Contextual Information

1. Knowledge of characteristics of students

Use the spaces provided below to address indicated characteristics of your students.

1. Age-Range,
Gender, Total number of students
Age Range
varies from 16-18 years, but mostly 18-year olds.
Gender Ratio is
very evenly distributed in all of his classes; 4th period, which I plan on doing both
observations with, has 12 guys and 11 girls in it.
There are 113
students in Mr. Sabatiers 5 combined classes; 70 students in his 3 combined regular
government classes; 23 students in his 4th period that I plan to observe
Oxford High
School has a total of 1,086 (50% female, 50% male)

2. Achievement
Levels (Remedial, Average, Advanced/ Accelerated, or specify range in percentiles or
grade-equivalent)
Mr. Sabatiers
2nd and 5th periods are his AP Government classes that obviously contains all
Advanced/Accelerated learners
Mr.Sabatiers
3rd, 4th, and 6th period regular Government classes are heavily Advanced and Average
learners as well when you are looking at grades for most of these teens
There are a
very few remedial learners spread out in those three class periods; in the 4th period that I
will be working with, there is only one remedial learner in the classroom based on the
grades for the class

3. Socio-
Economic Description
Oxford High
School is made up of 54.1% Caucasian, 37% African American, 4.3% Asian, 3.4%
Hispanic, .6% Multiracial, .5% Native American, and .1% Pacific Islander students.
Mr.Sabatiers
classes is mainly consisted of white and African American students with a few Asian,
Hispanic, and Indian students as well.
Mr. Sabatiers
4th period class consists of 4 cultural backgrounds: 10 Caucasian, 11 African American, 1
Hispanic, and 1 Indian.
 42% of
students at Oxford High School are on Free/Reduced Lunch
130% of the
poverty level for a family of four in the United States is $31,525, which is only a little
lower than the annual income for families in Oxford, which is $34, 523 per year

4. Typical
Demeanor of Students
The typical
demeanor of students in Mr Sabatiers classes are very, very positive. They all seem to
come into his room with a willingness to learn and be a part of discussions in the class. All
of the classes show the utmost respect for Mr. Sabatier and myself when we ask them to do
something and they all get along very well with each other as well. They have no trouble at
all putting things away, quitting the talking, and getting ready to learn. I have been very
impressed with them all.

5. Typical Interest
and Involvement of Students
Students are very involved with extracurricular activities at Oxford High School and all the
students seem to be very supportive of everything that goes on at the school. In Mr.
Sabatiers classes, there are football players, golfers, ROTC members, theatre staff,
cheerleaders, dance team members, tennis players, basketball players, beta club members,
and cross country/track members. The 4th period I observe has 3 ROTC members, 2 dance
team members, and a golf team member.

2. Knowledge of students varied approaches to learning (Include information from

learning styles inventory)

Mr. Sabatiers five classes contain may different styles of learners

I conducted a Learning Styles Inventory with his 3rd, 4th, and 6th period classes that are
his regular government class which I teach.
Looking at the numbers of all three classes combined, there were 7 Visual, 10 Audial, 6
Read/Write, 10 Kinesthetic, and the rest were Multimodal learners
Based on the results, there is a very equal divide between the styles of learning in Mr.
Sabatiers classes, which means it is most important that I use as many different forms of
teaching strategies as possible to meet each students needs

3. Knowledge of students skills and prior learning

Most of the students have met the requirements set in place by the state of Mississippi to be
classified as seniors meaning they have completed all history courses to this point including
World History, U.S. History, World Geography, Mississippi Studies, and many others. When
going over items in my power point presentations, I have noticed that the students have done a
wonderful job of retaining information given to them in the past in their history courses that they
bring back up like the Constitution and U.S. History significant events. All of the students have
done an incredible job of soaking up the information Mr. Sabatier and I have been giving them
thus far and applying them through skills and on tests.

4. Knowledge of community and school district (Include a description of the community

and school district)
Oxford High School is located in the city of Oxford, which is a part of Lafayette County in the
state of Mississippi. The new Oxford High School just opened up in the 2014-2015 school year
located at 101 Charger Loop Oxford, MS 38655. Oxford High School is the lone high school in
the Oxford School District, which has the mission statement to produce educated, responsible
citizens capable of taking an active role in society
Oxford High School currently has 1068 students that are made up students within the grades 9-
12, ranking in at the 47th largest high school in the state of Mississippi. The 1,086 students
almost doubles the average population of Mississippi High Schools which is 552 students per
school. Oxford has 55 teachers that work at the high school, who are in charge of providing the
best education possible for the many students at the school. The student-teacher ratio comes out
at a 18:1, which is not only higher than the student-teacher ratio of the state of Mississippi
(15.2:1) but the entire United States (15.6:1). The student-teacher ratio definitely provides a
challenge with so many students, but one could never tell with the way the school runs so
well.best education possible for the many students at the school.