Alexandra Smith

TWS 1
Spring 2015
Contextual Factors
The knowledge of classroom and student characteristics is important when planning
lessons. The teacher must know what he or she has to work with. This would be things like
available resources, amount of space, and student demographics as a whole. This information
allows teachers to understand and prepare for events that may occur in the classroom.
I am completing my student teaching experience in Mrs. Wolfes third grade classroom at
Ninety Six Elementary School. Her classroom is open, spacious, bright, inviting, and rich with
content. The desks are arranged in three long, horizontal rows (one behind the other). There is a
Promethean Board at the front of the classroom. A document camera (also known as Elmo) is
also at the front of the classroom that can be projected onto the Promethean Board. Three
computers are located at the back of the classroom for students to use. Several other resources
are available for students; some of these resources are books and manipulatives. There is a
classroom library of Accelerated Reader (AR) books located at the back of the classroom that are
labeled by AR level. There is an abundance of standard classroom resources such as pencils,
glue sticks, scissors, crayons, markers, etc. Classroom rules are posted in the room and have
been implemented through the school-wide PBIS program. Students received a week-long
training at the beginning of the school year for them to learn about what is expected of them each
day so they are held accountable for good behavior. Students must fill out a reflection sheet if
they misbehave persistently.
There are twenty-five students in the class. There are thirteen girls and twelve boys.
Seven of the girls are Caucasian, two are African American, two are biracial, and two are Asian.
Seven of the boys are Caucasian, four are African American, and one is biracial. There is one

Alexandra Smith
TWS 1
Spring 2015
student repeating the third grade. Two students attend the gifted program, known as PLUS. Two
students have an IEP for ELA and math; four students have an IEP for speech. Eight students are
served in the SST (Student Support Team) program for intervention strategies in reading or math.
The purpose of the program is to provide intervention strategies for students who are
significantly below grade level in math or reading and have not been identified as having a
learning disability. There are twelve students reading below grade level, eight students reading
on grade level, and five students reading above grade level. In math, there are eleven students
performing below grade level, seven on grade level, and seven above grade level. This
information comes from the students MAP scores. Thirteen students receive free lunch in the
cafeteria and three students receive reduced lunch. All of Mrs. Wolfes students work well
together and have strong participation in the class. Overall, they have good behavior, which can
be attributed to the implementation of PBIS (Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports) at
Ninety-Six Elementary. About fifty percent of the parents are involved with their child and Mrs.
Wolfe through attending PTO meetings or open house. Some volunteer at the school weekly;
others stay in constant communication with Mrs. Wolfe about academics and student behavior
through phone or email.
The students in my class all have similar interests in sports, playing outside, playing with
pets, watching TV, etc. Most of the students have different learning styles; I have several
students who learn best through either visuals, kinetic, hands-on, or auditory activities. I have
one particular student who seems to work best in the classroom if he is able to stand at his desk;
therefore, in planning lessons, I try to include some sort of hands-on or physical movement for
the students in the lesson. I have another student who learns best if she actually gets to work

Alexandra Smith
TWS 1
Spring 2015
with hands-on materials during lessons; therefore, I also try to plan for that. Differentiation is so
important when planning lessons due to the different learning styles of students.
Ninety Six Elementary School serves a total of 361 students. The school only has grades
3, 4 and 5. 72% of the school population is Caucasian, 21% is African American, 1% is
Hispanic, 2% is Asian, and 4% is other. 57% of the students qualify for free or reduced lunch.
44% of the students are involved with gifted and talented programs. 13% of those students are in
PLUS, and 21% are in Honors Chorus. 5% of the students receive help in speech, and 12% are
get extra help in Resource. There are 25 certified teachers in the building and 19 additional
employees.
Having access to this information allows me to better plan lessons for my students. I
know what to expect from the students when I teach lessons. I am able to use this data to plan
certain activities because I know that the students work well with one another, so placing them
into groups and expecting them to collaborate with one another will not be an issue. I am able to
plan for students who have IEPs because I know what subject areas may cause some difficulty
for them. MAP score data provides me with knowledge of each students level in math and
reading, which gives me an idea of the pace at which I should teach those subjects. Without
access to all of this information, I would be planning for a perfect class that does not exist. It
would be extremely difficult to implement those plans because they most likely would need to be
modified during the lesson. I like to have fairly explicit plans laid out the implementation of a
lesson. However, I am flexible for all lessons. This is important because almost every lesson is
not exactly the same as what was written on the plan.