Assignment 2: Teacher Work Sample

LABEL ALL PARTS OF THE ASSIGNMENT (EXAMPLE PART 1 A,B,C/1,2,3  ETC.
PART 2 A,B,C/1, 2,3 ETC.

use Florida Common Core/Florida Department of Education State Standards

THE TOPIC MUST BE APPROPRIATE FOR PRE-SCHOOLERS (AGES 4-5 YEARS OLD)

Assignment 2: Teacher Work Sample.

Directions:
In this activity you will be completing a teacher work sample* which is a well established
way to document your ability to plan, implement and assess learning outcomes with the
goal of improving student performance.
Your task as a teacher candidate is to collaborate with your cooperating teacher or
education professionals to identify a topic for which to plan and teach a comprehensive
interdisciplinary thematic unit that fit into the scope and sequence of the curriculum for
your placement. Differentiation must be provided for children with diverse learning
needs. Appropriate state standards (e.g., Florida Sunshine State Standards or Nevada
Academic Standards) must be incorporated into the instruction.
In order to measure impact on student learning, you are expected to collect and analyze
student data to support instructional decisions. Assessment data are to be provided in a
graphical format that allows comparison of the student performance before and after
instruction.
Using a thematic unit plan as the structure to organize the learning activities of students,
discuss the assignment with the cooperating teacher, mentor teacher, or other appropriate
professional. After identifying the topic to teach, follow the instructions in parts 1-6.
1. develop the context for instruction
2. establish learning goals and objectives
3. develop assessment plan elements that address pre-assessing and post-assessing
student learning
4. design and deliver instruction that includes instructional plans based on the results
of the pre-assessment
5. analyze student learning and measure learning gains
6. reflection on teaching and learning based on outcomes of measurement
This assignment includes six parts. Carefully read each section.
Part 1: Context of instruction (NAEYC 1a, 2a, 3b, 5d) (15 points) (Due week 3)
1.    Provide a profile of the context for instruction and include the following details:
2.    a. Description of the community where school is located (location, social and
3.    economic, cultural), the school/center, and classroom characteristics (social,
4.    cultural, economic). Include comments about any other relevant details about the
5.    setting (i.e., mobility rate) that may also influence instruction.
6.    b. Describe the student population (age group, ethnicities, language,
7.    exceptionalities)
8.    c. Students’ abilities and prior learning successes
9.    d. Comment on the students’ learning preferences
10.    e. Educational needs of students identified through collaborative assessment
11.    2. Reflect on the contextual characteristics and discuss their implication s on the process of
12.    instructional planning and assessment. Highlight the factors that in your consideration
13.    may influence your planning and implementation.

Part 2: Learning Goals and Objectives (NAEYC 1a, 4b, 4c, 5c) (15 points) (Due week 4)
1. Provide a brief yet specific rationale for your unit. Describe the relevance for the theme
and how it will meet learning needs of children.
2. Create a matrix and present the goals and objectives for the unit (See sample in the
appendix of your course syllabus).
a. List the specific learning goals for the unit and include a justification in terms of
their relevance to the topic. Goals must be varied, challenging and
developmentally appropriate for the age group.
b. Provide the list of specific learning objectives specifying what you expect
children to learn. Objectives must be measurable and clearly stated. Number each
objective to facilitate identification.
c. Based on the theme, include literacy related objectives (one or two).
d. Align the goals and the objectives with the national, state and district learning
standards.
i. Common Core: If you are working with children in the K-3 level, clearly
align the objectives with Common Core standards
ii. Standards for preschoolers: If you are working with preschoolers (birthage
4), clearly align the objectives with your state standards.
3. Provide a narrative stating the appropriateness of the goals and objectives. Comment on
how they meet the developmental needs of children in your target group (prior
knowledge, skill levels).
4. Describe collaboration and consultation activities with your cooperating teacher or any
other education professional in the design of learning goals for our unit. Comment on
how they assisted you in appropriately establishing the learning goals and objectives.

APPENDIX
Appendix 2
Assignment 2- Matrix for Learning Goals (Design of Instruction)
Age group: __________________ Unit Theme ___________________
I.    Rationale for the unit:

II.    Unit learning goals:

III.    Unit learning objectives Alignment with standards: State,
1.
2.
3.

Common Core Standards, School District
Standards (identify the standard that
corresponds with the objectives)

IV. Literacy-related standards
1.
2.

V. Literacy Activities for Age-Appropriate Rigorous Text-Discussion

Part 3: Assessment Plan- Key Elements (NAEYC 3a, 3b, 3d, 4d, 5b) (20 points) (Due week
5)
1. Select multiple forms of assessments to include pre-assessment, post-assessment and
formative assessment activities. In a narrative provide a description about each of the
assessments selected for your unit plan. Include a rationale for the selection of each
assessment and how it measures each learning goal and objective (Why did you choose
each one?). Describe how each one serves to appropriately assess the children’s
performance.
2. Create a matrix to describe when each assessment will be conducted and to evidence the
alignment of the assessments to the objectives, standards, and instructional activities. It is
very important that you use the same pre-assessment activities for your post-assessment.
Learning    Assessment    Type of assessment    Date Conducted        Modification/Adaptation
Objectives
Learning     Pre-assessment
Objective #1    Formative Assessment task:
Post-assessment
Learning     Pre-assessment
Objective #2    Formative Assessment task:
Post -Assessment
3. Describe the level of acceptable performance for each of the learning objectives (What
will be the minimum acceptable level to determine that outcomes have been met?).
4. Describe any necessary assessment modifications to meet the individual needs of students
and how it meets their needs. Include comments about outcomes from consultation and
discussion on modifications with the cooperating teacher or education professionals (i.e.,
ESOL coordinator, ESE specialist). Include examples of the modifications.
5. Comment on how your assessment plan adheres to ethical and professional guidelines.
Part 4: Design of Instruction (NAEYC 2c, 4b, 4c, 3c) (20 points) (Due Week 6)
1. Conduct your pre-assessment and analyze the results. Graphically represent the outcomes
from the pre-assessment.
2. In a narrative, comment on the results of the pre-assessment and how these will impact
and guide the design and planning of instruction (As a group and individually, what did
you find out about the children’s prior knowledge and skill levels? How will this
influence your planning?) .
3. In a narrative,
a. Provide an overview about your thematic unit describing the alignment of
instructional topics with objectives
b. Describe the instructional topics and strategies selected. Include a graphic
representation to describe the sequence of topics and their alignment with the
learning objectives and goals.
c. Literacy: Comment and provide examples about literacy resources. Specifically,
select an appropriate reading selection related to the theme of your unit. Plan a
discussion leading children to critically analyze the story. Follow the Rigorous
text discussion from Common Core (Language Arts) guidelines to design your
discussion at an appropriate level for the children that you are working with.
d. Accommodations: Describe the accommodations you will make to meet the needs
of children.
Days of the week/    Monday        Tuesday        Wednesday    Thursday        Friday
Planning aspect
Topic
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Instructional Goals
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Instructional
Objectives
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Resources
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Literacy
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Modifications

e. Describe the selected resources and use of technology to support instruction
f. Comment how you used information about the instructional context (community,
children characteristics) for the selection of instruction, strategies, resources, and
technology
g. Provide a sample of some of the activities or assignments and their relation to the
instruction
4. Describe how you plan to engage families in the learning activities. Specify the
following:
a. Communication: identify communication strategies to inform families about the
unit activities (How will you inform families about the theme that children will be
exploring?)
b. Resources: Identify two resources from the community and families that you plan
to incorporate into the unit.
c. Family participation: Identify two ways in which families will be able to
participate in the learning activities. (In what ways do you plan families to
participate in the unit?)
d. Home connections: Include a sample home connection activity related to the unit
aimed at extending and engaging the families in their children’s learning
experiences.
5. Implement your learning activities and maintain a record of the children’s responses to
instruction.

Part 5: Analysis of Student Learning (NAEYC 3a, 3b, 3c, 4b) (15 points) (Due week 7)
1. Administer your post-assessment. Collect and analyze student data to identify learning
gains based on your instruction. Assessment data are to be provided in a graphical format
that allows comparison of the student performance before and after instruction.
To maintain the privacy of students, assign a number or letter for an
identifier, e.g., Child A. identify each item in the post-test that relates to the learning
objectives and calculate in percentages how many students met the target objective.
2. Based on the data collected, provide a table describing the results per each learning
objective for the whole group (See sample in the appendix section of your syllabus).
Describe what the data reveals about the results of instruction (What does the data say
about achievement for each of the learning objectives? Which ones were met? Which
ones were not? What percentage of students met each learning objective?).
3. Identify the outcomes for subgroups. To create a subgroup, identify a group characteristic
such gender, language level or age level, prior preschool experience. Select one of the
learning objectives and in a table format, present the results of the assessments for this
subgroup. Include a narrative describing the outcomes.
4. Choose two students and analyze their results. In a narrative describe the level of
achievement obtained by each student.
5. Select and include at least two examples of the student’s work and attach these as an
appendix to your report.
Use the chart below to collect data, adding enough rows so that all students are
represented.
Student     Instructional    Instructional    Pre-        Post        %Gain/        Analysis of
Identifier   Adaptation    Objectives    Assessment    Assessment    Loss*        Gain/Loss
Student A
______________________________________________________________________________
Student B
______________________________________________________________________________
Student C
______________________________________________________________________________
Student D
______________________________________________________________________________
Student E
______________________________________________________________________________
Student F
______________________________________________________________________________
Student G
______________________________________________________________________________
Student H
*Link to a Percentage Gain Calculator (http://convertalot.com/percentage_gain_calculator.html) to determine
the percentage of improvement
Part 6: Reflection on Teaching and Learning (NAEYC 3a, 5a, 5b, 5d) (10 points) Due week
7)
1. In a narrative, reflect and comment on the following:
a. Overall, what did you learn as you created your teacher work sample?
b. What do you consider were the three learning objectives where your students
were most successful? What do you think accounted for their success?
c. Which objectives were least met by students? What factors may account for this
outcome?
d. Overall, were there any elements that may have influenced the learning outcomes
of the unit?
e. Considering the results for students who showed difficulties, what adaptations or
specialized services would you need to improve learning?
f. Based on the results of the assessments, what would you do differently to improve
learning?
g. Considering the alignment of learning objectives with activities and assessment,
what did it reveal about the teaching process? What would you do differently
based on the outcomes?
h. Provide comments on you use professional learning standards and guidelines as
part of your teaching and analysis of the thematic unit.
i. Comment on any situations during your teaching when you had to apply ethical
standards.
j. What are the implications of your findings in terms of your plans for professional
development? Are there any aspects related to teaching and learning where you
would need additional information? Which ones are critical for you so as to
improve and promote student learning?