Task 1

Task 1 Contextual

Factors Chart

This chart is designed to help you to understand that many factors affect teaching and

learning. They include the community, classroom procedures, the students, and the

physical environment in which you will be teaching. All this information will help you to

determine teaching strategies and approaches that will support your students’ learning.

In this chart, address each of the characteristics listed as they pertain to your teaching

assignment. (You must attach this document as an artifact.)

Source of Factor: Community,

District, School, Classroom

Demographics, and Knowledge

of Students

Contextual and Environmental Factors

Community

Urban, suburban, or rural; socio-

economic; census data on families

The community of Nixa is a growing suburban area south of Springfield.

The socio-economics of the area are generally middle class families with a

few low income families. The population in Nixa is about 19,858 people

and has been on the rise over the past few years.

District

Enrollment, percent free and

reduced lunch; graduation rate;

ethnic breakdown; percent with

IEP; percent ELL; per pupil

expenditure

-Enrollment: 5,738 -Percent free and reduced lunch: 34.18% -Graduation Rate: 95% -Ethnic Breakdown American Indian or Alaskan Native: 53 Asian or Pacific Islander: 41 Black (not Hispanic): 54 Hispanic: 175 Multi-Race: 304 White (not Hispanic): 5,108 -Percent with IEP 10.7% -Percent ELL 1.6% -Per pupil expenditure $7669 - 2011

School

Enrollment, percent free and

reduced lunch; MAP scores and

AYP; ethnic breakdown; percent

with IEP; percent ELL; recognitions;

teacher/student ratio

-Enrollment: 5,738 -Percent free and reduced lunch: 34.18% -Graduation Rate: 95% -Ethnic Breakdown American Indian or Alaskan Native: 53 Asian or Pacific Islander: 41 Black (not Hispanic): 54 Hispanic: 175 Multi-Race: 304 White (not Hispanic): 5,108 -Percent with IEP 10.7% -Percent ELL 1.6% -Per pupil expenditure $7669 - 2011

Classroom Demographics

Ethnicity, gender, special needs

including gifted, physical needs,

and cultural characteristics

Class of 23 students. Two Hispanic and 21 Caucasian students. There are

13 girls and 10 boys in the classroom. One student attends special

education classes most of the day while having a paraprofessional in the

classroom with her throughout certain lessons. Five students are pulled

out for math and three are pulled out for reading. Two students are gifted

students.

Knowledge of Students

Language needs, approaches to

learning, prior

learning/experiences, academic

(MAP) proficiencies, behavioral

differences, and areas of interest

All of the students are fluent English speakers with two having a Spanish

speaking background. There is a group of students who need more one on

one help when it comes to reading and writing. The math students in the

class are leveled so my class has the middle leveled students each day

during math. There is one student who is currently being worked with to

decide on an IEP. There is a special needs student who has many behavior

issues as well and is sometimes asked to leave the classroom to work with

professionals.

Task 1-Instructional and Support Resources

Chart

A wide range of services and resources are available within a school system to support

instruction. This chart allows you to become familiar with what is available to you within

your teaching context. Complete the chart by listing available instructional materials and

collaborative resources. (You must attach this document as an artifact.)

RESOURCE ONE EXAMPLE AND LOCATION

COMMUNITY McDonalds Night. A couple days out of the

semester the staff at JTSD goes to a

McDonalds and works to help raise money

for their school.

BUILDING/DISTRICT POLICIES Free and reduced. Students who are eligible

will be provided a nutritious meal at a

reduced cost.

SUPPORT STAFF Para-professional in our classroom helps to

incorporate our special needs student into

the classroom work. His room is down the

hall and she may be excused to get more

help there if needed.

INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS There is a science lab that includes all the

materials needed for projects and there is a

science teacher that provides lessons and

extra instructional material. This lab is

located across the hall from my classroom

making it easily accessible when needed. CURRICULAR PROGRAMS Staff meetings and professional

development programs are put on

throughout the school year to increase the

teacher’s knowledge of the curriculum and

get ideas for teaching.

INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY Every student in the classroom has iPads to

use during the class as well as a class set of

keyboards to use when needed for typing.

These are incorporated in all of their

learning activities.

STUDENT DATA

ACCESS/RECORDING The fifth grade team at JTSD uses acuity

testing. These tests are a pretest that

checks what understanding the students

have and still need to work on. The

teachers have access to the data and they

can check which students missed what

problems and how those problems

correlate with the MAP tests.

OTHER RESOURCES -Classroom library

-Leveled book section in school library

-aquarium to study

Name: Briana Rodgers Mini Lesson: Self-introduction Date: 1-22-14

Directions: Think about your five States of Mind prior to the lesson. Do your “me-bag” activity

with your class. Maximum time should not exceed 20 minutes. Rethink your 5 States of Mind

after the lesson.

What do you want me to see?

During this activity I expect you to see myself and the students interacting in a fun way to get to

know each other on a deeper level.

Learning Goal:

The student will know important facts about me such as my favorite color, where I am from, and

other facts to feel more connected to me.

Objective:

In groups of four, using a white board, the student will answer 12 multiple choice questions to

the best of their ability by raising their written response when time is called.

Engage:

I will explain to the students that this is a fun game to get to know me and for me to get to know

them. It involves throwing a Koosh Ball and answering trivia questions in an interactive way.

Explore and Explain:

I will explain how the game works – by throwing a Koosh Ball at a jeopardy board. The teams of

four will count off and be assigned a job- member 1 is the recorder, member 2 is the score

keeper, member 3 is the ball thrower, and member 4 is the decider if there is a disagreement with

the answer. When the question appears I will read it out loud while each group confirms their

answer choice and displays it for me to see. Points are rewarded to any team that has the correct

answer when time is called.

Consolidate:

While going through the questions students will be given a chance to share the things that they

have in common with me or share whether they have the same interests or different interests as

me. They will also be asked to remember the questions I answered about myself so that they can

use them later when drawing a picture of themselves for me.

Closure: Students will get on infuse learning and draw a picture for me that best describes themselves to

help me get an idea of what they like. For ideas the students should check the jeopardy board and

use those questions, if needed, to describe themselves.

MISSOURI PRE-SERVICE TEACHER ASSESSMENT

TASK ONE (18,000 characters max – no more than 7 pages)

Directions: Type answers under each prompt and undo the “bold” print on the answer.

Textbox 1.1.1: Community, District, School Contextual Factors that Influence Instruction Guiding Prompts From the Contextual Factors Chart, choose one factor that you consider will have the most impact on student learning from each of the following: community, district, and school. a) Based on your chosen community factor, identify one possible teaching strategy and one learning activity that you could use in your classroom to further student learning. Provide a rationale for choosing that strategy and activity and why it appropriately connects to your chosen factor. The school that I am in has a mostly middle class socioeconomic status but being that it is a lottery school the status of each family varies. Families travel from other schools and other communities to come to this school making each student’s background very different. This can affect the type of teaching in the classroom when it comes to materials needed and the type of energy required for an activity. Depending on how stressful the child’s home life is they may not be able to focus during school or may be lacking supplies needed for a project. This is something to be aware of at all schools and all age levels being that it is always a problem to be aware of. Activities in these types of classrooms should include mostly materials from within the classroom and very little outside materials required since some of the families may feel uncomfortable not being able to help their child while other families can. b) Based on your chosen district factor, identify one possible teaching strategy and one learning activity that you could use in your classroom to further student learning. Provide a rationale for choosing that strategy and activity and why it appropriately connects to your chosen factor. In this school district there is a very small percent of the school that is of an ethnicity other than white. Almost 90% of the district consists of Caucasian students. Seeing this information makes me realize how important it is to still pay attention to the few ELL students in your classroom. Although they are a minority of the school they still need the extra help and extra resources to help them succeed. At schools that have a higher percentage of ELLs they have many programs and resources but in this district there may not be as much preparation for these types of students meaning the responsibility is mostly on the teachers. The classroom lessons should include many learning types and many hands on activities to help the students learn. One important activity may be to pair these students with stronger students to help them learn English while completing the everyday work within the class. These students may be over looked sometimes but it is easy to accommodate them if you pay attention and take the time. c) Based on your chosen school factor, identify one possible teaching strategy and one learning activity that you could use in your classroom to further student learning.

Provide a rationale for choosing that strategy and activity and why it appropriately connects to your chosen factor. One school factor that could affect student learning is the MAP scores throughout the school. With about 44% of the students being advanced in language arts there are many learning activities you could do with your children to help them gain even more knowledge in this subject area instead of holding them back because they are already at or above grade level. Guided reading groups are a great strategy to accommodate these children in the classroom because you can work on higher level reading skills with the advanced students as well as helping the lower level students achieve grade level skills they have not yet grasped. These small groups are great for just about any subject when dealing with children who are on both ends of the academic spectrum. Textbox 1.1.2: Classroom Demographics and Knowledge of Students Guiding Prompts From the Contextual Factors Chart, choose one factor that you consider will have the most impact on student learning from each of the following: classroom demographics and knowledge of students. a) Based on your chosen classroom demographics factor, identify one possible teaching strategy and one learning activity that you could use in your classroom to further student learning. Provide a rationale for choosing that strategy and activity and why it appropriately connects to your chosen factor. In my classroom there are two students who are gifted in their understanding of most fifth grade knowledge we are teaching this year. These students get easily bored with the simple work we give them and are often annoyed by the amount of down time they have during the day. For these students I always try to keep extra extended learning activities handy. When we work on projects I try to create an alternative project for them to expand their knowledge of the subject and be able to challenge themselves when it comes to learning instead of just completing the basics and beings done. This strategy is extremely helpful to not only these students but to the whole class. When the gifted children are done with their work they tend to distract the learners around them so keeping them on task and working hard helps them to stay focused and give others time to complete their work as well. It also brings a great opportunity for our class to learn from these students. Some of the extended projects may include presenting their work and findings to the class at various times. This gives the students an opportunity to learn new things from their peers. b) Based on your chosen knowledge of students’ factor, identify one possible teaching strategy and one learning activity that you could use in your classroom to further student learning. Provide a rationale for choosing that strategy and activity and why it appropriately connects to your chosen factor.

In my classroom there are about five students in each subject area that need a new approach to learning when it comes to full classroom instruction. Many of these students are also pulled out for special classes throughout the day so it is extremely important to find a way to make sure they get the material they need and can understand what is going on in our classroom. For these students I have found that the most successful approach is to create a small group table in the back of the room where they can always get help. This fifth grade classroom is very independent so after a short mini-lesson the students mostly work on projects or activities at their desks without instruction from the teacher. At this time we make sure to always have myself or my CT at this group table to help further explain with is going on in class or to catch them up on a subject they missed during their specials. These students may come back to the table to get help writing and editing a story, get study tips for a quiz coming up, or just ask questions that they may have about any subject. This small group atmosphere really helps them to feel comfortable asking questions to myself or my CT and they seem to really get a better understanding of what is going on throughout the day when they know they can always have help when needed. Textbox 1.2.1: Available Resources to Enhance Student Learning Guiding Prompts After completing the Instructional and Support Resources Chart, answer the following. a) Select two resources and describe how you would use each of these in your classroom to support your students’ learning. One major resource in our classroom that supports student learning every day are the iPads that are provided to each student. These iPads are used almost daily for testing, reading, and study resources. They are incorporated into almost all lessons and give the students independence when trying to find answers during their learning. These iPads help the students to find information about things they wouldn’t normally learn from a full class lesson, it gives them the accessibility to research on the go, and the amount of educational apps available to them greatly increases their understanding of a subject and appeals to all learning types. Another resource that is very important in our classroom is the science lab. We teach science for an hour every day and having a classroom that is full of all sorts of science equipment and instructional material greatly increases our ability to conduct experiments and hands on activities to extend their learning. The knowledge gained from these hands on activities in science is above and beyond what any text book can teach and gives our students an opportunity that most other schools don’t have. It is a resource that we often used. It may not seem like it is so important but being that I’ve been in other schools that have no science equipment I am realizing its benefits within this school. b) Now select any one resource. Also, from your Contextual Factors Chart, select a particular characteristic that you listed under Knowledge of Students. Describe how this resource could help support the chosen characteristic to enhance student learning. One of the resources available in my school is the help of a para-professional. There is one special needs student in my classroom that needs a lot of attention and a lot of help within the

classroom setting to keep her focused and learning. This para is in our classroom throughout most of the day to work with this individual student. He works with her on the assignments that she can complete or they work on other instructional material at her level. Having him in the room is very helpful when she is no longer able to handle the regular classroom activities. Having someone to work with her and to take her to other rooms to work on activities with her is very helpful to not only us as teachers but to the other students so that she doesn’t cause a classroom distraction and hinder the learning of the students around her. Textbox 1.2.2: Student Interest Inventory Guiding Prompts a) Based on the compilation of information from this inventory, analyze one example of how this information would influence an instructional decision you make in your classroom. This interest inventory was directed towards math concepts. These answers helped me to understand what types of learners these students are. I had many students who stated that they would enjoy more hands on activities and that will definitely affect my teaching of math. This survey will hopefully make my math lessons more interesting for this class being that I can use their interests to gear the learning in that direction. By using more approaches that these students find easy they will hopefully change their answers about how they feel about math and decide that it isn’t so bad. b) Using one completed student interest inventory, analyze how one item from this inventory can be used to promote his/her engagement and learning. One thing that a student shared with me on their interest inventory is that they enjoy working alone and that their way of thinking about math is different than most students. This really helps me to understand this student better because he is really good at math but he doesn’t always use the techniques that the rest of the class uses. This information can help me to challenge him and give him tasks that will let him think creatively about math. He can also help to teach other students who may not understand math the traditional way either. Textbox 1.2.3: Communicating with Students and Families Guiding Prompts a) Describe one example of how your communication method addresses your awareness of the demographic differences in the classroom. My communication method addressed many differences within the classroom environment. The activity that was presented to the class included visual cues of the questions, kinesthetic activities of throwing a Koosh ball, and verbal cues as I read the questions and the answers out loud. My activity was a way to get to know the students and give them an opportunity to learn things about me in many different ways. b) Describe how your method of communication fosters interactive communication among you, your students, and their families.

My activity was an interactive jeopardy game where the students had a chance to learn facts about myself as well as share their common interests with me throughout the game. The game fostered many interactions with the students as they shared why they believed they knew a certain answer about me and how they could relate to my interests. This created a better relationship between me and the students by letting them know that I have interests that are similar to theirs and that they can ask me questions about myself to get to know me better. Textbox 1.2.4: Rules and Procedures a) Describe one example of a behavior management rule or procedure. Analyze the implications of this rule/procedure for facilitating instruction, enhancing student learning, or impacting the learning environment. Students in my fifth grade classroom are expected to enter the room each time in a quiet and positive manner. The students do not enter the room right away but instead line up outside of the door and may enter when they are quiet and ready to learn. If the students enter the room at a very high noise level or are off task they are asked to leave the room and try again. This method helps them to take responsibility for their own actions and the actions of their peers around them. They know that if they enter the classroom in an inappropriate way that they will not get their learning started and the class will not run smoothly. It is very rare that the students are asked to exit the room and reenter, but when they do it really seems to have an impact on their behavior. b) Describe one example of a technology rule or procedure. Analyze the implications of this rule/procedure for facilitating instruction, enhancing student learning, or impacting the learning environment. The classroom that I am placed in is a one-to-one iPad classroom. Each student has responsibilities with their iPads along with consequences for not following these expectations. One example of an iPad responsibility is that they must be using them for educational purposed throughout the school day. They are often working with the iPads throughout the day and are expected to be doing what is right with them. This type of off task behavior on their iPads not only affects the student’s learning but affects the whole class as it may cause a distraction to students around them. The consequence that I have seen in place for this behavior is to take away the iPad until they have written a letter explaining why it was taken. The students often use their iPad for class work but there are always alternatives to this so even when a project requires use of an iPad the student who has lost their privileges must find a way to get the work done without it. This keeps everyone accountable for their actions and rewards those who do the right thing by allowing them to have access to such a great learning tool throughout the day as well as at home. c) Describe one example of a classroom rule or procedure. Analyze the implications of this rule/procedure for facilitating instruction, enhancing student learning, or impacting the learning environment. One classroom rule that really seems to have an impact on the students are second chance forms. Students who fail to do their homework, no matter the reason, are asked to fill out a

form explaining why they didn’t complete it and agreeing to complete it at a designated time. This procedure keeps the students accountable for their own work and making sure it is done on time so their learning can proceed with the rest of the class. This procedure came about recently as students were beginning to put off homework knowing that they would just make it up the next night when they had more time. Since this rule has been implemented the students seem to really want to get their work done and have become more responsible with it. Students no longer make up excuses for why their work isn’t done they just simple know that they must fill out the form as everyone else does. Even if the students “left their folder at school” that is an okay reason to write on their second chance form. They don’t get any more punishment other than being asked to finish it in the time designated unless it is a recurring event.