Interviewer: Jadaeja Brown Interviewee: Trace Young

Date: 10/9/18 Time: 1:00pm

(These are sample questions. Please add your own questions to learn more about your specific
classroom. This interview should take place in your initial meeting, prior to the two week intensive).

Planning Questions:
q How do you write a typical lesson plan?
We use Google Drive for our lesson plans. There are the things we include in our standard
lesson plan:
• Name of the Lesson
• Date it will taught
• The NC Standard Course of Study the lesson will correlate with
• The “I Can” student-friendly objective for students to understand
• Materials Needed
• Any vocabulary words introduced
• You Do – This is the part where still will explore first to see who has prior knowledge
of the topic getting ready to be taught. If you see students are not getting it, it may
become a “We Do” and teacher will have to guide students through it. We talk about
the “You Do” part together, more guided.
• I Do- This part is the mini lesson where I would introduce the topic for today as
reflected off the “You Do”.
• We Do- This part of the lesson is the Guided Practice part of the lesson. Students and
the teacher will explore practice problems together. Sometimes, teacher will have to
model all the way through.
• You Do- Students will then then have “Independent Practice” time.
• The teacher will also need to have activities for “early finishers” or small group for
students that may need more guidance with the lesson
• Reflection (for Students and Teacher) – Exit Ticket or activity for you to see who
understood the lesson or ones who might need a reteach.
• Homework – Re-enforced activity for students to do at home.

q What types of materials do you need available when you plan lessons?
Teacher Resource Book, Counters (if needed), Anchor Chart Paper, Markers, Math Journal,
Student Math Workbook…it depends on what the lesson calls for.
q In what ways do you plan to accommodate individual differences in the classroom?
Some students receive modified problems. They may not get as many problems as others.
They will work in a small group during independent practice or with a friend. One of my
groups has to have more guided practice than the other group.

Instructional Questions:
q What are some of your instructional challenges as a teacher?
I have some students that are not that are several grade levels behind in instructional. It is
hard to plan for them and make sure they are keep up with the IEP goals. Giving students
different strategies and they like to stick with one strategy instead of trying something new
that might be better for their type of learning. Student do not like to CHECK their work once
 they are finished. I have a lot of student that cannot READ and that is a struggle for them and
myself because third grade has a lot of word problems.
q What have been some of your instructional successes as a teacher?
I’ve have always had a “Met growth” classroom, meaning at least 60% of students have
passed the EOG with 3’s or higher. When I taught reading, I had students grow 5+ reading
levels in one year. When you think students haven’t been listening and they outshine it on the
End of Grade test.
q What do you consider essential characteristics for successful teaching?
Make sure you are passionate, dedicated, PATIENT, caring and kind. You will have students
that come from different types of home environments and may need more attention than
others or more of a push to get through the day.
Be well prepared for the day.
The ability to develop relationships with your students. Relationships are important.
Get to know your learners; this will know how to you need to reach them so they can be
successful.
Make it fun and engaging for your students to learn.
How often do your students receive social studies/science instruction?
Science is twice a week and SS is twice a week for 20 minutes like a quick mini lesson and small
activity that will have to be do whole group.
q Are you satisfied with the amount of time that you currently allot for social studies/science
instruction? Explain.
No, because it seems like students are rushing and it really does not give me a measurement of
what students know and retained about Science or SS lessons.
q What social studies and science topics/units will be studied during the second week of my
clinical experience? What are possible goals/objectives I could address for my lessons? Do
you have any instructional resources that would support these goals/objectives?
Science – Earth & Universe
Social Studies - Exemplify how people adapt to, change and protect the environment to meet their needs. For social
studies we have Social Studies weekly newspapers that we use for two week to discuss the topic.

q What does reading instruction look like in your classroom (e.g. readers workshop, basals,
etc.)?
What reading topics will be studied during the 2nd week of my clinical experience? What are
possible goals/objectives I could address for my reading lesson? Do you have any
instructional resources that would support these goals/objectives?

Classroom Management Questions:

q What motivation tactics do you use to ensure a desire to learn?
We have cardinal P.R.I.D.E red tickets that students may earn to have their name drawn at the
end of the week. Student receive praise for doing good work. Treats welcomed for students at
the end of the week.
 q Tell me about the classroom community. What are the class rules? How is student
behavior monitored? In what ways is positive behavior reinforced? In what ways are
negative behaviors prevented? Tell me about the consequences for negative behavior.
I have a pretty good and respectful class. They will adjust to incorrect behavior quickly. Most
students will take consequences for their actions. They know if I call “Class, Class”, that is an
attention grabber and they are good with those. I also use my bell at the front of the
classroom to get attention. They are given several warnings before they have alternate
consequences such as walking for recess or having to move away from the group. During
independent time, if they are not on task, they have to move back to their “home-based”
seat. We talk in morning meeting about how to act and taking actions for our consequences,
good or bad. If we need to have a class meeting then we will do it right then. I pull students
aside to avoid being embarrassed.
q Tell me about the pacing of lessons and interaction in the classroom- use of time- and other
aspects of time…wait time, and time using teacher talk and student talk. What works well
with your students?
Yes, give student wait time for answer a question. If I see they are going in the wrong
direction, I will start to guide them in the right direction by asking questions or give them
some help from their classmates. If I see they are totally lost, then I may ask another student
to come to the board instead.
Students are allow to have time to work a problem out, but they will get time warnings. I may
have a timer on the board and give a few extra minute to last minute finishers.

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