Jeanne Zeller EPSY 485, Assignment A 11/27/2012

Context There are 24 students in the classroom. The students have diverse backgrounds and about one-third of the students are English Language Learners. Among these English Language Learners, most are Spanish speakers. However, these students have high functionality in English in regards to reading, writing, and speaking, which is something the curriculum wishes to focus more upon. They are a regular tracked classroom, and so have average abilities compared to the rest of the school. There are a couple of students with learning disabilities, including two students with ADHD and one student with dysgraphia. The school itself is 48% Hispanic. It is a middle school of 500 students located in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. Approximately one fourth of the students are on free and reduced lunch. The students in this class are in 8th grade. Unit of Study The unit is on poetry for an 8th grade class. The essential questions for this unit are how do literary devices enhance the themes of a poem? And how do we identify a theme in a text? The learning objectives in this unit are from the ISBE ILS Reading Standards. 1. The first is number 1.8.19, Draw inferences, conclusions, or generalizations about text and support them with textual evidence and prior knowledge. This objective falls under the applying level of Blooms Taxonomy, as it requires the student to interpret the poem as well as apply analytical skills. 2. The second is 2.8.03, Identify the authors message or theme. This falls under the analyzing level of Blooms taxonomy, as it requires students to distinguish the important points of the poem from extraneous information. 3. Finally, the third is number 2.8.11, Explain how the literary devices (e.g., imagery, metaphor, figurative language dialogue) contribute to the meaning of a literary selection. This objective

Jeanne Zeller EPSY 485, Assignment A 11/27/2012

falls under the evaluating level of Blooms taxonomy, as it requires students to evaluate and argue for the effectiveness and significance of literary devices in poetry and writing in general.

Jeanne Zeller EPSY 485, Assignment A 11/27/2012

Poetry Quiz: Theme and Literary Devices A Dream Deferred* by Langston Hughes What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore-And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over-like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode? *Deferredpostponed 1. Which answer best describes the overall theme of the poem? (1 point) a) You should not eat raisins or rotten meat. b) Regret for a dream that was never realized. c) Hope for a dream. d) There is no theme. 2. Pick out and identify three literary devices (i.e. similes, metaphors, alliteration, metonymy, synecdoche, etc.) used in this poem, and write out the specific lines in which they are found (they may be three instances of one type of literary device). (6 points) Does it dry up / Like a raisin in the sun? Simile Maybe it just sags / like a heavy load. Simile dream deferred alliteration 3. Extended Response (7 points): Use the three instances of literary devices in order to explain how literary devices help portray the meaning of the poem. Hint: in order to do this, you must first state your interpretation of the meaning of the poem. Once you say this, be sure to explicitly use the literary devices and lines you chose from the poem in order to support your interpretation. This can be a variety of answers, but the important thing is that students include evidence from the poem in their reasoning. For instance: The meaning of this poem is the pessimistic pondering of what happens when dreams are postponed. I think this is true because, for one, by using alliteration to describe a dream deferred, Langston Hughes draws the most attention to this conceptas well as by revisiting it with each simile. The similes in each line help to make this concept he keeps revisiting, a dream deferred, more vivid, suggesting thinking really hard about this concept.

Jeanne Zeller EPSY 485, Assignment A 11/27/2012

Analysis of Items 1. Item one most clearly assesses second learning objective, Identify the authors message or theme. This item does not leave room for creativity, but I tried to simplify this objective as much as possible in this item by providing opportunity for recognition, rather than simply recognition, and leaving out having to interpret the poem completely on their own. It provides for a succinct way for me to be able to see if, at the most basic level, students understand what a theme looks like. This question falls under both the understanding and applying levels of Blooms taxonomy, as it requires students to first interpret the poem (apply), and then understand what a theme is by identifying it among choices. 2. Item two assesses the first part of learning objective two, Explain how the literary devices contribute to the meaning of a literary selection. I chose this question in addition to item three, which also partly addresses learning objective three, because I felt it helped to isolate simply identifying what a literary device is (which is the first part of explaining how it contributes to the meaning of a poem). It falls under the analyzing level of Blooms taxonomy, as it requires students to both identify and distinguish literary devices from the rest of the poem. 3. Finally, item three assess the second part of learning objective two (explaining how these literary devices contribute to meaning) as well as learning objective one, Draw inferences, conclusions, or generalizations about text and support them with textual evidence and prior knowledge, by requiring students to connect their literary devices to the larger picture of the poem. It explicitly asks them to use evidence from the poem to draw a conclusion (which is their interpretation of the meaning of the poem). This falls under the evaluating level of Blooms taxonomy as it requires students to create and support their own argument.

Jeanne Zeller EPSY 485, Assignment A 11/27/2012

The evidence that this assessment is valid and reliable is that I took care of extraneous factors. This poem is one that we will have covered in class already, and so all students will have had the same opportunity to look at it before classwhich helps make it valid. It is also valid because I isolated and scaffolded the skills needed to answer the questions: requiring students to only recognize a theme, then requiring them to distinguish literary devices on their own, and then explicitly asking them to apply their knowledge. All directions are explicit and clearly worded, with examples in case they are not (providing examples of literary devices in item two, and providing a hint in item three to make sure students understand what I am looking for). I also made sure to include a definition of a possibly unfamiliar word for students, deferred, to assure that students would not be tripped up simply by comprehending the poem on a surface level. Finally, I switched the format of each question to assure that there was less assessment bias for students and a variety of ways for students to show me what they know. All of these things help to control extraneous factors and assure that the test assesses the 3 learning objectives, and no other factors. I would gather evidence that it was reliable by making sure students I felt were getting it during class would have consistent answers on the test. I would also check to see for consistency in responsesif everyone is making the same error, it might be a sign that the test was indeed poorly worded and deserves further investigation. Follow-Up Questions I would grade this activity, and have this as part of my weekly quiz, simply so students can have that extra incentive to pay attention and ask questions during class. They would be well aware of these learning objectives days in advance to the quiz so they had the opportunity to ask me questions. It would not be a grade that is worth much to their grade, as it is a short assessment and designed only to check for progress in the course. It would help boost grades that are struggling with turning in

Jeanne Zeller EPSY 485, Assignment A 11/27/2012

homework but are getting it, but dock some grades that may be getting inflated with quickly done homework. Most importantly, it will provide me information for moving forward with material. They will have twenty minutes for this assessment so that they have plenty of time to think and formulate their longer answers at the beginning of a class period. The student with dysgraphia will be provided a computer to create her answers so that her handwriting does not get in the way of showing her learning. The test will come at the end of a week dealing with this specific poem, as well as multiple lessons on different kinds of literary devices and working with using these literary devices to interpret poems. They will work independently so I can better assess what each individual student knows. My evidence will be their answers to questions and how well they did on each level of scaffolding I provided for them. For instance, if they get question one and two correct but flop on answering number three (ie, not explicitly linking evidence to their claim) I will assume that they have learning objective two and three down, but are struggling with learning objective one. I will also know that they are struggling with a higher level on Blooms taxonomy (evaluate), which suggests a lesser understanding of the unit as a whole. The first and second question are pretty straightforward in terms of criteria: do they answer 1 correctly, and do they provide three instances of literary devices and identify them correctly. Number three requires them to simply have a claim, and then explicitly use evidence to support it, like my example. After this assessment, I will be able to specifically differentiate instruction to each students needs as I will have an idea of what each student is struggling with specifically. I prefer all students to have mastered the quiz in order to move on with the entire class, so my performance criteria is mastery. My evidence to stop and differentiate or move on completely will be the accuracy of answers.