Interview Protocol

Teacher Interviewer: Taryn Troublefield Interviewee: Krystina Davis Date: 2/28/14 Time: 3:15-4:30 (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:

How do you write a typical lesson plan?

I usually start off with my objectives and figure out how I am going to assess my students after I teach. I then work on my teacher input and give them some way to work in partnerships or groups and then usually give them an exit ticket so I can see who got it and who didnt. Then the next day, I will take that information and decide what to do next, if I need to re-teach the lesson to the whole class I will, I may need to help individual students or move on.

What types of materials do you need available when you plan lessons?
I use my common core standards book to see what I am supposed to teach next. I use my investigations textbooks, any materials for an individual lesson, and the computer to research ideas.

In what ways do you plan to accommodate individual differences in the classroom?

If I am teaching a math lesson and have students who are struggling I can give them manipulatives or visuals to see what is happening in the problem. With reading, if I have students reading below grade level, I can give them less questions or less answer options on assessments. Instructional Questions:

What are some of your instructional challenges as a teacher?

Deciding what to do after you feel like you have tried everything you can think of and a student still doesnt get it. There is also never enough time in the day.

What have been some of your instructional successes as a teacher?

When you see a child finally grasp something and witness the accomplishment they feel, it is all worth it. I work hard to help my students and feel successful when I can see my instruction being effective.

What do you consider essential characteristics for successful teaching?

To be a successful teacher, you need to have a lot of materials and resources available to you as well as ideas. Experience in the classroom like knowing the typical mistakes students are going to make before hand, so you know what to prepare for is definitely beneficial. Knowing different ways to teach the topic to reach all the learners and interests also helps.

How often do your students receive social studies/science instruction?

Half of each quarter. Im not sure how many days are in each quarter but half of each. Minus the snow days.

 Are you satisfied with the amount of time that you currently allot for social studies/science
instruction? Explain. No, I feel like theres never enough time to get to everything we need to.

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? For science we will be learning about energy, heat, and light. We wont be learning about social studies. Science standard will be 4P3 and I can give you the investigations manual you can borrow. I am fine with the social studies lesson you have came up with on the history of UNC Charlotte and why its important to go to college, my students will love that.

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? We have a time where they are in reading groups based off their Lexile reading levels and so they have questions to answer that hold them responsible for their reading. Every day I do a read aloud where they have to sit and listen to me read a story. We have a time set up for word work and this week they are learning about homonyms and talking about how words have different meanings even though they sound the same. Which definition is being used? Also, a lot of times their reading goes along with their writing, so whatever genre we are reading, thats how their writing is structured. During your clinical experience, we are doing historical fiction right now in reading. Basically finding the main idea, details, themes of a story, analyze characters using context clues, being able to explain why an author put certain things in a story and what effect they wanted to have on the reader. The reading standard is RI.4.and we have the balanced literacy plans written out and you can look those to get some ideas for your lesson.

Classroom Management Questions:

What motivation tactics do you use to ensure a desire to learn?

We have tickets I give out for good behavior and that is how they earn their classroom jobs. We pull the tickets for their jobs on Fridays. They can get a ticket for answering a very hard question or doing the right thing. Weve also been learning about fractions so I show them on a chart what skills they have mastered so far and it gives them a sense of accomplishment when they get a check.

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. They have to be leaders within their groups. They are responsible for their education, so if they have a question it is their responsibility to speak up and ask for help. They cant always rely on me to read their faces for confusion. They have to help each other stay on task. Providing other ways to solve problems and not just taking what I tell them but sharing what they come up with. Their behavior is monitored with a behavior chart and if they get down to their last card or if they do something really out of hand they have to fill out a better choice sheet about with their actions, the rule they broke, and how they should have handled it. Then they have to take it home and get it signed. If they dont get it signed they lose recess the next day and have to call

their parents on my phone. They also have group points and if their points outnumber mine they dont have assigned seats at lunch. And then in the afternoon if they beat me they can sit where they want to during independent reading the next morning instead of sitting at their desks.

Tell me about the pacing of lessons and interaction in the classroom- use of time- and other
aspects of timewait time, and time using teacher talk and student talk. What works well with your students? I try to make everything meaningful. You can plan a whole lot but not get to everything because time flies. So using exit tickets works really well for my students because its a quick way to see if they understand the material. For example, if you planned on teaching something for a whole week but you look at the exit tickets the first day and everyone got it you can do something different on Tuesday. Pretests are also good to see if you even need to teach something.

Teacher Candidate formed questions:

Do you have any exceptional students in your classroom? If yes, what are the individual
differences? I have 3 ADD students, 1 student with down syndrome, 4 ELL students, and 4 EC students.

What is your daily schedule like?

7:15-8 is morning work, 8-8:30 is guided reading, 8:30-9 is independent reading, 9-10:30 is math time, 10:30 - 11:15 is specials, 11:15- 11:50 is recess, 11:50 - 12:20 is lunch, 12:20 - 1:40 is literacy/word work/ writing, 1:40 - 2:25 is science/ social studies, 2:30- 2:45 is dismissal.