Contextual Factors

Physical Features: The class room is relatively small compared to bigger schools. There is both carpet and tiles in the class and one rug. The room is longer than it is wide and the desks are organized in three rectangles and a line. There are 22 desks in the classroom. The class has a coat rack and book bag bins at the far side of the room by the teachers desk. Since the desks are in a specific shape there is a lot of room for walking and getting around the classroom. In one corner of the class there are a lot of books that the students have access to. There are file cabinets and carts used for organization, along with one big cabinet in the corner. There is one bulletin board and a color clip chart. Availability of Technology: There is not a lot of technology in the classroom. There is one Promethean board at the front of the class. The one laptop is connected to the Promethean board. There are a total of 3 computers in the class 1 of them is a laptop. Other than the Promethean board, the students have no other technology. The computer is not for the student use. It is mainly for the teacher, and the work she needs to complete on it. Equipment: As far as the equipment in the class, there is not a lot of it. There are two white boards in the class that are not really used. The Promethean board is what is being used the most. There are a lot of book and board games in the class that the children have access to. They have permission to check out the books and board games. They can do this when they have indoor recess, free time. The students have two reading books one of them is newer than the other one. They also use My Math books, science and social studies books as well. To go along with each textbook, the students have work books as well. Learning Environment: From the moment students get into the classroom they start doing work. They do the morning work after everyone comes in and are settled. The classroom is quiet until the morning announcements come on. After the morning announcements a lesson is normally started until activity time. The students are very interactive with the teacher as she teaches the lesson. The students like to be involved and answer all of the questions she asks. The environment is not always calm, but it is because all the students are eager to be involved. The students know when it is time to be active and when to be quiet. Resources: There are not a lot of resources in the class. There are textbooks and workbooks for every subject that is taught. They have access to certain websites like My Math that also have certain things used to help with certain lessons. On the walls of the class there are greater than and less than posters. There is also an alphabet line, along with other educational posters. Those are the only resources that the students have.

Parent Involvement: Parents are involved as needed. There does not seem to be too much parent involvement in the classroom, unless it is asked for. Papers are sent home weekly and asked to be signed by the parents is the most parent involvement that I have seen thus far. Classroom rules and routines: The classroom rules are: 1. Respect the learning environment: NO distractions. 2. Respect others: hands and feet to yourself. 3. Respect school and personal property. 4. Keep it safe: work and play carefully. 5. Have assignments WHEN NEEDED. 6. Follow all school-wide rules. The class also has a daily routine. The students start with morning work and then they take a restroom break. They come back into the class to start a small lesson or review spelling words for the week. The students then go to an activity. After the activity, they come back to class to start math. After math, there is another restroom break, and then the students go to lunch. When lunch is over the students do reading, and either science or history until recess. When recess is over the students prepare for dismissal. Grouping patterns: There are groupings by tables. The tables are broken down into 4 different groups. When the students are doing group work they normally pair up and work with the person beside or in front of them. The groups are either groups of two or groups of three. Scheduling: The second grade classes are on the same time schedule with a difference of 10 minutes between certain things. They start with morning work, then a small lesson, then activity, math lesson, lunch, read aloud, reading lesson, science/social studies, recess, and then dismissal. This is a new schedule for them it just started a week ago! Classroom Arrangement: There are 22 desks in the classroom. All of the desks are facing the Promethean board with the white board both beside and behind them. The books are in a corner by the white board behind the students and beside the huge rug in the back of the room used for read aloud time.

Student Characteristics and Demographics There are 21 Students in the 2nd grade class at 96 Primary School. There are 13 boys and 8 girls, the ages of the girls are 2 are eight and 6 are 7 years old. Of the boys 3 are eight and 10 are seven years old. The diversity split for the girls is as follows: 1 African- American, 7 are White. The diversity split for the boys is 1 African- American, 10 White, and 2 other. There are 3 children have an IEP in the class. During certain times of the day, those students go to different centers to get help.

Second Grade Class 96 Primary School Spring 2014

Description Nos. of children Age Seven years old Eight years old Race/Ethnicity African- American White Other

Female 8 6 2 1 7 0 1

Male 13 10 3 1 10 2 2

Total 21 16 5 2 17 2 3

Special needs/IEP

The students were tested by a variety of test. One of the tests given is given to a random group of children. The students are given a minute to read as much as a paragraph as they can. This test is not given to all students. The students in the class reading scores for the most part are very high. They have problems when they do time reading, but when they read on their own their reading is good. Students do well with reading the word more than they do with spelling. I say this because they can notice a word and read it, but they are unable to spell it or even know the meaning. The test that is used to test the reading is given at the end of the week. The students take reading comprehension and vocab tests, on the story they read for the week. There are 21 students in the class, out of the 21 students in the class 7 are above level, 10 are on, and 4 are below.

The students with IEPs in the class struggle with speech among other things. They are taken out of class for certain lessons that will help them with their IEP. The students are helped mainly in Math and in ELA because that is where they need the most help. Instructional Implications A) There are a lot of things that this classroom is missing that will help the students learn better. Technology is something that is seriously missing in the classroom. If the students had more access to computers, they would have access to a lot more learning games. This way they will not have only worksheets to look at, but can have a chance to look different things on the internet. They students also should have books that are on tape in the class. They might be more excited about reading if they could listen to the book rather than just sitting down at their desk and reading it. These things in the classroom will help the students and their learning. B) This makes teaching lessons a little less interesting. There are things on the internet that allow students to get up and out of their seats and interact with technology. Without the resources of the internet, the students are not able to see as much as they could. There is a lesson that I want to teach to students using the smart board, but the school will not allow me access to websites that will make learning fun.