Student Study Team (SST) Reflection

In terms of TPE 6D, when I attended an SST meeting at my school site, it lead to my new understanding of roles and responsibilities of SST meeting members. 

The evidence of my learning is the below chart identifying the roles and responsibilities of those at an SST Meeting.

Role	Responsibilities
District Program Specialist	Facilitated the meeting, occasionally modified online, real-time notes, only interjecting to clarify.
Special Educator	Took notes while projecting them so everyone could see, suggested instructional strategies based on the student’s strengths.
Referring Math Teacher	Identified the student’s strengths, struggles, and instructional strategies that have been tried, suggested instructional strategies based on the student’s strengths.
English Teacher	Only came in to report how the student is doing in her class. The counselor left the room to sub in the English teacher’s classroom so the teacher could attend.
Mom (and Dad via conference call)	Shared student history and strategies that were successful and unsuccessful, interactions with family, future plans, suggested instructional strategies based on the student’s strengths.
Student	Identified the student’s strengths, future plans, struggles, and instructional strategies that have been tried, suggested instructional strategies based on his strengths and interests.
Counselor	Time keeper

When I attended an SST meeting at my school site, I understood the role I would play in SST meetings as a credentialed teacher of record. I also understood that every member plays an important part in to the SST meetings where the student’s educational and developmental needs are identified and a specific plan to meet those needs is developed with the key stakeholders in the student’s educational life. The student also takes personal responsibility by participating in the meeting.

What I still need to learn about SST Meetings is how to be the referring teacher who is responsible for collaborating with others to plan, teach, and assess students with special characteristics. I will identify a student from English 9 who could benefit from an SST. As the referring teacher, I would bring background information and be prepared to discuss the reason for the referral, strengths, known modifications, as well as the concerns. After identifying a student and participating as a referring teacher, I would better understand and be prepared to make a positive difference in a student’s educational and developmental success, which would help me be a better educator for all students, especially those with special needs and learning challenges.

Summary of Co-Teaching Experience

Course taught: English 9 Literature Analysis (includes reading and writing)
Cooperating teacher: Erika Wanczuk
School taught: La Costa Canyon

Units/major lessons taught during semester:
Unit: Examining Short Story Elements through the Exploration of a Variety of Short Stories
Lessons taught: Beauty is Truth and The Golden Mean; Cask of Amontillado Dramatic Reading; Short Story Jigsaw; American History Character and POV (including historical context and videos)

Unit: Finding Character through the Exploration of Friendship and Relationships in Of Mice and Men
Lessons taught: Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck, the Great Depression, 1930s, and Financial Crisis; Of Mice and Men using real-world and 21st century skills to analyze characters in Chapters 1 through 4. Of Mice and Men using real-world and 21st century skills to analyze characters in Chapters 5 and 6. Of Mice and Men Plot and George’s Character Arc.

Assessments used (formal and informal)

Reading Journal and Reading Guide Students keep journals via a reading guide as they read.

·         Formality: informal
·         Type: diagnostic, formative
·         Purpose: assess skills, knowledge or concepts
·         Implementation Method: written
·         Communication of Expectations: modeling, supports
·         Evaluation Criteria: journals turned in periodically as a way of monitoring student reading.
·         Feedback Strategies: written feedback and student conferences
·         Student Self-Assessments: Provide one rubric for the unit.
 
Vocabulary Quizzes weekly quizzes on vocabulary from Of Mice and Men in order to facilitate reading and enrich their vocabulary.
·         Formality: formal
·         Type: diagnostic and summative
·         Purpose: assess knowledge or concepts
·         Implementation Method: written
·         Communication of Expectations: modeling
·         Evaluation Criteria: correct answers
·         Feedback Strategies: re-teaching, marking up quiz, allowing students to redo
·         Student Self-Assessments: ability to redo, ability to use in essay writing and assignments
 
Essays (grammar and mechanics) Transition words, introduction, body, and conclusion are all valuable to students in their writing and allow them to effectively organize their ideas in an essay. They help students understand the relationships among the ideas they present in their essays.
·         Formality: informal and formal
·         Purpose: formative
·         Implementation Method: written
·         Communication of Expectations: modeling, marking up papers
·         Evaluation Criteria: rubric
·         Feedback Strategies: peer review, teacher review, student and teacher conferences
·         Student Self-Assessments: peer review, self-review with rubric, compare to examples, ability to redo

Whole Group Discussion Students interact in discussions about the questions and issues raised in the text. Questions are valuable and promote learning. There are no right answers. Students learn socially and consider global themes. 

·         Formality: informal
·         Purpose: formative
·         Implementation Method: verbal
·         Communication of Expectations: modeling, frameworks/scaffolding done previously, include reminders
·         Evaluation Criteria: watching, listening, questioning, facilitation
·         Feedback Strategies: peer review, teacher questions,
·         Student Self-Assessments: peer review, participation, reflection
 
Small Group Discussion Generates diversity of opinion that is stymied occasionally by the whole group discussion.
·         Formality: informal
·         Purpose: formative
·         Implementation Method: verbal
·         Communication of Expectations: modeling, frameworks/scaffolding done previously, include reminders
·         Evaluation Criteria: watching, listening, questioning, facilitation
·         Feedback Strategies: peer review, teacher questions,
·         Student Self-Assessments: peer review, participation, reflection

Direct Instruction/Lecture: Must be used infrequently and for short bursts of time and information.
·         Formality: informal
·         Purpose: formative
·         Implementation Method: verbal
·         Communication of Expectations: modeling, frameworks/scaffolding done previously, include reminders
·         Evaluation Criteria: watching, listening, questioning, facilitation
·         Feedback Strategies: peer review, teacher questions, verbal approval
·         Student Self-Assessments: peer review, participation, reflection

Writing prompts Trigger background knowledge and helps students formulate ideas before presenting them. Allows students to have a private conversation with the teacher.
·         Formality: informal
·         Purpose: formative, assess prior knowledge
·         Implementation Method: written
·         Communication of Expectations: modeling, marking up papers
·         Evaluation Criteria: visual, written comments
·         Feedback Strategies: peer review, written comments
·         Student Self-Assessments: peer review  and compare to examples and peers
 
Summative test To measure the students learning from the short story unit, we administered a multiple-choice common assessment of short story elements, created in partnership with other English 9 teachers in the department.
·         Formality: formal
·         Purpose: summative, comprehension
·         Implementation Method: reading a short story and responding to multiple choice questions
·         Communication of Expectations: two practice tests prior
·         Evaluation Criteria: selecting the correct response
·         Feedback Strategies: review correct answers in class
·         Student Self-Assessments: test answer protocol for any student who wanted to discuss the question they got wrong, the correct response, why they thought the wrong answer was correct, and why the correct answer is the appropriate choice.

Content strategies utilized

Visuals
Graphic Organizers; Power Points and Prezis; Photographs; Videos; and Websites.

Models and guides
Rubrics, Writing guides; Reading guides; Primary sources: articles, texts, and short stories, poems, essays.
 
Tactile/hands on: student activities including dramatic readings, creating posters, giving presentations, using technology, and access to realia.
 
Reading Journals and Reading Guide
I ask students to keep a running journal as they read this novel. I will explain that they need to make entries in the journal every time they read. I will ask that the journals be turned in periodically as a way of monitoring student reading. Primarily though, I will tell students that these journals will be a way for us to center our class discussions on the issues that are of interest to them.

Vocabulary Quizzes

I incorporate weekly quizzes on vocabulary words from Of Mice and Men in order to facilitate reading and enrich their vocabulary.

Grammar and Mechanics: I selected concepts to incorporate in this unit. I chose transition words because they are valuable for students in their writing and allow them to effectively organize their ideas in a longer essay. I also think it will help the students understand the relationships among the ideas they present in their essays.

Whole Group Discussion                                                               

This is an essential part of the teaching during this unit. Students learn through interactive and authentic discussions about the questions and issues raised in texts. These discussions should be premised on the following. Questions are valuable and promote learning.

Small Group Discussion and Cooperative Learning
This is also a key activity in facilitating learning, but it adds a component of intimacy and privacy that some students thrive on and some topics necessitate. Also, this kind of learning activity can generate a rich diversity of opinion that is not elicited as easily by the whole group format. Further, by thinking about how I might divide the students into groups, I can manipulate the learning and the interactions in a positive way.  

Lecture

There is a place for the lecture format in the classroom, but it must be used sparingly, for limited lengths of time, and derive from the teacher’s informed opinion that the lesson plan necessitates this less interactive (thus, less desirable) format.

Writing prompts        

These do not have to be used daily, but I think they can be a good way to assess prior knowledge and a good means by which students begin to crystallize their ideas before presenting them in a whole group discussion. Writing prompts allow students a private forum through which they can address a teacher directly. Writing prompts give students practice in expressing thoughts on paper that may be easier to convey verbally.

Classroom environment (management techniques)

Classroom environment (management techniques)
We built community at the beginning of the year and kept building throughout each lesson. Strong engaging curriculum is the best classroom management. We used seating charts to place students in appropriate places conducive to their learning and near others they partnered well with, in addition to taking special needs and English learning needs into consideration for proximity to the source of instruction. We fostered mutual respect and diversity of culture, values, goals, and ideas by having open, big idea discussions and addressing issues as they arose. We used a signal from the same place in the classroom, during discussion, to gain attention and bring students back to the discussion at transition points. When needed, we used progressive discipline plans of checking in with the student during class, discussing how we could help the student(s) just outside the classroom door during class, discussing what’s working and not working after class, contacting students parents, and we had to give one referral.
 Tutored in Academic Language Development (ALD) support class.