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Contextual Factors Analysis:

Portland, Maine and Lincoln Middle School

Kaleigh Warner
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Kaleigh Warner

Baker

8 October 2019

Student Teaching

Contextual Factors Analysis (CFA)

Early European settlers descended on, what is now known as Portland, in 1623. Almost

200 years later, Maine officially became a state with Portland standing as its capital until 1832.

Portland was economically stable in its endeavors with locomotives in the early 1800’s to

fishing, shipping industry, and agriculture; however, in more recent years, Portland has

transitioned to have the most financial gains in its service-based economy and in tourism. Today,

Portland is the most populated city in all of Maine at just under 67,000 residents. The influx in

population has required Portland to house more schools for grades K-12. Including only public

institutions, Portland is home to 18 schools: eleven elementary schools, three middle schools,

and four high schools.

The demographics of Portland have consistently trended with Maine’s label as the whitest

state in America; however, in the last few decades Portland has seen an influx of immigrants

fleeing Africa, which has been theorized to have been “prompted by a strong refugee

resettlement program” (Bombardieri, 2000). As of 2018, according to the national census, of

Portland’s 67,000 residents 83.9% are white, 8.7% are black, 3.6% identify as Latino/Hispanic,

3.8% are Asian, 0.1% are American Indian/Alaskan Native, 0% identify as Hawaiian and Other

Pacific Islander, and there are 2.9% that identify as two or more of the above races. The diversity
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that has come to Maine’s largest city has brought a demand for schools to implement programs

that reach children of the 13.4% of foreign born families residing in the city.

The Portland Promise commits to making all their students prepared and empowered by

focusing on four big points in the system: achievement, the whole student, people, and equity.

Their goal towards equity includes confronting and pushing to overcome inequities in student

success and participation (http://northeastmediacollective.com). This also include empowering

and eliminating barriers for families to be part of their community and their students’ education.

The Portland Promise works to limit all gaps in all students lives, regardless of background,

culture, or race. Portland “enhances Equity by bringing together families of all backgrounds

united in wanting the best for their children…through free classes and events that are fun,

interactive, and informative” (Trevorrow,

2018). As the city of Portland works

towards these goals they are showing the

community that their view of education is

not for one type of student or family. In

turn, based off a family survey in 2018,

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Portland schools are receiving a lot more support from the greater community because “91

percent of families taking the survey reported that they feel welcomed in schools and feel like

partners in their children’s education” (Trevorrow, 2018).

The Promise, while implemented to support all students, aims to catch the district’s 6,711

students labeled as ELLs or those with IEPs. Data that Portland continues to collect each year

from state assessments shows that there’s still “a gap in achievement for students of color and

those who are learning to speak English,” not to mention the “financially disadvantaged students

continue to not have the same positive outcomes” compared to students who are from financially

stable families (Trevorrow, 2018). There are just under 1,500 students identified as ELLs, which

is about 22% of students enrolled in Portland public schools. The recent influx of immigrants

into the Portland community has brought a wide diversity in language among schools. In total,

one third of Portland “students come from homes where languages other than English are spoken

—a total of 67 languages” integrated into the public school system (Trevorrow, 2018).

A community comprised of immigrant and refugee families adds one layer of complexity

to supporting students, but the biggest support comes from the money allocated for each student

to support them in achieving the Portland Promise goals. Luckily, the greater community has

“expressed their passionate support of Portland’s public schools…by approving the school

budget each year” (Trevorrow, 2018). Just about 3,777 students in the Portland system qualify

for free or reduced lunch, which is a whopping 56% of student enrolled in school. The school

district, given the goal of “exposing students to a well-rounded education that connects them to

their diverse talents and helps them develop the skills, habits and mindset for success in life,”

views students’ basic needs as preliminary to academics (Trevorrow, 2018).

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Lincoln Middle School, one of

the three middle schools, is located on

Stevens Avenue in Portland and, as of

2018, has 535 students enrolled. Of the

535 students 24% of them have been

identified as English Language

Learners that receive direct supports in

school - these courses are referred to

“English as a World Language” rather

than “English as a Second Language”.

Some students receive supports in the From NCES, 2016 (https://www.greatschools.org/maine/portland/241-

Lincoln-Middle-School/#Low-income_students)
form of replacing ELA courses for an

English as a World Language course

and occasionally supports through pull outs. The same rings true for the 19% of students

receiving special education services. Supports for identified students are natural—pull outs are

very rare and not preferred. Several students that have 504s and IEPs are placed in general

education classes supported by the general education teacher and a special education teacher or a

ed tech. As one of the least diverse middle schools in Portland, despite pull out requests from

parents in 2014 due to concerns of overwhelming “diversity”, Lincoln Middle School strives to

implement and acknowledge the cultures and traditions of their diverse students and families. In

reaching towards Portland’s goals for students, students are supported and challenged where they

can and should be. Special education supports, ELL supports, and Chapter 104 supports for
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gifted students are all part of a natural curriculum. Of the 535 students, 198 are eligible for free

lunch and 32 are eligible for reduced-lunch. To support learning, each morning all teachers are

given bags full of breakfast so that each student can satisfy their basic needs for successful

learning.

Classroom Factors

Our ELA classroom is located on the third floor of Lincoln in the Hawthorn House. Each

classroom in the school is equipped with a ceiling hanging projector that connects to teachers

and students’ given MacBooks through airplay. Unfortunately, early this year the projector in our

room stopped working and the IT support for the school is unsure how to fix it—leaving us to

use a projector set on a rolling cart that needs to be connected directly to the laptop through a

cord. For me, my Mac needs an additional piece that allows it to directly connect to the projector

and that is something I do not own so I am left to use my mentors laptop when using the

projector. All students are assigned a MacBook Air if they attend Lincoln Middle School due to a

push a few years back from the MLTI group; however, teachers here are attempting to push back

on the use of laptops due to students inappropriately using the technology. Students are only

allowed to take them home if their parents have signed a form and the student has a pass signed

by one of their teachers, indicating that the student has work that needs to be be done at home on

the laptop.

As an ELA teacher, there is a big push for more students to be reading books that are on

grade level—in line with recognized 7th grade complex texts. Over many years my mentor has

accumulated hundreds of books to have quite an extensive library that spans over multiple genres

of books that accommodates for many students’ learning preferences such as: graphic novels,
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short stories, informational stories, poetry books, and classic novels of every genre. Over the

years she has been teaching, her position has allowed her to collect and ask for books that appeal

to the diverse range of readers she gets each year in her classroom. Lincoln Middle School is also

very lucky to have a large library that is well stocked with all kinds of books and cozy spaces for

kids to read. The learning commons, as LMS faculty and students call it, also caters to their

student population in the way that late fees are never charged for students that fail to return their

books on time. There are no penalties for students bring back books days, weeks, or even years

after their book is due—they are simply not allowed to check out another book until the last book

is returned. Books are always available for students in an effort to get them reading texts that will

help them progress towards or maybe even exceed the 7th grade complex text levels.

New to my mentor this year, she arranged the room so that her students can choose where

they feel they will learn best, promoting the students’ self-advocacy. Since she looped up from

6th grade to 7th grade with them, she feels more comfortable letting them make the choices that

they believe will better help them learn rather than creating a seating chart right off the bat. Table

groups are for students who prefer to easily collaborate with other peers to talk through their

understandings. Single tables are for those who prefer to work closely with another student or

independently. With the single tables comes the choice for students to sit in the back near

windows if they feel more claustrophobic in the classroom or in the front of the room if they

have difficulty seeing from afar. Unfortunately, for most of our core classes, students were

choosing seats closest to the friends that distracted them the most—leaving students unable to

keep their voices off and focus when absolutely necessary. These students were also preventing
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others from being able to

learn due to the noise so

seating charts were made

to accommodate learning

and listening.

Before students can

come into class, they must

line up on the wall outside

and wait to be asked to

come in. This way

students can be given

some information before they come in while the class before has time to pack up their things and

leave (since there are no built in transition times in the schedule). Students are reminded that

they need their independent books, a pen or pencil, and either their readers or writers notebooks.

Giving this information in advance creates a smoother transition and less questions from students

due to the directness. When students enter the room they are expected to place their things down

in the spot they choose to sit and/or are assigned to sit. We had discussed with students that the

seats are arranged in different ways (some in groups, some in pairs, some facing the widows,

some facing the board, etc.) so that students can choose what will work best for them. This was

an incentive for students to choose seats where they will be productive in class. We made it

aware that this choice is a privilege and not a right. We’ve let students know that the new seating

chart can always be taken away given they can exhibit self-manage in class. After students drop
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their things off they are to come up to the front of the room and “circle up” for a meeting. This is

a routine we do every class so we are able to check in with students (fist to five, dream vacation,

favorite dessert, etc.). Meetings, now that we are a month into school and the community knows

its members, are now used for direct instruction or mini-lessons. Students have diverse seating

choices for meetings which will hopefully allow them to be able to self-manage and focus much

better than if they were further away or in an uncomfortable seat.

My mentor creates a slideshow for each day of the first week of school that gave kids

reminders of how she expects class to run since she was with these kids last year in 6th grade.

These classroom procedures included:

1. Bathroom/drink - Signing in and out and grabbing a pass, using the bathroom after and

before the first and last 10 minutes of class, and making sure only one person is out at a

time.

2. Phones - Phones are to be “off and away” during school hours. Each classroom has a

hanging pocket holder called “the phontel” where students are to check their phones in at

the beginning of class and out at the end of class if they are not keeping the phone in their

locker.

3. Workshop time - Using voice level 0 or 1, using time given appropriately, asking

questions with peers or teachers.

4. Meeting Expectations - Students come to the meeting space quietly and efficiently.

Students place themselves facing the board and huddled in the front of the room on

chairs, front tables, or on the floor with a mat. No one is to be speaking while the teacher
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is talking. Hands must be raised to ask a question or make a comment. Students should,

and will, be respectful of one another when they are speaking by actively listening.

5. Library - Walking to the library with a level 0 voice as to not disrupt classes and

maintaining a level 0-1 voice while we are working in the learning commons.

As we have moved into a more structured school year each day we begin with a transition

slide as students are coming in. This slide lets students know exactly what to do when they enter

class and what they need to have with them, in case they missed the directions in the hallway.

This instructional strategy is, unbeknownst to students, an effective way to differentiate

instructions—verbally and visually. 


Strength/Needs Analysis


To assess students’ prior knowledge and understandings from 6th grade I conducted

several methods of obtaining students’ skills. On the first day of class we asked student to be part

of creating a class contract—classroom rules and expectations that students create and sign. We

had several questions placed throughout the room and had students walk around with sticky

notes to answer questions like “I work best in an environment that…” and “The most effective

teachers are the ones who..”. Students came up with similar and important answers for each

question that we recorded and turned into an official contract. This activity was a great way for

me to get a glimpse of what students needs in class and what they want from me as their teacher

and form their classmates as well. Students in each class had the chance to reflect on what kind

of classroom environment we need as a community to be successful. My mentor had already

planned to have students write a letter to us teachers where they express their hopes and worries

for 7th grade and gives some general information about themselves and their summer. Because I
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want students to know the work we ask them to do is important, I also wrote a letter to students

about myself as well as left comments on each letter so students would know that I read and

acknowledged the effort in which they put out. This method was an effective way for me to get

to know more about their personal lives, their goals and worries for the year, as well as to

vaguely pre-assess their writing

abilities coming out of a three

month break. While this was all

useful and important information,

I wanted to give the students a

multiple intelligence quiz in order

for me to have data about each

individual student and each

classroom that I will be teaching.

This short quiz gives me the data I need to inform my lesson planning while also giving students

data about themselves so they can, in hopes, better advocate for themselves as learners.

We are using a lot of different materials to teach reading and writing, that are meant to

support all students’ varying background knowledges, including mentor texts, reading plus

programming, a reading focus period (read aloud), and writing notebooks. Lincoln Middle has

created a time period in the schedule twice a week that allows teachers to focus on reading in

order to move towards Portland’s goal for higher state results in reading and math. This shift in

more time with texts is also in an effort to make Portland’s promise for equity true. In reading

focus all teachers are reading the same short novel called Seedfolks. This text was chosen
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because it reviews concepts like theme and point of view that students learned the previous year

in 6th grade. This is also a text that is diverse in nature so that students are better able to connect

with it. We also use a program called reading plus, which was rolled out last year and will

continue this year that supports and supplements reading skills. Reading plus is a great tool in

collecting data on individual students since it targets specific areas in reading (literacy, fluency,

vocabulary, etc) that students need more support in. This program is very beneficial to students

who do not come from homes where their first, or main, language is English.

Each core class (four in total) is the same level and receive the same work. There are

small bits of differentiation built into the handouts, assignments, or directions based on my

mentors previous knowledge of the students since she circled up from 6th to 7th grade with

them. Students who need more individual support have behavioral support specialists that act as

traveling classroom teachers so other students can rely on them for support, not just the one

individual. My mentor is proactive in differentiating content and making direction verbal and on

paper. Each time students work in their notebooks she provides a graphic organizer with written

directions for students who struggle with task initiation, yet many of the students who do not still

have access to having more structure through these organizers. Since students of all levels

(students with IEP and students on an advanced Chapter 104 plan) are integrated into each class

my mentor creates tools for each class and for each student to have access to.
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Strength/Needs Analysis and Student Characteristics

STUDENT G A MI INTERESTS/ Reading Writing OTHER
E G PERSONALITY Skills Skills
N E
D
E
R

Student 1 M 12 Nature
Stranger Things - BA A Parents are refugees -
Visual
Season 3 needs interpreter (Arabic)

Body
Has a case manager - R

OHI

Student 2 F
12 Nature
Quiet-reserved BA BA
Visual

People

Student 3 M 13 Visual
Goofy, playful
A A Court Order (Parental
Music Lots of meme custody battle) - Father
references has primary custody

504 in progress -
Behavior

Student 4 F 12 Math
Sports - Soccer A A
Inter

Nature

Student 5
 F 12 Visual
Social BA BA Has 504

Music RTI - Tier 1

Lacks task initiation

Student 6 F 12 Sports - Soccer A A

Student 7 F 12 Word
Reading IT
AA A Mother cannot dismiss
Music
Flamboyant personality or have contact at
Visual school

Student 8 M 12 Math
Goofy, playful
BA BA Has a case manager

Inter
Talkative Has IEP - R, W, B
Intra

Student 9 F 12 Body
Uses fidget AA AA 104 Case Manager

Music Reading & Math

Student M 12 Visual
Shy
A BA Has a case manager for
10 Intra Like jokes and riddles
IEP - W

From Jamaica

Student F 11 Music
Desire to learn is strong
BA BA Has case manager for
11 Visual
Social IEP - M, R, W
Intra
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STUDENT G A MI INTERESTS/ Reading Writing OTHER

E G PERSONALITY Skills Skills
N E
D
E
R

Student F 12 Inter
Social
A BA Interpreter and
12 Intra translations needed -
Somali

Asthma

Lacks task initiation

Student M 12 Music
Likes doodling AA AA 104 Case Manager

13 Visual Reading & Math

Student M 12 Visual
Minecraft
A BA Has IEP - R, W

14 Nature Telling jokes

Has case manager -
Autism Spectrum

RTI - Tier 1

Student M 12 Inter
Basketball
BA BA Interpreter and
15 Body
translations needed -
Nature Acholi

Has IEP

Lacks task initiation

Verbal learner

Student M 12 Nature
Class clown
A A
16 Body Likes soccer

Student F 12 Inter Quiet-reserved BA A Other language (no

17 Visual
interpreter or translations
Music needed) - Dari

Has 504

Student F 12 Music Social BA BA Has case manager - B,

18 W

Lacks task initiation

Verbal learner

Student M 12 Body
Inquisitive A AA
19 Intra

Student M 12 Drawing
AA AA 104 Case Manager

20 Skateboarding Reading & Math

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STUDENT G A MI INTERESTS/ Reading Writing OTHER

E G PERSONALITY Skills Skills
N E
D
E
R

Student F 12 Body
Needs fidget
A BA Easily distracted
21 Visual
Meme references
Intra

Student M 12 Music
Shy
A A
22
 Visual
Helpful classmate
Body

In this chosen class there are many different types of students that vary in background

and in learning styles. Along with my mentor and myself, the students have access to a case

manager who is other wise known to the students as a third teacher. This case manager works

closely with her assigned students’ IEP and 504s and is in the class to specifically support them

where she is now an expert. We often meet once during the week to discuss what is going well

and what could be done better to best fit the needs of students in the class. We have discussed

strategies such as graphic organizers, scaffolded assignments, and repetition of directions to

support learners. The results of my multiple intelligence indicated that these students mostly

needed movement and noise differentiation to be successful in the classroom. There are many

students in this class who have so much residual energy that it is difficult for them to maintain

focus for more than 5-10 minutes at a time, which is why we have adapted to making mini-

lessons even shorter for this group. We have also added multiple minute breaks or motor

moments into class time in an effort to get students focused when necessary. As for the noise, I

learned that a lot of students need a consistent noise level to keep focused whether it be listening

to their own music with headphones in or having calm, flat music playing during workshop times
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with level 0 voice. I noticed students get easily pulled out of focus during writing times by little

noises, such as pen clicks or squeaky tables.

One student who I have been working closely with in order for him to be successful is

student 15. Since there are lots of teachers in the room it allows us to work one-on-one with

more students who struggle maintaining focus and initiating tasks. Student 15 has poor motor

skills, so when he does produce work it is often difficult to read, and strong verbal

comprehension. To make learning more accessible for him I often spend the beginning of class,

after directions or mini-lessons, with him as a way to review what directions have been given

and where he should start. Student 15’s interpersonal nature with learning allows him to keep

some focus on the assignment and process words and directions much more easily when spoken

to one-on-one. When there is a written assignment I typically prompt him with the questions and

record his responses on the sheet. This allows all of us teachers to be able to see the work he is

producing rather than just the teacher talking with him. Without the extra resources in the room,

this method would be less plausible due to our need to circulate the room. Unfortunately, there

has a been a large pushback with using students’ laptops for writing because of the distracting

nature of technology for students; otherwise, using a laptop to record his writing would be much

more beneficial to his learning and processing.

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Resources

Bombardieri, M. (2000, July 30). A city’s changing face aided by program to house refugees;

immigrants bring ethnic diversity, new challenges, to Portland, Maine. The Boston Globe.

Retrieved from http://pluralism.org/news/increasing-diversity-in-portland-maine/

(http://northeastmediacollective.com), N. M. C. (n.d.). Portland Maine Public Schools Promise:

prepared & empowered. Retrieved October 6, 2019, from https://

www.portlandschoolspromise.org/.

Jaworsky, B., Levitt, P., Cadge, W., Hejtmanek, J., & Curran, S. (2012). New Perspectives on

Immigrant Contexts of Reception. Nordic Journal of Migration Research, 2(1). doi:

10.2478/v10202-011-0029-6

Portland, Maine. (2019, September 25). Retrieved September 30, 2019, from https://

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland,_Maine.

Trevorrow, A. (2018). Portland.

U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Portland city, Maine. (2018, July 1). Retrieved September 30,

2019, from https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/portlandcitymaine.