Kassie Vaughn

PPAT

Student Teaching

Task 4- Implementing and Analyzing Instruction to Promote Student Learning

Contextual Information =>
a) I teach a Second grade class of now eighteen students the subjects of Reading/Grammar, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies. Among the children, there are twelve males and six females, and their ethnicities are displayed as fourteen White and four African American. Concerning relevant special needs, one child is a repeater, and two children are currently being referred for learning delays (have already been evaluated by the Student Support Team). Another student is being claimed as developmentally delayed, in order for her to receive the appropriate additional assistance and accommodations she needs to acquire a successful education. We have two students who scored extremely above average on their MAP and DIBELS tests, and one of those children has qualified to be in the Gifted and Talented Program at our school next year when he is in Third grade. b) Throughout my Student Teaching experience, I have been confronted with several factors and considerations that have greatly impacted the instruction and learning in my classroom. Regarding the behavioral factor, two students have difficulty staying on task. This class is very intelligent, but the children seldom strive to apply themselves when learning! Pertaining to linguistic considerations, one student has a Speech IEP and another is going to interventions for Speech. Concerning health issues, one child has sleep apnea and asthma (504 Plan) and one child only has asthma. According to the student with sleep apnea's 504 Accommodation Plan, we are required to allow him to move frequently, provide him with cues to stay awake throughout the day, give him frequent breaks during tests to get him up and walking to keep him from falling asleep, and not to reprimand or punish him for falling asleep. There is a variety of learning styles that exist among my students: the majority of the class are kinesthetic learners; however, there are 5 children whom I would consider to be visual and auditory learners as well. c) Similar to our classroom demographics, the school and surrounding community factors have surprisingly affected the teaching and learning that occurs in my classroom as well. There are 428 students enrolled in our school and a teacher-student ratio of 1:20 exists in the classrooms. The somewhat small classroom sizes greatly benefit the effectiveness of the children's learning. The school has been recognized for the Palmetto Gold Award and has an Excellent rating from the State Department. Therefore, the students are all held at uniquely high educational standards, which they are clearly made aware of on a daily basis. Overall, we are part of a very small district and the community is rural, with middle- to low- class socioeconomic statuses and diverse ethnicities. As a result, the children come from unique backgrounds and possess a wide range of prior knowledge that must be adequately addressed through activities in the classroom.

Step 1: Planning- 4.1.1: Goals and Student Background =>

a) Content Standard => Common Core ELA Standards (Language Standards K-5: Conventions of Standard English) L.2.1e: Use adjectives and adverbs, and choose between them depending on what is to be modified. Learning Goal => After reviewing the various functions of adjectives (describing how things look, taste, smell, feel, and sound), the children will think of different adjectives to describe themselves and further create Adjective SelfPortraits. The selected content standard and designated learning goal (posted above) are appropriate for this lesson and my students' learning needs, as the children will be addressing higher-order thinking and performance throughout instruction by creating Adjective Self-Portraits after reviewing the various functions of adjectives. b) In the previous lessons, the students learned how to identify adjectives in a sentence that told about how things looked, tasted, smelled, felt, and sounded. In order to conclude this unit of focusing on the function of

Kassie Vaughn

PPAT

Student Teaching

adjectives, the children will create Adjective Self-Portraits containing different adjectives that accurately describe themselves. Once finished, each child will be given the opportunity to present their self-portraits to the class by saying, My name is and I am

4.1.2: Instructional Strategies =>

a) In order to engage students in the following, I plan to use these certain instructional strategies: - content area language => setting objectives and providing feedback (Learning Objective: After reviewing the various functions of adjectives {describing how things look, taste, smell, feel, and sound}, the children will think of different adjectives to describe themselves and further create Adjective Self-Portraits; feedback will be provided during activity); - critical thinking => nonlinguistic representation (Higher-order thinking will be addressed as the children use the knowledge they have acquire regarding adjectives to create self-portraits, displaying adjectives that describe themselves); - inquiry => whole-group directed questions (In order to acquire my students' prior knowledge, I will ask them review questions regarding the various functions of adjectives); - reading integrated within the content area => reinforcing effort and giving praise (In order to promote higher-order performance, the students will be asked to share their self-portraits by presenting them before the rest of the class). b) The instructional strategies I employ throughout my lesson will enhance my teaching skills and improve my students' learning in the following ways: - setting objectives and providing feedback => through goal setting, direction and purpose will be established; providing frequent and specific feedback related to the content area language will effectively increase student achievement; - nonlinguistic representation => simple, yet powerful nonlinguistic instructional techniques (such as pictures and uniquely, created images) improve learning as children are given an opportunity to make connections between images and specific information; - whole-group directed questions => will help students retrieve what they already know and identify missing information; - reinforcing effort and giving praise => simply teaching many students that added effort will pay off in terms of achievement actually increases student achievement more than techniques for time management and comprehension of new material; recognizing children for legitimate achievements is also effective.

4.1.3: Lesson Activities =>

a) In order to conclude this unit of focusing on the function of adjectives, the children will create Adjective Self-Portraits containing different adjectives that accurately describe themselves. Once finished, each child will be given the opportunity to present their self-portraits to the class by saying, "My name is... and I am..." The students' portraits will indicate whether or not students were successfully able to think of unique adjectives to describe themselves. b) I will focus in on each child while they are working on their portraits and personally work one on one with them if they appear to not understand the instructions for the activity, in order to monitor student learning during the course of the lesson. c) As part of my assessment of student learning, I will require the students to submit their Adjective SelfPortraits that they created during the lesson, once they have presented them to the rest of the class. Regarding the lesson plan, children will first create their portraits, then share them with their classmates by presenting, and finally turn them in for me to look over and take notes. I chose the students' portraits as the student work, because they will easily and accurately indicate whether or not the children were successfully able to use their prior knowledge to think of unique adjectives that describe themselves.

Kassie Vaughn

PPAT

Student Teaching

Step 2: Implementing the Plan- 4.2.1: Instructional Strategies =>

a) Overall, I believe I effectively used content area language in this lesson as my students were successfully able to use the knowledge they learned pertaining to adjectives to create their selfportraits. However, as you can clearly see in the video when they are presenting, some of the children had difficulty understanding that an adjective is usually just one word that describes, not a phrase. Even though I emphasized to the students that an adjective is just one word and created a model for them to view as an example, I think I should have stressed my expectations for the portraits to each individual group as well to make sure we were all on the same page. b) I was able to use certain instructional strategies, such as questioning skills and nonlinguistic representation, to effectively engage students in critical thinking. As you can see in my video, students were engaged and actively participated in the review session we had on the carpet at the beginning of my lesson. They also seemed to easily transition their thinking over to their portraits and apply their knowledge regarding adjectives. c) Engagement in critical thinking promoted student learning far beyond the measures I was hoping for. This activity turned out to not only be an Adjective craft, but also a way to encourage and give children the opportunity to think of all the positive aspects about themselves. In the video, it is apparent from the excitement of the students while creating their portraits and the smiles on their faces while presenting, that the activity was a great self-esteem booster! d) I believe I effectively integrated reading into my lesson by allowing my students the opportunity to share and present their self-portraits to their classmates. By doing so, the children had to read aloud the adjectives they had written on their paper, and they were also all encouraged to participate in sharing their work. They were nervous, yet excited and eager to share their hard work!

4.2.2: Interacting with the Students =>

a) In order to monitor student learning in my lesson, I used teacher observation during two main parts of my instruction. First of all, I observed students' involvement in the chart paper review, which helped me determine the children's ability to recognize adjectives when placed in a sentence and the extent to which they were participating in the review. Also, I observed the students while they were working on creating their selfportraits, in order to make sure they completely understood the directions for the activity and were able to apply their prior knowledge in making their portraits. b) I mainly provided feedback to the whole class during our chart paper review and to individuals while they were working on their self-portraits. The feedback I gave the students overall advanced student learning by helping to clarify my expectations of good performance, helping learners self-correct, ensuring that the assessment had a positive impact on student learning, encouraging interaction and dialogue around learning (peer and teacher-student). c) As you will see in the video, I used certain nonverbal communication techniques such as subtle facial expressions (smile), different tones of voice (calm and excited), eye contact, and body language (gestures and body position). On the other hand, I mainly utilized one specific method of verbal communication, which was providing positive feedback through face-to-face communication. As a teaching strategy, my nonverbal and verbal communication techniques fostered student learning by promoting their classroom participation and opening opportunities for engagement.

4.2.3: Classroom Management =>

a) During the lesson, I used various classroom-management strategies such as attention-getters and our behavior clip system. While on the carpet for our instructional review, I used the phrase, "Eyes and ears focused on me, eyes looking, ears listening." Also, once everyone had completed their Adjective Self-Portraits, I used the

Kassie Vaughn

PPAT

Student Teaching

attention-getter where I say, "I said A-Boom-Chicka-Boom," and the children respond with, "You said A-BoomChicka-Laka-Chicka-Laka-Chicka Boom!", in order to capture everyone's attention for presentations to begin. Throughout the entire lesson, the students were well aware of our clip system which is always in place to govern and manage behaviors in the classroom. The clip system consists of a column of six different colors with various phrases on them: purple- I am being good!, red- warning, blue- lose 10 minutes of recess, pink-demerit, green- lose your whole recess, and orange- talk with mom or dad. All students begin with their clip at the top on purple (I am being good!), but gradually get their clips moved down if negative behavior occurs. Children may work their way back up, however, by displaying positive behaviors. b) Good behavior is important for creating an environment where student learning will take place. The various strategies I employed during my lesson engaged my students and promoted a positive learning environment by establishing and sustaining an orderly environment so the children could engage in meaningful academic learning, and aiming to enhance student social and moral growth.

Step 3: Student Work- 4.3.1: Student Work =>

a) Two student work samples that resulted from the lesson were Adjective Self-Portraits the children created. I chose a little boy's work for my first student work sample and a little girl's work as my second work sample. b) The first student work sample I chose was created by a little boy who did a wonderful job describing themselves, but was one who had difficulty with using only one-word adjectives, such as "I have brown eyes," and "I like riding the bus." The second student work sample was created by a sweet girl who worked hard and did an excellent job finding adjectives to describe herself and creating her self-portrait. c) Regarding feedback, while the children were participating in the review session on the carpet and working individually on their self-portraits, I consistently emphasized to the students to use "one-word" adjectives when creating their portraits. Also, throughout the lesson, I sought to provide each child with positive, effective reinforcement relative to the specified learning goal. Overall, it was clearly apparent that both children understood the content being taught and instructions for the activity, but my first student seemed to have a hard time grasping the concept of only using one-word adjectives. As is evident in his work sample, he used phrases instead.

Step 4: Reflecting- 4.4.1: Reflection =>

a) Regarding my learning goal, "After reviewing the various functions of adjectives (describing how things look, taste, smell, feel, and sound), the children will think of different adjectives to describe themselves and further create Adjective Self-Portraits," most students reached the goal. Their hard work and portraits are evidence of that! There were 13 out of my 18 children who followed directions and only used one-word adjectives to create their portraits, while the other 5 students insisted on developing phrases. b) After reflecting on my instructional strategies, interactions with students, and classroom-management strategies, I realized that this activity turned out to be more than an Adjective craft. As you can see in my video, it evolved into an activity that encouraged and provided the children in my class with the opportunity to think of all the positive aspects about themselves. The Adjective Self-Portraits were great self-esteem boosters! However, when stating my objective and activities of the lesson, I should have stressed the instructions and my expectations for the portraits a little more intensely. c) If I were to teach this lesson again, the main revision I would make would be to emphasize the directions for the Adjective Self-Portraits even more. Although each student in my class did an excellent job creating their portraits, there were five children who still had difficulty following my directions about only using one-word adjectives to describe themselves. If I were to do this lesson a second time, I would make sure to stress to the whole group my expectations regarding the assignment. Overall, however, I believe this lesson and activity turned out to be the most rewarding I have experienced yet!

Step 5: Upload Video => Adjective Self-Portrait Lesson Video