The atmosphere in the classroom and particular features of the necessary instructional planning and assessment significantly depend on contextual factors which are aspects of the community and district’s development, features of the concrete school, and students’ characteristics.
To analyze how contextual factors can influence the teacher’s approach to realizing instructional planning and assessment, it is necessary to refer to the environments and contextual factors typical for the First Grade class of Webster Elementary School located in Webster, Wisconsin. Thus, it is important to focus on the discussion of environmental and classroom contextual factors as well as on students’ characteristics and on their impact on the teaching-learning process.
The environmental factors which influence the development of the community of Webster, Wisconsin, are the community population and support for education. Thus, according to the data of 2012, the whole number of residents in Webster is 644 persons living at the rural territories (Webster, Wisconsin, 2013). The small number of population influences the number of students in Webster schools from the community because many students are from other communities.
Responding to the needs of these students, teachers include the aspects associated with the communities’ cultural and historical development designing instructions, focus on different values and traditions.
The community’s support for education is strong, but the parental involvement in the classroom activities is minimal. The design of instructions depends on the ability of parents to participate in the class projects, pay for the additional educational materials, and interact with a teacher while involving a teacher in the family environment.
To describe the district, it is necessary to refer to such factors as socioeconomics and race and ethnicity. While referring to socioeconomics, it is important to note that the median household income of the population is approximately $34,460 as it was fixed in 2011 (Webster, Wisconsin, 2013). The majority of the district’s population is involved in manufacturing, and the average rate of unemployment is 6.7% (Webster, Wisconsin, 2013).
It is important not to focus students’ attention on economic differences while providing instructions to avoid biases and to contribute to the idea of equality.
The development of a district is also influenced by the factor of race and ethnicity because 3.8% of people are American Indians, 2.8% are of the mixed origin, 2% are Hispanics, and 1.8% are Blacks (Webster, Wisconsin, 2013). This factor contributes to the cultural diversity and teacher’s use of instructions to demonstrate the respect for diversity without focusing on stereotypes.
The factors of school population and the race and ethnicity are important to discuss the demographics of Webster School. The whole population of the school is 720 students, including the students from the other neighbor communities. This fact influences the teacher’s instructions and assessment because of necessities to meet the other communities’ expectations, respond to the communities’ values and morals. Instructions should not be abusive for representatives of different communities.
According to the race and ethnicity factor, 78.8% of the school population are Whites, 2.2% are Hispanics, and 10% are American Indians (WISEdash, 2013). To respond to the ethnic diversity in classes, teachers provide instructions and assessments in two languages when it is necessary, add the response to the cultural diversity to lesson plans, treat all the students equally, but with the respect to their culture and ethnicity, not contributing to developing stereotypes.
The classroom environment should also be described in relation to such important contextual factors as physical features, technology equipment and resources, the parental involvement, and the classroom arrangement because these factors directly and indirectly affect the quality and type of instructions and techniques used by teachers in order to enhance the teaching-learning process.
The classroom used for the First Grade class’s activities is not large enough in order to provide the necessary rest for eighteen students and playing and learning activities typical for students of the First Grade.
However, the technological equipment is appropriate to work out the effective lesson plans and perform all the planned activities. SMARTBoards and iPads are available to be used in order to develop students’ skills and contribute to their activities while presenting and explaining the new material (Webster School District, 2013). Moreover, the large assortment of books and other educational materials are available for teachers and students in order to assist them in their teaching and learning activities.
The parental involvement which is characteristic for the First Grade class is not significant in order to influence the aspects of the teaching-learning process. Thus, parents do not participate in the planned outdoor activities, and only few parents perform the functions as the representatives of the parental committee in the class.
The other important factor to affect the specifics of the lessons, instructional planning, and assessment is the classroom arrangement. The classroom is too small in order to arrange the students’ tables to form circles necessary for the group work. Any movements in the classroom are limited because of the arrangement of tables that is why a teacher should choose between the activities which are appropriate to be performed in the classroom with little space.
In addition to the environmental and classroom contextual factors, it is necessary to discuss student factors such as age, gender, interests, and learning styles which are characteristic for the First Grade class because they influence the design of the used instructions, learning activities, and assessment techniques and methods directly.
Thus, the age of the First Grade class’s students is the key factor to plan instructions and activities in order to contribute to the students’ perception and understanding of the material. For instance, children of 6-7 years understand clear instructions which can be supported with visual materials in order to explain the expected goals.
Furthermore, the students of this age respond more actively to the instructions which are connected with different types of the practical activities. The next factor is the gender of students in the class. The First Grade class consists of nine boys and nine girls. Thus, the gender does not influence the choice of instructions and assessment techniques significantly because the dominance of boys or girls in the class is not observed.
However, interests of boys and girls at the age of 6-7 years are rather different that is why these aspects should be taken into consideration while developing the necessary instructions. It is important to note that the elements of games are effective for providing instructions and assessments for the students without references to their gender because playing activities are appropriate to meet the students’ interests at this sage of the personal development.
To contribute to the development of the most effective instructions for the First Grade class, it is necessary to pay attention to the students learning styles. The boys in the class are more responsive to the visual material when the girls react more actively to the heard information.
That is why, it is effective to combine the visual and auditory techniques and resources in order to present instructions and assessment activities in this class. This approach can contribute to increasing the students’ understanding of the material and performance.
Nevertheless, the contextual factors are rather complex in their nature, and such factors as the student skills and prior learning can influence the teacher’s approach to determining the learning goals, instruction, and assessment.
It is necessary to state that the focus on the student skills and prior learning is extremely important while developing the learning goals regarding this or that subject because students’ abilities to read, write, and count and their successes in these activities are important to determine the further learning goals in relation to reading, writing, and mathematics or other subjects.
The learning of the next aspects of this or that field should be based on the definite prior knowledge. Thus, it is important to refer to the skills developed by the students at the Kindergarten stage.
Student skills are also significant to determine the instructions used by the teacher and his or her approach to assessment. Thus, it was necessary to modify the instructions used at the Kindergarten stage in order to contribute to the progress of the students in the First Grade class. That is why, the range of aspects presented in instructions was expanded, but the number of details accentuated became less because it is necessary to help students ask the questions focused on the general material.
Furthermore, the level of thinking skills’ development affected not only instructions but also the choice of the literature used in the class. The prior learning and knowledge is important to plan assessment to evaluate the students’ progress. The methods used previously are not effective, but the new approach to assessment is based on students’ abilities to perceive the material at the new stage.
From this point, contextual factors influence the classroom activities at all the levels, and they should be addressed in order to contribute to the effective teaching-learning process and development of appropriate instructions and assessments.
References
Webster School District. (2013). Web.
Webster, Wisconsin. (2013). Web.
WISEdash. (2013). Web.