MoPTA Task 4 Overview a. Describe your classroom. Include the grade level, content area, subject matter, and number of students. Provide relevant information about any of your students with special needs. For this experience, I am working in a fifth grade language arts classroom. Within this class period, there are thirteen girls and nine boys. Though none of the students have IEPs, there are several students within the class that have additional needs. For example, one student is recorded as very low and is going to be tested for special services in the near future. This student has difficulty staying focused in class and has been moved to the front of the room so that my cooperating teacher and I can keep a better eye on her and make sure she is staying on task. b. Describe any physical, social, behavioral, and developmental factors that may impact the instruction that occurs in your classroom. Mention any linguistic, cultural, and health considerations that may also impact teaching and learning. This class period is the largest and most talkative class I teach. The students are very comfortable in their own skins and are very social both inside and outside the classroom. This, occasionally, causes problems within the classroom. The students tend to feed off one another and once a few students are talking, the whole class is talking. There is also one student in the class that is struggling with behavior management. This student often blurts out and gets angry with any sudden change that happens during class. This disrupts the flow of the lesson. However, we have been working on a three strike policy. The third time this student blurts out, he is sent to a safe seat in another classroom. This student s behavior not only distracts other students, but it also distracts me, as the instructor, and the student himself. This is why this three strike policy has been created between the student and myself. I have also explained to the student that day s lesson and agenda prior to him entering the classroom so he is not surprised with anything we are doing in class. c. Describe any factors related to the school and surrounding community that may impact the teaching and learning that occurs in your classroom. One factor in this middle school is the lack of paraprofessional support staff within the building. Though I include appropriate modifications and accommodations within my lessons, there are some students who just need extra support throughout the lesson. The lack of paraprofessionals within the building influences the amount of time I am able to spend teaching each student, ultimately affecting the learning of all students within the classroom. Step 1: Planning - Textbox 4.1.1: Goals and Student Background This step allows you to demonstrate your ability to develop an effective lesson plan that facilitates student learning. Activity: Creating a Plan Produce a standards-based lesson plan that addresses student needs, includes instructional strategies to engage students in higher-order thinking skills, and incorporates assessment techniques to gauge student learning. The lesson plan must allow for the recording of a fifteen-minute video and result in work from two Focus Students. Before teaching the lesson, respond to the guiding prompts below. a. What are the Missouri and/or national standards and learning goal(s) for your lesson? Provide the number and title of each standard that you list. The learning goals for this lesson are for students to form plural nouns from singular nouns by completing a Rally Coach Kagan strategy with 90% accuracy, as well as to recognize plural nouns by proofreading a paragraph with
85% accuracy. Students will also create their own sentences using plural nouns with 85% accuracy. The standards used for this lesson were the Missouri Learning Standards for second, third, and fifth grade. *L.1. A. 5. A. Explain and use the 8 parts of speech: noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction, interjection. *L.1. B. 2. Spell and use the plural of nouns by adding es to nouns ending in -s, -ss, -sh, - ch, or -x h. use nouns that change their spelling in plural form. *L. 1. B. 3. Spell plural words that change y to ies. b. Explain how the selected standards and learning goal(s) are appropriate for your students. Include in your response how you used students' prior knowledge and background information to influence the planning process (e.g., assessment data, diversity, and prior experiences). Though two of these particular standards are well below the fifth grade level, it was crucial to go back and teach these standards to the students. Because standards are constantly changing, I have met with the fourth, third, and second grade teachers to see what they were able to spend the most time on. They indicated that the students had not mastered using nouns in the plural. I also evaluated a personal narrative students wrote earlier this year for my language arts class. I was able to evaluate student writing and determine that students were struggling with the plural concept and these standards needed to be re-taught and mastered before moving on with the other stages of standard L.1. A. 5. Textbox 4.1.2: Instructional Strategies a. How do you plan to use academic content language to promote student learning? Provide a rationale. During this lesson, students will be exposed to several academic vocabulary words in order to promote student learning. I will review words such as singular, plural, proper noun, and common noun throughout the lesson and expect students to use the same content language throughout the activities. I plan to use academic content language in this way because students should create this habit of using appropriate vocabulary and language in this classroom. Because students learned much of this information in lower grade levels (though I expect proofreading and creating sentences using proper nouns to be new), students should be transferring this content vocabulary through the grade levels. This is why I feel academic language should be highlighted and used on a continual basis. b. How do you plan to engage students in critical thinking to promote student learning? Provide a rationale. In order to engage students in critical thinking to promote learning, I plan to ask students not only to express to me their answer, but also to defend their answer and explain why or how they know this answer is correct. My rationale for asking students to support their answer is because it requires the student to use metacognition and think through their own thinking and processing. I also plan to ask students to explain the rule they used to make the noun plural, instead of simply giving me an answer. My rationale for having students do this is so they become more familiar with the rules of plural nouns. c. How do you plan to use questioning skills to promote student learning? Provide a rationale.
For this lesson, I plan to use both open and closed questioning skills to promote learning. Though I will use both, open ended questions will work best for this lesson to promote higher-level thinking. For example, after the short video clip in this lesson I plan to ask students to summarize what they learned from the video. I think this is important because it allows me to see what their biggest take-aways were for the film and ultimately see if this met the goal I was intending. Students will also do a large amount of questioning themselves. Each student has to evaluate their partner s response and if they disagree with their partner, they have to explain to one another their thought process. Students also have to explain how they came to that answer and use metacognition skills. While students are questioning one another, I will also be walking around the room and evaluating student progress. I will ask students open ended questions such as why or how they decided on that particular answer. My rationale for focusing more on open-ended questions is because it promotes critical thinking. I also believe students questioning one another and defending their answers is important because it requires students to evaluate and critique a responsepromoting higher level thinking. - How do you plan to integrate literacy into the content you will teach to promote student learning? Provide a rationale. I plan to integrate literacy into the content I am teaching by having students proofread to find plural nouns in a paragraph. I also plan to have students create their own sentences using plural nouns. This will promote student learning because students actually have to apply the plural rules they have learned in reading and in their own writing instead of simply changing singular nouns into plural nouns with no context. This will help students transfer these skills to their own reading and writing. Textbox 4.1.3: Lesson Activities a. Describe the learning activity(ies) that are the main focus of the lesson plan. Explain how that activity is designed to anticipate and address student learning needs. The learning activity that was the main focus of this lesson plan was the Rally Coach Kagan strategy. This activity is designed to anticipate and address student learning needs by using cooperative learning to achieve a common goal. For example, I might pair a struggling student with an advanced student if I anticipate that a student might need extra help or constant coaching during the activity. This activity also addresses student learning needs by encouraging students to learn from one another. If a student does not have the correct answer, their partner can then coach them into determining the correct response. This not only helps the struggling student, but it also increases depth of knowledge for the student that is coaching as well. This strategy, therefore, meets a diverse level of student learning needs. b. Describe how you will monitor student learning while teaching the lesson. There are several ways I will monitor student learning while teaching this lesson. First of all, students will create plural nouns on a sticky note before I even begin the lesson. After the lesson, I will then have students make corrections on their sticky notes to determine what/if students learned about changing singular nouns to plural nouns. Students leave their sticky notes with me at the end of the class. I will also monitor learning during the check for understanding section of my lesson. Here, students help me pluralize nouns as a class. During this check, I will be able to see who understands so far and who needs a little more scaffolding. I will also monitor student progress through the Rally Coach Kagan Cooperative Learning strategy. Here, I stop in with each pair of students to look over their answers with them. I also go over the answers as a class so students can monitor their own learning as well. Lastly, students individually complete a handout to proofread and create their own sentences using plural nouns which I will collect and check once they are finished to monitor their learning. Enter your response in the textbox below. The required artifact for this textbox: representative pages of your lesson plan (maximum of two pages)
Step 2: Implementing the Plan - Textbox 4.2.1: Instructional Strategies (NEED TO CITE EXACT SPOTS FROM THE VIDEO) a. How did your use of academic content language promote student learning? Cite examples from the video to support your analysis. Throughout this lesson I used academic content language to promote student learning by using terminology students would be expected to use from that point on. For example, I used the terms singular and plural nouns to describe one noun and more than one noun. In the video, at 29 seconds, I begin describing to students that nouns can be made plural in several different ways. I also used academic terms such as vowels and constants to teach plural nouns. For example, at 2:38 I explain that students must look at letters to see if they are vowels. I then ask students do express what the term vowel refers to. I also use the term consonant to express steps in making nouns plural. For example, in 3:25 I use the term consonant to describe letters that are not vowels. Throughout this video, you will see that I use a Google Slide Presentation to teach this information. However, I have different students volunteer to read the slide before I teach it. This is not only to try and stimulate student engagement, but it is also so the students practice using the content language. For example, at 2:24 you can see a student reading the slide. The student gets slightly caught up in pronouncing singular. At 3:20 a student also has trouble with the word, consonant. You can see shortly after each student finishes reading the slide, I go back and read it, saying the terms correctly. By allowing student to verbalize the word, students will be more able to use that terminology themselves. b. How did your engagement of students in critical thinking promote student learning? Cite examples from the video to support your analysis. Throughout this lesson, I ask students how they reached that particular answer. I especially do this throughout the cooperative learning activity. For example, at 11 minutes, I am asking a student how they knew to add ies. She explained that there was a y at the end but didn t elaborate on the rule. I, therefore, ask her to look at the letter before the y and tell if it was a vowel or consonant. Also, at 11:40 I work with a student to make the word cherry plural. He had previously incorrectly made the noun plural, so I had him revisit the word. He recognized his mistake but then explained that he knew it was wrong because he had seen the word cherries before. Though this might be true, I ask him to explain what rule he might use to make the singular plural. By asking students to defend and explain their own thought process, students are involved in a higher-level order of thinking- promoting critical thinking. c. How did your use of questioning skills promote student learning? Cite examples from the video to support your analysis. I use questioning constantly throughout this lesson. I do this not only to promote critical thinking, but also so that I can see who is listening and engaged. For example, my first structured question occurs at 1:37. I incorrectly add an s to the ending of church and question students to determine if that sounds right or wrong. Shortly after, I using questioning to review syllables and vowels. Students have to use prior knowledge to connect to these new skills we are learning. I then question students by completing a recap of information at 4:30. I ask students to remind me of the three rules we just learned. This promotes student learning by requiring students to reflect on information they just heard instead of simply moving on. I also give examples to students starting at 6:03 and ask them to make the singular noun plural. This serves as my check for understanding to see which students need additional instruction. Starting at 11 minutes, during the Rally Coach activity, I then start meeting with groups and asking open-ended questions, such as how they knew to use that specific ending and what rule they used to figure it out. d. How did your integration of literacy into the content you taught promote student learning? Cite examples from any part of the lesson to support your analysis. Because the content of plural nouns is directly related to the ability to read a write, the entire lesson has the integration of literacy. However, I decided to add additional skills in order to promote student
learning on a higher level. At the end of the lesson, students complete an activity where they proofread a paragraph for singular and plural noun mistakes. Though this, students are able to see how using the incorrect form of a word can change the meaning of the paragraph completely. Students also apply what they have learned about plural nouns and create their own sentences (that must include plural nouns) based on a picture provided. The integration of literacy is directly incorporated in the independent practice portion of the lesson located on the second page of the lesson plan. Textbox 4.2.2: Interacting with the Students a. How did you monitor student learning during the lesson? In what ways did the evidence of student learning guide your instructional decision making during the lesson? Cite examples from the video to support your analysis. There were several points throughout this lesson where I stopped to check for understanding or met with an individual group or student to monitor comprehension. For example, during my questioning point in the lesson (around 6 minutes in the video), I noticed that one particular student was struggling with plural nouns and the rules. Therefore, I made the instructional decision to group this student with a more advanced student during the cooperative learning section of the lesson. I also monitored student learning during this cooperative learning. For example, starting at 10:20, I checked in with each group to monitor student progress. I noted that the instructional decision I had made for the groupings was beneficial for student learning because the advanced student was having to use critical thinking skills to explain how to make singular nouns plural, and the student having trouble was also getting additional instruction which, ultimately, showed student progress. b. What individual, small-group, and/or whole-group feedback did you provide during the lesson? How did that feedback advance student learning? Cite examples from the video to support your analysis. Most of the feedback for this lesson was provided during the cooperative learning section of this lesson. The feedback was individual, but because the student was working with a partner, each student was able to benefit from the feedback. For example, at 11:30, I noticed that a student had an incorrect spelling of the word cherries to make it plural. I ask the student to look at it and he caught it right off the bat. However, the student was also adding apostrophes in the words to show possession. I had to explain to him that his other answers were correct, other than having apostrophes. I was also able to validate student s thought process and answers throughout this activity, therefore, feedback was mainly in response to confirm their answers. I also provided feedback to students during the check for understanding section of my lesson (starting around 6 minutes). I was able to confirm student responses and then elaborate on why that answer was correct. c. What verbal and nonverbal communication techniques did you use during the lesson? How did these techniques foster student learning? Cite examples from the video to support your analysis. One nonverbal technique I used was during the instruction section of the video starting at 2:33. When explaining that you had to look back at the letter before the y ending, I used my index finder to point to the y in the word up on the screen. I then moved my finger in a swooping motion to the letter before the y to see if it is a vowel or consonant. This fostered student learning by creating a visual for nouns ending in y. Students learned that if it does end in y, they need to use their finger (or simply move their eyes) to look at the previous letter. One verbal communication technique I use is to create a sound for students to remember when they need to add es to make a noun plural. For example, at 6:27 I exaggerate the sh in wish so that students can hear the hissing sound at the end of the word. This fostered learning because students connected the hissing sound to a rule as shown at 7:10.
Textbox 4.2.3: Classroom Management a. What classroom management strategies did you use during the lesson? Cite examples from the video to support your analysis. One classroom management strategy I used during the lesson was physical proximity. I find myself using this quite often to help manage disruptive behavior or to keep a student actively engaged and on task. For example, I noticed during the cooperative learning activity that one student was off task and talking about something unrelated to the lesson. Not only was she off task, but she was also being quite loud and distracting to other students. You can see that at 12:05 in the video I look up at the student to give her a non-verbal warning that she needed to get back on task. When she did not get the hint that I needed her to focus, a few seconds later the video shows that I move from the group I am working with to go stand by the student and re-focus that group. After this, the group was focused, but the student was still being too loud and disruptive. I then had an individual conference with the student which took place right outside the doorway after recording of the video had stopped. Another strategy I used was having students raise their hands to be called on. This worked very well in both the instruction segment as well as the check for understanding segment of the lesson as you can see in several areas of the film, one including 7:18. b. How did these strategies engage students and promote a positive learning environment? Cite examples from the video to support your analysis. Though one student was being disruptive, students remained engaged in their learning because I did not draw attention to the behavior. Instead of getting on to the student right then, I used nonverbal communication and, later, casually ask her if we could have a conversation. For example, when I walked over to the group with the disruptive student at 12:20, I treated it like I was checking in- just as I had done with the other groups. I, however, stayed in that group until the disruptive student showed to be on task. This promoted a positive learning environment because I did not take away from the learning of any other student by distracting them with the discipline of another student. The strategy of requiring students to raise their hand to respond also engaged students a promoted a positive learning environment by creating structure as show at 7:40 in the film. Step 3: Student Work - Textbox 4.3.1: Student Work This step allows you to provide evidence of student learning resulting from the implemented lesson. Activity: Collecting Student Work Identify two Focus Students who were involved in your lesson. Make sure you choose students who reflect different learning needs. Provide a student work sample from the lesson for each of the two Focus Students. Then respond to the guiding prompts below. a. Describe why you chose the two Focus Students. Explain how each Focus Student reflects different learning needs. I chose each focus student based on both personality and academic standings. Focus Student 1 is a student that has trouble controlling their temper and behavior. This behavior often gets in the way of their education. This student currently is on a three strike policy. Because Focus Student 1 is frequently a distraction and consistently blurts out, I give the student strike 1, strike 2 and strike 3 if they are distracting others or blurt out. If the student gets to strike 3 they automatically know that there is a seat waiting for them in the neighboring classroom. This is a policy the student and I created together and the student fully agreed to the terms. Because this student also has trouble staying focused (many times because of their own behavior), I often try to pair this student with a partner that stays focused.
Focus Student 2 is completely opposite of Focus Student 1. Focus Student 2 stays very focused and class and is always anxious to do more than expected in order to push herself. This student is advanced and needs increased rigor in order to help them reach their full learning potential. This student is eager to please and is constantly asking questions to further their knowledge beyond what is being taught in class. b. What areas of this lesson did you target for each Focus Student s growth? Why did you choose these areas? The area I targeted in the lesson for Focus Student 1 s growth was during the Rally Coach Kagan activity. For this part of the lesson, I paired this student up with an advanced student. I chose this area for growth for Focus Student 1 because they have such a hard time staying focused and not becoming a distraction for other students. I knew this advanced student was very thorough in their work and made it a point to do everything with the best of their ability. Therefore, I paired Focus Student 1 with this advanced student so that Focus Student 1 would not only stay on task, but also so that the advanced student would have a change to think more critically and coach Focus Student 1 to come to the correct answer. This worked quite well and Focus Student 1, instead of becoming a distraction and getting off task, felt they needed to step it up a notch and productively work alongside the advanced student. Overall, this student showed growth in working with others to complete a task which ultimately lead to engagement and greater learning. For Focus Student 2, I chose an independent area of growth. This student had increased rigor for this lesson. For this lesson, students were to complete a proofreading handout and also write four sentences including at least one plural noun in each sentence. In addition to this, Focus Student 2 also scanned a close reading she was completing for another class. I chose this area of growth for this student because this student works at a much faster pace on their own compared to when working with others. I also chose this area because I wanted the student to see how plural nouns related to other areas, such as reading. 6. Explain how each work sample you selected demonstrates the learning progress of each Focus Student. For Focus Student 1, I selected the proofreading porting of the handout students completed independently. The reason I selected this sample was to see if pairing this student with an advanced student enhanced learning. I chose the independent work because I wanted to see how the student was doing on their own, without support from the other student. The modification on this work sample, however, was that this student simply had to correct the plural nouns and not worry about the appropriate proofreading mark. This work sample demonstrates learning progress for this student by showing that, through partner work with another student, he was able to effectively practice using plural nouns. The student was then able to apply these skills and successfully use plural nouns in proofreading and also writing sentences on his own using plural nouns. Overall, this sample shows that because the student remained on task during the lesson, he was able to independently complete a task successfully. For Focus Student 2, I chose a more in-depth proofreading work sample. Because this student needed an extension to the lesson in order to maximize learning, she used a close read to identify plural nouns. This work sample demonstrates learning progress because the student is applying this information and skills to other content areas. This is often the challenge- students transferring information from one area to the next. I chose this work sample because it shows just that. The student is working in other contexts and identifying the use of plural nouns not only I writing, but also in different readings. Enter your response in the textbox below. The required artifacts for this textbox:
a student work sample for Focus Student 1 (maximum of one page) a student work sample for Focus Student 2 (maximum of one page) To include the artifact(s) with your response, see the "Artifacts" instructions at the top of this page. Step 4: Reflecting - Textbox 4.4.1: Reflection on the Whole Class This step allows you to reflect on the effectiveness of your lesson for the entire class. Activity: Reflection Think about your lesson plan and the implementation of the lesson. Then respond to the guiding prompts below. a. To what extent did your students reach the learning goal(s)? Cite examples from the lesson and/or the video that supports your reflection. I collected several forms of data from this lesson to determine whether students reached the learning goals. The learning goals for this lesson were for students to form plural nouns from singular nouns with a partner, for students to recognize plural nouns by proofreading, and for students to create four sentences using at least one plural noun per sentence. Based on the data I pulled from the cooperative learning activity, proofreading, and sentences, I was able to determine that students struggled most with adding a ves ending to singular words ending in f. Though many students still need practice with this specific skill, according to the data, 87% of students reached all three learning goals. b. Reflect on your instructional strategies, interactions with students, and classroom-management strategies. Discuss what went well and what areas you need to revise. Cite examples from the video that support your conclusions. I felt as if the instructional strategies I used were effective for this lesson. I divided this lesson up into several parts to keep students focus and engagement. I first had students jot down a few nouns on a sticky note. I then had them make the nouns plural before even starting the lesson. We used these again at the end of the hour to check for progress and make corrections if needed. Secondly, I used instruction in order to give students necessary information. I then had students watch a short clip about plural nouns in which you can see ending at 5 minutes in the video. Students then answered questions as a class and then worked in pairs in the cooperative learning activity. The students later completed the independent practice. I think all areas of the lesson went well and there is nothing I would revise in regards to instruction. In regards to interactions with students and classroom management, I believe that situations were handled in an appropriate way. I think stopping by and checking on each group during cooperative learning was effective starting at 10:25 (though I wasn t able to capture each conversation in the video). Though I felt this went well, one revision I might make is to have students switch partners after completing the first page. My rationale or this is so that students have multiple opportunities to work with and learn from different classmates. Classroom management also went smoothly. The students followed directions very well and transitioned into working with partners with ease. One piece of classroom management I would change, however, was allowing the disruptive student to work in a group of three for the activity as shown at 12:30
in the film. I would make the revision of pairing this student with a more focused classmate for this activity. c. What revisions would you make to the lesson plan if you were to teach this lesson in the future? Why would you make the revisions? Cite examples from the lesson and/or the video that would prompt the revisions. If I were to teach this lesson again in the future, I would have students practice using the ves ending more than in this lesson. Interactions with students showed that, because there was not a clear-cut rule on using ves, students struggled with the concept. In the future, I would make revisions not only for more practice on this skill, but also to find a clearer, more in-depth explanation of why and when to change the f to an ves ending to make a noun plural. I would make this revision both in the instruction section in my lesson as well as the guided practice, check for understanding section. Enter your response in the textbox below. The video upload is a multistep process that could take more than 30 minutes to complete. Only one file may be uploaded. Step 5: Uploading the Video - Textbox 4.5.1: The Video