Signature Assignment: Classroom and School-Wide Coherence Plan 1

Signature Assignment: Classroom and School-Wide Coherence Plan

Nora C. Ramos

Azusa Pacific University

Dr. Ie May Freeman

Summer 2020
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Signature Assignment: Classroom and School-wide Coherence Plan

Introduction

I have accepted my first te​aching assignment at Aurora Elementary School, in the city of

South Los Angeles. The 23 students in my classroom are in the second grade. The majority of

students in my classroom are Latinx (20 students) and 3 of my students are African American. In

my classroom I have a diversity of learners, I have some students that are English Learners (ELs)

and at-risk students. I teach English Language Arts (ELA), Math, Science, and Social Studies,

therefore, tailoring instruction on each subject according to the students’ needs is essential for

me. The second-grade teacher team works collaboratively to be able to meet each students’ needs

to create an effective learning environment for the second graders at Aurora Elementary School.

Community

Aurora Elementary School is located in the Los Angeles Unified School District

(LAUSD), which is the second-largest district in the United States (Los Angeles Unified School

District, 2020). The school is located in a low socioeconomic area, with 96.4% of the students

identified as socioeconomically disadvantage (School Accountability Report Card, 2019). The

community surrounding the school is based on single-family homes, rental apartments, small

family-owned businesses as well as corporate-owned businesses, grocery stores, big chain

fast-food restaurants, there is also visible homelessness in the community. Because many of the

parents at Aurora work more than one job to be able to provide for their family, Aurora offers the

after school program LA’s BEST. LA’s BEST is free for students and it accepts children from

Kindergarten-fifth grade, this program runs from the dismissal bell goes off-6:00 pm, during this

time the students do their homework, do activities guided by coaches and they also get free time
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to play with their peers. Aurora Elementary has created and encourages a sense of community

between the students, the families, the teachers, and the administration to help students learn

effectively.

School Context

Aurora has grades from Early Transitional Kindergarten (ETK) all the way to grade ​five,

it also has three special needs education classrooms; Preschool for All Learners (PALs) program,

Transitional Kinder-​second grade​, and ​third ​grade- ​fifth​ grade. The school has 16 full

credentialed teachers and ​two ​without full credentials (School Accountability Report Card,

2019). Currently, Aurora is only focused on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics

STEM, however, the school is soon planning to transition to STEAM, which includes Art to their

curriculum (Aurora Elementary School, 2020).

Developing a Shared Purpose

As educators, we need to have a clear and set moral imperative in our classroom to make

our classroom environment a successful learning environment and create effective leaders

(Fullan & Quinn, 2016 p. 18)​.​ The moral imperative is described as ​“focuses on deep learning

for all children regardless of background or circumstance” (Fullan & Quinn, 2016 p. 17). Fullan

and Quinn ​(2016),​ state that to be a great educator we need to be clear of our moral imperative

which is the reason why we become teachers. ​All students need to be provided the same

education regardless of their background and their experiences. Educators need to be aware that

their students will have different backgrounds, experiences, and cultures, therefore they need to

make sure their moral imperative is present when creating teaching content that is culturally

appropriate for the students.

Actions on my Moral Imperative

The moral imperative that I want to promote in my classroom is to help students feel

welcomed and safe in the classroom. The importance of creating a meaningful relationship with

my students and their families is a teaching priority of mine. I will allow my students to be able

to approach me to talk about anything they want to talk about and I will always let them express

themselves and speak up in the classroom. I will make sure that I do not have any biases towards

my students, and I will make sure to treat all my students equally and respectfully. I will provide

the love and support my students need so they can feel that they are important and valuable to

me, which I hope will make them love learning and being in my classroom.

Another way I will be setting a moral imperative in my classroom is that I will be using

my strengths, which I found out through taking Clifton’s Strengths Quest assessment. According

to the Assessment my strengths consist of; 1) Futuristic, 2) Restorative, 3) Developer, 4)

Communication, and 5) Empathy. ​I will be using my strengths in the classroom by creating

activities and assignments that will help my students think about their future, their goals, their

potential, people around them, and their environment. ​I believe that my strengths will help me

cultivate a moral imperative in the classroom where I will be “embracing a culturally responsive

pedagogy.”​ (Taylor, 2010 p. 25)​. I believe that m strengths that God gave me will help me

collaborate with my colleagues so we can create a curriculum that embraces my moral purpose

as well as their own.

I will encourage my colleagues to develop and identify a moral imperative is by

introducing them to Clifton’s Strength Quest quiz over one of our professional learning

community meetings (PLCs). If they have taken the quiz before and they are clear on what their
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moral imperative is, I will ask for guidance on how to implement moral imperative in their

classrooms. I will also learn from their strengths so I can improve the implementation of moral

imperative in the classroom. We will work together to make sure our students are equally treated

and represented in the classroom.

Developing Shared Learning Goals

To have an effective learning environment, not only in my classroom but schoolwide, as

educators, we need to create shared learning goals for all the students at Aurora Elementary.

Having too many goals can be overwhelming which leads to “overload and fragmentation” and

having too many goals also prevent us from focusing on what benefits our students which takes

away from the importance of having goals in our school (Fullan & Quinn, 2016 p.19, 20)​.

Therefore in my classroom, I will be focusing on three specific goals to help our students learn

effectively.​ The goals ​I ​will be working on as a school will be; 1)​ Student’s Learning

preferences​, 2) Applying Multiculturalism, and 3) ​S​ocial-Emotional Learning.

Learning Preference

The first goal ​I​ will be focusing on in my classroom will be to promote a work habit

among the students that will help them understand their learning preferences. The

implementation of this work habit will be based on the individual student’s learning needs based

on their assessments. I believe in the importance of knowing how a person learns best, therefore,

I believe that the student needs to be able to experience different learning styles and not just in

the common classroom format,​ therefore, I will be implementing a system where students choose

how they want to work during independent work time. During independent work time, I will

introduce the “Choice Chart,” in this cart I will have the types of ways students can choose to
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work. Students will have the option of working in small group activities that will enhance the

material of the day, work individually, use technology, discovery/library center (this will change

depending on the topic of the week), flexible sitting (allowing the students to sit on the floor,

other chairs, lay on the carpet to work), etc. This will allow the students to explore and learn

what is the best way they learn and be able to apply it outside of the classroom​.

Multiculturalism in the ​Classroom

The second goal​ I ​will be focusin​g in the classroom i​s adapting the student’s cultural

background to the curriculum and lesson plans. As an educator who works in a diverse

community​, I understand the importance of culture, therefore, we have decided to educate myself

in my student’s culture and make sure they feel represented in the classroom. One way that I will

embrace multiculturalism in the classroom will be to have diverse books that represent my

students. I will also incorporate the student’s culture in our learning activities, for example, I

could include different, non-biased, and stereotypical, images of different cultures in the

classroom. I will also be establishing relationships with parents so we can learn more about the

student’s background. I will allow students to express freely and share their culture in the

classroom. I will teach the students to embrace and respect the different cultures that we have in

our classroom. I believe that if multiculturalism is present and discussed in our classrooms it will

tech the students to be more accepting of others and our community will be stronger.

Promoting Social-Emotional Learning

The third goal we will be focusing on Aurora is to integrate Social-Emotional learning

(SEL) at our school. SEL is vital for school and life success, and it is as important as learning

Math and English. According to Mulvahill in her article, she states that “social-emotional
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education as an important factor in helping students develop crucial life skills that go beyond

academics” (Mulvahill​, 2016 paras. 2).​ Therefore, we will be helping out students embrace their

social-emotional learning, as well as promoting the importance of it. One of the ways we plan to

integrate social-emotional learn​ing in my classroom is by introducing the “Caught Being Good”

tickets, whenever a student is caught doing an act of kindness towards other students or in the

classroom (e.g, picking up trash that is not theirs, helping put away books or toys, following

directions, etc.) ​the student will receive a ticket and by the end of the week each student will be

able to pick a price (e.g, an extra book to read over the weekend, candy, pen or pencils, stickers,

etc.) from the price box in the classroom. I will also allow students to work in small groups or

independently when appropriate. I w​ill also encourage my students to check in with me or a peer

whenever they are having a social-emotional issue so they don’t feel alone or that their feelings

are ignored. All these activities will help the students understand and embrace the importance of

social-emotional learning.

School-Wide Goal’s Collaborative Process

A collaborative culture in schools is needed so we can better serve our students. A

collaborative culture between schools- parents and mong teachers is necessary to build coherence

for impact (Fullan & Quinn, 2016 p. 49). To create a collaborative culture we will need to use

our intelligence, talents, and strengths to be able to “develop a clear strategy” (Fullan & Quinn,

2016 p. 48). Epstein (2002) states, “The way schools care about children is reflected in the way

schools care about the children’s families” (Epstein, 2002, pg. 20). Parent involvement is

necessary to be able to guarantee the success of the students. Teachers, the school and the parents

need to share the goals they have for the students, and together create a plan that will make a
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difference in the student’s learning. Fullan & Quinn (2016) state, “If one wants to shift school,

district, or system practices, one needs to have a strong learning design and deeper collaborative

work. (Fullan & Quinn, 2016 p. 62).

Developing School and Parent Collaboration

Effective Collaboration
Having school-parent collaboration is needed to help the student succeed, schools need to

implement collaboration between them and parents. According to Salina et al. (2016), “Powerful

leaders emphasize collaboration as a tool and expectation” (p. 47). ​ School and parent

collaboration are essential because it helps students “succeed through an emergent process of

dialogue and relationship building” (Price-Mitchell, 2009​ p. 9​) that way they can unite and be

able to advocate on behalf of the children. According to Price-Miller (2009), there are ​six​ types

of parental involvement in parent-school collaboration; parenting, communicating, volunteering,

learning at home, decision making, and collaborating with the community. A collaborative

environment needs to be created because it helps the student’s academic, social, and emotional

development” (Price-Mitchell, 2009​ p.10​).​ Schools need to implement and prioritize the

importance of collaborating with parents and be able to discuss ways to support student’s

learning and find ways to support the students.

Ways to Develop Effective School Collaboration

student’s parents even before the beginning of the school year. Before the school year starts, I

plan to send home a letter with my personal information and a ​Get to Know Me​ letter. ​In this

letter, I will provide the parents with my Google Voice phone number, which is directly
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connected to my personal phone number. Ways I will be making myself available are via email,

call, text message, and messages in the ClassDojo app. I will be contacting each parent at least

once a week to give updates about the student, and also to check up on the student’s family, I

will also be contacting parents to communicate the student’s positive behavior and I will try my

best not to focus on negative behavior unless necessary.

Onc​e communication and trust are established between parents and me, I will be

providing resources to parents so they can better help the students at home. ​Some of the

resources I will be providing the parents will be prerecorded lessons on ClassDojo, extra

examples of assignments, websites that students can access at home which will explain the

material (e.g MyMath, Lexia, etc.), Also, I will be answering any homework or classwork

questions via text message, email, or ClassDojo even before and after school hours​. I will be

able to help parents understand the​ curriculum​ their children are learning in my classroom. ​I will

also provide a classroom calendar in which the parents will know the lesson of the day, any

important events, and conferences.

Another way I plan to establish collaboration between parents and school is that ​I will

highly encourage parents to meet one on one with me at least once a month. During this time

parents can discuss the student’s academic, emotional, and social progress. During this time

parents can discuss with the teacher any topic regarding the student. They will also be able to

provide any suggestions on how to help the student in the classroom. The teachers and parents

will be able to provide each other feedback and suggestions respectfully, and we will listen to

each other’s opinions and ideas respectfully.

Lastly, another way I plan to promote school-parent collaboration is by​ providing

volunteering opportunities in the classroom and the school​. Working and attending schools in

low socioeconomic neighborhoods, it is rare to see parents volunteering in schools. Based on the

information provided by the principal at Aurora, the average number of parents that volunteer at

Aurora is approximately ​seven​. I want to help increase that number. I believe that parent

volunteers are necessary for schools ​because they will be able to see the school and my

classroom environment. I will be providing a signup sheet where parents can sign up to

volunteer. If a parent can not volunteer at school they can help with taking work home to help

grade. Some of the things they will do as volunteers are grade papers, help with recess

supervision, help the teacher filing papers, etc​. I plan to encourage parents to volunteer at school

at least ​two​ times a week.

Developing Teacher Collaboration

Teachers need to collaborate for the success of their students. According to Saline et al.

(2016), effective educators are conscious of the impact of collective collaboration “as a group,

[educators] can effect student learning and manage student behavior” (pg. 10). Teachers need to

learn how to work together for the benefit of their students because they have such a great

influence on the student’s learning effectiveness ​(Saina et al., 2016 p.10)​. At Aurora, we will be

implementing strategies that will promote a collaborative school culture that supports improved

instruction among colleagues and student learning.

One of the strategies​ I​ will be implementing at Aurora will be team teaching. Team

Teaching refers to when a group of teachers in the same grade level does the traditional things a

teacher has always done, but they share the responsibility equally among all the teachers in the
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team (Thousand & Navin, 2006). For example, since there are​ three-second​ grade teachers, we

will divide the lessons equally, one week one teacher will be in charge of creating a lesson and

activities for math. Another teacher will be in charge of creating a lesson and activities for ELA

and the other one will be in charge of science and social studies. These lessons, as well as

activity materials, will be shared every Friday evening so we can be prepared for the rest of the

week.

Another strategy we will be implementing at Aurora Elementary School is that as a team,

we will declare our accountability to one another​ (Salina et al., 2016 p.20). I​ will establish a

norm of accountability because if we have the same goals and agreement to achieve these goals

(which are the success of the student’s learning), we will be more likely to achieve such goals

(Salina et al., 2016 p. 21​). According to Salina et al. (2016), “formalizing team norms helps

create groups that can have honest discussions, enabling everyone to participate and be heard”

(pg. 21). ​The norms I will be implementing with my colleagues is what Salina et al. (2016)

describe as necessary to have a successful school change, these norms are that as educators we

need to be intentional, attentive and willing to model the practices we advocate (p.21). ​We will

weekly debrief on ​the struggles and achievements our students had over the week, and we will

find ways to better support our students.​ The goal is to create a level of comfort when we can say

when we have struggled and where we might need improvement. Our students deserve to have

teachers that are willing to improve and rely on other teachers for support when needed.

Securing Accountability-Employing Lesson Study

Collectively with my team, we ​analyzed​ a lesson study in Stellar Students’ fifth-grade

class, in Social Studies lessons about the Early United States History and Geography: Making a
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New Nation ​California​ state standards. According to the lesson, it’s objective is to help students

understand the fundamentals of U.S democracy, including how the government derives its

power.

This lessons learning goals are; ​1) S​tudents will participate in academic discussion about

the Constitution. 2) Students will be able to collaborate to include the information they learned

through a presentation. 3) Students will be able to complete guided notes using reading

comprehension skills.

For English Learne​rs,​ we have concluded that we will provide​ a word bank with words

that will be on the reading assignment. The word bank will be i​n English and we will try to have

it available in their native language, the student will have the option to choose which one they

want to work on. Another accommodation we will be doing is we will provide teacher notes

before the lesson, so if they want to read ​about the lesson ahead of time,​ they will have the

option to do so. We will also have visuals available throughout the classroom and we will label

each visual to help the student make the connection between the word and the visual.​ One

modification for ELs is that we will allow them to answer prompts either in Spanish (since most

of our students are Latinx, Spanish is their main language) or answer prompts by drawing if they

are having issues writing their answers.

For Students with Special Needs, we will be working​ in small groups with a

paraprofessional to make sure they get the reinforcement they might need, however, they will not

be isolated they will be mixed with general​ education​ students. ​Another accommodation we will

be implementing in the classroom with our Students with Special Needs is that they will be able

to sit where they learn best, that could be near the teacher or paraprofessional or on a desk alone.
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One modification we will be implementing for Students with Special Needs is that they will

receive extra time to complete assignments and if assignments are too long they will be broken

into sections which will allow the students to work at their own pace and not feel overwhelmed.

For at-risk students, we will be allowing flexible grouping. Flexible grouping will allow

the student​ to pick who they want to work with, so they feel encouraged to do the work. We will

also have class notes and the lesson available to them through ClassDojo, we will be doing a

Kahoot quiz at the end of the lesson to help the student feel engaged. ​A modification we will be

having for our at-risk students is that we will be able to complete alternate classwork or projects

regarding the lesson if they choose to do so.

Accommodations we will be making for our Gifted students for this lesson will consist of

allowing access to technology after they are done with their assignments, the students will be

able to access iPads, or computers to either work on Lexia, do some research about the topic we

have learned, or go on any of the appropriate and district approved websites. Another

accommodation we will be implementing in the classroom is to allow gifted students to finish

homework in the classroom if they desire to do so, or they can read a book. A modification we

will be making in the lesson for the gifted students is to add open-ended questions in the

assignments we will provide for them, these questions will be related to the lesson and the

student will have the option to answer orally (presentation), written format, or using technology

(creating a video). The end goal is to allow gifted students to be able to engage with the lesson

and the assignments.

References

(2020, June 24). In Aurora Elementary School. Retrieved June 24, 2020, from

​https://auroraes-lausd-ca.schoolloop.com/

Clifton Strengths. (2018). Your signature themes. Gallup, Inc

Epstein, J. L., Sanders, M. G., Simon, B. S., Salinas, K. C., Jansorn, N. R., & Van Voorhis, F. L.

(2002). School, family, and community partnerships 2nd edition. Thousand Oaks CA:

Corwin Press.

Fullan, M., & Quinn, J. (2016). Coherence: The Right Drivers in Action for Schools, Districts,

and Systems (pp. 17-46). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Mulvahill, E. (2016, October 21). 21 Simple Ways to Integrate Social-Emotional Learning

Throughout the Day. In We Are Teachers. Retrieved from

https://www.weareteachers.com/21-simple-ways-to-integrate-social-emotional-learning-througho

ut-the-day

Murphy, R., Weinhardt, F., Wyness, G., & Rolfe, H. (2017). ​Lesson study: Evaluation report and

executive summary.​ London: Education Endowment Foundation. Retrieved from

https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/public/files/Projects/Evaluation_Reports/Lesson_Study.pdf

Napper, K. (2019, June 26). The Necessity of Having High Expectations. In Edutopia. Retrieved

from https://www.edutopia.org/article/necessity-having-high-expectations

Price-Mitchell, M. (2009). Boundary Dynamics: Implications for building parent-school

partnerships. ​The School Community Journal,​ 19(2), 9-26. Retrieved from

​http://www.adi.org/journal/fw09/Price-MitchellFall2009.pdf
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Salina, C., Girtz, S., & Eppings, J. (2016). Transforming schools through systems change.

Rowman & Littlefield.

School Accountability Report Card Reported Using Data from the 2018-2019 School Year

California Department of Education: Aurora Elementary School. (2019--2020). In-State

Reporting Services Branch. Retrieved June 15, 2020, from

​http://search.lausd.net/cgi-bin/fccgi.exe?w3exec=sarc20182019&which=4685

Taylor, R. W. (2010). A moral imperative for ensuring the academic success of diverse student

populations. ​Multicultural Education​, 17(3), 24-28. Retrieved from

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ902695.pdf

Thousand, J. S., Villa, R. A., & Nevin, A. I. (2006). The Many Faces of Collaborative Planning and

Teaching. Theory Into Practice, 45(3), 239–248. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15430421tip4503_6