TWS 5Th GRADE, DATA and MEASUREMENT UNIT

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TWS 5th GRADE, DATA AND MEASUREMENT UNIT

Teacher Work Sample

Grade 5: Measurement and Data Unit

The University of New Orleans

In partial fulfillment of the Requirement for EDUC 5823

Professor A. Himelstein

May 2014

Teacher Work Sample

Grade 5, Measurement and Data Unit

Table of Contents

Contextual FactorsPages 3-10

Learning GoalsPages 11-13

Assessment PlanPages 14-18

Design for InstructionPages 19-28

Instructional Decision-MakingPages 29-33

Analysis of Student LearningPages 34-43

Reflection and Self-EvaluationPages 44-46

AppendicesPages 48-75

Rubrics for AssessmentsPages 48-49

Pre-AssessmentPages 50-56

Summative Assessment 1 to 3Pages 57-72

Post-Assessment Pages 73-74

Permission to Videotape Page 75

Contextual Factors

Information about the learning-teaching context and students’ individual differences to set learning goals and plan instruction and assessment

Community, District, and School Factors

JC-Ellis Elementary is located in Metairie, Louisiana, in a suburban community near Lake Pontchartrain. According to data gathered from different appraisal and real-estate websites, homes in the neighborhood are typically valued around $150,000. Total enrollment has consistently grown in the last five years. The school is transitioning to become a combined elementary and middle school, and currently has enrolled 625 students. Proportion of boys and girls is remarkably even, with 313 male students and 312 female students ranging from Pre-Kindergarten to sixth grade. JC Ellis’s ethnic make-up has changed since I have started working at JC Ellis in 2007. Redistricting caused by the ongoing Dandridge lawsuit in Jefferson Parish Schools has contributed to lower the proportion of African-American students and to increase the number of Hispanic students. About 29% of children are considered Black or African American, 22% are Hispanic or Latino, 5% are Asian, 37% are White, and the remaining part is made of students of other races or of children who are considered to have two or more ethnicities. While the school presents an undeniable mix of ethnicity and cultures, its socio-economic characteristics could be considered more homogeneous. Like all Jefferson Parish public schools, Ellis includes a vast majority of students who benefit from Free and Reduced Lunch programs. 62% of all pupils qualify for free lunch and 11% are eligible for reduced meal. This proportion close to a total of 75% suggests that a majority of children attending Ellis are raised in a family environment in which economic challenges are experienced on a daily basis, which has been statistically linked to a lack of academic support at home. School includes two foreign language immersion Magnet programs (Spanish and French), which are available for all children in Jefferson Parish with no condition of eligibility and not limited to the district’s boundaries. Students cannot be enrolled after they reach first grade, as it would be extremely difficult for children not speaking the target language to keep up with pupils having spent two or three years in the program. On a daily basis, they follow a common English-Language Arts instructional block with their non-immersion peers and are taught mathematics, social studies and science in the target language.

Classroom Factors

For seven years, I have been teaching children in the French Immersion Program. My Teacher Work Sample (TWS) will take place in my fifth grade mathematics class. Since I have worked at JC-Ellis, I have consistently moved to a new classroom every single year. While this has prevented me from accumulating useless materials, it has also made it difficult to develop an optimal structure to teach. Because our campus lacks physical space, and because construction of a new building has been delayed, I was asked to share my classroom with a colleague who teaches our 3rd and 4th Grade French immersion children.

For the first four month of the school year, sharing the same space throughout the day appeared to be quiet challenging. Several times, it was obvious that children’s concentration was jeopardized by noise coming from across the room divider. Before the winter holiday, a decision to embed my colleague’s instructional periods to non-immersion classes was made. While the acoustic comfort increased dramatically, I was told not to remove the dividers in the middle of the room and to remain in one half of the room. Despite the lack of space, my room is comfortable, and I am able to use a Promethean Board which has become an essential component of my pedagogy in the last four years. Even though the environment in which I teach my students could be greatly improved, I have learned to look at the bright side and I am well aware that they could be much worse than they are. I was told that my colleague’s class would eventually come back to the classroom at one point but I was not given a clear timeline, nor was I explained the factors determining the decision.

Personal Factors

Personal narrative plays an important part in the way one becomes an educator and most important, decides to remain in this profession. The issue of teachers’ personality however, seems to be a topic many want to avoid because it requires to discuss the impact of personal biases on pedagogical philosophies. In this perspective, some argue that it would be necessary to eliminate all personal biases in order to implement decisions solely on strictly objective criteria.

While it appears obvious that many educators’ decisions are, to a certain extent, biased by their personal history and beliefs, it does not mean that all biases are negative from an ethical standpoint, and it certainly does not mean that engaging in a reflection upon the way they contribute to influencing one’s decisions would be a bad thing. On the contrary, it is very likely that awareness of personal biaseswould enhance teachers’ ability to make rational and just decisions. It would also allow them to fully understand reasons guiding their decision-making processes, while keeping in mind a broad vision of the impact they want to have on their students.

My personal life has undeniably played a big part in my decision to become a teacher. As a student, especially as a teenager, I had a very conflicting relationship with the school institution. Middle and high-school were particularly challenging not only academically but also socially and emotionally. I remember vividly that, prior to being a student who was bound to fail, I was primarily unhappy within school structures. When I chose to become a school teacher, one of my main goals was to be able to providing my students with a strong sense of emotional support. Because of this personal bias, of which I am clearly aware, I believe I am capable of helping my students build and improve their sense of belonging. I value the concept of classroom community because I did suffer from not experiencing a nurturing environment when I was at school, and I think that, without a clear consciousness of my personal biases, I would probably not value pupils’ socio-emotional well-being as much as I do.

My background as a French-born citizen, raised and educated in a foreign country in which many social codes and customs are very different, also affects my pedagogy. I am different than many of my colleagues, because of my accent, my habits, my culture, my social memories, and probably several other factors of which I am not even aware. Understanding the positive impact of this difference has taken me a long time. During my first year as a teacher in the United-States, I wanted to try to erase any signs of cultural dissemblance. Eventually, I realized that bringing up my own differences, as well as some elements of my personal history, could have a very strong impact on my students. I found pupils to be inspired when I shared with them the challenges I experienced when I did not speak the language, or when I told them how much work it took me to starting over a profession in a completely new environment.

Emigrating from a foreign country has helped me clarifying and understanding my own biases, it has also given me an opportunity to observe how very specific and powerful biases operate in the educational sphere of the greater New Orleans area. France values public education. For several reasons, public school excellence is extremely prestigious there, as it contributes to exemplify a certain ideal of social justice and equity. Quickly after I moved, I understood that a different rule operated in and around the city of New Orleans. For an overwhelming majority of families, public schools are synonym of failure, not only academically but also socially. In my opinion, this situation contributes, generation after generation, to reproduce a system in which inequality becomes perpetuated. As a foreigner, as an immigrant who moved very recentlyto the United States and whose entire family leaves oversea, I am able to witness these biases with maybe more clarity than a majority of people who were born and raised within this system. I consider that it is my responsibility as a teacher to tackle these issues with my students, to address the question of perpetuation of social and racial segregation in our city, and to contribute to promote a sense of pride from being the product of public education, which in my opinion, constitute the highest and most moral goal a country can achieve.

Characteristics of Students

My fifth grade mathematics class, in which my TWS will take place, is a small group of students who have been part of the French Immersion Program since they have started to attend Pre-Kindergarten. Only 12 students are enrolled, 9 girls and 3 boys. While the physical space of the classroom is somewhat challenging, teaching such a small group often seems to be pedagogically ideal. I have known the children since they started school and I have been teaching them for three consecutive school-years. Therefore, I have developed a very strong relationship with them as well as their families.

Ethnic distribution of students is slightly different from the overall school’s racial make-up as 17% of children are African-American, 17% Hispanic, 8% Asian and 58% white. It terms of socio-economic status, my group of fifth grader also differs from the overall school’s characteristics with a little less than 50% of pupils being eligible for free and reduced lunch.

Because of their background in the French Immersion program, all students (with the exception of one) are bilingual and can be taught either in French or in English. In order for them to be prepared for the requirements of standardized tests, target vocabulary words have consistently been learned in both languages. For the purpose of the TWS, lessons will be conducted alternatively in French and in English; however, assessments will be strictly designed in English.

Students’ Approaches to Learning, Skills and Prior Knowledge

Despite the small size of the group, fifth graders display very different learning abilities. While the overall scores of the group on fourth grade Leap test was Mastery and above, two students experience learning challenges in mathematics and have scored low basic on the test. On the other hand, three students are enrolled in the gifted and talented program and share remarkable abilities when asked to perform higher-order thinking tasks. One student displays undeniable socio-emotional challenges. The issue has been identified since he was in Kindergarten, but his parents have always been opposed to allow a formal psychological evaluation, which could have led to providing him with specific help. For this student, working cooperatively is almost impossible and some days it is very difficult to even reach a functional level of communication. However, he is extremely intelligent and has no intrinsic difficulties following mathematics lessons.

Children have been accustomed to work in an environment in which they have to develop problem-solving strategies. My goal as a mathematics teacher is to allow my students to build bridges between theoretical tools and real-life problems. I have always believed that the main reason why many people seem to dislike mathematics is that they are not able to envision its practical and concrete aspects. No matter which area of curriculum is targeted, children are systematically asked to use estimation and to question the plausibility of their answers.

The unit taught through this TWS is based on Measurement and Data and, will allow students to develop many connections between mathematical concepts and the world in which they live. Prior knowledge based on the number system will be required to complete various activities. Because fractions are a critical area in fifth grade, they will be consistently embedded to the course of the unit.

Implication for Instructional Planning and Assessment

This unit will be taught while keeping in mind my students’ individual learning characteristics. Its primary pedagogical goal is to allow students to develop higher-order thinking strategies when solving mathematical problems. From a general standpoint, I consider Measurement and Data to be an essential unit because it helps pupils develop a conceptual interpretation of reality through the prism of mathematical tools.

Pre-assessment is an essential instructional guide at the beginning of a unit, as it helps identifying each student’s prior knowledge and academic needs.Each learning goal forming the unit will begin by a pre-assessment, which will be based on my knowledge of students, as well as the academic level they were supposed to have reached at the end of fourth grade. I expect a rather significant disparity among pupils’ pre-assessment scores. An interpretation of their prior knowledge will allow me to develop a more efficient strategy targeting individual needs.

Classroom organization will not change during implementation of this unit. Behavioral expectations will be the same and children will be expected to interact with one another on a very frequent basis. I would like, however, to take advantage of this TWS to improve my ability to include culturally relevant contents to my lessons. Mathematics class, as oppose to social studies or reading, is often seen as a place in which it is rather difficult to incorporate multicultural contents. Working on Measurement and Data gives me an opportunity to challenge this preconception. I intend to create exercises and problems which include culturally relevant situations. For instance, if interpreting a line-graph based on the evolution of the population of New-Orleans, in the last 15 years, I will encourage my students to discuss socio-economic, cultural, and ethnic factors involved in the changes. One efficient way to build bridges between mathematics and the real-world is to make sure students can relate to what is being investigated.

Learning Goals

Setting Significant, Challenging, Varied and Appropriate Learning Goals

For this unit, I decided to focus on Measurement and Data in my fifth grade class. My decision was based on several factors. I wanted to be able to implement the contents through a three weeks period, which is relatively short. I also intended to choose a mathematical topic which could be linked to several real-life situations. Lastly, I wanted this unit to give children repeated opportunities to reviewskills and concepts already encountered since the beginning of the school year; for instance, computation of fractions can easily be embedded to the unit, when determining areas, perimeters, volumes, or when interpreting data.

Learning goals for this unit are based on the Common Core standards of mathematics in fifth grade, which were adopted by the Louisiana State of Education in 2012, and fully implemented in Jefferson Parish Public School’s classrooms as of August 2013. The three main learning targets are:

• Convert like measurement units within a given measurement system.
• Represent and interpret data.
• Geometric measurement: understand concepts of volume and relatevolume to multiplication and to addition.

In order to meet each of these three objectives, students will have to be able to master several sub-skills, which will be specifically targeted throughout the unit. For all three main learning goals, instructional approach will be based on problem solving, guided by real-life situations. It is critical to give students as many opportunities as possible to build bridges between mathematical concepts and their daily life. For a majority of pupils who develop a fear of mathematics (which often begins at a young age), the issue is caused by an inability to perceive the purpose and the meaning of the activities, and to relate to the topics. In order to prevent this problem, children will be consistently presented with situations they can find relevant from a personal standpoint.

Measurement and Data also allows reinvesting mathematical tools with a new perspective. For instance, I believe that data analysis can help children who have been having difficulties constructing the meaning of computation of fractions as it contributes to developing a different perspective on what function fractions can have when used to determine relationship among quantities.

Focusing on problem-solving skills in order to allow children to develop higher-order thinking learning strategies does not mean that processes involving automaticity and algorithmic abilities are considered irrelevant. Building proficiency in mathematics sometimes requires applying pre-determined rules or tools. For instance, students must learn operation facts and they have to memorize academic vocabulary. However, area of Measurement and Data does not require as many automatic computing skills as others, such as Number and Operation in Base-Ten. Therefore it allows educators to focus on higher-order thinking activities.

Learning goals developed through this unit are not limited to academic content, they also include student practices. As a mathematics teacher, while I intend to teach my students new skills, I also consider myself a learning facilitator, whose responsibility is to develop children’s ability to broaden their field of knowledge beyond the limits of the curriculum. As much as possible, my lessons will be built in a way allowing students to perceive the existence of a problem before they are being modeled a solution. During this important phase which determines the process of constructing new knowledge, students will alternatively work in group and individually. Throughout this Graduate Program, I have realized that during the research phase, group work is frequently more productive if size is limited to two or three children, therefore I will make sure all participants are actually involved in activities.