TWS version 4 Q4 2012. 2 Principales nouveautés Architecture Nouveautés TWS.
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POLARIS ELEMENTARY BY: KATHLEEN ANDERSON Teacher Work Sample Lite:
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Mini Teacher Work Sample assignment for Observation Class with Dr. Howard
Transcript of Tws presentation
POLARIS ELEMENTARY BY: KATHLEEN ANDERSON
Teacher Work Sample Lite:
TWS PRESENTATION:
Community1. Isolated, Ranching Community
School1.Extremely small school.
2. Four different grades in the same classroom sharing one teacher.
Class1.One student in each of four classes.
2. all classes are in the same room.
3. one teacher for all classes.
Kathleen Anderson
1. Contextual factors that may have influenced the school and students where I implemented the lesson I am presenting. such things as:the school is in an area more than 30 miles from Dillon. It is isolated, on a secondary, scenic highway, not a main route to anywhere, except a small ski area. The community is mostly made up of traditional, ranching families.The school is one room with one teacher and it is set up to educate children from Kindergarten through the eighth grade. This school year of 2012/13 there are four students; one each in grades 1, 2, 3, and 7. There are two boys and two girls, who are part of two local families, one ranching and one not. One boy and one girl in each family.There is little or no ethnic diversity in this area. The town of Dillon has some ethnic diversity due to the Mexican-American population and a very few African-American students attending the University of Montana, Western.
The people
are very rural
minded with
limited world
awareness.
Very small budget for schoolboard to use
when buying
books and maintaining the school
.Integrating many or all subjects into most units with variations
for the different grade levels helps to
create an exciting learning
environment.
Students must be able to work independently
or must learn to do so quickly.
When the teacher is
working with one or more of
the other students, the
students working on
assignments must stay on
task & not allow themselves to
become distracted.
Kathleen Anderson
The majority of the people in the Polaris community have a limited world awareness.The school board has a small budget with which to buy books, pay a teacher and maintain the school. That fact translates into textbooks that are mostly 10 or more years old.I found that by integrating most or all subjects, with adaptations for the different grade levels and utilizing the internet for information, lesson plans and interactive websites helped me to create a more exciting learning invironment.Even with the various subjects all integrated into each unit of study, there are still times when the different grade levels need to be taught a specific principal or skill. That means the other students in the other grades must be able to work independently, staying focused on their work and not be distracted by the teaching that is going on at the main table.
Step 2: Instructional Objective(s) Language Arts unit on the story by, Jeanette Winter, Follow the Drinking Gourd (McGraw-Hill, 2001).
Given the results of the pre-test and the reading of the story “Follow the Drinking Gourd” and reading/exploring the Smithsonian History interactive website on the “slave life and the Underground Railroad” page, students will practice the visualization of life as a slave and what it might have been like to runaway and follow the Underground Railroad, with evidence by completing a grade-level-specific writing assignment that earns at least a satisfactory and achieving at least an 80% as measured by completing the posttest.
Given the story “Follow the Drinking Gourd” and the “slave life and the Underground Railroad page on the Smithsonian History website, students will visualize life as a slave and what it was like to run away; also what it was like to be a part of the Underground Railroad with evidence by writing an essay from the view point of a slave, conductor or safe-house owner on the Underground Railroad as measured by the writing standards for each grade level and for the 1st grade: it will be at least 3 good sentences, 2nd grade: will be three good paragraphs, 3rd grade: 3 good paragraphs of 5 to 7 lines each, 7th grade: at least 3 good paragraphs that consist of: introduction, body and conclusion .
INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES
Kathleen Anderson
For each unit I needed to develop four lesson plans with objectives directed to the four different grades the students were in. In most cases the activities could be the same or nearly so, just the outcome or depth of knowledge level each student was expected to acheive would be different. The unit I developed had as its centerpiece the book by Jeanette Winter, "Follow the Drinking Gourd," which happened to be the next selection in the 7th grade boy's literature textbook.All four students are good readers, at least three of the four appear to be above grade level in their reading ability.So given the results of the pre-test, which I administered the second day I was there, the reading of the story, "Follow the Drinking Gourd" and reading and exploring the Smithsonian History Explorer and interactive websites linked to it, students were to practice visualization of life as a slave and what it might have been like to runaway following the guidance of the Underground Railroad; with evidence by completing a grade-level-specific writing assignment that earns at least a "Satisfactory" and acheiving at least an 80% when they complete the posttest.In addition to that they will have a second writing assignment with the objective, Given the story "Follow the Drinking Gourd and the "slave life and the Underground Railroad page on the Smithsonian History Explorer website, the students with visualize life as a slave and what it was like to be a part of the Underground Railroad, with evidence by writing an essay from the view point of a slave, conductor or safe-house owner on the Underground Railroad; as measured by the writing standards for each grade level at an 80% acheivement level.
Montana State Common Core Standard(s)
Key Ideas and Details
Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
Craft and Structure 4. Interpret words and phrases as
they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
7. Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.*
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
10. Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.
Kathleen Anderson
Some the specific adaptations for each grade level included: the first grade essay needed to be at least 3 good sentences written in the form of a letter from a slave to a friend, the second grade essay would be at least three good paragraphs of three to five sentences each from the perspective of a conductor for the Underground Railroad, Third grade needed to write an essay of at least three paragraphs, of five to seven sentences each from the perspective of a safe-house owner. Each of the second and third grade essays must answer the questions, who am I and why or how do I do what I do in regard to my connection to the Underground Railroad. The seventh grade essay needed to be three paragraphs of five to seven sentences each, in the form of Introduction, Body and Conclussion with sources sited, about Indentured servants, why they became one and where they mostly came from. The Montana common core standards included grade specific standards for reading comprehension and writing skills.
Montana State Common Core Standard(s)
English language progressive skills for writing: for grades 1, 2, 3 and 7
FOR WRITING con’t: Demonstrate command of the conventions
of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
L.3.1f. Ensure subject-verb and pronoun-antecedent agreement.
L.3.3a. Choose words and phrases for effect.
L.7.1c. Place phrases and clauses within a sentence, recognizing and correcting misplaced and dangling modifiers.
L.7.3a. Choose language that expresses ideas precisely and concisely, recognizing and eliminating wordiness and redundancy
With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on how well purpose and audience have been addressed
Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1–3 above.)
PRE & POSTTEST
Pretest / Posttest
a specific test will be written for
each grade level in which there are
students
1st Grade test will be 10 multiple
choice questions
2nd Grade test will be 14 short
answer questions
7th Grade test will be 20 short
answer questions
3rd Grade test will be 16 short
answer questions
Kathleen Anderson
While the main assessment for the unit was the Posttest, I used the writing assignments as probes to guage the students understanding of the material. Other activities included in the unit that addressed other subject areas included: a science lesson that involved a project to develop a graphic organizer in the form of a patchwork "cathedral window" quilt piece and mini information booklet titled "what are stars" this science lesson included a virtual tour of the night sky at the general latitude for Polaris with information and explainations of the various constellations and what their position is at various times throughout the night. Their final activity was to locate the big dipper and the North Star in the night sky and report what they saw and how they found it the next day at school.
Read the story Follow the Drinking Gourd
each student reading in turn, with help as
needed
Read aloud at the green table each
student taking turns with discussion about
the story intermittently throughout
discuss the constellations, "big &
little dippers" & how to find the North Star, how
it was used & why
Students will develop questions before
reading the story and discuss them after the
story.
students will look for the Big & Little Dipper
on the first clear evening & give a brief report the next day in
school.
Kathleen Anderson
Geography and Social Studies were adressed by exploring the use of latitude and longitude as boundaries for states, regions, countries and even hemispheres. Explore the use of other natural boundaries such as rivers, mountains and climate to establish regions. The students studied the use of code to spread the information necessary for the slaves to find their way north. They explored the use of meteorological events used as code and trail markings that could only be understood by those who knew the code.The animated movie, "Harriet Tubman" and the interactive internet website, "Mission USA" were both used to help the students understand the hardships the slaves endured and the importance of the issues that were behind the events of that time in the history of the United States.
writing an essay from the view point of a slave, conductor or safe-house owner on the Underground
Railroad as measured by the writing standards for each grade
level.
Each grade will have a grade-specific set of requirements for writing a poem or letter written
from the view point of a runaway slave.
PROBES
Kathleen Anderson
Following the completion of the first writing assignment it became appearent that the students were not up to grade level in regard to the state common core standards for writing. So, with that in mind there were several more assignments added to what the students were doing from a set of standards that were a lower grade-level and a more basic form of writing. I introduced the students to several different forms of graphic orgaizers, as well as ways to develop questions to help with prewrites and for developing outlines for organizing information so it is easier to use when writing a first draft of an essay.
Adaptations made based upon observations
Two of the students really struggled with both writing assignments. They both required a tremendous amount of help and the assignments took several days longer than planned. So I added additional writing assignments to the next Language Arts unit that was closely associated with the slavery and Underground Railroad issues being an informational story about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his famous speech “I have a dream.” Although we are using the information from the MLK story, I have incorporated two lessons on basic writing skills. The lessons include teaching the use of graphic organizers both printed for paper and pencil use; as well as internet website, educational, interactive, graphic organizers that include imbedded coaching tools.
Student 1 gain ___70%__ . ______________
__pretest score 10%: posttest score 80%:____
Student 2 gain _49%__ _______
_______pretest score 21%: posttest score 71%_
Student 3 gain 44% _ ______
_______pretest score 44%: posttest score 88%_
Student 4 gain _10%____
_______pretest score 80%: posttest score 90%__
Kathleen Anderson
Following the administration of the posttest it appeared that the students comprehended and retained much of the historical information that was included in the story. They also comprehended much of the information and skills studied as part of the additional lesson plans, especially the science lesson that included the planetariam websites with actual views of the night sky.I did not have enough students to include an annalysis of multiple test scores at the same grade-level for pre and posttest, actual gain and a mean of the scores, but the students individual scores for the pre and posttest showed a substantial gain for three of the four students.
Analysis of the results:Student Name Column1 pretest Column3 posttest Column5 GAIN
student student#1 10% 80% 70%
Student#2 21% 71% 50%
Student#3 44% 88% 44%
Student#4 80% 90% 10%
Series1
Posttest
Series90
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
0 010% 21%
44%
80%
0 0
80%71%
88% 90%
0 0
70%
50%44%
10%
Pre/Posttest Scores
Series1
Pretest
Posttest
Gain
Series9
0
0.5
1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
PRE/POSTTEST SCORES AND TOTAL GAIN
Student Name pretest posttest GAIN
00.10.20.30.40.50.60.70.80.9
1
student#1 Student#2 Student#3 Student#4
Axi
s Ti
tle
Axis Title
Chart Title
Column1
pretest
Column3
posttest
Kathleen Anderson
The actual paper and pencil test was in fact four different tests with questions designed to measure the comprehension and retention of the main facts, ideas and issues within the story as told in actual statements or historical events as they happened or ideas, beliefs and issues that were inferred through situations throughout the stories. The four test were written for the four different grade levels, the first grade test was ten multiple choice questions, second grade was fourteen short answer questions, third grade was sixteen short answer and seventh grade was twenty short answer questions. Many of the questions were the same on all four tests; however the answers required were more exact and presise with each higher grade-level.In retrospect I should have used some multiple choice for the second and third graders with some short answer questions as well, but the short answer should have required that the answer be in a complete sentence. The seventh grade test should have required complete sentences for the short answer questions and at least one essay question that required some level of explanation or descriiption.
REFLECTION
Most effective strategies:
Least effective strategies:
1. What activities worked best
The science lesson connected to the first story and the activities that went with it seemed to make the biggest impression on the students. In regard to their comprehension and retention of the story details they seemed to remember most of the details related to the stars and constellations. They really enjoyed the websites online that showed the night sky and location of the various constellations at different times during the night. By using the science websites with good graphics of the constellation placement, the students were able to go home and find the Big Dipper without too much difficulty and then from that find the North Star.
2. What activities did not work as well
The first two writing activities did not work the way I intended for them to work. The students did not seem to be at their grade levels, in terms of skills and ability compared to the Montana core standards for writing. Not even one of them seem to be even close to proficient for their grade level. My intention was for the writing assignment to help them with understanding how difficult a slaves life was and then to have that understanding help them to understand that the African-American’s life was not that much better when Martin Luther King became a leader. However, writing was such a struggle, all of their attention was on the mechanics of the assignment.
Kathleen Anderson
The most effective strategy used for this unit was that of incorporating the science lesson and the study of the constellations. The interactive planetarium websites were a big hit with all four students. While the least effective was the first two writing activities. The two students that struggled with those the most really didn't seem to gain anything in terms of understanding or even retention. The writing exercise was such a struggle their whole focus was on the mechanics of the exercise and not the information they were working with.
REFLECTION con’t.
Relationships between skill & execution …
Future actions to increase effectiveness …
Relationship between teacher, skill/execution and outcomes:
I don’t know if my skill was part of the reason for the students’ inability to understand the life-long struggle of a slave and then to transfer that understanding to the life of an African-American or if it had more to do with students’ isolated living conditions. I could have planned other activities to help the students with those concepts other than the writing activities. For sure, if I had been around the students previously I would probably have known about their lack of writing ability.
Professional development activities to improve :
Substituting at any of the elementary schools in the area would be a good professional development activity for me; as well as, finding professional development opportunities online, in webinar form. I receive three journals online from national teaching organizations that have great articles I can read on a variety of teaching topics and I need to join at least one teaching association that has a sub-group for students and/or student teachers. I did belong to such an association when I was going to school in Kentucky and that group had “Pre-professional Development” opportunities available to and for students every month; in addition I received a monthly publication that was written specifically for first year teachers. I kept all of the issues I received so I can reread them and also refer to them in the future as needed.
Kathleen Anderson
Future actions to increase my effectiveness would include things like using more quickwrite activities so the students get writing experience they can learn from on a daily basis or nearly so. Also, any substitue teaching I can do during the time I am finishing my classes and before I do my student teaching will increase my ability and confidence which will help to increase my effectiveness.
Future plans to improve lessons
If I teach this lesson again I will use additional stories about slave life, in addition to the Harriet Tubman story. I will also be sure of the writing skills of the students before I assign any writing activities to be sure the assignment is a better match for the students’ abilities and not so far above what they have previously completed. I could possibly use a “How To” writing assignment instead of something more inline with essay writing. If it is acceptable, there are several movies with the proper rating, for elementary children that show the life style and struggles of African-Americans during the time that MLK was alive. The students may be able to identify with the characters in a movie better than those in a book when it comes to understanding things they have not witnessed within the world they are familiar with. I would also like to find an activity that includes some role play I could use to engage the students and get them to really think about how they would feel in that type of situation.
TO CONCLUDE:
Kathleen Anderson
My plan for professional development includes, joining at least one teacher association with membership options that address the teacher candidate and the first year teacher as well as the experienced teacher. I have recently subscribed to several online education journals and I have joined the Thinkfinity group.Thinkfinity is an orgaization developed by the Verizon corp. for teachers, administrators, home schoolers and parents. In addition to the thousands of free lesson plas available for use they provide professional development opportunities online in the form of monthly webinars on a wide variety of topics that are pertinient to current issues teachers are faced with.
