Task II: Contextual Information

Objective: Candidates gather contextual information and discuss factors that may
influence the teaching and learning process.
Resources: Use a variety of resources to gather contextual information including
Census data for the community, school Improvement Plan, cooperating teacher, Title
I/SPED teachers, principal, school counselor, Infinite Campus, student files (with
administrative approval), school data available online.
http://doe.sd.gov/reportcard/listnew/
**The below information and resource is taken from Educational Testing Service Praxis
Performance Assessment for Teachers (PPAT) Candidate and Educator Handbook, copyright
2015. All rights reserved.
Contextual Information: This chart is designed to help you understand the many factors that
affect teaching and learning. Such factors include the community, classroom procedures,
student demographics, and the physical environment in which teaching takes place.
Understanding these factors as they relate to your teaching will help you determine the
instructional strategies and approaches that will support your students learning. In this chart,
address any factors listed as they pertain to your teaching assignment. The subcategories listed
under each category are just suggestions; there may be other subcategories that you would like
to address, or there may be a subcategory listed that does not apply to your situation.

Categories of Contextual Factors

General Context of Your Students
(All subcategories listed in this box are
required.)
Students grade and developmental
levels; the age range of students; the
content area being taught; any other
factors that are pertinent to understanding
your class assignment

Description of the Contextual Factors

-10th grade Biology
-15 to 16 year olds
-Developmental levels: Of the 14 students, there are
about 3 boys who have some maturing to do.
Developmentally everyone is at grade level
- Foreign student: A Philippine student who is new to
the country this year. So far, we can see she feels a
bit uncomfortable in the classroom setting. She has
great work ethic to make her family proud, but we
keep an eye on her to make sure that she is feeling
more comfortable in the classroom and not
struggling. I'm currently researching ways that we
could incorporate some of her culture into the
classroom to make her feel more at home.
-Students were placed in assigned groups so that
the boys who need more supervision couldnt
discourage other student and their learning. The first
lab I did the groups were chaotic, and I mentioned
something to the teaching, and we agreed that

assigned lab partners would be beneficial for

everyone in the classroom.
Community
(e.g., whether the area is urban,
suburban, or rural; socioeconomic
information; census data for the
community)

-Urban because it is in city, but rural because of the

size of the school
Socioeconomic information:
Ethnicity- Whites 91.3%, African American 0.8%,
American Indian 3.9%, Asian 1.1%, Native Hawaiian
and other Pacific Islander 0.50%, Other 1.8%.
Population: 27,333
Median age: 36.80
Male:47.77%
Female:52.23

District
(e.g., enrollment; percent of students
receiving free or reduced-priced lunches;
graduation rates; ethnicities; percent of
students with IEPs; percent of students
who are ELLs; per-pupil expenditures)

Median household income: $47,540

Persons in Poverty: 12.3%
-Enrollment: 573 students
-Students receiving free/reduced lunch: 57*
-Graduation rates: 99%
-Ethnicities: White- 522, Black- 8, Asian- 10,
Native
American- 17, 2 or more races- 16
-Hispanic- 16, Non-Hispanic- 557
Students with IEPs-29 (Title I: 13 students)
ELL students: none
Per-pupil expenditures: $6,700

School
(e.g., enrollment; percent of students
receiving free or reduced-priced lunches;
ethnicities; percent of students with IEPs;
percent of students who are ELLs;
teacher-to-student ratio)

*data is for the district not broken into schools

Enrollment: 135 students
-Students receiving free/reduced lunch: 57*
-Ethnicities: Whites- 123, Black- 0, Asian- 4,
Native
American- 3, 2 or more races- 2
-Hispanic- 0, Non-Hispanic- 135
Student to teacher ratio- 11-1
ELL: 0
Students with IEPs-29 (Title I: 13 students) *

Classroom Demographics
(e.g., ethnicities; gender ratios; special
needs, including those of gifted students,
those of students physical needs, and
those due to cultural characteristics).

* data is for the district not broken into schools

-Ethnicities: White-12, Asian- 2
-Boys: 10
-Girls: 4
Cultural characteristics: One student came from the
Philippines another student spent time in China
before coming to the school.

Knowledge of Students
(in terms of the whole class and individual
students)
(e.g., language needs; approaches to
learning; prior learning and experiences;
academic proficiencies/behavioral
differences; areas of interest).

-For the student from the Philippines, we could try tie

in her culture to get her to open and feel more at
home. She works very hard to work to make her
family proud of her accomplishment. Her English is
very good.
-One student has behavioral issues and requires a
lot of supervision in the labs. We assigned groups
for projects so that we could give him a lot of
supervision. The assigned groups help a lot with
giving him the supervision that he needs.