OAKLAND

UNIVERSITY.

--~-School of Education and Human Services

Office of School and Field Services
381 Pawley Hall
Rochester, Michigan 48309-4494
248-370-3083

Final Assessment of Student Teacher

Student Name

Mathew Saunders

Building Van Hoosen Middle School

Winter
Term

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District

Rochester

State _ ___;M==c
--- I

2015
Assignment
US Historv 8
Year
Grade level/subject(s)

Cooperating
Teacher Cathleen Brennan-Stover

University
Supervisor

Dr. Anthony TufFrancis

DESCRIPTION OF ASSIGNMENT
(community; district; unique characteristics of school, staff, students)
Van Hoosen Middle Schools is located at the Northeast corner of Rochester Hills, MI. It serves a
population of mostly middle to upper-middle class children in grades 6-8. Most Van Hoosen students
progress on to Adams High School, but we also have students choose to attend the International Academy
as well as a variety of private and parochial schools. Van Hoosen scored as the second highest achieving
middle school on the last MEAP test, and is a National Blue Ribbon award winner for 2014.
The course Mathew worked with is a general education social studies class, serving both general
education and special education students.

COOPERATING TEACHER'S ASSESSMENT

(attach additional pages if necessary)
INTERPERSONAL

RELATIONSHIPS

Mathew is extremely personable and develops strong rapport with both students and staff. He is
outgoing, and friendly in his relationships with colleagues and students. Mathew has a strong desire to be
liked by his students. This is a positive in many ways. As the old adage says "They won't care what you
know, until they know that you care." Mathew put a great amount of energy into getting to know students
as individuals, and reaching them through shared interests in video games, hockey, cats, etc. He needs to
be cautious so that students see him as the adult in charge rather than as a peer in order to maintain the
respect needed to manage a classroom.
CLASSROOM CLIMATE AND MANAGEMENT
For the most part, Mathew has reasonable expectations for students, and he has been working on
making those expectations clear to students through use of verbal and written directions and rubrics. He
attempts to stress to students that quality effort is expected, not sirnply completion. For example, he would
mark students down for incomplete answers in addition to inaccurate ones. Although improvement has
been shown over the course of the semester, students are still not always clear on what they are supposed to
do or why they are supposed to be doing it.

Student Name: Mathew Saunders

Mathew is working on using wait time and other cues to gain the attention of all students during
an activity or class discussion. Improvement has been shown in this area, however, too much time is often
allocated to an activity leaving students with unstructured time during which they are not always clear on
what they should and should not be doing. Transitions have shown improvemen,t with the majority of
students knowing what to do next; at times, however, some students do still exhibit confusion as a result of
direction being given prior to getting the attention of all students. Additionally, Mathew uses a great deal
of partner and group work and while the majority of students are engaged during these activities when
groups finish earlier than other groups off- task behavior can result. Mathew is typically aware of what
students are doing, but can be sidetracked from monitoring the class as a whole when he gets involved with
specific students or groups of students. When there are issues, efforts to implement corrective procedures
are inconsistent and not always effective.
Mathew is very organized, and materials were prepared and organized at the beginning of each
day of instruction. Procedures were in place for distribution of materials and in most instances were
effective in limiting loss of instructional time. Mathew graded a variety of assignments and was typically
prompt in entering the grades into IntegradePro, the district's electronic gradebook program. He also
effectively managed assignments for absent students, and consistently reminded students to get make-up
work submitted.

INSTRUCTIONAL

PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION

Mathew has demonstrated a general awareness of the importance of prerequisite learning for students,
buthas on occasion struggled with determining what level of prerequisite knowledge is required for a
given topic or activity. Because of this, he has sometimes been overzealous in providing background
knowledge resulting in students becoming overwhelmed by too much information. He has been working
on keeping his instruction tighter and making sure that students have the knowledge they need, but not to
the point of them disengaging.
Mathew can quote pedagogy, and has an understanding of the different types of learning resulting in
lesson plans which use a variety of modalities for instruction, lecture, discussion, reading, video, group
work, analysis of primary sources, etc. Mathew has shown improvement in the development and
implementation of goals which represent opportunities for different types of learning, although his goals do
still include a combination of goals and activities and do not always include a method of assessment. The
instructional materials and resources selected are generally suitable for the ability levels of most students,
and consistently engage students, however, some activities have only a weak connection to the stated goals
of the lesson.
Mathew was very good at making sure to vary the activities students took part in during a given lesson.
Lessons typically involved direct instruction, class discussion, cooperative learning, and independent work,
He also used a variety of resources in his instruction including both primary and secondary source
materials, Powerpoints, and video clips in addition to the text book.

INSTRUCTIONAL PLANNING AND INCORPORATION

STUDENT LEARNING

OF TECHNOLOGY

TO ENHANCE

Mathew has consistently demonstrated a strong aptitude with technology as well as a desire to utilize
technology with students. He consistently seeks out ways to use technology in his instruction and in
student activities. He uses email, the computerized grade book, and the internet to find materials for lesson
planning, and to maintain student records.

EVALUATION
Mathew has used a variety of means of evaluation of student understanding. These have included class
discussion, eliciting student response, exit slips, daily class work, writing assignments and projects, and

Student Name: Mathew Saunders

tests and quizzes. He is strong in his creation of summative assessments, and is showing improvement in
his use of formative assessment. Mathew still misses some opportunities to evaluate student's achievement
of goals within planned activities focusing more on end products.

COMMAND OF SUBJECT MATTER

Mathew conveys a great deal of excitement about history in general, but did exhibit a lack of knowledge of
the content in US history, indicating that most of his college coursework was on World History and
European History rather than US history. Usually, the efforts involved in lesson planning helped him to
"brush up" on the US history content, but there were times when it was evident to both myself and the
students, that he did not have a firm grasp of the content being taught.

PERSONAL QUALITIES
Mathew has limited absences to no more than one time per month during his student teaching .. Since taking
over full time instruction, he has been careful to inform me of his absences, and to submit plans for the day.
Mathew exhibits consistent energy while working with students. Mathew has attended school for the entire
teacher workday, and usually arrives at his scheduled work time. Mathew typically stays after school to
complete grading, data entry, and other required duties. Mathew has generally met the required deadlines
for completion of lesson plans and other activities. His dress has been consistently appropriate for the
school environment, and has demonstrated an understanding of the variations of dress for special activities
and spirit days and volunteered to participate in an after school staff-student volleyball game.

PROFESSIONAL QUALITIES
Mathew's ability to judge the effectiveness of a lesson is improving. He can generally ten you what
changes he would make to improve a lesson, and had shown an ability to change a lesson throughout the
day to better reach students. He is now able, upon reflection, to see when a lesson has not been effectively
tied to instructional goals, but sometimes misses that amid the excitement of finding interesting materials to
utilize with students.
Mathew has consistently attended staff meetings, and professional development sessions in the building,
and in the district. He is an active participant in these meetings, and is willing to share what he has learned
at the university, as well as some of his experiences in the classroom.

_K_ Recommended for certification

Not recommended for certification

~ommended
for certification
_Not
ecommended for certification

~~rL

Cooperating Teacher's Signature

The above assessment and certification recommendations

4117/15
Date

have been shared with me.

_Mark
here if additional comments by the
student teacher are attached.
Please provide 4 copies of the assessment and distribute to the Cooperating Teacher, Student Teacher,
University Supervisor, Office of School and Field Services