Accountability
Classroom Scenario:
9th Grade Language Arts Literacy
Mr. Snead had a new 9th grade classroom in 2003. His second period class has 30 students. What skills did they have, and what did they need? Mr. Snead is a language arts literacy teacher. He decided to look at the 8th grade state assessment language arts literacy (LAL) scores for one of his classes. The scores were low! He had to find some way to prioritize them. Then he compared the scores to the state Just Proficient Mean (JPM) to see what the passing score was for all state 8th graders.
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Let's
look at what he found: Mr. Snead's 9th
grade class.
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What cluster areas needed less help? He wasn't really sure about the language arts literacy scores because they did not look TOO low. But the Math scores were definitely noticeably lower than the JPM.
Mr. Snead decided to explore a little further before deciding on his priorities. He decided to compare his class scores with scores by students who made advanced proficient scores.
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Mr.
Snead compared his 9th grade class with students who made advanced
proficient scores on the 8th grade test. See language
arts literacy scores.
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What cluster areas seem to pose the most difficulty for Mr. Snead's LAL class? Where should he focus his attention for maximum student achievement? Mr. Snead noticed that students in his class scored about half of the advanced proficient students on three of the four cluster areas.
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Mr.
Snead decides to focus on the clusters: Reading,
Interpreting Text and Analyzing/Critiquing Text.
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Mr. Snead immediately began helping the class by targeting the following: His students would have to work very hard! He used the LAL standards matrix.
| STANDARD 3.1 (READING) ALL STUDENTS WILL UNDERSTAND AND APPLY THE KNOWLEDGE OF SOUNDS, LETTERS, AND WORDS IN WRITTEN ENGLISH TO BECOME INDEPENDENT AND FLUENT READERS, AND WILL READ A VARIETY OF MATERIALS AND TEXTS WITH FLUENCY AND COMPREHENSION. | Descriptive Statement: A primary reading goal is for students at all grades to read independently with fluency and comprehension so that they become lifelong readers and learners. In order to achieve this goal, students benefit from "daily opportunities to read books they choose for themselves, for their own purposes, and their own pleasures" (Calkins, 2001). Students should read grade-appropriate or more challenging classic and contemporary literature and informational readings, both self-selected and assigned. In order to grow as readers and deepen their understanding of texts, students need many opportunities to think about, talk about, and write about the texts they are reading. A diversity of reading material (including fiction and nonfiction) provides students with opportunities to grow intellectually, emotionally, and socially as they consider universal themes, diverse cultures and perspectives, and the common aspects of human existence. |
| STANDARD 3.2 (WRITING) ALL STUDENTS WILL WRITE IN CLEAR, CONCISE, ORGANIZED LANGUAGE THAT VARIES IN CONTENT AND FORM FOR DIFFERENT AUDIENCES AND PURPOSES. | Descriptive Statement: Writing is a complex process that begins with the recording of one's thoughts. It is used for composition, communication, expression, learning, and engaging the reader. Proficient writers use a repertoire of strategies that enables them to vary form, style, and conventions in order to write for different purposes, audiences, and contexts. Students should have multiple opportunities to craft and practice writing, to generate ideas, and to refine, evaluate, and publish their writing. In a successful writing program, students develop and demonstrate fluency in all phases of the writing process, including prewriting, drafting, revising, editing of multiple drafts, and postwriting processes that include publishing, presenting, evaluating, and/or performing. |
| STANDARD 3.3 (SPEAKING) ALL STUDENTS WILL SPEAK IN CLEAR, CONCISE, ORGANIZED LANGUAGE THAT VARIES IN CONTENT AND FORM FOR DIFFERENT AUDIENCES AND PURPOSES. | Descriptive Statement: Oral language is a powerful tool for communicating, thinking, and learning. Through speaking and listening, students acquire the building blocks necessary to connect with others, develop vocabulary, and perceive the structure of the English language. An important goal in the language arts classroom is for students to speak confidently and fluently in a variety of situations. |
| STANDARD 3.4 (LISTENING) ALL STUDENTS WILL LISTEN ACTIVELY TO INFORMATION FROM A VARIETY OF SOURCES IN A VARIETY OF SITUATIONS. | Descriptive Statement: Listening is the process of hearing, receiving, constructing meaning from, and responding to spoken and/or nonverbal messages. Through active listening, students gain understanding and appreciation of language and communication. Students call on different listening skills depending on their purpose for listening (e.g., listening to sounds, comprehending information, evaluating a message, appreciating a performance). Effective listeners are able to listen actively, restate, interpret, respond to, and evaluate increasingly complex messages. Students need to recognize that what they say, read, write, and view contributes to the content and quality of their listening experiences. |
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STANDARD 3.5 (VIEWING AND MEDIA LITERACY)
ALL STUDENTS WILL ACCESS, VIEW, EVALUATE, AND RESPOND TO PRINT,
NONPRINT, AND ELECTRONIC TEXTS AND RESOURCES.
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Descriptive Statement:
Students learn how to view critically and thoughtfully in order
to respond to visual messages and images in print, nonverbal interactions,
the arts, and electronic media. Effective viewing is essential to
comprehend and respond to personal interactions, live performances,
visual arts that involve oral and/or written language, and both
print media (graphs, charts, diagrams, illustrations, photographs,
and graphic design in books, magazines, and newspapers) and electronic
media (television, computers, film). A media-literate person is
able to evaluate media for credibility and understands how words,
images, and sounds influence the way meanings are conveyed and understood
in contemporary society. Students need to recognize that what they
speak, hear, write, and read contributes to the content and quality
of their viewing.
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Benefits arising from teaching these clusters: All Students will be at a Advanced proficient Level in all LAL Clusters.
What
resources did he use? see below!
He checked the two NJPEP Helpful Hints tutorials: GEPA
, HSPA and Interpreting
Test Results to get hints on instructing and assessing for thinking.
