written assessment students completed to accompany their reading assessment described in part one of this section of my portfolio.
Collection A:
Storybook Pages
Introduction: The student work samples in this collection are the written component of the reading assessment I analyzed in part one of this section of my portfolio. In these samples, each student wrote the text of one section of the fable. Then, he or she used sentence stems related to characters’ emotions to independently write one analysis statement about their line in the story. Finally, students created original illustrations to accompany their writing for two purposes: to demonstrate their comprehension, and to promote student self-expression. Click on the images below to enlarge student work samples.
Rationale: I choose these assignments because they connect to the larger goal of promoting student literacy and Spanish communicative competency through collaborative work. While this activity is highly structured, it builds students’ creative writing skills and prepares them to be successful on future assignments in Spanish class and language arts in general.
Analysis: Student work in this collection demonstrates a two important areas of achievement from my 3rd grade students. First, attention to detail is evident throughout. Students demonstrate precision with punctuation, spelling, and accent marks. Because accent marks are a completely new concept to students, students’ ability to correctly write accent marks is an indication of their growth in attention to detail in written work. Second, higher-order thinking is evident in this work. To achieve a score of four out of four on our rubric, students were required to write at least one inference. These sentences demonstrate more than student comprehension; they indicate student critical analysis of the plot of the fable as they write original sentences about the characters’ emotions.
Analysis: Student work in this collection demonstrates a two important areas of achievement from my 3rd grade students. First, attention to detail is evident throughout. Students demonstrate precision with punctuation, spelling, and accent marks. Because accent marks are a completely new concept to students, students’ ability to correctly write accent marks is an indication of their growth in attention to detail in written work. Second, higher-order thinking is evident in this work. To achieve a score of four out of four on our rubric, students were required to write at least one inference. These sentences demonstrate more than student comprehension; they indicate student critical analysis of the plot of the fable as they write original sentences about the characters’ emotions.
Collection B:
Magical Forest
Introduction: In this second collection of student work samples, I have included an independent workstation that students completed earlier in the school year. In this activity, students used sentence stems to write brief sentences about the animals that live in a forest. This activity required students to connect understanding and meaning with words written in Spanish. Then, using their creativity, they had to choose two groups of animals to write and illustrate in their graphic organizers. Finally, this assignment required students to understand the phrase, “Written by…” in Spanish in order for students to figure out where to write their names. I have included the work of the same students as in collection A in order to demonstrate student growth. However, student names were removed for student privacy.
Rationale: This formative assessment provides students with an opportunity to develop interpretive and productive language skills, as well as important collaborative social skills. First, students were pushed to create meaning of sight words in context in Spanish. Given instructions with only three complex words defined (“forest,” “magical,” and “lived”), students worked collaboratively to decode the sentences and complete them in Spanish. Then students were required to create illustrations that demonstrated their comprehension. This activity, while simple in its linguistic aspect, prepared students for the more rigorous work of creating storybook pages involving complex sentences and personal interpretation through critical analysis. Moreover, students practiced key collaborative skills as they worked with their group members to decode the meaning of the sentences, manage their time, and problem solve on a complicated student-led activity. (Note that student names have been removed for privacy.)
Analysis: The work in this activity demonstrates that while students were generally successful, students struggled at times to complete all parts of the assignment. Students were also challenged by the detail this assignment required in terms of writing in Spanish. Small mistakes with spelling and occasional omissions indicate that students needed to grow in their written Spanish, as well as in their work on multi-step assignments. The students whose work is included in this collection show marked improvement in their work on the storybook pages in the collection A.
Analysis: The work in this activity demonstrates that while students were generally successful, students struggled at times to complete all parts of the assignment. Students were also challenged by the detail this assignment required in terms of writing in Spanish. Small mistakes with spelling and occasional omissions indicate that students needed to grow in their written Spanish, as well as in their work on multi-step assignments. The students whose work is included in this collection show marked improvement in their work on the storybook pages in the collection A.
Collection C:
Sight Words
Introduction: This collection of work is an example of the type of activities students completed to develop key literacy skills across languages. I gave students leveled reading books from which to copy, analyze, and practice using sight words. Then, I asked students to use the sight words in a piece of creative artwork. This activity is an example of a student-driven workstation that students completed in collaborative groups while I worked on guided reading with students in another station.
Rationale: This work closely relates to developing students’ ability to write legibly. Students are asked to focus their attention to copying words as a first step in this activity. However, there is a specific relation to Spanish that makes this activity valuable. The sight words workstation activity increases their exposure to high-frequency sight words in Spanish. By defining these high-frequency words and exercising their writing ability, students worked to expand their vocabularies in Spanish. This work was a precursor to students work in the above two collections of work samples, demonstrating how different activities built on one another and led to student growth in their Spanish communicative competency and literacy skills.
Analysis: The work samples included in this collected demonstrate that students grew throughout in the year in their attention to detail, vocabulary in Spanish, and handwriting. For instance, the handwriting in this collection shows that students benefitted from practice writing words, regardless of the language. Further, the words students learned in this activity are a part of the important high-frequency vocabulary I focused on in this class.
Analysis: The work samples included in this collected demonstrate that students grew throughout in the year in their attention to detail, vocabulary in Spanish, and handwriting. For instance, the handwriting in this collection shows that students benefitted from practice writing words, regardless of the language. Further, the words students learned in this activity are a part of the important high-frequency vocabulary I focused on in this class.
Collection D:
Partner Storytelling Practice
Introduction: In this final collection of work samples, I have included sample student formative assessments demonstrating their comprehension of the fable on which students were assessed at the end of the school year. This assessment accompanies a spoken assignment in which students spent class time practicing using dramatic storytelling techniques to retell “The Three Little Pigs” to a peer. In this lesson, I modeled storytelling techniques in a whole-group lesson; then students took turns performing each line of the story as I had performed it for them. At the end of the lesson, students were assessed on their comprehension and memory of the section of the story they retold in small groups.
Rationale: The work in this collection is an example of the way that students connected spoken and written language in Spanish class. This sample work provides a different perspective on student growth: It shows how students built different language and higher-order thinking skills (including storytelling and inference writing) through a variety of learning tasks that connected to similar themes. While the other samples focused on written production in highly contextualized situations, this activity allows students to practice speaking and demonstrating comprehension in a highly contextualized activity. In this way, students were prepared to have success on their final assessment, as well as in literacy activities involving storytelling in their language arts classrooms.
Analysis: Student work in this collection shows a high level of success with the transfer from spoken language to written demonstration of comprehension. Students at the beginning of the year struggled with reading and understanding any amount of written text; this is demonstrated through low reading and analysis scores in independent assessments. However, by the end of the year students showed more success with both their spoken language abilities and their reading comprehension. Student work in this sample further supports that analysis, demonstrating students’ ability to transfer their oral storytelling to silent and individual reading and writing activities. This demonstrates the positive effects of our focus on literacy skills, as well as our work with Spanish communication skills.
Analysis: Student work in this collection shows a high level of success with the transfer from spoken language to written demonstration of comprehension. Students at the beginning of the year struggled with reading and understanding any amount of written text; this is demonstrated through low reading and analysis scores in independent assessments. However, by the end of the year students showed more success with both their spoken language abilities and their reading comprehension. Student work in this sample further supports that analysis, demonstrating students’ ability to transfer their oral storytelling to silent and individual reading and writing activities. This demonstrates the positive effects of our focus on literacy skills, as well as our work with Spanish communication skills.