Post 14 - Assessing Growth

Elizabeth Olds, Skating (1942)

My target group is a class of 20 third grade students. Due to a highly transient population, I have collected data for 14 students. 

Pre-VTS baseline data

In the Pre-VTS assessment, the majority of students wrote one to three sentences. There were a total 39 assertions made with-out evidence, and only two assertions made based on evidence. Three adjectives were used, all by the same student. Students described 'seeing' six times and there was no evidence of conditional language, revisions of thought, questioning, connections, or inference.

Most students indicated that this was a group of people ice skating and that they were having fun.

I must point out that in a moment of extreme flustered-ness - I altered my post VTS prompt. Instead of just having students write about what they saw I asked them to look at the image and tell what they saw, how they knew what they saw, and what more can you find. 

Post VTS

By far the most significant growth I noticed in the Post VTS assessment was that of word count. Percentage of growth ranged from 10% to 743%. I did have one student (*7)who went backwards in growth. This child has an IEP for speech and language comprehension related issues. The classroom teacher, resource specialist, speech teacher, and I are in agreement that he seems to be regressing in all areas of his work. Interestingly enough though, that same student was the only one to use questioning.

As the graph indicates, Post VTS, adjectives were used three times, this time though, it was by three different students. Use of conditional language went from 0 to 8 times, with several students saying "It looks like..."Assertions without evidence dropped by 10, while assertions with evidence grew by 12. Visualizing increased by 14, and one student made a connection in the form of "In this picture people are falling on the ice. I know, because I've seen it."

A fair amount of the Post Assessment writing contains an inventory listing of things seen - people slipping, skating, and falling. It is winter, they are skating on a pond, lake / stream. However, more elaborate narratives are developing as well. "I think there are families there, and friends hanging out, skating, and fathers and mothers out on a date." (Part of a 59 word response as opposed to the student's 7 word response Pre-VTS "They are skating and some are falling." A portion of another students response, " They are laughing at each other and having fun together."

One of my favorite responses comes from a student who moved in after the Pre-Assessment, the data is not included in my findings."I think they are all friends or family because there are a lot of people and they look happy together. I see that they are having fun because someone fell and he is laughing. I also think it is Christmas time because most people are wearing red and red is a Christmas color." Additionally, a third grader in one of my other classes noted that "..the people that have fallen look more happy than the people that are standing." Pretty juicy stuff if you ask me!

My Interpretation

I believe my Students are mostly Stage One viewers. Their observations are based on personal experience. They are now very comfortable developing a narrative based on a work of art. I believe that VTS  has taught them to 'look deeply' at works of art. The growth increase in Visualizing and Assertions with evidence indicates to me that students are learning to substantiate their observations by telling what they see that makes them say what they do automatically. I'm not really concerned that these students have demonstrated little to no Questioning, Connections, or Inferences. I have observed these strategies being used during our VTS sessions; I predict that in time they will be evidenced in their writings, they just aren't to that point yet. ( I believe they develop a much stronger narrative when working as a group versus completing a written assessment on their own. )

Other interesting Findings

For the past three art classes students have been drawing a cityscape of a place they have either lived or visited. We have studied examples of cityscapes and have identified the use of foreground, mid-ground, and background. These must also be incorporated into their cityscape compositions. Post VTS three students inventoried things they saw in the front and back of this scene indicating to me comprehension / application of recently learned knowledge.