Running head: STANDARD 1

Teacher Work Sample Standard 1: Contextual Information Jennifer Morris October 13, 2013 Sue Dunning

Running head: STANDARD 1 Teacher Work Sample Standard 1: Contextual Information Community, District, and School Factors Naples Elementary School (NES) is located in the region of Naples, Italy. The schools

location is on the Naples Griciagno Support Site where the base housing, hospital, and shopping centers are located. NESs purpose is to provide the military families overseas with quality education. The school services active duty members, government employees, civil servants, and NATO affiliates. The elementary schools enrollment carries between 825 840 students. The American community is welcomed locally. There are often requests to participate in a form of exchange-program with another local school. This would allow the Italian community students to witness the American school, education system, and culture and the American students would be able to do the same. The ease of services has a noticeable difference than from a school in the United States. The power grid may have problems handling power; the Internet is not a reliable source. There is also the practice of safety. Being that the school educates students of military and American association, the students practice drills in bomb or terrorist threats in case one such may occur. Classroom Factors The classroom in which I am student teaching is co-taught with another 2nd grade teacher. The purpose of the classroom is to meet the needs, and prepare them for their future - the jobs that do not exist yet through 21st century teaching and learning. This style of teaching is student-centered learning, where the teacher lets the students guide the teaching (teaching for a practical and purposeful gain) rather than the old method of teaching to the student (memorization of information for learning purposes only). Access to technology is a high priority

Running head: STANDARD 1 for teachers because they want students have knowledgeable use of what their world revolves

around, what their world is currently using, and what more the future may hold. The SmartBoard is mounted at a height reachable for all students. There are computers around the room, with the logins posted on a whiteboard for easy viewing. An Elmo is in the room for demonstration of books or work sheets. Because the classroom is a student driven class, the teachers strive to have the students formulate his or her ideas into plans such as classroom government, newspaper articles, or Fun Friday. The teacher gives the students the space, tools, and location to be creative and successful. The use of the computer lab is made available for large group instruction, safe Internet uses, math practice online, or reading comprehension work. NES, through a publisher, allowed access to certain schoolbooks and references over the Internet. Pearson is one such company, and the teachers make use of this service by having the students complete tests or assessments on the computer for instant results and understanding of needs. Many of these sites are also available to the students on their home personal computer. Student Characteristics The students in the classroom are of a military affiliation whether it be of active duty, retired, civilian, or government service members. The economic diversity is not as apparent as it would be in a stateside school as most families shop at the base store and therefore equally have styled clothing. The diversity in the home life has a noticeable impact in the classroom. Parents deploy or travel at frequent rates in the community and students' emotions often rotate with the changes. The changing deployments also change households from dual parents to single parents overnight. There is a language difference in one student who joined the class from Canada whose first language is French, and there are also two bilingual students (English-Italian), and one girl who speaks Greek at home. The most obstacles are noticed with the boy who speaks French, as he

Running head: STANDARD 1

does not yet understand the entire common "phrases" that we as teachers use, such as crisscrossapplesauce or put a bubble in your mouth. His other noted struggle is in the English pronunciation of words while reading. The bilingual students have been spoken to in both English and Italian or Greek since birth both in and out of the home. An implementation of a 504 (legal document stating diagnosis) is only in place for one student needing accommodations for attention. Although there is only one student with noted modifications, my CT and I have discussed how we will take notes on other students noticeable behaviors or learning styles to note patterns and ways for differentiating the learning environment for students to be successful. The students work well together. Many mingle among different students when participating in different projects or assignments. My CT has encouraged this with the elimination of desks, placing tables around the room. Students are not "assigned" a place to work; they choose a place, carpet or table, as long as they can accomplish the work. Concerns over a particular student are not in the forefront currently, my state is more at a curiosity. Do the parents pay attention at home? Do parents help with homework? Is the student capable or just not engaging? Implications for Instructional Planning and Assessment The instructional method, in place within the classroom, utilizes the model of a 21st century classroom. My CT has incorporated proven skills learned from the book Daily 5 into the routine. This style utilizes the mini-lesson with a release method. The accomplishment of this method allows the students the freedom of choice for activities within the learning parameter. In turn allowing the interest to keep flowing if you like what you are doing, you will keep doing it. My implementation will need to follow the same steps. I will need to model what I want the students to do, not tell them. I will need to allow them time to build up the stamina to complete an entire

Running head: STANDARD 1

lesson on their own. Completing an I chart with the students enables them to come up with the reasons why they will be performing the WTW activity and what they should be doing during the Word Work block. On the other side, the student will be able to voice what the teacher will be doing. Students do not know instinctively what to do, rather they need to be shown the correct way and practice it until it becomes a habit to them. Unit Topic My choice of unit to teach was that of spelling. A few of the classroom teachers had begun using the spelling program Words Their Way for their instructional unit. My classroom cooperative teacher had made the decision to begin this same program at the beginning of the 2012 2013 school year. Over the summer, I ordered the Words Their Way 4th Edition Instruction (WTW) manual to familiarize myself with the program. The spelling concept promotes the teaching of words at the level of need of the student. The program correlates spelling into a classroom routine that function with mini-lessons such as the use of Daily 5.