Qualitative Data
Student B Writing Samples
Student B entered the first grade school year at a below kindergarten reading and writing level. The student's skills were lacking to meet the first grade expectations and those that are expected for second grade. At the beginning of the year, this student struggled to write pre-primer and primer site words and understand the structure of a simple sentence. Below, you can see the progression of their work throughout the school year.
October Writing Sample
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In this writing sample, the student received a 1.75/4 on the teacher evaluation and a 6/12 on the parent evaluation. The student needs to continue to work on sentence and paragraph structure. That means understanding when to end a sentence and start a new one, as well as understand how to create a topic sentence and concluding sentence. This student also needs support in spelling simple site words and CVC words. They also need to understand what the difference between copying directly from the book and creating their own thoughts.
January Writing Sample
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In this writing sample, it is clear that the student has worked hard to begin to make changes in the structure of their writing. Not only is the writing structure changing, but the content is improving. While there needs to be additional support on the content and facts in the writing, the topic sentence and closing sentence are becoming more apparent as their own instead of a run on sentence. Not only is the material becoming more solid, but the structure and writing style is more appropriate for a first grade level.
March Writing Sample
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From the beginning of the year to the middle of March, there has been significant growth in the writing structure and content. Here, there are two facts. Although they are not fully developed facts, they are facts that stand alone instead of in a run on sentence as well as incomplete trains of thought. This information is becoming more fully developed to begin to build their own thoughts from these facts. The information is also more self structured instead of directly copied from a text. While there is still room to grow, the student is developing appropriately to be prepared for second grade.
Next Steps
Event thought this student was below grade level at the beginning of the year, they were able to improve enough to be "on grade level" in order to progress and be prepared for second grade. Not only did this positively impact their writing, but also their performance in other classes. This student needs more support on sounding out multisyllabic words as well as the details of paragraph structure. While this student was able to complete the basic outline and create the introduction and closing, the structure of the "meat" of the paragraph needs additional support. With more support of these tasks, the student will be able to write a more constructive paragraph or essay as well as pull from their knowledge from the texts or prior knowledge. Continuing to support the student in whole group and small group learning will be crucial to their continued success as they work towards second grade and beyond.