Context for Learning: Description of School and Students

Trinity Christian College Field Experience Form

Context for Learning

Description of School and Students

About the School Where You Are Observing or doing Field Experience

School Name and City: H.L. Richards High School, Oak Lawn, IL

Type of School: Elementary school, Middle School, High School, or Other: High School

Setting: Urban, Suburban, or Rural: Suburban

Write your responses to the three questions below in paragraph form.

1.    List any special features of the school or classroom setting (e.g., themed magnet, classroom aide, bilingual, co-taught with a special education teacher, pull-out program).

·         There are not any co-taught portions of the class I was in, whether that be for special education or for ELL. However, I was in a classroom that had a full size lab space that took up the back half of the room. This gave a great deal of flexibility for tests, projects, group work, and lab work for the students to work with.

2.    Describe any district, school, or cooperating teacher requirements or expectations that affects the planning or delivery of instruction, such as required curricula, pacing plan, use of specific instructional strategies, or standardized tests.

·         There is a policy that mandates that teachers allow retakes on tests. This is an official policy that is enforced by the school district that allows kids to retake tests as many times as they need or want to.

3.    For special education only: List any educators with specialized expertise in the school/district (e.g., specific disabilities, subject-specific pedagogy, English language development, speech therapists).

About the Students in this Class [Give a brief or one word response]

1.    Estimated percentage of students eligible for free/reduced lunch: around 70%

2.    Grade level(s): Predominantly Juniors and Seniors (11^th/12^th grade)

3.    Number of students in the class: 21

    males: 10

females: 11

c.     English language learners: None (in Honors Anatomy, the class I was in)

d.    students identified as gifted and talented: None

e.    students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) or 504 plans: None

4.    Complete the chart below to summarize required accommodations or modifications for students receiving special education services and/or students who are gifted and talented as they will affect instruction. As needed, consult with your cooperating teacher to complete the chart. The first row has been completed in italics as an example. Use as many rows as you need.

Special Education Category	Number of Students	Accommodations, Modifications, and/or Pertinent IEP Goals
Example: Learning Disability	Example: 4	Example: Close monitoring, follow up, and Resource Room

About the Class You Observed

1.    How much time is devoted each day to instruction in the classroom? Describe the class periods (if applicable)? Choose a content area of your specialty or major. How much time is devoted to teaching that subject?

·         The class periods are fifty minutes long each, on the dot. At the beginning of the day there is a time where there are daily announcements and standing for the Pledge of Allegiance. There are eight periods throughout the day, with students having a lunch during one of those periods and six or seven periods worth of classes each day. Depending on the schedule, students may have two periods in the same discipline, but overall there are probably 45 minutes of class time that is devoted to instruction.

2.    Is there any ability grouping or tracking? If so, please describe how it affects your class.

·         There is placement testing in middle school to determine what “track” that the students will begin high school on. This is either regular classes or honors classes, depending on that test. However, students are able to switch back and forth during their high school career based off of how much they struggle or excel at their given level. This can be either from grades or a teacher’s recommendation.

3.    Identify any textbook or instructional program you primarily use for instruction. If a textbook, please provide the title, publisher, and date of publication.

·         Essentials of Human Anatomy and Physiology by Elaine N. Marieb. Publisher: Daryl Fox (2006).

4.    List other resources (e.g., SMARTBoard, manipulatives, online resources) used for instruction in this class.

·         Each student has an iPad. They utilize iTunes and documents in that way for classes and activities. There is a main projector that the teacher uses, connecting to it via Apple TV.

5. What do you know about what your students know, what can they do, and what are they learning to do? What do you know about your students’ everyday experiences, cultural backgrounds and practices, and interests?

·         From what I can gather, these students are all intelligent given the fact that I am in an Honors course, but they have greatly varied amounts of motivation. Those that are motivated breeze through the class, enjoying themselves and helping others learn as well. Those who are not motivated often do not turn things in. What I am discovering about my students’ everyday lives is that they are involved in many extracurriculars. There are a great deal of athletes, specifically softball, and a great deal of theater kids as well. I am also learning about the religious and ethnic demographics to, especially given the fact that there is a large contingency of Arabic students fasting for Ramadan currently.

6. Describe one teaching event. What best practices in teaching were used?

·         One event that sticks out in my mind is the day that my class did a dissection of a pig. My teacher had given them details the day before on what they were looking for in the pig and how they could decipher it from the other parts of the body in the pig. Once given the information, the students were more or less given free reign on what to do. It was because of this that the many students got very excited and invested in their anatomical explorations. It was awesome to see these kids get interested it something once they were given freedom to explore it for themselves. My teacher gave them the ground work and they ran with it, discovering excitement for the subject along the way.