State University of New York College at Cortland
English Department
AED 309 Participant-Observer Experience: Writing Process
Credit hours: 3
Course Information
Professor: Noralyn Masselink
Office phone: 2068
Semester: Fall 2007
Office: Old Main 111D
Location: SW134
Office hours: MW 9:30-2:30
E-Mail: masselinkn@cortland.edu
Course Description: A fifty-hour field experience supervised by the course instructor. Prerequisite: 2.75 GPA; Co-requisite: AED 308/34.
Course Attendance Policy: Students who do not fulfill the fifty-hour requirement for observation will fail this course. Weekly contact hours with your supervising teacher are built into this course.
Evaluation of Student Performance:
You will be assessed on the following:1) Records you keep, in general, and one field analysis, in particular (50 pts.) (2.3, 5.1). Assessment, Professional Standards and Commitments, Personal Responsibility
2) Participation in the WebCT site. You will be required to discuss your field experience with other members of the class via on-line discussion at various points during the semester. You will also be required to post two of your mini-lessons on the site. You will be graded on the quantity and thoughtfulness of your participation. Failure to participate or spotty participation (fewer than thirty items read) is sufficient grounds for not passing the course. (3.6.3, 2.1, 2.3, 2.3, 2.5, 2.6) Technology, Professional Commitments
3) A portfolio piece based on one of the lessons you teach at your placement. (25 pts.) Assessment, Personal Responsibility, Professional Standards and Commitments
4) Evaluation of the cooperating teacher. The cooperating teacher will be given an opportunity to evaluate your performance during the field placement. You must teach a minimum of two mini-lessons from an approved list during the course of your participant-observer experience. (5.1) Assessment, Professional Standards and Commitments
Note: Students who receive a borderline or unsatisfactory external evaluation for AED 309/311 and for the field component portion of AED 404/408 will not be permitted to student teach.
Course Goals and Objectives:
Your field experience is designed to allow you to
1) observe how language is "developed and facilitated" in a diverse populations of junior and senior high school students in area schools (1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.0) Knowledge Base, Diversity
2) apply your content, professional, and pedagogical knowledge in a variety of appropriate settings with students and adults (2.0, 3.1, 3.2.2, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 4.7, 4.9, 4.10, 4.11) Knowledge Base, Diversity
3) collect data on student learning, analyze this data, and develop strategies for improving learning (2.0, 4.12) Assessment
4) reflect on and evaluate your experiences within the classroom (1.3, 2.0) Personal Responsibility
Guide for Establishing Contact with your Cooperating Teacher
1. Introduce yourself as Professor Masselink’s student at SUNY - Cortland and explain that you have been assigned to the particular teacher in order to complete fifty hours of field work in conjunction with the course AED 308 Grammar and the Writing Process. Express appreciation for the teacher’s willingness to sponsor you for this field work.
2. Tell the teacher what time periods you have available and how many days a week you will visit the classroom. Find out what classes are taught during the hours you have available. Agree on a start date.
3. Ask the teacher what literary works he or she plans to teach between now and December (particularly longer works) in various classes and whether or not you will be able to borrow a textbook..
4. Ask for directions to the school and find out where you should park and how you should report in on the first day you visit. Be sure to arrive early enough to take care of parking in remote lots, signing in at the office, finding your way to the classroom and so forth. Also, be sure to ask about the dress code.
5. Establish the best means for you to communicate with your cooperating teacher (home phone, email, etc.).
Remember above all that the cooperating teacher is doing you a favor. Be polite and professional. One day you might be considered for a position at the school in which you do your field work and/or you might turn to a cooperating teacher for a reference. Make a good impression from the very beginning, and hang on to information the teacher provides for you so that you don’t have to ask a second time.
Additional Protocol for Field Work:
1. Many of the local school districts are conservative. Dress professionally and leave your nose, eyebrow, lip, and tongue piercing adornments at home.
2. Arrive at the classroom on time (be waiting in the hall before the bell rings) and don’t miss an observation date. If you truly are too sick to attend or if something disastrous prevents you from keeping your appointment, be sure to leave a message for the cooperating teacher with the school’s front desk.
3. Teachers’ schedules are often extremely hectic. Do not expect that the teacher will have time in the three minutes between classes to speak with you. (Remember, those three minutes might be the only time a teacher has to use the rest room or deal with student issues). If you’d like to speak with a teacher, make an appointment at the teacher’s convenience. Find out what time/period outside of class might be best for asking questions or speaking with the teacher about your involvement in the classroom.
4. Be sure to find out how to reach the teacher during that time period if you are off campus. You might ask for the teacher’s email address and find out if communicating via email would be convenient. If not, establish some other means of contacting your cooperating teacher.
5. Ask for a seating chart, so that you can begin to learn students’ names as soon as possible. Be sure to get copies of all handouts, quizzes, assignments, and tests that students receive.
****Thank your teacher often and, perhaps, tangibly with a small gift. Host teachers take you into their classrooms without receiving any remuneration, so little acts of thoughtfulness and appreciation on your part will have to go a long way.***
List of Tasks Participant Observers Could Be Expected to Do
With respect to spelling/vocabulary words:
• Choose appropriate vocabulary words from the curriculum and provide justification for choices
• Teach students how to figure out the meaning of a given word using context clues
• Provide related word families for given vocabulary words and help students deduce the common root and meaning
• Offer interesting etymological information (word history) for a given word
• Write study questions or journal prompts designed to allow students to use their new vocabulary words in a meaningful context
• Provide mnemonic devices to help students spell difficult words correctly
• Provide mnemonic devices to help students remember the correct meaning of homonyms and other easily confused pairs (affect/effect; allusion/illusion; allude/elude; infer/imply eminent/imminent/immanent)
• Help students generate a semantic family of words related to a given vocabulary word
With respect to grammar:
• Teach students “tests” for finding a given part of speech in sentences and guide them through a search process
• Lead students through an exploratory activity designed to help students determine the critical features and/or definition of a particular part of speech
• Teach students an associated punctuation or usage rule (i.e., commas after introductory prepositional phrases, the need for commas in compound sentences, how to avoid dangling modifiers, etc.)
NOTE: Students may need a few days preparation time, and since all of their lessons are curriculum based, they will need to know what reading source to draw from in creating their mini-lessons.
With respect to writing:
• Diagnose most pressing editing level errors for a given student or an entire class after reading through writing samples
• Design a mini-lesson to address a particular editing level error
• Lead students through a sentence combining exercise
• Develop scaffolded exercises designed to help students produce more sophisticated sentences
• Lead the entire class through an in-class editing session for the purpose of catching common errors before students must turn in a writing assignment
Please allow students simply to observe your classroom for at least four weeks before expecting them to participate. Students MUST teach at least two mini-lessons from different categories during the course of their participant observer experience. Teaching three (one from each category) would be ideal. A mini-lessons might be anywhere from fifteen minutes to a half hour in length and will be drawn from the assigned reading/writing curriculum.
If possible, for at least one of the mini-lessons, we ask that students be allowed to assign some kind of brief follow-up work (which can be completed in class or as homework). The student will accept all responsibility for assessing such follow-up work.
Information Regarding WebCT
This course is being taught using the WebCT course management system. What that means is that we will be able to communicate with each other outside of class in a closed system limited to the members of this class. Accessing the WebCT system is a requirement for successful completion of this course. The more you access the system, the more likely it is that you will do well in this course. If you want to communicate with me or fellow classmates, you will use the WebCT in order to do so.
Because we will have precious little class time in which to discuss your individual field experiences, you will be communicating with each other periodically using the Discussion function of the WebCT. You will be assigned at random to a discussion group (groups will be changed periodically) with whom you will have an opportunity to discuss what is going on at your field placement. I have indicated four dates by which you must have contributed input to fellow students regarding your placement. While I will provide prompts to get you started, you are certainly not limited to discussing the topics I choose. The discussion site would be a good place to ask your classmates for feedback to questions or ideas that you have which we’ve not been able to address in class.
In the margin of your syllabus, I have indicated with an asterisk dates by which you MUST have logged on to the WebCT discussion site and provided input of some sort. If you are the first to visit the link for any given due date, obviously you will not yet have anyone else’s questions or comments to respond to, but even if others have already posted a discussion question by the time you log on, you are still expected to offer your own response to one of the discussion prompts. You must also at some point respond to another students’ comment.
I can track how often you log on to the WebCT, and your participation in this aspect of the course (or lack thereof) does affect your final participation grade. The more frequently and in depth you enter the discussion, the better you will do.
To log on to the site initially, you must take the following steps:
1. Open up the Cortland Homepage. From Quick Links, select “Technology on Campus”and then “WebCT” (at bottom of list of links). The log-on screen appears. SAVE THIS LINK AS A BOOKMARK OR FAVORITE.
2. Your user name and your password will be your Cortland ID number. Be sure to type in a “zero” rather than a capital “O” when you type the number in.
3. Once you are logged on, you will see our course link in the upper left hand corner. Click on that, and from there all of the various links will be available.
If you are a student with a disability and wish to request accommodations, please contact the Office of Student Disability Services located in B-40 Van Hoesen Hall or call (607) 753-2066 for an appointment. Information regarding your disability will be treated in a confidential manner. Because many accommodations require early planning, requests for accommodations should be made as early as possible.
WebCT Assignment Due Dates
By Tuesday 9/4 Log on to the WebCT site and follow the directions that you find.
During the months of September and October, post three times on three different occasions:
a) Describe your field placement, host teacher, and kinds of lessons you’ve observed
b) Respond to one of the prompts below
c) Take the time to respond to someone else’s post.
By 10/31 Describe your first mini-lesson teaching experience. Attach one of your mini-lessons (preferably the one you taught) for others to see. Reflect on your experience and discuss what you might do differently (if anything) if you could do it all over again.
By 11/30 Describe your second mini-lesson teaching experience. Attach the second mini-lesson. Reflect on your experience and discuss what you might do differently (if anything) if you could do it all over again
WebCT Discussion Prompts
During the month of October , you will be required to log onto the WebCT site and share your field experiences with other members of the class. When you do, you must post a response to at least one of the following prompts. You are also expected to respond to at least one other student.
1. The most important thing I’ve learned so far from my observation is. . .
2. I had no idea students would. . .
3. I found myself becoming frustrated when. . .
4. Never, ever, ever. . .
5. I have learned not to assume. . .
6. I am surprised by the lack of. . .
7. My cooperating teacher was helpful when. . .
8. If I could give just one piece of advice to a prospective participant-observer, it would be. . .
9. I enjoyed my field experience the most/least when. . .
Self-Questioning Guide for Developing Your Field Work Analysis
Following are prompts/probes that will help you adequately and thoughtfully respond at two different levels of understanding to how your host teacher addresses the “language” leg of the English Language Arts tripod (as opposed to the writing or literature legs). Examine closely how your teacher addresses vocabulary/spelling, sentence construction, grammar/usage lessons, and/or editing. The teaching practices may encompass several days. If the teacher you observe does not directly address any of these components of language development, then your analysis will consist primarily of a discussion of missed opportunities.
Be sure to provide background information (see grading sheet) before you plunge into analysis.
For a) the literal-level entries, simply describe in detail what you observe. Use the b) prompts to generate your critical analysis and evaluation of the practice(s) described in response to a). Please re-copy the prompts before providing your answer.
1a) What specific language outcomes or objectives was the teacher working towards? What reason(s)/rationale were students given for engaging in the activities at hand? Be specific.
1b) Were the objectives and rationale substantial, relevant to all students, of intrinsic worth? Why or why not? If no objectives were state or implied, identify two or three which could/should have been.
2a) What instructional formats did the teacher use? (verbal, visual, kinesthetic modes; inductive vs. deductive teaching; critical questioning; impromptu mini-lessons; large group, collaborative, individual instruction, etc.). How much preparation/critical thinking was required on the part of the teacher? How much and what kind of preparation, critical thinking, participation, discovery, and/or reflection were required of the students (discuss at least three from this list)?
2b) What impact did the lesson have on students’ language development? What effects did the teacher’s instructional format(s) have on students’ learning in general? What alternate learning formats might have allowed for more preparation, critical thinking, participation, discovery and/or reflection on the part of the students?
3a) What opportunities (scaffolded exercises, journal entries, drafts, etc.) were the students given to apply and/or practice their new knowledge before final assessment? Be sure to include copies of any worksheets or assignments.
3b) Were the opportunities for application of new knowledge effective or ineffective? Why? How could the opportunities for practice have been improved? If students were not given meaningful opportunities for practicing, what kinds of opportunities could have been provided?
4a) What methods did the teacher use to assess/evaluate/test student acquisition of language objectives? What exactly was the teacher assessing? (Be sure to include copies of all assessment.)
4b) How effective were these methods of assessment? What forms of assessment might have been more effective and why?
5a) What underlying beliefs about language acquisition, students’ abilities, and teaching in general seem to shape the teacher’s methodology? How does the teacher seem to view his/her role or responsibilities to students?
5b) Account for the above to the best of your ability. What hypotheses concerning language might the students have made as a result of class activities? What impact might this teacher’s attitudes towards and methods of teaching language have on students’ long-range attitudes toward language, specifically, and learning, in general?
NOTE: You must support your critical analysis with explicit references to assigned readings and discussions from AED 308/310. Keep the focus on language development.
Articles You Might Refer to in Your Classroom Analyses
• General Pointers for Teaching Writing
• Prose Modeling and Metacognition
• Curriculum Essentials
• ELA standards
• Linguistics for Composition Teachers
• Dialects
• The Uses of Grammar
• Grammar, Grammars, and the Teaching of Grammar
• Enabling Student Growth through Language Awareness
• Who’s Doing the Work?
• Ten Basic Rules of Instruction
• The Vocabulary Conundrum
• Teaching Vocabulary to Improve Reading Comprehension
• How to improve your vocabulary
• Factors Affecting Vocabulary Choices
• Slate Starter Sheet #2
• Etymology
• Slate Starter Sheet #3
• ELA Scoring Rubrics
• Remedial Writers
AED 309/311 Masselink
NAME_____________________________________
Rubric for Field Work Analysis
Organization: Provides basic background information: School, date of visit, grade level, type of class, teacher, time spent, topics covered
0 1 2
Organization: Labels correct response level (literal or critical-evaluative) and clearly identifies which prompt is being responded to
0 1 2
Content: Literal responses are fully developed so as to give a clear sense of what occurred. Handouts/quizzes/tests are included.
x 8 = 16 points possible
0 1 2
Content: Critical/evaluative responses are fully developed and insightful. Handouts/quizzes, tests are evaluated.
0 1 2 x 8 = 16 points possible
Content: Specific, appropriate references to readings in AED 308/310 are included.
0 1 2 x 4 = 8 points possible
EAE: Writing adheres to usage rules of Edited American English
0 1 2 x 3 = 6 points possible
Total Points earned:__________
Hand in this grading sheet along with editing level error sheet.
Portfolio Piece
For this assignment, you will demonstrate how one of the language mini-lessons you have taught addresses the New York State Learning Standards as well as the NCTE standards addressed in this course. The assignment (which will later become a part of your professional portfolio) will include the following pieces:
Identification of the NYS Learning and NCTE Standard(s): Here you will list the specific standards your artifact addresses. (3)
An Artifact: The artifact is the actual mini-lesson itself. The mini-lesson stands as a piece of evidence to support your claim that you have met specific standards. (5)
A Description: In your description, you will discuss your artifact. You will explain the context in which the lesson was taught and the educational purpose it served. You will also discuss how the lesson was implemented and received. (5)
A Rationale: In your rationale, you will provide readers with an clear understanding of the standard being addressed in your lesson. You will make explicit the connections you see between the artifact and the identified NYS ELA and NCTE standards being addressed. You will then cite research which supports the choices you made in constructing and implementing the mini-lesson as you did. (5)
A Reflection: In your reflection, you will discuss what you learned from teaching the mini-lesson about your ability to meet the identified standards and what you might do differently were you to teach the lesson again. You may reference feedback provided to you by the host teacher. In this section, you will provide evidence of your ability to grow and develop as a teacher. In your discussion, you will demonstrate your subject mastery as well as your skills and dispositions as a teacher. (5)
A Reference Page: You will include a Works Cited page in MLA format referencing all works cited. (2)
Note: NCATE/NCTE Standards can be accessed from the following website:
http://www.ncte.org/prog/ncate/107902.htm
The NYS ELA Standards are also available on line:
http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/ciai/ela/pub/elalearn.pdf
Note: Numbers in parenthesis indicate the point values of each section. Please attach this page to your portfolio piece along with your editing level error sheet.
Bibliography of Theoretical Sources on Reflective Teaching
Brause, R. S. and J. S. Smayher. Search and Research: What the Inquiring Teacher Needs to Know. London: Falmer Press, 1991.
Brookfield, Stephen D. Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1995.
Fosnot, C. T. Enquiring Teachers Enquiring Learners: A Constructivist Approach for Teaching. New York, Teacher’s College Press, 1989.
Knowles, Gary, and Ardra Cola. Through Preservice Teachers’ Eyes: Exploring Field Experiences through Narrative and Inquiry. Toronto: Maxwell Macmillan, 1994.
Kohl, H. Growing Minds: On Becoming a Teacher. New York: Harper & Row, 1984.
Newman, J. M. Finding Our Own Way: Teachers Exploring Their Assumptions. Porstmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1989.
Russell, T. and H. Murphy, eds. Teachers and Teaching: From Classroom to Reflection. Bristol, PA: Falmer Press, 1992.
Schon Donald. The Reflective Turn: Case Studies in and out of Education. New York: Teachers’ College Press, 1991.
Vinx, Ruth. “Beyond Reflection.” English Education. 31.3 (April 1999): 175+.
Assessment Sheet for Field Work Experiences
Student Name:_______________________________________
□ Returned teacher’s tear-off sheet within two weeks of receiving placement
□ Logged on to WebCT by due date
□ Posted three times to WebCT during the first month of observation
• Described field placement, host teacher, and kinds of lessons observed
• Responded to an assigned prompt
• Responded to a classmate’s post
□ Posted first mini-lesson and described the first teaching experience
□ Posted second mini-lesson and described the second teaching experience
□ Score for Field Analysis _________
□ Score for Portfolio Piece ________
□ Degree of general involvement in WebCT reading and posting_____________
□ Evaluated host teacher
□ Turned in fifty-hour log sheet
□ Teacher’s Evaluation ______Acceptable _______Borderline _______Unacceptable
Final Grade_________________
Evaluation of Host Teacher
Your Name_______________________________
Name of host teacher________________________
School____________________________________
Grade level________________________________
My host teacher explicitly addresses various aspects of language development in class:_____Yes
_____No
If yes, which areas were addressed explicitly? _____Vocabulary development
_____ Spelling
_____ Sentence variety
_____ Instruction in grammar and/or usage
_____ Editing skills
My host teacher practiced principles of good pedagogy with regards to language development:
____All of the time
____Most of the time
____Some of the time
____Rarely or never
Rate the degree of freedom you were granted in choosing mini-lessons to teach:
_____Complete freedom (you were allowed to choose and design the lesson)
_____Limited freedom (teacher made suggestions for you, but allowed you to have input)
_____No freedom (you were pretty much told what you should teach)
Rate the degree of support your teacher gave you for your efforts in teaching the mini-lessons (i.e., consider such things as how you and the lesson were introduced and what was said after you finished, the teacher’s attitude towards any follow-up work you assigned, feedback provided):
_____Strong support
_____Moderate support
_____Limited Support
_____No support (did the teacher undermine your efforts in any way? If so, please briefly explain how.)
Overall, would you recommend that we continue to rely on this teacher to act as a host for this field experience? _____Yes _____ No ______Undecided (Please support your response below, keeping in mind that our pool of host teachers is limited)
If this teacher were willing to take you as a student teacher, would you be interested? _____Yes
______No
Editing Level Errors - Masselink
Pronoun Reference (Ch. 10)
Subject-Verb Agreement (Ch. 11)
Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement (Ch. 11)
Sentence Fragments (Ch. 13)
Fused Sentences, Comma Splices (Ch. 14)
Wordiness, Expletive Constructions (Ch. 16)
Diction
Spelling / Homonyms
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Commas (Ch. 14)
a) with coordinating conjunctions in compound sentences
b) after introductory words, phrases, and clauses
c) between items in series
d) with coordinate adjectives
e) setting off extra information or transition words
f) setting off quoted words
g) with dates, names, addresses
h) unnecessary commas
Semi-Colons (Ch. 25)
Colons (Ch. 26)
Apostrophes (Ch. 27)
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Capitalization (Ch. 30)
Dangling and Misplaced Modifiers (Ch. 15)
Parallelism (Ch. 18)
Hyphenation / Dashes (Ch. 22, 29)
Mechanics (Spacing, numbers, typos)
Quotation Marks / Italics / Underlining (Ch. 28b, 30f)
Verb Usage / Tense
Pronoun Case (Ch. 9)