Final Submission ‘Angela Koch April 15, 2014 ELED 3420Table of Contents Contextual Factors. Assessment I... Appendix A. Appendix B... --19B Assessment 2... 220 Assessment 3.0... Eas Selfreflection........ BTSetEM Meswriews Schoo! Information ee; TE Principle: —_a SenrEy Staff Developer: 4iaaagiaaiatie ee School Counselor: ij Samm SR ren sare Title | Administrator: 49, Samir Semmes Classroom Contextual Factors Gender SRM fifth grade class is located at maka Elementary Schoo! in the Sangam County School District. There are twenty-three students in the clas: ine of them are ten years old and thirteen of them are eleven years old. Noah was not pres nt on the day data was taken, his age is unknown. Ten of the twenty three students are female, thirteen students are male. See Table 1.1 4 i 2 | 10 8 m0 years old 6 12 years old 4 Female : . ° male 10 years ols years: ‘old FemaleCRT scores for NAMIE fifth grade class are unavailable at this time as are the number of students on free or reduced lunch, In the class, there are five students with Individualized Education Plans (IEPs), Harrison, Remington and Adam have complete IEPs and Ethan and Gibson have IEPs for reading. See table 1.2. Valerie is the only English Language Learner (ELL) in the class and has a WIDA level of 5. SSBB has two advanced students, Emma and Kya, and one gifted student, Preston. Preston is very sharp especially in math, When he gets bored, he makes origami at his seat. His mother has shared with his teacher that he does that at home often as well, Emma is very quiet and keeps to herself in class. She finishes her work quickly and accurately. Kya currently sits at a distracting table but is still able to focus on her work and complete it efficiently. Aside from the gifted and advanced students, there are four boys who seem to be unmotivated. Adam, Noah, Harrison, and Remington are far behind in their work most of the time. Adam, Noah, and Remington sit atthe same table on the side of the room. ‘Adam has a nervous twitch that he exhibits when he is stressed. He has shown to know the concepts when the questions on the tests are read fo him, however, there is not an aide that comes in to help him, so he falls behind and is seen as unmotivated. Remington works a bit more, when asked if he needs help he replies “kinda” and welcomes assistance. Noah is absent a lot, twenty- six times so far this year. He does not have support at home and the classroom teacher assumes that is why he is absent. He always has work to catch up on and never is on the same level as the rest of the class, Harrison exhibits behaviors as if he is allowed to do anything he wants at home. When a story is being read, he is not following along but looking around the classroom. When he is reminded to follow along he responds with “I am” and makes no change. Mes. MM said these four boys are the only ones who have a “I” for their homework score; they do not turn in any homework.Contextual Factors ‘Table 1.2 — mm students with Complete IEP | Students with Reading and | writing IP Students without and IEP and | not Gifted or Advanced | ' Gifted or Advanced Students ELL StudentAssessment 1: ‘The fifth grade chapter eight test on Fractions and Decimals was administered to the class by Mrs, Saamit on January 29, 2014. This was a summative assessment with the purpose of gauging the level each student is at currently at the end of chapter eight. The class has been leaning about prime and composite numbers, as well as simplifying fractions. In preparation for chapter nine, chapter eight worked on finding the Greatest Common Factor (GCF) and the Least Common Multiple (LCM) also known as the Least Common Denominator (LCD). On the exam, there was one question that asked the student to find the decimal equivalent to 4/25. This was the only question on the test asking about decimals. The students had previously worked on simplifying fractions, questions eight and nine wanted the student to write in the correct symbol in the empty circle depending on the fractions on either side of the circle; the option were <>,= This was the second time the students were taking this test, a fraction of the students had earned 100% the first time the test was administered and were not required to retake the test. The first test was given on a day I was not at the school for practicum, therefore I was not present for that assessment. The students who had already earned 100% on the first test had the option of doing an activity quictly at their desk or playing a game on the computer. As well as the students who were taking the test that day but finished early, The test consists of eleven questions and all are multiple choiee. The students were asked to pick the best answer from A, B, C, or D on the odd numbered questions and F,H,I, or J on the even numbered questions. The students were not required to show their work on the exam. Two example questions asked of the students was what is the GCF of 6 and 8? The second being “David is pouring an entire gallon of mili into 12 glasses. What part of a gallon will be in each glass? When teaching students how to effectively take this exam, I would give students specific helpful hints that would reduce test anxiety andstress. I would go over problems similar to what they will see on the test, the day before so the students will be familiar with the questions asked. In addition to telling them and modeling what will be on the test, I will have them practice a couple problems themselves so they can solidify their thinking. I would tell them to look at all the questions before they answer any of them. See which ones look easiest to you, and do those first, or if there is a question that is difficult but you can remember right now how to do it, go ahead and do it. There is no “right” order to take the test. You do not need to go in number order or from front to back, As long as every question gets answered, it doesn’t matter when they are answered, Answering questions sporadically can help with text anxiety because you don’t see the back side completely blank. You may do a couple on the front, a couple on the back and go back and forth, That is okay to do. Since this is a multiple choice test, I would tell the students to cross out the answers that you know cannot be correct. This narrows down your choices and will give you a higher chance of finding the right answer. ‘The test was given right afler lunch, Mrs. ‘HMM gave a brief review of the chapter and the vocabulary as well as took questions from the class. The majority of the class was paying attention; some of the students were restless however. The class was fairly talkative right up until the test was handed out, They were still wound up from playing at lunch and hadn't settled down all the way. During this assessment I observed Gibson, Adam, and Taylor. Gibson was continuously making noises with his mouth, He didn’t seem to be making noises to purposefully distract other students, rather a nervous habit, He is good about sitting in his chair properly with his feet on the ground but he does not always sit the appropriate distance from his desk, he often has his chair far back from his desk and leans forward almost laying on his desk. He was the first student to finish the test. Adam was very antsy before and during the test. He was easily distracted by the smallest things going on around him. I noticed that five minutes into the test,‘Adam had not written anything on his test, including his name, He took a long while to get started on his test. Mrs. SJummiPcame over to him and helped him by reading and rephrasing questions, Taylor took her time taking the exam but it paid off for her. She likes to work at her ‘own pace. She was not slow and did not drag things on longer than they needed to go, she just dida’t rush herself througa the problems. When Taylor finished her test, instead of getting on a computer to play games, she took out some unfinished work and took it upon herself to get caught up. Other observations I took notes of are as follows: when the students who were finished played games on the computer, it became distracting for the other students who were still taking the exam because they were trying to see what was being played. Other students were talking “quietly” to each other after their tests were tumed in, which was distracting as well. Students who have a hard time paying attention, found objects in their desk to be distracting and they took their focus away from the test. Students were allowed to call Mrs. Mi over for help during the test. She would not help them with the problem specifically but she would reread the question to them and reword it if necessary. Students who need the extra help like, Remington, ‘Noah, Adam, and Harrison, Mrs. {WM would read the questions to them out loud to get their minds on track, When Valerie was finished with her test, she went to the book shelf and spent a lot of time looking at different books. She seemed very interested in the variety. Andrew has an abstract way of thinking. He asked Mrs. li a lot of questions and came up with some of the answers from a completely different direction but he was accurate, On the name tags that are on each of the students’ desks, there is a number line and multiplication table they can use to help them with the questions on the test.