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Context

This document provides context for a concept-based unit plan, including details about the school, classroom, and student profiles. Fluvanna Middle School serves over 800 students in grades 5-7 from a rural area with a majority white population. The described 7th grade ELA classroom has 24 students with varying needs, backgrounds, and two ELL students. Brief profiles of 4 students are given: Garrett is gifted but struggles collaborating; Zoe reads below grade level and is easily distracted; Caine enjoys discussions but dislikes reading and turns in incomplete work; and Esteban is an expanding ELL who qualifies for free lunch and works well in groups.

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37 views

Context

This document provides context for a concept-based unit plan, including details about the school, classroom, and student profiles. Fluvanna Middle School serves over 800 students in grades 5-7 from a rural area with a majority white population. The described 7th grade ELA classroom has 24 students with varying needs, backgrounds, and two ELL students. Brief profiles of 4 students are given: Garrett is gifted but struggles collaborating; Zoe reads below grade level and is easily distracted; Caine enjoys discussions but dislikes reading and turns in incomplete work; and Esteban is an expanding ELL who qualifies for free lunch and works well in groups.

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Portfolio Preface

The context for this concept-based unit plan developed through Backward Design is based on a
year-long placement I was in, and the student profiles are loosely based on students in the classes
that I observed and taught. Names of students are pseudonyms and details have been changed to
protect anonymity and provide for a diversity of needs that will be addressed throughout these
units.

Part 1: The Context


Fluvanna Middle School
This Fluvanna County public school serves 842 students. While the schools racial makeup is a
majority of white students, there are 4% Hispanic, 17% Black, and 5% Two or more races in the
student population. The same makeup characterizes the classes I have been helping in. 33% of
students qualify for free/reduced lunches. Fluvanna MS serves grades 5-7 and is situated in a
rural environment. It is the only middle school in Fluvanna County, which has a population of
25,544. The average household income is $57,038, which is about $6,000 above the national
average for household income.
The school day runs from 7:45am to 2:45pm, with afterschool activities and sports
available for students to participate in (i.e. football, track, band, tutoring, and other interest
groups). Teachers arrive at school at 7:15am with a half-hour chunk of planning to do that is built
into the beginning of the day. There are about 41 full-time teachers currently working at Fluvanna
County Middle School, making the student-to-teacher ratio 21:1. I could not find any statistics
about the number of ELL learners at Fluvanna Middle, perhaps because the number is very low.
Students are always on a block schedule with an hour called Genius Hour where they go to a
different classroom for enrichment or extra help on subjects that they are struggling with. Besides
Genius Hour, blocks are always 90 minutes long.
The atmosphere of the school is a little hectic, but definitely welcoming. It is normal to
have students and teachers greet each other by name. Something that distinguishes Fluvanna
Middle from other middle schools is that students have the opportunity to do office help during
their free period. During this time, students serve as teachers helpers and help with the
administration stationed at the schools front desk. Additionally, students have recess once every
two weeks, but can choose to opt out of it.

Classroom Context:
For the purpose of this unit, I will be focusing on my first period class, a standard ELA 7 th
grade class.
The classroom is structured so that students are sitting in base groups of 4-5 students.
These base groups are heterogeneously arranged (i.e. reading and writing readiness levels,
interests, personal goals, attitudes toward school, etc.) based on information I collected at the
beginning of the school year through a student interest inventory and a few other reading and
writing diagnostic activities.
The class itself is made up of twenty-four students and contains a variety of students of
all types of readiness levels and learning profiles. There are two EL students, three students that
read below grade level, one student with an IEP (specifically, diagnosed with ADHD), one
student with an IEP for a behavioral disorder, two students identified as gifted, and fifteen
students that are more or less on track with the standard learning levels expected for 7 th grade
ELA students.
Students also come from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds; five students qualify
for free lunches, three students do not live with their biological parents, thirteen students come
from families of median household incomes, two students speak a different language at home,
and about eight students come from households where the highest degree of education received is
a high school diploma.

Student Profiles:
Garrett: Garrett is a White student who comes from a median income household. He was
identified as a gifted student in elementary school, and he has a clear curiosity for topics
discussed in class, often asking thoughtful questions that extend the material or lead to a tangent.
Garrett often completes work more quickly than his peers, and usually decides to turn to his SSR
book when he has free time. He especially enjoys reading informational STEM texts. He has
difficulty collaborating with classmates, as he tends to dominate the conversation and struggles to
work with others ideas.

Zoe: Zoe is a Black student repeating the 7th grade, and she is one of the students who qualify for
free lunches. Zoe reads at the 5th grade level (as identified through various diagnostic tests), and
seems to struggle with self-management, often falling behind during classwork. She frequently
turns in homework late or incomplete, is reluctant to participate during group work (perhaps
attributed to her quiet personality), and is easily distracted. She shows particular engagement and
interest when talking about authentic topics like social issues, culture, and the like.

Caine: Caine is a White student who is currently living with his second set of foster parents. He
enjoys participating in class discussions, but he has a habit of socializing with his peers during
instructional time. He reads on grade level but clearly dislikes it, often putting his head down
during SSR time. Although formative assessments administered in class demonstrate that Caine
has an understanding of key learning concepts, he often turns in incomplete classwork and
homework. There are times when he verbalizes his frustration at the seeming irrelevance of
schoolwork. Caines favorite part about school is his after school activities, mostly consisting of
sports like football and track.

Esteban: Esteban is a Hispanic student who qualifies for free lunches, and is identified as a
WIDA Level 4 (Expanding) ELL. He is proficient in oral language and has knowledge of most
grade-level content-specific vocabulary. In terms of writing, Esteban needs development in
sentence length and variety. He can read grade-level texts with occasional visual and/or
interactive support. Esteban is a social and eager student who works well in groups, and he has
shown interest in school leadership positions.

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