Tamara Griffith
Student Population:
Operating in Okaloosa County School District, Pryor Middle School currently has 39 teachers servicing 689 students in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. Pryor Middle School just received Title 1 status for the first time this year, as 72% of our students receive Free or Reduced Lunch. We have approximately 80 English Language Learners and 130 students receiving services in our Exceptional Student Education (ESE) program, which makes up approximately 21% of our total population. Our student population is also incredibly diverse; 46% are White, 3% are Asian, 18% are African American, 20% are Hispanic, and 13% are multiracial. Additionally, our school demographics are 53% female and 47% male.
In addition, my campus has extreme socioeconomic diversity between students. Some of our students come from middle and upper class homes, whereas others struggle to make ends meet -- some even without running water. A significant number of our students are homeless, and the amount of immigrant students we teach, especially from Central America, is increasing. We are the middle school zoned for Children in Crisis, a local group foster home for neglected children, resulting in a large foster population. Due to the two Air Force Bases in close proximity, Hurlburt and Eglin, we also have a moderate, somewhat transient, military population.
School Programs:
To ensure the success of our diverse students, Pryor has a growing number of programs to encourage student involvement. For example, Pryor offers a one of a kind SAILS program for students in grades 6-8 who are taking three or more advanced classes in preparation for Advanced Placement (AP) and Inter-Baccalaureate (IB) programs offered at the high school level. Students participate in a specialized homeroom class exploring electives such as creative writing, forensic science, horticulture, and leadership, to name a few. Additionally, the SAILS program requires students to maintain a C or higher grade point average and complete ten hours of community service. By the end of 8th grade, students who have successfully completed all three years of the SAILS program at Pryor will be able to apply 30 hours of community service toward their IB diplomas and Florida's Bright Future Scholarship program.
This year, my principal is implementing a new program called Clubs to help invest students in school and ensure that all students have access to clubs and programs that are typically offered after school. One Friday a month, our school will follow our activity schedule where students meet with their clubs. Currently, there are over 30 clubs that will be offered to students. For students who do not want to participate in clubs, they will have a study hall with the option of receiving extra help and/or remediation in some of their weaker subjects. During this time, I help oversee study hall and assist students in the area of language arts.
In addition, my school offers Plan of Care, or POC, tutoring for students in math and language arts. With their POC tutor, students practice skills and strategies that help them master grade level content, as opposed to merely finishing their class work. The rationale: as students master skills within the content, their overall grade in a course will increase.
Circumstances:
For language arts, our school district has adopted the Collections textbook and pacing guide for grades 6-8. However, our district encourages us to supplement these resources with additional and/or teacher-created materials as these resources do not meet the rigor of our Florida Standards Assessment (FSA). To this end, Okaloosa County School District provides teachers with specific resources to aid in planning and teaching the Language Arts Florida Standards (LAFS). These resources include question stems for all Depth of Knowledge (DOK) levels for each standard as well as Achievement Level Descriptors (ALDs) for each standard. The ALDs were created by teachers and literacy coaches in Florida and describe what students at each FSA level, 2-5, should be able to do without additional scaffolding and are tremendously useful when it comes to differentiating lesson plans.
Currently, my language arts department is comprised of nine teachers, and this is my second year leading them as department chair. Each grade level has three teachers, one who primarily teaches advanced, one who primarily teaches regular, and one who primarily teaches block remediation (a double period of combined English language arts and intensive reading). Our department meets regularly, once to twice a week minimum, to common plan and discuss data and strategies to more effectively meet the needs of our diverse learners. We also have an English language arts/ social studies literacy coach who comes to Pryor on Mondays, Tuesdays, and every other Friday who helps us develop lesson and unit plans and works to collaborate with us to increase rigor in our classrooms.
Additional Assignments & Duties:
Outside of my role as teacher and department chair, I am a member of my school's Anchors team. This is a group of teacher-leaders who work with administration to provide insight and problem-solve any issues and/or concerns voiced by other teachers. In addition, I am a part of the Writing Working Group. Here, we work to calibrate student essay samples from across the district and create writing prompts and sampler sets that teachers in the district can use to inform instruction. I also tutor after school on Thursdays, conduct home visits as scheduled with parents, and sponsor the Pirate Krewe leadership organization.
My Current Site:
W. C. Pryor Middle School
201 Racetrack Rd. NW,
Fort Walton Beach, FL 32547
School Website | School Grades
I added this phrase to my door so that students, and also their parents, will know that we're making an impact every day.
As much as possible, I try to reinforce the Habits of Mind in my classroom. This quote in particular serves as a visual reminder emphasizing the habit of persistence.
In addition, each class is given a color and two drawers, one for absent work, and one for graded work. As students enter the class, they retrieve their absent work if they were out the previous day. At the end of class, the orange pirate from each pod collects the graded work that has not been placed into students' portfolios and disseminates to other members of their pod.
I added this phrase to my door so that students, and also their parents, will know that we're making an impact every day.
Content:
Currently, I teach three sections of 6th grade advanced language arts, two sections of 6th grade regular language arts, and a specialized leadership SAILS homeroom, which is made up of 8th grade students. This is my third year teaching 6th grade regular and advanced language arts and my second year teaching 8th grade leadership.
Class Composition:
A typical school day begins with PIERS (our specialized homeroom), which lasts 20 minutes. Afterwards, we have 6 classes that are each 52 minutes.
Student Composition:
In my 8th grade leadership class, I have 21 students, 10 of whom are males and 11 of whom are females. The demographics for this class include the following: 48% white, 14% Asian, 10% Hispanic, 14% African American, and 14% are multiracial. All of these students are high achievers, as they are all at, above, or significantly above grade level according to their FSA scores. All of these students are also in the SAILS program, meaning they are enrolled in 3 or more advanced or high school classes. Three of these students begin their school day at our neighborhood high school, Choctawhatchee High School, where they take Geometry. None of these students are special-needs.
In my 6th grade advanced language arts classes, I have 74 total students, with two classes of 25 and one class of 24. My advanced classes are 57% female and 43% male. Demographically, they can be broken down into the following categories: 46% White, 12% Asian, 14% Hispanic, 9% African American, and 19% multiracial. Between these three advanced classes, I have one student on a speech/gifted IEP and three students on 504 plans for ADHD. Approximately 11% of my students are Level 5s, meaning they are significantly above grade level. Almost half, 49%, of my advanced students are above grade level, and 28% of my advanced students are on grade level. A small percentage, 12% of my students in my advanced classes were on grade level in fifth grade, but are just below grade level in 6th grade.
The composition of my two regular classes is much different from my advanced and leadership classes. Here, I have one class of 22 and one class of 27 with a total of 49 students. My regular classes are 55% female and 45% male. In terms of demographics, my regular classes are 24% White, 8% Asian, 35% Hispanic, 18% African American, and 14% multiracial. In sum, I have 15 students, about 31%, of my regular classes on IEPS. Six of them are on speech IEPS, one is on an emotional/ behavioral IEP, and eight of them are on IEPs for a specific learning disability. Additionally, 8 of my students, or roughly 16%, are classified as English Language Learners, or ELLS. Two of my ELLS, one from Japan and one from Mexico, are nonverbal, speaking no English at all. As a result, I have a translator who comes in during my third period class to assist. The majority of my ELL students speak Spanish and come from places such as Mexico, El Salvador, and Honduras. Some of my other ELL students come from Japan, and the Philippines. The majority of these two classes are significantly below grade level, with 33 or approximately 67% of them scoring a level 1 on their FSA. In addition, 8% of my regular classes are just below grade level, having been proficient in 5th grade but just below proficiency in 6th grade. About 25% of my regular classes are at or above grade level, with seven students who are at the level 3, on grade level, proficiency, and five who are at the level 4, above grade level, proficiency. In addition, about 76% of my students receive additional remediation in the form of an Intensive Reading elective course.
About My Classroom
(Pryor Middle School, n.d.)
Click the photo above to view a slideshow showcasing features of my classroom environment.