Haley Wilson TWS #1 Contextual Factors Spring 2014 Classroom Factors: Physical Features of the school: Ninety-Six Primary

is a welcoming school, with teachers greeting students as they arrive in the morning. Beyond the main office building is a building that contains both second and first grade. The first hallway in the main building holds second grade, while he second hallway contains the entire first grade with one K-4 classroom. Kindergarten is housed in a separate building. Some of Ninety-Sixs facilities include the gymnasium, art classrooms, computer classroom, a library, and a lunchroom. Learning environment: Mrs. Shealys first grade classroom is a bit nosier than any other first grade classroom on the hall. The classroom is composed of twenty-four students. You can tell the students feel comfortable in the environment, because they all interact openly with each other. There is one student in the class who was moved from another school because of students picking on him for his speech problem. He fits in perfectly with Mrs. Shealys class, as no one has ever said anything to him about the way he talks. The students all get along and are happy to see each other in the mornings. Theyre like a little community of six and seven year olds. Classroom Arrangement: As you walk into the classroom, there is a teachers table in the front. Also, the colored block rug sits in front of the whiteboard where the class calendar, days of the week, color words, and the behavior chart is. On the wall opposite of the door there is the smart board that students can come and sit in front of while watching an educational clip, or listening to a book being read to them. The students desks face the white board, and are broken up into groups. Group one is on the wall that the door is on. Group two faces the white board and the front of the classroom, with group three and four directly behind another. There are racks directly behind group fours desk that allow places for students to put their book bags and jackets. The teachers desk is found beside group fours desk, towards the back right corner of the classroom. There is one student that sits by himself at the wall near smart board. Hooks Teachers Desk SmartBoard Sink Door White Board

Resources: Resources for Mrs. Shealys class include a Smart Board, and an abundance of workbooks. The students use worksheets in almost every lesson that is taught throughout the day, as well as reading books that they use for homework every night. They also have daily reading books that Mrs. Shealy displays on the Smart Board. She asks them to read their stories off the board, although, if students want to get out their individual book, they can. In the classroom there is also a library that students can pull books from. Resources that are also available for Mrs. Shealys class include a speech teacher and a resource teacher. Some kids also get pulled out for dental work. Equipment: The equipment that is available to the teacher is a copier and a laminator. Some other equipment would include cleaning equipment like vacuum and a mop. Availability of Technology: The only form of technology in the classroom is the smart board and the teachers computer. The students do not have computers in the classroom that they can do work on. The students do get to go to computer every Monday, allowing them time to work with technology. Parent Involvement: In Mrs. Shealys classroom, there is not a lot of parent involvement. She has had one grandmother ask if she can help with parties. Many parents pack their students lunch, so one can assume there is parental support at home. Mrs. Shealy says that folders are normally always signed and papers are returned with signatures. Parents seem to support in more of a home setting than coming into the schools. Classroom Rules: Classroom rule found in Mrs. Shealys class are rules like you would find in any other first grade classroom. Rules such as if, you wish to speak, you must raise your hand and wait to be called on. One other rule is that you are not to get out of your seat with out asking for permission. Rules such as not talking in the hall way and walking on the sliver line are rules that are school wide. Although, like many of first grade classrooms, Mrs. Shealy does not have her classroom rules hanging any where in the room. The children know her expectations and know that they must raise their hand and not to get up out of their seat without permission. Routines and Scheduling: The routine for Mrs. Shealys first grade class is to come in during the morning at 8:15 and work on a math worksheet until 8:30, while the teacher gets the lunch count and takes attendance. At 8:30, the students leave for activity until 9:20. When the students get back from activity, they start their lessons for the day. Normally they will do English language arts, then transition into their guided reading for that day. The teacher has a program online that will read the children their story for that day. If they finish before lunchtime, then the teacher allows them to use Tumble books, a program that read them

stories off the smart board. At 11:25, the class goes to lunch, and returns to the classroom before twelve. In the afternoon, they work on their math worksheets for that day. On Mondays, they have an extra PE, so after math, they will go to PE. At two oclock, they begin packing up, and also cover what social studies and science they are going to cover for the day. At three oclock, 96 Primary dismisses for the day and the children go home. Grouping Patterns: Students in Mrs. Shealys class are not grouped in any particular order while at their desk. Although the desk rows are called groups, with there being four groups of desk. The students are grouped by ability level when pulled out for reading groups. Students Demographics and characteristics: There are twenty-four students in Mrs. Shealys first grade class, evenly distributed with twelve boys and twelve girls. There is only one student who has an IEP, and one student who is in the process of getting tested. There are four students who are considered to have a high achievement level, while two are considered to have a really low achievement level. The other eighteen students are considered to be average in achievement. All students speak English as their native language. The students come from ninety-six, which is a small community. The students in Mrs. Shealys class are most interested in activity classes and Tumble books. Tumble books is an online program that is shown over the smart board. Tumble books allow the teacher to pick a book and the computer will read the book to the students. The students seem to learn best when they have time to complete an assignment on there on. Most of their work comes from a workbook, so they are doing a large number of worksheets. Students like to follow along with the teacher, but a lot of students like to do the work sheet at their own pace. The three students I am following for this semester consistently score in their range. One of the students is in the lower category when it comes to scores, and she scores consistently low on everything. The students who are middle and high are very consistent as well. Learning styles vary in between these students, but they should as each child learns differently. The student who is my high student always seems to not need the teachers help, and wants to finish her worksheet before everyone else. She is quick to raise her hand to answer a question, and quick to hide her paper from the person sitting beside her. The two students who are the average and low performers are completely different. Theyre the students who are trying to look on the paper next to them and do not want to be called on. They are normally falling behind on their work, and prefer to work at their own pace.

Description Number of Students: Age Six years old Seven years old African-American White Latino

Female Male 12 12

Total 24

24 5 7 0 2 2 10 0 3 7 17 0 5

Race/ethnicity

Special needs/ IEP

Testing: To determine what skill level students are on in my classroom Mrs. Shealy used Map testing. The students use to test three times a year on Maps but the school stopped using Map testing this year. For reading levels they use Developmental Reading Assessment to test the students. Mrs. Shealy said she had tested the students at the beginning of the year but has not completed a testing here recently. Instructional Implication: From the contextual information that I have observed in Mrs. Shealys class, I would not try to teach a lesson while having the students just sit around. Since this class is very talkative and needs to get up and move around, I would have my students move during lessons, and I would also have time for them to either turn and talk to a partner or to raise their hand and talk during a lesson. Also, another thing I have noticed is that the classroom dose not have technology available for the kids to use on demand. So if I were to plan a lesson that need to use technology, then I would have to reserve a time in the computer lab. Using the technology in the classroom would not be an option for my class.