Tamara Griffith
Qualitative Growth
"The improvement of understanding is for two ends: first, our own increase of knowledge; secondly, to enable us to deliver that knowledge to others."
~John Locke
Qualitative growth can take many forms and can look differently across classrooms. In my classroom, one of the specific areas that exemplified qualitative growth is in the area of writing. To scaffold the writing process, I began the school year by reviewing basic and foundational components of writing: sentence structure, compound/ complex sentences, AAAWWUBBIS, integrating text evidence, and paragraph structure. Students were given a variety of scaffolds to facilitate their writing growth: graphic organizers, templates, sentence frames, etc. As their writing improved over the course of the school year, these training wheels were removed so that students would be able to communicate in their own voices through writing.
In the sections below, I trace the qualitative growth of three students, each of whom are in different class periods and represent different sub-populations of students within my classroom. Student 1 is an above grade-level student in my advanced class, student 2 is typical, on grade-level student in my regular language arts class, and student 3 is a special education student who is approaching grade-level in my regular language arts class. Even though these students are in different classes with different abilities and needs, the culminating writing tasks they completed at the end of units were the same while the individual tasks and instructional strategies that contributed to the qualitative evidence indicated below differed. This allowed me to assess students' writing growth and readiness for the text-based writing Florida Standards Assessment, or FSA, over the course of the school year.
Rubrics:
In sixth grade, students are responsible for demonstrating proficiency in writing both argumentative and informative essays. While students had some exposure to informative writing in elementary school, students learn the argumentative writing task for the first time in this grade. The FSA, our state standardized EOY assessment, includes a text-based writing task. To consistently hold students to the same rigorous and measurable standards of this assessment, I utilize the same rubrics to assess student writing. These rubrics, taken from the Florida Department of Education, are included below.
These rubrics assess student writing in grades 6-11 on a scale of 10 points in the following domains:
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Purpose, focus, and organization (PFO) - worth 4 points
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Evidence and elaboration (EE) - worth 4 points
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Conventions (C) - worth 2 points
Student writing that is considered on grade-level will score a 7 on the rubric by obtaining a score of 3 in PFO and EE and a 1 in C. While there are other ways to obtain a score of 7 on the rubric, this is the scale utilized to determine whether or not students are above, at, or below grade-level proficiency in each of the domains. The current district average for this writing task is a 6/10, which is slightly below grade-level. After assessing students' baseline essay scores, where the average was a 4 in my regular classes and a 5 in my advanced classes, I set the goal of having students improve their writing scores by at least two points on the rubric.
In communicating with students and parents, they received samples of each of the grading rubrics and exemplar responses to ensure they understand the rigorous expectations to which students' writing is held. Additionally, students go through a variety of in class activities where exemplar essays are analyzed and color-coded to ensure that students understand how they are evaluated and to facilitate student self-assessment as well.
Writing Task Descriptions:
Throughout the course of the school year, students completed a variety of writing activities leading up to culminating writing tasks, or essays. Each student has three to four writing samples showcased below which demonstrate his/her dramatic qualitative academic growth. Descriptions of these essays and the timeline in which they were administered are included below.
Beginning of Year - September
Initially, students were given an informative writing baseline or diagnostic writing assessment. Since students had had previous experience with this mode of writing, this essay was utilized to assess students prerequisite writing skills in order to determine which skills needed to be refined, developed, or introduced. At this point in the year, students had had minimal instruction, writing or otherwise. For this assignment, students were to compose an informative essay explaining how stereotypes and perceptions can affect people's understanding of their place in the world after reading and analyzing a passage set related to that topic.
Middle of Year - Late November
The purpose of this assessment was to determine whether and how students' informative writing improved over a few month's worth of instruction. Students' data were compared to their initial baseline essays to determine growth, strengths, and needs in terms of developing writing skills. This prompt asked students to write an informative essay explaining how a person's mindset can influence his/her actions after reading and analyzing a passage set related to growth and fixed mindsets.
Middle of Year - December
At this point in the year, students were beginning to work with argumentative prompts, so this assessment served primarily as a baseline to determine next steps specifically aimed at improving students' abilities to compose an argumentative essay. This prompt called for students to argue whether or not technology has worsened the accuracy of the news after reading and analyzing a passage set that depicted both stances of this issue.
End of Year - March
The purpose of this essay was to analyze students' strengths and any remaining writing instruction needs prior to the administration of the text-based writing. This prompt asked students to argue whether or not cyber-bullying should be prosecuted after reading and analyzing a passage set that depicted both stances of this issue and was composed after explicit writing instruction had taken place.
Student 1 - Above Grade-Level
Beginning of Year - September
The sample below indicates this students' writing abilities before any writing instruction had taken place.
As indicated by this writing sample and rubric markup, this student's writing was just below grade level at the beginning of the year. He/she relied on some rudimentary writing strategies such as opening with a rhetorical question rather than reserving the usage of rhetorical questions for emphasis or effect. Overall, the essay was mostly text-driven while the task calls for idea-driven essays. It appears as though this may be because the student did not fully understand the prompt and/or topic of stereotypes since there are glimpses of idea-driven sentences which demonstrate some confusion regarding stereotypes. While this student's body paragraphs are mostly summary, there is an attempt to synthesize multiple sources, namely in body paragraph two. This demonstrates that this student could benefit from mini-lessons on citing text evidence, paraphrasing, and elaboration.
Middle of the Year - Late November
The sample below indicates this student's writing abilities after some writing instruction regarding constructing informative essays had taken place.
After some instruction, this student's writing of informative essays improved from a 6/10 to an 8/10. In other words, this student went from writing informative essays that were on par with the district average but below grade-level at the beginning of the year to writing informative essays that were just above grade-level by the middle of the year. Unlike his/her first informative essay, this essay's body paragraphs were focused around a prevailing and maintained controlling idea, thus contributing to a grade-level response. While this student's initial essay also utilized above grade-level transitions, the frequency and variation with which they are utilized in this subsequent response shows drastic improvement. Additionally, when comparing these writing samples, it was evident that I needed to work with this student specifically on clarifying ambiguous pronouns. Overall, this student showcased growth specifically in terms of organization, focus, and citing text evidence.
Middle of Year - December
The sample below indicates this student's writing abilities after some informative writing instruction had taken place but before argumentative writing had taken place. As a result, this sample served as an argumentative essay baseline.
This writing sample indicates that this student continues to gain a clearer understanding of essay structure; his/her organization is still on grade-level while the integration of evidence and elaboration slipped to just below grade level. Although his/her final rubric score is still above his/her initial baseline at the beginning of the year, it is clear that this student needed clear instruction into the argumentative writing task. Because this mode of writing was entirely new, this student relied upon some of the strategies for opinion writing that he/she had been taught in elementary school. As a result, there was a clear claim and stance present although it was weakly maintained. The evidence and elaboration utilized to support the present claim did not fully clarify how it connected back to the prompt, resulting in a rubric score that was below grade-level.
End of Year - March
This example demonstrates this student's writing abilities after much writing instruction had taken place for both informative and argumentative writing tasks.
In this final writing sample, it is evident that this student had mastered the text-based writing task. He/she begins the essay by utilizing a metaphor that is interwoven gracefully throughout the remainder of the response, creating the precision and facility of language and word choice characteristic of an exemplary response. Additionally, this sample showcases the tremendous growth that this student had undergone in terms of citing evidence. At the beginning of the year, he/she predominantly relied on summarizing the sources, resulting in a text-driven response. By the end of the year, this student gracefully and purposefully cites text evidence to support an idea-driven response. While there some minor grammatical errors present, overall, this student's grammar and language facility has improved as well. He/she utilizes more complex and compound sentences, and correctly utilizes a semicolon, which is a tenth grade standard.
All in all, this student improved his/her writing from a 6/10 at the beginning of the year to a 10/10 by the end of the year, a difference of four points on the rubric. Not only does this surpass my class big goal of improving by two rubric points, but it also demonstrates the dramatic academic gains made by this student.
Student 2 - On Grade-Level
Beginning of Year - September
The sample below indicates this students' writing abilities before any writing instruction had taken place.
As indicated by this writing sample and rubric markup, this student's writing was significantly below grade-level at the beginning of the year, a common trend of students within my regular language arts classes. He/she relied on rhetorical questions, informal language, and summaries of the sources. The response lacks a controlling idea, which is required for grade-level responses. Moreover, the variety and density of errors is egregious enough to merit a 1 in conventions; even words and phrases copied from and present within the prompt and/or text set are misspelled and/or contain severe grammatical errors. Additionally, this response lacks a clear organizational structure, demonstrating a minimal understanding of the purpose or task; instead, this response summarizes some of the passages before some original thoughts emerge, although there is a lack of clear and purposeful transitions to connect these together. Thus, it is evident that for this student, I needed to break down the writing task to its core by practicing unpacking prompts and providing a sample essay structure and/or template to assist this student in developing an essay with a coherent organizational structure. Once the student had a sufficient grasp on essay organization, I would be able to help them develop and refine the skills of integrating text evidence and elaboration.
Middle of the Year - Late November
The sample below indicates this student's writing abilities after some writing instruction regarding constructing informative essays had taken place.
After some instruction, this student's writing of informative essays improved from a 3/10 to an 5/10. In other words, this student went from writing informative essays that were significantly below grade-level at the beginning of the year to just below the district average by the middle of the year. This second essay has a clear attempt at an organizational structure; it contains an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion, which is a significant improvement over this student's first essay. In spite of this attempt, however, this student struggled to connect his/her examples to the prompt, which indicates that this student still struggles with fully comprehending the purpose and task. As a result, I needed to break down this component of writing with him/her in small groups and work through several exemplars to help him/her understand this component of text-based writing. Additionally, this writing sample shows the dramatic academic gains this student made in terms of integrating text evidence. While his/her integration of text evidence is still considered weakly integrated, it is a significant improvement from the blatant copy and summary contained within his/her initial baseline.
Middle of Year - December
The sample below indicates this student's writing abilities after some informative writing instruction had taken place but before argumentative writing had taken place. As a result, this sample served as an argumentative essay baseline.
As indicated in this sample, this student continued to improve his/her ability to understand the purpose of the task. As a result, he/she was able to improve his/her rubric markup for PFO, bringing this student's rubric score to a 6/10. Consequently, he/she is now on par with the district average and just below grade-level. While this student still struggles with conventions, particularly with spelling, he/she has improved enough that these errors would not be considered egregious according to the rubric, warranting a higher score. Moving forward, this student needed extra practice with beginning introductions without using a rhetorical question or a fragment, varying sentence beginnings, and extending elaboration. This extra practice would continue to push this student to grow and write on par with grade-level expectations.
End of Year - March
This example demonstrates this student's writing abilities after much writing instruction had taken place for both informative and argumentative writing tasks.
In this final writing sample, it is evident that this student has become proficient with the text-based writing task. Even on the surface, this student's essay is much more substantive than his/her initial baseline. He/she utilizes a variety of transitions at the beginning of paragraphs and between ideas. Rather than solely relying on simple sentence construction, a variety of complex sentences and nonrestrictive elements are utilized to build upon and elaborate upon ideas. Furthermore, this student now masterfully integrates text evidence into his/her own ideas rather than copying or summarizing the text as was evidenced in his/her initial essay. The progression of ideas is purposeful, intentional, and thoughtful, clearly demonstrating that this student now fully understands the purpose and task associated with text-based writing. To continue to push this student forward, he/she would benefit from additional practice and techniques to further extend and build elaboration, particularly with elaboration that connects evidence to the claim.
All in all, this student improved his/her writing from a 3/10 at the beginning of the year to an 8/10 by the end of the year, a difference of five points on the rubric. Not only does this surpass my class big goal of improving by two rubric points, but it also demonstrates the dramatic academic gains made by this student.
Student 3 - Approaching Grade-Level
Middle of Year - Late November
This particular student was not enrolled in my class during the time of the BOY informative baseline. Consequently, the MOY informative essay was the first formal writing sample procured from this student, which was approximately the time of his/her enrollment. For my purposes, this was considered his/her writing baseline as the degree of writing instruction that had taken place previously was unknown.
For additional context, this particular student has a learning disability, which affects him/her in the areas of reading comprehension and written expression. Based upon initial assessment of this student's writing, this student needs specific and targeted instruction in conventions as the errors are egregious enough to impede comprehension of the writing and sentences are almost completely written in simple construction with few, if any, transitions to show the relationship between ideas. It is also evident that this student understands that he/she needs to utilize the sources within his/her writing; however, the attempts at citation and inclusion of sources are ineffective as they do not support the student's original ideas. Many of these attempts are summary or are copied directly from the text with minimal original thoughts present. To improve this student's writing, he/she needed practice in sentence structure, paragraph structure, and brainstorming strategies.
Middle of Year - December
The sample below indicates this student's writing abilities after having been in my class for approximately two weeks. This student had had minimal writing instruction during this time frame. The purpose of this sample served as an argumentative essay baseline.
This student did not demonstrate much growth between his/her initial writing assessment and this assessment approximately two weeks later as he/she received the same rubric score, 3/10, on each assessment. This score indicates that he/she is significantly below grade level, particularly in the areas of PFO and EE. Informal language and rhetorical questions were utilized throughout this written response; furthermore, it appears as though this student attempted to organize his/her response by asking and answering a variety of questions somewhat related to the topic of the prompt, which is indicative of a lack of understanding of purpose, focus, and organization. More so than in his/her initial writing sample, there is much copied directly from the passage set without an attempt at citation. There is just enough original ideas present at the end that allow it to be scoreable. Consequently, this student needed instruction in essay organization, brainstorming, and proper citation and usage of text evidence to further demonstrate the type of academic gains that would open doors.
End of Year - March
This example demonstrates this student's writing abilities after much writing instruction had taken place for both informative and argumentative writing tasks.
In this final writing sample, it is evident that this student had applied much of his/her instruction to his/her writing process, resulting in a significantly higher score on the rubric (6/10), demonstrating a dramatic growth of three points according to the rubric. As evident in the writing sample above, this student has grown significantly in terms of essay organization and understanding the purpose and task. He/she composed an essay that was adequately sustained to the purpose and task, resulting in a grade-level score in PFO. This student used a variety of simple, complex, and compound sentences; in addition, there is significant improvement in his/her progression of ideas. While there are specific areas where his/her analysis needs to be extended through elaboration, all of the ideas present are connected. To continue to push this student to meet grade-level expectations, I will need to continue to work with him/her on smoothly integrating text evidence, choosing relevant text evidence, and explaining upon that evidence in a way that demonstrates its relevance to the claim.
Overall, this student improved his/her writing from a 3/10 when he/she entered my class to a 6/10 by the end of the year, a difference of three points on the rubric. While this student is approaching grade-level, he/she is now on par with typical district performance. Not only does this dramatic growth surpass my class big goal of improving by two rubric points, but it also demonstrates the significant academic gains made by this student.
Teacher Reflection
It is imperative that students possess strong written communication skills so that they can truly be ready to enter college and/or the work force. To this end, I provide my students with a variety of rigorous writing tasks, which I assess utilizing the FSA writing rubrics. This allows me to accurately measure and assess students' text-based writing growth over time so that I can adapt instruction to meet students' observed needs and propel them toward even more dramatic academic gains, which will open more doors for students.
By comparing the growth of these three students, it is evident that all types of learners - high-, average-, and low-performing students alike -- were able to make dramatic gains in their ability to synthesize multiple sources and compose a multi-paragraph response to both argumentative and informative prompts. While my big goal was for students to grow by two rubric points, most students grew by three or more points on the rubric, thus indicating dramatic qualitative academic growth.
Through the practice of data-driven instruction, I was able to provide my students with a curriculum that was responsive to their strengths and areas of need, which translated to significant academic growth. As my students were able to demonstrate significant growth as defined by both quantitative and qualitative measures, the achievement gap the majority of my students demonstrated at the beginning of the year became almost nonexistent for many of my learners as even some of my lowest-performing students demonstrated proficiency that was approaching grade-level by the end of the year.