Mathews Elementary School CT: Holly Skipper

Gabrielle Gregorie ETS Task 4

Praxis Performance Assessment for Teachers: Task 4

Designing Instruction for Student Learning Contextual Information: A. I am in a first grade classroom of twenty-one students. There are eight girls and thirteen boys. The personalities and characteristics of each individual student bring entertainment, happiness, and comfort to the classroom. There are students with special needs in my classroom: two students receive speech intervention, three students receive reading recovery intervention, two students that speak English as a second language (ESOL), two students that take ADHD medication, and one student who receives behavior therapy and is medicated for his anger/behavior disorder. The content area of the instruction assessed in Task 3 is a Guided Reading/ELA lesson. The specific subject matter requires students to create a plan for A Sticky Business Joy Cowley. B. There are social, behavioral and developmental factors that impact the instruction in our classroom. There is one student who is not socially developed for his age, and is unresponsive and lacking in verbal communication when he is asked questions. He also takes medicine for ADHD, which I feel also impacts his social skills. More often than not, you have to provide him with the consequences of not communicating before you can get him to respond. He also lacks social skills among peers, and will soon begin the testing process to see if further instructional aid is needed in addition to reading recovery that he currently receives. Another student is medicated and counseled for anger and behavior due to situations he experienced at a young age and his current home life. For me it is very hard to understand what it must feel like to suffer bipolar and anger disorders at the age of seven, which allows me to not give up or burn out when he is having a rough day. Sometimes he does have to be removed from the classroom when it is disruptive to other students. I have learned ways of helping him keep it together and also ways to help him pull it back together, in order to make it through the day with hopes of starting over tomorrow. There are several other students that have behavior problems throughout the day. However, the classroom management plan allows me to solve our issues and allows the students to understand the system of consequences and resolutions used in managing our classroom. The fact that a lot of the students in the class are below grade level and have little to no help outside the school walls creates developmental factors that impact instruction. With the grading period just ending, there is now a list of students who are simply not ready for second grade. However, students that were on that list previously in the year have excelled in their reading and writing and have reached above and beyond where I thought they would be. If parents and teachers are working together, desired success can be achieved. However, there are many students in the classroom lacking basic structure, and needs that children their age demand and deserve. Therefore, these students do not have many resources at home. This is a big factor, because they are limited. This creates developmental factors not only in my classroom but school wide. The Mathews Elementary faculty
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Mathews Elementary School CT: Holly Skipper

Gabrielle Gregorie ETS Task 4

and staff work together as a community and with all public schools in the district and beyond that understand the foundation, life, and knowledge that a wonderful elementary school experience can bring to a child. The two ESOL students in the classroom are actually very verbal, social, confident and on grade level in their academics. I have gotten to know siblings of both students, and have learned the only impact they have on instruction is the language barrier when communicating with their parents. Both students parents, written and verbally, are challenging to communicate with. Luckily with some Spanish speaking knowledge, the help of the schools ESOL interventionist, and the connections and friendship I have formed with siblings, communication is successful. No real health considerations besides minor peanut allergies are an impact to teaching and learning in the classroom. Overall, the different characteristics, attributes and uniqueness each student offers to the classroom is used and portrayed in a positive light to provide a meaningful education to every student. C. As previously stated, the economic status of the zoned families and community that are a part of the Mathews Elementary family are very low. Not only impacting teaching but also impacting me personally are many conditions and situations that my students and others throughout the school experience. I have dealt with many heart wrenching days and stories hard to believe that you encounter teaching students raised in poverty. With poverty there is crime, illnesses, drug use, homeless and jobless families, and more. However, making the classroom the place of happiness, comfort, and security really is a rewarding feeling. I have learned a lot from my cooperating teacher, but something I am still working on is sometimes learning to leave it at school. There is only so much you can do in this profession, when it comes to terms of trying to improve their home life and living situation, and you have to remained focus on just trying to give them the best education you can for that school year. Overall, you do the best you can every day to deal with the many factors of twenty-one individual childrens lives that impact instruction and learning in the classroom. Goals and Student Background: *Artifact #1 attached a) Explain how the selected content standards and learning goal(s) are appropriate for the lesson and your students learning needs. The selected content standards and learning goals are appropriate for the lesson and the students needs because they involve students in asking answering questions and engage in small group reading activities with purpose and understanding. Through these standards and learning goals, students are using prior knowledge and new knowledge to understand books and sight words. The standards and learning goals are beneficial in the students development and preparing them for future grades. Students are learning new sight words that will be used in the future years of their lives. Students also read for meaning and understand what is happening in the book.
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Mathews Elementary School CT: Holly Skipper

Gabrielle Gregorie ETS Task 4

b) How did your students prior knowledge and background information influence your planning process? The learning goals and objective for this lesson are appropriate and beneficial for students learning. The students have worked on Treasure in the Attic in small reading groups (4 students) daily, and taken their book home every night for four days prior to the writing lesson (day 5). Students are accustomed to their reading groups and the pattern of reading a book for a few days, writing about it, and staring a new text to improve reading skills. Instructional Strategies: a) What research-based instructional strategies do you plan to use with students to engage them in the following? content area language

Reading for meaning will be used during our lesson. Reading for meaning will be used with our book. The books used are predictable books and students can use them to help read fluently and to be able to understand the book. critical thinking

Critical thinking will be addressed by asking higher order thinking questions throughout the week (days 1-5). This instructional strategy is through using direct instruction and questioning. Students will be asked questions beginning with, what, where, when, how, why, or what if. The questioning will draw students into the lesson and participate to determine prior learning experiences and to provide practice. inquiry

Reflective discussion will be used as an instructional strategy for inquiry. Students will be able to think and talk about what they have observed, heard, read, reflect upon, summarize, and form conclusions. This may be a simple book talk or conferencing with the teacher. reading integrated within the content area

Think & Share is an interactive instruction approach that will be used to address reading integrated within the content area. This strategy allows the students to discuss and share among participants in our guided reading groups. This guides students to think about the book and use their own knowledge to integrate social studies, math, and science into discussing the book (lions, zoo, careers, animals, etc.) They may share a

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Mathews Elementary School CT: Holly Skipper

Gabrielle Gregorie ETS Task 4

story or something interesting that they may know that relates to what we have read in the book. b) How will each of these instructional strategies enhance your teaching skills and improve your students learning? By incorporating various instructional strategies into guided reading, I can enhance my teaching and aid student learning by offering many ways, forms, and techniques to communicate the lesson objective. Every student learns and understands differently. These strategies will also help me communicate the importance of developing a plan and ideas to help produce a high-quality writing piece. Lesson Activities: a) Describe one activity that is the main focus of the lesson plan. Explain how that activity is designed to anticipate and address students learning needs. The main focus activity of this lesson is the development of the Day 5 - chapter summaries/writing plan. This activity is designed to anticipate and address the students understanding of the text. They will also be able to understand and connect with the text through writing. The text will be chosen based on the students determined reading level, and future text will be chosen from the results of formal assessment of Treasure in the Attic. b) Describe how you will monitor student learning during the course of the lesson. Comments, notes, and the participation and completion of their writing plan will be used to assess the students achievement towards the lesson objective during the writing lesson. c) What work samples will you require the students to submit as part of your assessment of student learning resulting from the lesson? (The work can be created either during or after the lesson.) How will these responses be integrated into the lesson plan? Provide a rationale for your choice of student work. Students will submit their writing plan and completed final writing (1-2 sentences for each chapter) to assess student learning as a result of the lesson. The writing plan is the technique used in the lesson to help guide students to high quality writing. The student work that was chosen is the three students from the highest-level reading group in the class. Instructional Strategies: a) How effectively did you use content area language in this lesson? Cite examples from the video to support your analysis.
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Mathews Elementary School CT: Holly Skipper

Gabrielle Gregorie ETS Task 4

Using content area language in the lesson was very effective. Using reading for meaning helped the students to read fluently, understand the book, and predict what would happen next in the book. Students were able to read the words in the book and were able to recall what had happened. The students also were able to write the sight words taught through the book. b) How effectively did you use instructional strategies, including questioning skills, to engage students in critical thinking? Cite examples from the video to support your analysis. Instructional strategies and questioning skills were used in the lesson to engage students in critical thinking. Throughout the video, students are guided through the process of brainstorming and planning to write. The plan was created before the lesson, but guided instruction was used to help them think of the answer I was looking for. Probing questions, compare and contrast skills, and other instructional strategies were used to support student learning. c) How did engagement in critical thinking promote student learning? Cite examples from the video to support your analysis. Engagement in the higher order thinking process and guidance through critical thinking allowed the students to develop their pre-writing plan that will be used to develop a high quality final product. By guiding the students through the planning process, they observed and followed my modeled plan and were educated and prepared to take the next step in their writing. d) How effectively did you integrate reading in your lesson? Cite examples from your lesson to support your analysis. Reading was the main focus and backbone of the lesson. Students worked in groups at school, and home independently reading and building fluency and comprehension of A Sticky Business during the week leading up to the lesson. The students used their books during the lesson to refer back in the text on what they have read, to help them pull the information needed to develop their plan. Interacting with the Students: a) How did you monitor student learning during the lesson? In what ways did evidence of learning guide your instructional decision making during the lesson? Cite
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Mathews Elementary School CT: Holly Skipper

Gabrielle Gregorie ETS Task 4

examples from the video to support your analysis. Running records, observational notes, and comments on the students progress throughout the week was recorded to monitor student learning during the lesson, as the days progressed, evidence of the students learning guided instruction for the final writing day. I knew that the students would not be able to recall all the details I was looking for, so allowing them to use their books and guided them to the wanted answers was used to promote student learning. b) How did your feed back to individuals, small groups, and/or the whole class advance student learning? Cite examples from the video to support your analysis. The feedback I gave during the lesson was beneficial and a key component for the success of the lesson. Guidance to individuals in the group and to the small group as a whole class advanced the student leaning by leading them to the desired finish product. If students did not give the exact answer desired, positive encouragement and prompting was given to lead the students in the right direction. Giving feedback to the students in our small group setting, gives students confidence and a reason to learn. c) How did your use of verbal and nonverbal communication techniques foster student learning? Cite examples from the lesson to support your analysis. The use of verbal communication techniques fosters student learning through the lesson. Verbal communication is more evident in the lesson versus, non- verbal. I constantly talk and model for my students through the entire lesson so that they know exactly what to do. My students are very good listeners and followed along very well during the lesson. Verbal communication is important. My students like to talk to me, share, and show everyone that they are learning, Most of our students do not hear a lot of good verbal communications at home, so communicating with them all the time at school is beneficial to the students. Classroom Management: a) What classroom-management strategies did you use during the lesson? Cite examples of the strategies from the video. During the lesson, the small group worked with me while the rest of the class worked on their independent work. Mostly I just had to look at a student(s) to catch their attention and let them know I see them off-task. If this warning did nothing and the students continued to be off-task, I took one of their points on class dojo from my iPad. This allowed me work with the small group and monitor the rest of the class, without stopping to take away from instruction. b) In what ways did the strategies engage students and promote a positive learning environment? Cite examples from the video to support your analysis.
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Mathews Elementary School CT: Holly Skipper

Gabrielle Gregorie ETS Task 4

Different classroom management techniques and strategies were used to engage students and promote a positive learning environment. The small group was working with me and never had to be addressed for behavior, off-task, or lack of dedication to their learning. However, the other students were interested in what we were doing and often had to be addressed. The students after the lesson sat down for a class discussion on behavior and respect for other students while they are working. The discussion turned into a very positive strategy to promote student learning throughout the class. Other students who were onlookers to the lesson wanted to read and work on their fluency and comprehension. This turned into a positive way to promote growth and student learning in throughout the class. Student Work: a) Describe two student work samples that resulted from the lesson. The student work samples that are a result of the lesson are writing plans from the students in the independent group. On the following day, students used these plans to begin their writing, and wrap up their study of the text. Both plans are accurate and beneficial to the success of the learning objectives and goals for the lesson. b) Explain how each work sample you selected demonstrates the learning of each student relative to your lessons goal(s) The work samples chosen for this lesson demonstrate the learning of each student relative to the lessons goals. The completed plan of student 1 and 2 will be used to help them reach their final product and master the learning goals that were set for the lesson. c) What feedback did you provide to the two students concerning their responses? How did the feedback improve the students understanding of the content being taught? Feedback was given to students throughout the lesson as their plans were created. If they misspelled, did not use proper spacing, or were not grasping the wanted understanding of the activity, students were redirected without being told they were incorrect. This positive reconstruction of their ideas and understanding improved the students success of the objective being taught. Reflection: a) To what extent did the students reach the learning goal(s)? Cite examples from the lesson plan and/or the video that support your conclusions. The students were able to develop their writing plans to produce high quality writing accurately and efficiently. Some guidance was needed to help them get the feel for the outline of the writing plan, but they took off after getting the hang of it. However, students did run out of time and have to complete their writing the following day, which took away from the final day writing wrap up (day 5).
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Mathews Elementary School CT: Holly Skipper

Gabrielle Gregorie ETS Task 4

b) Reflect on your instructional strategies, interactions with students, and classroommanagement strategies. Discuss what went well and what areas you would revise in the future. Cite examples from the video that support your conclusions. The small-group reading lesson used was ideal to help coach the students through indirect instruction. However, I would revise and adjust the classroom management for the future. It is hard to monitor the class and videotape a small group lesson. More in-depth lessons can be planned for he rest of the students to keep them working and quiet while small-groups read. The group lesson went well, and the students were very interested in making their plan and how the outline was constructed. During the video, evidence of their engagement, quick thought response, and analyzing and reflecting on their reading can be seen throughout the lesson. . c) Describe revisions that you could make if you were to teach the lesson again. Why would you make each revision? Cite examples from the lesson plan, the video, and/or the students work that would prompt the revisions. If I could make revisions to this lesson, I would change the text that was chosen. This was a very interesting book that the kids were engaged in and could practice the reading strategies they have been learning. However, there were 7 chapters in this book, which I feel were a few to many to write chapter summaries about. Overall, the lesson went well and the students were able to benefit from instruction, even though revisions could be made.

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Mathews Elementary School CT: Holly Skipper

Gabrielle Gregorie ETS Task 4

Artifact #2 Lesson Plan Teacher Candidate: Gabrielle Gregorie Lesson #: 5 Subject/Grade: Guided Writing/Grade 1 Date and Time of Lesson: April 4th, 2014 Learning Objective: TSW create a plan to use for guided writing (day 5) on their book A Sticky Business by Joy Cowley, and produce high quality writing reflecting their knowledge of the text and formal writing structure. Alignment with Standards: Common Core State Standards CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.2 Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.1.5 With guidance and support from adults, focus on a topic, respond to questions and suggestions from peers, and add details to strengthen writing as needed. South Carolina Academic Standards (2008) Standard 1-1 Understanding and Using Literary Texts: The student will read and comprehend a variety of literary texts in print and non-print formats. Standard 1-2 The student will read and comprehend a variety of informational texts in print and non-print formats. South Carolina Education and Economic Development Act SECTION 59-59-80. Integrating career awareness programs into curricula for first through fifth grades. Developmental Appropriateness or Cross-curricular connections: The learning goals and objective for this lesson are appropriate and beneficial for students learning. The students have worked on A Sticky Business in small reading groups (3 students) daily, and taken their book home every night for four days prior to the writing lesson (day 5). Students are accustomed to their reading groups and the pattern of reading a book for a few days, writing about it, and staring a new text to improve reading skills. EEDA: A Sticky Business is a great book to incorporate EEDA into the lesson. The section of the act that pertains to the elementary ages is all about career awareness and career awareness activities for 1st 5th grade students. This book has characters that play important roles that have careers of all kinds: Leroys mom- doctor, Mr. Mario- Lion keeper, Emergency responders- policemen, and firefighters. Overall this book can lead to in depth discussion about different career options and why school is important for choosing you desired career. Assessment(s) of the Objectives: Lesson Objective Assessment of the Objective Use of Formative

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Mathews Elementary School CT: Holly Skipper

Gabrielle Gregorie ETS Task 4

TSW create a plan to use for guided writing (day 5) on their book A Sticky Business by Joy Cowley, and produce high quality writing reflecting their knowledge of the text and formal writing structure.

Pre: The attached Transitional/Fluent Guided Reading Lesson Plan (attached) assess the students knowledge and learning throughout days 1 - 4 of their guided reading group time on the text A Sticky Business. Comments, notes, and running records will be taken to assess the students learning towards the objective throughout the week. During: Comments, notes, and the participation and completion of their writing plan will be used to assess the students achievement towards the lesson objective during the writing lesson. Post: Students participation, effort (notes/comments) and final edited writing pieces will be used to assess the their overall learning and connection with the text through writing. The final high quality writing reflects the students knowledge of the text and formal writing structure after the day 5 writing lesson.

Assessment The formative assessment collected from this lesson will be used to assess the overall reading ability of the students. This determines their future text, their progress, and their level of ability (A Sticky Business: level 24).

Accommodations: Students will copy the plan that is modeled for them on the white board. This will help everyone to start off with a solid foundation for writing. Students will be guided to the ideas that are preplanned for the lesson. If they are struggling to get to the answer, I might begin to write the word on the white board to give them a hint of what I am looking for. Students may also be accommodated when giving them the beginning sound of the desired

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Mathews Elementary School CT: Holly Skipper

Gabrielle Gregorie ETS Task 4

word: ex. dis. Answer: discussion (chap. 5). Materials: A Sticky Business by Joy Cowley (set of 4 for guided reading) Pre-planned writing plan for lesson *attached 5 day guided reading lesson plan *attached White board and marker (teachers use only) Students guided reading notebooks and pencil Procedures: 1. Gather students at guided reading table on Day 5 (Wednesday April, 16) for writing chapter summaries. Have students bring their Guided Reading Writing Notebooks (yellow notebook) to the table with them and open up to their first clean writing page. **Set timer for twenty-five minutes. 2. Have students write the date at the top of the page and model how we will begin our writing plan, Ch 1, on the white board as they do the same in their notebooks. Explain the overall goal of our lesson and what they will be doing and set expectations for student behavior and learning. Looking at the table of contents on pg. 1 and pages in their text, the students will generate a structured plan through guidance. Staring with chapter 1, students will think of a keyword(s)/topic about that chapter: bubble gum. Have student copy your plan, writing the keyword directly below the chapter heading, as you write it on the white board. Next, name the characters in this chapter: Leroy Cardno, Mr. Mario. After copying down the characters onto their writing plan below the keyword, it is important to list the setting: sidewalk. To finish off chapter 1, we will think of any other important details included in that chapter: the girls are pet shop. 3. Then move on to chapter 2. Continue this process to complete the plan with chapters 2 - 7(writing plan attached). 4. Once students have completed their plan they will begin to write about A Sticky Business. They will start with chapter 1 and come up with one or two sentences to explain the whole chapter. Since we have our awesome plan, we HAVE to use every word on our plan in our sentence(s). After you use a word, check it off your plan. You are only aloud 1 and in a sentence. If we use and check off every word on our plan and write one or two sentences that explain all the important details of each chapter, we can have great writing about our entire book, A Sticky Business, in 7 14 sentences (a paragraph). Continue this writing process throughout the whole plan, chapters 1 - 7. Move back and forth between students monitoring and guiding them throughout the process. 5. Once students have completed their writing, they will go back and read it using their pencil to point at every word to help catch their mistakes. When writing and final discussion is complete, the group will move on to a new book. **If at any point the timer goes off for twenty-five minute times-up, find a stopping point and students can complete at their desk or finish up the following day before starting a new book.

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Mathews Elementary School CT: Holly Skipper

Gabrielle Gregorie ETS Task 4

References: Cowley, Joy (2002). A Sticky Business. Carlsbad, CA. Dominie Press, Inc. Standards: Common Core State Standards for ELA South Carolina Academic Standards for ELA 2008, State Board of Education South Carolina Education and Economic Development Act 2006

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Mathews Elementary School CT: Holly Skipper

Gabrielle Gregorie ETS Task 4

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Mathews Elementary School CT: Holly Skipper

Gabrielle Gregorie ETS Task 4

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