Ricardo Myers considered various contextual factors when planning lessons for his class. These included classroom factors like the small size and lack of technology, student characteristics like most coming from low-income single parent homes, and implications for instruction like having to recreate assessments in paper format due to limited computers. He aimed to use these insights about his teaching context and students to better prepare lessons tailored to their needs.

1. Ricardo Myers
Date: 10-12-12
Assignment: Contextual Factors
Contextual factors are information about the learning-teaching context, students’ individual
differences to set learning objectives, plan instruction, and assessments. These factors can also affect
the teaching and learning process in a classroom. It is essential for educators to consider the classroom
factors, student characteristics, and instructional implications when creating their instructional lesson
plans.
The first contextual factor that I considered was the classroom factors. In addition, I also considered
the community and district of the school. The community of Lithonia Middle School consists of students
from the city of Lithonia and surrounding neighborhoods, which is located in eastern Dekalb County. The
population of the entire community is approximately 15,000 people. The households of the community
roughly has 40.8% of children under the age of 18 living with them, 23.3% were married couples living
together, and 41.6% had a female householder with no husband present. In addition, the average
median income for a household was $24,792. As I analyze those numbers, it informs me that most of
these students that are in the classroom are coming from a single parent household with low income. As
a result of this, a lot of the parents are not actively involved in the school as they should, because they
are usually working long hours. The Dekalb County School System is in Decatur, GA and it includes about
146 schools that serve 99,406 students in grades Pre-Kindergarten through High school. Dekalb County
was an excellent place for students to attend school and learn. The county is currently in a huge financial
crisis which caused teachers layoffs, furlough days, outdated text books, and limited technology devices.

2. Now, one of the contextual factors I considered for the classrooms was that the classroom was too small
for the number of students. The classroom was extremely cluttered and had little space available for
students’ movement and required materials needed to operate the class. Another factor of the
classroom was the availability of technology equipment and resources. For example, there is only one
working computer out of 4 which is not even used because the computer moves at an extremely slow
pace. The advancement of technology has grown tremendously, therefore, it essential for these
students to have the opportunity to develop appropriate computer and technology skills. Unfortunately,
it is not available for the students in the classroom that I am observing.
The second factor I considered as I prepared my instructional planning were the factors of the student
characteristics. The second period class contained 26 students which were made up of fourteen boys
and twelve girls. The students in this class were between the ages of eleven and twelve. Students at
these ages tend to have behavioral problems at times. For example, the students in this class are very
talkative and they laugh at everything like it is a joke. In addition, they have a hard time just sitting in
their seat for the duration of the class period. They find numerous of excuses to get up out of their
seats. The racial make-up of this class was ninety-nine percent African American and one percent
Hispanic. There are a few students that required special modification, because they have a learning
disability. However, they are pulled out by another instructor, who works with them one on one or in
small groups. This allows for them to receive different instruction that suit each one of their learning
style individually. Having a teacher present gives them the appropriate amount of one on one time if
needed. In this class, the students are very active and like to use technology. As a result of this, when
creating my instructional lesson plan, I implemented the usage of the Promethean Board. Also, I decided
to navigate between whole group discussions and group activities. The students in the second period
class were visual and social learners.

3. The last step I considered was the instructional implications. The contextual factor of the classroom,
school, and students’ characteristics has greatly impacted my instructional planning. When planning for
instruction or assessment, I will consider those factors that affect my students. The school is currently
short a few teachers which result into the class size being large. This makes it very difficult to create
diverse learning settings, such as whole group discussion and collaborative group stations. The lack of
space makes it a challenge to move throughout the entire classroom. In, addition the lack of technology
resources in the classroom makes it difficult to add technology into my lesson or assessment. For
example, the student had to take a weekly bench mark test and it was design to be taken on the
computer. Due to the class size, we did not have enough laptops for each student. Also, due to the
outdated computer software, the computers were not moving fast enough for the students to complete
the assessment in the given time schedule. As a result of this, the weekly bench mark was recreated as a
handout. When creating my instruction planning, I had to make several handouts, because the
textbooks do not align with the new common core standards being taught and there is a limited supply
of textbook. Although there was a limited of resources available, I will implement the usage of
manipulative within my lessons as much as possible. Several contextual factors have had a huge impact
on my instructional planning.
Overall, I had to consider the factors of the classroom, student characteristics, and instructional
implications when creating my instructional lesson plans. Contextual factors were present at the school,
community, and in students’ characteristics. These factors helped me to better prepare my lessons so
that each student will learn.