Impact on Student Learning Assignment (ISL)_revised Jan 2014
Purpose
The purpose of this assignment is for you to demonstrate that you can
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
design instruction that focuses on student learning,
analyze assessment information and use it to adjust your instruction
study the effects of your instruction,
accurately monitor student learning through a variety of assessment techniques,
have a positive impact on learning for all students.
Description
The Impact on Student Learning Assignment is written documentation of your ability to
foster learning for all students during the teaching process. Please select one unit or a
series of related lessons that you will teach during your internship and provide evidence
of your ability to do each of the following elements. Please note that the sequence of the
following items may vary—for example, you may give your pre-assessment before writing
your initial plans. Please work with your seminar instructor for guidance about
appropriate sequencing of the work.
For more detailed information on the required components, please refer to the
“Proficient” level of the final evaluation rubric.

Develop a series of related lessons and overall plan for instruction
You may use any lesson plan format that your mentor teacher and university coordinator
suggest. The plans MUST provide specific learning expectations, your plan for
communicating clear expectations to your students, your overall methods of instruction,
and how you plan to assess student learning during the process (include pre-assessments,
formative assessments, and post-assessments). Provide a copy of your lesson plans with
this assignment.

Use feedback to improve your plans.
Ask a peer and your mentor teacher for feedback on your plans. They may either use the
“feedback” rubric provided or you may seek verbal feedback using the rubric as a guide.
Provide copies of the rubrics—or brief notes from verbal feedback--with this
assignment.

Give a pre-assessment (or assessments) to your students and use the results
to modify your instruction to better meet student needs.
Assess student knowledge prior to instruction to determine their prior learning and
readiness for instruction. This assessment can be formal (written quiz, etc.) or informal
(discussion, etc.), but please include a copy of the assessment questions along with
your lesson plans.
Based on these two types of feedback (from peers/mentor who reviewed your plan AND
from the results of the pre-assessment), revise your lesson plans. Include a copy of your
original plans and the revised plans. Highlight the ways in which you have modified the
plans. You may want to use “track changes” –and print out a copy showing the changes.

Provide instruction and monitor student progress toward meeting the
learning expectations.
Deliver your modified instruction to your students and carefully monitor the progress of
each student through the learning process. Make additional modifications for individual
students or the whole class as needed based on this monitoring, and describe the
modifications made in your written reflection. Provide descriptive feedback to students
and require them to use feedback (including self- and peer-feedback) to make progress
toward meeting the learning expectations.

Give a post-assessment (or assessments) to your students.
Administer a post-assessment to your students that will give them the opportunity to
demonstrate their knowledge of the learning expectations. Use this information to make
final judgments about the progress made by each student as well as your ability to impact
their learning. Attach a copy of all assessments given. You may also wish to include
copies of de-identified student work.

Critically reflect on the process and the overall impact you had on student
learning.
Provide a written reflection using the guiding questions provided. You also need to
complete a self-evaluation of your finished assignment using the given rubric.
Evaluation
Your final ISL assignment will be evaluated by you and your seminar instructor using the
“final ISL rubric.” You should use this rubric at the END of the process to self-evaluate the
assignment that you will be turning in. (Note that there are differences among the rubrics)
Use the following checklist to make sure you have all required components:
 Written reflection using the template
 Copy of initial lesson plans
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



Completed evaluations of initial lesson plans from peer and mentor
Copy of revised lesson plans with changes highlighted
Copy of all assessments given
De-identified copies of student work (optional)
Completed self-evaluation of final assignment using rubric
Impact on Student Learning
Written Reflection Template
Please use the underlined headings to organize your reflections.
Changes Based on Feedback
I.

What were the major changes to your plans after receiving feedback from your
mentor, peers, and students?

What modifications or accommodations were used to assure that students with special
needs could meet the learning expectations?
II.
Clear Learning Expectations


III.
How did you determine the learning expectations for your students? (standards,
student needs, etc)
How did you communicate your learning expectations to your students?
Assessing Prior Knowledge



IV.
How did you assess students’ prior knowledge?
Were you surprised by what you learned from the assessment?
What aspects of the assessment were most helpful in modifying your plans?
Monitoring Student Progress


V.
How did you monitor student learning throughout the lessons/unit?
In what ways did this monitoring impact your instruction?
Quality Feedback



Describe the feedback you provided to students during the lessons.
How did you assure that the feedback was timely, specific, and corrective?
Were you able to engage the students in self-assessment and/or peer assessment? If so,
how did that work for your students? If not, what led you to decide against using these
assessment strategies?