General Practicum Information
• Practicum experience requirements, including the diversity and number of required hours for this course are specified in the College of Education Teacher Preparation Programs Practicum/Field Experience Manual.
• Complete the Practicum/Field
Experience Observation and Activity Log including the names of the schools and grade levels where the observations took place and document the hours spent in the classroom. Submit the log to Taskstream along with your Benchmark Assignment after you have accumulated all of the required practicum/field experience hours for this course.
• Spend 20 hours in one classroom, grades 1-3. Let your mentor know that you are working on developing assessment skills. Throughout the practicum, observe and interview your mentor.
• Practicum Observations/Teaching Lessons
o In Topics 2-6, devote attention to each of the four areas of literacy development. For each of these categories, observe a classroom (grades 1-3) as the teacher and students focus on one of the four areas. Keep notes on activities used by the teacher. Suggested practicum schedule for observations and teaching the lesson plans:
o Topic 1: Observations only; look for differentiation techniques for ELL's and special needs students.
o Topic 2: Phonemic Awareness and Phonics
o Topic 3: Word Study and Fluency
o Topic 4: Vocabulary Development
o Topic 5: Comprehension
• Lesson Plans and Teaching Lessons
o In each of the four areas and using literacy assessments available in the classroom, administer a pre-test to one student in your practicum classroom.
o After you have administered the pre-test, confer with the mentor teacher and prepare lesson plans to address the four areas of literacy development. These lessons should be based on the direct instruction model. The lessons should reflect the areas of need identified through the data analysis collected from the pre-test. o Teach the lessons to the one student you assessed previously.
o Administer assessments as a post-test to the same student. Analyze the data to see if learning has improved from the pre-test to the post-test. Assessment: Student Prompts/Teacher Directions (Benchmark Assignment) Practicum Teacher Work Sample
• Create a 1,000-1,250-word reflection essay summarizing:
o Your learning experience during the practicum.
o Assessment administration- the pre and post assessment data, challenges and strengths.
o Data analysis. Include a chart or graphic organizer.
o Specific activities with the student during instruction.
o Progress made to be notated in the chart.
o Collaboration with the classroom teacher.
o Your reflection on how assessment guides instruction. Explain how data was used to target the needs of the student and to plan instruction. Prepare this assignment according to the APA guidelines