Barry White Jr. 11/22/2012 Mrs.

Wright Elementary curriculum assessment Classroom Context This school term I have been assigned to do my field experience at Whittaker elementary school located in Orangeburg district 5. The school has a total of 256 students, the majority race in the school is African American making up 243 of the population there are 11 white students, 2 Hispanic students and 34 students with a disability status. The females outnumber the boys 135 to 121 in the school gender population. The last year the schools rating was good and the last 3 years before that it was rated average. The school met the AYP in 2010 and 2011, consecutively for 5 years in 2003-2007 as well. And 9 out of the 12 teachers exceed the 80% the district goal on PASS. In Whittaker elementary I was assigned to Ms. Kennedy 4th grade English classes. Ms. Kennedy team teaches so throughout the day she receives four three different classes to where she teaches ELA too. The classroom is quite spaced out the floors are white tile and the walls are painted white as well. The chairs the students use are in great condition wooden desk tables along with the plastic chair for each student. The teachers desk is located slanted in the left hand corner in the front of the classroom. From their Ms. Kennedy has a clear view of everything that is taken place in the childrens seats.

The chairs are spaced an arm length from each other and there are five rows of four chairs. I believe this was done so that if a child wanted to bother another child they would have to stretch to touch the other child and it would be very visible. The smart board is located in the front center of the classroom so every child will see it from all angles alongside the smart board is a whiteboard located to the right and left of the smart board. There are many posters and inspirational sayings up on the walls. All of them related to English language arts. There are the parts of speech located in the upper right wall near the center of the classroom. The walls are colorfully filled with different posters making the environment feel bright and vibrant. There are also posters of childrens work on the walls when they do really good jobs and the teacher has a star chart, however she stated she rarely uses it. The students have a While you were out chart that engulfs all the work they missed while they were out of school and can catch up on whatever they missed with no excuses. On The back wall there is a long shelf filled with different books the children have to read when they are doing their AP test on the computer. There are about 25 different books on the 4th grade reading level and the children also have the chance to go to the library and check out a book they

would prefer to read as long as its on the 4th grade reading level. Ms. Kennedy only has the students bring in one pencil with them when they are entering the classroom so the need for materials is lessened in her class. She uses a lot of handouts and etc when teaching lessons. The class does contain a pencil sharper that is located by the teachers desk on the window and only one student sharpens the pencils for the class each time. The class does not use voyager like most elementary schools, but the books are stationed in the classroom for protcol. Ms. Kennedy makes sure to post the standards and reading vocabulary for the day on the left side of the smart board on the white board. The neighborhood is in an urban community and is fairly rough, the parks are rugged and you can tell there are needs for repairs in certain areas of the streets and sidewalks. The students in the area are all african american and they for the most part know each other. The student I have observed name is Robert Brown. He is in the 4th grade and is an African American student. I have talked to Ms. Kennedy about this student and was informed he was not one of the best performing students in the class. I observed Roberts behavior and saw that often I would see him day dreaming or just looking off while the class was going on. When it came down to reading an assignment I would often see the student look up after about two or three paragraphs, I believe it could be because he was tired of reading or he just didnt understand

what the passage was saying. Ms. Kennedy would also see this and walk over to his desk and help him out. The student was able to do choral reading very well but took longer reading the passage when he was by himself. Also I noticed when it was time for students to write Robert would write very slowly, his handwriting was not bad at all but his timing was off because the other students would always finish before him. I believe he was thinking a lot about what he had to write and that comes from not understanding organization or structure of the essays. I feel the student only needs more help with comprehension and organization and that will raise his performance by a big margin.