I.

RESEARCH ON CONTEXT
A. General Observation
1. Students
a) A TON (1280 students)
b) Student art lines the halls, framed, from different years
c) Some gang involvement
Signs, calls, clothing (gets dress coded)
d) About the same amount of latinx students as white students,
slightly more than average non-latinx students of color.
e) Students dress like average lower-middle/middle-class
teenagers.
School has funding set aside to buy clothes for students
who teachers notice need them
(a) Out of my five periods, Ive only found one
student needing that.
2. Environment - Halls/Cafeteria/Outside
a) Students tend to group with those of the their ethnicity
SPED students group together as all their lockers are in
the same hall
Gay/trans/queer students dont group together, very
spread out throughout different cliques
b) Students are not allowed backpacks in the halls or in
classrooms, can only be used to carry things to and from school
and left in lockers
Students are required to carry a school-provided binder
at all times
c) Since it is a jr. high rather than a middle school, students are
allowed to be outside and around a certain part of the school
during lunch. Most groups of friends find somewhere to gather
 that is not the general communal lunch tables, ie. they go sit in
a hall by the auditorium and eat a small bag of chips with
friends for lunch.
Territory seems to be a thing with this.
Some students definitely sneak off to smoke weed.
d) A lot of spanish speaking in the halls and cafeteria, Somalian
brothers speak to each other in Somali, otherwise I didnt
notice any other languages (though thats just what I was able
to notice)
e) Yelling, excited tones in the halls and cafeteria.
3. Classrooms
a) Tracking present
b) Use of WIDA can do statements
c) Mild/mod SPED students in mainstream classrooms
d) Almost all teachers have the posters from the We The People
campaign for national dialogue over american identity (ie. the
set of three poster that is a black woman with dreads, a latina
woman, and a muslim woman, and the poster of a native
american man exclaiming we the resilient
4. School programs
a) AVID
b) Five Star Generals / STAR time
Students are rewarded with stamps for upholding
expectations and buy things with full stamp cards
Students who do not have work to make up as an
intervention spend 30 minutes a day at an
extension (a fun class that teachers get to put together
of their interest)
B. Student Shadow
1. Student A
a) Basic profile
9th grade
gay, latino, male
very low reading ability
b) Lesson 1 notes
Interaction with teacher at the beginning of class: went
up to her desk to say hi, tell her he was tired and didnt
want to be at school, then went and sat back down.
Asked her if she has seen It (movie) yet once when she
walked by his desk during classwork time. No other
interactions with teacher
Talked to one student, a kid behind him, in Spanish all of
class: through the teacher talking, peers talking, work
time, all of it.
(a) The student may have been an ELL
Did the class activity but did not turn in the worksheet
c) Lesson 2 notes
Was up out of chair and talking to a bunch of students at
the beginning of class
Pouted when the teacher tried to get them to settle
down, but otherwise had no interaction with him for the
rest of class.
Did the activity for the most part but got really
distracted by his friends.
d) Lesson 3 notes
Again, went up to the teachers desk to say hi at the
beginning of class. He asked what they were doing (she
 replied that they were finishing a worksheet from the
previous day) and he asked if he could listen to music
(she said yes).
Had earbuds in during worktime, finished and turned in
paper.
After he finished working he took out his headphones
and started talking to other students, getting them off
task.
e) Questions
Why did you choose this particular student?
I chose this student because Ive noticed that in my
class, his behavior changes depending on who hes
around, I wanted to see how that affects him with
different classes/teachers.
What insights did you gain?
Hes a little moody and thinks he can get away with
acting disorderly since he has a cutsie personality, but it
seems the big thing for him is getting attention from the
teacher and whether or not he likes/respects the
teacher.
If you had to teach this student, how would your
insights help your interactions with him/her?
Building a relationship with him would be really
important to his success in a classroom. He seems to be
willing to take that time before and after class to just
chat casually with the teacher, so hes more than willing
to uphold his end of getting to know each other. I think
it would be beneficially to give him the opportunity to
talk about himself.
 What issues might you need to address in your
curriculum to facilitate this students learning?
Messy transitions could really mess with his learning
considering how easily he seems to get distracted.
What questions would you like to ask this student if
you could interview him/her?
Id like to know what his interests in school are/what he
wants to get out of his time at school because it seems
he kind of has a this is a waste of my time attitude.
2. Student B
a) Basic profile
8th grade
black, male
physical disability, vision impairment (has a personal
device he takes from class to class for seeing)
b) Lesson 1 notes
Sat right down and did the starter right away
Worked with a partner really well
Used his device to look at the slideshow the teacher had
and used it to look at students when they were talking
No interaction with the teacher for the entire class
Did all the work and turned it in
c) Lesson 2 notes
Worked to self all of class
Didnt interact with the teacher or students
d) Lesson 3 notes
Paid close attention to the teacher speaking
Helped two students around him who didnt hear what
they were doing
 Didnt interact with the teacher
Asked to take work home to finish
e) Questions
Why did you choose this particular student?
Wanted to see how he works with others!
What insights did you gain?
He seems like a really self-motivated student. Its
interesting to see how well he works with others and
how excited he is to talk when he really never goes out
of his way to socialize.
If you had to teach this student, how would your
insights help your interactions with him/her?
I think just making sure that I would be checking in,
chatting with him casually as well as talking about
work, would help a lot to make sure that class time is
more meaningful than just going through the motions
that he seems to have nailed down
What issues might you need to address in your
curriculum to facilitate this students learning?
His viewing device pretty much solves all issues where
he would need accommodations for vision, so long as he
has enough space for it and all his stuff. I would
definitely include a lot of partner work and class
discussion to get him involved..
What questions would you like to ask this student if
you could interview him/her?
I would want to ask what his favorite way to learn in
class, because Im curious to whether or not he just
enjoys working on his own or kind of holds back.
II. THE SURROUNDING COMMUNITY
- The school is right off of the busy road of Redwood, across the street from Salt
Lake Community College and just a two minute drive north of the corresponding
high school, Taylorsville High. Around the corner is John C Fremont Elementary.
It seems that, other than the kids who immigrated here in the last few years,
students have been/will be around the same people throughout most of their
education.
- The south(west) and north(west) of the surroundings of the school were
completely different. The north has a lot of small, local businesses: a small
mexican market, a hair salon, nail salon, and other family-run shops which were
all either latinx or asian. There is a vape shop half a block from the school, which
I think should be noted considering the recent study showing that tobacco and
e-cigarettes are more likely to be sold near schools in lower income areas
(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4981785/pdf/AJPH.2016.303259.
pdf). The south, however, was full of huge corporate businesses at the mouth of
the freeway. Harmons, Planet Fitness (and a 24-hour fitness across the street
that looks to be going out of business soon), Jamba Juice, and a Starbucks.
Something interesting about Starbucks, is that it often a sign of other big, trendy
businesses moving to the area and with that comes a new, richer (whiter)
community. There werent actually any traditional neighborhoods, but instead
townhomes/apartment complexes that were obviously much nicer than the
neighborhoods full of small, older homes just north of the school. I went and
walked around in the closest Walmart (which was across the street from the high
school). There was an officer by some lockers just inside the entryways, these
were for teenagers to leave their backpacks in before entering the store to
prevent theft. This is obviously a feature that does not exist in, say, a Draper
Walmart, where they would also have an organic produce section. Im drawing
that this has to do with the income of the surrounding households. Workers were
latinx and speaking Spanish to one another.