Contextual Factors

     Pleasant Elementary School in the Tulare City School District wants all students to have equal opportunity to experience success.  Attempting to teach holistically to develop student social and moral concepts along with academic skills is an accepted challenge.  This is a tall order to hope by emphasizing the importance that educational growth of the whole child is relates to the current environment. 

     Academic growth of English Language Learners is a priority at Pleasant Elementary where over three quarters of the students are from varied backgrounds.  The school staff uses up to date standards-based curriculum with instructional strategies taught to improve academic achievement.  The plan to improve skills for these students is for their benefit meeting the demands of the school and jobs of tomorrow.  The curriculum is supported by an intervention program, Choices, that works both during the school day and after school for special targeted students.  

     During the 2011-2012 school years, Pleasant Elementary did not make the school wide AYP or the API.  Teachers are aware of this and implement strategic teaching practices to assist students in the acquisition of the English language.  Why could this be?  First of all in America the language is English and its’ knowledge is the first step, or the first stumbling block towards success.  Next, we are in new times where learning remains the same but the now it must be extended with thinking of choices. It is a challenge because our lives have become more automated with technology which allows us to choose to think less. 

     Amy Harris has outlined a similar need to address current life and contextual factors influencing the educational environment.  These needs include: Socioeconomic conditions, Geographic location, Ethnic influence and population deensity. (Harris, 2013)  Classroom conditions and Student characteristics have to be managed in order to design instruction to enhance the students’ varied approaches to learning.  It is important for classroom teachers to realize how contextual factors will affect their instructional planning and assessment. Probably the most important factor in learning is answering what Students’ skills and prior learning are present?

Socioeconomic   Human environmental factors influence the child and play a major role in classroom management. In fact, family income is directly correlated to the quality of education a child receives.  In Tulare, CA, the sales tax rate is 8.25%. Income tax is 4.00%.the income per capita is $16,784, which includes all adults and children. The median household income is $43,486. (Economy in Tulare, California, 2012)

The first contextual factor influencing the Community educational environment in the teaching and learning process is School funding.  Since U.S schools are funded primarily by local property taxes, students living in affluent areas attend schools that are newer with the latest technologies. The children from better living conditions tend to perform better academically while students from poorer living conditions are more likely to struggle with learning and even drop out.  

A second contextual factor affecting the community and in relation to the teaching and learning atmosphere are the social factors that influence the classroom and behaviors include parental education level, occupation and political affiliation.  This home environment can teach the child that a type of behavior is tolerated or normal, only to learn it is not so in class.  Children subject to neglect can result in off-task behaviors in the classroom.  Compounding the teaching and learning process is a lacking emotional development and no proper nutrition at home starves the child.  They come to school “empty” and may show lack of interest slow to respond to learning prompts.

Geographic Where the school is located is the first environmental contextual factor that has an effect on values of its students.  Are they bussed across town or from another suburb?  Inherent in the growth of a population and a factor effecting teaching and learning is the mixing of cultures.  In the City or County, hidden factors that affect behavior and motivation of students also affect the ability to teach.  How does the student get to school?  Asecond contextual factor affecting learning and teaching is the gang influence and affiliations which seriously affect student behaviors.  In consideration, does the student walk home, bus home or is a parent picking them up?  All of these factors play into the reason for behaviors. If the student has responsibilities when they get home, a reaction of having to stay after school is major inconvenient motivator because each day they probably assist with family chores and duties.  Another outside factor that can effect in class behavior is that the student who relies on a bussing system as means of transportation home.  If they stay late, they miss the bus. 

Ethnicity The town of Tulare was founded in 1872 by the Southern Pacific Railroad to serve as its San Joaquin Valley headquarters. The transportation center was the driving force behind Tulare’s establishment. The city was incorporated in 1888 and the early years were difficult as the town burned down and was rebuilt three times in its first 14 years.  Residents faced hardship again in 1891 when Southern Pacific relocated its valley headquarters to Bakersfield. (Community Profile, 2013)  The race mixtures in Tulare are reflective of being a Railroad town grown from dust bowl immigrants.  Tulare is a semi-rural San Joaquin Valley community with a population of approximately 51,000. The area is mainly agriculturally oriented with local businesses and small industry providing a source of family income.  The population is roughly 61.32% white and 6.76% of the people in Tulare claim Hispanic ethnicity (meaning the balance of the population is non-Hispanic).  So, 3.93% are black, 2.15% are Asian, 1.17% are Native American, and the rest claim 'Other'.  This population is a working class population not used to needing an education to progress in life. 

District  

Pleasant School is one of fourteen schools in the Tulare City School District in Tulare, California. This creates the first contextual factor of having a smaller school district allows for a more homogenous curriculum for closer observations.  With ten elementary schools and four middle schools making up the Tulare City Elementary School District, this School District feed into the three high schools in Tulare.  The High School District is separate from the Elementary Tulare City School district.  A second contextual factor of having a manageable size District is choice.  That is being able to choose a School within the District in which the Parents/Guardians live.  This supports a Parent/Guardian to have their child attend a school for reasons that are founded.  Legally, Education Code Section 35160.5(c) requires the school boards to establish a policy that allows parents/ guardians to choose the schools their children will attend, regardless of where the parents/guardians live in the district.

School community and school population Pleasant School was opened in 1987.  

There are 31 classrooms at Pleasant Elementary educating students; Kindergarten, first and second grades each have six classrooms. Third grade has five classrooms with fourth and fifth grades have four classes each. One full time Special Education teacher is on staff.  Classified personnel help in areas which include: cafeteria, library services, interventions and nursing services.  (The Single Plan for Student Achievement, 2011)

It is essential the teacher treats each student equal, but managing student personalities can be a real challenge also.  Classrooms of mixed races are the norm anymore which provides the first contextual factors:

a.       Students may have unfounded prejudices passed down from their parents or peers using slurs when referring to other students of a race different from their own. 

b.      Students who are children of immigrants may be targets of stereotypes or verbal abuse, like those who don't fully understand English. 

c.       There is a significant gang influence in Tulare which adds another dimension or contextual factor to creating and keeping a safe learning environment.               

The ethnic and racial makeup of a classroom can drastically affect its’ management. In these instances it is absolutely necessary to be a teacher first and, if needed, take action using classroom management skills and knowledge to ensure that the physical environment is emotionally safe and comfortable for all students.

Describing classroom contextual factors are reflective of my Demonstration Teaching Position:

Classroom The physical and structural classroom itself can impact classroom management.

a.       Using straight rows are suited for older students, a teacher-directed style. 

b.      Using cluster arrangements or four desk groups support teaching and increased student interactions. 

c.       Student work should be displayed on the walls and changed regularly to support motivation.

This school attempts to keep the class size around twenty or so because the more students in a class, the more challenging classroom management becomes.  When fortunate enough to have any assistants, aids, student teachers or other adults in the classroom there presence has a positive impact.  

      Physical features - Room 404 has windows that are open to southern exposure which allows for natural lighting, supplemented with three rows of fluorescent lights.   There are five desk “islands” which seat four students each.  The desks are arranged to allow for ease of movement and seating.  The arrangement also allows for small group discussion and partner sharing.  This has proven an important factor for learning productivity.  

1. Availability of technology equipment and resources.  There are three computers with Internet access in the room.  Two are for students and the third is at the Teachers’ desk which is accessed by students as well. 
2. Extent of parental involvement - Always encouraged to help parental involvement is low.  Hopefully there is an interest in supporting the school, but complacency is always a possibility.    This could be the fact of a single parent working to support the family which takes away school hour times, obviously keeping the involvement low.
3. One other classroom contextual factor affecting teaching/learning is that there is a close ratio of students to teacher in this class.  Tulare District is about 21.9 students per teacher in Tulare. (Economy in Tulare, California, 2012)  In our class there are twenty-one students and with an ethnic ratio of about 80% Hispanic and 20% non-Hispanic. 

Student Characteristics must be considered when employing classroom management strategies.

·         The first consideration is to neutralize external forces that serve as rules to follow.  With race and ethnicity serving as an identifier to a culture, the gang influence is attracted in that direction.  The attraction of being “in” as accepted by a peer group gives a sense of security.  Being aware of this, we must design instruction as rewarding as possible. 

·          For the different achievement and developmental levels there needs to be a leveled curriculum so that all students have the same feeling of success.  For example, children with special needs: English Language Learners, Learning Disabled and others with special challenges such as autism cannot respond as quickly to the same question cues as their peers.  There are also children who have outside influences which cause emotional effects and problems. 

•       I was a student whose parents went through a divorce and it was a draining experience.  I was ashamed becuase I did not know why, butI don't think it affected my schoolwork.  Prior to the event however I had a supportive home life and strong outside friendships with my peers. 

·         To be aware of learning styles and modalities gives a challenge to differentiate lesson presentation that interests as many students as possible.  Understanding how children learn is as important as what they learn. 

·         The case in families where the child stays a parent for a few days, and then the other next, does not provide an easy behavior structure for the student to develop.  This factor influences the child in a way where they may become withdrawn or aggressively act out in an appeal for attention.  The lack of stability is brought to class where it must be overcome with caring teaching. 

·         For the reasons which support negative behavior development there are reasons that students flourish with appropriate instruction. That is a solid home environment.  This is where the parent cares about the development of the child and takes an active role in their learning.  The role is reflected by:

a.       Making sure the child attends school.

b.      Teaches responsibility at home.

c.       Works with the student on their homework.

d.      Sees that the child develops healthy habits of nutrition.

e.       Is active with appropriate school and student functions. 

Here is a discussionof  student skills and prior learning that may influence your development of the following three components:

Learning goals:  As in any type of construction, there must be a foundation created before a greater amount of material is added.  The foundation should be relevant to the academic study and appropriate for application to the learning goal.  With education in academics all Students learn better and more effectively when they already know something about a content area.  If introduced first to concepts in that area, the facts, figures and rationale to learn mean something to them.  Often, their background or culture aids in remembering and applying the new information.

Instruction:  As just written, tapping prior knowledge is critical to further learning.  When teachers link new information to the student's prior knowledge, they activate the student's interest and curiosity, and infuse instruction with a sense of purpose.  The instruction should be layered over what has been learned and even presented just outside the prior instruction done that would cause the development of problem solving skills to be used.  Students learn and remember new information best when it is linked to relevant prior knowledge.

Assessment. It has been said that if you don’t know where you are going, anywhere you end up is a vacation. 

o   Student pre-assessment should be before instruction for efficiencies sake because it might not be necessary to make the effort to teach what is already known.  So, assess what students already know with pre-tests both informally and/or formally.  Informally is more effective I believe because you not only review but reteach and teach those who did not have an understanding before.  A student may be familiar with these tests when assured certain questions will not be graded.  The questions or problems are to see what is needed for teaching.

o   A post assessment is the familiar end of Unit test.  This is a formal and summative assessment that shows what the student has learned to their capability and where instruction might be improved for future Unit lessons.  It is important in nature because it serves as an ending point where teaching can move forward and it also shows if and which students need to have differentiated instruction.

References

Community Profile. (2013). Retrieved from City of Tulare: http://www.ci.tulare.ca.us/welcome/profile.htm#

Economy in Tulare, California. (2012). Retrieved from SPERLINGS best Places: http://www.bestplaces.net/economy/city/california/tulare

Harris, A. (2013, January). What Contextual Factors Will Influence Classroom Management? Retrieved from eHow.com: http://www.ehow.com/info_7857038_contextual-factors-influence-classroom-management.html

Pleasant Elementary School. (2012 - 2013). Retrieved from Tulare City School District: http://www.tcsdk8.org/index.php?option=com_docman&Itemid=173                                        (2011)   The Single Plan for Student Achievement. Tulare, CA.