Tiffany Scott

EDEE 490 & 492

April 20, y

Assignment #1
How well do you know your community?

This semester I have been placed at Solomon Elementary located on Schofield

Army base. I am placed in a fourth grade classroom that contains 12 girls and 7 boys.

As a military spouse, with military children, I understand the challenges that military

families face. With one or both parents being in the military these children are often in

transition, moving every 2-3 years and dealing with a parent who is often gone for work

for extended amounts of time. Solomon Elementary is also a title one school due to the

fact over 47% of the school qualifies for free or reduced lunch. This fourth grade

classroom is also the designated ELL classroom which contains 6 ELL students. My

placement also has 1 SPED student and a fully self contained student.

Solomon Elementary currently uses i-ready as one of their ways to assess students

throughout different grade levels.Students are assessed at least three times, at the

beginning, middle and end of the school year. I have found that I-ready seems to be

pretty popular as an assessment tool as I’ve seen it used in Florida, Colorado, New

York and now Hawaii. According to the i-ready website “i-Ready is a comprehensive

assessment and instruction program that empowers educators with the resources they

need to help all students succeed.” I-ready pinpoints a students strengths while giving

insight to areas where they need more help. Once a Diagnostic test is taken i-ready

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then tailors instructional lessons to each students academic level. The data collected

from these assessments can help teachers help spot trends among students and

provided differentiated instruction.

My fourth grade class was given a diagnostic i-ready math test at the beginning of the

school year. This diagnostic test assessed students on number and operations, algebra

and algebraic thinking, measurement and data and geometry. The data from this test

concluded that out of 19 students, 1 student was on or above grade level, 13 students

are one grade level below, 3 students are two grade levels below, and 2 are three or

more grade levels below. I think it’s also important to mention the fact the students were

basically out of school from mid march- august due to covid. My mentor also told me it

can be typical to see lower than average score on the very first assessment at the

beginning of the school year.

There are several instructional strategies currently or will be put into place to address

the needs of those students who have scored below grade level. Calendar math has

been added in daily aligning with the fourth grade standards. Also there are small group

interventions Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 11:45- 1215. For the

students doing math at home on their designated rotating online days there will be exit

tickets, quick checks and quizzes used to check for content knowledge. There is also

time allowed online for students in the classroom or at home to log into google meets for

any extra help they may need with assignments daily.

The specific goal in math this year for this classroom is for each student to make at

least one years growth in mathematics measured by the I-ready diagnostics. To break

this goal down even further the students who scored two grade levels or below are

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expected to increase their score by 20% and the students who scored one score below

are expected to increase their goal by 15%. When I was discussing these goals with my

mentor she said that as an entire school, they are focused on bringing up math scores

this year. The school as a whole is engaged in doing what they can to not only support

the students but the teachers as well, in bringing up the math i-ready assessment

scores.