Running head: PRE-ASSESSING THE EDUCATORS ACCOMMEDATION READINESS 1

Implementation and Reflection of Module 3 Planning Assignment

BreAnne Griego

OTL565 – Cultural and Linguistic Diversity in the Differentiated

Colorado State University – Global Campus

Richard Schreck, PhD

December 3, 2015

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Your Name: BreAnne Griego CSU-Global Course: OTL 565 CLD in the Differentiated Classroom

Subject / Course: Social Studies Topic: West Africa

Lesson Title: West Africa Geography Challenge

Level: Grade 7 Lesson Duration: 1 day (54 minuets)

SUPPORT YOUR CHOICES THROUGHOUT EVERY PHASE OF THE LESSON WITH RESEARCH THAT SUPPORTS ITS EFFECTIVENESS.

Common Core or State Standard(s):SS.07.722.04- Explain how the physical environment of a place influence its economy, culture and trade patterns.  Depth of knowledge level: 3Blooms: Understand

Description of Lesson as currently taught:Currently this lesson is taught using students in groups. I usually read the first part to the group and then the students have time as a group to discuss the answer with their group and then put it on paper. As the class works through the 4 different problems facing West Africa, I push the responsibility to read the problems to the students as they work together. The focus here is not only coming up with a solution to the problem but also focusing on writing a perfect 4 sentence P.E.A.L. paragraph. The assignment is set up on our classroom website for easy access for us as we work through the assignment http://www.msgriego.com/geography-challenge.html.

Pre-Assessment AND Stage of Second Language Acquisition (SLA), if ApplicablePre-Assessment

Students are pre-assessed using the district created and enforced pre-assessment on West Africa. For the majority of my students, these pre-assessments show that they have no background knowledge on topics like West Africa since this is the first year they are exposed to Ancient Eastern Hemisphere World History. Our school demographics are about 85% Hispanic, 10 % Asian and 5% other. For me, this means that most of my students come in with little to no knowledge of our class topics because their families do not directly relate to the content. Since the result of the pre-assessments are often negative, I rely more on formative assessments throughout the unit to show growth and understanding of the content. These formative assessments include asking students to compare and use examples using the content.

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Second Language Acquisition Stage Identification (Preproduction, Early Production, Speech Emergence, Intermediate Fluency, Advanced Fluency)

This assignment is geared toward the collective of students instead of focusing on the CLD population specifically. Since I am teaching to more fluent speakers than CLD this assignment is in the intermediate fluency stage. For newcomer students this assignment will be tough but I have worked in social interaction aspects that will allow them to still participate as much as their language skills are possible. For most CLD students their speaking skills are much stronger and develop faster than other domains. Working in groups and in social interactions makes since they can rely on their dominant language domain.

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Learning Target (Objectives, Student Set Goals, and/or Essential Questions):Student Goals:

I will speak to evaluate problems West Africans faced in developing settlements. I will write to evaluate problems West Africans faced in developing settlements.

Learning Task (Remember to consider relevance and career/workforce readiness skills around what is being taught AND Second Language Acquisition Stage Instructional Modification Ideas) NOTE: if do not have any CLD students in your classroom, identify strategies that would meet the needs of other diverse learners who are performing above or below the majority of the students in the class:Number of Days: 1 day (54 minuets)

Learning Task1. As a class we will evaluate the 2 pictures found on http://www.msgriego.com/geography-

challenge.html. As a group decide which of the two pictures is the most likely to develop a settlement. Once you decide as a group complete a perfect P.E.A.L. paragraph that helps explain your answer. “Because ELLs enter the U.S. school system with background knowledge in their primary language, pictures and pictographs related to this knowledge can help bridge the gap, (Hill & Flynn, 2006, p. 38).

2. Read problem A, decided which of the choices listed would help your settlement be most successful. Once your group has come to a decision create a perfect P.E.A.L. paragraph that helps you explain your answer.

3. Repeat step 2 for problems B and C.

Student DifferencesYou have learned that differentiation consists of planning lessons in response to student differences in one or more of the following areas: Readiness, Interest, and/or Learning Profile/Style. Choose which area you will use to differentiate your lesson.

Readiness: The level of a student’s skills or understanding of a topic, do some need scaffolding and others challenged?

Interest: Finding ways for students to pursue individual areas of interest about the topic; will choices be given?

Learning Profile/Style: What is the intellectual preference of the student? Individual vs. group work; multiple- intelligences, etc.

For this assignment I will be focusing on learning profile and style. Specifically, I would like to focus on group vs individual work. This assignment really forces students to not only work in groups so they can discuss and gain a better understanding of the content but it also forces students to work alone in creating summaries and questions. For me, this is the best of two world. Yes most of my students would like to work in groups because at 12 years old they are naturally social. This assignment however is about getting the students to work together to solve the problem of unknown words along with working independently to create an understanding of ethics.

Overall, the student will be assessed using formative assessments. Classroom teachers use formative assessment because it has been shown to improve learning outcomes for all students, especially those struggling with learning, students with disabilities, and English learners; promote effective instructional practices; and increase coherence when aligned with or linked to a state’s comprehensive assessment system (Gallagher & Worth, 2008; Black & William, 1998). To assess group work I will be using a rubric that I use every day in class. This rubric allows me to evaluate students while they are working in groups. This rubric focuses on if they are working together, how well they are working together and if everyone is participating in the group discussion. Individually, the students will be evaluated using the assignment sheet that they complete their summaries and questions on. This evaluation will focus on if they can recognize the question of ethics within the Indian Caste System.

Varying TasksYou have learned that in order to differentiate instruction the educator can vary the task in one or more of the following areas: Content, Process, and/or Product. Choose which area you will differentiate. Then describe in detail exactly how you will differentiate your lesson based on the area you selected.

Content: What students are to learn Process: How students are to learn. Includes instructional strategies, adjustable assignments, and

curriculum approaches. Product: How students show what they have learned. Includes performance tasks and assessment

tools.

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Summative Assessment (Collect student data):The summative assessment will come after we have adjusted and individualized student learning. This usually happens toward the end of the unit. Here students will be exposed to questioning and content that is appropriate for their comprehension level. They will be asked show why settlements and civilizations develop the way they do using West Africa as the example.

YOU WILL COMPLETE THE FOLLOWING SECTIONS IN MODULE 2, AFTER THE LESSON IS TAUGHT

Self-Reflection for Continuous Improvement:Explain what went well in the implementation of your lesson. What changes would you make to improve based on student achievement data and/or evidence? A visual display of the student achievement data must be included (i.e., table, graph, chart, etc.). What are the next steps for the students in your class, a group of students, and/or an individual student to ensure EVERY student is proficient? What are the next steps for you in becoming better at differentiating your instructional approaches for all learners in your classes? Use research (Module readings from the course text and 1-2outside sources) to support your choices and ideas.

Feedback Strategy (Frequent checks for understanding):Student feedback will be provided both by peers and by the teacher. Hattie (2012) synthesized over 800 education articles that included more than 200 million students and found that student feedback was ranked among the highest in factors improving student performance. The teacher feedback comes from the group rubric that is based on how the group is working together. They will also receive feedback on their perfect P.E.A.L. paragraphs since this is a school wide initiative that we focus on. From their peers they are receiving feedback when they are working together on reading and writing their summaries. ”With peer evaluation, students see each other as resources for understanding and checking for quality work against previously established criteria,” (Garrison, C. & Ehringhaus, M. (n.d.). This is probably the most important feedback since students respond positively to their peers and not their instructor’s feedback.

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For this lesson, I would say that overall, things went really well. This was the first time that I have taught this lesson after it was given to me from another teacher that had great reviews from her students. I will say that the number of assignments that were turned in was extremely high compared to regular days. This is mostly due to the gradual release aspect of this assignment. I have noticed that when students are given an assignment to work on that they more than likely are extremely distracted in class. Using the gradual release, it keeps students accountable for managing time and then slowly lets them go to independent work as the period goes on. This does not follow the Competency Based program my district says they have but as a classroom teacher if something works then you stick with it.

In the future, I need to spend a little more time working with my SPED and DUAL identified students. My CLD students have seemed to respond extremely well to the gradual release process as well as the sentence stems. For my SPED and DUAL identified students I could use some more accommodations to help ensure that they are reaching fluency. This may come in the way of using some total physical response. “For the sake of awakening and engaging our students in today's stressful, high-stakes academic climate, teachers can find new inspiration by embracing kinesthetic teaching,” (Griss, 2013).

The next step for the students that did not reach proficiency on this assignment is to move on to our West Africa mapping assignment. The assignment offers traditional mapping skills using visuals and then a student choice in questioning. “Visual learners understand what they see more effectively than they do what they hear,” (CSU- Global, 2015). For students that did not pass the last assignment, they will be pulling questions from the 2.0 section to match the DOK level of the assignment we did. For the students that passed, they can attempt to better their score and show above grade level work by pulling questions from the 3.0 section. This allows the students that need more practice another opportunity to show proficiency on the assignment. It also meets the students that were successful at a high level of questioning to challenge them further.

My professional next step is to seek help on making sure that I am meeting the needs of the SPED and DUAL identified students. The best place for this is to peak with their supervising teachers to see if there is a better way to help them access the information we are learning in class. This can happen in conversation or a better way is to do observations on their classrooms so that they can model this information for me.

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Student Results by Identification

ESL Student SPED Student Dual Identified General Ed

Evidence of Implementation: Attach student work, photos of the lesson in progress demonstrating student motivation/engagement and/or any other evidence as proof of implementation. Remember to maintain student confidentiality (e.g., names removed, etc.) and follow school policies around student photos, etc.

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References

Alibali, M (2006). Does visual scaffolding facilitate students’ learning? Evidence from

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early algebra. Retrieved from http://ies.ed.gov/funding/grantsearch/details.asp?ID=54

CDE. (2009). Grade 7 Social Studies Standards. Retrieved from

http://www.cde.state.co.us/cosocialstudies/statestandards.

Colorado State University- Global Campus, (2015). Module 4: Pre-assessing the Educator’s

Accommodation Readiness. [Blackboard ecourse]. In OTL 565- Culturally and linguistic

diversity in the differentiated classroom.

Griss, S. (2013). The power of movement in teaching and learning. Retrieved from

http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2013/03/19/fp_griss.html.

Hattie, J. (2012). Visible learning for teachers: Maximizing impact on learning. New York,

NY: Routledge.

Herrera, S. G., & Murry, K. G. (2011). Mastering ESL and bilingual methods: Differentiated

instruction for culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students. Boston, MA: Pearson.

Gallagher, C., & Worth, P. (2008). Formative assessment policies, programs, and practices in the

southwest region. U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences,

National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Regional Educational

Laboratory Southwest. Retrieved from http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs.

Garrison, C. & Ehringhaus, M. (n.d.). Formative and summative assessments in the classroom.

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Retrieved from http://schools.nyc.gov/NR/rdonlyres/33148188-6FB5-4593-A8DF-

8EAB8CA002AA/0/2010_11_Formative_Summative_Assessment.pdf.