Analysis of Student Learning & Reflection

Unit Plan Part 5

Assignment Directions:
There are four parts to this assignment that involve analyzing student work, interpreting student work, reflecting on your assessment, and
reflecting on your teaching. Please prepare provide a response for each part.

Part 1: Documenting student learning from formative and summative assessment tasks

FORMATIVE Assessment Task
[The information below can be copied and pasted from your Post-Assessment Plan assignment.]

GLCE/Learning Goal:

P.FM.03.35
Describe how a push or a pull is a force.
P.FM.03.36
Relate a change in motion of an object to
the force that caused the change of
motion.





Assessment Task and Rationale: [Explain your task and give a rationale for how this
addresses your learning goal.]
Task Description: Students will draw and write about a time when you used a pulling force to
change the way something was moving. How did you know it changed? Draw and write about a
time when you used a pushing force to change the way something was moving. How did you know
it changed?
This task will help me understand that students know what a push and pull force is and how it can
be applied.

Exemplary Assessment Response Features:
List the features you expect to see in exemplary student responses to this assessment task.
For pulling force I would like to see an example we used in class or an outside the
classroom example. Students will be able to correctly identify a pulling force and
explain how they know what they drew changed because of the pulling force.
For pushing force I would like to see an example we used in class or an outside the
classroom example. Students will be able to correctly identify a pushing force and
explain how they know what they drew changed because of the pushing force.



Draw and write about a time when you used a pulling & pushing force to change the way something
was moving. How did you know it changed?
Whole Class Student Response Chart FORMATIVE Assessment Task (add or delete rows as needed)
Student
First Name
Correctly
identify a
pulling force
Has a picture
of something
that can be
affected by
pulling
Identifies how
pulling force
changed the
object they
drew
Correctly
identify a
pushing force
Has a picture
of something
that can be
affected by
pushing
Identifies
how pushing
force changed
the object
they drew
# of goal
features 6
Payton x x x x x 5
Sara x x x x x x 6
Mallory K x x x x x x 6
Mason x x x x x x 6
Ethan M. 0
Finn x x x 3
James 0
Carlito x x x 3
Annabelle x x x x x x 6
Cameran x x x x x x 6
Zak C. x x x x x x 6
Ethan L. x x x x x x 6
Jayden T. x x x x x x 6
Ella x x x x x x 6
Harmony x x x x 4
Malory V. x x x 3
Ashton x x x x x x 6
Kaleb x x x x x x 6
Hannah x x x x x 5
Devin x x x x x x 6
Ben x x x x x x 6
Jayden S. x x x x 4
Shelby x x x x x x 6
Zach V. x x x x x x 6
Mike x x x x x x 6
# 20 21 20 21 22 19
% 80% 84% 80% 84% 88% 76%

Individual Students Responses Chart
*
FORMATIVE Assessment Task
Evidence of Strong Student Understanding &
Sense-making:
Include a readable scan or photo example of
student work that illustrates strong student
understanding and sensemaking. If
necessary, also include any oral
communication with the student about
his/her work.


Evidence of Partial Student Understanding &
Sense-making/Need for more Information:
Include a readable scan or photo example
of student work that illustrates partial
student understanding and sense-making.
If necessary, also include any oral
communication with the student about
his/her work.


Evidence of Student
Poor/Misunderstanding & Little Sense-
making:
Include a readable scan or photo
example of student work that
illustrates poor student understanding
or little sense-making. If necessary,
also include any oral communication
with the student about his/her work.



*
Feel free to use a different format than this table if you need more space to show or explain student work
Evidence from work sample of Strong Student
Understanding/Sense-making:
List features you have identified in your
students work. (NOTE: This will likely go
beyond the features you have identified as
required for mastery of your learning goal.
What understandings or sense-making does
this student demonstrate beyond what was
expected?) Provide claims about student
understanding and a rationale for how your
evidence demonstrates strong understanding
and sense-making indicating a mastery of
your learning goal/GLCE.
This student was able to correctly
identify when to use a pulling and
pushing force and how they changed.
This student came up with their own
example that worked for both pushing
and pulling.
What questions do you have about this
students work? What additional information
is needed from this student to make claims
about his/her science understandings and
sense-making?
Some questions I might ask would be
just to clarify what this student meant
when they said, at first I didnt move
then it was in motion just to make
sure I knew what this student was
talking about.
Evidence from work sample of Partial
Student Understanding/Need for more
Information:
List features you have identified in your
students work. Provide claims about
student understanding and a rationale for
how your evidence demonstrates partial
understanding/mastery of your learning
goal/GLCE. (What are the strengths and
weaknesses of this childs understanding?)
This student was able to identify
that pushing a switch turns that
light on but wasnt able to tell me
how pulling would make the light
go on. This student didnt finish his
thought.
What questions do you have about this
students work? What additional
information is needed from this student to
make claims about his/her science
understandings?
I would like to ask this student
how pulling a light switch would
turn the light on. I think this
student just mixed up the pushing
and pulling and then wasnt able
to finish their thought. I think if
this student had more time to
finish their thought or explain
what was going on this students
work would be more
understanding.
Evidence from work sample of Student
Poor/Misunderstanding:
List features you have identified in
your students work sample. Provide
claims about student understanding
and a rationale for how your evidence
demonstrates poor mastery of or a
misunderstanding of your learning
goals/GLCE, little sense-making,
and/or poor understanding of the
assessment task itself.
This student was able to draw
a picture of some things that
could be pushed and pulled but
failed to explain how they
could be pushed or pulled and
what was doing it. I think if this
student could explain it a little
more then they could have
shown understanding of
pushing and pulling.
What questions do you have about this
students work? What additional
information is needed from this
student to make claims about his/her
science understandings?
I would like to ask this student
what they were pushing and
pulling first off and how they
knew it was being pushed or
pulled and how it changed.
This student wasnt able to
show what they were trying to
explain so just a further
explanation of what they
would drawing would help my
understanding of what this
student actually knew.

SUMMATIVE Assessment Task
[The information below can be copied and pasted from your Unit Plan Part 3: Assessment Plan assignment.]

GLCE/Learning Goal:
P.FM.03.22
Identify the force that pulls objects
towards the Earth.

P.FM.E.3 Force- A force is either a push or a pull.
The motion of objects can be changed by forces.
The size of the change is related to the size of the
force.(The larger the force, the larger the change)
The change is also related to the weight (mass) of
the object on which the force is being exerted. (The
larger the mass, the greater force needs to be
applied to have the same effect on the motion)
When an object does not move in response to a
force, it is because another force is being applied by
the environment. (Balanced forces when two
forces such as the pull of gravity and the pushing up

Assessment Task and Rationale: [Explain your task and give a rationale for how this
addresses your learning goal.]
Task Description: Students will have to draw and label a picture of something moving. Then
students will have to label the force that starts the object moving.
This task will tell me if the students were able to understand force and how it is applied in real life situations.

Exemplary Assessment Response Features:
List the features you expect to see in exemplary student responses to this assessment task.

force of a desk on a book sitting on the table equal
each other the book does not move.





Draw and label a picture of something moving. Label the force that starts the object moving.
Whole Class Student Response Chart SUMMATIVE Assessment Task (add rows as needed)

Student
First Name
Draw a picture of
something moving
Label the force that starts
the object moving.
# of goal features
Payton x x 2
Mallory K. X X 2
Zak x 1
Finn x x 2
Carlito x 1
Cameran x x 2
Mike x 1
Zach X X 2
James X X 2
Ethan M. X x 2
Devin X x 2
Kaleb x x 2
Hannah x X 2
Annabelle x X 2
Malory V. x X 2
Mason x x 2
Ella x 1
Ben x x 2
Jayden T. x x 2
Jayden S. x 1
Sara x x 2
Ashton x x 2
Shelby x x 2
Harmony x x 2
Ethan L. x x 2
# 24 21
% 96% 84%
Individual Students Responses Chart SUMMATIVE Assessment Task
Evidence of Strong Student Understanding &
Sense-making:
Include a readable scan or photo example of
student work that illustrates strong student
understanding and sensemaking. If necessary,
also include any oral communication with the
student about his/her work.


Evidence of Partial Student
Understanding & Sense-making/Need
for more Information:
Include a readable scan or photo
example of student work that
illustrates partial student
understanding and sense-making. If
necessary, also include any oral
communication with the student
about his/her work.


Evidence of Student Poor/Misunderstanding
& Little Sense-making:
Include a readable scan or photo example
of student work that illustrates poor
student understanding or little sense-
making. If necessary, also include any oral
communication with the student about
his/her work.



Evidence from work sample of Strong Student
Understanding/Sense-making:
List features you have identified in your
students work. (NOTE: This will likely go
beyond the features you have identified as
required for mastery of your learning goal.
What understandings or sense-making does
this student demonstrate beyond what was
expected?) Provide claims about student
understanding and a rationale for how your
evidence demonstrates strong understanding
and sense-making indicating a mastery of your
learning goal/GLCE.
This student pulled a real life example
and applied the concepts that we
learned.
This student also showed the force very
specifically and how to use it.


What questions do you have about this
students work? What additional information
is needed from this student to make claims
about his/her science understandings and
sense-making?
Does this student
Evidence from work sample of Partial
Student Understanding/Need for more
Information:
List features you have identified in
your students work. Provide claims
about student understanding and a
rationale for how your evidence
demonstrates partial
understanding/mastery of your
learning goal/GLCE. (What are the
strengths and weaknesses of this
childs understanding?)
This student demonstrated
the very first lesson that we
did about motion. She failed
to explain what was moving
she drew a picture of the
bus but also said pushing or
pulling.

What questions do you have about
this students work? What
additional information is needed
from this student to make claims
about his/her science
understandings?
I would like to ask how it
could be pushing and
pulling? And what is pushing
and pulling?
I understand where the
picture was coming from
and why my student drew
this out I just want to make
Evidence from work sample of Student
Poor/Misunderstanding:
List features you have identified in your
students work sample. Provide claims
about student understanding and a
rationale for how your evidence
demonstrates poor mastery of or a
misunderstanding of your learning
goals/GLCE, little sense-making, and/or
poor understanding of the assessment task
itself.
This student put a picture of a table
and labeled push and pulling is
gravity.
If this student just put pushing or
pulling and the arrow of the table
that would have been fine but
putting that pushing and pulling is
gravity throws me off.

What questions do you have about this
students work? What additional
information is needed from this student to
make claims about his/her science
understandings?
I would like to ask this student what
they meant by pushing and pulling is
gravity.
I see how they could have answered
pushing and pulling the table but I
dont understand where gravity
came in. I think having a
conversation and having this
student explain their answer I think
sure this student
understands.
this student would have got the
question right.


Part 2: Identifying Patterns in Student Learning and Responses
There are many factors that influence students learning. However, patterns of learning across students can often give us important insights
into where our unit planning/instructional approach might need revision. Examine the charts you have created to identify patterns in your
students understandings.

For each assessment, what ideas and practices were generally understood and what more preliminary (or nave) ideas and
practices remain?
Summative
o What was understood more were the areas where students could relate too. For example when we talked about what
motion is students were able to think about what they do at recess and relate it to motion. One of my students actually
related motion to their own life while the majority of my students used examples that we used in class and experiments
from then.
Formative
o Many of my students were able to understand what pushing and pulling is they just were having trouble explaining how
they knew what they were drawing actually changed its motion. Students needed more practice describing the motion of
objects and how pushing and pulling effected these objects in motion.
For each assessment, why do you think the students succeeded and struggled where they did? Reference the specific
examples and evidence that you have above.
Summative
o I think that some of my students that struggled just had trouble explaining what they already knew. For example my
student who put pushing and pulling was gravity just kept writing because they didnt think that they had enough written
down.
o For my student who needed more understanding of what they were trying to write I think that student just got confused
or didnt explain fully what they meant. This student wrote about our very first experiment and had the basic concepts
down but didnt specify what they meant by pushing or pulling.
o For my students that did succeed I think this was because they were able to relate to what we were talking about
referencing the experiments that we talked about in class and some were even able to reference some outside of the
classroom examples.
Formative
o I think that many of my students struggled with actually describing how their object changed. Many students wrote that
they just knew that it changed which really isnt explaining how pushing or pulling was a factor. Another thing that many
of my students wrote was that students just pushed or pulled it and it moved but didnt explain. I think if my students
would have explained what they were drawing a little more then I would have had a better understanding of what they
were drawing and it would have shown me that they knew what they were talking about.
What parts of your teaching were particularly effective in supporting students with the specific ideas, understandings, and
sense-making they did?
Summative
o Through out my lesson we had many examples of objects in motion so there were plenty of examples for students to draw
upon. I was able to see this throughout many of my students work, so giving lots of examples was very helpful. When we
did talk about motion and picking out motion, direction and speed terms we talked through these words and we
demonstrated many of these examples as well. I think actually getting to test out these motion, direction, and speed terms
this helped many of the students draw upon these examples. I think also having many experiments was very helpful too
that helped students have many experiences to look back upon which I seen in their work.
Formative
o When going over what pushing and pulling was we went over many class examples like with pulling we did a tug of war
game and with pushing we had a class pushing the ball kind of sequence so students had a hands on experience with both
pushing and pulling. Through out the rest of the lessons we talked about pushing and pulling but didnt go over as many
examples as I would have liked to.
What parts of your teaching might you have done differently to better support students with the specific ideas with which
they struggled or the sense-making they were trying to do?
Summative
o Many of the students understood the concept, which I am glad with. The students who didnt were just confused by
some of the things that we were talking about. I think that if my students were to explain this out and talk with a partner
before answering this question they would have done better. I think next time I would have a small group discussion to
make sure students know what they are talking about.
Formative
o Something that I would have done differently is spend more time on pushing and pulling. I would have had students do
more think pair share and more talk about push and pull so students would have more examples and things to think
about when thinking about pushing and pulling.
Part 3: Effectiveness of Assessment Strategies
In addition to analyzing student responses to your assessment opportunities for clear evidence of student understanding and sense-making,
you will also need to reflect upon the effectiveness of your assessment strategies.
What were the strengths and limitations of the types of assessments you chose? To what extent did you assessment
strategies allow you to learn about your students scientific sense-making? (Were you able to get richer information than
whether they get it or dont get it?)
Summative
o I was able to see what students thought moving was and how to get an object moving. This overall gave me a sense of if
they were getting what motion was. For the students who didnt get it I was able to see if they were able to come up with
the words to describe how they got whatever they drew a picture of moving and how they did that.
Formative
o In this assessment students were asked to draw and write about a time when a pushing and pulling force changed the
way something was moved and how it changed. I think that this gave a good understanding of how well a student
understood what a push and pull was and how it moved objects. I think that students would have benefitted from a more
talk about some ideas and then write but over all many of the students were able to think of the many examples that we
went over in class or think of some outside of school activities.

What changes would you make for your next class in order to get more information and/or a clearer picture of your students
progress in mastering your GLCE/learning goals (both content and inquiry or process)?
Summative
o I would go over more examples and have students come up with their own examples after explaining each force. For
example after describing the pulling force with the jump rope I would have a think-pair-share where students would
come up with some more examples. I think making sure that I keep coming back to these examples so that they stay fresh
in students minds would be something that I would change.
Formative
o If I were to do this again I would make sure to go over some more examples and have students come up with some ideas
of things they push and pull and then have a group share and then a class share. I also think that going over some more
class examples would have been nice like going outside and doing a pushing and pulling on the swing or throwing a ball. I
think having students share some examples of pushing and pulling at home would be helpful too so that way they can
have a personal story to pushing and pulling.
Part 4: Lessons Learned
In this section, pull together ideas from the previous two sections to reflect upon the science learning that occurred as a result of your unit.
Based upon your analysis and reflection above, answer the following questions:
Overall, if you taught this unit again, what might you keep, modify or extend? Why? For this response, include a critical
evaluation of your teaching that includes strengths as well as ideas for how your instruction could be improved. Include some
reflection about the amount/level and success of the use hands-on inquiry activities within the unit, and draw on course
concepts (e.g., I-AIM, EPE, student sense-making, course readings).
a. If I were to teach this unit again I would make sure to hit on each point repeatedly throughout the unit and to bring up
examples. I did do some review but because we had such a time crunch with all the snow days and even fitting in science
that making sure I got through all of the lessons was a challenge. I think time management is another issue that I need to
work on because of all this pressure of fitting everything into this 6 week period and not really having a bunch of time for
it I think making sure that I hit on the most important aspects is important. I tried to make sure that I covered all of the
material quickly but instead I should have focused on the most important parts and spent more time on them. I didnt
anticipate such a rush in the end to make sure that I got through everything. I think If I would have spent more time on
the bigger aspects of the unit then I would have been able to get kids more involved in knowing for example some more
pushing and pulling examples and really getting to understand motion.
b. I think that one of the most important things that I did see through out the unit was how students could really use the
experience (experiments) to pick up on patterns that were seen through out motion. Because these concepts built off of
each other students were able to explain whey things were happening these went right through the EPE chart and
students were able to pick up on these concepts. I was able to see how many of my students could take the motion
words and put them into use through explaining how the forces pushing and pulling can put an object into motion.

Finally, what was the best thing that happened during your teaching of the science unit,
One of the best things that happened during my teaching science unit was hearing the students relate the motion unit to other
areas of the class. For example when we were talking about our Amazing Words students would use some of the terms that we
just learned in science to describe them. It was really cool to see students taking what we learned in science and applying to
their lives outside of when we were learning about science.
what was the worst thing that happened during your teaching of the science unit, and
One of the worst parts was not really bad it was just frustrating. I found these cool pencils that would change color if you rubbed
them so I thought that after we learned about friction that students would be able to explain it to me and then I would give them
one of these pencils. Well some of my students got so focused on getting the pencil that they couldnt explain what friction was
so it had to be a whole new topic the next day which was fine because they were able to understand it the next day. I think the
biggest problem was having them knowing what friction is to get a pencil instead of focusing on what friction is. This was
definitely a learning experience where next time I will make sure students focus on knowing what friction is and then worry
about giving out a pencil demonstrating friction or give them the pencil and have them write how friction can be demonstrated
with the pencil.
what is the most interesting thing that happened during your science unit?
One of the most interesting things that happened during the lesson was just seeing how students interacted with each other.
This was a class where we really didnt do a lot of group work and to see the students come together and work as a group was
great. I feel like with Reading Street and math its all based on an individual level but so much can be gained from working in
groups that it kind of brought the class together. Especially by putting them into table groups. I was able to see which students
actually tried in a group and which students wouldnt so getting to know the class dynamic was very beneficial.