Contextual Factors

Secondary Methods Assignment Cover Sheet

Title of Assignment: Contextual Factors

Name: Katy Wood Date: October 14, 2011

Competency 004: The teacher understands learning processes and factors that impact student learning and demonstrates this knowledge by planning effective, engaging instruction and appropriate assessments.

Justification Statement:

I created this artifact on October 14, 2011. It was written in regards to Caney Creek High School’s AEIS report. This information will be very useful in examining the outside factors I, as an educator, will have to take into consideration in planning my lessons. Being able to look up this information will be extremely useful in the future when I begin my teaching career at a different school and district. Understanding the background and environmental factors of my students will help me become a more effective teacher.

Contextual Factors

The geographic location of Caney Creek High School within the state of Texas is in the southeast region, north of Houston. The community surrounding this school is a very rural small town with the majority of the population being white. The ethnic distribution with a total of 1,686 students includes: 27 African American (1.6%), 512 Hispanic (30.4%), 1,133 white (67.2%), 9 Native American (.5%), and 5 Asian (.3%). The number of students in each grade level include: 533 freshmen (31.6%), 464 sophomores (27.5%), 353 juniors (20.9%), and 337 seniors (20%). Of all of the students in this high school, over 50% are economically disadvantaged, 54.7% to be exact, and 42.6% of all high school students are At-Risk students. According to the Conroe Chamber of Commerce Website, the community is very stable, with many links to various businesses and job opportunities. They constantly praise their school districts, especially Conroe ISD, mentioning their “competitive athletic programs that frequently win district and state championships”.

Within the classroom I am doing my field experience, the walls are covered with bulletin boards filled with information about the drama department, including pictures of current and past students. There is also a white board along one wall of the classroom that my mentor teacher uses to write down the journal questions each morning for the various classes. There is also a large TV with a VHS/DVD player hooked up to it for the students to view various movies that are relevant to the lesson. There are two computers in the classroom. One is in the office, and the other is the mentor’s laptop. Both of these computers are strictly for teacher use. There are classroom rules, but they are not posted and visible. These rules are gone over at the beginning of the year and are emphasized throughout the year. The teacher uses small groups on a regular basis for partnered improvisation or group improv, as well as coming up with a scene to perform in class. For the most part, the classroom routine is consistent. The teacher begins with a warm up question on the board, a discussion about that question, and then gives a short lesson with an activity or game to follow to emphasize what was just taught. The theatre classroom does not have traditional desks/seating. There are regular chairs, and the teacher arranges them differently for various activities. For example, at the beginning of each class, the students arrange their chairs in rows at the front of the classroom for their journal entry, but the chairs are moved to the back of the classroom for improv games and performances.

Student characteristics that need to be addressed as instruction is designed include age, gender, ethnicity, special needs, culture, language, and learning styles. In the periods that I observe, the amount of boys versus the amount of girls is about equal. There isn’t an overwhelming number of either gender in any of my observed classes. The average age of students in the theatre one class is typically freshmen level, since it is a first level class. However, students of any age can take theatre one. In advanced theatre, the students are all at least sophomores, but the levels are dispersed evenly throughout the class. In theatre one, the majority of the students are Caucasian, with a handful of Hispanic students. In advanced theatre, the majority are Caucasian, with a handful of Hispanic students and one African American student. In theatre one, about a third of the students have special needs, with a majority of these needs involving a learning disability like ADD. In the advanced theatre class, there are only one or two students with special needs. In theatre one, there is one student who speaks English as a second language, and in advanced theatre, there are four students who speak English as a second language. They are still required to take the TAKS test in both of the classes. They generally have good English speaking skills, but prefer to speak in Spanish to their friends. In both of the theatre classes, the achievement levels of the students are based on participation, especially performance, so most of the students that try and put forth an effort usually do well and make A’s. However, the students that don’t try, don’t write in their journal for the warm up, and refuse to participate are the ones that barely pass. When I taught my lesson today, every single student responded extremely well to visual learning, and even better to tactile learning. The prior knowledge students need to understand for the lesson includes information they learned the previous day. Many of the teacher’s lessons built on the previous lesson.

Instructional implications that will need to be addressed include community, classroom and student characteristics. If I were teaching theatre in a community where the majority of the population is African American, I would need to focus various aspects of theatre on topics that would be of interest to those students, such as emphasizing different African American playwrights...etc. I would also try to include various cultural aspects into my teaching. For example, if the students I taught were really interested in dancing, I would incorporate that into my improvisation activities. The same would hold true for students that were interested in other things, such as sports. In conclusion, knowing the various factors of the district and community can be very influential in teaching and assessing students in the classroom.