Abigail White

Kiribati Internship
InTASC teaching Standards

Standard #1 Learner Development

1(a) The teacher regularly assesses individual and group performance in order to design and

modify instruction to meet learners needs in each area of development (cognitive, linguistic,

social, emotional, and physical) and scaffolds the next level of development.

I was assigned to teach year 4 at Rurubao primary school, and the year four students have to

participate in standardized testing in the various subjects. As I was teaching English, I wanted to

prepare the class as a whole to perform well on the examinations. Near the beginning of the

internship, I obtained a previous version of the standardized test and administered it to the

students. I noticed that they performed satisfactory on all sections except the writing, and almost

none of the students could construct a sample of writing as described in the exam. I realized they

had little experience with writing a passage of five to eight sentences based off of a prompt, and

decided to use a graphic organizer to help scaffold their learning. I first obtained a prompt and

we made a graphic organizer as a class on the board, and then wrote a writing sample based on

the classs graphic organizer. Then I had the students do the same thing in small groups, then

individually. As they did this, they gained more confidence and practice in organizing their

thoughts based on a prompt and performed much higher on their writing skills then previously.

1(b) The teacher creates developmentally appropriate instruction that takes into account

individual learners strengths, interests, and needs and that enables each learner to advance and

accelerate his/her learning

During the initial few days of the internship I realized that a lot of the instruction that took place

was lecture based, the teacher would tell students some information and the students would then

complete assignments based off of what they learned. While this type of instruction is necessary

and essential, for the age group I was working with, I wanted the students to do some more

hands- on projects that would cater more to their interests. Every week they were to focus on a

different form of writing, and the teacher would explain it, and then they would re-create that

particular type of writing in their notebooks. For their section on learning how to write

instructions I created little books out of paper and had them design a How-to book on the

subject of their choice. The students enjoyed the activity, and performed very well on their

writing. I believe they performed better because the task seemed more exciting and relevant to

them than the previous assignments.

1(f) The teacher identifies readiness for learning, and understands how development in any one

area may affect performance in others.

While I was focusing time each English class on writing skills, I noticed that the students also

struggled with identifying the difference between nouns, adjectives, and verbs. I wanted to put

focus into this as well, as I realized that as they differentiated between parts of speech they

would also have better writing as a result. For warm-ups every day in class I would focus on a

different part of speech and write sentences on the board, leaving in blanks for adjectives, nouns,

or verbs. The students would read the sentence and then have to write in a corresponding word

that would make sense with the context of the sentence. At first, they struggled to create coherent

sentences, but over the weeks they created strong sentences with a variety of words, and actually
showed stronger writing samples as they incorporated more adjectives and verbs in their writing

prompts.

1(g) The teacher understands the role of language and culture in learning and knows how to

modify instruction to make language comprehensible and instruction relevant, accessible, and

challenging.

One of the challenges I faced while teaching in Kiribati was making the instruction relevant. I

realized that many of the books I planned to read to the class for listening comprehension drills

were about topics unfamiliar to them. It would be harder to understand material from a different

culture, and I decided to search for material more relevant to them and their experiences. I ended

up finding a book about whales and I read it to them, they seemed to understand it much better

than other stories I had read to them early on and they showed great interest in the material. They

correctly answered the comprehension questions better than they had with other books I had read

to them, and I realized they understood and enjoyed reading about animals. From that point

forward, I worked hard to make the reading material, writing prompts, and sample sentences all

relevant to their experience as students in Kiribati and I believe it helped them improve their

skills (graphic organizer about school sports day)

 (How-to books created by Vincent and Solonaima)

Standard #4 Content Knowledge

4(a) The teacher effectively uses multiple representations and explanations that capture key

ideas in the discipline, guide learners through learning progressions, and promote each

learners achievement of content standards.

I started teaching math on my second day of the internship, and the curriculum outlined that the

class was on track to review double digit multiplication. As I started to review the basic steps of

multiplication I realized the class appeared confused. I tried to demonstrate a few practice

problems on the board, but the students did not know how to complete them, and had a hard time
grasping the concept of multiplication. Throughout that week I focused on helping them

understand multiplication, first we reviewed the multiplication tables and then I did small work

problems based on the multiplication tables to help them understand the concept. I would ask

them if they had to eat an orange three times a day for five days, how many oranges would they

eat at the end of the five days? Questions liked this helped them grasp the concept of

multiplication and then we progressed to the double digit problems. Initially I had them write

down the steps in their notebooks and then demonstrate a problem. Then I would have them

solve multiple problems as a class, having them come up one at a time to the blackboard to

complete only one step of the process. By the end of the week, the students were much more

confident completing double digit multiplication on their own, because we progressively built to

that skill set.

4(g) The teacher uses supplementary resources and technologies effectively to ensure

accessibility and relevance for all learners.

One of the challenges of my classroom was there were forty-three students. It was hard to ensure

that all were participating and understanding the material. I found this to be a problem especially

in the math class. Knowing basic multiplication was essential for the year four national exam,

and every morning we studied the multiplication tables by repeating them as a class. After a few

days I asked a few students to do it individually, and they could not, they relied on the

knowledge of the other students when they did it as a class. The next day I brought a stack of

index cards with numbers on them, and each number corresponded to an answer of a

multiplication question I was going to ask. The students were to hold up their number if it was

the answer to my question. At first it was hard, and they had difficulty remembering the answers,
but they were attentive and involved, over the next few days they started to memorize the tables

for themselves and could correctly hold up their number when it correlated to the answer.

Although the technology of index cards was not very advanced, it did help the students

independently learn the multiplication tables.

4(i) The teacher accesses school and/or district-based resources to evaluate the learners

content knowledge in their primary language

The year four students are required to participate in a nation-wide standardized exam, and I was

assigned to help them prepare for the reading and math exams. Fortunately, I had access to

multiple practice exams and I gave one out near the beginning of the internship. Once the

students completed both exams I graded them and took note about which types of problems were

currently missed. For English I concluded that writing was the greatest weakness of the students,

and for math students had difficulty with types of word problems, as well as double-digit

multiplication. Based on this information I geared both of the classroom curriculums towards

these areas, and if the days lesson did not correlate I would incorporate one of these concepts

into a warm-up activity. I gave out mini assessments throughout the internship, and another full

exam the last week. I was excited because although the results were not perfect, students had

progressed significantly in each of those areas, especially in the writing section.

4(n) The teacher is committed to work toward each learners mastery of disciplinary content and

skills

I realized the importance of ensuring that students understand the material before moving on.

The curriculum for math was fast-paced and I realized right when I started the students were
already confused about the content material. I went back a few lessons, which surprised the

students and the teacher because they said they had already learned that particular material, but

when I gave them practice problems for multiplication they could not solve them. I slowed

down, and we spent multiple days covering one topic of multiplication, something the students

and teacher were not used to. With the added practice the students were able to master the

material, and get back on track with the lessons which included hard concepts like three-digit

multiplication and other concepts that they could not complete until they mastered the

foundational material.

(math warm-up problems to review material from the day before)

(school math quiz I administered the assessment to year two)
 (Year 4 taking their practice exam near the end of the internship)

Standard 6 Assessment

6(c) The teacher works independently and collaboratively to exam test and other performance

data to understand each learners progress and to guide planning

When I first administered the practice exam for English, there were scattered weaknesses

throughout, but one issue for all the students was the writing section. None of the students could

fill the required space and many could not connect their sentences together to form a coherent
paragraph. I decided to incorporate at least one writing assignment into my lesson plan each day,

to help them practice and feel more confident in their writing abilities. In addition, I also

counseled with the other interns, to see if they encountered similar issues in their practice

examinations. We concluded that both year five and six were having difficulties writing as well,

and we would often collaborate while writing our lesson plans to create writing prompts or

exercises that could help our students.

6(e) The Teacher engages learners in multiple ways of demonstrating knowledge and skill as

part of the assessment process.

In a classroom of forty-three students it became apparent that there would be a diversity of skills

and strengths within the classroom. I tried to incorporate many different types of assessments in

both English and math. In English we would switch between reading comprehension, listening

comprehension, and writing assignments. Since my emphasis was on writing I varied the type of

writing assessments every time. Some days we would do creative writing, some we would write

non-fiction, some we would tell a story, and others would be informative papers. This was

beneficial because it allowed each student to get an opportunity to write about things they

enjoyed, but also to experience different types of writing. For math, I would include both math

and word problems in the assignments and warm-ups, so students could do problems they were

good at, but also complete types of problems that were harder for them.

6(h) The teacher prepares all learners for the demands of particular assessment formats and

makes appropriate accommodations in assessments or testing conditions, especially for learners

with disabilities and language learning needs.

When I gave out my first practice exam, the students had a hard time focusing. They were

talking during the exam, and even though I repeatedly stopped the test to ask them to stop

talking, they continued to be distracted. For the next mock test, I had them clear everything off

their desks before we started. I explained to them that we were going to write the rules of testing

on the board. As a class we concluded that we were not allowed to talk, cheat, walk around, or

look through our textbooks during the exam. The students all agreed to abide by the rules that we

created together, and carried out the exam with little distraction. In addition, I moved students

who had a hard time not talking to areas of the room farther away from other students, and they

were able to complete the exam while following all the rules.

6(r) The teacher takes responsibility for aligning instruction and assessment with learning goals.

At first this intask was difficult for me, because I did not have access to the year four curriculum

book. Somehow the material had been lost and the only resources I had were practice exams. I

administered the practice exams and built my classroom lessons based on mastering the type of

material presented in the quizzes. After about three weeks I was able to obtain a copy of the year

four curriculum designed by the government, and it was much easier to align my instruction with

the learning goals that the government had established. Each week had an objective which the

students were to learn, and I would base my lessons and activities around mastery of the

objective. For example, if an objective was to identify adjectives, I did games based on

describing the room and Kiribati with as many adjectives as they could think of, and then I

would have writing assignments where they had to include a certain number of adjectives. By the

end of the week they had enough practice and experience with adjectives that they had

completed the objective.

(Students gathering in groups to work on a project)
(Students practiced writing in English in their earth sciences class

(various types of math problems to review the lesson on time)

Personal Reflection:

I valued my experiences I had in Kiribati because I had the opportunity to implement the

many things I have learned at BYU-Hawaii. Personally, I have had a instruction concerning

teaching English as a second language, but little experience actually teaching. Although the

students had a high proficiency in English, I really enjoyed helping them work on their sentence

structures and strengthen their writing. While I taught various subjects at Rurubao, the

experience that touched me was helping the students with their writing. When I first introduced

them to the concept of a graphic organizer, they had a hard time grasping the concept. After we

did a couple individually, they could quickly create a graphic organizer on their own and fill it

out. Although it was a long process and I had to re-explain it many times, I felt so excited and

happy when the class was able to complete the assignment on their own. Even though we had a

short time with the students, I felt accomplished that I was able to influence their progress in

writing, and it made me appreciate the role teachers have in a students education. It helped me

realize that I do have a love and passion for teaching, and helping students progress, even if the

progression may seem insignificant and slow, it is amazing to watch students learn.

I also had an experience helping a student who struggled to stay focused or complete his

assignments. While other students were working he was consistently walking around the room or

playing with something in his desk. It became routine that the teacher would send him outside

the classroom when he got out of control. I decided to start working with him individually and I

would sit by him and help him focus on his assignments. He actually performed very well on the

assignments and it helped him to see that he was actually capable of accomplishing what he was

supposed to, if he would take the time to focus.

 One of the concepts I initially struggled with, was how to make the material interesting to

the students. The first day I noticed every subject was the same, the students would listen to a

lecture, write down something relevant to the lecture in their notebooks, and then do the same

routine multiple times until they left. Many students would get bored or tired and they struggled

to focus. It was a challenge to implement many ideas due to a lack of space and resources, but I

tried to implement games and group work into my lessons. In addition, I also tried to incorporate

outside games into the healthy living class, because they were inside the same classroom all day.

In English I liked to play games where I wrote two sentenced on the board, and the students had

to hold up one or two fingers to tell me which sentence was grammatically correct. They loved

this game and it helped engage all of them in the lesson. For math, I liked to have the class split

into teams and they would race to complete multiplication problems on the board. It was exciting

to see them engaged in learning, because they were learning the same material, but they were

interested.

Overall, I learned that an effective teacher will teach based off the needs of the students,

and work to help strengthen the students weaknesses. I also learned how important it is to

cultivate a desire to learn in the classroom, that students will learn more efficiently when they are

excited and engaged in the material. Rurubao primary school was an amazing experience and I

gained valuable insights on how to put my knowledge of educational principles into practice.
 (Activity for healthy living)

(After the Independence Day celebration march)

(class is preparing to perform a dance)