Mini Teacher Work Sample assignment for Observation Class with Dr. Howard

1. Teacher Work Sample Lite:
POLARIS ELEMENTARY
BY: KATHLEEN ANDERSON

2. TWS PRESENTATION:
Class
1.One student in each of
four classes.
School
1.Extremely small
school.
Community
1. Isolated, Ranching
Community
2. Four different grades
in the same classroom
sharing one teacher.
2. all classes are in the
same room.
3. one teacher for all
classes.

3. The people
are very
rural
minded
with limited
world
awareness.
Very small
budget for
schoolboard
to use when
buying books
and
maintaining
the school
.Integrating many or all
subjects into most units
with variations for the
different grade levels
helps to create an
exciting learning
environment.
Students must be
able to work
independently or
must learn to do so
quickly. When the
teacher is working
with one or more of
the other
students, the
students working on
assignments must
stay on task & not
allow themselves to
become distracted.

4. INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES
Step 2: Instructional Objective(s) Language Arts unit on the story
by, Jeanette Winter, Follow the Drinking Gourd (McGraw-Hill, 2001).
Given the results of the pre-test and the reading of the story “Follow the
Drinking Gourd” and reading/exploring the Smithsonian History interactive
website on the “slave life and the Underground Railroad” page, students will
practice the visualization of life as a slave and what it might have been like to
runaway and follow the Underground Railroad, with evidence by completing
a grade-level-specific writing assignment that earns at least a satisfactory
and achieving at least an 80% as measured by completing the posttest.
Given the story “Follow the Drinking Gourd” and the “slave life and the
Underground Railroad page on the Smithsonian History website, students
will visualize life as a slave and what it was like to run away; also what it was
like to be a part of the Underground Railroad with evidence by writing an
essay from the view point of a slave, conductor or safe-house owner on the
Underground Railroad as measured by the writing standards for each grade
level and for the 1st grade: it will be at least 3 good sentences, 2nd grade: will
be three good paragraphs, 3rd grade: 3 good paragraphs of 5 to 7 lines
each, 7th grade: at least 3 good paragraphs that consist of:
introduction, body and conclusion .

5. Montana State Common Core
Standard(s)
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
Key Ideas and Details
Read closely to determine what the
text says explicitly and to make
logical inferences from it; cite
specific textual evidence when
writing or speaking to support
conclusions drawn from the text.




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
Craft and Structure
4. Interpret words and phrases as
they are used in a text, including
determining
technical, connotative, and
figurative meanings, and analyze
how specific word choices shape
meaning or tone.
Integration of Knowledge and
Ideas
7. Integrate and evaluate content
presented in diverse media and
formats, including visually and
quantitatively, as well as in words.*
Range of Reading and Level of
Text Complexity
10. Read and comprehend complex
literary and informational texts
independently and proficiently.

6. Montana State Common Core
Standard(s)
English language progressive skills
for writing: for grades 1, 2, 3 and 7
FOR WRITING con’t:








Demonstrate command of the conventions
of standard English grammar and usage
when writing or speaking.
Demonstrate command of the conventions
of standard English
capitalization, punctuation, and spelling
when writing.
L.3.1f. Ensure subject-verb and
pronoun-antecedent agreement.
L.3.3a. Choose words and phrases for
effect.
L.7.1c. Place phrases and clauses within a
sentence, recognizing and correcting
misplaced and dangling modifiers.
L.7.3a. Choose language that expresses
ideas precisely and concisely, recognizing
and eliminating wordiness and redundancy
With some guidance and support
from peers and adults, develop
and strengthen writing as needed
by
planning, revising, editing, rewriti
ng, or trying a new
approach, focusing on how well
purpose and audience have been
addressed
 Produce clear and coherent
writing in which the
development, organization, and
style are appropriate to
task, purpose, and audience.
(Grade-specific expectations for
writing types are defined in
standards 1–3 above.)

7. PRE & POSTTEST
1st Grade test will be
10 multiple choice
questions
a specific test will be
written for each
grade level in which
there are students
Pretest / Posttest
2nd Grade test will be
14 short answer
questions
3rd Grade test will be
16 short answer
questions
7th Grade test will be
20 short answer
questions

8. each student reading in
turn, with help as needed
Read the story Follow the
Drinking Gourd
Students will develop
questions before reading
the story and discuss them
after the story.
Read aloud at the green
table each student taking
turns with discussion
about the story
intermittently throughout
discuss the
constellations, "big & little
dippers" & how to find the
North Star, how it was used
& why
students will look for the Big
& Little Dipper on the first
clear evening & give a brief
report the next day in
school.

9. writing an essay from the view
point of a slave, conductor or
safe-house owner on the
Underground Railroad as
measured by the writing
standards for each grade level.
PROBES
Each grade will have a
grade-specific set of
requirements for writing a
poem or letter written from
the view point of a runaway
slave.

10. Adaptations made based upon observations
Two of the students really
struggled with both writing
assignments. They both
required a tremendous
amount of help and the
assignments took several days
longer than planned. So I
added additional writing
assignments to the next
Language Arts unit that was
closely associated with the
slavery and Underground
Railroad issues being an
informational story about Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. and his
famous speech “I have a
dream.” Although we are using
the information from the MLK
story, I have incorporated two
lessons on basic writing skills.
The lessons include teaching
the use of graphic organizers
both printed for paper and
pencil use; as well as internet
website, educational, interacti
ve, graphic organizers that
include imbedded coaching
tools.

Student 1 gain ___70%__

__pretest score 10%:

Student 2 gain _49%__

_______pretest score 21%: posttest score 71%_

Student 3 gain 44% _

_______pretest score 44%: posttest score 88%_
. ______________
posttest score 80%:____
_______
______
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Student 4 gain _10%____

_______pretest score 80%: posttest score 90%__

11. Analysis of the results:

12. REFLECTION
Most effective strategies:
Least effective strategies:

1. What activities worked best

2. What activities did not work as well

The science lesson connected to the first
story and the activities that went with it
seemed to make the biggest impression
on the students. In regard to their
comprehension and retention of the
story details they seemed to remember
most of the details related to the stars
and constellations. They really enjoyed
the websites online that showed the
night sky and location of the various
constellations at different times during
the night. By using the science websites
with good graphics of the constellation
placement, the students were able to go
home and find the Big Dipper without
too much difficulty and then from that
find the North Star.
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The first two writing activities did not work
the way I intended for them to work. The
students did not seem to be at their grade
levels, in terms of skills and ability
compared to the Montana core standards
for writing. Not even one of them seem to
be even close to proficient for their grade
level. My intention was for the writing
assignment to help them with
understanding how difficult a slaves life was
and then to have that understanding help
them to understand that the AfricanAmerican’s life was not that much better
when Martin Luther King became a leader.
However, writing was such a struggle, all of
their attention was on the mechanics of the
assignment.

13. REFLECTION con’t.
Relationships between skill &
execution …
Future actions to increase
effectiveness …
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Relationship between
teacher, skill/execution and outcomes:
I don’t know if my skill was part of the
reason for the students’ inability to
understand the life-long struggle of a
slave and then to transfer that
understanding to the life of an AfricanAmerican or if it had more to do with
students’ isolated living conditions. I
could have planned other activities to
help the students with those concepts
other than the writing activities. For
sure, if I had been around the students
previously I would probably have
known about their lack of writing
ability.

Professional development activities to improve :
Substituting at any of the elementary schools
in the area would be a good professional
development activity for me; as well as, finding
professional development opportunities
online, in webinar form. I receive three journals
online from national teaching organizations
that have great articles I can read on a variety
of teaching topics and I need to join at least
one teaching association that has a sub-group
for students and/or student teachers. I did
belong to such an association when I was going
to school in Kentucky and that group had “Preprofessional Development” opportunities
available to and for students every month; in
addition I received a monthly publication that
was written specifically for first year teachers. I
kept all of the issues I received so I can reread
them and also refer to them in the future as
needed.

14. TO CONCLUDE:
Future plans to improve lessons
If I teach this lesson again I will use additional stories about slave
life, in addition to the Harriet Tubman story. I will also be sure of
the writing skills of the students before I assign any writing
activities to be sure the assignment is a better match for the
students’ abilities and not so far above what they have previously
completed. I could possibly use a “How To” writing assignment
instead of something more inline with essay writing. If it is
acceptable, there are several movies with the proper rating, for
elementary children that show the life style and struggles of
African-Americans during the time that MLK was alive. The
students may be able to identify with the characters in a movie
better than those in a book when it comes to understanding
things they have not witnessed within the world they are familiar
with. I would also like to find an activity that includes some role
play I could use to engage the students and get them to really
think about how they would feel in that type of situation.