Phases of the Moon

Student work

STUDENT ABILITY

The students who participated in this learning experience are part of two fourth grade classes. The students' general ability is slightly below grade level. ADD, Visual Impairment, IEP's, Speech, and AIS for reading take place between the two classes. The students were able to complete the pre-assessment without any help and about ten of the students needed assistance with the post-assessment.

ASSESSMENT DATA

Classification of student work from the pre-assessment and post-assessment:

Level	Number of Students		Percent of Students
	Pre-assessment	Post-assessment	Pre-assessment	Post-assessment
Distinguished	4	43	8%	83%
Proficient	15	9	29%	17%
Developing	33	0	63%	0%

DATA

Conclusion

Looking at the graph, there is evidence that a majority of the students obtained the objectives in the lesson, because the post assessment had more students in the distinguished category than in the pre assessment. After the post assessment, all of the students improved and moved out of the developing category and into the proficient and distinguished categories. As a result of some students still remaining in the proficient category, it is clear these students need more one-on-one assistance in order to ensure that they understand the relationship between the Moon, the Sun, and the Earth. The can teacher can then take the students who are at the proficient level aside at the end of the day to provide them with the help that is needed. One threat to validity is the students’ ability to read the directions. If a student did not read the directions on the worksheets, then he/she may not have achieved as high of a score as he/she could have. Another threat is the students’ awareness of matching activities. If a student did not have prior experiences with matching activities then he/she likely is unable to perform as well. These two cases directly affect the validity of the assessments, because if a student does not read the directions or is unaware of how to complete the assessment, then the assessment is no longer measuring what it was designed to measure.

DISTINGUISHED STUDENT WORK

PRE-ASSESSMENT

Pre-Assessment Distinguished