Teacher Work Sample

Introduction

This Teacher Work Sample assignment provides an opportunity for the student to document the ability to create a unit of work based on assessment data to meet the specific needs of eighth-grade nine students (Student A). The unit includes effective instructional strategies, such as the use of multimedia, assessment planning, lesson planning, and individual focusing, to help the students develop their best understanding of the content. This task requires the student to assess the learning outcomes of the students by using a pre and posttest. Content on Mathematical Algebra is used along with several instructional strategies and accommodations to evaluate students’ performance and provide opportunities to help them improve their skills. The Unit of work includes its objectives, the teaching strategies, the daily content to be covered, and the assessment plan.

Teaching is an important profession that requires a lot of effort and care to build the future of students. A teacher helps the students in learning new concepts, and this cannot be done without lesson planning, assessment planning, or using effective strategies or activities in the classroom. This means that the better the teacher plans the lesson, the more effective the learner will be at learning new things (Pullen, 2011). Moreover, the teacher must include the motivation of the students in the lesson planning because motivation promotes conceptual learning, enjoyment, and performance in the student, so the student begins to enjoy the lecture as well and thus really get command over the concepts. Providing stimulating learning environments will motivate students to take more interest in their course content, thereby developing a deeper understanding of the concepts. Simply put, motivation enhances the capabilities of the student to perform in the best way and thus will have a very positive impact on the success of the student (Anon, 2016).

Unit of Work

The student selected Inequalities, a topic from the 9th-grade math curriculum. A pretest consisting of ….. items which cover the areas to be taught was administered and analyzed. Each student’s needs were documented and accommodated in the unit. The appropriate state standards and content are presented in the unit. Each student in the Student group will be assigned with different instructional objectives, this is to ensure that the teacher is meeting the diverse needs of the class as they understand the content.

. The unit objectives are:

1. Solve the inequality by graphing the solution,
2. Solving inequality by writing it in interval notation,
3. Solving inequality word problems,
4. Solve inequalities graphically, numerically, and algebraically.

Following is the interdisciplinary unit plan, created to be taught over a period of 1 week. The test and Thematic Unit are presented below.

Unit

Teacher: Jean Carlo	Subject: Algebra	Grade Level: Grade 9	No. of Students: 8
Date: April 6, 2018	Lesson Duration: 1hr. 30 min. (Block scheduling)
Florida State Standards	MAFS.912.S-MD.2.5 Weigh the possible outcomes of a decision by assigning probabilities to payoff values and finding expected values. For example,
Unit Goal	This lesson unit is intended to help you assess how well students understand conditional inequality and solve. it
Lesson Objectives:	Students will: A) 1. Solve inequality by graphing the solution, 2. Solving inequality by writing it in interval notation, 3. Solving inequality word problems. B) 1. Solve inequality by graphing the solution, 2. Solving inequality by writing it in interval notation. C) 1. Solve inequality by graphing the solution, 2. Solving inequality by writing it in interval notation, 3. Solving inequality word problems. D) 1. Solve inequality word problems. E) 1. Solve inequality by graphing the solution, 2. Solving inequality by writing it in interval notation, 3. Solve inequalities numerically. F) 1. Solve inequalities graphically, numerically, and algebraically, 2. Solve the word problems. G) 1. Solving inequality word problems, 2. Solve inequalities graphically, numerically, and algebraically.
Opening/Warm-up: 10% of the block (approximately 10 min)	Video: Students will watch a video on how to solve inequality and word problems. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cQjqAZ8Wmw
Work Session: 80% of the block (approximately 70 min)	Materials/Resources Needed: State all materials to be used during the week of instruction Prerequisites: Knowledge of inequality terms –
Lesson Content & Activity	Day 1: The teacher will administer a pretest to ascertain students’ conceptual understanding of Inequalities.Content: The teacher will discuss the definitions of inequality terms. Activity: The students will learn definitions for inequality properly and will practice the examples provided in the textbook.
	Day 2 Question: The teacher will ask a few questions to evaluate to what extent students understood the definitions of inequalities. Content: They will discuss how to solve word problems or numerals related to inequalities. Activity: The students will solve different word problems on inequality Exercises on page 145 in the textbook.
	Day 3 Question: The teacher will ask a few questions about the word problems of inequalities. Content: The teacher will guide you about solving inequalities questions algebraically. Activity: Students will solve the algebra questions of inequalities by writing them in interval notations.
	Day 4 Question: The teacher will ask a few questions of algebra questions and will ask students to solve them in interval notations. Content: The teacher will guide you about solving inequalities questions graphically. Activity: Students will solve the algebra questions of inequalities by sketching graphs.
Resources for Students	Algebra Textbook, Journal, and Computers: the teacher made a worksheet Pre and posttests
Differentiation: (Based on data with a description of activity)	The teacher will use differentiated instruction when teaching the class to accommodate all students.   The teacher will use observations to identify any students needing one-on-one assistance during the independent practice.
Activities:	The teacher will take tests as assessments and conduct evidence-based activities to evaluate the student’s performance in class and their understanding level. Students will be evaluated for mastery by Teacher Observation and their performance on the Assessment worksheets.
Follow-up Activities	If students do not demonstrate at least 70% mastery of the skills and concepts in the objectives, the teacher will reteach them.
Evaluation of Mastery/Evidence of Learning:	Students will be evaluated for mastery by Teacher Observation and their performance on the Assessment worksheets. Questioning Quiz

After the completion of this plan, the teacher will conduct a posttest on Day 5 to evaluate how his teaching strategies helped the students to learn new concepts and how many teachers met the learning needs of the students (Behaviourism, 2017).

Learning Assessment Analysis

Assessment of learning refers to the question of, at a particular point in time, how much a student has learned. On the other hand, assessment for a student means assessing a student to help him/her further his existing level of learning (Jennings, 2007; Vygotsky, 1978). The goal of assessment for learning is to bridge the past to the future with proximal development, and the assessment of learning focuses on checking the achievement status and the already possessed knowledge by the student (Jackson, 2011). The purpose of this assessment was to meet the learning needs of a diverse group of students. The Pretest and Posttest methodology is considered to be the best approach to evaluate the learning level of the students and to understand their strengths and challenges. This assessment plan also evaluates where the students need more help with understanding the content and whether learning gains result from instruction or teaching strategies.

The pretest and posttest results of the students are shown in the table below:

Table 1 Instructional Assessment Data

Instructional Assessment Data Jean Carlo Dartilus (NSU Graduate Field Experience Student Name and Class Identification)
Student Identifier	Instructional Adaptations	Instructional Objective  Number	Pre- assessment Raw Score	Post-assessment Raw Score	% Gain / Loss*	Analysis of Gain / Loss
Student A	Group work Individualized work	1, 2 and 3	65	90	38.46	77.5
Student B	More time gave Interactive work	1 and 2	70	95	35.71	82.5
Student C	More time Given Cooperative activities Interactive software	1, 2, 3, 4	50	80	60.00	65.0
Student D	Group work	1 add addition objs	60	85	41.67	72.5
Student E	Group work	1, 2, 3	65	95	46.15	80.0
Student F	More time given	1, 2	75	100	33.33	87.5
Student G	Group work	2 Add other objs	60	75	25.00	67.5
Student H	More time gave Practice to develop speed and automaticity	4	80	100	25.00	90.00
*Link to a Percentage Gain Calculator (http://convertalot.com/percentage_gain_calculator.html) to determine the percentage of improvement.

The table above shows that in the pretest, the students got fewer marks, but after attending the five days of lectures, the students were able to show good results, and thus, they did so well in the posttest. This means that the lesson plan helped the students to understand more about the content, and that is why they did so well on their posttest.

Reflection on Teaching and Learning Based on Outcomes of Measurement

This document is about the observation of the students and the creation of an assessment plan for the students to meet their learning needs. The main purpose of this document was to help the students understand the topic very well. Many students face different sorts of challenges, such as minorities facing language challenges, some students not being keen to observe the concepts quickly, and some not paying attention to the lecture with interest. However, to overcome all these challenges, the teacher used effective strategies, such as asking questions about the previous lecture to help students revise the content. Similarly, the use of multimedia (video) helped the teacher to develop the interest of the students in the topic and helped them to observe the concepts efficiently.

References

Anon. (2016). EXPECTANCY VALUE THEORY. COMMUNICATION STUDIES THEORIES.

Behaviourism, T. A. (2017). Teaching and Learning Resources / Behaviourism. 2017. Retrieved from http://teachinglearningresources.pbworks.com/w/page/19919540/Behaviorism

Daskalopoulou, S. R. (2015). The 2015 Canadian Hypertension Education Program recommendations for blood pressure measurement, assessment, and prevention. Canadian Journal of Cardiology, 31(5), 549-68.

Jackson, C. &. (2011). Personal development plans and workplace learning. British Journal of Healthcare Assistants, 5(6), 292-296.

Jennings, S. F. (2007). Personal development plans and self‐directed learning for healthcare professionals: are they evidence based? Postgrad Med J,, 83(982), 518–524.

Pullen, R. L. (2011). Get on the road to professional development. Journal of Education, 9(11).

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Interaction between Learning and Development. Harvard Press.

Appendix A

Pre-Post Tests

NAME:_______________________

Instruction: Put in interval notation AND draw a graph of each inequality.

1. x ≥ 4 0 1.______________________

2. x < 6 0 2.______________________

3. x ≤ -2 0 3.______________________

4. x > 8 0 4.______________________

5. x < -10 0 5.______________________

Write each interval as an inequality and draw a graph for each.

6. (-∞, -8] 6.______________________

7. [5, ∞) 7.______________________

8. (-2, ∞) 8.______________________

9. [-10, ∞) 9.______________________

10. (-∞, 6) 10.___________________

Appendix B

1: Inequality Word Problems

Keith has $500 in a savings account at the beginning of the summer. He wants to have at least $200 in the account by the end of the summer. He withdraws $25 each week for food, clothes, and movie tickets.

• Write an inequality that represents Keith’s situation.
• How many weeks can Keith withdraw money from his account? Justify your answer.

2: Inequality Word Problems

Yellow Cab Taxi charges a $1.75 flat rate in addition to $0.65 per mile. Katie has no more than $10 to spend on a ride.

• Write an inequality that represents Katie’s situation.
• How many miles can Katie travel without exceeding her budget? Justify your answer.

Appendix C

Answers to Inequalities Word Problem Worksheet

1) No more than 12 weeks

2) No more than 12.7 miles

3) No more than 5 DVDs

4) At least 12 more sessions

5) At least 950 bags of dog food.

6) More than 12.5 weeks.

7) At least 15 times

8) No solution. : 10 12 14 16 18

9) n > -5 : -6 -4 -2 0 2

10) x £ -1 : -4 -2 0 2 4 6