In this presentation, Annie Agard presents a whole range of evidence gathered from her ESL classes. In this PowerPoint presentation, Agard shares many different findings from her classroom research on her ESL. class. The evidence is not only useful for ESL teachers but as a model of going public with classroom research.

The evidence covers many different kinds of methods for gathering student performance data, such as through pre/post data.

Some of her evidence is based on student attitudes and perspectives.

One of the consequences of her classroom research is the ways that she discovers “complicating evidence” from her students. One example of this is her analysis of perforamance and atittudes related to group work, where she discovered in part that some students who performed better through group work actually prefered working alone.

from The Power of the Pursuit, Suzanne Crawford, Lydia Alvarez, and Lynn Serwin (Cerritos College)

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Two Versions of a Student Self-Assessment Survey, Suzanne Crawford

Surveys mapping student progress in using more effective and detailed language in writing:

2006 survey:

Hello English 20 Students!

As you all know, we have been working this semester to, among other things, improve your word choice when it comes to using more concrete and specific language (the “green” words). Please give me some of your thoughts about your progress with this skill by answering the following questions. Thank you very much.

S. Crawford

1. Do you feel that, as a result of our various efforts, you are more likely to use such better words?

For example, do you see the value in writing like the first of these (A) and not the second (B)?

A. The boy sat down on a chair.

B. Tall, slim Joe plopped himself down on the old wooden rocking chair.

Do you think the various handouts we used were helpful?

Do you think using the markers helped you understand this concept better?

2007 survey:

ENGLISH 52: Self-assessment of your writing progress

Describe what progress you have made this semester in your ability to craft effective essays. Please use specific evidence from your papers to describe your writing improvement. Consider comparing the skill levels of your earlier papers with those of your later papers. In particular, please note any improvement in language use. Do you now, for example, use more vivid or concrete words? Be sure to support your points with direct references from your papers. For example, if you claim that you now use more specific words, give before and after examples.

From Lydia Alvarez, Cerritos College: “The Power of the Pursuit”

The Before and After is a reflective tool I have designed based on a handout I have been creating for my students since the beginning of my teaching career. I have always created handouts called “Celebrating Revision” where I have copied short excerpts from student papers before and after they were revised. Students respond enthusiastically to these dramatic “makeovers.” Even when I haven’t had the time to use examples from a class I am currently working with and have used a handout previously created with another class, there is very little detectable difference in the students’ enthusiastic response. Just like any “makeover” the value of this tool is in the “wow” factor.

Now, in my writer centered classroom, the Before and After tool has evolved into a two part activity requiring students to produce the before and after examples themselves. Any time student writers have more than one draft, they evaluate one of their own earlier drafts, looking for a moment that has dramatically changed in a later draft. They “take a picture” of both the before and after; meaning, they copy both excerpts exactly as they appear. The second part of this reflective tool asks students to describe the changes, explain why they made them and what effect they were hoping the change will have on their audience.

Choosing the revised moment and reflecting on its improvement encourages students with varying levels of confidence. This reflection also sets students up to be more actively involved in their writer’s groups. Writers are now better prepared to participate in response groups and to interact with their audience, to see whether or not the changes they made will have the effect they wanted.

See Lydia’s Tools Page here.

From Pat Wagener, Can Problem Solving Become a Habit of Mind?

Pat says:

Students’ own perceptions of their math skills and abilities are often considered as anecdotal evidence, rather than factual information that has been quantified. In a meeting at the start of the Fall 2006 semester, this subject came up, and it occurred to me that this need not be the case. So I asked myself:

“Can students’ perception of their math skills and abilities be quantified, and measured with an acceptable level of statistical significance?”

And then,

“What is the research question that would enable me to answer this question?”

At first I thought to just have students assess their math skills in general. But then as I continued to think about this project, I realized it was important to know as much as possible about their self-assessment in connection with all the elements of the course: Multiple representation of mathematics, group work, solving word problems, computer aided instruction, and students making presentations of their solutions. And so I ended up with eight (8) areas for the students to assess.

A means to address this study was an attempt to quantify and measure each student’s self-assessed confidence learn in eight (8) specific areas or aspects of math and how they learn math. A survey would be given to the students early in the semester (pre-) and late in the semester (post-) to determine the change. These areas are as follows:

With this method, I found that the anecdotal can become “factual” with a high degree confidence. Here are two key insights:

(1) Students’ self-perception changed very significantly in all questions (p-value<<0.01).

(2) An area of the greatest change (and most positive comments) was in the role of student presentations and self-confidence.

Click here to get a copy of the confidence survey and read more details about the method and results.

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