Contextual Factors:

Classroom factors. When someone steps foot into Dr. Kibler's classroom at Greenwood High
School, they will noticce a very structured classroom set up with 7 columns of desk, a teacher's desk and a
space for a laptop. The technology in the classroom consists of four computers in the backrow and an
opportunity for students to play with the classroom I-pad. Also, students have access to the school ipads,
however, those must be scheduled. The Parental Involvement is mainly what you see most often in high
school. I did not really see any parent involvement, however, what I did see, the parents were engaged and
open to dicussing their child and any problem they may have. The classroom rules are placed on the wall
and they include:
1.) Be respectful.
2.) Be Kind.
3.) Be courageous.

4.) Come in quietly and collect journals.

5.) Turn in agendas.
6.) When finished with journal, begin other class work.
There are also school wide rules based upon a PBIS system. The students receive tickets and after
they get so many tickets they can choose to cash in their tickets for prizes. For example, if you
have one ticket, you can choose to get a pencil or a piece of candy. If you five tickets, you can cash
in for paper or some chips. The students have assigned seating within the classroom and seem to
all get along and like where they are seating. The scheduling at this school consist of both a

block schedule and a period schedule. The block schedule is set up with four blocks and
the period schedule is set up for 6 periods. When someone first walk into Dr. Kibler's
room, the first thing they see is the teacher desk located straight ahead. The second thing
they notice is the rows of desk which are generally occupied by 15 students. In the back of
the room, there is a bookshelf filled with books, as well as, four computers, and a kidney
table where group work takes place.

Student characteristics.
In this classroom, as I come in and begin to teach lessons, I must consider certain student characteristics.
There are 3 girls and 14 boys in this class. Of those boys, 7 are Caucasian, and 6 are African American,
and one is Half-Hispanic. Of the girls, 2 were Caucasian and 1 was African American. Of the seventeen
students, 6 are eighteen years old and the rest are 17. The Special Needs in this classroom consist of one
student classified under Autism, 1 under EBD(Bi-polar), and the rest as Other Health Impaired with a Learning
Disability in either Reading or Math. All of the students had a very firm grasp of the English language, to my
knowledge I had now students who were ESOL. The only Hispanic student that I had was half Hispanic and he
did not really speak Spanish. Most of the students interests included sports, video games, movies, and music. I
had one student they said they liked to read in their spare time and all the others told me no, that they liked
watching television more or going outside. The learning styles in this classroom consisted of 3 students that said
they were more visual learners. Ten of the students said they learned best when all three learning styles were
incorporated in a lesson, and the other 3 said they like a more auditory approach to learning. Most of the students
skill levels have been brought up to 8th grade whereas when they started high school, they were more 5 th grade.
As a matter of fact, 5 students in this classroom are considered to be late 7 th grade to late 8th grade in their
reading and writing. However, their math levels are considerately lower. There is only one student at grade level
in this class and all of the other students are at a level consistent with 6 th grade.

Instructional implications.
Contextual characteristics of this classroom affect instructional implications by giving me the opoortunity

to incorporate student interest into my lesson while also incorporating accommodations based on student
needs. These two thing will allow me to make my lessons interesting, engaging, and fun. It takes creativity
to keep the attention of diverse learners. I will use humor, fascinating objects and pictures, tell stories, and
ask intriguing question to keep students interested and engaged. One specific instructional implication for
the characteristic of young students is to keep the students interested. One thing I think that I did and
implemented really well was engage students with interesting stories from my life and connected it to real
life situations. For example, for my lesson on adding Voice to writing, one of the best things that I did was
include my own work, as well as, connect it to prior conversations I had with the students and by
connecting voice to movies and how actors add voice to their characters. This usage allowed me to help
student understand what was going on throughout the lesson and also kept their interest. The second
instructional implications for the characteristic of student disabilities. Being able to keep in mind students
disabilities allows me to reach across the board and grab and keep student attention. The implementation
of accommodations such as speaking loudly, putting reading up on board, providing examples, and
splitting the work into various parts allowed students who may struggle with particular assignments and
subjects an opportunity to do their work into manageable pieces and also understand what is being done.
Additional explanation: This information is important to know as a teacher because it lays the foundation of
what a teacher needs to do in order to make sure hers students succeed. This impacts student learning. Because
instead of a teacher that does not consider contextual factos, the students get a teacher that is invested in their
education and the outcome of their education. The information listed above will guide my planning and
instruction in my lessons by allowing me to think outside the box and allow student to engage with their learning
and have fun with their learning. My students bring diverse thoughts and background to the classroom and this
allows for various opportunities to learn something new, as well as, connect that something new, to what they
are learning or have learned.