Inclusive and Supportive Education Congress International Special Education Conference Inclusion: Celebrating Diversity? 1st - 4th August 2005. Glasgow, Scotland

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The Teacher Work Sample and its Application
for Students’ with Special Needs

Denise K. Crockett, Ph. D.
Furman University, Greenville, South Carolina, USA
denise.crockett@furman.edu

Shirley A. Ritter, Ph. D.
Furman University, Greenville, SC
shirley.ritter@furman.edu

Stephanie Morris
W.E.
Gable Middle School Spartanburg district6
Spartanburg, South Carolina, USA

Part A

History

            From our research at Furman University, we have discovered that all general education teachers are requesting more information, more strategies and more developmental awareness in preparation to meet their special needs students. The general education teachers understand that as time goes on, more special needs students will occupy the regular classroom.

            As a result of hearing the needs of our students, the teacher educators at Furman University
 decided to pilot the Teacher Work Sample, first conceived by the Renaissance Group from Oregon State in Oregon, U.S. with first year teachers who needed a research course to finish their certification. Their website is http://fp.uni.edu/itq. The paper will describe the Teacher Work Sample methodology and how it can benefit special needs students by creating teacher awareness.

How Procedure is taught

In the program, the first year teacher takes a research course as part of certification. The focus is the teacher to carry out an action research project called the Teacher Work Sample (TWS). It has been nicknamed ‘a first cousin’ to the Action Research Project as it uses many similarities and some differences.

How Teachers Implement the TWS Specifically to Special Needs Children

Within the TWS, the teacher chooses two featured students –one being an intellectually at-risk student, the other being a typical learner that is in that same general education class.

Pre-testing of each student occurs. The documentation, both qualitative and quantitative, is collected by means of authentic assessments on a day-to-day basis. Post-testing of the two students take place. Constant-comparative analysis was used to analyze the difference between the two students.

Examples of findings

            In order to explore the effectiveness of differing instructional needs, one of the first year teacher’s reports on her findings of working with the TWS and children with special needs. Beth writes,

                        …In order to explore the effectiveness if differing instructional strategies and assessment accommodations, two students were selected to be observed closely. Both students are Hispanic males. Both students are included in the school’s English speakers of other languages programs and receive TESOL accommodations. In addition, both students also receive free lunch based on their family income. The first student Jeshua tested limited-English proficient-A in the spring of 2004….

…Kevin was born in the United States but lives in Honduras from the time he has eighteen months. He comes back to the US to visit his father. Kevin tested non-English proficient in the spring of 2004. He receives one period a day of special education services in oral expression; He also receives two periods a week of speech therapy. Kevin is reading pre-primer level. He needs to read books between that level and a first grade, seventh month in order to grow in reading fluency and comprehension…

Evolution of the Program

            Many of the teachers find it difficult to narrow down their choices to two students. They see there are many more students that need specific case studies to determine their needs.

Weaknesses of the Program

            The stress of being involved in research their first year as teacher proves to be strenuous to the daily logics of teaching. As a result, we have modified the TWS to make it more feasible while they are also teaching.

Benefit

            As a result of participation in this project, the novice teacher receives immediate feedback as to the progress of the student who is intellectually at-risk compared to the peer who is performing at a typical rate. Therefore, the teacher will see if immediate modifications or adoptions are necessary. By utilizing a fluid research methodology, the teacher is very aware of the immediate needs of intellectually at-risk students; therefore, making necessary adjustments to be teach all students.

Part B

Research and Inquiry Project--Teacher Work Sample

Introduction

Educators today place a high premium on knowledge of standards and assessment and the ability to design instruction that links the two to enhance student learning.   The work sample is designed to help teacher candidates grow professionally by focusing on the complex relationship between standards, assessment and instruction and helping you learn how to systematically apply pedagogical theory to classroom practice.   The work sample also provides the education program with an important source of evidence that you have met our graduation standards and that you are capable of effectively applying the knowledge and skills learned at the University to promote student learning in an authentic classroom setting.

Core Elements

The basic principles underlying the work sample are that students learn best when:

• the teacher fully understands the teaching-learning context,
• the teacher sets challenging and diverse learning goals based upon national and state   standards,
• the teacher plans lessons and selects instructional strategies that take into account both these learning goals and the different abilities and needs of   the students,
• the teacher uses assessments at key points in the instructional sequence to monitor student learning and modify that instruction according to student needs, and
• the teacher can stand back and reflect upon his/her own teaching and use these insights to improve student learning and promote professional growth.

Each of these core elements will be examined in one section of the work sample.

I.Contextual Factors – The Setting for Learning

While schools may be similar with respect to the basic courses they offer, the setting for learning varies greatly from district to district, from school to school within a particular district, and from classroom to classroom within a particular school. The more you know about all of these elements, the better equipped you will be to address successfully the needs of the school and its students.

• Community

Describe how the characteristics of the community may impact teaching and learning.   You should focus on:

• the location of the school and the district
• the resources of the district and its support of education
• the socio-economic and linguistic profile of the community
• the performance of the school on state assessments
• the percentage of students classified as Special Education/504
• the percentage of ESL students and their level of English proficiency

• School, Classroom, and Individual Students
• Describe the school (size, organization plan, ability grouping, scheduling patterns, disciplinary policies, etc.)
• Describe the physical layout of the classroom(s) in which you are teaching, whether you are required to share this classroom with other teachers, the technology and other resources available
• Describe the classroom climate and any issues relating to student behavior.
• Identify the specific class you will be using for the work sample and discuss the composition of that class.   Be sure to take into account students with specific modifications, students with limited English proficiency, and any other relevant student characteristics.  

Your presentation should focus on explaining how the characteristics of the community, the school, and the individual students will affect your instructional design.

II.Learning Goals

The work sample focuses on the decision-making processes involved in the planning and delivery of a 2-4 week unit of standards-based instruction.   The unit itself should consist of a sequence of interrelated lessons which are organized around a limited number (4-6) central learning goals and which provide the students with the factual knowledge, concepts, and skills necessary to understand these key issues.

Lesson aims are not the same as student mastery of specific course content. Generally, individual lessons should promote higher-level thinking skills and provide factual information as a means of developing these skills.   Lessons may also be designed to promote the development of social skills and should help students learn how to make reasoned judgments about complex issues.

In this section, you should:

• Identify which unit will be the basis for your work sample.   Describe the fundamental concepts and big ideas around which you are planning this unit and briefly explain how the individual lessons equip the students with the knowledge, concepts and skills necessary to come to grips with these essential questions.
• Based on your pre-assessment of the students (see below) identify 4-6 learning goals for the unit.   These will form the basis for your assessment of student learning.
• Use a chart or form of graphic organizer to show how your learning goals are aligned with the relevant national and state standards. Explain briefly why you think that these ideas are appropriate for your students.

III.Assessment Plan

Well-designed assessments can improve instruction in several ways. They will guide instruction by keeping teaching focused on the goals and standards to be achieved. Assessments are also important because they enable the teacher to see what students have and have not learned, to understand why, and, on the basis of this knowledge, to modify instruction accordingly.  

Conduct a pre-assessment to determine what students do and do not know about the learning goals of the unit. A pre-assessment might be as simple as asking the students to write down what they know about the topic, or it might involve a set of carefully structured questions. The important thing is that the pre-assessment provide a baseline of prior student knowledge as it relates to your learning goals.  

Your assessment plan for the unit should be based on the learning goals identified above. Assessments may be informal, such as student answers to teacher questions, games, and observation of students as they work on a class activity. The unit should also include traditional assessments such as quizzes, tests, reports, as well as other authentic assessments. You should employ multiple forms of assessment, and these assessments should be embedded in instruction to insure the value of this information to both you and your students.

• Provide a brief description of your assessment plan which explains how your assessments will, in fact, measure what you teach. You may wish to use a chart for this.
• Your assessment plan should also indicate how assessments can be adapted to meet the needs of individual students.
• Create a rubric for at least one of the major assessments in order to establish clear criteria for various performance levels.

IV.Design for Instruction

Using your knowledge of the teaching-learning context and the results of your pre-assessment, design and teach a 2-4 week unit of instruction which will help all of your students achieve the standards-based learning goals outline above. These lessons should form a coherent, connected instructional sequence from the first day until the last day of the unit.

Your planning for this unit should include a variety of learning activities linked to the unit learning goals.   The design of the unit should indicate an in-depth understanding of content and the ability to make these ideas relevant and accessible to your students. You should carefully select instructional activities that will help your particular students achieve the identified learning goals. These activities should demonstrate that you are sensitive to the characteristics and needs of your students. Your lessons should employ a variety of instructional strategies.   The unit should include at least one lesson using web-based technology to enhance instruction and one lesson using cooperative learning. Your lessons should also show that you are able to consistently incorporate literacy into content area instruction.

This section of the work sample should include all lessons taught as part of this unit together with all supplementary materials and assessments.

V.Analysis of Student Learning

The purpose of this section is to show that you are able to analyze your own teaching.   This section has three main components:

• For the entire class, use a visual means (chart, graph) to quantify student learning with respect to the unit learning goals.  
• Then select a minimum of 3-5 students of different ability levels on the basis of a characteristic which you believe to be relevant to student achievement (language proficiency, ability level, learning style, etc.) and monitor their learning during the unit.   To demonstrate that you are capable of effectively teaching diverse students, explain which instructional strategies were most and least effective for these individual students, and give possible reasons for these learning outcomes.   In your written report, do not use the actual names of your students.
• Evaluate the success of each of the lessons comprising the unit using the attached form.   Things you should consider include:

• Was my lesson introduction/motivation effective? How do I know?
• What went well? badly?
• To what extent were the students productively engaged?
• Did I alter my goals or instructional strategies as I taught the lesson? If so, where and why?
• Were there any unanticipated occurrences?
• Did any classroom management issues arise? If so, how did I respond and was this response effective?
• Was I able to effectively manage my time and achieve appropriate closure to the lesson?

VI.Reflection and Self-Evaluation

The purpose of this final section is to show that you are capable of using the insights gained through the Analysis of Student Learning to enhance your own teaching and grow professionally. Reflect on the following topics:

• If you were to teach this unit again, how might you revise your learning goals,   instructional design decisions, or assessment system? Explain your reasoning.   

• Drawing on both your analysis of student learning and your narrative self-evaluation of the lessons you taught, explain how teaching this unit has helped you grow professionally.

• Identify specific areas (assessment, individualization of instruction, content knowledge, etc.) where you feel you need improvement in order to become an accomplished classroom teacher, and explain how your weakness affected your instruction.
• Identify specific areas where you think your teaching was particularly strong.   Provide evidence to support your claim.
• What specific insights or experiences did you gain from this unit that wish that you had had before you began student teaching?

Suggested Length:

1.Contextual Factors - The Setting for Learning   (2 – 4 pages)

2.Learning Goals   (3-4 pages)

3.Assessment Plan (2-4 pages)

4.Design for Instruction (3-4 page narrative plus lesson plans and accompanying material)

5.Analysis of Student Learning (3-4 pages plus visuals)

6.Reflection and Self-Analysis (2-4 pages)

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