Catherine Owens

You will closely observe the community, school (the building, faculty, students, processes and protocols), classroom, and educators where you are working and submit an analysis that describes elaborates the context for teaching and learning. This analysis includes a detailed description of your school and community in both a quantitative and qualitative manner. The analysis extends beyond a mere description of the setting and includes a thoughtful observation and analysis of the school and community; it tells a story about both the context and the beginning of school practices. 

Describe the cultural context of the local school and community, to what extent are diversity, equity, and different cultural practices honored; use the data you have collected for the Ecological Portfolio, also check your school and county website for additional information. To better understand your context of teaching, please analyze these items with respect to the practices, procedures, and messages impacting your students’ development.

Focus on the following four elements: reflection, content, connections, and criticality: 

• Reflective analysis: includes the review and analysis of events and/or issues that draw together multiple perspectives and resources to come to a new understanding of the event or issue. 
• Content: addresses a substantial range of areas of teaching and learning and makes meaningful connections across these areas. 
• Connections: establishes / examines a significant number of links with outside resources and relevant theory; these resources are used carefully support and guide the structured reflection.
• Criticality: includes observations and interpretations of diversity, equity, and cultural context.

it should be 1,250 – 1,750 words (exclusive of references). The analysis includes 4-5 academic references to course material; appropriately cited in APA format.

1. You are being asked to cite educational research as evidence for the phenomena you are seeing in the schools and the decisions you and your mentor teacher are making. Using educational research, and eventually conducting it, is an important component of becoming a professional educator. It confirms our work and guides us in the best decision-making for our students. You can find also some support for how to go about citing it in the OWL website. This is good practice for any work you do as an educator.
2. You will find plenty of educational research and sources to cite in the books and materials provided you in your earlier coursework (i.e. course materials) – check the readings and suggested readings list; you are certainly welcome to seek more out via our library and other viable/credible internet sources such as the data sites listed for the School and Community Data Analysis section of the Ecological Portfolio. 
3. The question is: what are your sources for the ideas/concepts/practices you are seeing in the school and how would you incorporate them into your reflection as support for what is going on, or support for your disagreement? I suspect you will find many references relevant to your reflection in the areas of diversity, power, equity as well as best teaching and learning practices specific to your content area.
4. The link to the site and this analysis is to be submitted to BOTH an OSE course dropbox AND the Student Teaching 1 course dropbox.

Information to Include in the Context of Teaching & Learning Analysis (use Ecological Portfolio data and your observations to describe):

Demographic and Structural Description – what is the school like?

• Briefly describe the type of school in which you are working (K-8th)
• What are the demographic data of your school? 
• What is the title of the course(s) you are working with? 
• Grade level(s) you teach? 
• What is the length of the course (semester, year, other)? Briefly describe the pace of the curriculum and testing schedule. What is the class schedule (e.g., 50 minutes every day, 90 minutes every other day)?
• Where is the school where you are teaching located? (city, suburb, town, rural) What data/information are you using in making that determination?
• Describe any special features of your school or classroom setting (e.g., charter, co-teaching, themed magnet, classroom aide, bilingual, team taught with a special education teacher) that affect your teaching and student learning.
• Are teachers grouped into teams? How? How does planning take place within your school/department? What role does your mentor teacher play in planning for classes? What role do you anticipate in planning at the school?
• Describe any district, school, or mentor teacher requirements/expectations that affect your planning or delivery of instruction, such as required curricula, pacing plan, use of specific instructional strategies, interdisciplinary learning, standardized assessments, etc.
• Review the MTSS slide deck in iCollege; describe the Multi-tiered Systems of Support process in your school. How are students supported (or not supported) in this process? What are teachers’ roles and responsibilities in this process? Who else is involved in MTSS at the school or in the district?
• Identify any textbook or instructional program you primarily use for instruction. If a textbook, please provide the title, publisher, and date of publication. What type of digital platforms/sources are used or required?
• Describe the classroom benefits and limitations. What is your classroom’s aesthetic environment, physical layout, organization of routines/procedures, student groupings for collaborative work, materials, and instructional methods as well as symbols and communication patterns of school?

What are your students like?

• See Chapter 3 of “Unearthing Joy” by Muhammad (2023), specifically pages 105-106.
• Number, age range & gender of students in the class?
• Is there any ability grouping or tracking in use at the school or in your classes? If so, please describe how it might affect your class.
• Consider the variety of young adolescent learners in your class who may require different strategies/supports or accommodations/modifications to instruction or assessment (e.g., students with Individualized Education Programs [IEP’s] or 504 plans, students with specific language needs, students needing greater challenge or support, students who struggle with reading, students who are underperforming or those with gaps in academic knowledge. Describe the required or needed supports, accommodations, or modifications for your students that will affect your instruction.
• Who are English learners in the classroom? What are their language development levels? What are their home/family language(s)?
• Consult with your mentor teacher to ascertain the learning needs of your students; as a teacher intern, you have permission to learn this information and you are legally required to provide appropriate accommodations to students while you are in the classroom. As a teacher intern you are cleared to attend special education meetings. It is vital that you maintain strict confidentiality and follow group norms throughout. It is good policy to provide full disclosure of your role and purpose of reviewing notes and attending to all participants prior to the actual meeting. Transparency is good practice.
• An analysis of the type of language used in your discipline referral document(s) and the discipline referral process.  Analysis of existing school habits, signs & symbols. Review these documents for communication patterns and symbols/messages. You can take photos (or screenshots if you are teaching virtually) of these materials and/or journal your reflective notes as you walk around the classroom and school.  What are some of the explicit and implicit messages that are conveyed to students and adults? What is the language of mass emails, web site, or overhead announcements your school sends?

Consider the ways in which the context of the community, school, and classroom influences teaching and learning.

• What are your MT and their colleagues doing and saying – what are the MT’s opening activities (preparing for students, professional development, staff meetings, curriculum design, etc.?)
• What are the interactions/relationships among students, your MT, other teachers, school staff, and administration, and others?

Analyze and critique the ideologies and belief systems that you observe and discuss the ways in which these beliefs seem to have influenced practices.

• What ideologies have you observed? How do these ideologies reflect or influence observed practices (instruction and discussion with youth)? (An ideology is a set of ideas that informs one’s teaching and learning. It drives our instruction and practices.)
• What do you like and dislike about the MT’s and other’s practice? Cite your philosophy of education, your experiences, and relevant theory from your courses and readings.

Apply your observations from the structured reflective analysis to your own practice. Based on what you observed and your analysis and critique, how will you apply it to your teaching?

• What might you do differently? Why? You can either create an alternate classroom experience in a narrative form or describe what you would do in a more informational manner. 
• If you were the teacher, what would this classroom look like? 
• What new understanding of your observations did you arrive at after your analysis? 

It  is an all girl charter school in a rural area. It  is predomaaintly African American that stands on the goals of scholars today, sisters forever. Culture week is designated within the first two weeks that focuses on the basis of school rules, etiquette, manners and preparation for colleges and other higher institutes.