Data Project: Pre-Assessment, Post-Assessment, and Everything In Between

Kaitlyn M. Kirkpatrick

UED 496

Dr. Flannagan

November 26, 2023

I completed the assessment project in Placement 2 with a second-grade class of 21

students. This class was a general-ed population, with 10 females and 11 males. There were 3

speech IEPs and 1 504 plan. We had one new student begin in the middle of the data project, so

they did not take a pre-assessment. I tracked their progress through the exit tickets and I placed

them in the low group for the tiered assignment. The lesson I chose to pre-assess and

differentiate with was on skip counting, parts A and B of SOL 2.2: The student will count

forward by twos, fives, and tens to 120, starting at various multiples of 2, 5, or 10 and the student

will count backward from 120 by tens. In the pre-assessment that I conducted, I ensured to cover

all the different aspects of this SOL. For example, questions 1-3 focus on smaller numbers,

giving data on the student’s fundamental understanding of their ability to skip count by twos,

fives, and tens. Questions 4-6 focus on the student's ability to skip count by twos, fives, and tens

starting at various points on the number line. Questions 7-10 focus on the student’s ability to

count by twos, fives, and tens to 120 and backward by tens from 120. I believe this was an

effective way to gauge student understanding because the students not only had to determine the

multiple, but they also had to show their knowledge by completing the pattern. From this data, I

was able to group my students into the following categories:

● Little to no understanding of skip counting by twos, fives, or tens from various starting

points. Limited knowledge of counting backward by tens from 120.

● Satisfactory understanding of skip counting by twos, fives, and tens from various points

to 120. Satisfactory understanding of counting backward by tens from 120.

● Superior understanding of skip counting from various points by twos, fives, and tens to

120 and counting backward by tens from 120. (mastery of SOL 2.2 parts a and b)
 As you can observe, these 4 groups are based on the students' understanding of the SOL.

The pre-assessment test score data allowed me to group my students into three groups for my

tiered activity. The three general groups were: Remedial (tier 3), General Support (tier 2), and

Enrichment (tier 1). From this data, I created three different tiered activities for students to grow

their skip-counting abilities, which I will discuss in more detail below.

Activity 1: Day 1 and Day 2 Exit Tickets:

Exit tickets are a great way to gauge student understanding after a lesson. I can't express

my passion for exit tickets in driving my differentiated instruction. Sometimes, students’

understanding improves significantly after the first lesson. Other times, it gives me a great

understanding of the concepts students might struggle more on. This also helps me guide my

small group formations. After the first day of instruction, I administered the first exit ticket. I

taught skip counting by 2s and 5s on this first day, but I still continued to test on 10s and use that

as pre-instructional data. As you can observe, the Day One Exit Ticket focuses on more

fundamental aspects of skip counting. The numbers are lower, and students must determine the

pattern and fill in the blanks. To continue, on the second day I taught skip counting by 10s, and I

administered the second exit ticket at the end of that lesson. The Day Two Exit Ticket was a little

more challenging, as the numbers were higher, and the students continued to determine the

pattern and fill in the missing pieces.

Due to the Exit Ticket results, I had to move some students from their original-placed

group to the next tiered group because they gained significant understanding after the first

lesson. I did this with students 2, 3, 6, and 15. In general, most of the students exhibited a

growing improvement from the pre-assessment to every exit ticket. Throughout both of my

placements, I have been consistently implementing exit tickets to track student data. I am

confident in my ability to interpret and utilize this data to enhance my instructional strategies,

and I look forward to sharing the proof of the effectiveness of using data-driven instruction in

this presentation of my data.

Day One:

Day Two:

Results of the Exit Tickets in comparison to the Pre-Assessment:

I administered Activity 1, S’More Skip Counting Booklet, which began on the first day

of introducing skip counting to the class. This was not a part of my tiered activities, but it did

contribute to the whole class’ knowledge of fundamental skip counting patterns on each day. It

was introduced in a whole-group setting for guided practice. Each student had a copy of the

booklet. This booklet hits all aspects of SOL 2.1 A and B. As you can observe, the skip-counting

problems started with Skip Counting by 2s, then 5s, and 10s. Each day, the students completed

the specific pages from the booklet. The daily booklet problems start with simple counting and

then transition to fill-in-the-blank patterns. I decided to use this as an activity that contributed to

my data project because I did not complete my tiered activity until day 3 because I was teaching

2’s and 5’s and 10’s on separate days. Since my tiered activities cover skip counting by 2s, 5s,

and 10s, I knew that I wanted to implement whole-group instruction on each number before I

completed my tiered activity.

Each day, when the students finished their required part of the booklet, they showed it to

me, and I checked it and took anecdotal notes on student understanding. On the third day, when

all students were finished, I reviewed the booklet under the projector with the class, calling on

students to share their responses and address any common misconceptions.

Overall, this activity was a good practice activity for the students to reinforce their

fundamental ability to skip count by 2s, 5s, and 10s. From this, I was able to gain data on the

students' understanding after I gave whole group instruction on each skip-counting pattern. This

was an effective way to track student progress and to give them time to practice independently

with the concepts we learned each day.

My second activity was done in small groups on the third day of instruction. I planned

my tiered activities by first deciding what I wanted the high-achieving students to conquer, then I

planned my other activities accordingly. I wanted my high group to be able to determine the skip

counting pattern of numbers, count both forward and backward by each multiple to demonstrate

a superior understanding of the skip counting patterns, and be able to skip count from any

multiple, especially from high points on the number line without using any resources such as a

hundreds chart or number line.

The high-achieving students were given number cards to practice skip counting and

placing them in order in small groups. The set of number cards ranged from 102-118 by twos,

230 to 246 by twos, 270-310 by fives, 300-340 by fives, 190-270 by tens, 400-490 by tens. In

order to enrich the students’ understanding since they received 100% on their pre-assessment,

this activity challenged them because students were required to first determine the skip counting

pattern of the number cards that were out of order, and then order them. Additionally, the

students did not use any other references such as a hundreds chart or number line. To showcase

their understanding of counting backward by tens from 120 (SOL 2.1 b), the students were

encouraged to order the tens cards backward. When I observed a student working at a fast pace

and showing a superior understanding of the concept, I challenged them to sort the all of cards

backward for enrichment.

As you can observe from my description, these students achieved mastery of the SOL, so

I challenged them to exceed the standards of the SOL. Overall, the students greatly enjoyed this

challenge and did very well on it. There were two students who specifically found this activity

too easy, even when counting forward and backward by each skip counting pattern. One way I
could enrich this activity for them would be to give them number cards that were a part of

different skip counting patterns and have them separate the patterns and sort them instead of

giving them one pattern at a time.

Attached are photos of some of the high-group students’ final sorts: