HEATHMAN MASTER’S PORTFOLIO 1
Student Learning Statement
An effective educator is one who utilizes assessment throughout their instruction to guide
their teaching practices and facilitate effective student learning. As Perrone (1991) states,
assessment is not meant to reduce student learning to a letter grade, but is intended “as a means
of informing, guiding, and supporting the growth of students” (p. 55). In this Teacher Work
Sample, I demonstrate how I was able to utilize a pre-assessment, formative assessments, and a
post-assessment to guide my instruction throughout an in-depth social studies unit. These
assessments allowed me to gauge how my students were progresses towards the learning goals
and also enabled me to adjust my instruction along the way to better meet the needs of my
students.
To begin the planning of the lesson, I needed to start with the end in mind. I established
what objectives I wanted my students to master. By utilizing this backwards form of design,
each lesson is able to have a sequence of objectives that build on each other throughout the unit.
This allows for truly reflective, rather than reactive teaching (Lemov, 2010). Once I had my
learning goals in place, I was able to move forward with developing a plan for assessment and
instruction within the unit.
To begin, I utilized a pre-assessment to measure students’ current understanding on the
subject matter. Wilhelm (2003) states that teachers should “use results of pre-assessment to
pitch instruction, in various groups or individually, to students’ current points of need (p. 56).
By analyzing the results of my pre-assessment, I realized that my students needed more help
understanding the skills of comparing and contrasting, as well as knowing how to use a Venn
diagram (see pp. 26-27). It was also clear that they were in need of more content-specific
HEATHMAN MASTER’S PORTFOLIO 2
knowledge on Alaska Native cultures. I was then able to adjust my plan of instruction to address
these specific learning needs.
In addition to a pre-assessment, I also utilized formative assessments throughout the unit
to give me a snapshot of how students were progressing towards the learning goals. Formative
assessments play a unique role, in that they show us where student understanding is throughout
the unit, allowing teachers to change and adjust their instruction during the process of learning
(Miller, 2008). By analyzing students work in journals, I was able to determine that some
students needed more help correctly grouping pictures and completing their notes on each culture.
To adjust to this, I allowed some students additional time to complete the work and also added a
cooperative learning component as a final review to allow students to share and adjust their work
with others in the class. These cooperative learning opportunities allow students to strengthen
their understanding of the content, while also hearing alternative perspectives from other
students (Marzano, 2012).
Finally, I had students complete a post-assessment to show their learning gains
throughout the entire unit. The results indicated that almost every student had gains in their
understanding towards the learning goals. However, only about half of the class indicated they
understood the content to a level of mastery, telling me that more instruction may be needed on
the topic for them to reach that goal. This final piece allows me to continue to change and
inform my future instruction to meet the specific needs of my students throughout the whole year.
HEATHMAN MASTER’S PORTFOLIO 3
References
Lemov, D. (2010). Teach like a champion: 49 Techniques that put students on the path to college.
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Marzano, R. J. (2012). Becoming a reflective teacher. Bloomington, IN: Marzano Research
Laboratory.
Miller, D. (2008). Teaching with intention: Defining beliefs, aligning practices, taking action.
Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.
Perrone, V. (1991). A letter to teachers: Reflections on schooling and the art of teaching. San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Wilhelm, J. D. (2003). Assessment: The alpha and omega of achievement. Voices from the
Middle, 11(2), 56. Retrieved from ProQuest.