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Alex BoswellProfessor Sawyer/Professor HickeySecondary English Education Seminar12/5/2012

Instructional Study

Artifacts A­M are from a unit on characterization and essay writing for 7th graders at BeaconMiddle School. The construction of this unit serves as an example of my advocacy for students anddemocratic citizenship within the classroom by providing multiple modes of learning and an environmentin which all students can participate. Students are encouraged to participate on a level in which they canactively construct knowledge, rather than solely reproduce knowledge; make an argument andsubstantiate it through the use of examples, details, facts, and reasons; and find meaning in classactivities beyond earning grades.

My baseline assessment for the students was a compare and contrast essay (See Artifacts H1 &I1). The baseline was conducted after the students read two stories and had practiced applying basiccharacterization methods to the two stories through homework and class activities, in order to comparethe characters from each story by assessing their similarities and differences. I also reviewed the parts ofan essay in class, using a Promethean board and student participation. The students started their essaysin class and were asked to complete them as homework. This essay served as my baseline assessment,specifically, of the students' ability to write an essay and to analyze characterization.

My final assessment was an essay re­write after a week and a half of further instruction (See H5

& I5). I found that the most noticeable and consistent weakness within the baseline assessment essayswas a lack of evidence for supporting details. For instance, in “Sample H1,” the student, in his firstessay, wrote “they both enjoyed the attention given to them for their lies and rudeness” to support theidea that the two characters he was comparing were similar; however, he did not provide any examples.The student seemed to understand that he needed three supporting details to back up his topic sentence,but he did not understand that he needed to follow through with his supporting details by providingevidence. In the student’s final essay, “Sample H5,” he edited and developed his idea by writing:

“The final reason they are similar is they both wanted attention for their lies. An exampleof Great Grandma wanting attention was when she lied to the news crew and reportersabout being in the Hindenburg and several other events. She did this so the reporterswould put her in the newspaper. An example of Laurie wanting attention was when hespilled his baby sister’s milk, he did this so his parents would listen to him.”

The final essays, compared to the baseline assessment, were not perfect, but they marked ampleimprovement in students’ ability to use evidence to support their ideas. This also enhanced their ability tomore fully demonstrate their aptitude to assess characterization in the story by writing more specifically

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about the characters, instead of in generalizations.In order to develop and scaffold students’ ability to support their claims with specific details and

examples, I facilitated several activities that guided students through going back into the text to supporttheir ideas and connections to their reading. A general overview of the lessons I created between thebaseline assessment and the final assessment are provided in “Artifact J,” and three sample lesson plansare provided in Artifacts K­M.

First, I introduced an annotation method that I had tried out for the first time with a class of 11thgraders at my previous student teaching placement. The annotation method encouraged students tore­read specific passages in a story and to draw a symbol when they thought something in the story wassurprising, important, confusing, or funny. They could also draw a symbol when they disagreed with anaspect of the story or when they could make a connection to a part of the story in a personal way orthrough something they had learned in the past. In addition, they were asked to underline each line of thepassage with different colors in order to indicate when and where a particular character was speaking(See “Artifact A”). I modeled the activity for the students on a Promethean board and modeled mythought process for the activity by thinking out loud. I then allowed the students to use the annotationmethod in groups. The annotation method was meant to help students make connections to specificpassages in a story and to encourage them to practice re­reading. The underlining with different colorshelped students to visually break down the presence of each character in the passage and to assesswhat a character actually said, in comparison to what other characters said about or in reaction to thatcharacter. After the students annotated a specific passage that was assigned to them in their group, eachstudent was assigned a specific character to analyze in their particular passage (See B & C). This wasmeant to help students focus on linking their analysis of characters to specific evidence provided in thetext. Then, the next day, all of the students gathered together and turned their passages of different partsof the story into skits that they performed. Each student played the character that they were assigned toanalyze. They used their character analysis to play their specific character in their passage of the story.The groups also used their annotations to more carefully plan how they were going to interpret and actout their passage. This was one way of giving the annotation and character analysis more of a purposefor the students than just monotonous note taking on worksheets. It also helped students to demonstratetheir ability to pay close attention to specific points of evidence in the text through experiencing andacting out their knowledge, instead of just writing it.

Secondly, after performance day, students read a new story and practiced finding examplesfrom the text to back up a few key ideas. Then they re­read a passage of the story and madeannotations on it; however, this time they annotated the passages silently, as well as individually, andthey had to write an explanation for each annotation symbol (See D­G). I, also, once again, modeledthe annotation for them before they did the activity on their own; however, this time I asked the class toact as if they were one collective brain that was annotating a passage from the story on the Prometheanboard. We came up with annotations for the model passage in a unique and organic manner by allowingeveryone to participate. Students stated what annotation symbol they would use, where they would putit, and why. Then they were able to come up to the board and draw their annotation symbol on thepassage. Next, the students started their own individual annotations of a different passage in class andfinished it for homework.

After practicing the skills to reread, make connections to specific passages in a text, andprovide evidence through using quotes to back up one’s claims about a story, the students were given

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back their graded essays that had acted as my baseline assessment. First, the class was asked todiscuss the importance of knowing how to win an argument and knowing one’s audience, as a “DoNow” activity, and then they applied this discussion when looking over the rubric that was used to gradetheir essays (See H2 & I2). Then students were given an essay graphic organizer that broke down eachpart of an essay and included an extra step to provide evidence for each supporting detail (See H3 &I3). We reviewed the parts of an essay. I modeled for them what a supporting detail with evidencelooks like and then we came up with a few examples collectively as a class. Next, the students werefinally asked to start a second draft of their essays on the essay graphic organizer. They could work inpairs for about ten minutes in order to ask each other for help or brainstorm with a friend, and then theyhad to finish their second draft for homework, with the knowledge that they would be trading paperswith a classmate for a peer edit the following day (See H4 & I4).

The eleven days that it took to work up to an effective re­write was not initially planned andthere were a few changes I made in my instruction along the way. First, when I started looking at theessays and noticed a similar weakness in all of them, I set aside my previous plans and decided to focuson building the skills to make direct connections to quotes, to more effectively reference texts, and toback up one’s ideas with sufficient evidence. The students still did not write perfect essays but theimprovement in all of the essays is visible. Secondly, one piece of advice that I took from my supervisorwas to allow the students to participate in the modeling of the annotation process, rather than beingpassive spectators. I did this when I modeled the annotation method for a second time and I noticedthat the students were more astute and lively. They were motivated to participate with the knowledgethat their ideas could be taken into account and that they would be able to write on the Prometheanboard. Thirdly, I had not planned on discussing the importance of knowing one’s audience when essaywriting until the students started to answer the question, “How do you win an argument?”, as their “DoNow” activity. I assumed that the question would smoothly lead into how important it is to back upone’s ideas with evidence to win an argument and that this would then lead the class into comparing thestructure of an essay to the real world by thinking about how they could use that structure to win anargument. To my surprise, only a few people said that they would use evidence and facts to win anargument. Most of the 7th graders in my classroom believed that they could win an argument byconfusing the other person, making them feel bad, or overpowering them by talking loudly or beingphysically intimidating. I responded to these assumptions by asking the students to think about how theywere using psychology to win an argument and to focus on how they assess a specific audience to knowhow to belittle, confuse, or overpower their specific audience in order to win. I added comedy to theconversation by asking the students to imagine trying to win an argument with me by attempting toconfuse, belittle, or intimidate me. They would probably need to reassess their strategy with me as theiraudience and come up with a more effective tactic. This was an unexpected turn in the lesson but itworked out well because I was able to then use the rubric as a way for the students to assess theiraudience when essay writing.

If I were to adjust my instruction for the future, I would extend the duration of the unit andinclude more structured writing throughout. Students could practice substantiating their ideas in bothcreative and formal ways through various given structures. This would more effectively establish theirskills to be able to demonstrate the expected intellectual quality of their essays and, in addition, preparethem for becoming more college and career ready in the future.

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