The Level II Teacher Work Sample



 

The Level 2 Teacher Work Sample

of

[Myah Steward]

Completed at Malcolm Price Laboratory School

University of Northern Iowa

Level 2 of the UNI Teacher Education Professional Sequence

200:148 Learning and Instruction in Classroom Contexts

200:128 Teacher as Change Agent  

Subject Area: Language Arts

Grade Level: 6th

Lesson Title(s):

PLS Mentor Teacher's Name: Julie Creeden

200:128/200:148 Professor’s Name: Joram

200:148 Section # or Day and Time of Your Class: TTH 11:00

Session:   __A     X B     __C                        

Semester: X Fall     __Spring     __May Year: 2011

Permission for Future Use of this Work Sample

Please check one option below and sign on the signature line:

___I DO give my permission for my teacher work sample to be used as an example for the benefit of teacher education and future student teachers. I understand that my teacher work sample or excerpts from my teacher work samples may be posted on a website, presented at a conference, or appear as part of a written publication

___I DO NOT give my permission for my teacher work sample to be used as an example for the benefit of teacher education and future student teachers. My teacher work sample or excerpts from my teacher work samples will NOT be posted on a website, presented at a conference, or appear as part of a written publication

 

Student Signature:   ___________________________________________

 

General Writing/Formatting Instructions: Use a 12-point font throughout, with one-inch page margins. Write in full sentences. Plan to revise your TWS report at least a couple of times so that your writing quality is up to the expected standard. In general, responses that are well thought out and succinctly worded are preferable to long, rambling responses that do not properly address the prompt.

Section 1: Planning Your Lesson

Contextual Factors

TCWS Standard

•The teacher candidate uses information about the learning-teaching context and student individual differences to set learning goals, design instruction and plan assessment. Please note that in the student teaching TWS, you will describe the community, district, and school factors; in this case, we have provided this information for you.

Community, district and school factors: Malcolm Price Laboratory School (MPLS) is the Research and Development school for the state of Iowa as well as a unit within the University of Northern Iowa, located in a northeastern Iowa city of approximately 35,000. Its mission is to improve the teaching and learning of Iowa students and to serve as a resource for pre-service through career educators by helping these individual grow in professional competence through collaborative inquiry and exchange of professional knowledge. It is a school that serves about 370 students of low to high socioeconomic status in grades from Nursery/Kindergarten to grade twelve and is a field experience site for more than 1200 UNI students each year. About 20% of the MPLS student population is made up of African American, Pacific Islander, Asian and Hispanic students and about 12% qualify for free and reduced lunch. PLS also houses the UNI Child Development Center, which serves students from birth to age 5. Almost all of students at MPLS are open-enrolled from other school districts and are thus attending MPLS by choice.

Price Lab School has school-wide citizenship (PK-5) program and an advisory (grades 6-12) programs based on Steven Covey’s Leader in Me , and the Institute for Excellence & Ethics’ Power2Achieve curricula . Pedagogy initiatives include Partnerships in Comprehensive Literacy (), using technology to transform teaching and learning (e.g. the 1:1 mobile computer initiative: ), and competency-based teaching and learning.

How These Factors May Impact My Lessons: Explain one way that these community, district, and school-wide factors may impact your lesson topics, teaching strategies, assessment techniques, etc.

|One factor that may impact my lesson is the use of the 7 habits of highly effective people throughout the school, and more |

|importantly, the classroom. I believe that this will impact my lesson in a positive way. The technique that I will be able to use |

|in the classroom is the language that Mrs. Creeden uses when she is conducting a lesson. She says things like “Thank you for being |

|proactive!” and “Way to put first things first.” These statements go along with the 7 habits of highly effective people. I think |

|that using these statements and others like it will positively impact my lesson because the students can feel more comfortable with|

|me if I am using language that they are used to. |

Characteristic of the Class: Describe how one characteristic you observed in the students of this class (e.g., gender, race/ethnicity, interests, student skill levels, etc.) might impact the way you instruct them. Please describe patterns you observe for multiple students or student groups and not those of an individual student unless the needs of an individual student would have the greatest impact on your teaching.

|A characteristic of the class that I am going to focus on is all of the different learning styles that are present in the |

|classroom. There are four students that have IEP’s in the classroom and need individual attention and there are students who are |

|way above their grade level. |

How This Characteristic Will Impact my Lessons: Give a specific instructional implication related to the characteristic of the class that you think will influence how you plan and implement your instruction.

|These characteristics will impact my lesson because while teaching my lesson I will have to meet that needs of all of the kids on |

|all ends of the spectrum. For the children with IEP’s I will need to accommodate my lesson so that they are able to participate in |

|it as well; but not make it easier. An example would be reading a quiz to someone who has trouble. The students on the other end |

|have needs that need to be met as well. Some ways to do this are posing open ended questions and project for these kids to answer, |

|but they need to be very structured as well. This will impact my lesson because since I am just one person I will need to make my |

|lesson so that it is group based and interactive so that I can spread my attention to all of the students. Another way this will |

|impact my lesson is the way I write my lesson. I need to be sure to have a lot of questions to foster everyone’s learning abilities|

|and styles. |

Physical Aspect of the Classroom: Describe how one physical aspect of the classroom you observed (e.g., posters, desk arrangement, technology) might impact the way you instruct them.

|One physical aspect of the classroom that I observed that will impact my lesson is the way that the desks are arranged. |

How This Physical Aspect of the Classroom Will Impact My Lessons: Give a specific instructional implication related to the physical characteristic that you think will influence how you plan and implement your instruction.

|This physical characteristic of the classroom will affect my lesson because the way that the desks are arranged determine, I think,|

|how well the students pay attention when you are talking and how much they participate. The desks form a ‘U’ shape in the |

|classroom, this promotes discussion in the classroom and I also think that it helps the kids participate. During my lesson I will |

|be able to see all of the students at once and know if they are paying attention or not. |

Design for Instruction

TCWS Standards

•The teacher candidate designs instruction for specific learning goals, individual student characteristics, and learning contexts.

•The teacher sets significant, challenging, varied and appropriate Learning Goals.

•The teacher candidate will recognize that there are multiple assessment approaches that must be aligned with Learning Goals to assess student learning before, during and after instruction. An attempt is made by the teacher candidate to design student assessments.

Lesson 1 Topic Title: Small group discussion

Lesson 1 Learning Goals: Define what you expect students to know and be able to do at the end of the lesson. The learning goals should be specific, observable, challenging and varied. Learning goals should describe what your students will learn and be able to do by the end of the lesson, and not simply what activities they will do during the lesson.

|Learning Goal 1: During a small group discussion, the sixth grade students will demonstrate their knowledge of main ideas by |

|generating a list of events from certain chapters in “Hatchet”, with 2-3 main events from each chapter. They will also demonstrate |

|their ability to place these events in sequential order with 100% accuracy. |

Alignment of Learning Goals to State or National Curriculum Standards: Describe how your learning goals align with the Iowa Core Curriculum and/or National Standards for your content area. Identify the general subject area, grade level, and one or more specific standards in your response. The Iowa Core Curriculum can be found at:

|Standard for Learning Goal 1: Students can comprehend what they read in a variety of literary and informational texts. |

|Students can understand stated information they have read. |

Justification of Learning Goals: Explain how your learning goals are relevant, challenging, and appropriate. Consider their importance relative to previous and succeeding topics covered in the class, the students’ future in the class and school, and to skills needed for success in the 21st century world.

|The learning goal that I chose for this lesson was relevant because it came right off of the Iowa Core Curriculum website. The |

|learning goal also presents a doable yet challenging task for the students to complete. |

Assessment Plan: Describe your plan for assessing your learning goals.

|Type of Assessments |Assessment Sample Size |

|Below, describe the method/s to check on student progress. |Below, list your assessment sample size. An assessment sample |

|Consider these approaches: |refers to the amount of student work you will assess. Teachers |

|selected response, e.g. multiple choice, matching, |often make inferences about student learning based on a sample |

|fill-in the blank questions |of only a few students’ work. Examples of assessment samples |

|writing assessment, e.g. essays, essay questions, journaling |would include choral responses from the entire class, your |

|performance-based assessment, e.g. throwing a ball, presentation |observations of a small group performing a learning task, or an |

|teacher / student communication, e.g. class discussion, interview,|analysis of individual student writing, drawing or other |

|group work |performances. |

|Learning Goal 1 Assessment Method: |Learning Goal 1 Assessment Sample: |

|writing assessment: Students will write down 2-3 ideas for each |The assessment size for this lesson was 14 students. This was a |

|chapter that they are assigned and turn them |small class so the assessment was easy to follow through with. |

|in at the end of the lesson. |For the assessment I had students participate in a discussion |

|teacher / student communication: In a small group the students |and having students in small groups writing down main events |

|will discuss assigned chapters and come up with 2-3 main events |while I walked around and monitored their progress. At the end |

|together. |of the lesson the students shared their ideas with the whole |

| |class and I collected the students’ papers and read over them |

Lesson 1 Plan: Describe your plan for achieving your learning goals. The lesson plan should include the following sections: Analysis of pre-assessment data; Plan for differentiation; Plan to motivate learning and engage attentiveness; Description of activities to achieve learning goals; and Description of materials needed to implement lesson plan. You may insert your lesson plan 1 responses in the provided prompts below or attach as a separate document in Appendix A. If you choose to attach a separate document, make sure that it still addresses all five sections below.

Analysis of Pre-Assessment Data: Discuss what students already know and can do regarding your goals before you began your lesson. Pre-assessments may include your PLS instructor’s descriptions of past assessments and activities and/or your own observations from previous class activities or student work samples.

|The content of my lesson has already been touched on with the students by my mentor teacher so my lesson I taught was mainly a |

|review but in a different manner and review is always good. |

Plan for Differentiation: Describe at least one way you will differentiate the content, process, or product involved in your lesson in response to individual student needs, preferences, prior knowledge, or interests. Consider especially the needs of students with disabilities, students who are high achievers in some area, students with language needs, and students who are at risk for school failure. For more information, see:

|One way that I planned for differentiation when planning for my lesson was to accommodate the students with IEPs in the classroom. |

|There are four students in the classroom that have an IEP and when planning my lesson I thought of modifications that should be |

|made for these students if need be. The students were given the task of paring up with a partner that I assigned them and come up |

|with 2-3 main ideas. For the partners I discussed with my mentor teacher which pairings would get the best results and we placed |

|the students with who are higher achievers. Also, by giving the students the option of two of more main events was helpful for |

|differentiation because the students who may have problems coming up with events can come up with only 2 but by offering the option|

|of more this wasn’t limiting other students’ abilities. |

Plan to Motivate Learning and Engage Attentiveness: Describe how you will motivate student learning at the beginning of the lesson. Describe specifically what you will say to introduce the lesson and engage students’ interest. Describe how you will maintain students’ interest throughout the lesson.

To motivate student learning for lesson 1 I got straight to the point and asked the students a question for them to all think about. I asked them “Can anyone tell me what a main event is?” After I got some input from the students I read them a spark noted version of chapter one from a book they are reading; Hatchet. I encouraged the students to get out a piece of paper and write down 2-3 main events that they heard during the reading. To maintain students attention throughout my lesson I lead group discussions with them and small group discussion. They also had an activity of drawing out a main event from their chapter that kept their attention. When working on their activity I walked around the classroom and made sure that the students understood my expectations and answered any of their questions.

Description of Activities to Achieve Learning Goals: Include descriptions of the activities you plan to use in the lesson. Your activities should be designed to support your learning goals and should be clearly described and carefully sequenced. Actively engaging students in learning also gives you the opportunity to assess their understanding. Make sure you take advantage of this opportunity by coordinating your activities with your assessment plan.

Activities that I used in my lesson were interactive with the students as a large group and also as a small group. To begin I read an excerpt from a book that they are reading in their class and I lead a group discussion and the students picked out main ideas from the chapter. We discussed volunteers’ answers as a group. I then split students up into small groups of two or three and assigned them chapters to discuss main events together. They were to write down 2-3 main events from each chapter and when completed hang on the board in sequential order. After everyone was complete I had the students from each group read their events aloud to the whole class. I also collected their papers at the end to assess what they had written down.

Description of Materials Needed to Implement Plan: List of all the materials or technology you will need to implement the activities.

Materials:

-Pencil

-Paper – (computer and loose paper)

-Elmo

-Lesson Plan

Section 2: Reflection on Lesson 1 and Planning Lesson 2

Instructional Decision Making

TCWS Standard

•The teacher analyzes student learning to make instructional decisions

Students’ Response to Lesson 1: Did the students respond in the ways you had predicted? Were you successful in accomplishing your learning goals for this lesson? Explain why you were or were not successful. Consider motivation, management, understanding of instructions, complexity of task, and differences in students’ achievement levels when constructing your answer.

|During my first lesson I believe that the students enjoyed it. They especially liked the drawing portion of the lesson. My learning|

|goal was met for this lesson because the students were able to listen to a portion of a story and comprehend what I was reading and|

|writing down ideas from that chapter. They were also able to work in small groups and go through chapters of the book and write |

|down main ideas that they thought were important. I liked doing it this way because it put the learning into their hands. I believe|

|that classroom management went well. I used language that they were used to in their classroom. Some things that I could improve on|

|for the students to respond better would be to communicate directions better. I was really nervous to teach my first lesson and got|

|some of the directions mixed up. The next time I teach this lesson I will be sure to be clearer on directions with the students so |

|that they can respond better. |

Adjustments for Lesson 2: Describe how you will adjust your second lesson in response to your analysis above. Consider instructional strategies, the organization and content of the lesson, motivational strategies, preventative management strategies, procedural changes, materials, activities and assessment. Explain why you believe these adjustments will improve students’ learning.

|To improve my next lesson I will be clearer with my directions for the students and also be more confident in my teaching. During |

|my last lesson I was very nervous and I believe that showing confidence in my next lesson will help the students learn a lot |

|better. |

Design for Instruction

TCWS Standard

•The teacher candidate designs instruction for specific learning goals, individual student characteristics, and learning contexts.

•The teacher sets significant, challenging, varied and appropriate Learning Goals.

•The teacher candidate will recognize that there are multiple assessment approaches that must be aligned with Learning Goals to assess student learning before, during and after instruction. An attempt is made by the teacher candidate to design student assessments.

Lesson 2 Topic Title: If Brian had a pencil…

Lesson 2 Learning Goals: Define what you expect students to know and be able to do at the end of the lessons. The learning goals should be specific, observable, challenging and varied. Learning goals should describe what your students will learn and be able to do by the end of the lesson, and not simply what activities they will do during the lesson.

|Learning Goal 1: On a sheet of paper, the sixth grade students will compose a letter with all of the correct components of a letter |

|(salutations, body paragraph, and closing) using correct grammar and spelling with 100% accuracy. |

| |

|Learning Goal 2: In a letter, the sixth grade students will include 5-7 events from the book Hatchet with 100% accuracy. |

Alignment of Learning Goals to State or National Curriculum Standards: Describe how your learning goals align with the Iowa Core Curriculum and/or National Standards for your content area. Identify the general subject area, grade level, and one or more specific standards in your response. The Iowa Core Curriculum can be found at:



|Standard for Learning Goal 1: W.6.3. Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, |

|relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences. |

Justification of Learning Goals: Explain how your learning goals are relevant, challenging, and appropriate. Consider their importance to previous and succeeding topics covered in the class, the students’ future in the class and school, and to skills needed for success in the 21st century world.

|The learning goal that I chose for this lesson was relevant because it came right off of the Iowa Core Curriculum website. The |

|learning goal also presents a doable yet challenging task for the students to complete. |

Assessment Plan: Describe your plan for assessing your learning goals.

|Type of Assessment |Assessment Sample Size |

|Describe the method/s to check on student progress. Consider |Below, list your assessment sample size. An assessment sample |

|these approaches: |refers to the type and amount of student work you will assess. |

|selected response, e.g. multiple choice, matching, |Teachers often make inferences about student learning based on a|

|fill-in the blank questions |sample of only a few students’ work. Examples of assessment |

|writing assessment, e.g. essays, essay questions, journaling |samples would include choral responses from the entire class, |

|performance-based assessment, e.g. throwing a ball, presentation |your observations of a small group performing a learning task, |

|teacher / student communication, e.g. class discussion, interview,|or an analysis of individual student writing, drawing, or other |

|group work |performances. |

|Learning Goal 1 Assessment Method: |Learning Goal 1 Assessment Sample: |

|writing assessment: Students will write a letter with |The assessment size for this lesson was 14 students. This was a |

|7-10 sentences and turn it in at the end of the class. |small class so the assessment was easy to follow through with. |

|teacher / student communication: The students were to write a |For the assessment I had to students write a letter with using |

|letter with correct spelling and grammar and to check this the |correct spelling and grammar. I walked around and monitored |

|students were encouraged to first check over their letter for any |their progress. At the end of the lesson I collected the |

|mistakes and then exchange with their peers to correct them. I |students’ papers and read over them. |

|think this is a good way for students to communicate together. | |

| |Learning Goal 2 Assessment Sample: |

|Learning Goal 2 Assessment Method: |The assessment size for this lesson was 14 students. This was a |

|writing assessment: Students will write a letter that includes 5-7|small class so the assessment was easy to follow through with. |

|main events from the book that they are reading in their class; |For the assessment the students wrote a letter and they were to |

|Hatchet. |include 5-7 events in their letter. To assess this task I walked|

|teacher / student communication: The students used peer evaluation|around and monitored students progress and at the end of the |

|to check over their letters. |lesson I collected the students letters and read over them. |

Lesson 2 Plan: Describe your plan for achieving your learning goals. The lesson plan should include the following sections: Analysis of pre-assessment data; Plan for differentiation; Plan to motivate learning and engage attentiveness; Description of activities to achieve learning goals; and Description of materials needed to implement lesson plan. You may insert your lesson plan 2 responses in the provided prompts below or attach as a separate document in Appendix B. If you choose to attach a separate document, make sure that it still addresses all five sections below.

Analysis of Pre-Assessment Data: Discuss what students already know and can do regarding your goals before you began your lesson. Pre-assessments may include your PLS instructor’s descriptions of past assessments and activities and/or your own observations from previous class activities or student work samples.

|The content of my lesson has already been touched on with the students the librarian so my lesson I taught was mainly a review but |

|in a different manner and review is always good. |

Plan for Differentiation: Describe at least one way you will differentiate the content, process, or product involved in your lesson in response to individual student needs, preferences, prior knowledge, or interests. Consider especially the needs of students with disabilities, students who are high achievers in some area, students with language needs, and students who are at risk for school failure. For more information, see:

|One way that I planned for differentiation when planning for my lesson was to accommodate the students with IEPs in the classroom. |

|There are four students in the classroom that have an IEP and when planning my lesson I thought of modifications that should be |

|made for these students if need be. The students were given the task of writing a letter with 7-10 sentences and 5-7 events. For |

|the students with the IEPs I included in my lesson plan that I would walk around the classroom and monitor their progress and IF |

|and only if they were having trouble meeting this criteria that I would allow them to only write 7 sentences and include 5 events |

|and so on. All of the students exceeded my expectations for this and that was awesome. I only lowered the amount of writing for one|

|student. |

Plan to Motivate Learning and Engage Attentiveness: Describe how you will motivate student learning at the beginning of the lesson. Describe specifically what you will say to introduce the lesson and engage students’ interest. Describe how you will maintain students’ interest throughout the lesson.

To motivate student learning for lesson two I got the students thinking about a topic that really got them interested. They are reading a book about a boy who was involved in a plane crash and has been stranded on an island with no communication. I then posed the question “What is Brian found a piece of paper and a pencil and he had a chance to write a letter to his parents?” This really got the students thinking about what he would write. I then had the students think about this question as if they were Brian. This was a really good way to start the lesson because the students have been involved with this book for a long time and being in Brian’s shoes got them thinking.

Description of Activities to Achieve Learning Goals: Include descriptions of the activities you plan to use in the lesson. Your activities should be designed to support your learning goals and should be clearly described and carefully sequenced. Actively engaging students in learning also gives you the opportunity to assess their understanding. Make sure you take advantage of this opportunity by coordinating your activities with your assessment plan.

The activities that I used in lesson two were to write a letter and peer evaluation. To begin the lesson I posed a question for the students to think about and we discussed as a class the different options. I then gave the students the criteria for their letter. The students were to include 5-7 events and 7-10 sentences in their letter, they also had to use correct spelling and grammar. Another activity that I had the students do was peer evaluation. I thought that this was a good way for students to get all of their spelling and grammar correct and this was also a good way for the students to get their letters read.

Description of Materials Needed to Implement Plan: List of all the materials or technology you will need to implement the activities.

Materials:

-Pencil

-Paper – (old paper template and brown paper)

-Elmo

-Lesson Plan

-Glue stick

Section 3: Self-Evaluation of Teaching Effectiveness

Reflection and Self-Evaluation

TCWS Standard

•The teacher candidate uses assessment data to profile student learning and communicate information about student progress and achievement

•The teacher candidate analyzes the relationship between his or her instruction and student learning in order to improve teaching practice.

Differentiation Plan Impact: Discuss how well your plan for differentiation addressed the student need(s) you targeted. Use specific examples of the students’ work including student writing, assessment results, specific student comments, or your observations to draw conclusions about the impact of your differentiation plan and the extent to which these students attained your learning goals.

|I believe that my plan for differentiation went very well. In both of my lessons writing was involved and for both of my lessons my|

|plan was the same. During my second lesson were given the task to write a letter and they had to include 7-10 sentences and 5-7 |

|events from the book. I wrote in on my lesson to give the students with IEPs a lesser work loud if they were having trouble with |

|what I gave the class but as I was walking around all of the students were performing well above expectations. I only had to lessen|

|the criteria for one student and once he I told him what to do he went right to work and completed everything and even though I |

|changed the criteria for him it was still enough to meet my learning goals that I had set for the class as a whole. |

Student Learning: With respect to your lesson goals, identify what you believe to be the instructional strategies and activities that contributed most to student learning, how your teaching behaviors affected student learning, and the extent to which students learned important content and skills from your lessons. Refer to your assessments as evidence to support your claims about the amount and depth of learning that occurred during your lessons.

|Lesson 1: Small group discussion |

| |

|Learning Goal 1: One instructional strategy that impacted my lesson was the use of modeling. At the beginning of the lesson I |

|explained to the students what I wanted them to do and then I walked them through the steps. Another strategy was the use of |

|technology to model to the students. This helps the students have a visual aid and then I also left my writing up there so they had|

|a reference throughout the lesson. I believe that this contributed to the students learning because during my lesson the students |

|asked less questions about what they had to do and focused on what they were supposed to do. This also contributed to student |

|learning because when going through all of my assessments the students followed the criteria that I had given them and they met the|

|goals I set for them. |

|Lesson 2: If Brian had a pencil… |

| |

|Learning Goal 1: One instructional strategy that I used in this lesson was motivation. At the beginning of the lesson I got the |

|students really excited about what we were going to do that day and instead of just telling them I asked open ended questions so |

|that they could think about them and give their own input. I also laid out my expectations for the students by having them give me |

|what they thought should be included in a letter and I let them be in control of the criteria with little help/prompts from me. |

|This definitely was conducive to student learning because the students got to give their input and to think that they were in |

|control of the lesson. The students also were aware of what needed to be accomplished because it was laid out for them. |

|Learning Goal 2: This learning goal was effective for the students because when I collected the students letters a majority of the |

|students met the standards that I had given them and if they didn’t, it was because we ran out of time. |

Motivation: Were the strategies you identified in the Motivation for Learning section in your lesson plans (see instructions for motivation section in Appendix A and B) successful in engaging and maintaining students’ interest and motivation at the beginning and throughout your lessons? If so, describe how. If not, explain why and what you would change if you were teaching this lesson again.

I believe that my motivation for student learning was successful because after assessing my students they were successful with the activities in my lesson. Even though I believe that my lesson was successful some things that I would change about my motivation for student learning would be to catch their attention more at the beginning of my lesson. I think that this could have been done by showing more confidence in myself when teaching my first lesson and it is something that I improved on during my second lesson.

Management: Identify at least one classroom management strategy that you used successfully or needed to use more effectively and describe the impact of its use on student behavior and learning.

One classroom management skill that I noticed I did well was dismissing of the students to pick up materials I had laid out for them. For my lesson, I had paper sitting at the front table for the students to pick up. When I first dismissed them I was told the whole class to go at the same time and when I realized about .2 seconds later that this was a bad idea I began calling them by rows to walk to the front of the classroom to collect the paper. This prevented a lot of chaos and stress to happen in the classroom and disrupt the lesson.

Future Growth: Describe two specific areas of professional growth (e.g., instructional strategies, content knowledge, classroom management, motivation, etc.) that you need to learn more about or improve in the future and explain why you have selected these areas. In other words, what areas do you still need to improve on in order to become a highly effective teacher?

After teaching my lessons, two areas that I can improve on are my presence in front of the class and my classroom management. I chose the first one because during my first lesson I was very nervous and didn’t portray the real me to the class. I would like to be able to improve on this task so that my students can see the enthusiasm that I have for teaching and share it with me. I also chose classroom management because I believe that this is something that everyone can improve on and it is a skill that improves with time but I still want to keep working at it and grow.

Appendix A: Include your lesson plan for Lesson 1 here, if not included above

Myah's lesson 1.docx

Lesson Plan

Lesson Title: Small group discussion

Developed By: Myah Steward Date: 10-18-11 Grade Level: 6th

I. Desired Results

A. Iowa Core Curriculum Standards and Performance Indicators

1. Content Standard 1- Students can comprehend what they read in a variety of literary and informational texts.

a. Students can understand stated information they have read.

B. Content Areas: Language Arts

C. Outcome(s)/Behavior(s):

• During a small group discussion, the sixth grade students will demonstrate their knowledge of main idea by generating a list of events from certain chapters in “Hatchet”, with 2-3 main events from each chapter. They will also demonstrate their ability to place these events in sequential order with 100% accuracy.

II. Assessment Evidence

A. Performance Task: Small Group Discussion

B. Criteria: During a small group discussion the students will come up with 2-3 main events from their assigned chapters and share them with the class and turn the end results into me.

III. Active Learning Plan

A. Reminders for Teachers

1. Anticipatory set: Can anyone tell me what a main event is? – look for answer saying something along the lines of “crucial part of the story”

• Very good!

2. I want you to take out a sheet of paper and I am going to read something to you. As I read I want everybody to jot down a 2-3 ideas of what you think the main events of this chapter are.

3. Read Students the spark noted version of chapter one – attached to end of lesson plan

4. Give students about 5 minutes to finish up thinking of different things that happened in the chapters

5. When time is up ask for examples from students.

• Can anyone read me one of their main events?

• Ask this until you have 3 main events.

6. After discussing some different events with the students. Pick out the main 2-3 points that the students came up with and write them legibly on a sheet of paper under Elmo.

7. So now that we have the 2-3 main points let’s think about what order the events should go in.

8. Ask the students – What does “sequence of events mean?” Look for an answer like “the order in which events happen”

• Exactly!

• So if we were to put these three main events you just gave me from chapter 1 into the order they happened what would the first one be? The second? The third?

• Perfect!

9. So chapter 1 would go where in the big picture?

• At the beginning.

10. Now we are going to split up into groups and each group is going to tackle a couple of chapters. I’ll assign you chapters to your group.

• Have the students take out two pieces of paper, one for each chapter.

• When you go into your groups bring your books and Hatchet packets if you want with you. – * the list is at the end of the lesson plan (4 groups of 2, 2 groups of 3)

11. I want each group to come up with at least 2-3 main ideas just like we did for chapter one.

12. Here are your groups.

• Have list ready and direct them to tables that you want them to sit at as you go and give them specific chapters. Remind students that when they are in their groups they only have a short time to come up with a list and they need to get it done before class is over and make sure that they are putting first things first.

13. Give students 10 minutes to discuss in groups.

14. Walk around the room and make sure students are being productive and proactive.

15. Once about 5 minutes has passed tell the students that they have about 5 minutes left and they need to start putting their final thoughts down on the paper.

16. When the students are finished with their discussion get their attention back and have them move back to their seats.

17. Have the students read the events they come up with to the class and place them on the board. (Call students in order of chapter given and then have them hang them in order on the board.)

18. When all of the groups have shared their ideas of main events tell them what’s next.

• Now I am going to give each of you your own event and a piece of paper. I want you to write across the top of the paper what your event is and then draw of picture that you think best represents your event. *Show example*

19. You will have about 15 minutes to draw out your event. Please try to work hard and be proactive to get this finished today.

20. Walk around and hand out papers to students and assign chapters as you go. *list at end of lesson plan

21. If you need ideas of what event you want to do you can come up and check out the board for ideas but there is only a short amount of time so make sure you are working hard.

22. Tell students that when they are done to come to the front of the classroom and hang their picture of the timeline by the correct chapter.

23. Give the students their 5 minute warning.

24. Gather student’s attention back to you and review the events. Compliment their hard work.

25. To end the lesson; tell the students what to expect for next lesson. We are going to pretend that we are Brian and that we found paper and a pencil. Each of us are going to write a letter to Brian’s parents telling them important events that have happened thus far in the story. So be thinking of major events and we will review next lesson.

26. Thanks for working so hard today!

B. Steps for Students:

1. Participate in discussion

2. Have supplies ready

3. Follow directions

C. Materials:

1. Paper

2. Pencil

3. Lesson Plan

4. Elmo

D. Approximate Time

1. 30-50 minutes

E. Modifications

1. There are 4 students in the room with IEP’s so if the students with IEP’s are having trouble coming up with 3 main ideas give them the option of only coming up with 1 or 2.

F. Resources

1.

2. Hatchet – Gary Paulson

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Appendix B: Include your lesson plan for Lesson 2 here, if not included above

Lesson Plan 2.docx

Lesson Plan

Lesson Title: If Brian had a pencil…

Developed By: Myah Steward Date: 10-31-11 Grade Level: 6th

IV. Desired Results

A. Iowa Core Curriculum Standards and Performance Indicators

1. W.6.3.Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences.

B. Content Areas: Language Arts

C. Outcome(s)/Behavior(s):

1. On a sheet of paper, the sixth grade students will compose a letter with all of the correct components of a letter (salutations, middle, and closing) using correct grammar and spelling with 100% accuracy.

2. In a letter, the sixth grade students will include 5-7 events from the books Hatchet with 100% accuracy.

V. Assessment Evidence

A. Performance Task: Create a letter thinking as Brian

B. Criteria: Given a piece of paper the students will write, in letter format, a letter to their parents acting as Brian and include at least 5-7 events. They will use correct grammar and spelling.

VI. Active Learning Plan

A. Reminders for Teachers

1. Remember last week when we talked about main events and we came up with all of those events. What if Brian had a chance to tell someone about these events that happened to him?

2. Now… imagine that you are Brian and you find a piece of paper and a pencil. You haven’t talked to your parents in months! What are you going to tell them?

3. Get out a piece of paper and I’m going to give you about 5 minutes to write a list of all the events you would share with you parents if you were Brian and you had found a piece of paper and a pencil.

4. Remember you haven’t talked to them in months so come up with some ides and events you would want them to know.

5. Walk around and check students progress

6. After about 5 minutes get the students attention back – did you guys come up with some pretty good ideas?

7. Now we are going to write a letter acting as though we are Brian but first….

8. I know you guys have talked about writing letters with Mrs. Weber. Well today that is what we are going to do. We are going to write a basic letter as Brian. But first to start out let’s review the components of a basic letter.

9. Can anyone tell me what the first component of a letter is?

a. Dear… *as students are giving you ideas write them on a piece of paper under the Elmo*

b. Also ask for other examples such as; hello, hi, more informal – what’s up? Dear so and so.

10. What comes after the greeting or salutation?

a. Usually there is an opening paragraph, body, and closing paragraph **we are just going to focus on the body today

b. In the body there should be 7-10 complete sentences in it.

c. In the body paragraph on a letter what do you do with the first sentence of a letter? (Write arrow with the word indent on it.)

11. What do you put at the end of a letter?

a. The closing.

b. What are different examples of closing? – Sincerely, name Love, name etc.

12. When all of this is going on make sure that you are writing in on the piece of paper under the Elmo

13. Give students brief idea of what we are going to do today. “So like I said at the beginning of the lesson, today we are going to act as those we are Brian. And we are going to pretend that Brian has a pencil and some paper – even though he doesn’t – and write a letter to our parents, well brains parents.”

14. Describe expectations of the letter.

a. Your letter should have all of the thing we discussed – an opening, body paragraph, and a closing.

b. Along with these main things I want you to include 5-7 events that we came up with as a class – I will hand out a paper that has all of these events on them after I explain.

c. And your closing can be whatever you think is appropriate for this letter – Love, sincerely etc

15. So I’m going to pass out a paper to you and I want you to think about what you are going to write FIRST and THEN put it on your paper.

16. After you are done writing your letter on your paper I want you to read and re-read it and make any changes

a. After you have gone through your own letter and made all of the necessary changes find a peer partner to check over your papers – when you are checking your partners just use a pencil to check them, if you find something that should be fixed just lightly underline or circle the mistake.

b. After you have corrected a peers paper and have yours back make all corrections and if you really want to you can ask a teacher to correct them

c. Then come to the circle table and glue your paper to the construction paper.

17. So remember use all of the components of a letter – ill keep these up on the board so you remember

18. And include 5-7 events in your letter.

19. You will have about 15-20 minutes – during this time make sure that they students are being proactive and working on their letters and not messing around.

20. Walk around and check students work.

21. Get the students attention back and ask for 1 or 2 volunteers who want to share their letter.

22. Glue/tape brown paper on back of all letters.

B. Steps for Students:

1. Participate in discussion

2. Finish letters

3. Be proactive

C. Materials:

1. Paper

2. Lesson Plan

3. Construction paper

D. Approximate Time

1. 50 minutes

E. Modifications

1. If any of the kids with IEPs are having problems coming up with enough events walk around and let them know privately that they can use less.

F. Resources

1.

2. Hatchet – Gary Paulson

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Appendix C: List other materials you will be attaching to this work sample (e.g. visual representations of student learning, copies of assessments, lesson materials, or examples of student work). Make sure you have copies of all student work that you turn in.

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Three students’ illustrations of main events from chapters 1, 10, & 12

The complete timeline up to the chapter that the class has finished.

Examples of two students letters

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