Setting and Context New

The School Community
Fort Collins High School has a healthy and welcoming school culture and
community. The hallways are covered in student and staff awards, along with the
school fight song, and the five pillars of excellence that represent the schools core
values. These aesthetics of the inside of the school demonstrate how positive and
student-centered the school truly is.
Fort Collins High School offers several programs, resources, and activities for
students. I saw first hand some of the excellent programs the school offers, such as
AP and Honors classes, Transition Academy, Teen Parents program, AVID, and a
Special Education program. I love that these programs address a variety of needs
and are essential resources for many students within the school. Fort Collins also
offers several activities for students. During the Homecoming assembly I got a brief
glimpse of some of the programs. There are several sports, language clubs,
business related clubs, science clubs, theatre, choir, and student leadership clubs
like peer counseling, link leaders, and student government. There truly is an activity
for any type of interest at Fort Collins High School, and if there isnt one that fits a
students interest then they are allowed to initiate their own.
Parents can get involved in several ways at the school. For example, when I
chaperoned the Homecoming dance, I saw several parents also helping out. Parents
monitored the dance, helped with coat check, and helped with clean up at the end.
Parent-teacher conferences are another great way for parents to get involved. The
conferences this semester were two hours long and gave parents the opportunity to
meet with their kids teachers, learn about their curriculum, and over all just stay
connected with the school.
Just as the school climate is positive and welcoming, so is the learning
climate. The teachers do an outstanding job at clearly conveying the learning
targets and success criteria to the students, which makes learning more meaningful
for the students. Every day in every class students see what the learning target is
for the day and the success criteria for meeting that target. The teachers are also
very good about differentiating. Whether a student needs more challenging work or
a student needs a little extra help, the teachers are always accommodating to meet
these needs.
Fort Collins High School has proven to be an excellent school. I believe that
their five pillars of excellence truly encompass the culture and values of the school.
The pillars are: acceptance, pride, integrity, respect, and responsibility. Each time a
student does something that exemplifies one of these core values they are given a
slip that acknowledges their excellent behavior. I found this to be one of the most
positive aspects of the school and loved the fact that students were constantly being
recognized for staying true to these values. Students and teachers are constantly
demonstrating these values and it is clear that they are an important part of creating
such an awesome school community.
Students and Classroom

This semester I worked with two of Ms. Sarah Kellers 12th grade civics class.
Both classes that I worked with were well behaved, outgoing, and just an overall
good group of kids to be with.
The first period class, which I was only with one hour a week, was a little
more reserved. This group didnt talk nearly as much as my other class, but they
were truly a brilliant group of kids. I had four kids that were on an IEP. This class
had a wider variety of needs than my other class. I had students with hearing
troubles, learning disabilities, and emotional disturbances. For the two students
that are hard of hearing it was important for Ms. Keller or myself to repeat
directions several times and to always make sure our bodies faced towards them
when we were talking. The students that had learning disabilities were given
differentiated tests, homework, and class handouts. As for the student with
emotional disturbances, it was important that Ms. Keller or myself never put her on
the spot in front of the class. The students without an IEP also had different needs
that needed to be addressed. Some students were very shy and did not want to talk
out loud, while other students were always willing to share out loud with the class.
Many of these kids are great leaders and involved in leadership roles outside of the
class, so they were always quick to help other students.
The classroom culture of my first period class was definitely a positive one.
While they were quieter than my second period class, they were good about
including everyone and I noticed very few cliques. All of the students knew each
other and I could tell they felt comfortable working with one another.
The classroom is set up in rows. Ms. Keller assigned seats and changed the
seating chart after every unit. Below is a diagram of the classroom. Each rectangle
with a name in it represents a desk and a student. There are 34 students in this
class, 19 males and 15 females.
I also worked with Ms. Kellers second period civics class, and was with them
for three hours per work. This class was far more talkative than my other class but
they still followed directions and got all of their work done. This class had four
students on IEPs, all of them for learning disabilities. Two of these students
received differentiated work on almost every assignment, while the remainder of
the IEP students just received additional testing time or extensions to turn in work.
The rest of the class had unique abilities and needs that were also addressed. I had
four students in here that were always willing to share. It was difficult at times to
not call on them because they were always so eager to speak, but it was important to
call on other students to get their voices heard in the classroom. Some students
appeared very disengaged in this class, but I found that talking to them one-on-one
helped to get them engaged and clarify any questions they might have had.
The classroom culture for this class was also very positive. There were never
any issues between the students and everyone appeared happy to be working in
their random groups or with the students directly next to them. This class seemed a
lot closer than my other class, and I think the community was a little bit stronger. I
still cannot put my finger on exactly why this was the case, but my best guess is that
many of these students had classes together before.
Just like the first period class, this class was set up in rows. Below is a
diagram of the classroom. Each rectangle with a name in it represents a desk and a
student. There are 33 students in this class, 13 males and 20 females.
The context of the learning environment for both classes was extremely
similar since it was the same course. Ms. Keller used a mixture of lecture, group
work, and individual work to teach the content. I would say that there was about an
even mix of Ms. Keller talking in front of the students as there was student-tostudent interaction. The warm-ups almost always involved interactions amongst
the students. Next, Ms. Keller would often lecture the students on a given chapter
while the students would take notes. This would usually be followed with students
applying their knowledge in some type of group work or individual work.
Topic and Rationale

Leading up to my lesson plan the students had learned about the foundations
of government, political behavior and participation, and the Legislative Branch. In
short, the students understood the basics of how federal, state, and local
governments run, how citizens can participate in democracy, and the functions of
the Legislative Branch. The lesson I taught was about gerrymandering and its
relationship to local governments. I taught this topic because it emphasized how
state and local governments and their decisions have an effect on our daily lives, and
I felt it was a way for students to connect government to their personal lives. I used
several instructional strategies for this lesson. The anticipatory set was an inquiry
activity. I chose to do an inquiry because I wanted to get students thinking about
gerrymandering on their own terms and to try and understand the repercussions of
it. The next part of the lesson was a hands-on activity. Students worked in groups
to solve a scenario I came up with that related to Poudre School District
gerrymandering the high school boundaries. The purpose of the activity was for
students to redraw the Fort Collins high school boundaries and include a fifth
hypothetical high school, and to so do without gerrymandering the new boundaries.
I used this strategy because I felt it was the best way to connect gerrymandering to
the students lives, and it allowed students to work together and help each other
with their learning. Also, I believe that group work is an excellent way for students
to practice collaboration, negotiation, and overall just have positive interactions
with their peers. The closing activity involved a whole class discussion where
students shared their work and how they came to creating the new boundaries.
This mix of instructional activity included a variety of learning styles and kept
students engaged the entire time, so overall I was pleased with the results.

Setting and Context New

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Setting and Context New

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Setting and Context New

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

The School Community

Students and Classroom

Topic and Rationale

You might also like