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Setting and Context

This document provides information about Fort Collins High School in Fort Collins, Colorado. It details the school's mission and belief statements, which focus on providing an excellent education for all students. It also provides demographic information about the local community of Fort Collins as well as statistics about the student body, staff, academics, and extracurricular programs at the high school. Additionally, the document describes two English 9 classrooms, including details about classroom setup, student dynamics and engagement, as well as the diversity of the student population. It concludes by outlining a vocabulary lesson plan for a short story that will have students work collaboratively to reinforce understanding of advanced terms.

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69 views

Setting and Context

This document provides information about Fort Collins High School in Fort Collins, Colorado. It details the school's mission and belief statements, which focus on providing an excellent education for all students. It also provides demographic information about the local community of Fort Collins as well as statistics about the student body, staff, academics, and extracurricular programs at the high school. Additionally, the document describes two English 9 classrooms, including details about classroom setup, student dynamics and engagement, as well as the diversity of the student population. It concludes by outlining a vocabulary lesson plan for a short story that will have students work collaboratively to reinforce understanding of advanced terms.

Uploaded by

api-265316210
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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Fort Collins High School

3400 Lambkin Way


Fort Collins, CO 80525
Mission Statement: (https://fch.psdschools.org)
(https://fch.psdschools.org/webfm/2539)
Where Excellence is Expected
Fort Collins High Schools mission is to provide an excellent education
for all students in a nurturing, creative, challenging, and disciplined
environment so that all students have the knowledge, values and skills
to be productive responsible participants in our society and to
successfully pursue careers when they graduate from Fort Collins High
School.
Belief Statement: (https://fch.psdschools.org)
(https://fch.psdschools.org/webfm/2539)
Where Excellence is Expected
At Fort Collins High School, we believe in providing all students with
the skills they need to be successful in grade-level appropriate course
work.
Community: (2014-2015 https://www.psdschools.org/about-us/psddemographics) (http://www.fcgov.com/planning/pdf/2015_pop_estimate.pdf)
(http://www.fcgov.com/planning/trends.php)
Fort Collins Population Estimate: (2015) 158,600
o Employment: (2012) 99,775
Poudre School District Student Demographics:
o Asian: 3.00%
o Black/African American: 1.16%
o Hispanic/Latino: 18.09%
o Native American: 0.52%
o Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0.14%
o White: 73.79%
o Two or More: 3.41%
Staff Profile:
o Total Staff: 3,652
o Certified: 1,969
o Classified: 1,540
o Administrators: 143
o Total teachers: 1,716
o Average teaching experience in PSD: 12 years
Academics
o Dropout Rate: 1.5%
o 2014 Graduation Rate: 84%

o 8.8 out of 10 graduates completed at least one post-secondary


class prior to graduation
o Class of 2015 graduates earned more than $44 million in
scholarships
o Students performed 8%-17% higher than students around the
state in all subjects and in all 27 areas tested on the 2014
Transitional Colorado Assessment Program (TCAP)
School: 2014-2015 (Handout from Josh Richey)
Gender:
o Female: 45%
o Male: 55%
Advanced Placement:
o Female: 49%
o Male: 51%
Ethnicity:
o American Indian: .9%
o Asian: 3.4%
o Black: 1.3%
o Hispanic: 22%
o White: 69%
o Hawaiian or Pacific Islander: .2%
o Two or More: 1.9%
Free/Reduced: 32%
English Language Learners: 15%
Gifted and Talented: 16%
Modified Block Schedule:
o Monday, Tuesday, Friday: 50 minute periods, 3rd period 55
minutes
o Wednesday, Thursday: 90 minute periods
5 Pillars of Excellence
o Acceptance
o Pride
o Integrity
o Respect
o Responsibility
Classroom: English 9
I will be working with two classes of English 9 students of
approximately 20 students each. My first period class does not contain many
students involved in sports or clubs with the school. These students often
remain quiet throughout class, but actively participate in class discussions
when asked. Second period has many students involved in sports such as

Football and Volleyball, but not many involved with clubs as far as I have
learned. This class tends to be more outgoing with one another and a little
more difficult to keep on track. I think that the dynamics of having a class
that is more physically active helps them to be more involved in the
classroom because the class depends on social interaction and the students
already have a culture circle in which they interact with others.
When it comes to the content of the class, students are not always
engaged to their fullest, but every one of them does the minimum of what
they need to do in order to pass the class. With this, if students receive a
worksheet to complete by the end of the class, most of the students will
complete it in a timely manner, but they wont use their knowledge to
expand their thinking about the topic beyond the questions presented to
them. Students are very good about putting their cell phones in their
backpacks once my cooperating teacher, Mrs. Cooper, has started class.
There is no classroom policy of having students do quiet, independent
reading, or anything when they first come into class so they often spend the
first few minutes they are in the room before class starts sitting on desks
socializing.
The classroom is mildly inviting as half of the desks face away from the
door and toward the middle of the classroom. The other half face opposite.
This set up helps to engage student discussion, but I feel may hinder
attention toward the board as students often have to shift slightly sideways
to see the board. There are white boards on both sides of the students which
are often used for examples and to leave keep sake reminders of what each
class is working on. On one side of the room, a smart board is placed in
between two white boards and is actively used to draw students attention to
what they will be working on.
The demographics of the classes are very representative of the school
and school district. While the majority of the students are Caucasian, about
25% or more of each class identifies as something other than Caucasian. A
few of my students have IEPs or 504s. Although I have not seen their
documents, I have been able to observe my cooperating teacher provide
these students with differential treatment within the class in order to help
them succeed. For example, one student is currently going through family
problems and so he is able to take extensions on assignments as needed and
it is understandable for him to come a few minutes late to our first period
class. In addition to this, other students with IEPs have been given
extensions on assignments as needed without question in order to ensure
these students have a full understanding of what they are turning in. This
becomes differential treatment in the fact that at the beginning of the
semester, my cooperating teacher sat down with these particular students
and spoke with them about how they did not need to announce to others
that they needed more time, they simply needed to let her know through
email if they were unable to complete it and what she could do to enhance
their understanding.

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Smart Boa
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Topic and Rationale:


I will be teaching a vocabulary lesson for the short story The Most
Dangerous Game. As ninth grade students, it is important for them to learn
and expand their vocabulary. Each of the texts we will read throughout this
semester have advanced vocabulary and in order for the students to better
understand the plot and storyline, we do not want students to stumble over
trying to determine the meaning behind vocabulary.
In order to teach the vocabulary and ensure understanding of each
term, students will all receive a handout with the terms and definitions. Once
students have received the definitions, they will work in pairs to do a version
of a chalk-talk. There are 15 terms and approximately 30 students in each
class. Not all students will get a chance to work on all of the posters with the
terms on them so they will do a share aloud at the end of class. Having
students work in pairs will get them thinking and talking amongst one
another. I have noticed that students are less engaged during whole class
discussions and when working individually.
During the chalk-talk, students will be asked to use the definitions
given to them in order to come up with possible synonyms for the term(s)
given to them. After about 5 minutes, students will rotate terms and spend
the next 5 minutes drawing an image of the term. Finally, students will rotate
a second time and spend a final 5 minutes coming up with a sentence to use

Teacher
Desk

the term and discussing how to teach their fellow students about the term
they have.

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