Ecological Portfolio Task 4 - Context of Teaching & Learning Analysis

I teach in a suburban high school in Milton/Alpharetta which the United States Office of Management and Budget designates as part of Metro Atlanta. My school serves students in grades 9-12 and their families. Regarding the demographics of student enrollment, my school is 65.7% white, according to data from the Georgia Department of Education. Since last year, I teach Advanced Placement (AP) American Government & Politics as well as AP Comparative Government & Politics. The vast majority of my students are in the 9th grade, but I also teach some 11th and 12th graders. All but one of my AP American Government classes are year-long courses, and the remaining AP American Government class as well as my only AP Comparative Government class are semester classes. The semester classes primarily serve 11th and 12th graders. In a typical week, the courses meet five times a week for 51–52-minute periods.

At my school, teachers are grouped into professional learning communities (PLCs) within their respective departments. PLCs are made up of teachers who teach the same subject and are created for the purposes of allowing those teachers to observe one another, aid in lesson planning, share course content, share best practices, examine results of student evaluations, and strategize to improve educational outcomes. I am the only teacher who teaches my subjects, so I am in two PLCs consisting of only one teacher, which is me. But my department is incredibly supportive and several teachers I work regularly with, including my mentor teacher, are always accessible and willing to share their insights and/or materials.

The courses I teach are both AP, which means that although high school students in Georgia are required to have taken and passed a course on government in order to graduate, students which take my courses have elected to do so – these courses are not themselves required courses. I was hired in-part specifically to teach these courses as my college-level teaching experience and my advanced degree (PhD) in political science with a focus on comparative government makes me highly qualified to do so. Because my courses are AP, the content is geared largely towards helping to maximize student performance on the AP exams, which can help them be more competitive in their college applications and even earn them college credit. Since doing well on the AP exams is a defining goal of my courses, I follow the College Board’s outlines for content as well as the structure of the curriculum.

I use textbooks which have been vetted by College Board and approved by Fulton County, including American Government: Stories of a Nation, 1st Edition by Scott Abernathy and Karen Waples (2019) and Introduction to Comparative Politics: Political Challenges and Changing Agendas, 7th Edition by Mark Kesselman, Joel Krieger, William A. Joseph (2015). Only the Abernathy and Waples text has a digital copy accessible to my students through their Classlink account. In terms of supporting students, I work closely with counselors, social workers, and parents to do my best to ensure each student receives an equal chance at an education, which may include identifying and documenting special accommodations like extra time on tests or small-group testing. I have witnessed other members of my department doing the same. I also work hard to make my classroom space welcoming even though at 35 desks, it is a tight squeeze. I decorate the walls and ceiling with artwork (often student-created) to create a stimulating and fun atmosphere – colleagues, parents, and students often compliment my room.

Most of my students are 9th graders and so usually fall into the range of 14-15 years old. My largest class has 35 students, while my smallest class has 15. Since most have not been evaluated by our counselors or teachers, any students with 504s or IEPs from middle school have those accommodations carry over until we have had time to observe and meet with parents to discuss them. Because my classes are elective and AP, I tend not to get English learners, though I did have a student last year from Taiwan who struggled with some of the more advanced vocabulary. So, we worked out a solution that included allowing her to record my presentations and lectures and to keep a translator on her desk. There are English learners in other classes taught by my colleagues, and I have seen them work hard to procure native-language texts and supplementary materials as well as working with our ESOL specialist to add another layer of support.

Our school culture, including expected habits and desired behavior, are summed up by the acronym BRIDGE (brave, respectful, involved, determined, generous, and engaged). Signage displaying these expectations is in every classroom as well as on the walls in the hallways. This complements the school and county policies, including disciplinary policy, outlined in the parent & student handbook found on our high school website. I have been relieved to see that discipline appears to be handed out in a proportionate way and I haven’t witnessed any microaggressions that I am aware of - but I recognize that my opportunity to observe such behaviors has been limited and that research strongly suggests that the opposite may in fact be true. So this warrants future study. One of the potential pitfalls that Carter et al (2017) point to is white educators shying away from talking about race or about the legacies of slavery and conquest and how those legacies continue to influence our institutions. I have been happy to observe many times that my colleagues in the department have made every effort to approach this topic head-on and with an eye to the culturally and historically relevant educational (CHRE) approach advocated by Dr. Gholdy Muhammad (2023) and others. In fact, when the Georgia General Assembly was debating the so-called “divisive content” legislation and I feared this would have a chilling effect on education, the leaders in our department made it clear that we were to continue teaching the standards – including those related to slavery, conquest, perceptions of race, discrimination, and civil rights – and that if challenged in so doing, we would have their unequivocal support.

One thing I would like our department to explore more fully is the concept of the equity audit (Skerrett & Smagorinsky 2023). Taking this course as an ongoing part of my MAT has introduced me to this concept, and I am trying to think of constructive ways I could introduce this concept to my colleagues – assuming they are not already aware of it. I would also like to build in the classroom charter activity into my AP government courses as I believe this is a natural fit and a good way to get the students thinking about governance while also taking ownership of their space. Finally, I would like to take further steps towards working critically with students and parents who are Asian, Black, Hispanic, and/or Native American in order to avoid the falling into the trap of inadvertently contributing to continued inequality, as discussed by Dr. David Stovall (2016).

Works cited:

Carter, P.L.; Skiba, R.; Arredondo, M.I.; Pollock, M. (2017) “You can’t fix what you don’t look at: Acknowledging race and addressing racial discipline disparities”, Urban Education, 52:2, 207-235, DOI: 10.1177/0042085916660350.

Muhammad, Gholdy (2023) Unearthing Joy: A Guide to Culturally and Historically Responsive Curriculum and Instruction, Scholastic Professional.

Skerrett, Allison & Smagorinsky, Peter (2023) Teaching Literacy in Troubled Times: Identity, Inquiry, and Social Action at the Heart of Instruction, Corwin – Sage Publishing.

Stovall, David (2016) “Schools suck, but they're supposed to: Schooling, incarceration and the future of education”, Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, 13:1, 20-22, DOI: 10.1080/15505170.2016.1138252.

Ecological Portfolio Task 5 - Classroom Facilitation and Leadership

Classroom facilitation is essential to creating a positive and equitable learning environment for both the students and teachers. According to a recognized classroom facilitation expert the late Harry K. Wong, teachers must establish routines and practices early in the school year in order to be successful (2009). This includes creating a list of expectations, guidelines, and rules for the classroom. C.J. Hardin also writes that, “The ultimate goal of classroom management should not be on simple obedience, but on having students behave appropriately because they know it’s the right thing to do and because they can understand how their actions affect other people” (2007, p. 142). Interviews with my mentor teacher have also helped me to crystalize a classroom facilitation philosophy that builds on relationships as a way to help foster equity (Hall 2024).

Ian Hadley (1999) conducted a controlled experiment to test the hypothesis that a classroom charter has the potential classroom facilitation benefits of improved discipline, enhanced self-esteem, and improved learning. Hadley’s research shows that by focusing the charter on ways of creating a positive learning environment and by referring to the charter often, both when rules were upheld and when rules were broken, that the charter could serve as a democratic approach to classroom facilitation. As Hackett (2024) shows us in the presentation on classroom charters, approaching classroom facilitation in this way also gives students a sense of ownership about classroom rules. Additionally, because a charter deals with subjects like rights and responsibilities, it can be an excellent way of breaking the ice for lessons about the social contract and about the creation of our constitution in an American Government class. Finally, a classroom charter can help teachers focus on managing and overcoming implicit bias. Afterall, as Skrla et. al. have demonstrated in their research (2004), inequity in education is persistent and engaging students in the process of creating a charter can have the effect of allowing each student an opportunity to have their voice heard.

For the purposes of our classroom charter, we will build on the behavior expectations captured in our BRIDGE acronym: brave, respectful, involved, determined, generous, and engaged. When creating this charter, my students will be asked to consider expectations they have of the instructor, of other students, and of themselves. Each of my four periods of freshman as well as my period of seniors of AP American Government and Politics students will be asked to contribute in each category. The charter will then be displayed in a place of prominence in the classroom and signed by the students as well as the teacher. The results will be recorded in table format (image example to follow this text).

Following our first test, our students will also be asked to participate in a classroom circle exercise in which students will be asked to reflect on their first AP summative unit assessment. This is valuable because for each of freshmen and some of my seniors, this is their first experience with AP content, and many find it challenging if not even overwhelming. Getting them to reflect on the experience of their first test as an opener to their test reflection will allow them to potentially identify contributing factors to their scores that they may have control over. Students will be given their test reflection packet, and on the cover there will be a prompt asking them to write a one-word answer to the following six questions or statements:

1. What grade do I think I got on my exam (A, B, C, or lower)? _________

2. How many hours did I study for the exam? _________

3. When did I start studying for the exam? _________

4. Did I take notes in class? _________

5. Did I review those notes if/when I studied? _________

6. How did I feel after taking the exam? _________

Works Cited:

Hadley, Ian. (2009), “Managing behaviour with classroom charters”, Support for Learning Vol. 14 No. 3, DOI: 10.1111/1467-9604.00117.

Hall, Lauren (2024), personal interview with the author.

Hardin, C. J. (2007), Effective Classroom Management: Models and Strategies for Today’s Classrooms 2nd Edition, Prentice Hall.

Wong, Harry; Wong, Rosemary (2009), First Days of School: How to Be an Effective Teacher, Harry K. Wong Publications.

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