Class Overview based on observations and data

Use readings from the past to describe your class of students:

Taylor & Whittaker; Bridging Multiple Worlds; Delpit; Nieto; Understanding Culture Brief; Hoeksema;
Petersen & Hittie; Pearson 202 book; Woolfolk Chap 2, 3, 5; Levine
-The school seems to really embrace the cultures of all its
students
Culture
-The students come from many different backgrounds and
cultures, but no one is looked down upon because
-The school is racially/ethnically diverse: of the 25 students
in my class, 17 are Caucasian, 5 are African or African
Race & Ethnicity
American, and 3 are Hispanic. Some of the students I listed
as Caucasian might be of a mixed racial background.
-Families seem very involved in the school--parents come
Social Systemsin and read books, volunteer, etc.
Peers & Family
-Parents have to sign off that their students have read for 15
minutes every day
-Daily devotionals and Bible class
-Weekly family worship
Moral, Spiritual, and Faith Development
-Classroom Social Contract detailing expected behavior
posted in the classroom, signed by students and teacher
-Bible verse memorization
-Math facts memorization (counting by 2s, 5s, 10s; doubles
facts; evens and odds, etc.)
Attention & Memory
-One student has a wiggle seat that helps her stay focused,
but still allows her to move around a little bit (alertness and
mental effort control)
-Everyone in the class is proficient in English
-Im guessing that 3 students have a 1st language other than
Language
English
-English and Spanish are the primary languages spoken by
the students
-Schedule of the day on the board so students know what is
happening that day and in what order
-Graphomotor: student handwriting skills vary a lot. Some
of the students handwriting is barely legible while others
Motor & Spatial/Sequential Ordering
print incredibly well.
-Music motor: keeping beat, repeating rhythms with
percussion instruments
-Oromotor: reading aloud
Higher Order Thinking
-Conceptual thinking: place value (math), allegory
(language arts), rhythm (music)
-Problem-solving thinking: math problems, science
experiments
-Critical thinking: evaluating what the author meant,
students sharing what they think (e.g. while reading from
Basal reader)
-Rule-guided thinking: underlining titles of books,
capitalizing the first word in sentences, ending sentences
with a period, using spelling rules to figure out how to spell

new words
-Creative thinking: drawing pictures, sharing ideas, creating
skits

Ability & Disability

-Students with lower abilities are sometimes taken from the

classroom to work with someone or sometimes the teacher
works with them one-on-one
-One 2nd grader is very advanced at math and is being
moved to the 3rd grade math class
-A number of students are reading at a level well above
their grade level

Reference List:
Levine, M. (2002). A mind at a time: Americas top learning expert shows how every child can succeed. New
York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks.