Contextual Factors: Description of Students

Contextual Factors

Description of Students:

            The class I will be teaching is comprised of 33 6^th graders.  There are 13 girls and 20 boys.  Looking at the class, there are what appear to be 6 Hispanic students, 1 African-American student, and the remainder of the students White.  These numbers are based on a combination of observation and last name.  This mixture of student ethnicity is very close to the mixture officially reported for the school as a whole. 

In the class, three of the students in the class have been identified as Talented and Gifted (TAG) and seven are on Individual Education Plans (IEPs) for various reasons.  Two of the students that have been identified as TAG have been identified for reading and the other student has been identified as TAG for both reading and math.  The students that are on IEPs have accommodations and modifications in their IEPs for reading, written language, math, study skills, communication, study skills, and behavior.  One of the students is also receiving services for autism.  Most of the accommodations are simply allowing more time for reading and writing tasks and for preferred seating.  For my teaching, the impact is that I will have to arrange the class schedule to allow for the additional time required by the IEPs as well as have extensions available for the TAG students to prevent them from being bored.

In the class there are seven students that have been identified as English Language Learners (ELL).  Six of them are speak Spanish as their first language and one speaks Marshallese as his or her first language.  For the classroom, I will need to become aware of how fluent they are.  I will also be careful to check for understanding frequently and to define the terms I use carefully.  Test questions will also need to be carefully phrased and I will make it clear to students that they can ask if they do not understand the question.  Additionally, communication with families will likely require translation services because if the students in the classroom are identified ELL then the possibility is good that the parents are, also.

Overall, it is a very challenging classroom with a wide range of needs, skills, and backgrounds.  As a teacher, I will need to work very hard to meet the needs of all of my students.  I will have a wide range of skills and backgrounds to draw upon in the class to help to meet those needs.  Each of the students bring something unique that can be used to enrich the classroom experience.