Environmental Contextual Factors

1a. Community

    I am completing my demonstration teaching in Rock Springs, Wyoming. One important factor that could impact instruction is the local economy.  Rock Springs is a hub for oil, natural gas, coal and mineral extraction.  The effects of this type of economy are varied.  According to Hafner and Maloney, one impact of this type of employment is high turnover which is reflected in the student population.  (2013)

    This turnover means that many students come from other districts or states and have different academic backgrounds.  Instructional adjustments may need to be made to differentiate instruction for these students.  As different districts use different standards and courses, placement is important.  The district where I will be completing my demonstration teaching puts students on tracks in mathematics.  Some districts do not use tracks and these students may have to be assessed to see where they best fit.  For example, in the junior high a student came in from a district where students were grouped by grade instead of ability.  She was therefore placed in a basic mathematics class even though she had experience in Algebra and should have been placed in the advanced track in our district.  If her parents or teacher had not been involved, she may have been stuck in this track and missed out on the opportunities of taking AP credits in high school.  For these students, more extensive pre-assessment will also likely be required at the beginning of each unit to find differences in understanding.  These students may also have social needs as they are coming into an unfamiliar environment with students who they do not know and with a culture that might be very different from the culture of their previous district.  

    Another impact of the local economy is on student academic and career goals.  The companies that provide these services hire high school graduates at competitive salaries.  High school graduates with no experience can start with an hourly rate as high as $25 with full benefits and often can move up the ranks to earn much more within the same company.  This is an attractive option for many students graduating from Rock Springs High School, especially those coming from low income families.  Many students do not have goals for higher education or plan on attending trade school.  Motivation to do well academically and to score well on tests is not always high for these students.  These students need help to see the benefits of doing well in high school and meeting the standards.  Since I will be in a mathematics classroom, one way this can be accomplished is relating mathematics ability to the students and their goals.  The greatest success in these industries requires mathematical ability and is made easier by higher education.  Also competition for these jobs is great in the current economic situation.  The more ability and responsibility they show in school will help them get the job they want.  At the high school there is also an energy track to help students who want to pursue a career in the energy industry.  

    Rock Springs, Wyoming has a population of about 24,000.  The nearest big city is Salt Lake City, Utah and is about a three hour drive away.  There are not a lot of experiences to be had.  Students and their parents often do not know the opportunities that are available to them.  This is the town where I grew up and I experienced this first hand.  Even as a good student with a lot of activities and high standardized test scores my view of my options upon graduating high school was quite limited.  If students do know of the opportunities available, very few of them know how to access those opportunities.  When learning new concepts, these life experiences should be taken into account.  Word problems should be accessible to all students and should reference common student experiences.

    When exploring a concept more in depth, the problems of motivation and access can be addressed.  The solution is to open students’ eyes to the vast array of opportunities available to them when they succeed in school.  Even if students stay in Rock Springs and pursue their education there, they should know that their options will always be greater and more diverse if they do well in school and that they can have a positive impact on their community.  With technology, this is more easily achieved.  Mathematical examples from varied contexts can be utilized as well as showing mathematics being used in real world examples across many industries.  Students should be encouraged to think about their futures and explore different paths that they can take.  Requirements for specific schools or scholarships can be addressed as well as in class work on scholarship contests or essays related to specific mathematical standards.   

1b. District

    As the town of Rock Springs is small, the district encompasses only Rock Springs as well as some very small outlying communities.  While the ethnicity of the district is largely Caucasian, there is some diversity that impacts instruction.  Twelve percent of the population is Hispanic and many of these families speak Spanish as their first language.  Also close to three percent of the population is American Indian.  (Proximity, 2013)

    Instruction may need to be differentiated for these students.  American Indian culture has specific differences from American culture.  These students may be quieter than American students and strictly because of cultural differences take more time before answering a question.  ELL students in the district require varying levels of assistance and differentiation.  Instructional differences will include carefully choosing real world examples so that they make sense to all of the students, sometimes preparing materials in different languages and including more or less cooperative learning depending on the students and their backgrounds.

    Because of these small outlying communities in the district, some students have even less access to certain resources.  Some students are bused in from small communities of less than one hundred people.  These students may have limited access to internet and will not have access to libraries outside of school.  This limits their ability to stay after school for extra help or to do homework that requires a lot of research outside of school. When preparing homework for these students, it is important that they are able to complete the homework successfully without much outside help.  Group projects that require time spent outside of class would also be difficult for them.  While always important, checking for student understanding and mastery in class is imperative for these students.  Flexibility is also a must when scheduling extra help sessions, make up tests or meetings with students or parents.

1c. School

    While the town of Rock Springs is quite small, the high school is larger than average.   According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in 2011, the average size of high schools in the United States was 752 students and 369 in Wyoming.  The same year Rock Springs High School had an enrollment of 1226.  (National Center for Education Statistics, 2011) In Wyoming this is a larger population than that of many towns.

    While there are many schools in the country that are this large, the number of students has an effect on student learning and instruction.  One implication of the size of the students is the aforementioned tracking system.  In junior high students are placed in tracks according to mathematics and language skills.  The large school size takes the tracks to another level.  There are enough high-achieving students to keep these students in their own class.  For example, during my pre-clinical experiences I sat in on an Algebra II class that was entirely tenth graders.  Rather than have a few tenth graders mixed with eleventh grade Algebra II students, they are separated both by grade and by the level of mathematics they are learning.

    This means that classes are often created with the goal of homogeneity.  For instructional purposes this has both positive and negative implications.  In theory, the homogeneity would lessen the need for differentiation based on ability and allow the class to move through the material at a steady pace together.  The negative implications are that students also identify themselves as high-achieving or low-achieving.  They may set their own expectations for their achievement.  Also the students do not get the benefit of interacting with students of different abilities.  As I have observed these different classes I have noticed a vast difference in student participation and energy between Algebra II classes.  While differentiation for ability will be lessened in each individual class, it may be greater when planning lessons for the same unit but for different class periods. In a school of this size, it is also important to treat each student as an individual.  Freshmen especially can feel lost in the shuffle.  Giving each student individual attention, learning and using their names and remembering their interests can help students adjust to being in an environment so much larger than previous schools.

    According to a report released by Rock Springs High School in 2009, 21% of students at the high school received free or reduced lunch. This number was 10% less than the district number.  (Sweetwater County School District #1, 2009)  35% of Wyoming students and 46% of students in the country receive free or reduced lunch.  (National Center for Education Statistics, 2010)   The percentage of students who receive free or reduced lunch is significantly smaller than the percentages of both the state and nation.  This number is a direct reflection of the high median salaries of the students’ parents.  Due to the energy industry, families have higher salaries. Although this is arguably accompanied by a higher cost of living, most students in Rock Springs High School belong to families who can provide adequately for them.  Even so, more than 1 in 5 students qualify for free or reduced lunch.  Students in the high school come from varied backgrounds and have varied access to educational resources at home.  These backgrounds must be taken into account.  Often students from lower socioeconomic students do not have the time or support at home to spend adequate time on their homework.  In my pre clinical experiences, I met many students who work to help their family or take care of younger siblings while their parents are at work.  Even students from middle-income families often support their families in similar ways.  In addition to the time problem, these students often come to school without adequate rest or nutrition.  They are often tired and lack the energy to really participate in class.  This calls for understanding and increased enthusiasm from the teacher.  

    For the characteristics of the school, the most important part of learning is understanding between teacher and student.  Getting to know their students, their struggles and their goals, teachers can adjust their instruction and their assignments to ensure the greatest success from all of their students.  Teachers can also make their students aware of their expectations and create a classroom that promotes communication so that students can meet those expectations.

2. Classroom Contextual Factors

2a. Physical Features

    My demonstration teaching classroom is a large room with a lot of space.  Upon entering the classroom to the left is the teacher’s desk with a bookcase behind. To the right are cubbies for student work and worksheets.  Further in there are 24 student desks facing a white board and an interactive white board with an overhead projector.  There is a small teacher desk in front of the whiteboard facing the students so the teacher can write and have her writing displayed on the overhead.  Behind the student desks is a wall of windows.  To the right of the students is a wall of file cabinets and a rack of graphing calculators for student use.  There are content specific posters on the walls and  a student spotlight bulletin board that has information about students.  

2b. Availability of technology equipment and resources

    When welcomed to the district, along with my badge, I was given a district email address and a laptop to use during my demonstration teaching.  Every mathematics classroom has an interactive whiteboard, an overhead and enough graphing calculators for every student to use while in the classroom.  The school also has technology labs including ipads or laptops that can be used on request. The district uses Power School for grading, data collection and analysis and My Big Campus to communicate with students and provide learning opportunities online.  There are technology specialists and instructional facilitators at each school to help as needed.  The district has a plan to integrate technology into instruction.  This emphasis on technology provides many opportunities and flexibility when planning lessons and curriculum. (Hafner and Maloney, 2013)

2c. Extent of parental involvement

    The extent of parental involvement in Rock Springs High School is reported to be varied.  The district has a plan to increase parental involvement that includes providing more information for parents, creating an advisory council that includes parents to advise on increasing parental involvement in the district and providing translators at meetings and translations of documents for families who do not speak English as their first language.   (Sweetwater County School District #1, 2013)

    Sporting events and productions by the music and drama departments are well-attended by parents and family and teachers in the school say that parent teacher conferences are generally well attended.

    One issue that was brought up during my pre-clinical experiences was the lack of parental support of teachers in the classroom.  I do not believe this is a challenge unique to the school or district.  The teacher I was observing explained how she was preparing for parent reaction to some of her students who were receiving failing grades for the quarter.  She allows students to make corrections to their exams to receive partial credit.  She gave them a full class period to work on the corrections for this particular test and students could also come in before or after school or during lunch.  Some students refused to do any corrections and ended up earning a failing grade for the quarter as a result.  The teacher expressed concern that their parents would call and demand that their child receive more time for corrections.  She said that these parents were parents she had reached out to in the past to explain that the students were in danger of failing, but the parents do not respond until the failing grade is given.

    When asked about parental involvement in education at the high school, teachers, members of the school board and administration expressed similar sentiments.  Parents are involved in their children’s extracurricular activities but rarely show interest in their education unless the situation is dire.

2d. Classroom Arrangement

    The classroom is arranged specifically to encourage group collaboration.  Students are seated in groups of three so that they can be called upon to discuss concepts with members of their group.  The school where I am doing my demonstration teaching uses Kagan cooperative learning strategies.  Students are asked to compare and discuss answers and also to teach each other concepts that have just been learned using problems from the text.  The seating arrangement makes this method easy.  Students are always in groups of two, three or four, which are manageable and ideal for implementing occasional cooperative learning while still allowing students to see the teacher.  If students are absent it is easy to move students to another group to ensure that each group has enough students to implement the cooperative learning techniques.  The classroom is also easily rearranged for testing.  Students just turn their desks 90 degrees to the left and they are in rows where they cannot see each other’s desks.

3. Student Contextual Factors

a. Language

    Some classes have students for whom English is a second language.  These students all speak Spanish as their primary language.  During whole-class instruction, language must be used that these students can understand.  Since they have been in mathematical classes in English, they usually understand the mathematical terms so these can be used, but unnecessary complicated language should be avoided when possible during instruction.  Also whole-class instruction should be completed in a direct manner at a reasonable pace.  Speaking too quickly could leave these students behind, while speaking to slowly will lose the attention of the whole class.

    As a math teacher, the examples are often numerical which students can understand given the opportunity, but some concepts require more explanation and for those additional instruction for the group of Spanish speakers may need to be made either in their native language or with the help of a student aide translator.  Formal assessments must avoid terms that were not used often in class or terms that were not explicitly defined.  Additional formative assessments might be necessary to ensure that something was not lost in translation with the students whose English is limited.  Requiring students to verbally express their answers in English should also be included to help students gain confidence in the concept by explaining the concept and in their English speaking skills.

b. Achievement Level

    I am analyzing data from a 9th-10th grade pre-algebra class.  This is the lowest level math class in the high school and the students in the class are considered low-achieving.  These students are sometimes lacking basic mathematical skills.  They do not fully understand what it means to multiply or divide or even add and subtract.  They can do the calculations, but do not necessarily understand the concept and why and how it works.  This changes the design of instruction.  Instruction must move at a pace that keeps students’ attention, but addresses all of student needs.  Pre-requisite skills and knowledge must sometimes be thoroughly addressed in the lesson.  These students also need to be engaged in a more active way than in some of the higher level courses. Assessment also needs to be directly related to the instruction in class.  I have found that these students can get confused if the assessment is not very similar to class work.  Students also need to be taught how to think through problems.

c. Age

    Students in this course are ninth and tenth graders.  They are anywhere from 14-16 years old.  They want to be treated like adults, but many of the lessons for the course are designed for younger students.  It is important to change some aspects of materials or lessons to make sure that they do not appear to be meant for younger students.  It is a difficult age.  The students still respond well to extrinsic rewards and fun mnemonic devices, but they do not want to appear to be children.  There is a fine line keeping students engaged while not appearing to patronize them.  Instructional materials, homework and tests should look like they are designed for high school students.  Students at this age are also making decisions that will impact their future.  It is important that instruction addresses skills that will be needed for standardized tests, college and career preparation.

d. Race and Ethnicity

    Ethnicity is a factor in this classroom.  The class is about one-third Hispanic and two-thirds Caucasian.  The Hispanic students group together and occasionally one of the English only students will make a comment about them speaking Spanish in class or something mildly inappropriate.  It is important for me to encourage understanding of differences and have a place where all students feel safe to share and learn however they feel comfortable.  This means changing grouping.  When students need translations, I have to group certain students together, but when doing group work in a more mathematical context it is important to group students so that they learn to work together.  When real-world examples are used many various examples should be used to address different cultures and experiences as well.  Assessments should also reflect the differences.

4. Student Skills and Prior Learning

    While students in this class are generally low-achieving, there are many different reasons for their being placed in this class.  Individual learning goals vary largely from student to student.  Two students feel like they belong in a higher class and are often looking for more challenging work.  They both catch on quickly and often finish their work before the rest of the class.  This sometimes leads to them getting off task.  One of the higher achieving students was sick during testing and was possibly misplaced.  She is hoping to accelerate and test out of Algebra.  Several of the students have had tragedies in their lives that have made learning a lower priority.  I have observed that some of these students understand the concepts, but refuse to participate in group discussions or follow directions.

    These factors all come into play when setting learning goals.  It has appeared that setting a high learning goal and stating it explicitly at the beginning of instruction helps students perform and achieve at a higher level.  

    The variety of backgrounds in the classroom calls for differentiated instruction.  The students are used to direct instruction and respond well to it at most times.  Students have to be encouraged with a lot of enthusiasm to work in groups and even then, the response requires a lot of teacher interaction and guidance.  Extra work must be provided for the higher achieving students so they can delve deeper into topics to help them do well on the next placement test.

    Given the variety of skill and prior learning in the classroom, continuous formative assessment is essential.  The teacher must check student work and check in with students asking for explanation often to make sure students understand all parts of the lesson.  While this is important in every classroom, these students are in a situation where they need to understand the material in order to avoid falling further behind.  Many of these students are lacking in basic skills and formative assessment must be constant in order to catch which of these skills need to be revisited.  These basic skills can often be reviewed as part of another lesson.  Summative assessments are difficult for many of these students.  It is important that the teacher can compare the observations of the student with their performance on summative assessments.  Homework is rarely a good example of student ability in this particular class.  Students who understand a concept may not do the homework or show their work and many of them have problems taking formal tests.

    This classroom is a difficult, but rewarding one and one of my favorite classes to observe.  There is so much room to improve and the slightest bit of understanding could open up doors to more complex problems and understanding.

References

Hafner, C., Maloney, W. (2013). Sweetwater School District #1 District Technology Plan July 1, 2014-June 30, 2017.  Retrieved December 29, 2013 from http://www.sweetwater1.org/subsite/dist/page/technology-plan-1372

Proximity One. (2013). Wyoming School District Demographic Profiles. Retrieved December 30 from http://proximityone.com/wy_sdc.htm

National Center for Education Statistics. (2010). Common Core of Data. Retrieved December 30, 2013 from http://nces.ed.gov/ccd/tables/2000_schoollunch_01.asp

National Center for Education Statistics. (2011). Common Core of Data. Retrieved December 30, 2013 from http://nces.ed.gov/ccd/

Sweetwater County School District #1. (2009). Rock Springs High School Profile. Retrieved December 30, 2013 from http://www.sweetwater1.org/subsite/rhs/page/nca/school-improvement-805

Sweetwater County School District #1. (2013). Title I Parental Involvement Policy. Retrieved December 30, 2013 from http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCwQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sweetwater1.org%2Ffile%2F9663%2Fdownload&ei=_BLCUoqTN9PgoATkwYLQDg&usg=AFQjCNGuCnfOKWfGViTRHOZfD7UOn2IVZQ&sig2=dQ3hkBFM6MyagOqwIGXSMg&bvm=bv.58187178,d.cGU