Ashley Prindle

December 2nd, 2015

Professor McIlwain
History and Issues in American Ed.

Active Observations: Social Studies, Math, and Literacy

Date: October 2nd, 2015

Time: 9:15am to 10:00am
Location: Windham Middle School, 6th Grade
Teacher: Don Shirley
Subject: Social Studies

Content: Students are learning about the French and how they would often come into Canada and
make claims for their king during the 16th century. Furthermore, students are learning about
what historical claim markers looked like, what they meant, and why they were used.

Common Core Standard(s):

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.2-Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or

secondary source; provide an accurate summary of the source distinct from prior knowledge or
opinions.

Learning Outcome(s): Students will be able to gather and record information about the French
system of settlements, through gathering information and creating their own historical claim
marker for their assigned fort.

Description of modeling: After explaining the general guidelines of their assignment, all students
were given an assignment sheet that explained the objective of the assignment, what materials
were to be used, an overview of what is expected, as well as information on how they were going
to be assessed. The teacher went over step-by-step how this assignment could be completed. By
using the SmartBoard, the teacher displayed an example of a fort marker for Fort Victoria in
Canada and explicitly modeled all of the required components of the marker and what they
meant.

Students were also shown several examples of fort markers created by previous students. The
teacher provided three different examples that highlighted for students what constituted
exceptional work and how some of the markers could have been improved. For example, one the
markers had a symbol of the Eifel Tower. The teacher asked the class why this was not the
correct symbol to be placed on their marker. The class was able to quickly recognize, that the
Eifel Tower did not exist when this fort marker was made, so this was not an appropriate symbol
of this time. Moreover, the example were used to have a discussion about what the students did
well, how the information can be presented in many ways, and how to succeed in this
assignment.

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Description of how lesson is adapted to meet individual needs: This lesson was adapted to meet
the individual needs of students in four ways. First, certain students were assigned forts that had
lots of information about them on the Moodle website that is set up for the class. This ensured
that students who struggle with research were provided with all the essential information to
complete the assignment in one place. Secondly, students who are unable to write out by hand
the information that they gather about their fort and format this information onto their claim
marker, were given the opportunity to type the information that they find. Additionally, as the
lesson and assignment requires that students draw an appropriate symbol for their fort, students
are given the opportunity to draw a symbol by hand or print off a picture from online. Finally,
students were provided with all the necessary materials to complete the assignment as well as
given time to work on the project in class or to use the classroom computers to print their
information, type up their information and so forth. This afforded and ensured that students who
might not have these resources at home could complete the project while in class as well.

Description of how the learning outcome is assessed: The goals of the lesson was to learn more
about French settlements in Canada in the 16th and 17th century, by students creating their own
fort markers for their assigned fort. The learning outcome will be assessed in a number of
different ways. Students will be evaluated on if the marker is neat and clear, and includes a
relevant symbol. Additionally, students will be assessed on weather or not the information is
presented in a complete, accurate, and logical manner. Also, since it is crucial that students were
able to follow the assignment directions, students will be assessed on if they were able to follow
directions and place their information in the correct location on their fort marker as modeled for
them during the lesson.

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Date: October 16th, 2015
Time: 9:15am to 10:00am
Location: Windham Middle School, 6th grade
Teacher: Ms. Peridot
Subject: Math

Content: Students are learning about Unit Rates. A rate is a ratio that is used to compare different
kinds of quantities. A unit rate describes how many units of the first type of quantity correspond
to one unit of the second type of quantity. Students were learning about some common unit rates
such as miles per hour, cost per item, and earnings per week.

Common Core Standard(s):

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.6.RP.A.2-Understand the concept of a unit rate a/b associated with a

ratio a:b with b 0, and use rate language in the context of a ratio relationship. For example,
"This recipe has a ratio of 3 cups of flour to 4 cups of sugar, so there is 3/4 cup of flour for each
cup of sugar." "We paid $75 for 15 hamburgers, which is a rate of $5 per hamburger.

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.6.RP.A.3- Use ratio and rate reasoning to solve real-world and

mathematical problems, e.g., by reasoning about tables of equivalent ratios, tape diagrams,
double number line diagrams, or equations.

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.6.RP.A.3.B- Solve unit rate problems including those involving unit

pricing and constant speed. For example, if it took 7 hours to mow 4 lawns, then at that rate,
how many lawns could be mowed in 35 hours? At what rate were lawns being mowed?

Math Practice Standard(s):

CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP1-Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.

CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP3-Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.

CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP4- Model with mathematics.

Learning Outcome(s): Students will be able to use equivalent rates in the real world.

Description of modeling: The teacher started off the lesson by asking, who can remind me of
what we worked on last class? What is a unit rate? This started off the lesson and brought the
students attention back to unit rates. The teacher then went over several of the homework
problems for the students and walked them through how to solve them. Since after the lesson
students were going to be working in groups to work on using ratios to find population densities,
the teacher began the lesson by showing students how they could find out the population density
of New Hampshire. For example, she should the students that a population density is simply a
ratio and tells us how many people live in a certain unit of area. She looked up on the computer
and found that the population of NH in 2014 when the last census was taken was 1.327 million
people and in NH there is 9,350 square miles of land. In order to find the population density of

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NH she simple took the number of people 1,327,000 million and divides it by 9,350 square
miles. The answer came out to be 142 people per square mile. The teacher explained that this is
what the students were about to be asked to do with other students in their book. Before moving
on though, she highlighted for students other real world example of how rates are used in our
everyday lives such as in making Hot Coco, or a Firefighter who needs to know how much water
to use, and in cooking.

Description of how lesson is adapted to meet individual needs: The teacher explained to me how
each of her classes especially in math presents their own unique challenges. This is why they
have leveled each of the math classes. There are some average classes, accelerated classes, and
classes that have many students who need support. In order to meet individual needs a
microphone and speaker system is used in order for those students with hearing impairments to
hear the lesson. Often times these students sit by these speakers. Additionally, all problems are
always written on the board for students to see so that even if they missed something they can
still follow along and comprehend the problem. Also, when it comes to group work students are
assigned working groups these are heterogeneous groups that have been made by the teacher,
they constantly change, but this allows for students to work with different student and to have
different skill sets come together.

Since the make-up of each class is so different, the requirements can be different. For example,
students in the accelerated class were assigned additional graphing and asked to find out the
population density of Maine and Massachusetts for their next class. This allows for each groups
learning needs to be met.

Description of how the learning outcome is assessed: The learning outcome was assessed by the
students working in small groups of two to three students in order to use ratios to find
population densities, which is an example of a unit rate. The teacher walked around the
classroom and assisted as well as made checks and comments on her clipboard that had all of the
students names on it. Students were either given a check-plus, check, or check-minus. This
correlated to how well the student understood the material. Additionally, students were assigned
homework to be completed on their own, which asked students to complete more problems about
unit rates and ratios. Overall the work of the student was assessed through effort and completion.

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Date: November 30th, 2015
Time: 9:15am to 10:45am
Location: Windham Middle School, 6th grade
Subject: Literacy
Teacher: Ms. Lamay

Content: Using signposts when conducting a close read in order to be able to help signal readers
to significant moments in a work of literature and encourage readers to read closely. Teaching
students to spot these signposts (Contrasts & Contradictions, Aha Moment, Tough Questions,
Words of the Wiser, Again & Again, and Memory Moment) in order to help students explore the
text, find evidence to support their interpretations and to help use close reading strategies that
help students to notice and note.

Common Core Standard(s):

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.3-Describe how a particular story's or drama's plot unfolds in a

series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a
resolution.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.10-By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature,

including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 6-8 text complexity band proficiently, with
scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.6.4-Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development,

organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

Learning Outcome(s): Students will be able to correctly use signposts while they read as a close
reading strategy. This will allow students to hone in on significant moments in a story as well as
to provide insight into or raise questions about literary elements such as characters, setting,
conflict, and theme.

Description of modeling: The class took out the book, Crash, and began discussing what some
of their signposts were from chapters one through four. As students provided some example, the
teacher made sure to explicitly ask students what their signposts shows? Why does it matter?
These questions allowed the students to better describe to themselves and others why they had
marked this as a significant part of the story or chapter. Later students would be asked to share
their signposts for chapter six and work in a group to come up with signposts that were
appropriate.

In order to show students how they can stop and add signposts while they are reading, the teacher
read aloud chapter five to the class and stopped along the way to add in signposts that she
deemed important as well as to ask the class about why this signposts was appropriate or not. For
example, the teacher while reading stopped on a part of the story that was a memory moment,
and asked the students, what signpost should we put here? This helped to lead students to deeper

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thinking and to ask more questions about their thoughts might mean. This also modeled for
students how they could go about adding in their own signposts with their groups in chapter six.

Description of how lesson is adapted to meet individual needs: This lesson was adapted to meet
individual needs in several ways. First, all of the groups were heterogeneous and made up of
students with different types of abilities. This allowed students who werent as strong with
signposts to learn and work with students who did understand the new strategy. Secondly, the
teacher worked to complete the signpost worksheet with several of the students in order to help
them more through the worksheet and have more of a dialogue discussion about which signpost
they think is most appropriate. Finally, two of the students in the class used a tracking device
while listening to the teacher read the chapter aloud. This helped them to stay on track and better
comprehend the text that was in front of them. Moreover, all students were given a bookmark
with all of the different types of signposts and a description of each signpost, so that students had
a readily available resource to turn to. However, some students were provided with a flashcard
ring that had more explicit example of each signpost as well as guided questions to walk through
to try and discover why this was important.

Description of how the learning outcome is assessed: The learning outcome was assessed by the
teacher monitoring and walking around to each of the small groups to listen to their discussion
about what signposts are appropriate to use in their chapter and why. Students are mainly being
assessed on effort and participation within their groups. The teacher used sticky notes in order to
make a note of how each student was able to effectively use the signposts. Each sticky note had a
different category that students could be placed in. These categories includes, Got it, Working on
it, and Having trouble. This allowed the teacher to know which students needed more help and
which students could move on and complete their own signposts independently.

Additionally, students were given a worksheet that had several examples from the story about
different events that happened and students were asked to assign each example the appropriate
signpost. Students worked on this independently and handed this in. This assignment was also
assessed through effort and ability to explain why they choose a particular signpost to label an
event. This also allowed for concrete evidence of student progress and ability to use and
correctly implement the signposts into their reading.