CANDIDATE

CANDIDATE
WORK
WORK SAMPLE
SAMPLE
Adam Daughton
 Student Composition

The uncommonly small class sizes make it so

1-1 interaction with students is realistic as a
method of differentiated instruction.
CANDIDATE
WORK SAMPLE

15 Students 10 Students
 Student Composition

Students choose between chemistry and animal science.

CANDIDATE
WORK SAMPLE

Many of the 12th graders are retaking chemistry after

having failed previously; there is potential to build upon
past learning. Additionally, the teacher says she has had
to reduce the required levels of comprehension compared
to previous years she has taught this class.
 Targeted Support

Of the 25 students across periods 6

and 7, 1 has an intervention plan.
CANDIDATE
Any written

WORK SAMPLE
instructions can be
According to the She may require
read aloud to her.
teacher, this frequent prompting.
student has not
needed to make
use of these op-
tions and has
been successful
in her class. She She may refer to notes
is nevertheless
written in her own
seated at the
front of the room. words during tests. She should be seated
close to the teacher.

TO ALL STUDENTS:

The teacher allows all students additional time during free periods
to finish work on tests, because time is not what she is assessing.
 Overall Course
Philosophy

Learning takes place at two main levels of

thinking, and they are approached thus:

CANDIDATE
Understanding
WORK SAMPLE
The focus of the direct instruction and the
independent practice students get is to
help them recognize a familiar problem and
then follow a familiar procedure.

Analyzing
Students develop deeper appreciation by
making scaffolded connections facilitated
by both occasional instructor remarks and
by recontextualizing their knowledge with
new problems.

This course is intentionally structured to be as interconnected as possible to

allow scaffolds to reach not only vertically to new topics but also horizontally
to connect old ones. This is also accomplished by iteration. Note how much
time on the agenda is taken up by iteration (blue color).
Context:
Pay attention to the connections between the units that sandwich our focus unit.

Where are we coming from? Where are we going?

CHEMICAL
STOICHIOMETRY
REACTIONS
CANDIDATE
Revisited Concept: Revisited Concepts:
• •

WORK SAMPLE
Interpreting molecular formulas
New Concepts:
• Identifying types of reactions
• Predicting products
• Balancing chemical equations
• Conservation of matter
Calculating formula masses
• Using conversion factors
• Using a balanced equation
• Using a substance’s molar mass
as a conversion factor
New Concept:
• Converting between moles of
one substance and moles of
another substance
The Mole - Objectives
TRANSFER (Long Term Goals)
By the end of the unit, students will be able to independently use their
learning to . . .
Convert between grams and moles of a substance given its molar mass.
Calculate percent composition given a molecular formula.
Convert a percent composition into an empirical formula.
Convert mass composition into an empirical formula.
Find a substance’s molecular formula given an empirical formula and its
formula mass.
MEANING
CANDIDATE
WORK
By the end of the unit, students SAMPLE
Enduring Understandings: Essential Questions:
Throughout the unit, students
will understand that . . . will keep considering . . .
The mole is a quantity. How can we describe microscopic
Percent composition describes the systems with macroscopic
relative amounts of masses values?
within a sample or substance. How can experimental data be
The empirical formula describes a used to learn about a molecule?
ratio of elements, not the What is a conversion factor, and
molecule itself. why do they work?
Empirical, molecular, and
structural formulae are different
ways of describing the same
molecule.
The Mole - Unit Agenda

Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri

24 25 26 27 28
Factor-Label Grams/Moles Grams/Moles More Mole Mole Quiz
Review Conversions Conversions Conversions
Per-

CANDIDATE
cent
Introduces the
compo-
mole.
sition,
Empirical
Formulas

31
Fake Quiz
1WORK SAMPLE
Empirical
2
Empirical
3
Empirical
4
Empirical
Activity Formulas Formulas Dry Lab Formula Lab Formula Quiz
“How
are you
doing”
poll

7 8 9
Introduce Unit 4 Review Empirical and Introductions of new con-
Molecular Kahoot.it! Molecular cepts are marked in .
Formulas e-day Formula Wrap-up Reinforcements and itera-
tions are marked in .
Summative assessments are
marked in .
 Analysis of Learning -
Mole Quiz
Some sample questions given to help students prepare for the mole quiz.

CANDIDATE
WORK SAMPLE
Complete transparency is
necessary. If students are to
recognize familiar problems
according to the course Correct Procedure
philosophy, the problems should
be consistent with the tests.
Common Mistakes
Students often would not write units and lose track of what the
numbers meant. We constantly iterate upon this and through
repeated reinforcement, students begin using units.
The second example suggests the student is not yet interpreting
the units in context. This also can be ameliorated by iteration.
 Focus Activity - Empirical
Formula Dry Lab

Stage 1: Desired Results

Academic Content Standard(s):
HS-PS1-7. Use mathematical representations to support the claim that atoms, and therefore mass, are conserved during a chemical
reaction.

HS-PS1-9.* Use mathematical representations to describe the composition and properties of individual solutions and solutions involved
in chemical reactions.

Enduring Understandings / Goals:

CANDIDATE
Academic Content Language (terms new to this unit are bolded):
molar mass, mole, conversion factor

Students will understand that . . .

Essential Questions:
Students will keep considering . . .

WORK SAMPLE
Molar mass can be used as a conversion factor. Why do scientists use moles?
Conversion factors can be used to change any number with a certain unit How are mass and quantity related?
into a number with another certain unit. How can we detect macroscopic changes?
Matter cannot be created or destroyed.
Changes in mass suggest matter entering or exiting the system.

Student Objectives(s):
Students will be able to . . .
Understand how to use the procedure for finding an empirical formula given the masses present of specific elements.
Extract information relevant to a given context when presented with lab data.

Stage 2: Evidence of Learning (Assessments)

Performance Task(s):
Students will show their learning by . . .
Independently and accurately completing the second half of the dry lab.

Evaluative Criteria:
Students showing work follow a reasonable procedure that gets them to the answer, or students not showing work follow a reasonable proce-
dure that gets them to the answer when asked about their procedure.

Students correctly complete the dry lab in class or as homework.

Stage 3: Learning Plan

Methods for Instruction:

Guided Practice
Question/Answer
Independent Learning
 Focus Activity - Empirical
Formula Dry Lab

CANDIDATE
WORK SAMPLE
This procedure was taken from a slide of the empirical formula dry lab. It
exemplifies the understanding level of thinking this class aims to reach.

Here, we give students the opportunity

to analyze the situation. Students can
connect the escaping gas with the
changing mass; the mass of the sulfur
gas formed, or they can simply follow
the procedure. Both will let them
achieve the same grade, but the latter
will be more interesting and memorable
to the student, and it will make it easier
for them to pick up later procedures.
Conveniently, when those students pick
up those later procedures, students who
have not yet made the connection will
have another chance to do so. This is
when the small class size shines as we
can work with students 1-1.
 Focus Activity - Empirical
Formula Dry Lab

CONNECTIONS: PREVIOUS UNIT - 1:03

Conservation of Matter Chemical Reactions

CANDIDATE
“Since mass doesn’t come out of nowhere, we’ve added “What do you think got added to the iron, here?”
something to the iron.”
Something must have been added to the iron in order for
The notion that gases have mass but we cannot easily the mass to change. By discussing the oxidation of iron
measure them is a challenging thing for some students to previously in the lesson, I set students up to recognize that

WORK SAMPLE
interpret at first. oxygen may have been added to the iron.

CONNECTIONS: PRESENT AND FUTURE - 5:25

Finding Empirical Formulas
I appeal to the procedure to iterate upon the focus of the
lesson, but I also wanted to emphasize the change in mass
in grams being the mass of the substance. It relates the
procedure to the actual practice of laboratory science.
Stoichiometry
Stoichiometry requires students to convert between grams
and moles of a substance, and also between moles of one
substance and moles of another. By prompting students
with questions like “We have grams and we want…” I give
the students practice identifying the problem they need to
solve. This will be instrumental when they get to stoich.

Link to Video
(I have elected to not use a QR code because I do not want to give this link out to a QR code generator website, since it links to a video
of students.)
 Longitudinal Assessment
I followed the grades and problem-solving habits of 3 students.
Beginning
Student 1 Student 1 performs poorly
on written assessments and
does not participate in
class. She is often on her
phone. She turns her work
in, but it is inaccurate.
CANDIDATE
Student 2 Student 2 generally per-
forms acceptably on written
assessments and often
participates verbally in
WORK SAMPLE
class, where he accurately
and confidently shares what
he knows. Looking at his
work, I see that he often
does not write units, and
that he arranges numbers
in ways that are not repre-
sentative of how conversion
factors work, meaning there
is no theory that can be
connected to his calculation
strategies.
Student 3 Student 3 is performing
poorly on written assess-
ments but can explain
procedures aloud compe-
tently. Conversations with
Student 3 suggest she often
second-guesses herself. The
teacher is in agreement.
During 1-1 work with the
student, I notice she does
not write units on numbers
and often forgets what the
numbers she has written
down mean because of it.
Feedback
I elected to spend more time
in the back of the room
where Student 1 sits. I do
not often need to remind
her to put her phone away,
though I do on occasion. I
have been making efforts to
actively engage Student 1
and she has been respon-
sive to my efforts, giving
answers even when she is
uncertain.
Student 2 receives feedback
from his assessments. He
lost points for not writing
units and notes were made
saying his conversions were
set up improperly. We more
heavily reinforced proper
convention by going into
more depth with the proce-
dure, asking questions such
as “We have grams on the
top; what should go on the
bottom?” The student
participated in answering
these questions as he does
with other questions.
We have had more 1-1
conversations with Student
3 to help her trust her
knowledge of the proce-
dures to follow and to write
down units. Graded assess-
ments explicitly tell her she
should put units on her
numbers and deduct points
when she does not do to.
Frequent questions and
statements made to the
class give students practice
using units.
End
Student 1 still uses her
phone in class, but much
more rarely. She performs
outstandingly on the unit
test, and continues to do so
on future assessments. I am
extremely proud of her. I do
not know how much our
efforts to engage her active-
ly helped, but they may
have been a part of it.
Making a student put a
phone away is not useful
unless you pair it by giving
them something better to
do.
Student 2 performs slightly
better on the unit test
compared to previous
assessments. More explicit-
ly, he now writes his units
and he arranges his conver-
sions correctly. It seems the
emphasis on choosing how
to arrange the conversions
for the whole class was very
useful to Student 2.
Student 3 obtains a C on
the unit test, which is
indicative of growth be-
cause the consistency of the
course means that the
questions on the test are
the same types of questions
that were asked earlier in
the unit. Therefore, Student
3 has become more profi-
cient at interpreting data
for the sake of determining
molar quantities and mass-
es. She may pass the class.
 UNITS
Why are they so important?

Why so much emphasis on units?

UNITS GIVE NUMBERS MEANING UNITS HELP YOU CALCULATE

In order for students to analyze problems, If you know the units on a number, you
they will need to know what the problem can tell how to manipulate it to get a

CANDIDATE
means, what the given is telling them, and number you want. Without units, you
what their answer means. don’t know what to do to solve a problem.

WORK SAMPLE A FRUSTRATING ASIDE

While it would be ideal for all students to have a complete

understanding of what each unit is describing, this is an understanding
that usually would be developed over years. We cannot force a student
to understand something. Instead, we give them experiences with those
units and let them build their schema for what the units describe. We
cannot force students to analyze when not all of them understand.
Therefore, we simply iterate until all students to understand and provide
all students with support to help them analyze.