STUDENT SURVEYS ANALYSIS

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Student Surveys Part 1

Demographics
I administered the student surveys my 3rd block 6th Grade Language Arts Honors class. In this
Language Arts class, 4.7% of the students are African American, 4.7% of them are multiracial, 9.5% of
them are Hispanic, and 85.7% are White. The gender breakdown of the class is 61.9% female and 38.1%
male. Among the 21, students, 9.5% of the students are identified as gifted, 4.5% are identified with
special disabilities, as well as 9.5% that seem to have special disabilities, but are not yet identified. One
student (4.5% of the class) is also in Read 180, remediation-reading class, while 2 other students (9.5%)
are still being tested for Read 180 because of inconsistency across different diagnostic tests.
Influencing Factors
The students worked on the surveys after they took their word study quizzes on a Friday
afternoon, so the testing may have influenced the results gathered on the surveys. However, most of
them seemed to take the survey very seriously, especially because I told them that this survey was for
my class and that they were doing it for me so I can reflect on myself. Some other factors that may have
influenced the survey results could be that I have not really assigned any homework in the class yet
because Im still in the process of transitioning into taking charge of the classroom. I have already done
two of my own lessons in the class so the students are still getting to know me in terms of pedagogical
knowledge and strategies. Another influencing factor may be one student in the class that has an
emotional disorder and constantly disrupts the class from time to time as well as exhibits oppositional
defiant behaviors occasionally. I have to constantly tell him he is behaving inappropriately and give him
warnings towards a lunch break attention.

STUDENT SURVEYS ANALYSIS

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Knowledge of the subject

Looking at the results, students seem to think that I know my content pretty well, 90.5% of them
strongly agree to the statement My teacher knows and understands the subject being taught and the
other 9.5% agree with it. I think that this is the bright side of teaching middle school students, especially
6th grade students because the material that they are learning is something that I have learned a long time
ago and have been building upon it in higher education all the time. The age gap between the students
and me also let them look up to me in a way that a lot of high school students would be less likely to do.
I also think that the positive climate of the classroom also helps a lot with this area because even though
I do not know something, the students are okay with my replies of Im not sure, why dont we find out
together? or Can someone look that up real quick just to make sure? I have also improved a lot in
asking questions to help students get to their own answers without actually giving the answers to them,
which probably makes them think that I know the content very well to be able to do so.
Pedagogical knowledge
While I did not get any 4s or 5s in the survey responses at all, relating lessons to other subjects
and the real world would be one of my weakest areas among those surveyed. 38.1% of the students
strongly agree that I relate lessons to the real world, 57.1% of them agree and 4.8% said they are not
sure. I think there must have not been enough of connecting the text or content to real life, which caused
61.9% of the students to not pick Strongly agree. I have only taught two of my self-written lessons to
the students, and followed my mentor teachers lesson plans on others. My two lesson plans were
heavily based on whole class discussions and my mentor teachers lesson plans have mostly been the
same activities such as word study, reading stories, and filling out plot diagrams because we have been
trying to help them build a basic understanding of the elements of short stories for the past few weeks.
We usually try to tie the themes of the stories to their lives; however, some of them are still taking things

STUDENT SURVEYS ANALYSIS

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very literally. Thus, the students may feel like the content of the class has not been very relevant to their
lives.
Caring and effective teacher
Overall, the students perceive me as a caring and effective teacher All of the students strongly
agree that I am a good teacher and 72.6% of the students strongly agree that I provide helpful feedback
and I am very glad to know that 90.5% of them strongly agree that I allow and respect different
opinions. Up to 85.7% of them also strongly agree that I encourage all students to learn. I am someone
who cares a lot about small details and is observant about what people like or do not like, thus being
caring is probably one of my biggest strengths. I spend a lot of time observing the students so that I can
understand why they might have trouble with something or what would help them learn better.
Sometimes, I try to listen to their conversations with their peers because it lets on so much that they do
not personally tell to teachers.
Improvement Plan
Based on the student responses, I still need to work on my pedagogical knowledge or
pedagogical strategies. Making the material transferable across subjects and relatable to their lives is my
weakest area among those that have been surveyed. I think the key to making the material more relatable
to the students everyday lives would be explicitness and awareness. I will try to be more aware of the
different connections or bridges I can make between the text they read and their everyday lives. A good
way of doing this would be to bring in current events that deal with the same topic as those that we read
about or discuss in class. As for explicitness, I can try to break down the activities into smaller steps to
help them better understand what they are supposed to do as well as do more explaining about why we
are doing things instead of just how. I can also help students connect the content to real life by being

STUDENT SURVEYS ANALYSIS

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more explicit in pointing out the connections between the subject content and their lives by using more
examples that are relevant to them.
Another thing I have to work on is using different materials and activities to help the students
learn because 28.6% of them do not strongly agree that I do this in class. A way to work towards this
would include brainstorming more activities for the students to use. It would be very helpful if I use
more visuals or videos in the class to help them learn instead of just having them read stories and fill out
plot maps. I would also like to allow more student choice when it comes to assessments because students
can show their understanding of the content in many different ways.
In addition, being available outside of class also seems like another area I should work on
because 15% of them are not sure that I am available outside of the class. However, I think this might be
the case because I have not fully transitioned into teaching full load and my mentor teacher still does
most of the teaching and talking. It is normal for the students to not be sure if I would be able to provide
help outside of the classroom because they have not come to me for help outside of the classroom yet. I
can easily resolve this by telling the students that they can come to me any time for help.