Assessment Commentary In Task 3: Assessing Student Learning, you will write a commentary, responding to the prompts
below. Your commentary should be no more than 10 single-spaced pages, including the
prompts. Attach the assessment used to evaluate student performance (no more than 5
additional pages) and, if necessary, a transcription of inaudible portions of a video or audio clip
of feedback or a work sample (no more than 2 additional pages) to the end of the
Assessment Commentary. These additional pages do not count toward the commentary page
limit noted above.
1. Analyzing Student Learning
a. Identify the specific learning objectives and standards measured by the assessment
you chose for analysis.
 The assessment that I chose for my class was a retelling paragraph of the
story of the week, America’s Champion Swimmer. Students were given a
graphic organizer to organize their thoughts before they wrote a paragraph
retelling the events of the story in sequential order. Each student was given a
copy of the directions and a rubric in order to clarify any misunderstandings.
The following are the directions that each student received:
o Top line: The title and author of the story (put your name and number
at the bottom)
o Write an introductory sentence that gives the main idea of what the
story is all about.
o The following sentences must include the events of the story in
sequential order and remember to include signal words. (3 to 4
sentences)
o Remember to include the most important details that would change
the outcome of the story.
o Write a concluding sentence to why the swimmer’s life was important
to all women.
o Draw an illustration that goes along with the paragraph. You can use
crayons and/or colored pencils only. Glue your paragraph to a piece
of construction paper and glue these directions on the back of your
project.
 The specific learning objective for this assessment:
o After reading the story of the week, TSW write a paragraph that retells
the events of a story in sequential order using key details to support
the main idea with 80% accuracy.
 The standard that is aligned with this assessment:
o CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.3.2 Determine the main idea of a text;
recount the key details and explain how they support the main idea.
 The assessment selected for analysis connects with both the learning
objectives and standards used in this learning segment. The assessment
requires students to demonstrate knowledge of the central focus by creating
a sequencing paragraph that retells the story America’s Champion Swimmer.
Specifically, the students engage in recalling the actions or events of the
main character, and key details of the story in sequential order to facilitate
retelling of the story. The students use a graphic organizer to guide their
writing of a sequencing paragraph that retells the story with accuracy.
b. Provide a graphic (table or chart) or narrative that summarizes student learning for
your whole class. Be sure to summarize student learning for all evaluation criteria
submitted in Task 3, Part D.
Student
Sequence
Main
Idea
Important
Conclusion Use of
Total score
Ideas/Details
conventions
for this
(spelling,
assessment
grammar,
capitalization,
punctuation)
1
4
4
4
4
2
4
1
3
3
3
4
3
3
3
4
4
4
4
3
5
4
4
4
4
6
4
3
3
3
7
4
3
4
4
8
4
4
4
4
9
3
3
3
3
10
4
4
4
1
11
4
3
3
3
12
4
1
3
1
14
4
1
3
3
15
4
1
3
1
16
3
3
3
2
17
4
1
2
1
18
4
4
4
1
19
4
1
4
1
20
3
3
3
1
Mastery= 16-20 Grade equivalent 80%-100%
Partial Mastery= 15-13 Grade equivalent 65%-75%
Non-Mastery= below 12 Grade equivalent 60% and below


4
4
3
4
4
3
4
4
2
3
4
2
3
2
1
4
4
4
2
20/20
15/20
16/20
19/20
20/20
16/20
19/20
20/20
14/20
16/20
17/20
11/20
14/20
11/20
12/20
12/20
17/20
14/20
12/20
I had 10 students who mastered the objective, 4 students who partially mastered the
objective and 5 who did not master the objective. Even though only a little over half the
class mastered the objective, I feel that the majority of the students did demonstrate an
understanding of how to sequence the events in a text. The graph above shows that
every student received at least a 3 in the category of sequencing. The only reason that
students received a 3 in the sequencing category is because they did not use signal
words. The assessment required the students to write a paragraph that retold the events
of the swimmer’s life in sequential order and use key details to support the main idea of
the story. The entire class was able to tell the events of the story in sequential order but
the problems were identifying key details that support the main idea.
Where I noticed the students struggled is when they did not clearly state the main idea of
the story and/or did not clearly state the importance of the swimmer’s life. As the graph
shows, the main idea category is where 6 of my students received a score of 1, mainly
due to the students not including an introductory sentence that stated the main idea.
Another section where students struggled was providing a concluding sentence that
stated the importance of the swimmer’s life to all women. The graph shows that 7 of my
students scored a 1 and another only received a 2. The students, who did not master or
only partially mastered the objective, either did not clearly give an introductory sentence
that told what the story was mostly about or did not include an introductory sentence.
Also, these students did not provide a concluding sentence that told why the swimmer’s
life was important to all women. Even these students, however, demonstrated at least a
partial understanding of the concept of sequencing events and using signal words to do
so.
c. Use evidence found in the 3 student work samples and the whole class summary
to analyze the patterns of learning for the whole class and differences for groups or
individual learners relative to
 the essential literacy strategy
 requisite skills

The essential literacy strategy for this learning segment is retell.

Requisite skills for the learning segment are identifying main idea of a text,
identifying key details that support the main idea, conventions of writing (spelling,
grammar, capitalization, and punctuation), and writing a complete paragraph that
includes an introductory and concluding sentence.

When looking at the work samples, Student 1 did a superb job on the assessment.
This student was able to retell the events of the story in sequential order (essential
literacy strategy). Student 1’s paragraph included the most important details of the
story that supported the main idea of the story (requisite skills). Student 1 provided
accurate information about the events and used key vocabulary throughout her
paragraph. Student 1 began the retelling paragraph with an introductory sentence
that clearly described the main idea of the story. Student 1 wrote,” Trudy made a
difference that girls can do anything.” Student 1 used signal words in the writing
that demonstrates her understanding of the sequence of the story and how to retell
the story. After her introductory sentence, she wrote, “First, Trudy almost drowned
at the age seven.” This sentence clearly states one of the most important details of
the story that supports the main idea of the story. This student understands that
even though the story tells the reader when the swimmer was born, the more
important event in the story is when she almost drowned. Student 1 continues the
paragraph with the most important details of the story and concludes with this
statement, “She changed women’s lives by swimming across the channel and
showing everyone that girls can do anything.” This sentence not only concludes
the paragraph beautifully but Student 1 does a great job of expressing how the
accomplishments of the swimmer changed women’s lives. Student 1
demonstrated a complete understanding of retelling a story and supporting the
main idea with key details. (both essential literacy strategy and the requisite skills)
When looking at the sample work of Student 2, overall Student 2 was able to retell
the events of the swimmer’s life in sequential order (essential literacy strategy).
This student’s paragraph retold the story giving accurate information about the
events using key vocabulary. Student 2 provided details of the events that
supported the main idea (requisite skill). Although, Student 2 did not provide an
introductory sentence that told what the story was mostly about, Student 2 did
demonstrate an understanding of the importance of providing key details of the
story. For example, Student 2 wrote, “Then, she decided to swim the English
Channel at her first attempt her trainer thought she had swolowed too much and

pulled her out of the water. Next, she tried the English Channel agin twenty foot
waves struck her on her attempte, but she completed the challenge.” These two
sentences accurately state events in the story and provide supportive details as to
why these events are important to the story. Student 2 did not provide a
concluding sentence that the swimmer’s life was important to all women; Student 2
merely ended the paragraph by stating the last event in the story. Overall, Student
did well with this assessment. Student 2 was able to accurately retell the events in
the story in sequential order (essential literacy strategy) and partially demonstrated
an understanding of main idea and key details (requisite skills).
 When looking at the work sample of Student 3, I noticed that this student was able
to put the events of the story in sequential order (essential literacy strategy).
Student 3 provided accurate details from the story using key vocabulary but she
did not include an introductory sentence that describes the main idea of the story
(requisite skills). Student 3 began the retelling paragraph by simply stating, “First,
Gertrude Ederle learnd to swim.” This is a key detail in the story but it does not
support the main idea of the story. Student 3 needed to explain why learning to
swim was an important part of the story. Student 3 continues the paragraph
retelling events in the story in sequential order but does demonstrate an
understanding of the main idea. Student 3’s sentences are lacking details from the
text. Although, Student 3 was able to list the events of the story in sequential
order, Student 3 did not include the most important details of the story that would
change the outcome of the story. Student 3 was able to demonstrate an
understanding of the essential literacy strategy “retell” but did not provide enough
details and/or explanation in the paragraph that support the main idea (requisite
skills).
 When comparing all three students work samples to that of the whole class, the
main difference between mastery, partial and non-mastery is clearly identifying the
main idea and supporting details of the story. All of my students were able to retell
the events of the story in sequential order; the essential literacy strategy but the
students who did not receive mastery were the ones who did not demonstrate an
understanding of the main idea and supporting details of a text (requisite skills).
The students who received partial mastery were able to demonstrate a basic
understanding of main idea by using key details of the text to retell the story. The
main reason that partial mastery students did not obtain mastery is because they
did not include an introductory sentence or a concluding sentence (requisite skills).
As for non-mastery students, they did not provide the necessary information in the
retelling of the story that would prove that they understood the overall meaning of
the story. Although non-mastery students were able to retell events of the story in
sequential order (essential literacy strategy), the events/details were not the most
important to the story. Non-mastery students did not include the events and or
details of the story that would change the outcome of the story (requisite skills).
Non-mastery students were not able to demonstrate their understanding of the
essential literacy strategy or requisite skills.
2. Feedback to Guide Further Learning Refer to specific evidence of submitted feedback to support your explanations.
a. In what form did you submit your evidence of feedback for the 3 focus students?
 Written directly on work samples or in a separate document;
 In audio files; or
 In video clips from the Instruction task (provide a time-stamp reference) or in a
separate video clip
 I used a rubric as a tool to provide feedback to my students. I also wrote additional
comments/feedback to my three focus students on the bottom of the rubric and
attached the rubric to the back of each student’s work samples.
Quality
4
3
2
1
Sequence
Events are
Events are
Events are
Events are
listed in the
listed in correct
somewhat
Completely
correct order
order but
in order with
out of order
first to last and
missing
little or no
and no signal
include signal
signal words
signal words
words
words
Introductory
Has an introductory
Has an introductory Has an introductoryNo introductory
Sentence
sentence that clearly
sentence and it
sentence but it doessentence
(Main Idea)
describes the main idea somewhat describes not describe the
the main idea
main idea
Important Ideas Gives accurate
or Details
information
about events,
steps, ideas
and key
vocabulary
Concluding
sentence
Has a concluding
sentence that makes
clearly states why the
swimmer’s life was
important to all women
Use of
conventions
(spelling,
grammar,
capitalization,
punctuation)
Correct use of
conventions
(less than 3 mistakes)
Gives accurate
information
about events,
steps, and
ideas with
some key
vocabulary
Concluding sentence
that somewhat
explains why her
life was important to
all women
Mostly correct
(4 to 6 mistakes)
Gives limited
or inaccurate
information
about events,
ideas, steps
and ideas
Gives no
information
about events,
steps, and
ideas
Has a concluding
sentence but it
does not tell why
her life was
important to all
women
Limited use of
conventions
(7 to 10 mistakes)
No concluding
sentence
Lacks correct
conventions
(more than 10
mistakes)
b. Explain how feedback provided to the 3 focus students addresses their
individual strengths and needs relative to the standards/objectives measured.
 For Student 1 (a higher level student), I praised this student on his/her ability to
accurately retell the story in sequential order as well as providing details of the story
that were the most important. This student’s strengths include the ability to
distinguish most important from less important details from the character’s life. Since
many third grade students tend to think that all of the information in a story is
important, Student 1 demonstrated a higher level of ability in finding important details
than their typical peers. I commended Student 1 on his/her preciseness of retelling
the events/changes of the story and his/her detailed explanation as to why those
events were the most important. Because I want every assessment/assignment to be
a true learning experience, I did explain to student 3 that I wanted him/her to work on
the conventions of writing (spelling, grammar, capitalization, and punctuation) and I
explained that it is important to proof read every writing assignment before turning it
in. At the beginning of the conference session, together we found specific places in
his/her writing where evidence of this weakness was demonstrated. I also had the
student try to locate these mistakes and explain how they should have been written.
We pointed out that these errors are easy to correct and should be practiced in their
every day writing in order to provide as much experience in correcting these
mistakes as possible. Even though points were not deducted from the student’s
score, I also pointed out to Student 1 that he/she did not have the proper title of the
story and he/she did not include the author of the story. The main area that student 1
demonstrated weakness was in the conventions of writing. Student 1 accepted all
the praise and the small areas that need approved upon well.
 For Student 2 (on level student), I began my feedback by praising her detailed
paragraph and telling her how well she did retelling the story in sequential order. This
student demonstrates strength in choosing important details/events of a story in
order to retell the story. Student 2 was able to decipher which events in the story
would have changed the outcome of the story and he/she used those events to
accurately write a retell paragraph. Another strength of this student is his/her ability
to comprehend the reading passage. She demonstrated this knowledge by creating a
paragraph that correctly retold the events of the story in sequential order. A
weakness of Student 2 was he/she did not write an introductory sentence that stated
the main idea of the text. Also, Student 2 did not include a concluding sentence that
explained why the swimmer’s life was important to all women. Student 2 also had
difficulty with the conventions of writing (spelling, grammar, capitalization, and
punctuation), and I explained that it is important to proofread every writing
assignment before turning it in. Together we examined their writing to discover
places where mistakes had been written due to conventions of writing errors. We
also discussed the importance of accuracy in retelling. The student’s first sentence
mistakenly indicated that the character had drowned. However, after that Student 2
wrote accurate details of the character’s life. Although I feel this student has the
ability to create a sentence that states the main idea of the text, this student did not
include it in his/her retelling of the story.
 For Student 3 (below level student), I wanted to give as much positive feedback as
possible so I began with strengths by writing the comment, “You have very good
penmanship.” I also stated, “You did a good job of retelling the events of the story in
sequential order and I like how you used the signal words.” I also commended the
student on the progress they have made in their writing since the beginning of the
year. Then, I began informing the student of his/her areas of weakness. Student 3
demonstrated some specific difficulties with this assignment. Although this student
was able to retell the events of the story in sequential order, student 3 did not choose
events that would change the outcome of the story. Student 3 weaknesses are
identifying the main idea of the text and supporting the main idea with key details,
which are both the essential literacy strategy and the requisite skills. In regards to
this student’s weaknesses, I wrote the following feedback to Student 3: “It is
important to begin with an introductory sentence that clearly states what the
paragraph is mainly about. You did not include this rather you just began by stating
what happened first and so no. Also, in the details of the story, you need to decide if
those events are ones that would change the outcome of the story. Although the
swimmer probably does like to swim, you should have stated why the swimmer’s life
was important to all women.” The student needs to read a sample paragraph that
shows evidence of a main idea and appropriate detail sentences.
c. Describe how you will support students to apply feedback to guide
improvement, either within the learning segment or at a later time.

After reviewing the assessments of my three focus students, as well as my class as
a whole, it is evident that more time needs to be focused on how to identify the main
idea of a text as well as how to create introductory and concluding sentences of a
paragraph. Through whole class instruction, I will read texts aloud to the class and
model my thinking process for identifying the main idea of the text. Also, I will model
the writing process so that each student will gain an understanding of creating an
introductory sentence that accurately describes the main idea of the text. The
students will be given more opportunities to respond to their reading assignments
through writing and I will provide these opportunities through differentiated
experiences for students, based upon their individual needs.
It is also evident that the use of conventions (spelling, grammar, capitalization, and
punctuation) needs addressing. For this, I plan to have writing workshops where I
explicitly teach these skills. I will also plan to teach the students how to self and peer
edit. This is important for the students so that they understand the importance of
proof read their writing. As far as sequencing, the whole class demonstrated an
understanding of correct order of sequence but I will plan for smaller group
instruction in order to reteach the students who did not master choosing the most
important details to retell the story. All of the student will be given exercises to
practice their proofreading skills in whole group and/or small group instruction.
 Student 1 has mastered the objective of these lessons and he/she should be given
more challenging assignments/assessments. Student 1 can read more advanced
texts that challenge the student’s thinking. Student 1 can create more in depth and
lengthy paragraph that retell the text. The text should provide enough challenge that
it makes the student think more but not too challenging that the student will not be
able to effectively completely the assignment. This will increase the level of his/her
reading comprehension and writing.
 Student 2 needs more instruction on creating an effective paragraph that retells the
story/text. Student 2 would benefit from a series of mini lessons (either through
whole class or small group) on the writing process for retelling the events in a story.
Student 2 would also benefit from explicit instruction for organizing the events of a
text in order of importance. Through teacher modeling and peer editing, this student
can easily gain mastery of this entire objective.
 For future lessons, Student 3 will benefit from the same activities/lesson as student 2
but more emphasis on finding/identifying the main idea and supporting details of a
passage/story using text evidence. Student 3 needs to work on creating sentences
that retell the story using his/her own words; not simply stating what the text says.
Student 3 would greatly benefit from individual or small group instruction that shows
him/her how to take important information in a text and put it in our own words.
Student 3 also needs to work on her vocabulary skills, comprehension and analysis
of a given reading selection. Using leveled reading books along with MobyMax
Comprehension software will help student 3 make the necessary improvements.
3. Evidence of Language Understanding and Use
You may provide evidence of students’ language use from ONE, TWO, OR ALL
THREE of the following sources:
1. Use video clip(s) from Task 2 and provide time-stamp references for language use.
2. Submit an additional video file named “Language Use” of no more than 5 minutes
in length and provide time-stamp references for student language use (this can be
footage of one or more students’ language use). Submit the clip in Task 3, Part B.
3. Use the student work samples analyzed in Task 3 and cite language use.
When responding to the prompt below, use concrete examples from the video clip(s)
(using time-stamp references) and/or student work samples as evidence. Evidence
from the clip(s) may focus on one or more students.
When responding to the prompt below, use concrete examples from the video clip(s) (using
time-stamp references) and/or student work samples as evidence. Evidence from the clip(s)
may focus on one or more students.
a. Explain the extent to which your students were able to use or struggled to use
language (selected function, vocabulary, and additional identified language demands
from Task 1) to develop content understandings.
Overall, my students did a great job of retelling the events of the story in sequential
order. Every student wrote a paragraph that put specific events from the story in
order but several students did not choose events that would have changed the
outcome of the story. The language function for the learning segment was retell. The
students were given many opportunities throughout the learning segment to practice
the language function. Each lesson, student were reading a variety of texts and then
writing about the text. For the summative assessment of the learning segment, the
students were to write a paragraph that retells the event of the week’s story in
sequential order using key details that support the main idea. Student 1 used a
description of the main idea of the text to introduce the retelling paragraph. Student 1
wrote, “Trudy made a difference that girls can do anything,” and by making this
statement, Student 1 demonstrated an understanding of a common language
function of identifying the main idea. Student 1 also included key signal words that
are used to sequence the events in a story. Student 1 wrote, “First, Trudy almost
drowned at the age seven. Then, her dad gave her swimming lessons. Next, and
Finally…” The organization of Student’s one paragraph was directly on target.
Student 1’s concluding sentence demonstrated a clear understanding of the text by
identifying the importance of the main character’s life for all women. Student 3 wrote,
“ She changed womens lives by swimming across the channel and showing
everyone that girls can do anything.”
The area where the students struggled the most was identifying the key details of the
text that support the main idea. Student 3 was unable to provide sufficient details that
would support the main idea. For example, student one wrote, “ First Gertrude Ederle
learnd to swim. Second she because a member of the New York Womens Swimming
Association.” Although these are details of the text, student 3 skips many details in
between these two details. In Student 3’s paragraph, he/she does not provide
enough details of the text and does not give an explanation about the details.
Since the assessment was not simply a multiple-choice test, rather it required the
students to create a sentence that told what the story was mainly about, many
students struggled. Also, several students did not include the most important events
of the story. Though this summative assessment, I was able to evaluate whether my
students were able to use the language function and additional demands to
demonstrate literacy understandings.
4. Using Assessment to Inform Instruction
a. Based on your analysis of student learning presented in prompts 1b–c, describe next
steps for instruction
 for the whole class
 for the 3 focus students and other individuals/groups with specific needs
 After analyzing the three focus students’ work samples along with the whole class, it
is imperative that more attention be spent on identifying the main idea of the text with
supporting details. Overall I saw a trend in students’ inability to clearly explain why
the events in the story contribute to the main idea. Many students have difficulty
deciding which details are truly supporting the main idea and which are simply not
important details. The students need more instruction on how to decipher the details
of a text when it pertains to the importance of retelling the text and how to place the
most important details in sequential order. Also, the majority of my students would
benefit from more lessons that would build upon their vocabulary and comprehension
skills so that the students will be able to analyze different texts and comprehend
what they are reading in order to retell the text/passage. For whole class instruction, I
will continue to reinforce the importance of retelling a passage using the main idea
and supporting key details. For the lesson to be effective to my students, I will teach
this strategy in small steps using mini-lessons. First, I will model and think aloud as I
identify the topic of a paragraph. Then, I will guide my students to practice on
identifying the topics of new paragraphs. Then, I will teach my students to identify the
main idea of a paragraph. I will model this step and then monitor my students as they
practice both finding the topic and locating the main idea. Following this, I will teach
my students to identify the supporting details in a paragraph. I will model and think
aloud, and then my students will practice. Finally, the students practiced carrying out
all three steps of this strategy. Thus, the strategy of retelling a paragraph was divided
into smaller steps, and there will be modeling and practice in each step.
 In future lessons for Student 3, I will focus more on ways to provide assistance in
his/her ability to find key details of a text that support the main idea of a passage. I
will use a variety of leveled readers as well MobyMax Comprehension software to
guide her practice of this skill. The student will also benefit from the use of Discovery
Education probes that give the student practice on their areas of weakness. Student
2 needs additional lessons on identifying the main idea of a passage. Although when
given a multiple choice assessment on main idea, student 2 can typically chose the
correct answer but she has difficulty developing her own response for the main idea
of a passage. For Student 2, she will continue practicing this skill using supportive
materials such as graphic organizers. These visual and guiding supports are very
crucial to her ability to create a main idea sentence. Student 2 will also use the
MobyMax Comprehension software to practice her vocabulary and comprehension
skills. Future lessons for student 1 will consist of more ways to challenge his higher
level thinking ability. I will use more complex texts and enriching activities that
provide opportunities for him to pursue learning in his own areas of interest and
strengths.
b. Explain how these next steps follow from your analysis of student learning. Support
your explanation with principles from research and/or theory.
 The design of next steps for instruction is based on students’ performance on the
assessment. Based on the data there were specific areas in which students lost
points on the rubric. For this reason I planned for whole class instruction with a focus
on identifying main details of a text that support the main idea. This is a pattern of
learning that most students of the class struggled with. During whole class instruction
I will model a non-example of the supporting details. I will exclude certain events of
the main character’s life and have students determine how this affects the story
America’s Champion Swimmer. This instructional strategy has proven to be effective
with students and is supported by the research of Jerome Bruner. The strategy is a
version of concept learning in which students engage in identifying a non-example to
adjust misconceptions they had in their work. This strategy requires students to
compare and contrast a correct and incorrect example of the story sequence in order
to monitor their learning and attain the skill of sequencing as well as determine the
important details of the story.
 Instruction would then break into small groups. Students will be grouped based on
rubric scores. For students who scored in the range of focus student 3 (non-mastery),
instruction is based on the work of Jerome Bruner. Students in this group struggled
with main idea and identifying the most important detail because their paragraphs did
not contain the most important details of the story that would support the main idea
and their conclusion sentences did not state the importance of the main character’s
life for all women. For this reason instruction focuses on having students listen to a
retelling of the story and then create their own paragraph of what took place. This
provides students with a scaffold for main idea and supporting details in sequential
order. Then students engage in peer discussion to compare their work with that of
their peers. Students would then have to choose the most important details of the
story that would support the main idea. The design of instruction also reflects the
social learning theory because it engages students in discussion and in doing so
students are receiving necessary scaffolds for mastering the skill of sequencing. For
students who scored in the range of focus student 2 (partial-mastery), the use of the
literature piece to support detail sequence scaffolds the information students need in
order to correctly sequence the story. This instructional design continues to reflect the
work of Jerome Bruner because it offers students the scaffolds necessary for them to
master the skill of sequencing. For students who scored in the range of focus student
1 (mastery), the design of instruction is based on Lev Vygotsky’s theory of zone of
proximal development. In their instruction I want students to produce a sequencewriting piece of the story America’s Champion Swimmer. Because this is something
fairly new for students modeling will be a crucial element of small group instruction. I
will provide students with teacher modeling of a writing piece using my own sequence
paragraph that retells the story. Then I will provide students with guided practice by
having students identify the sequence words I used in my writing piece. After
discussion about sequence writing the students will engage in the same task using
their sequence flipbook as a support. In this design I make sure to scaffold instruction
by providing explicit instruction and guided practice before students engage in the
writing task independently.
 One of the most effective ways of teaching students to master any task or skill is by
modeling and scaffolding. Scaffolding is defined as an instructional technique that is
often associated with Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development wherein a teacher
provides individualized support by improving a learner’s ability to build on prior
knowledge. Scaffolding is to be considered a “temporary” support in that the teacher
models the skills for the students and supports them throughout the lessons. The
activities that the students are to be completing (i.e., graphic organizers, foldables,
and word clusters etc. by using a variety of texts) should be only one level above,
which the students can do without any support. By gradually removing their support,
the students will become better prepared to complete the tasks on their own wherein
the support will become less needed. By allowing more modeling and guided
instruction, I am able to enhance the students’ understanding of the reading
selection. According to Piaget and Vygotsky, the learner being at the center of the
education stage defines constructivism. By providing a constant flow of information,
the students will link their prior knowledge of analyzing details to the new information
of compiling data to complete print sources (Sadker).
The Assessment used to evaluate student performance:
 Each student was given a copy of the following directions for the assessment. I also
verbally discussed each aspect of the assessment and answered any questions the
students had before they began the assessment.
Write a paragraph sequencing the events of The Swimmer.
Top line: The title & author of the story (put your name and number at the bottom)
Write an introduction sentence that gives the main idea of what the story is all about.
The following sentences must include the events of the story in sequential order and remember
to include signal words. (3 to 4 sentences)
Remember to include the most important details that would change the outcome of the story.
Write a concluding sentence to why the swimmer’s life was important to all women.
Draw an illustration that goes along with the paragraph. You can use crayons and/or colored
pencils only. Glue these directions on the back of your project.

Quality
Sequence
Introductory
Sentence
(Main Idea)
I assessed the students using a rubric.
4
Events are
listed in the
correct order
first to last and
include signal
words
Has an introductory
sentence that clearly
describes the main idea
3
Events are
listed in correct
order but
missing
signal words
2
Events are
somewhat
in order with
little or no
signal words
1
Events are
Completely
out of order
and no signal
words
Has an introductory
sentence and it
somewhat describes
the main idea
Has an introductoryNo introductory
sentence but it doessentence
not describe the
main idea
Important Ideas Gives accurate
or Details
information
about events,
steps, ideas
and key
vocabulary
Concluding
sentence
Has a concluding
sentence that makes
clearly states why the
swimmer’s life was
important to all women
Use of
conventions
(spelling,
grammar,
capitalization,
punctuation)
Correct use of
conventions
(less than 3 mistakes)
Gives accurate
information
about events,
steps, and
ideas with
some key
vocabulary
Concluding sentence
that somewhat
explains why her
life was important to
all women
Mostly correct
(4 to 6 mistakes)
Gives limited
or inaccurate
information
about events,
ideas, steps
and ideas
Gives no
information
about events,
steps, and
ideas
Has a concluding
sentence but it
does not tell why
her life was
important to all
women
Limited use of
conventions
(7 to 10 mistakes)
No concluding
sentence
Lacks correct
conventions
(more than 10
mistakes)