Assessing Student Learning
Recently, there has been a general cultural outcry that our students are lacking the necessary civil knowledge to be successful civilians after they finish their public education. Historically, schooling has included instruction in “analysis and practice of public rhetoric and the local, national, and international levels.” (Lazere, 2010) However, today schools fail to “give priority to the factual knowledge and analytical skills that students need to make reasoned judgments about the partisan screaming matches and special-interest propaganda that permeate political disputes.” (Lazere, 2010) Students need these analytical skills more than ever to also sort through the daily barrage of advertisements “that tell them to lose weight, that they need to eat a certain type of sandwich, or that … hip-huggers are back” (Tesar & Doppen, 2006) These advertisements are rarely in students' best interests. “A recent study found that more than 95 percent of the foods advertised during children's programs are high in fat, sugar, and salt content. Whereas healthy foods, such as fruits and vegetables, are generally not advertised at all.” (Tesar & Doppen, 2006) All these political and economic messages are easily categorized as propaganda, when propaganda is defined as an "effort or activity by which some communicator intends to manipulate the attitudes and actions of others by using techniques that appeal to ignorance, or emotions, or irrationality.” (Martinson, 2000)
The current generation of public school students is “larger than at the peak of the baby boom, and their purchasing power growing faster than economists can measure it.” (Tesar & Doppen, 2006) The math simply indicates that soon our students will be taking the economic and political reins of our society, yet the critical analysis skills they need most were shamefully ignored by No Child Left Behind era reforms (Lazere, 2010). However, despite the negative messages directed at our students, “no society can exist without some element of persuasive communication,” because “we must rely on one another to some extent for advice and services in meeting our basic needs and interests" Therefore, “persuasive communication/propaganda [must] be an integral component of social studies education at the middle and secondary school level.” (Martinson, 2000) Educators “have a responsibility to develop in students a more discerning attitude that will better enable them to cope with the various forms of duplicity that they will encounter in working life” (Martinson, 2000)
Teachers have the opportunity to help middle school students “develop an understanding of what the media tells them about their generation's collective behavior,” “through radio, television, and the internet, they are bombarded with shows and advertisements that tap into societal norms.” (Tessar & Doppen, 2006) But through thinking historically, “interpreting and analyzing historical artifacts and primary sources and constructing and critiquing narratives about the past” students have the opportunity to build critical thinking skills that they will be able to use inside and outside of the classroom in high school and beyond. (Waring & Robinson, 2010) In order to develop these skills “students should have multiple opportunities to engage in authentic social studies learning,” (Waring & Robinson, 2010) which is provided in this assessment activity. In fact, it should not be the goal to have students simply fill in blanks or select multiple-choice answers (Barnes, 2005). Instead, students should be required to think for themselves (Barnes, 2005) and this authentic activity assessment gives students that opportunity.
Assessment Information
In the assessment reviewed here students created a poster and an essay that communicated a persuasive message and used the persuasion techniques they had learned about in class. Student performance on this assessment indicated students’ general understanding of the persuasion techniques taught by the teacher and their ability to apply those techniques to their own work. The assessment was implement as planned. The requirements for the assessment were clearly communicated to students through a whole-class review of the rubric used for evaluation and comparison of expectations of teacher-created examples. Students were given time to work in class and were also able to take materials home to work.
The assessment addressed the following standards
Common Core:
- W.7.2. W.8.2 - Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.
- W.7.4, W.8.4 - Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
AUSL Unpacked Benchmarks:
- 1C3e - Compare how authors and illustrators use text and art across materials to express their ideas
- 2A3a - Identify and analyze a variety of literary techniques (e.g., figurative language, allusion, dialogue, description, word choice, dialect) within classical and contemporary works representing a variety of genres
Illinois State Board of Education Social Science Standards:
- 18.B.3a - Analyze how individuals and groups interact with and within institutions
Posters and essays were evaluated according to the following rubrics
Student handouts:
Combined rubric for teacher evaluation:
Student Work Samples & Background Information
The three student work samples submitted generally parallel student performance across the classes. Student A is a generally high performing 8thgrade female student who general takes pride in her work, turning it in on time and completing all assignments completely and neatly. However, underneath the general visual appeal of the student’s work, there is at times a general lack of understanding of the focus content, and the students is rarely able to self-monitor and recognize these misunderstanding or lack of understanding themselves. However, the student faces very few barriers in communicating, verbally, with writing, or visually, what they do know. Student B is a somewhat lower performing 8th grade male student. He is a member of the 7th and 8th grade split section, which generally makes him a “middle” performer in comparison to his classmates. The student generally takes pride in his work but can be sporadic with completion of small assignments and can have trouble executing larger assignments for a variety of reasons including overly elaborate work plans and a lack of attention to detail. This student is often very eager to communicate his ideas verbally, to his peers and teachers, and is often extremely successful, especially when he conveys an opinion or specific point of information. He sometimes does not have the same success when putting his ideas on paper, especially when he must write or create a project around a broad theme or subject.Student C is one of the lower performing 7th graders in the all-7th grade section and receives Special Education services (general push-in support from a Special Education teacher) in accordance with an individualized education plan for learning disabilities. He is generally eager to participate in class, but can be easily distracted to an off-task state, especially by his peers. Student C generally completes his in-class assignments with a fair amount of success, but does not complete his homework assignments with regularity. He often fails to ask clarifying questions, of teachers or peers, when he is confused, perhaps out of embarrassment or fear of stigma. Student C struggles to communicate his ideas with grade level appropriate academic language. He often uses short, incomplete sentences with many errors, missing words, and incorrectly conjugated verbs when speaking and writing. Student C likes drawing and responds well to visual representation of information.
Assessment Analysis
Student posters generally communicated a direct message to an audience. Usually, students were able to use at least one persuasion technique the teacher had previously taught. Students most often used some variation of the “bandwagon” technique (that implies that “everyone” is buying a product or subscribing to an idea). The teacher provided magazines to clip as an art medium, and most students utilized picture and word clippings heavily. All students were generally able to select clipping and draw images that were focused around and added to their message. Many students verged on recreating existing ad campaigns by simply collecting as many clippings from related ads as possible and putting them together on a poster. Very few students clearly appealed to a specific audience or utilized identity in their posters. Those posters that did appeal to a specific audience were less likely to communicate a specific message or utilize persuasion techniques.
All three student work samples (found here: Student A, Student B, Student C) clearly communicated a message (Student A - “Go Green,” Student B - “Don’t Drink and Drive,” Student C - “Stop Smoking”) and used graphics and text that were focused on their message. Student B and C heavily utilized images clipped from magazines, with Student C using words clipped from magazines as well. Student A drew her own visual images. Student A included statistics in their poster (a technique taught to make persuasive work sound “official” and communicate a feeling of “expertise”), which shows a basic understanding of persuasion techniques. However, the student chose several statistics referring to Australia, but has no other specific references to Australia or Australians in their poster. This partial, perhaps not purposeful, reference shows that the student did not successfully appeal to a specific group of people in their poster.
Student C referenced two different persuasion techniques in a very basic way. “We smoked and did not like it” demonstrates an indirect reference to a group identity and implies that the viewer belongs to and should conform to the expectations of the “we” in-group. However, who makes up this in-group is not clearly defined on the poster. Therefore, the student demonstrated the ability to use the technique, but not apply it at a level of expertise or mastery. Student C also included the text “Smoking do no lead to success,” which employs the technique of transferring emotions from one subject (smoking) to another unrelated subject (success). Although Student C utilized a variety of persuasion techniques their poster shows no evidence of appeal to a specific group of people.
Student B did not clearly utilize any purposeful persuasion techniques in their poster, instead they included several onomatopoeia sounds and drink recipes clipped from a magazine, nor did they appeal to a specific personal identity.
The data from this part of the assessment show that students gained a general understanding of persuasion techniques in visual media, particularly how to communicate a specific message, and can apply persuasion techniques some of the time, although they are fairly limited in their ability to apply the nuances of skilled, purposeful persuasion. A considerable number of students did not demonstrate the ability to appeal to a specific group of people. In future instances of instruction the teacher may need to even more explicitly outline the way visual persuasion pieces appeal to specific identities and model creating persuasive works that appeal to different personal identities.
Students performed considerably further below expectations on their essays than they did on their posters. Almost all essays focused on one topic, but some failed to clearly communicate a persuasive point. Many students used too few persuasion techniques or did not use any at all. Often the persuasion techniques that were used were implemented on a very basic level. Very few students demonstrated mastery of use of the taught persuasion techniques in writing. A considerable number of essays were shorter than the rubric required them to be. Through the work time for this assessment students generally seemed less enthusiastic about the essay portion of the assessment (in comparison to the poster portion) and seemed less focused on it.
Once again, the student work samples (found here: Student A, Student B, Student C) submitted generally reflects trends in whole class performance. In their poster, Student A takes a stand on a specific issue and utilizes two persuasion techniques to make their point, referencing statistics to make their message sound more “official." She also utilized “we” and other language to appeal to the reader’s desire to be part of and conform to the norms of a group. However, once again Student A referenced Australian statistics, seemingly without purpose, and did not clearly define the “we” referred to throughout the essay.
Student B failed to clearly state their opinion on an issue. They referenced a commercial that supported their opinion ("Don’t drink and drive") but never clearly articulated that they were against drinking and driving. They attempted to use three persuasion techniques in their essay and even labeled the instances of persuasion and which techniques they atempted to use (BW for bandwagon, TR for transfer of emotions, T for testimonial). These labels and the fairly clear, purposeful organization of the paper suggest that Student B understood the expectations for the paper and referenced the rubric while writing their essay, but still struggled with execution of the project. The student did not demonstrate understanding of the bandwagon technique. They consistently referenced “you” and addressed the reader individually, instead of using language to convince to convince the reader that no one drinks and drives or no one in the reader’s in-group drinks and drives. The student had more success with the transfer of emotions technique. They connected drinking and driving with death and injury and utilized a proper, serious tone for a discussion of two serious subjects. The student attempted to include a celebrity testimonial in the end of the essay but did not demonstrate understanding of the principles of this technique. The student referenced a celebrity who endorsed a specific type of alcohol. This reference was not related to the focus subject, drinking and driving, nor was it a true endorsement. To demonstrate understanding of this technique the student would have needed to cite a celebrity who has spoken out against drinking and driving.
Finally Student C’s essay successfully took a stance on an issue, “I think if you smoke you should stop.” but failed to clearly use any learned persuasion techniques in their essay. It seems that he perhaps made an attempt to use emotional transfer to connect smoking, unhealthy lungs, and cancer but the language used to connect these concepts is not clear.
Generally, students did not demonstrate the ability to compose persuasive writing utilizing the persuasion techniques taught in class. Based on the analysis of this assessment, in future instruction with these students on this subject matter the teacher would explicitly instruction on using purposeful persuasion in the students’ own work. The teacher would also carefully scaffold several tasks that asked students to create persuasive works of varying length before expecting students to perform tasks like those assessed here.
Feedback to Guide Further Learning
Feedback was first provided informally during student work time for this project. During student work time the teacher circulated around the room answering student questions and reviewing student work. The teacher primarily guided students towards a more direct focus for their posters and essays (“play football!” versus just “football”), reminded students to use the taught persuasion techniques, and helped them refine their delivery of these techniques. Students were generally receptive to the teacher’s feedback and responded quickly to it.
Feedback was provided after students finished their projects through a teacher rubric form with the same evaluation criteria students had been provided as well as a space for teacher comments. The teacher also marked directly on students’ essays, primarily highlighting grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. Students were primarily graded down for not clearly using persuasion techniques in either part of the project, and for spelling and grammar mistakes in the written portion of the project. The teacher purposefully wrote short, direct comments on the evaluation rubric so that students would be able to read, process, and easily apply the teacher feedback in future assignments.
Evidence of the teacher’s formal evaluation process can be seen in the rubrics for the student samples provided. (Found here: Student A, Student B, Student C) The teacher provided feedback based on background knowledge of students’ previous understandings and ability to receive feedback. The teacher knew that Student A would probably be able to respond to the teacher’s feedback as a question, but that Student B generally seeks out positive feedback and needs more straight-forward direction and therefore his comments reflect those needs. The teacher purposefully only wrote feedback on the first portion of Student C’s essay and provided extremely direct feedback in reaction to Student C’s difficulties with written assignments.
Students will be able to use the feedback provided in many future persuasive writing assignments, especially the seemingly ever-present Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) “extended response” written assessment and the Chicago Public Schools district-wide Writing Prompt, both of which ask students to utilize persuasion techniques in an essay format. They will also have the opportunity to use writing skill specific feedback in writing assignments throughout their Language Arts instruction and in other disciplines.
Using Assessment to Inform Instruction
This project and the resulting teacher analysis of student work were good measures of students’ ability to use persuasion techniques in their own visual and written work. However, after closely analyzing students work it is apparent that there was a disconnect between instruction and assessment. Instruction was primarily focused on understanding, recognizing, and analyzing purposeful persuasion. Other assessments throughout this series of lessons helped the teacher understand students’ ability to identify and analyze persuasion techniques and other sub-skills, but this assessment tasks asked students to apply their understandings to a creation task. Future instruction will need to focus on directly on implementing persuasion techniques in student work.
Based on assessments from previous learning segments, the teacher knows that students have successfully used a variety of persuasion techniques in isolated, one- or two-sentence situations, which shows that they have the ability to apply these concepts to their own writing. Based on this previous achievement, it seems that more step-by-step scaffolding (the teacher guiding students through the process of writing individual sentences using persuasive techniques, combing those sentences into paragraphs, and then those paragraphs into whole essays) will be necessary in future instruction. The teacher will also need to model writing an essay extensively for students.
In general, the students whose work was submitted as samples for this analysis, would benefit from the same continued instruction as their classmates, however after an in-depth analysis of their work, the teacher can see ways in which to more personally drive student instruction. After reviewing Student C’s essay, it is apparent that this student needs extra-writing support in addition to other instruction. There are words consistently missing from the student’s sentences and verbs are often incorrectly conjugated. In order for the students to be successful in future writing tasks, persuasive in nature or any other genre, these problems need to be addressed. It is also apparent that Student A, based on the content of their project, is ready for instruction on correctly researching statistics and citing sources. The teacher believes that instruction in this arena will help the student write persuasive essays in a more skilled way in general, but will also help the student purposely choose statistics to use according to who their focus audience is. Based on the essay and poster of Student B, it appears that they will benefit most from the whole-class continued instruction on using persuasive techniques in their own work.
