I am mindful of the fact when providing lessons to my students that pictures, surveys and reading materials must be differentiated to meet my student population of 59% English Language Learners. I meet with my ESOL Department monthly prior to delivering my core curriculum and small group lesson plans to review ESOL accommodations to meet the needs of my students. In Lesson Planning to Ensure Optimal Engagement of ELLs, researchers Wiggins and McTighe (2005) “point to the importance think of visual aids for best aid comprehension and how to deliver instruction that target both English proficiency levels of students should have clear short and simple instructions”.
Based on the number of bullying behavioral referrals in the 2nd and 5th grades, I delivered core curriculum lessons, https://pacerkidsagainstbullying.org/ Pacer Kids Against Bullying. The students expressed their feelings and strategies for stopping bullies. The curriculum provided oral and visual skills to handle bullying situations effectively. Students learned to demonstrate empathy (B-SS 2). Second graders know what to do about the bullying behaviors and no longer felt powerless. It was important for students to learn “telling is not tattling”. The largest difference between the 2nd grade pre and post perception survey was an increase of 140% because students say they know how to report bullying. Bullying referrals went from eight referrals to zero referrals. Students demonstrated social maturity and behavior appropriate to the situation and environment (B-SS 9).
According to the pre and post perception survey students say they fell safe at school. This belief is reinforcement, that we are creating a safe place for students. However, this is an area we will continue to be a focus for me. I will add a parent survey to gain their perception. I will continue to have students complete the perception survey in order to continue to monitor behavioral gains. Yearly, I change the format for the Anti-Bulling Pledge, core curriculum lesson and videos. It is important to provide new videos and lessons on the bullying changing characters and introduction of new videos maintains student interest. Also, I use Red Ribbon as an opportunity to reinforce what was learned in the core curriculum.
Although 5th grade students participated in the Pacer Kids Against Bullying core curriculum lesson plan, new students from African countries and a student with a disability enrolled into our school. Teachers reported the 5th graders were displaying bullying behaviors of isolation in “turn-talk” teaching strategies and non-structured environments. I delivered the core curriculum lesson plan based on https://www.storylineonline.net/books/carlas-sandwich/ Carla’s Sandwich by Debbie Herman. The story is about a girl who likes to be different from her classmates. Her classmates tease her a lot. The lesson addresses the following MBs B-SS 2: Create positive and supportive relations with others; B-SS 7: Use Leadership and teamwork skills; B-SS 9; Demonstrate social maturity and behaviors appropriate to the situation. The PBIS Bullying behavior referrals decreased from eight in the 2nd Quarter to two in the 3rd Quarter for a 75% change. The survey shows an increase of 64% of students who know, how to treat someone who is different from them. 65% of students feel better about their behavior towards someone different. I would like to use the lesson, but I would revise the perception survey. As a grade, they earned the most PBIS Class Dojo points rewards for helping others and given an ice cream party after lunch.
The core-curriculum Growth Mindset and Math Achievement lesson plan was delivered to K- 6th grade students. Teachers and student perception survey from 4th and 5th grades showed, they didn’t study or turned in homework and lacked motivation. I chose: Mindset M 2: Self-confidence in the ability to succeed. Mindset M 6 Positive attitude toward work and learning; B-LS 4: Apply self-motivation and self-direct to learning. After the lesson the post perception data showed the greatest increase of 73% of students who agreed that asking questions when you do not understand is vital to being successful. There are more lessons that I did not use, but will give in the future to focus on study skills to increase learning strategies. I will add a parent survey in Spanish in November concerning student study and homework habits. Four students joined the after school math tutoring club and the number of students on the Math D/E list fell from 18 in November 2017 to 4 students in January 2018 for a change of 78%.