Welsh

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Ted Welsh
Prof. Keeley and Prof. Leo
Ed 302/303
17 October 2016
Context Paper

East Grand Rapids Middle School (EGRMS) is located in East Grand Rapids,

Michigan. This city is in the Grand Rapids Metropolitan Area in Kent County, and is
well known for its affluence and its high quality public schools.

To begin with some statistics, the average household income, according to

City-Data, is $102,516. This is more than twice Michigans average of $48,273. A key
contributor to this fact is the education level of the citizens of East Grand Rapids. Of
people over 25 years of age, 99.2% have graduated high school, 77.9% have a
bachelors degree, and 34.2% have a graduate or professional degree (City-Data). As
a city, East Grand Rapids is not very racially diverse. The population is 94.8% White,
0.6% Black, 1.4% Asian, 0.7% Hispanic, and 1.6% two or more races (City-Data). In
East Grand Rapids, there are five schools that are all public. There is one high school,
one middle school, and three elementary schools. In addition, the infrastructure of
East Grand Rapids is very good. Their roads are in great conditions, they boast
beautiful public parks, and provide public transportation.

East Grand Rapids Middle School very much reflects the city of East Grand

Rapids. This is the case both racially and financially. EGRMS is a 6th-8th grade school,
and has 728 total students. Of those 728 students, 665 (91.3%) are White, 22 (3.0%)
are Black, 21 (2.9%) are Asian, 14 (1.9%) are Hispanic, and 6 (0.8%) are two or

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more races (NCES). EGRMS employs 39 teachers, and, therefore, has a
student/teacher ratio is 18.66 to 1 (NCES). Since EGRMS is in such a wealthy area,
the school and the students are very well financed. Each classroom has a
SmartBoard and access to various pieces of technology, and each student brings a
laptop to school everyday. The school is not a magnet or charter school, and most
students that attend EGRMS live near the school. So, students either bike to school
or get rides from their parents.

EGRMS uses the Common Core standards to create its curriculum. For sixth

grade math, there are seven pages of standards, so the teachers need to get through
a lot of material over the course of a year (East Grand Rapids Public Schools). Mrs.
Woolford has told me that the sequencing of the material is poor, so the math
teachers at EGRMS have rearranged the curriculum a little bit to meet their students
needs.

In Mrs. Woolfords classroom, I teacher aide for three periods. Each period, I

work with sixth graders. The first two periods are sixth grade regular math and the
third period is sixth grade honors math. The class sizes are 21, 16, and 28
respectively. The racial makeup of each class is definitely representative of the
school. I would say each class is at least 90% white, and no class has more than one
minority student. I have noticed that EGRMS tracks in Math, as well as other subjects
such as English and Social Studies. Also, I have noticed that all of the students in my
classes speak English well, so I assume the student body is primarily English
speaking. That being said, the school offers Spanish as a foreign language that all
students are required to take.

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In the classroom, the students are very attentive. They listen to Mrs.

Woolford and myself, and follow directions well. Ive also noticed that they treat
both teachers and peers with a high level of respect. It is a very welcoming and
accepting environment. I think Mrs. Woolford has definitely contributed to this, but I
have observed similar environments in other classrooms as well. Because the class
sizes are fairly small and the students are well behaved, Mrs. Woolford utilizes small
group conversation quite a bit, and students are eager to participate. She arranges
the desks in groups of four to make this type of instruction easy to implement. In
addition, Mrs. Woolford has the freedom to use many different activities and let the
students work in groups, pairs, or by themselves because she can be confident they
will stay on task.
Mrs. Woolford is a Christian, but does not share this with her students.
Although, she has told me that most students come from a Christian background, so
that influences the way they interact with each other and the language they use. She
can be confident that her students will be help her to foster an encouraging
environment because that is what the students experience at home and in church. In
the past, students have scored very high in academic achievement at EGRMS. In
2014, 72% of 6th grade students at EGRMS scored at or above the proficient level on
the Michigan Educational Assessment Program test (Realtor). EGRMSs score is a
whole 30% higher than the average for the state of Michigan (Realtor).

The context of the school plays an important role in how the educator

interacts with students and creates lesson plans. For East Grand Rapids, educators
can be more lenient and give the students more freedom because the students and

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parents in the community place a high emphasis on education. In other schools, the
educator may have to be a little more involved and monitor the students more
closely. At EGRMS or any other school I teach at, learning the context is key to
creating good lesson plans and giving students every opportunity to learn and to
succeed.

Works Cited:
East Grand Rapids Middle School. East Grand Rapids Middle School, 6. Realtor.com,

n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2016.

East Grand Rapids, Michigan. (MI 49506) Profile: Population, Maps, Real Estate,

Averages, Homes, Statistics, Relocation, Travel, Jobs, Hospitals, Schools, Crime,

Moving, Houses, News, Sex Offenders. City-Data, n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2016.

East Grand Rapids Middle School. National Center for Education Statistics. US

Department of Education, n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2016.

K-12 Mathematics with Common Core State Standards. East Grands Rapids Public

Schools (2007): n. pag. Web. 15 Oct. 2016