Claire Glomm

4/7/15
Education 302/303
Context Section of Unit Plan
NorthPointe Christian School is a private, Christian school that was established in 1972
and was originally named The Grand Rapids Baptist Academy. The school started in the
Wealthy Street Baptist Church with the intention of preparing students to impact their world for
Jesus Christ (The History of NorthPointe Christian School, 2015). Despite the fact that the
name of the school changed to NorthPointe Christian School in 2003, the school still preserved
the character and beliefs that The Grand Rapids Baptist Academy possessed. Some of the ways
that the NorthPointe Christian Schools develop the students moral and spiritual components are
by holding chapel twice a week and by requiring all students to take bible classes.
Currently, The NorthPointe Christian Schools support six different programs of
education: the young fives program, the kindergarten Spanish immersion program, the English
speaking kindergarten program, and finally, the elementary school, middle school, and high
school programs. Between these six programs there are approximately 740 students ranging from
ages three to twelfth grade. Since the schools have such a wide age range, the programs are
separated into two campuses. The preschool and elementary school programs are located on one
campus on Russwood NE, while the middle school and high school programs are located on
another campus on Leonard Street in Grand Rapids.
Despite the fact that the middle school and high school share the same campus and are
located in the same building, the middle school and high school students do not share classes.
Both groups of students are required to take a sampling of math, English, science, social studies,
Bible, foreign language, fine arts, and P.E. classes. The school offers several courses in each of
these categories. Students from grades six to eight participate in the same classes, as do students

in grades nine to twelve; however, students from grades six to eight and nine to twelve do not
share classes at the school.
Since NorthPointe Christian Schools are private schools, they are not required to align
their curriculum with the common core standards. They are however, required to meet the state
of Michigans standards and for this reason, every year the teachers have a meeting to realign
their schools curriculum to match the concepts required by the state. The textbooks that the math
teachers at NorthPointe Christian use to align their curriculum are varying editions of the
McDougal Littell textbooks. Since these textbooks are several years old, they do not align with
the common core.
As I mentioned earlier, the NorthPointe Christian Schools serve about 740 students. In
the high school, there are approximately 340 students. According to the National Center for
Educational Statistics, of all the students in the NorthPointe Christian Schools, 548 of them are
white, 33 are black, 25 are Asian, and sixteen are Hispanic (National Center for Education
Statistics, 2012). Although most of the students in this school speak English at home and in the
classroom, according to my teacher, there are some students who are refugees from other
countries, who are able to speak English, but often prefer to speak another language at home, or
even in the classroom with their friends. In terms of English proficiency, it appears that all of the
students in the classes in which I aid are capable of understanding and speaking in English. Some
students, however, are less proficient than others and are still working to develop their English
communication skills by conversing with other students in the classroom. Except for the ten
percent of students who are minorities, the other students at NorthPointe Christian are white.
Since most of the families of these students pay $8,000 or more a year on tuition, I assume that
most of the students at this school lie in the upper to middle class.

In the four classes in which I teach, the number of students lies between twelve and 33
students in each class. AP Calculus BC, the class with twelve students, is not required by the
school. However, the class with 33 students is a geometry class, which all of the students are
required to take. In all three of my four classes, the number of males and females is almost
evenly split. However, in my first period calculus class, there are significantly many more males
than females. There are only three females in this calculus class and nine males; that is a 1:3 ratio
of females to males! Since I am teacher aiding in a high school, the students in the classes in
which I aid are of a variety of ages. All of the students, however, are between grades nine and
twelve. In the upper-level BC calculus class, there are only juniors and seniors, while in the
geometry and algebra II classes that I work in have students of all grades between nine and
twelve. It seems that these classes have students of mixed-age because there is a wide range of
ability. For example, geometry is a course that is typically recommended for freshman to take at
NorthPointe Christian High School. However, some freshmen have already taken some advanced
classes and have the ability to move onto higher-level classes, such as algebra II. Some
sophomores, on the other hand, do not yet have the ability to take algebra II and for this reason
are enrolled in geometry classes that are recommended for freshmen. As of yet, I have not been
told of any students in my classes who have special needs or require special assistance in being
able to complete their work.
In the particular classroom in which I will be implementing my unit plan, there are 23
students. The class is a geometry class, so most of the students are freshmen and sophomores,
however, there are also a few juniors in the class as well. My teacher gave this particular class a
seating chart that places the students in rows at the beginning of the year because she claimed
that they are a rambunctious group of students. She also told me that this class is the only class

that has a seating chart because the other classes pay attention and follow the rules in class
without the use of a seating chart. In the class in which I will be teaching, there are fourteen boys
and nine girls. Three of the boys are from an Asian-speaking country and my teacher always
places them together when she creates the seating chart so that they can speak in a language
other than English when they need or want to. Every day, the students come into class and begin
to grade their homework immediately. Some students, however, often come in late and it seems
that class never starts on time. When all of the students have finished grading their homework,
Mrs. Straayer lectures on the board for most of the class and at the end of the class Mrs. Straayer
gives the students time to work on their homework. Usually there are three to five boys who do
not use the time to do their homework. Often, Mrs. Strayyer will firmly tell them to use the time
to do their homework. These three to five boys rarely comply with this request. I wonder if these
boys possibly struggle to pay attention during the lesson or struggle to remember the content and
if this might be the root cause of why they do not do their homework.
Since this group of boys rarely wants to cooperate with Mrs. Straayer and since this
group rarely focuses during the lessons, I wonder if there are other factors that play into these
students decisions to ignore Mrs. Straayers requests. I wonder if perhaps the neighborhood that
they live in or their family life at home play into their actions at school. Although it was not clear
what specific neighborhood NorthPointe Christian is located in, I did discovered that it is located
in Kent County. According to the Community Research Institute, Kent County has a population
of about 602,622 people (The Community Research Institute, 2015). Of these people, 76 percent
are white, ten percent are African American, ten percent are Hispanic, and two percent are Asian
(The Community Research Institute, 2015). Eleven percent of the population does not have a
high school diploma, and 46 percent of the population of this county only has a high school

diploma. I wonder if the students in my class have parents who have not gone to college and are
unable to support them academically. I wonder if this might be a reason why some of my
students do not pay attention or follow the rules in class: because they do not have adequate
academic help and feel lost in their schoolwork. Secondly, I also discovered that nine percent of
the population in Kent county lives below the poverty line (The Community Research Institute,
2015). I wonder if any of my students live below the poverty line and are more focused on
financial situations rather than their schooling. My teacher also told me that many of the students
from the NorthPointe Christian Schools commute to school from 20 minutes or more each day
from various towns around Western Michigan. I wonder if the commute to school makes it
difficult for any of the students to get to school on time and if this affects their ability to learn or
not.
Lastly, over the duration of my time at NorthPointe, I have realized that the staff heavily
encourages students to get involved in the community surrounding them. For example, the
school requires that twelfth graders create a senior project that reaches out to help an
organization in the community. This project shows that students from NorthPointe Christian are
very involved in their community.
In conclusion, over the short period of time that I have been teacher aiding at NorthPointe
Christian High School, I have discovered that the social, cultural, and economic characteristics
can have a large impact on a students learning.