“Change is the end result of all true learning.” –Leo Buscaglia

For all instructors, the ultimate goal is to achieve student academic progress. Academic progress means that students gain knowledge and skills beyond what they originally had. Even if a student does not achieve as high scores as others, if an instructor can prove that progress has occurred, then that instructor has achieved student academic progress.

In order to gauge student knowledge prior to beginning my unit on The Picture of Dorian Grey, I delivered a pretest . This pretest asked questions about the Gothic literature genre, questions about the time period of the Victorian era as well as literature within this time period, and questions about the plot of the novel as well as larger themes found within the novel. After delivering the pretest I conducted a class discussion, where we talked about the time period in which our novel was written as well as the characteristics of the style of literature. The pretest and discussion allowed me to gauge a starting point which I could then build upon.

Throughout the novel unit I conducted discussions and formative assessments to ensure that students were grasping both the deeper themes of the novel as well as comprehending the events of the plot.

After our novel unit was complete, I retested students–there was overwhelming improvement to grades and understanding.

 

 

During my two week unit I also monitored my students’ writing progress. At the beginning of my student teaching, my students were just finishing a unit on the play Hamlet. Students were required to write an essay as a form of assessment. I also required an essay as a form of assessment for my unit on The Picture of Dorian Grey and I was pleased at the change within my students’ writing. Below is one such example of a drastic change in writing, in both style as well as content.

 

For more discussion on student academic progress, please see my PPS Student Academic Progress paper.