Zachary Sullivan



Evidence and Commentary of Classroom Practices

Artifact 1

Used during Demonstrative Teaching to showcase instruction of academic language in the classroom. 

Here is a lesson plan and graphic organizer giving an introduction to text structures. The  artifacts outlines the instruction of academic language through detailing brainstorming activities  and the creation of a Word Wall prior to the text structure learning segment. Students received  pre-teaching on the words that would be used, and also produced real-world personal examples with different academic language based around the text structures. They then took the opportunity to implement the use of this academic language by way of graphic organizers in  order to give students tools to make clearer connections within the lesson. The scaffolding of the lesson is demonstrative of my competency in this area, and student learning in the lesson/ segment was heightened by the organized and clear nature of the lesson. Scaffolding in this way  allowed students to make personal and cultural connections, highlighted their interests (soccer), gave them organizational tools, and presented them language supports through the Word Wall. In future use, I would modify the artifact to be broken into two lessons. I would keep the introduction and graphic organized work within one full lesson, and then break the practice in  unknown text structures into a separate lesson, or a separate assessment done in a later period  that day, or perhaps the next day. This would give students a much needed break to process what  they have learned and prevent them from feeling rushed during the lesson.
View Graphic Organizer of Text Structures View Artifact 1 - Entire Lesson

Artifact 2

Used during Demonstrative Teaching to showcase differentiated instruction in the classroom as part of a system of student support. 

We have recently been working on summarizing short stories, books, and videos in the classroom. However, while many students are capable of completing summaries from scratch,  others are still struggling. For that reason, I recently created a differentiated lesson where students  watched different videos on their Chromebooks depending on their ability to summarize. We have found that the lower level students are more comfortable summarizing fiction, while the upper end  of the class is moving on to summarize non-fiction as well. Below you will find the handouts given  to each of the two groups. The first handout is summarizing two short fiction videos, and using  given words in a fill-in-the-blank style. As of now, this is challenging enough for our struggling  students, and it gives them a look into what a summary should look like. The other handout is for  our students who need more of a challenge. They are watching a longer non-fiction documentary style video, and creating a summary from scratch using their knowledge of summary structure. This artifacts demonstrate my competency in recognizing student challenges and adapting  the lesson to suit student ability. This summary lesson went over exceptionally well as the students  were engaged and interested in the videos, and felt appropriately challenged. After assessing the full summaries and fill-in-the-blank summaries, I was able to determine that this lesson was  successful in both groups. The mean score was 90% for the full summary group, and 94% for the  fill-in-the-blank summary group. In a follow-up during center work, I presented the lower level  students with the non-fiction video and assisted them in completing a full summary. The students  scored an average of 65% in this, showing that the modified lesson was necessary to scaffold their  present understanding of summaries.  

 If I were to modify the lesson for future use, I think I would challenge the lower level group a little further by creating the handout such that they use fill-in-the-blank selections for the majority  of the story, sandwiched between giving their own full sentences for the first sentence of the  summary, as well as the last. This would provide them an additional challenge and give me more  data to see if they can move on to a slightly more challenging summary style before finally  reaching the ability to complete a full summary all on their own. 
View Artifact 2 - Image 1  View Artifact 2 - Image 2 

Artifact 3

Used during Demonstrative Teaching to showcase educational technology as a way to engage students in learning. 

The following shows the video screenshot and handout of a lesson given recently in our social studies segment on immigration. We previously learned about the effects of immigration in countries around the world, and read passages to determine “push” and “pull” factors that  contribute to a person moving to a new place. In order to connect immigration/migration to other  topics such as, in this case, global warming, I made an EdPuzzle about polar bears who are forced  to move due to melting ice. Throughout the video the students had to answer questions, and  afterward they used graphic organizers to connect ideas and finish a summary of the video. This  lesson was meant to engage students while also allowing them to make deeper connections between  subjects and ideas.  

I think this lesson demonstrated my ability to connect material, subjects, and ideas. It also  shows that I am able to engage students in technologies beyond simple PowerPoints and standard videos. The lesson was very successful and students commented that they’d love to do more EdPuzzle videos. For many students, seeing a simple and relatable video was beneficial for them, as both immigration and climate change are complex subjects. Through visual engagement and  simplistic messaging, particularly lower level students reached basic learning goals that were  partially missed in our first lesson on the subject.  

I would modify the artifact for future use by including a word bank while writing a summary, as the academic language involved in immigration and climate change is complicated.
View Artifact 3 - EdPuzzle Assignment 

Artifact 4

Professional communication with a student's parent/guardian.

After the parent/teacher meetings, my host teacher gave me the responsibility of  communicating with certain students who have behavioral or academic issues. Here is an example  email exchange between a student of mine and her mother. The student was forgetting to bring in  her reading log almost every day, and I reached out to the parent by phone and email to make her  aware of the issue. Names of student and parent, as well as the parent’s profile photo, have been  blacked out for privacy.  

In my message to the parent I demonstrate professional communication through being respectful, thorough, prompt, and by writing with clarity. When dealing with stakeholders, it is necessary to keep lines of communication open and ensure time-sensitive responses in order to assist in student progress. By reaching out to the student’s mother to raise awareness about her reading log completion, I am showing care and concern in the academic performance of her child. Since this particular student reads below grade level, it is especially important that she reads in the evenings to make improvements in her reading comprehension and vocabulary. In the time since our communication, the student has managed to increase her nighttime reading from very seldom, to every single night. Each morning I look forward to her coming in with her reading log signed, and to hear about the stories she is reading. I have also noticed an improvement in her reading level. Comparing her F&P from September to the one completed on January 17th, the student has moved up two full levels, going from an P to an R. This I think is in large part due to her more consistent reading habits. I’d like to think the communication between myself and her mother has had a significant effect on this as well.

In this email exchange, the communication between myself and the mother of my student was very positive and I felt the goal of getting her daughter to read more was achieved. Her mother reached out to me by phone a couple weeks later to catch up and thank me for my help in getting her daughter to read more and in fact even enjoying it. That said, one way I would modify this artifact/exchange would be to schedule a follow-up with the parent to discuss how the reading logs are going in the evening, whether any issues are arising, and what changes she might suggest, if any. Ending the email with something like “Let’s talk again in two weeks time and assess how things are going. I’ll reach out to you on ‘x’ date to discuss our progress and brainstorm solutions to any problems/concerns that come up” would indicate to the parent that I am appropriately invested in her child’s learning. As I mentioned above, the student’s progress has been great since making the adjustment, but with additional input from other stakeholders, we could perhaps progress even further.
View Artifact 4 - Email Communication