WGU AJN2 Task 1 |Passed on First Attempt
|Latest Update with Complete Solution
A1. General Information
I am a general education teacher in Kindergarten at Wildwood
Elementary, a K-5 elementary school in Federal Way, Washington. I teach all
subjects, including social/emotional learning, reading, writing, phonics, and
mathematics, to 19 students aged 5-6. Classes are held 5 days a week, 180
days a year, from September to June. Our daily Schedule is as follows:
8:30-8:50 am: Social/Emotional Learning
8:50-9:50 am: Reading Tier 1 (embedded small groups with multilingual
specialist)
9:50-10:25 am: Specialist (rotates between P.E., music, art, and library
10:25-10:50 am: Writing
10:50-11:35 am: Phonics
11:35-12:25 pm: Teacher lunch and planning
12:25-1:00 pm: Tier 2 Phonics and ELA groups
1:00-1:50 pm: Math Tier 1
1:50- 2:10 pm: recess
2:10-2:35 pm: Tier 2 math groups
2:35- 2:50 pm: Choice time (play centers).
2:55- 3:25 pm: dismissal and dismissal duties.
A2. Contextual Factors
The community contextual factor that affects teaching and learning is
Socioeconomic Status. The community surrounding Wildwood Elementary
in Federal Way, WA, is riddled with pronounced economic vulnerabilities,
marked by a large population of families from very low socioeconomic
backgrounds. According to the Washington Office of Superintendent of
Public Instruction, Wildwood and the surrounding neighborhood schools
qualify as Equity Focused Campuses, with 75-80% of students qualifying for
the Free and Reduced-Price Lunch Program. Data profiles for the Federal
Way Public Schools (n.d.) district state that approximately 75.8% of all
students qualify for the Free and Reduced-Price Lunch program.
Additionally, the district serves a staggeringly high amount of economically
disadvantaged households, with 72.6% of the student population identifying
as Low-Income. This data highlights the systemic low socioeconomic status
impacting the local student body at my school.
• Impact on Learning: There is a direct impact on student
, learning readiness when economic instability is present.
Students experience homelessness, parents who cannot provide
time to support academics due to the high volume of hours
worked, and minimal access to educational resources outside of
time at school.
• Impact on Teaching: Instructional practices at times divert from
standard pedagogy to trauma-informed teaching and
instructional practices that are resource-stratified. In our
community, there is a large chunk of time each week is diverted
from typical instruction to provide support for student trauma
and anxiety, providing snacks to students who are often dealing
with food insecurity, ensuring students have clothes or shoes
that fit them or are appropriate for the weather, and modifying
resources sent home that do not rely on any internet, and with
minimal need for parental guidance.
The district contextual factor that affects teaching and learning is the
ELL Population Size. One of the reasons I love working for the Federal
Way Public School District is the rich cultural and linguistic diversity, which,
in turn, requires a district-wide focus on prioritizing equitable instruction
centered on language acquisition. According to the official Washington state
data dashboard, the Federal Way School District serves a diverse student
base with an overall enrollment of 22,264 students. Within this student
body, 31.8% are formally identified as English Language
Learners/Multilingual Learners (ELL). This does not count newcomers to
the country and school system, or incoming ELL students coming to
kindergarten who have not yet been identified.
• Impact on Learning: for ELL students, academic learning is a very
high-demand and high-cognitive-load task. Often, BICS is acquired
before CALPS for ELL students, meaning that learning and
performance on cognitive academic tasks develop slowly over time,
and many ELL students experience academic struggles throughout
their educational career. ELL students are attempting to decode
language from all the instruction a teacher provides, which can lead
to a silent period- or worse, such as cognitive fatigue and feelings of
failure.
• Impact on Teaching: The high volume of ELL students requires
teachers to modify and differentiate tier 1 universal instruction with a
magnitude of language scaffolds. Teachers must systematically
integrate TPR, progress monitoring, RTI, MTSS, increased small-
group rotations per week, Tier 1 and Tier 2 targeted supports, visual
labeling, realia, TPR, Think-Pair-Share, Sentence frames that include
visuals, increased wait time, providing opportunities for non-verbal
and gesticulated responses, code-switching, undergo Sheltered
|Latest Update with Complete Solution
A1. General Information
I am a general education teacher in Kindergarten at Wildwood
Elementary, a K-5 elementary school in Federal Way, Washington. I teach all
subjects, including social/emotional learning, reading, writing, phonics, and
mathematics, to 19 students aged 5-6. Classes are held 5 days a week, 180
days a year, from September to June. Our daily Schedule is as follows:
8:30-8:50 am: Social/Emotional Learning
8:50-9:50 am: Reading Tier 1 (embedded small groups with multilingual
specialist)
9:50-10:25 am: Specialist (rotates between P.E., music, art, and library
10:25-10:50 am: Writing
10:50-11:35 am: Phonics
11:35-12:25 pm: Teacher lunch and planning
12:25-1:00 pm: Tier 2 Phonics and ELA groups
1:00-1:50 pm: Math Tier 1
1:50- 2:10 pm: recess
2:10-2:35 pm: Tier 2 math groups
2:35- 2:50 pm: Choice time (play centers).
2:55- 3:25 pm: dismissal and dismissal duties.
A2. Contextual Factors
The community contextual factor that affects teaching and learning is
Socioeconomic Status. The community surrounding Wildwood Elementary
in Federal Way, WA, is riddled with pronounced economic vulnerabilities,
marked by a large population of families from very low socioeconomic
backgrounds. According to the Washington Office of Superintendent of
Public Instruction, Wildwood and the surrounding neighborhood schools
qualify as Equity Focused Campuses, with 75-80% of students qualifying for
the Free and Reduced-Price Lunch Program. Data profiles for the Federal
Way Public Schools (n.d.) district state that approximately 75.8% of all
students qualify for the Free and Reduced-Price Lunch program.
Additionally, the district serves a staggeringly high amount of economically
disadvantaged households, with 72.6% of the student population identifying
as Low-Income. This data highlights the systemic low socioeconomic status
impacting the local student body at my school.
• Impact on Learning: There is a direct impact on student
, learning readiness when economic instability is present.
Students experience homelessness, parents who cannot provide
time to support academics due to the high volume of hours
worked, and minimal access to educational resources outside of
time at school.
• Impact on Teaching: Instructional practices at times divert from
standard pedagogy to trauma-informed teaching and
instructional practices that are resource-stratified. In our
community, there is a large chunk of time each week is diverted
from typical instruction to provide support for student trauma
and anxiety, providing snacks to students who are often dealing
with food insecurity, ensuring students have clothes or shoes
that fit them or are appropriate for the weather, and modifying
resources sent home that do not rely on any internet, and with
minimal need for parental guidance.
The district contextual factor that affects teaching and learning is the
ELL Population Size. One of the reasons I love working for the Federal
Way Public School District is the rich cultural and linguistic diversity, which,
in turn, requires a district-wide focus on prioritizing equitable instruction
centered on language acquisition. According to the official Washington state
data dashboard, the Federal Way School District serves a diverse student
base with an overall enrollment of 22,264 students. Within this student
body, 31.8% are formally identified as English Language
Learners/Multilingual Learners (ELL). This does not count newcomers to
the country and school system, or incoming ELL students coming to
kindergarten who have not yet been identified.
• Impact on Learning: for ELL students, academic learning is a very
high-demand and high-cognitive-load task. Often, BICS is acquired
before CALPS for ELL students, meaning that learning and
performance on cognitive academic tasks develop slowly over time,
and many ELL students experience academic struggles throughout
their educational career. ELL students are attempting to decode
language from all the instruction a teacher provides, which can lead
to a silent period- or worse, such as cognitive fatigue and feelings of
failure.
• Impact on Teaching: The high volume of ELL students requires
teachers to modify and differentiate tier 1 universal instruction with a
magnitude of language scaffolds. Teachers must systematically
integrate TPR, progress monitoring, RTI, MTSS, increased small-
group rotations per week, Tier 1 and Tier 2 targeted supports, visual
labeling, realia, TPR, Think-Pair-Share, Sentence frames that include
visuals, increased wait time, providing opportunities for non-verbal
and gesticulated responses, code-switching, undergo Sheltered
