Stephanie Falksen

ED 315
Final Self Assessment Essay Unit
May 7
th
, 2014
In assessing my students final essays I have found that while some of the students have
made some growth in their essay writing abilities the majority of the class would definitely
benefit from additional support and instruction in nearly each of the main aspects of essay
writing. Overall the students were very strong in their voice and in using proper conventions.
Essay organization was an area of struggle for nearly half of the students along with providing
strong reasons to back up the main idea statement and supporting evidence for the reasons.
Prior to evaluating the students final essays I had conducted informal assessment
throughout the unit that allowed me to develop each lesson in a way that would best support
the learners in my classroom. Based on this informal assessment I had a strong understanding
that additional instruction time was needed for the majority of the class. Unfortunately due to
my limited time in the classroom that was not possible but I did everything I could to make the
most out of each moment I did spend with the students. The large majority of my evidence to
support my understanding came from individual conferences with the students and was
recorded on my informal assessment grids each day of teaching. During this time I was able to
see where each student was doing well and where they needed additional support which was
useful as I created each subsequent lesson.
If I was continuing to work with this group of students on essay writing I would create
additional authentic learning experience for the students to continue practicing essay writing.
In doing this I would create small groups based on students needs to provide the most effective
support for each student or groups of students. These small group instruction topics would
include, but are not limited to, organizing writing, developing reasons to support the main idea,
detailed evidence, introduction, conclusion, and persuasive writing. I would also continue to
hold one-on-one conferences with each student to ensure I could develop a stronger
understanding of each childs developmental needs.
Going into this placement I was very nervous and unsure about working in an urban
setting. It was a completely new experience for me and not one that I had ever thought that I
had wanted. As I worked with this group of students I continually found myself being
challenged in my classroom management techniques. I used this challenge as an opportunity to
incorporate some of the tools that I had observed my cooperating teacher use as well as using
my own approaches into my teaching. This helped me to learn what types of approaches were
the most effective with this group of students and which ones were not.
This placement also gave me the opportunity to continue developing Wisconsin Teacher
Standard #3, working with a very diverse range of learners. The writing abilities of the students
in this classroom ranged from significantly below grade level to fully meeting grade level
expectations. This pushed me to keep all of my learners in mind as I created each lesson plan
and was the main reason I continually tried to conference with students after presenting each
lesson. I did a significant amount of research prior to several of my lessons to ensure I had a full
understanding of each topic before I presented it to the students. Through building this
understanding and background knowledge along with learning about my students and their
community I was able to create lessons that were developmentally appropriate and strengthen
my development of Wisconsin Teacher Standard #7, planning instruction based on knowledge
of the subject matter, students, community, and curriculum goals. As I worked to ensure that
each of the lessons in this unit were aligned with the fourth grade Common Core standards for
writing and would meet the needs and support all of the learners in the classroom
strengthened my skills of the Alverno Ability of Conceptualization.
Finally as this placement was primarily focused on assessment and practicing the use of
both informal and formal assessment I feel that I grew in my Alverno Ability of Diagnosis as well
as my development of Wisconsin Teacher Standard #8. Through practicing continual informal
assessment through observations and conferencing I was able to develop a clear understanding
of my students needs and developmental levels. This allowed me to be prepared to support all
of the kids during each individual conference and to help support them to the best of my ability
in the limited time I had to work in this classroom.