Link Task1

1. CONTEXTUAL FACTORS (Community, District, and School) Community

The Levels of Education People who received a college education or higher increase the support for education in the community. These are the most current percentages for Greenwood citizens level of education: 25 years and older: high school or higher 75.0%, Bachelor's degree or higher 18.2%, Graduate or professional degrees 5.9%. I believe that the more people that continue their education, the more support the The top employing industries in Greenwood are Self-Regional Healthcare, Greenwood County School Districts, Fujifilm, Inc., and Carolina Pride Foods. Many of the businesses such as SelfRegional Healthcare and various food industries support the needs of the Special Education students by training these students and later providing a job placement opportunity. Instructional Strategy I would promote organize field trips to the top employing industries in Greenwood. While there, the students would tour the facility and meet with a representative of the industry who would speak to them about the importance of education and work ethics. This field trip would encourage the students to pursue their education. Learning Activity After the field trip, the students practice their writing skills by writing a thank you letter to each representative of the company visited.

District
Graduation Rate I believe the graduation rate has a significant impact on instruction. In Greenwood District 50, administrators and educators go to great lengths to instill the importance of education in the minds the students. The goal is to decrease the number of students who drop out of school and to decrease the number of discipline referrals. These are two factors, which run parallel with the rate of graduation in schools. School administrators and staff identify at-risk students. District 50 provides support for programs and clubs for at-risk students; students who are at risk for failing due to poverty, abuse,

homelessness, and neglect. Educators Once these students are identified, educators provide additional academic interventions and supports to ensure the students academic success. District 50 supports programs and clubs within the schools to mentor young African American males. At Brewer Middle School, there is a club called the Young Gentlemans Club. In this club, the African American students who meet certain qualifications attend the meetings. In the club, the sponsor teaches the boys proper etiquette when at restaurants. This year they are touring the University of South Carolina to become more aware of how education can build success. The club also invites members of the community to be mentors to these boys. Instructional Strategy Dependent upon the objective, I would use cooperative learning groups. This would teach the students social skills and assign a specific role. This role would be a factor in motivating the atrisk student to participate in the activity and to gain knowledge. I would assign the roles to the students learning style, interests, and strengths. The student needs to be motivated to learn. The student needs to gain self-confidence and build self-esteem. Learning Activity: The learning activity would be career oriented. The students would research careers from their cluster and present the information either in a brochure. I would have a rubric so the students would know what was expected and also a time line so the project would be broken into smaller tasks with an assigned due date. This activity is in line with the instructional strategy and the chosen district demographic. Students would discover the skills needed and the education required for the career. They would also create a budget to match to the beginning salary of this career.

School
Percent of Free and Reduced Lunch School and community demographics provide information on the presence of poverty in a community and in school zones. With an estimated population of 23,324, the current poverty rate in Greenwood is 13.97% - 23.33%. At Brewer Middle School, 61% of the student population receives free or reduced meals. If a family experiences unemployment and poverty, the children in the household are affected. For our students poverty is not a choice; its a fact of life. I believe poverty has the greatest impact on student learning. As an educator in the classroom, I need to be aware of the presence of poverty in my community, my district, my school, and my classroom. Because of life circumstances, students living in poverty are at-risk of failing in school. By definition, poverty is described as living in poverty

when he/she has insufficient resources to meet basic living expenses including the costs of food, shelter, clothing, transportation and medical expenses. These students come through the doors of a school without the necessary tools to learn: adequate sleep, good eating habits, homeless conditions, drug abuse, parent neglect, poor attendance, weak literacy support, and under-developed language cognitive skills. Lacking these tools slows the learning process. Instructional Strategy Personal experiences connect readers and learners to a topic or a new skill. Connecting past experiences to new learning builds reading comprehension. So what strategy would best fit this scenario? I would employ a balanced literacy program in the classroom. A balanced literacy program would integrate the following elements of language arts: modeling fluency, connecting to a topic, building vocabulary and developing comprehension skills with small group instruction. Learning Activity I would model think aloud to teach the students how to connect their experiences and interest to the book they are reading. As I would read aloud, I would stop and ask myself some questions: This book reminds me of. Humm - I remember when I did that and this is what happened

Using this activity would motivate and connect the students to the story. Having connections help the students to increase their comprehension skills.

Classroom
Special Needs In this nine-student classroom, there are six students whose IEPs indicate they are in the general education classroom from 80-100% of the day. The remaining three students are in the general education classroom 40-79% of the day, which indicates that they receive instruction in Math and/or ELA in the special education classroom. These students are significantly below their grade placement in Math and/or ELA. These students receive Math and/or ELA in the special education classroom as well as fifty minutes of special services during Enrichment. During Enrichment, additional assistance in academic areas and other class assignments is provided.

Instructional Strategy Practice and drill strategy would be best for a class containing students who are below grade level with their math. The more the student practices the new skill, the better he will become. Learning Activity I would use guided practice when introducing the new math skill. I would continue this until the students were able to do this on their own. Guiding them thru each step would provide them with the necessary steps to complete the problem.

Knowledge of Students

Learning Styles Having the knowledge of the students learning styles is important when planning instruction. Students can be visual learners, tactile learners, auditory learners, and/or kinesthetic learners. This is how the student best receives instruction. Instructional Strategy I would implement a research activity. The students would research a subject and then choose how they would present their learning. Their presentation would be representative of their learning style. Learning Activity The learning activity is a presentation of the information researched. The presentation could be a visual PowerPoint presentation, a newspaper article, or a living timeline.