Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College Teacher Work Sample Cover Page

Teacher candidate name: Angie Patterson Licensure/program area: K-6/MI Elementary Education College Supervisor: Rebecca Clausen School/Center: Waverly Elementary School Grade/age: First Subject: Elementary Education Multiple Subjects Date: November 24, 2013 Score

Step 1 Classroom Context/Community and Family Engagement a. Provide a brief overview of classroom/school environment. Discuss relevant factors related to your current classroom placement and community and how these factors may affect the teaching learning process. Include any supporting evidence and challenges that affect instruction in your current placement. Examples of classroom factors are but not limited to size and arrangement. Examples of student characteristics include but not limited to socio-economic status, gifts, and talents, and disabilities. Waverly Elementary is one of five elementary schools in Mooresville Consolidated School Corporation. It is located in Martinsville, Indiana in Morgan County. Students who are in general education classrooms equal 87.1%, and 12.9% are in special education. A large percentage of the students, nearly 93%, are white. Students who pay for their meals equal 67%, while those with free meals make up 24%, and the rest are reduced price meals. Waverly Elementary is a small school, and therefore there are only two first grade teachers. The classroom in which I participated was of average to higher level students. The other first grade teacher had average to lower level students in her class. According to the teacher, there are a handful of students in this class that struggle in their home life, and this sometimes affects their performance at school often due to hunger and poor sleeping habits. Desks were arranged in groups of five. There were two children who were quite distracting with constant movement and papers, pencils, etc. constantly on the floor. Special attention was spent on these students. One of these students needed redirected constantly to focus on the lesson. b. Family and stakeholder communication and collaboration Family and community resources: Identify three family and/or community resources you could use to support student learning I would definitely ask parents for any special skills they have that could be shared with the classroom. I would then incorporate those skills into a corresponding lesson. Children who have their parents involved in the classroom help them realize that their education is important. I would also involve appropriate field trips in collaboration with certain units so that the children could learn about their community and become an important part of their community. Student involvement in the community through service projects to help provide a need would also help them become an active participant in their community. Family communication: Give two to three examples of how you will communicate with your students families (i.e., newsletter, class website, personal notes). Email would be my number one source of communication. Secondly, I would enjoy putting together a class website with all types of information, such as what we are studying for the week to what supplies we may need donated in the classroom.

Family involvement: Identify one way you can involve families during a school based activity (i.e., parent volunteers, Open House, parent chaperones during a field trip or dance, band boosters, etc.) I would have parent volunteers come in to help with centers for areas in which students need further assistance.

Family involvement: Describe one specific home activity related to one of your lesson plans you could suggest for families to do that would support student learning, example: oral history, reading with students. Students could take home strips of paper with sentences on them that lack punctuation. Parents can have students read the cards and then tell the parent the proper punctuation that the sentence would need.

Class/Classroom Information 1. Grade levels in class (list all that apply): 1 2. Ages in class (list all that apply): 6-7 3. Number of students enrolled in class: 19 4. Number of students typically present: 19 5. Times available each day to teach all students (in this class): 5 hours 6. Resources (equipment and supplies) available for this class (mark one): ____Well equipped and supplied (for example, multiple technologies, sufficient paper and supplies) __X__Adequately equipped and supplied (access to technology and appropriate paper and supplies) _____Poorly equipped and supplied (limited technology and supplies or rationing of supplies) 7. Community, district and school factors. Address geographic location, community and school population, socio-economic profile and race/ethnicity. Stability of community, political, climate, community support for education, and other environmental factors may also be addressed. Consult the Indiana Department of Education website, school district website, Chamber of Commerce (if available) for information. Waverly Elementary School is located in Martinsville, Indiana at 8525 Waverly Road in Morgan County. The principal of this school is Mr. Warren DuBois. It is one of five elementary schools

in the Mooresville Consolidated School Corporation. The school has an average of 310 students in grades K-6. There appears to be no English Language Learners at this school. The student attendance rate was 96.8 in the 2012-2013 year. 87.1% of the students are general education, and 12.9% are in special education. A large percentage of the students, nearly 93%, are white. Students who pay for their meals equal 67%, while those with free meals make up 24%, and the rest are reduced price meals. All twenty-two teachers at Waverly Elementary are white. Seven of the teachers at the school have taught for over twenty years. Three have taught 16-20 years. Seven more teachers have taught for 11-15 years. The remaining teachers have taught from 0-10 years. These numbers are from the 2010-2011 school year. In the 2012-2013 school year, 88.6% of the students passed ISTEP. This is higher than the average for the school corporation, yet they have declined from the previous year by 2%. Their scores are also higher than the average for the state of Indiana. According to the schools 20112012 report card, an A was received for accountability, which reflects Indianas growth in English Language Arts and Math basic skills tests by the percent of students passing the state assessments. 90.4% of students passed math, which is above the state average and goal. 92.8% of students passed English/Language Arts, which is also above the state average and goal. I did not notice parent volunteers in this school like I have seen in past schools. I feel it is important to have family involvement when possible. Individual Differences 1. Number of students in class with diverse languages: 0 2. Number of students in class with IEPs: 0 3. Number of students in pull-out or supplementary programs: __0__Title I __0__Gifted __1__RTI __0__Other:

4. Patterns of development (number of students typically at each level) __4__Atypical __13__Typical __2__Advanced

Note other class/classroom conditions, if any, that have caused you to adjust instruction in some way: One child had a reading disability, and could not read much of the materials that were given him. I checked on this child often to make sure he stayed up with the rest of the class. Step 2 Assessment of prior Knowledge (Establishment of a Baseline) Provide a copy of the Assessment (s) of Prior Knowledge you will use (pre-test, KWL, anticipation guide, rubric). Remember the assessment will be scored with numbers that can be compared to the assessment of Student Learning in graph form.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Choose the sentence with the correct capitalization and punctuation. 1. a. my birthday is in November b. My birthday is in November? c. My birthday is in November. d. my birthday is in november. 2. a. Waverly Elementary is a great school! b. waverly elementary is a great school c. waverly Elementary is a great school? d. Waverly elementary is a Great school 3. a. do you like to eat pie on thanksgiving. b. do you like to eat pie on Thanksgiving. c. Do you like to eat pie on Thanksgiving? d. Do you like to eat pie on thanksgiving! 4. a. Kim is a good friend. b. Kim is a good friend? c. kim is a good friend d. kim is a good Friend. Circle the correct punctuation. 5. I would like some help with my morning work a. ! b. . c. ? 6. I love my new puppy I got for Christmas a. ?

b. . c. !

7. What is your name a. ? b. . c. ! 8. Who likes chocolate chip cookies a. ? b. . c. ! 9. Your neon shoes are awesome a. ? b. . c. !

Circle the correct answer. 10. A persons name should always be capitalized. a. True b. False

11. We do not capitalize holidays. a. True b. False

12. Days of the week are capitalized. a. True b. False

Circle the nouns below. -- (After a discussion with classroom teacher, we decided against working on nouns at this time.) dog jump run pencil clap wall house sing teacher bus driver play school library write floor read

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Step 3 Planning Instruction Pretest

Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College Education Department

Lesson/Activity Plan Teacher Candidate: Angie Patterson Name of Lesson: All about Question Marks/ Question Mark Cards Subject: English/Language Arts/Reading Rationale for lesson: By reading the If You Were a Question Mark book, the children will hear many questions listed in the book and see the question marks that follow. Doing the activity that follows, the children will hear the inflection used when I ask a question and know when to use a question mark. I also wanted to separate the different lessons on punctuation so the children will not be confused between the other marks. During the pretest, not only did they seem confused on the difference between questions, exclamations, and even statements, I believe they were confused on what punctuation was the actual question mark or exclamation mark. Learning outcomes: Students will recognize questions, and know that a question mark will be the punctuation needed at the end of the question. Assessment of student outcomes: This lesson will be an informal chart of how many sentences were answered correctly with a question mark. Related Foundations/Indiana Academic Standard: EL.1.6.6 2006 Punctuation: Correctly use periods (I am five.), exclamation points (Help!), and question marks (How old are you?) at the end of sentences. Materials Needed: If You Were a Question mark book, assessment chart, ? and X index cards, List of questions, statements, exclamation sentences, pencil Lesson/Activity Presentation Anticipatory set: I will ask the students if they think they ask a lot of questions. Then I will ask if they get answers when they ask questions. I will ask them when they would ask a question. When they want to know something? When they want to ask a parent to do something? Grade: 1

Teaching procedures: I will read the If You Were a Question Mark book to the students. I will interact with them depending on what is on the page. I will ask where the question mark is, and what question they asked in the book. When finished, I will discuss some of the information in back of the book that talks about question mark usage, and give a couple of examples. Next, we will play a sort of game, if you will. I have a list of questions, statements, and exclamations. I will read the sentences with the proper inflection. Each student will have index cards one with a ? and one with an X. If the sentence I read requires a question mark as punctuation, the student will need to put down their ? card. If it does not require a question mark, they will put down their X card. I intend for this to be a fun quick-paced activity. I want them to realize quickly if the sentence is a question and lay that card down fast. Guided & independent practice: Guidance is given through interaction of the book reading. I will also guide on indecisiveness when the students are deciding to use an X card or a ? card, but only if need be. Independent practice will be practiced when the students hear the sentence or question and they alone must decide what type of punctuation to use. Closure: I will go over the information that we learned in the book about question marks. I will remind the students that we ask questions when we need an answer. Differentiated instruction: N/A Multicultural emphasis (if appropriate): N/A Technology (if appropriate): N/A Reflection on lesson: I am anxious to teach this lesson since the two students with whom I am working had great difficulty on the pretest. My main concern is having enough time to work with them on this during the school day. I do not want them to feel rushed in learning any of the punctuation lessons, yet there is not much extra time where I can pull them both aside to work with them. My other concern is verbally giving them sentences for them to choose the correct punctuation as opposed to them seeing the question in writing, reading it, and knowing which punctuation mark to use. This lesson ended up going really well. The children were excited and enjoyed putting a card down for their answer. The time we had went quickly. I would have liked even more time with them today.

Lesson Plan 1 Questions 1. I like to eat cookies. 2. Do you like to swim? 3. Do you know what time it is? 4. What is your favorite toy? 5. I love puppies. 6. I am so excited to see my friend! 7. Do you have any siblings? 8. What season is it? 9. I like my teacher. 10. I love going to school! 11. Have you eaten lunch today? 12. I go to Waverly Elementary School. 13. Do you like to play games? 14. I like playing in the snow. 15. I can't believe I won the race! 16. What time do you go to sleep at night? 17. Did you buy anything at the book fair? 18. I love to play with animals. 19. Reading is so much fun! 20. How are you today? 21. Being with friends is so much fun! 22. How many pencils do you have? 23. Will you please help me clean my desk? 24. Hi. My name is Sam. 25. How old are you?

Lesson Plan 1 Assessment Chart

Dakota
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Kelsee

10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25.

Lesson Plan 2 Dakota and Kelsee

1. I like school. 2. Do you like school? 3. It is 3:00. 4. My favorite store is Target. 5. Do you like to eat peanut butter sandwiches? 6. We won the game! 7. I like watching football on my T.V. 8. Do you like to take naps? 9. Have you ever ridden a horse? 10. Horses eat hay. 11. I dropped my book. 12. Hey! Come play with me! 13. Look! There is a zebra! 14. How many cookies did you eat? 15. My pencil is yellow. 16. I like to drink out of a straw. 17. Do you like math or reading better? 18. My favorite color is green. 19. That cow is brown. 20. Whoa! Slow down! 21. Is Jimmy your best friend? 22. Would you like to go to the park to play? 23. Mrs. Lucas likes frogs. 24. Kelsee has a zebra pencil sharpener. 25. Dakota likes to smile a lot.

Lesson Plan 2 Assessment Chart

1. Dakota
2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26.

Kelsee
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25.

Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College Education Department

Lesson/Activity Plan Teacher Candidate: Angie Patterson Name of Lesson: Exclamation points and Oh the Places Youll Go! Subject: English/Language Arts/Reading Rationale for lesson: Children will be able to see plenty of exclamations and the proper use of punctuation in this book. I want the children to then write a sentence from the book and read them aloud so that they can see a sentence that has emotion, and that needs the exclamation point. Learning outcomes: Students will be able to better identify sentences that require exclamation points. Assessment of student outcomes: This lesson assessment will be an informal chart of how many sentences were answered correctly with an exclamation mark. I will also review their written sentences to see if any corrections are necessary. Related Foundations/Indiana Academic Standard: EL.1.6.6 2006 Punctuation: Correctly use periods (I am five.), exclamation points (Help!), and question marks (How old are you?) at the end of sentences. Materials Needed: Oh, the Places Youll Go! Book, writing paper, pencils, list of sentences, ! and X index cards, dry erase board, marker, eraser Lesson/Activity Presentation Anticipatory set: I will review with the children that periods make a statement and that they simply tell someone something. A question mark is used when someone asks a question. A question needs an answer. If the sentence requires an answer, it is a question and therefore, a question mark is required. Next, I will ask the children if they have ever yelled Stop! or Watch out! I will explain that these are exclamations. They are said with emotion and excitement and require an exclamation point. Grade: 1

Teaching procedures: First I will read with excitement the book Oh, the Places Youll Go! I will have the children point to the exclamation marks they see in the book. When we are finished with the book, I will have the children write three of their own exclamations on writing paper. I will write the same sentence on a small dry erase board and ask if their sentences look like mine when they are finished writing theirs on their papers. If it does not, I will ask them what they think they should change on their papers to make it look like mine, and why they should do that. After the sentences are written, I will have the children read them with excitement so they realize how their sentences with exclamation marks should be read. Next, we will go through a short list of sentences, and the children will decide which ones require an exclamation mark. Since they liked the cards so well, I will once again use those. There will be an ! card, and an X card. If the sentence requires an ! they hold that card up. If it does not, they hold up the X card. If a wrong answer is given, I will go over the reason why it is incorrect. When finished, the children and I will go over the whole list of sentences for which they chose the correct punctuation, and read them with emotion or excitement. Guided & independent practice: The students will have guided assistance when writing and reading their written sentences. I will also help them by writing the sentence on my dry erase board. I will guide them in giving clues when necessary in deciding if an exclamation point is the proper punctuation for the sentences read aloud. Children will write their sentences independently. They will also decide independently which sentences read aloud will require an exclamation point. Closure: I will review what the children have learned about exclamation points. I will also show them a chart I made that lists when different punctuation is used. I will recall what we learned in the previous lessons to tie in with exclamation points. Differentiated instruction: This is a basic lesson based upon the children in need of special assistance in this area. For more advanced students, they could create their own sentences that require exclamation marks. They can also read through the list of sentences aloud without my assistance. Multicultural emphasis (if appropriate): N/A Technology (if appropriate): If students had access to apps on an iPad or computer, I could have them make their sentences online. Also, instead of using index cards, we could use the computer to mark X or ! if the sentence required an exclamation point.

Reflection on lesson: I anticipated this lesson would go really well, and it did. The children were engaged in the book and pointing out exclamation marks. We turned the pages of the book together to look for exclamation sentences they could write on their papers. Using the dry erase board worked well for the children to see the sentences, and for me to quickly erase and make the next sentence. Making a shorter list of sentences worked well for this lesson. I realized in previous lessons that there were just too many sentences. Ten sentences were perfect for this lesson. The children really enjoy flipping their cards over to see if they guessed correctly for the sentence punctuation. Also, reading the sentences aloud with the proper voice inflection was a good idea. They seemed to really understand the use of exclamation points at the end of this lesson. I do not feel I would change anything the next time I use this lesson.

Individual Lesson Plan 3 Punctuation - Exclamations 1. Do you like pizza? 2. Wow! 3. Thats so exciting! 4. I like to go to the zoo. 5. There is fun to be done! 6. You are the winner! 7. How are you? 8. It takes forever to sharpen my pencil. 9. Congratulations! 10. I ride the bus home after school.

Lesson Plan 3 Assessment Chart

1. Dakota
2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Kelsee

10.

After these three lessons, I gave each Dakota and Kelsee the following sheet of punctuation rules in large print in which they could reference as needed.

Periods Make a statement My hair is brown. Tell somebody something, make a statement We had hamburgers for lunch. Used at the end of a complete sentence that is a statement Question Marks Used when asking a question Do you like cookies? (Questions always need an answer Yes, I like cookies.) Who? What? When? Where? How? Why? Exclamation Points Shows excitement or emphasis I won the race! Shows emotion I love you! Can make noise Boom! Bam! Crash! Gives a command Stop! Follow me! Help get other peoples attention Hey! Over here!

Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College Education Department

Teacher Candidate: Angie Patterson Name of Lesson: Capitalization Subject: English/Language Arts/Reading Rationale for lesson: Students need extra help with capitalization as stated by their teacher. I will work with them on the rules of capitalization. Learning outcomes: Students will be familiar with rules of capitalization. They will consistently capitalize correct letters in a sentence, proper names, and other words that require capitalization. Assessment of student outcomes: Informal assessment chart by the amount of index cards they put in correct yes and no pile along with the worksheet. Write the sentence with correct capitalization worksheet. Related Foundations/Indiana Academic Standard: EL.1.1.3 2006 Recognize that sentences start with capital letters and end with punctuation, such as periods, question marks, and exclamation points. EL.1.6.7 2006 Capitalization: Capitalize the first word of a sentence, names of people, and the pronoun I. Materials Needed: Information sheet with capitalization rules, worksheet (correct the sentence), index cards with names, short written letter Lesson/Activity Presentation Anticipatory set: I will remind the students that we have been working on punctuation, such as exclamation points, question marks, and periods. Now another part of a sentence is capitalization. I will ask them to tell me what they already know about capitalization. Grade: 1

Teaching procedures: First of all, I will go over examples of the rules that exist for capitalization. I will go through each rule, one at a time, and give examples. I will then ask them to give me an example for each of the rules. Afterward, we will go over a short written letter, and find all of the mistakes together. I will help explain misunderstandings as we go along. Next, I will have the children write out corrections on the worksheet. I will prompt as needed. I will have them use their capitalization rules sheet as a guide. When finished, each student will receive a stack of index cards in which I have written some words. Some of them words/names need capitalized, but others do not. The students will make two stacks. One for words they feel need capitalization, and the other for ones that do not. When they are finished, I will go through the cards and make explanations as to why the certain cards are or are not capitalized and have them refer to their rules sheet. Guided & independent practice: Students will have guided practice when we go through the rules sheet and when going over the written letter. They will have independent practice when writing their corrected sentences and sorting their index cards. Closure: I will review the capitalization rules again. I will touch on some of the mistakes that may have been made and reinforce why certain words need capitalized. Differentiated instruction: This is a lesson based on children who already have special needs in this area. I can adjust sentences or how many sentences for children with attention difficulties. I could also split this lesson into two lessons in the future for the same reason. Multicultural emphasis (if appropriate): N/A Technology (if appropriate): With certain computer apps, I could have children use flip cards to sort through instead of using index cards. Classroom does not have access to this type of software. Students could do most of this work on a computer typing correct sentences and correcting the written letter. Reflection on lesson: I am concerned that there will be too many rules for the children to remember in just one lesson. I am hoping that with the rules sheet for reference while doing the worksheet and correcting the written letter that this will help reinforce those rules just by repeatedly seeing them. However, one of the children is not a very advanced reader, and he may have troubles reading the rules sheet. After having given this lesson, everything worked out fine. We had a little less time that I

had anticipated, so we made an adjustment on the worksheet where they were going to write corrected sentences. Instead, we circled letters that needed capitalized. Since there were only a few main rules that we used, remembering them did not seem to be an issue for the most part. I am concerned with Kelsee, however. It seems like she could tell me some of the rules, but when applied to paper, she was lost. She also has trouble focusing during lessons very easily distracted with any outside interference. The rule sheets did help Dakota even though I had to help him with reading a few words.

Lesson Plan 4 Assessment Chart Index Card Capitalization Dakota and Kelsee

Word
Friday Valentines Day Dog Teacher Sister School July McDonalds Miss Patterson The Boston Marathon My class is fun. I Waverly Elementary School 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.

Dakota
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.

Kelsee

Connect Standards/Foundations Standard/Foundation

EL.1.6.6 2006

Objective
The students will correctly learn when to use question marks.

Learning Activities
If You Were a Question Mark book. Sort game student puts down the X card if sentence does not require a question mark and the X card if it does not. If You Were a Period book. Sorting game. I read list of sentences, and the student makes circle with arms for period or an X with arms if not. Read Oh the Places You Will Go. Write three exclamation sentences and read with inflection. I read sentences and they hold up the X and ! according to the need. Students correct mistakes on a letter. Circle mistakes on a worksheet. Sort pile of cards into - do need or do not need capitalization.

Assessment
Informal chart of correct and incorrect answers

EL.1.6.6 2006

The students will correctly learn when to use periods.

Informal chart of correct and incorrect answers

EL.1.6.6 2006

The students will correctly learn when to use exclamation points.

Informal chart of correct and incorrect answers

EL.1.6.6 2006 EL.1.1.3 2006

The students will consistently use correct capitalization.

Informal chart of correct and incorrect answers

Step 4 Implementation: Teaching & Learning A pretest will be given before my lessons begin and when they are completed. Students will be assessed daily by keeping a chart of correctly answered questions, and by assessment of written work. If corrections need made, I will give immediate feedback to the students as they are finished with their written work or immediately on oral questioning. Interactive lessons will give students a chance to learn quicker and more thoroughly than only using paper and pencil worksheets alone. Due to the pretest scores, I could see that these two students were in need of intervention in order for them to succeed in writing. I did make a few changes in the order and length of my lessons. However, since the students were at a low level of knowledge on punctuation and capitalization, I kept most of the content the same on my lessons so that they would build a basic foundation on which to build further knowledge. Technology was not used in this lesson because a program was not available that applied to these lessons. Technology was not in On the pretest, Dakota answered six out of twelve questions correctly. Kelsee answered four out of twelve correctly. This told me that the area of punctuation and capitalization needed special attention. The students did get some of the questions correct on the pretest, but after just our first lesson I realize that the ones they did get correct may have been guesses. Before each future

lesson, I will review a little of what we learned the day before, and have the students orally give answers. If extra work was needed, we spent a few minutes doing so before the new lesson.

Pretest
12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Dakota Students Kelsee

Number of questions

Pretest

Step 5 Assessment Results and Analysis of Student learning

Pretest
12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Dakota Students Kelsee Number of questions correct

Pretest Posttest

Kelsee: On the pretest, Kelsee received a 33%. She doubled her score for the post test for a 67%. Kelsee has a focusing issue. Even though she doubled her score, she still does not she often questions herself or simply takes a guess. The reason I know this is because I will question her as to why she may have chosen an answer, and she shrugs her shoulders. Then, she will pick another answer and tell me in a questioning type of voice. I feel much of the time she is guessing because she cannot concentrate for a full lesson. Any outside interference in the environment causes her to lose concentration, and therefore affects her learning ability. However, he lessons taught did increase her awareness of punctuation and its usage on particular sentences. Kelsee is a shy girl in the class. It took a few days for her to warm up to me. She did so after I helped her quite a bit on a math paper in which she was having difficulties. After that day, she began talking to me a little bit more and giving me a smile here and there. I had the opportunity to interview Kelsee and find out a little more about her. She says her favorite time at school is reading books with pretty colors and ones about girls. She also enjoys drawing pictures to go along with her writing. I asked her if she would like to become an illustrator someday, and she did not know what that meant. So, I showed her the title page of a couple of books, and showed her where it said illustrator. I explained that this was the person who drew the pictures for the book. She smiled and shrugged her shoulders. Kelsee likes to play teacher at home and loves to dance. She has two sisters. One is in pre-kindergarten and the other is in fifth grade. She said she sleeps with her sisters at home. She said she has some friends at school and that she likes Molly in our classroom. Her cousin is a friend, as well as a boy that lives by her Grandma. Kelsee feels her biggest challenge in school is Math because she does not know how to do it. On many math problems, I see that Kelsee does quite well actually. It seems to me that her writing and grammar is where she tends to have more troubles. Her teacher said she has a great reading level, and does not understand why the writing and grammar are difficult for her. At times, it also seems difficult for Kelsee to focus. The teacher and I can explain something to her, and it seems as if she is looking straight through us. However, when she does understand something taught to her, she becomes excited. I see potential in Kelsee, but focusing and processing what she sees in print into writing will be a challenge for her.

Dakota: On the pretest, Dakota received a 50%, and rose to an 83% on the posttest after the lessons I taught. He is quite a thinker, and even if he got an answer wrong on any of the questions, he was really thinking it through and talking it out. He would understand when I corrected his answer and told him why the other answer was correct. He was concentrating and trying hard to remember the rules we talked about. I believe this self-talk will help Dakota on future assignments. Dakota is a child who is eager to learn. He tries very hard in class and is not afraid to raise his hand to try to answer questions. I would have to say his biggest challenge is reading even simple words. Much of the work that is done in the class involves reading, and he often misses questions due to not being able to read well. He does try very hard, however, to sound out words. Sometimes he will conquer the word, but other times he does not. It seems like Dakota may be a good hands-on learner, but there are not many interactive types of lessons in this

classroom. I feel he would do really well with more personal attention than he would normally be able to receive at school. One of my first days at the school, I was able to interview Dakota and learn a little more about him. He was not shy on telling me all about his home life. I asked him what his favorite time at school was. He replied that he liked cleaning up desks and reading books. He really likes the duck books such as, Duck for President. He also likes Scooby Doo books and books about robots. Something else Dakota likes to do is write in his journal. I have not seen it, but I am sure there would be a lot of inventive writing in it. Dakota stated that his biggest challenge is math. He said it crushes his mind! I asked Dakota what he liked to do. He told me he liked to play wrestle with his brothers. He has three brothers (8, 7, and 4 years old) and one sister who is two. Dakota informed me that he lives at his grandmas house with his mom and siblings. His dad is not there because he did something bad and is in jail. Throughout this conversation, he told me his cousins dad is in jail, and a grandpa is in jail, too. Home life is a challenge for Dakota. However, when he is at school, this child has the biggest smile on his face that a person could have. I have seen a lot of potential in Dakota. I can only hope he gets the help he needs and stays on a straight and focused path in his education. Step 6 Reflection and Self-Analysis Reflective practice helps a teaching think about how student learn and enables those teachers to make decisions about how to best support student development and learning. Respond to the following: Since the conclusion of the work sample, what have you done to help students accomplish the objectives and improve their learning? When these students had work that involved writing, I was sure to prompt them to remember the rules that we had learned during our lessons. What was the original expected outcome of the lesson taught? Both students did improved greatly, but not to the extent that I had hoped. At times these students were still in question on which punctuation to use, but then I reminded them of the handout I had made for them to use when they were in question of proper punctuation. What were your assumptions of the students knowledge prior to teaching the lesson? Due to the cooperating teacher telling me they were in need of extra help in this area, I assumed they each did not have much prior knowledge of punctuation or capitalization.

Based on the result you obtained and your experience with this body of instruction, what will you do differently in planning, teaching, and assessing the next time you teach this content or concept? It would be nice to not have such a short time to try to fit in the lessons. The students were learning well with the games I had created, but we also had to have time for them to see their learning in writing.

What did you learn about your own teaching and assessment skills? What adaptations did you need to make based on the formative assessment you did during the lessons? How did you adapt your instruction for individual needs? I learned not assume students will immediately catch on to what is being taught no matter how many times the material is repeated. Being able to work with these students individually, I was able to make any adaptations to their needs and immediately when I saw misunderstandings.

Does the evidence support actual student learning? Yes. As per the graph above, after the lessons were given each student had an increase in scores.

Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your own teaching. My strengths include noticing when students do not quite understand and need extra help. The students also know that I care about them as individuals, and I feel this makes me more approachable to those who normally would not speak up or seek the help they need. A weakness I guess would be that I want children to succeed quickly, and I sometimes feel badly that I cannot always find the extra time to fit in to work with students individually, one on one.

Identify some areas for your future professional growth. As an incoming new teacher, there would be several areas in which I could grow professionally many of which have probably not even occurred to me yet, or will present itself when a certain situation arises. When I am able to collaborate with other teachers in my new teaching job, I will certainly ask for advice and ask for help in my professional growth as a new teacher.