Running Head: STUDENT SURVEY

Student Survey of Teaching Associates: Meghan Wilson University of Virginia

STUDENT SURVEY Student Survey of Teaching Associates: Meghan Wilson I gave two of my 6th grade classes a survey about how the effectiveness of their student teacher (myself). Their responses influence the findings and analysis of this paper. Demographics The demographics of the classes for this assignment vary greatly, due to the county being a mixture of suburbs and rural surroundings. My placement is in a 6th grade English classroom at a middle school. For the purpose of this assignment, 2 classes were chosen to complete the survey: ESL English 6 and General Level English 6. The ESL English 6 class contains 20 students. 90% of them speak English fluently, while 2 students need a collaborative teacher in the classroom, or other students, to help them understand. The General Level English 6 class contains 25 students. All of the students in this class speak English fluently. The students are 50% white, 40% Hispanic American, and 10% African American. There are no other races in the classes that were surveyed for this assignment. All of the Hispanic American students are bilingual in Spanish and English. As mentioned before, only 2 students are learning English as second language. There are 57% of the students are male, while the remaining 43% are female. In these two classes, there are no records of IEP classifications in the classes I surveyed for this assignment. The SES statuses of the students vary, but at least 50% of them fall in the middle-low middle range. This is not correlated with their gender or race. Students in my classes represent the majority of the demographics of the entire school. Influencing Factors The day the survey was administered, the students were assigned a summative project for the second nine weeks. This intense project required a lot of work and prep, a lot of research, and

STUDENT SURVEY for the students to memorize and recite a two-minute speech in front of town officials and their family. The students must research their surname etymology, the country from which they come from, specific holidays original to that country, and a recipe from their country as well. Students were very excited and in a great mood researching information about their family history. This put them in a great mood, even with the focus shifting from myself to my CI, since she is the one in charge of the project. They were very excited that she had invented this, but were also anxious to show me what they were coming up with. This put them in a relatively positive mood and become more open with me. Analysis Knowledge of Subject Matter Based off of questions 4, 9, 11, and 12 from the secondary surveys provided in the TA handbook, 85.7% of my students rated me at a 1, while the other 14.3% rated me at 2. This was definitely one of my strengths in the classroom. Weve talked about a series of content specific topics within out nonfiction unit. Im always making sure I am teaching my students something important and relevant about our unit everyday, even if it is not the direct lesson itself. For example: when teaching my students about the internal text structure of cause and effect, I chose to not only have them pull out real examples from their own life, but I read them a fiction childrens book that dealt with the same text structure. Most were surprised that some text structures are interdisciplinary between genres. They verbally showed me that they appreciated that I knew so much about English and that they werent learning this from someone who didnt. In specific reference to questions 12: My teacher assigns homework that relates to our classwork was especially something they discovered recently. Sometimes my students will think they are just assigned busy work and that it has nothing to do with anything. However,

STUDENT SURVEY theyll either realize the day of or the following day just how helpful the homework can be, and how much it connects with what we are doing in class, and sometimes what they do in other classes. This is how homework should always be in my opinion, and I am pleased it is working well with them. Pedagogical Knowledge According to the survey responses to questions 1, 6, 10, 13, and 14, 71.4% of the students rated 1, with an 11% rating at a level 2. This is something Ive learned both in school and with experience in each classroom. I try to constantly shift my methods of instruction based on the needs of the students in the class. With 6th grade, this crucial element can also vary within the same class day to day. My students learning is my first priority. Sometimes because I know something is not working and I attempt to change it on the spot, there may be a few hiccups due to my inexperience. However, I know I need to take the time to reflect, see if it worked, and improve it for future implementation in the class. Every time I have done this, I have received a positive response from my students and affirmation, from both student opinions and assessments, that it has either been successful or not. I make the changes I need, and my students are usually patient and willing to try the different things I think they might need in the classroom. A big challenge through this entire process has been specific to question 1: My teacher gives clear instructions. I struggled at times giving clear instructions to my students for a task; sometimes my directions would sound clear in my head and out loud to me, but no so much for my students. I chose to work on this reluctantly. One of my methods is directly asking the students if they understand or requesting that they repeat the directions back to me. This has shown to be extremely effective for my directions, and then I can re word them and redirect my

STUDENT SURVEY students on the spot. I have gotten better at giving clear directions the first time, although I will still need to check myself every now and then. Caring, Effective, and Responsive Teacher In reference to the survey questions 2, 3, 5, 7, and 8, my students rated me fairly highly. 88% of the responses granted me a 1 rating, while the remaining 11.9% rated at 2. This did not come as a surprise since I am well aware of my rapport with my students. I always try to build a positive and supportive relationship with them from the beginning. I got to know my students immediately and I made extra efforts to show how much I care and want to support their learning. My students are never afraid to ask for clarifying questions and they often times will skip their own lunch to see me for help or to spend some time. I will note that they do this at their own will; I seldom require them to see me since we have a built in remediation time in the bell schedule. I want all my students to have the same resources and opportunities as everyone else; it is imperative that all my students are learning from me, and know that I want them to learn and succeed. I am very proud to have received a rating of 1 on every survey question: My teacher allows and respects different opinions. I always emphasize that I am not perfect and that I am not always 100% correct; if a student can prove something to me by using the correct resources, I will take it. I tolerate nothing less in my classroom. My placement school has a zero tolerance on bullying. We strive towards these expectations daily. My classroom is a safe environment, and I firmly believe all my students feel that way. We have the occasional Socratic seminar, and all of my students love to participate and most if not all continuously give great responses that might differ form their peers. I have taught and modeled acceptable rebuttals and responses that w ill

STUDENT SURVEY not offend others and does not seem to dismiss opposing ideas. They respect each other, and they know that I respect them. Areas for Improvement The area in which I need to work the most on would be pedagogy. Although this is not my greatest weakness, it is not my greatest strength either, as evident from student responses: question 6 received a 42.9% rating of 3. This is always been a recent struggle that I have seen more. Moving from 11th grade to 6th grade suddenly was a challenge, and I had never had experience with the 6th grade level before. The activities and certain materials needed to scaffold and meet their needs have not always been on par with what should be expected. Sometimes I would be convinced an activity would work and kept going with it, only to find that it may be too challenging for the level of the students in a certain class. On the same note, sometimes my planned activities would start off above what is known as standard for 6th grade knowledge: I often forget that they are just coming out of elementary school. Another area would be directed towards question 13: My teacher keeps the class on-task so that we can learn. I often find myself digressing with the class, or getting off-topic when students will start a conversation. Rather than being proactive in my lessons, I tend to be reactive when redirecting my students to stay on task. Also going along with the specific activities I assign, they might not be engaging enough for students to feel the need to stay on task. I have thought about this carefully and realized that at least 50% of the time, my actions dont always make the students stay on task within the classroom. I want to give the message that they should, so therefore my actions and steps should model my expectations.

STUDENT SURVEY Teaching Associates Next Steps I plan to keep improving on the areas I appear to excel at. Continuing to strengthen and reflect on your strengths not only makes them become strong, but also brings light to new ideas about weaknesses. In reference to this survey, my greatest weaknesses lie within my adaptation of pedagogical actions within my classroom. I need to work on these specifically to become a better and more effective teacher. I need to take into account my content classs standards, abilities, and expectations of the certain grade of which I am teaching. I need to adhere to what they are capable of doing. This does mean doing away with rigorous activities and having them think outside the box, but I need to make sure my activities are appropriate. The first step will be to always get a second opinion, especially since I am a novice. I want to make sure what I am teaching makes sense. The next thing I plan to do is use more interactive and collaborative classroom activities for my students to work on in class. They need to understand the material, and I need to always gage what they need, and plan accordingly. Now, my students learn better from doing things. I Ill make decisions based on every class I teach. I will also make sure my teaching persona is professional at all times. I can still be my nerdy and talkative self, but I need to make sure my students can be focused on class work when its time. Not only will this alleviate certain behavior problems, but also help my students focus and perhaps not be as confused. If there is on task behavior, I might not have to repeat directions or explain things five times or more. Each step I choose to take will only make me a more effective teacher. Reflecting and changing based on what my students need is something I always plan to do.