[ This middle school serves 6th-8th grade students in a low-middle class suburban area. There are approximately 800 students in this school, and the average class size is 20 students. The school has a fairly diverse population of students. 80% of students are African-American, 8% are white, and 8% are Hispanic. Eight percent of the student population is considered to have learning disabilities and 1% are classified as not being proficient in English. This school had a low percentage of passing scores on the Georgia Milestones assessment with an overall pass rate of 27.5%; however, English Language Arts alone had an average passing percentage of 37.4%. Instead of the normal hallway division of 6th, 7th, and 8th grade, this school is divided …show more content…
What is the class schedule (e.g., 50 minutes every day, 90 minutes every other day)?
[ The students in this class spend 70 minutes Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and 50 minutes on Friday in this class (block scheduling). They do not meet on Mondays because this is their 4th period class]
4. How much time is devoted each day to English Language Arts instruction in your classroom?
[ Depending on the day students will spend 15-55 minutes each day to instruction.]
5. Is there any ability grouping or tracking in English Language Arts? If so, please describe how it affects your class.
[ The entire school operates using tracking. Because this class is meant for remedial or “low-level” learners, we have many students who lack motivation and interest due to their perception that they are the “dumb” kids. This also presents a problem when trying to diversify grouping within the classroom, because there is not much diversity among the students when it comes to performance.]
6. Identify any textbook or instructional program you primarily use for English Language Arts instruction. If a textbook, please provide the title, publisher, and date of publication.
[ This class does not use a textbook or an instructional
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These students participate in a pull-out ESOL class twice a week, where they are able to get support in their own language.
Because this class causes them to miss instructional time on in ELA on Tuesdays, these students have a “buddy” in the class that helps them get caught up and they also get printouts of instructional materials.
If available, the students are given the option to read materials in their home language (Spanish), although they never choose this option.
Students with Other Learning Needs
Other Learning Needs
Number of Students
Supports, Accommodations, Modifications
Struggling Readers
23
Students are given reading-level appropriate material, such as NewsELA articles that can be leveled to different Lexile scores. Texts used in this class are either brief or “chunked” into smaller sections, as longer texts tend to overwhelm the students. The Chrome extension Snap&Read is also used when reading material online; it has a “text leveling” tool that simplifies difficult vocabulary into understandable terms within the