Fourth Grade Classroom Analysis

From what I can remember from my high school career, the essays that were assigned in my English class were based on the narratives, poetries and passages that were read in class. We would be assigned books and passages that our teacher would give us and write about what the author was trying to explain throughout his story. We would also have to compared and contrast different poems. The different kinds of writing assignments that I had to do in my high school English class were based on narrative essays, descriptive essays and persuasive essays. I would have to convince people what I thought about a book or poem through my writing. I also had to compare and contrast passages with novels. The most recent English writing assignment that I had to do in high school was my college essay. I

For my second classroom observation I decided to go back to Shandin Hills Middle School. While at Shandin i had the honor to observe my eighth grade honors algebra one teacher, Mrs. Shanti. Mrs Shanti at the time that she was my teacher, taught the only honors algebra one class on campus but recently due to Common Core, Mrs Shanti is now a intermediate seventh grade math one teacher. It was rather interesting in seeing how Mrs.Shanti taught intermediate students opposed to honor

By providing different learning experiences in the curriculum teachers will be able to meet the needs of each student’s learning style. For ELL students, New Caney Elementary offers Bilingual programs dedicated to teach both languages, Spanish and English, that will essentially allow ELL students to learn the language. Programs like these were created to help students to thrive academically no matter their circumstance. To assess students at all times, one as a future educator must ensure that we are assessing the students in each lesson plan. The teacher must ensure that each student is grasping the content presented to them by monitoring their gained knowledge. In order implement the units from the curriculum, I will strive to provide various learning experiences to each student. I will provide visual activities for my visual learners, have hands on activities for my hands-on learning students, and provide discussions for the ones that learn through hearing and repeating things out loud. Each learning experience is crucial to the student’s academic success. By providing different types of learning experiences I will be able to make the lessons more effective and

Grade and Subject area: [This artifact is a hypothetical lesson plan directing the instruction of a 6th grade Spanish class.]

I have attached a copy of my high school transcript with the courses and grades I have received throughout my last two years at Anacortes High School. This semester, I am taking ASB Leadership, Strength and Conditioning, Drama 3, Pre-Calc, AP Environmental Science, AP Literature and Composition, and Teacher's Aide for Mr. Thompson. My favorite classes I have taken at AHS are Honors World Religions and ASB Leadership. Honors World Religions is one of my favorite classes because it challenges you to think differently than any other class does. It not only talks about religious history, but also current world issues that involve religion. This class is said to be one of the hardest classes at AHS, but it is also the most interesting class I have

In his article, Common Core is Rotten to the Core, Brian Farmer offers facts that support his opposing opinion on the recently implemented education standards called Common Core. Back in 2001, George Bush issued his education policy “No Child Left Behind” because the nation was thought to be at risk of a weak education system. It set high standards, thus failing to deliver lasting success. In 2007, the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers started to work on a common set of standards in the math and English curriculums. The next year, in 2008, those same organizations, with the funding provided by the Gates Foundation, started a federal education grant program known as “Race to the Top”. In order for states to get the educational grant money, they had to commit to a set of standards that outlined what students have to know and must be able to do. Common Core also recently set out to realign state standard

315-317) was used throughout the lesson in order to give the students an example of how to use the strategies that were taught. Before children would work on assignments alone, the teacher would model exactly what is expected of them, and keep examples of what was modeled during the lesson so the students could look back to it if they need to. Read-alouds (Cooper, 2015, p. 37) were used in this lesson to really help children to focus on certain topics of the text. “Sometimes the best way to help children understand a particular piece of text is to read it aloud to them and discuss it with them” (Cooper, 2015, p. 37). Think-alouds (Cooper, 2015, p. 30) were incorporated into this lesson when trying to explain how to use the strategy of character mapping. Think-alouds are a great way to explain to students how to use a specific skill or strategy so that they can have a better time comprehending it. Semantic maps (Cooper, 2015, p.83) were used in this lesson for brainstorming ideas from the text to later reference when making illustrations and creating short responses to the text. This strategy is also a great tool for second-language-learners because it helps to narrow down the specific parts in the text to help create more details of the topic being taught. Cooperative “popcorn” sequencing(Annenburg Learner, 2015) was used in the lesson to allow a variety of students to participate in the

Week two of my classroom handbook will be of the topic problem solving skills used during conflict in the classroom. Kaiser and Rasminsky suggest a five step process that will effectively teach children at the early childhood level problem solving skills to last a life time. I will go over each step and then provide an example of what this process might look like in a classroom.

The students that make up the school are mostly Latino, African American, West Indian and white. Language is the medium through which students gain access to the curriculum. (Tamara Lucas). For example, Maria was placed in a dual language classroom, since arriving from Mexico and when she entered middle school that was taken away. The teacher in her English class needs to realize it takes second language learners longer to develop fluency in academic English than in conversational English. (Tamara Lucas). Ms. O’reilly should take this inconsideration when it comes to the strategies used in the classroom. Social interaction will help Maria’s language development and a method that can be useful to promote social interaction is the use of group work. Using group work will allow Maria to not only expand her English skills but also learn from the other students. Tamara Lucas states; “Scaffolding learning for ELLs requires teachers to consider the relationship between students’ linguistic abilities and the tasks through which they are expected to learn”. Ms. O’reilly has set the goal of having all the students to be on the same level at the end of the school year, this might not be a realistic goal since each child comes from different backgrounds and learn at different speeds. Different scaffolding strategies should be use to accommodate the ELLs in her classroom. Group work, sharing about ones culture, knowing the child’s mother tongue and creating a comfortable environment where the students can raise their hand or ask questions without feeling dumb or like an

How would I use my unique talents or abilities to address a school or community issue? I as of now am the class president of my 7th grade, Hastings Middle School class. In ways to make my school better, I always attend school officer meetings, and listen to my peer’s wishes and hopes. However, one thing I have learned is the fact that you can only do so much for your school realistically. For example, as of writing this, my school has banned water bottle flipping. Water bottle flipping is something with enough work and dedication, I can change. An example to what I can’t change are school lunches. The school already has a certain food supplier, certain food-related staff, and certain menus. To try to change this would be to disrupt many parts

Anyon provides an example that middle class teachers are not challenging their students. Teachers as well as parents suppress students to critically think.

As I previously mentioned in the past paragraphs, I have English learners in the classroom, for that reason I decided to focus on several SDAIE strategies throughout the unit. Those strategies are visuals, graphic organizers, gallery walk, and sentence starter/frames. The use of visual aids including kinesthetic delivery of the lesson creates a real experience for the students and a real model of what they are learning about. The use of various SDAIE strategies will be incorporated, including but not limited to speaking slowly, providing individual assistance, and scaffolding. The SDAIE strategies are helpful for all of the students in the class because most of the students come from Spanish speaking homes and they struggle with the language. In order to provide extra support to Els, I designed the unit with lots of group work and pair sharing which is very helpful for Els, because it allows them to participate and become engaged with the content verus having to work alone. These accommodations for learning and assessment tasks provide students with access to the curriculum and allow the students to demonstrate their learning through a variety

Teachers modify their lesson plans to help their students reach mastery. Overall, it appears that teachers are successful when they understand their students and are able to incorporate elements of specialized needs into the lesson and to think about potential student misunderstandings before they occur. All information for this analysis is taken from case number 0001 under the ENL category. The video takes place in a 7th grade English as a Second Language (ESL) class. It is evident that the teacher understands the needs of each of her students and incorporated this knowledge into the lesson to ensure differentiation. Specifically, the teacher adjusts instruction to help meet the needs of the students by asking each individual to read from a worksheet so she is able to facilitate learning within a social setting. The teacher engaged the usually quiet children by asking probing questions which in turn enriched their problem solving skills. In addition, she helped each student correct their pronunciation in such a way that they would not feel embarrassed or attacked because she was aware of their reservations about reading out loud. Unbeknownst to the class, the teacher took the children’s cultural needs into consideration as well. In the overview of the video the teacher noted

For the control group, instruction involved the usual techniques and strategies like class discussion and listening to the Ilocano folksongs, which would use the chalk, chalkboard, and CD player as the primary medium. The lesson was delivered through class discussion.

There are eight different features to help teachers improve their instructional practices: lesson preparation, building background knowledge, comprehensible input, strategies, interaction, practice/application, lesson delivery, and assessment. Lesson preparation is the process by which a teacher examines the content and language objectives of their lesson and includes any additional materials that go along with it. Building background knowledge focuses on determining the student’s prior knowledge and experience, helping them to learn key vocabulary for the lesson. Comprehensible input is where the teacher adjusts techniques, such as voice, speech, or modeling activities, so the students can understand. Strategies emphasize scaffolding techniques, as well as the promotion of higher-order skills. Interaction focuses on a teacher’s ability to encourage their students with accomplishing their development in the language and content areas. Practice/application focus on providing students with activities that allow them to practice content and language development. Lesson delivery ensures the teacher presents the lesson along with the planned objectives. Assessment has four key components: key language and content concepts, student learning, and feedback throughout the lesson.