The Context for Learning EnvironmentAbout the School Where You Are Teaching.

1. In what type of school do you teach?

I am teaching in an urban high school setting.

2. List any special features of your school or classroom setting (e.g., supporting English language
learners in English-only classrooms, focused on the socialization of recent immigrants as well as
on language skills) that will affect your teaching in this learning segment.

This school has a very big ELL program. Students can be in ELL programs for English,
Science, Social Studies and Math. Students also have the opportunity to work in an ILC
classroom where they will receive any extra help on their reading and writing skills. This
is for all students not just students who are ELL.

3. Describe any district, school, or cooperating teacher requirements or expectations that might
affect your planning or delivery of instruction, such as required curricula, pacing plan, use of
specific instructional strategies, or standardized tests.

There is no set curricula or pacing plan. However the local high school Latin teachers
have been working together for about 4 years now to create a curricula that all the schools
can follow. This includes how many chapters they hope to get through each school year
and extra things that they want to focus on outside of the textbook. One of the big things
that they have been working on is creating one test that all the students will take for each
chapter. The teachers have 5 Power Learning Targets that they would like to see their
students achieve every chapter or unit. The test is created specifically to hit every single
one of those Power Learning Targets.

About the Class Featured in This Assessment

1.What is the name of the course?

The name of this course is Latin 1/1B. Students have the ability to start learning Latin in
the 8th grade but some students wait to start Latin in the 9th grade. Normally there
would be two class Latin 1 for those who are just starting out learning Latin and Latin 1B
for those who have already learned some Latin. The class size was too small to have two
separate classes so they combined the two classes.

2. What is the length of the course?

The length of this course is year. The year is broken down into 4 quarters and 2
semesters.

3. What is the class schedule?

This class meets every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday for 50 minutes. On
Wednesday the classes are cut down to 45 minutes to allow for teacher meeting in the
morning.

4. Is there any ability grouping or tracking in world language? If so, please describe how it
affects your class.

There are five different levels of Latin that a student can take. The first level is during 8th
grade and is called Latin 1A. Students in this class will take Latin 1B during their
Freshman year of high school. For those students who wait to take a foreign language in
high school they will start in Latin 1. Latin 1 is Latin 1A and 1B in a single year. Latin 1
is open to students grades 9-12. Students who pass Latin 1 will be allowed to continue on
to Latin 2. Latin 2 is open to students grades 10-12. Students who continue on with
learning Latin will continue on to Latin 3. Latin 3 is offered to students in 11-12 grade.
The final level of Latin that is offered at the high school is Latin 4. Latin 4 is offered to
students in 12th grade. There is a prerequisite of completing the previous level of Latin
before moving on to the next level. The way that they group Latin students could affect
the number of students that I have join Latin later on in their high school career. Since
Latin 1 is offered to grades 9-12 it might pull some older students from taking the class
because they don't want to be in a class with Freshmen.

5. Identify any textbook or instructional program you primarily use for language instruction. If a
textbook, please provide the title, publisher, and date of publication.

Ecce Romani, Pearson, 2009.

6. List other resources (e.g., electronic whiteboard, hands-on materials, online resources) you use
for language instruction in this class.

This class has an online textbook that allows for students to access the passages and the
textbook itself. The online textbook also has additional online help for the new
vocabulary and grammar concepts for the chapter. This school is on a one-to-one
technology program. All students have tablets that are connected to the schools internet.
This classroom uses many hands-on materials such as small whiteboards and games that
help the students with learning the language and the culture of the people who spoke the
language.

About the Students in the Class Featured in This Assessment

1. Grade levels(s)- 9th grade
2. Number of students in the class: 25

8 Males
17 Females

Learning Needs Category

Number of Students

ILC- reading and language

struggles

Underperforming Students

Gaps in Learning

Supports, Accommodations,
Modifications, and/or
Pertinent IEP goals
Students are offered extra
word and help in their ILC.
Some modifications that
students have had are
matching quizzes and word
banks on quizzes. The teacher
also offers one-on-one help
and test and quiz retakes.
The school has an intervention
program for the students who
are underperforming. If a
student has a D or lower at
grade checks the parents are
notified and the student is
placed in an intervention,
replaces an open campus
study hall. The teacher
specifically contacts the
parents of their child's grade
and different things that the
student can do to bring up
their grade. The teacher will
also talk to the student about
things that they can to do
improve their grade in the
class.
Students are offered one-onone help with the teacher and
have the option of test and
quiz retakes. Students might
be offered the option of
having a matching quiz or a
quiz with a word bank on it if
the teacher finds it necessary
or that the student would
benefit from it.