Mary Kearney Briggs

Subject D 

Summary of the Findings by Type

         This student’s word analysis scores showed significant improvement with a gain of 27% points from the pretest to the posttest.  The low score of 21% on the pretest indicates that this student had little understanding of word parts, meanings of morphemes, and deconstruction of words to ascertain affix and root/base word meaning.  Also, this student did not complete the test, resulting in the low score.  No score was given on the upper portion of the test as this student failed to complete that portion during the allotted time.  The posttest results were reflected in the fact that definitions were correctly given for 7 out of the 9 words.  This student continued to have difficulty deconstructing the words correctly as in the word bicycling, the correct prefix bi was given, but the correct base word cycle was not.  Five of the nine inflected endings or suffix items were given correctly on the posttest, and all of the prefixes were correct, which shows that this student has a good understanding of affixes, and needs more work on how to identify the root or base word.  This student would benefit from additional work on definitions of affixes. 

            This student’s writing pretest and posttest samples produced a 13% point gain on the Six Traits rubric (Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, 2011).  A relatively high score was earned on the pretest, where proficient scores were given in ideas, organization, and word choice.  A satisfactory score was given for voice, sentence fluency, and conventions.  This student received proficient scores on the posttest in all traits except conventions, where a satisfactory score was given.  Therefore, the gains were made in voice and sentence fluency according to the Six Traits writing rubric (Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, 2011).  This student’s story about helping her mother plan for her brother’s birthday party showed appropriate voice as dialogue was added, which made the story come alive.  The sentences were written appropriately with varied length suitable for the story.

            The results of the TOWL-3 (Hammill & Larsen 1996) assessment show a slight gain in overall scores for spontaneous writing, compiling the scores for the 3 subtests.  With scores in the 90s, this student had little room for improvement as percentage scores for the exam were gleaned from the raw scores for the subtests based on age with a pretest score of 98%.  Therefore, a 1% point gain was made on the overall assessment.  This student retained high scores on the contextual language portion of the test and slightly less on the story construction.  The contextual conventions portion was problematic for this student as a 13% lower score was given on this part of the spontaneous writing assessment due to poorer performance on spelling, punctuation, and capitalization.  Students receive a higher score on this subtest for using quotation marks and proper names requiring capitalization.  These were not present in this student’s writing sample reflected in the lower score in conventions.  Her satisfactory score in conventions on the Six Traits writing rubric (Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, 2011) was somewhat consistent with this finding.  However, the scoring does not require dialogue.  Yet, this student did use quotation marks in the dialogue in her story and correctly capitalized the proper names in the story. 

 Summary of the Findings by Feature (subtests)*

*Findings were not submitted for the Six Traits writing rubric or for the Word Analysis assessments, as there were no subtests administered for those assessments.

           The results of this student’s spontaneous writing subtest for the TOWL-3 (Hammill & Larsen 1996) indicate excellent use of language in vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structure, as well as in action, prose, and sequencing of the story in the contextual language subtest.  However, the student’s scores decreased in attention to detail with regard to spelling, punctuation, and capitalization as evident in the decreased score on the contextual conventions subtest.  This student needs extra work on spelling rules.  

          The score also indicates that no dialogue was used in the story.  Otherwise, a point would have been given for the use of quotation marks and commas used to set off the quotation.  The scores for story construction indicate that this student has a good understanding of how to organize the writing into a story with proper sequencing of story parts.  Her writing included many examples of proper use of dialogue and indicates that she is able to construct an interesting story.  This student would benefit from intervention in grammar and spelling rules to enhance the quality of her writing.

Discussion of Pre/Post Change for Subject D:

          This particular student made slight gains in the writing sample assessment, showing

 improvement on giving more detail in her story, with good idea development and organization in

 constructing the story of helping her mom.  This student’s voice was also more evident in his

 posttest writing sample, as she explained how good she felt after helping her mom prepare for her

 brother’s birthday party even though she was tired.  Significant gains were made from pretest to

 posttest in the word analysis assessment.  

         The results of the posttest in word analysis showed and increased understanding of segmenting

 words into affixes and root or base words and providing the proper definition for each.  As a result

 of the classroom instruction of word parts, word families, and Latin, Greek, and Old English

 definitions of affixes and roots, this student was able to successfully deconstruct and define the

 words and word parts in the assessment.  

        This student showed a deficit in the contextual conventions portion of the TOWL-3 (Hammill

 & Larsen 1996) however, with a slightly lower score on the posttest.  The lower score may have 

been due to lack of focus as this student had exhibited better scores previously, and this portion is 

scored with points given for adding quotation marks and proper names as well as commas to set off a

quotation.  Therefore, because this student chose not to use dialogue in her story, she lost points on

 this subtest.  The pretest and posttest scores on the other subtests for language and story construction

 of the TOWL-3 (Hammill & Larsen 1996) showed no change. However, the scores were already in

 the high percentages  (99% for language and 95% for story construction), leaving little room for

 improvement over the course of this study.  

         This student exhibited knowledge of story construction  in both the pretest and the posttest and

 she told about the different scenes presented in each.  Her use of vocabulary, grammar and syntax as

 exhibited by her use of properly executed longer words and sentences gave her high scores on both

 spontaneous writing tests.  Her scores on story construction for both tests were also high and were a

 result of the interesting details in her story that made it more enjoyable to read and included her

 voice in providing those details.  She also exhibited ability in organizing her writing on a properly

 sequenced manner, which also added to the story construction score. 

Analysis/Discussion of Subject D's Change (Response to Intervention)

          Subject D was an older female student whose overall performance in school with regard to comprehension of subject matter was called into question by this classroom teacher.  The teacher felt that this student’s participation in this study would yield information that would be important in understanding the needs of this particular student.  During my time with this student, her demeanor was reticent, however she showed exemplary performance in her ability to construct an engaging story.  It did appear that she was struggling with the concept of analyzing words in the beginning.  

        This student appeared to become withdrawn when she perceived a task to be too difficult and did not want to ask questions, perhaps due to fear of being wrong. It is my feeling that this student has struggles with self-esteem.  With positive prompts and encouragement to engage during the think aloud, this student gained more confidence and became a more willing participant.  When it was clear that we were all “figuring things out” together, she eventually would offer up her thoughts about the subject matter.  During the unit where each student was involved in writing a story for the newspaper, this student wrote and drew a picture about something that she found interesting.  

         After the newspaper was done, we had a lively discussion about her subject matter and this was very rewarding for this student as the discussion was an important one about crime.  This student clearly showed improvement in her confidence and it was reflected in her work and her involvement in the class.

Examples from Results to Support Analysis

            Subject D told a detailed story of how she helped prepare for her brother’s birthday party for the posttest sample.  Her pretest sample was a story about how she found a baby turkey in her yard.  It also included dialogue and some detail.  However, the sentences were not as fluent and well organized as  in the posttest, but she did receive and 80% score for the pretest.   

          This subject is very good at bringing her voice to a piece of writing.  For example,  in the posttest writing sample of a time she was helpful, her opening sentences pull the reader into the story right away.  “Beep! Beep! The stove was beeping very loudly.  My pillow was over my head.  Finally I got out of bed and went downstairs.”  She explained how she felt bad that her mother was working so hard at getting ready for her brother’s party, so she decided to make decorations for the party, decribing the color of the paper and the paper cut she received.  

          This subject has a clear understanding of how to organize her writing, give it detail, and construct the sentences fluently. Her voice comes out very clearly as well, and the word choice was appropriate for her age.  The area which is most challenging for this student is in conventions as there were some spelling errors.  But overall, this student clearly enjoys writing stories that are engaging.