Action+Plan

 Julie Lewison Action Plan for Assessment and Technology course

The problem I have identified is in Standard 6.R.5.1 which states Students can compare and contrast information on one topic from multiple informational texts. This standard was identified to be the lowest for 6th grade from 2005-2008 (E-metrics data). E-metric data shows 44.8% of the students answered the questions related to this standard correct in 6th grade in 2008 and ranged anywhere from 34.8% to 47.1% during 2005-2007. Looking at the 5th grade scores (E-metric) from last year about 38% of the students answered the questions over a similar standard incorrectly. In the Achievement Series test, given to all 6th graders, 48.4% of the class answered the questions over this standard correctly. In preparing my Achievement Series test to locate questions on this standard I had to search the Language Arts Section of Scantron and then was only able to locate eight. My question is how can I use technology to improve the students understanding of comparing and contrasting information on one topic from multiple information texts?

** Beginning of year ** In the Achievement Series test, given to all 6th graders,over 50% of the class answered the questions over this standard wrong. E-metric data shows that 55.2% of the students answered the questions related to this standard wrong in 6th grade in 2008. I also gave an Achievement Series test just over the Standard 6.R.5.1 and added questions from 5th grade and 7th grade standard that were similar to the 6th grade standard. In these results 69.98% of the students answered the 5th grade standard correctly, 56.58% of the 6th grade standard correctly and 56.62% and 67.34% of the 7th grade standard correctly. Overall 43 of the 87 (49%) students tested scored above 60% on the test. During the first lesson based on this standard I had the students compare and contrast the Presidential Candidates using 3 web sites and a Venn Diagram and all the 6th grade students were able to correctly place information in the Venn Diagram and were able to differentiate the viewpoints of the canidates correctly (lesson plan on lesson plans page).

I gave the mid-year Achievement Series test over just the Standard 6.R.5.1. This time I did not included the 5th grade standard and removed 1 on the 7th grade standards and left a total of 16 questions. I removed those two standards as the students were close to 70% correct. The results showed 55.4% of the students answered the 6th grade standard correctly and 71.6% of the 7th grade standard correctly. Overall 60 out of 81 (74%) students tested scored above 60% on the test. The second lesson plan was over a few days with all the beautiful South Dakota weather we had it took longer to complete. After viewing the powerpoint over informational texts and reading and informational text over Records VS. CD's 74% of my students scored 80% or above on the first quiz over a Compare/Contrast informational text. As for the second quiz over Brown VS The Board of Education 48% of my students scored 75% or above and on the third quiz about the relationship between a spider and a women 58% of my students scored 70% or above. The last two quizzes over the informational texts seemed to give the students some grief-most said it was how the questions were written and it seemed to be a wild day-the weather is suppose to change!
 * Middle of the year**

I gave the end of the year Achievement Series test over Standard 6.R.5.1. For the final test over this standard I only used questions in the 6th grade standard as during the mid-year test over 70% answered the questions for the 7th grade statndard correctly. As for this test 80.5% was the average of this 6th grade standard answered correctly. Overall 81 out of 84 (96%) students scored above 60% on the test. I decided to give the Senteo quizzes from my second lesson plan again to see if the students understanding of this standard had improved. In the informational text Records VS. CD's 93% of my students scored 80% or above. On the second quiz over Brown VS The Board of Education 69% of my students scored 75 % and above and for the quiz about the relationship between a spider and a women 84% of my students scored 83% or above.
 * End of the year**

**Results** From the time I gave the pre-test and post-test in Achievement Series I saw a 23.92% increase in the students knowledge over standard 6.R.5.1. From the middle of the school year when using the Senteo's to assess the standard I saw a 19% increase in students scoring above 80% in Records VS. CD's, 21% increase in students scoring above 75% in the Brown VS Board of Education, 26% increase in students scoring above 70% in the Spider VS Woman.

Do I think that technology helped with the students understanding of Comparing and Contrasting Informational Text? The answer is yes. I enjoyed using interactive technology for my first lesson and the students were able to compare and contrast with no problems. Using the Senteo's the students made gains from the first time we used them to the last time. This standard is low across the state and the resources are few and far. The students struggle with the wording of questions as they are unsure of what is being asked so we spent time on the best ways to understand questions and stratgeies for coming up with the correct response.

This process has been fun and interesting. I enjoyed being able to take the classes and have the time to explore what I learned. I also like being able to explore the test scores of my students not only through E-metrics but also Achievement Series. I enjoyed looking at a different standard this year and seeing if I could make a difference with the students by incorporating technology. The use of the Senteo's got the students excited about being tested which I think it is wonderful anytime you can make assessments fun for the students.When I asked the students what they enjoyed the most was that they were able to she what questions they got wrong-immediate feedback. I wish there was more information (user friendly) out on the web that could help with improving the students understanding of this standard.
 * Reflection**

I will continue to incorporate technology in my lessons and as new technology is brought into our school I hope to be able to have the time to explore how they can make me a better teacher and improve the students understanding of the standards.
 * Plans for Next Year**