Stephanie Wright

Critical Task
FEAPS (2): Quality of Instruction
The Learning Environment: To
maintain a student-centered
learning environment that is safe,
organized, equitable, flexible,
inclusive, and collaborative. The
effective educator should
consistently:

FEAPS 2 (a) Organizes, allocates,

and manages the resources of
time, space, and attention;
1. Review what we had learned yesterday. Discuss in your groups that we had
focused on the main character in terms of what she felt, thought and did in
the story. (5 minutes)
2. Explain to the students that today we are going to focus on determining
the theme of the text using details from the plot.
3. I will then model questioning for the students and discuss which types of
questions the students should focus on when determining a theme. This
modeling should only take about 10-15 minutes. The questions will pertain to
the conflict, how she solved the conflict, what was learned from the conflict
and what motivates the character.
4. Explain to the students that in their groups they are going to be working on
gathering evidence to answer the questions. There will be a recorder (writer),
manager (leader and monitor time), theme writer (person who documents the
theme) and encourager (making sure everyone is staying motivated)
INQUIRY STUDENTS WILL BE WRITERS; THEY NEED TO MAKE SURE
EVERY WORD IN SPELLED CORRECTLY.
**Emphasize that ALL team members will be working to find evidence.
** I will go over directions, which will be visually displayed on the power
point.
**I also included a handout with the questions for each table to have and be
able to write on
5. I will then pass out their materials. Each group of students will receive a
paper for collecting their evidence and a poster sized paper for writing their
theme. This should take about (15 minutes).
6. The students will next do a gallery walk in which they will walk around to
all the tables, rotating and seeing the poster themes. The groups will have a
timed quick discussion on exactly what they think that particular groups
theme was about. (12 minutes)
7. After the gallery walk, the students will come back to their seats for whole
group instruction. (12 minutes)
****I changed this to a fishbowl student lead discussion in which the students
will sit in a circle and have a discussion without any teacher assistance.
Students will discuss what they have learned today and what we had noticed
about all the themes?
8. The students will then complete an exit ticket question, which will be
displayed on the power point. (2 minutes)

My artifact was an excerpt from my University

Supervisor Observation. This artifact represents FEAPS 2 (a)
because it shows the management of time. Each activity
being done in the lesson has a specific amount of time
allocated for it. During the lesson a timer was placed on the
board for the students to see, so they also knew how much
time they had as well.

FEAPS 2 (B) Manages individual

and class behaviors through a
wellplanned management
system;

In my classroom I use the behavior chart as a planned

behavior management system. If a student breaks a rule
such as not turning in their homework they would get a
check under the preparation category. The yellow dots
represent coins; the students need three coins to participate
in the end of the month celebration. They receive these
coins by displaying good behavior and not having any check
marks on their behavior folder

FEAPS 2 (C): Conveys high

expectations to all students;

At the beginning of the school year, the students came up

with their own rules that they believe they should follow
about bullying. I felt it was important for the students to
create the rules themselves because it holds them more
accountable for their actions. We then posted the rules on a
poster sheet of paper, and had all the students sign it. I felt
it was important that the students always have a visual of
what high expectations regarding bullying were expected of
them.

FEAPS 2 (D): Respects students

cultural, linguistic and family
background;

Over the summer, our education program interned for

the Boys and Girls club. Among the group of students I was
working with, I had a student who told me that both their
mother and father were deaf. I asked him if he wanted to
make his newspaper article about that. When he agreed, I
helped him write a paragraph about his parents as well as
how he would like to teach others sign language as well.

FEAPS 2 (E): Models clear,

acceptable oral and written
communication skills;
Directions:

In your groups you are going to work on gathering

evidence to answer these questions.
What is the conflict that the character faces?
What important decisions does the character
make to solve the conflict?
How is the character motivated?
What does the character character learn from
the conflict?
Recorder: Will write down the text evidence that the
group will find.
Manager: Will lead and monitor the time.
Theme Writer: Will write the groups theme on the
poster paper.
Encourager: Will motivate team members and
encourage them to stay on task.
**ALL GROUP MEMBERS WILL HELP FIND
EVIDENCE
This is an excerpt from a power point that was
displayed on the board during my lesson. I went over
the directions with my class and had them repeat back
to me what each person, in each position, was expected
to do. I felt it was important to have a clear visual
display for the students to see. I also passed out a piece
of paper with these directions on it for the groups to
have at their desk.

FEAPS 2 (F): Maintains a

climate of openness, inquiry,
fairness and support;

In these artifacts, I gave my students the safe and organized

freedom to create an example of some form of nature. In the

top picture, the students created a tree and in the bottom

picture the students created a wave. The environment of the
classroom was very open, so long as they were presenting
an element of nature they were aloud to explore with any
resources of their choice.

FEAPS 2 (G): Integrates current

information and communication
technologies;

In our classroom, we enjoy using technology to be able

to give students brain breaks. At times in fifth grade, the
students could be working for two hours straight on reading,
writing, science or math. I think it is important as well to use
our current technologies to allow for blood flow in the
students brains and bodies. I use the Internet (or youtube) to
find proper videos that allow for the students to move
around. I then hook the ELMO projection system up to my
computer, and then display it on the board for the students
to be able to see. At the end of each brain break video, I
have the students communicate on a slip of paper their
opinion if the video was effective for them or not and in
which ways it was or was not.

FEAPS 2 (H): Adapts the learning

environment to accommodate
the differing needs

At the beginning of the school year, I decided that my inquiry

would be spelling. I chose a group of six students who truly
struggled with spelling and worked out a system in which I

could sit down for them for fifteen minutes each day of my
internship. I would present them with new words, have them
do activities and then they would take a spelling test on that
Friday. In setting aside the fifteen minutes of time for my
students, I was able to adapt the learning environment to
best meet and accommodate their needs.

FEAPS 2 (I): Utilizes current and

emerging assistive technologies
that enable students to participate
in highquality communication
interactions and achieve their
educational goals.

My fifth grade students went to JA Biztown to essentially learn how to

work in the real world. A big aspect of that was the newspaper that
the students themselves had created. Two weeks prior to the field trip,
the students had to pick their topic and submit their articles to the JA
Biztown website. To do this, each student had to use a laptop, log onto

the website and submit their article. Without the use of the emerging
assistive technology, or the laptops, the students would not have been
able to submit their articles and the newspaper couldnt have been
created. This was also a way for students to communicate with one
another because not only were some students writing their articles
together but they were also submitting their articles to other students
at different schools who were in charge of the newspaper. It was an
interesting and fun way for the students to use technology to
participate in these interactions.