Teacher Evaluation Summary

DATE: January 27

For: Kaitlyn Smith Completed by: Dale Cummings

Grade 1-2 teacher Principal, Vauxhall Elementary School
Vauxhall Elementary School Horizon School Division # 67
Vauxhall, Alberta

Background

Kaitlyn is currently on a 1.0 probationary contract. She teaches in a grade 1-2 split class with
about 17 students. She is responsible for teaching all core subjects except health and music. She
also teaches PE to grade land a sign language class to a rotational group of students. Data for
this report was collected from classroom observations (4 full lessons and many walkthroughs),
planning and evaluation documents, meetings with Kaitlyn, a discussion guide and day to day
professional interactions.

VES is a Daily 5 school and all teachers are required to use this structure in their LA classrooms.
Math is in the working stages of Daily 3 and the teachers can choose to us the structure in other
classes.

Report on Professional Practice

A. PERFORMANCE AREA: ACCOMMODATION FOR CONTEXT AND

LEARNING NEEDS
Kaitlyn recognizes the need to accommodate different student variables in her teaching. She also
understands that students in her room are at different levels, whether the reason being ESL,
attendance, or learning difficulties. For starters, her class of 1$ students consists of 16 English
Language Learners. She has had to complete ELL benchmarks for each of these students so has
had to work hard at establishing the level each one is at. This information has helped her to
formulate her plans for instruction. One of the first things she realized with ELL students is that
they lack a lot of vocabulary. Rather than just give meaning she tries to show them the meaning
— what does this look like? Kaitlyn has also had to complete an ISP for one of her students and
utilized the Learning Support Teacher to help her with this. She has learnt how to use the
Fountas and Pinnell benchmarking system and results from this allowed her to discover several
students at a very low level of reading that would need some interventions. As a new teacher you
finally get your class humming along and a new student moves in. Kaitlyn had a student move
into her classroom 4 months into the school year and has worked hard at getting him into routine
of Daily 5, working on his stamina and finding out his level of abilities. A school variable for
Kaitlyn is that she teaches a split grade 1-2 class with 7 grade one students. hi the beginning of
the year planning for this was not easy as the grade 2 could do so much and the grade 1 very
little. During an ELA observation her grade 1 had to cut and glue words in order while grade 2
did a word sort. Kaitlyn recognizes the need to utilize her CSA to help with the differences in
levels by listing specific goals for them to work on with different students each day. Star tutor

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for sight words is an example of this. When I asked the CSA about their role or duties they
mentioned that Kaitlyn also has these listed in a book that they can refer to each day. Planning
for CS A’s is complete and with a specific learning goal in mind. Kaitlyn accepted a high school
student needing work experience. She makes very good use of this student utilizing them to
further support students with learning difficulties. Kaitlyn tries to keep in regular contact with
her parents and one of the adaptations she has made is that if she phones in the evening she has a
better chance to talk to Dad who can usually speak and understand English better than mom.

Because of the many learning styles in her room Kaitlyn tries to accommodate these styles. She
uses visuals on the smart board with words and pictures, uses manipulatives in math and hands
on experiments in Science. When students are at read to self they have an option of using a “tub
a-loo” so they can better listen to themselves read.

B. PERFORMANCE AREA: PLANNING AND PREPARATION

As mandated by division policy, Kaitlyn has developed long range plans for the courses she
teaches. The long range plans generally include a timeline, the topic being covered, activities,
link to program of studies outcomes and assessment. As with all long range plans at the
elementary level ELA can be the most difficult. What makes it even more difficult at our school
is the planning has to fit into the daily 5 structure. Kaitlyn’s is a work in progress but she did
pretty well on her initial document. She attached a copy of the illustrative examples from the
program of studies and labels them such as outcome la, ib, ic, etc. She can then cross reference
those as she completes her unit plan and builds her daily plan. She then has her unit plan broken
into monthly sections that are more specific followed by detailed daily plans typed out with
specific learning objectives, activities, which student she is going to work with and what her
CSA is scheduled to do.

Overall Kaitlyn demonstrates very effective planning skills. Her long, mid and day plans reflect
the program of studies. She is to be reminded to keep updating and changing her plans as the
year goes by to accommodate flexibility in programming and timelines. She has very detailed
sub plans, which enables a sub to carry on with the regular classroom instruction. Kaitlyn puts in
hours of work at school preparing for her lessons and for each student. She is often at school late
into the evening and on most weekends. She understands that quality instruction starts with
quality planning. I have been impressed with the level of knowledge she is gaining in the
subjects she teaches. Early in the process she marked herself at the developing stage in LA. I
believe that from her abilities and her seeking assistance from her colleagues she has grown in
leaps and bounds and is now more in the competent range. She is to be commended for this.

C. PERFORMANCE AREA: CLASSROOM ORGANIZATION AND

MANAGEMENT
Kaitlyn uses the Daily 5 structures for LA and math. Students are called to the carpet by using a
chime. Early in the year Kaitlyn would follow up the chime with a verbal reminder. To make
students more independent she is to just ring the chime and then watch and wait. She can then
address those students that are having difficulty with this and continue to work on training with
them. For the most part students move quickly for each round, packing up materials and getting
ready for the lesson usually within a minute of the chime. The carpet is where focus lessons take

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