Lesson 7: Mid-semester Check In

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this lesson's material, students will be able

  • Assess goals to determine if they are still a good fit.
  • Reflect upon the practicum experience thus far and plan for the upcoming assignments.
  • Complete a self-evaluation and compare with the cooperating teacher evaluation.
  • Discuss how to partner with families to assure literacy success.

Teaching

Part One – A summary of Participation

During the beginning weeks of practicum you have:

  • Been using reflective journaling as a tool to learn new skills
  • Created goals and reviewed weekly progress
  • Reflected on Ethical Responsibilities to Families

By this point in the semester you should have completed AT LEAST 10 journal entries. These journal entries are individually graded and after this lesson, you will receive a zero for any journals not submitted.

Your goals have been updated in your weekly emails to the cooperating teacher and instructor.  It should be safe to say that you have a good handle on where your goal stands but consider the following when reviewing them to determine if changes are made. It is quite possible that your goals have been achieved already or maybe they no longer apply.  We are going to take this time to assess our path and get us back on course if needed.

This is a time to be reflective.  Think about how they are going and be HONEST with yourself.  It is OKAY if your goals are not going as planned.  This is the whole point.  If they are not going as planned then now is when you can change them to assure you are going to succeed for the remainder of the course!

What do you still want to get out of this class? Do you still think of the same goals and objectives? Is what you wrote still S.M.A.R.T?

  • Specific – are you finding that your goals are still specific enough or maybe it was specific enough and already achieved?
  • Measurable – Have you been able to measure your success in this goal?  If not, then why?
  • Attainable (agreed, achievable) – Do you still feel like this is something that you know you can accomplish?  Is the goal still important to you? 
  • Realistic – Is this goal still something you are willing and able to do?  Do you think it is still realistic to continue with this goal?
  • Timely – can you still reach your goal in the amount of time you have set for yourself?

Part Two – Preparing for your Family Service Project!

            For this project you will need to discuss with your supervising teacher ways you could make this project helpful to what is already is happening in the classroom. The project should not take away from anything that is already planned but instead, should enhance what is already in place. 

The project is to find an intentional way to link families to the community, develop home - school connections and increase family engagement.

Begin having conversations with your supervising teacher now about:

  • Events that are coming up that you could base your project around
  • Current needs of children and families
  • A community resource that is underutilized
  • A home-school connection that would be nice but she doesn’t have time for
  • An opportunity to attend a family event/home visit/parent teacher conference and/or community event.

Your project will be quite extensive and should include multiple parts.  Some ideas are:

  • A family wall or bulletin board complete with facts and resources
  • Family booklets that contains pictures of the child and family (kind of like a social story)
  • Take home bags that relate to the activities at school
  • Creating a share bag for children to take turns bringing home and returning
  • A family resource binder
  • Helping to create a family night activity
  • Developing a newsletter
  • Identifying family engagement barriers and developing a solution
  • Taking part in a community event that families are involved in

Assessment

Look through your weekly emails and provide:

  1. Dates of initial emails sent (there should be one for EVERY week you were at your practicum site
  2. Provide a 5 or 6 sentence summary about how the weekly email communication benefited you in your practicum site. 

 

INITIATED A

WEEKLY EMAIL

0 Points

Has initiated Zero emails

20 Points

Has initiated emails half of the weeks and/or emails were not addressed to both the instructor and supervising teacher and/or emails were written past the Sunday of that week

40 Points

Initiated weekly email to the instructor AND supervising teacher NO LATER than the Sunday of that week
HOURS

0 Points

Emails did not mention hours

5 Points

Emails sometimes did not contain accurate and/or hourly count

10 Points

Provided accurate hours completed THAT week AND ALSO total to date
PARTICIPATION

0 Points

Emails did not mention participation

5 Points

Provided a brief summary and/or only some emails provided a summary of participation

10 Points

Provided detailed summary with examples of participation in the practicum site (summary is at least 5 sentences)
GOALS

 

5 Points

Provided a brief update and/or only some emails provided a goal update

10 Points

Provided an update on ALL goal progress with specific details and examples

QUESTIONS/

CONCERNS/

COMMENTS

0 Points

Emails did not contain questions, concerns and/or comments

15 Points

Questions, concerns and comments were not related and/or not addressed in some emails.

30 Points

Addresses any questions or concerns pertaining to that specific week in a clear manner.  This could be for the instructor AND/OR supervising teacher.

 

Lesson 7 Assignment B

In addition to the evaluation completed by your supervising teacher, you will:

  1. Complete a self-evaluation
  2. Write a summary comparing the self-evaluation and the supervising teacher evaluation.
    • Did anything surprise you?  Are you satisfied with the evaluations? What are your next steps? 
  3. Do any of the areas that are not marked "Most of the time" line up with your goals?
    • How are your goals progressing? Are they still appropriate or do you need to adjust them to something more appropriate?

    Scan and submit the midterm self-evaluation AND the midterm cooperating teacher evaluation along with your summary.

Summary

0 Points

Did not provide sumamry

5 Points

Summary was brief and unclear.  Next steps were unrelated to the goals and evaluations

10 Points

Summary was meaningful and reflective.  Discussed rationale for similarities and difference.  Included next steps and goals were related to the evaluations

Midterm self-evaluation

0 Points

Did not provide a self-evaluation

5 Points

Midterm self-evaluation was somewhat filled out and missing components

10 Points

Completed a reflective and appropriate mid-term self-evaluation complete with rating and comments

Midterm supervising teacher evaluation
(Instructor will adjust this part of the rubric to match points given by cooperating teacher.)

0 Points

Has not provided instructor with the teacher evaluation

40 Points

Score varies according to the cooperating teacher evaluation.  Can contribute up to 40 points of your mid-term check in grade.

80 Points

Score varies according to the cooperating teacher evaluation.  Can contribute up to 80 points of your mid-term check in grade.

 

How your supervising teacher evaluation is graded:

~ You can only receive a total of 80 points for the evaluation

The instructor will add the values of each box checked by your instructor and then calculate the mean. The values of the boxes are as follows:

  • Almost Always = 60
  • Usually = 50
  • Sometimes = 40
  • Seldom = 30
  • Never = 0

On the last page you can recieve up to 2 points for each executive skills

  • Makes genuine effort = 2 points
  • Makes some effort = 1 point

For example:

If Suzy is in a Practicum I course, she should be evaluated on 30 different indicators in the NAEYC Standards #1-#6. She recieved:

  • 20 Almost Always which would be 20x60=1200
  • 5 Usuallys which would be 5x50=250
  • 2 Sometiems which would be 2x40=80
  • 3 Seldoms which would be 3x30=90

Now I add the total and divide by 30 (the number of indicators) to find the mean 1620 / 30 = 54

On her Executive Skills page she received:

  • 7 Makes Genuine Effort which would be 7x2=14
  • 3 Makes Some Effort which would be 3x1=3

14 + 3 = 17

 

THEN I ADD THE TOTAL FROM THE STANDARDS MEAN AND EXECUTIVE SKILLS TOTAL 54+17=71

ON THE RUBRIC THE INSTRUCTOR WILL PUT 71 POINTS IN THE THIRD SECTION IN THE RUBRIC THAT ALLOWS YOU UP TO 80 POINTS FOR THE SUPERVISING TEACHER EVALUATION.

 

Lesson 7 Assignment C

Set dates aside to attend a home visit(s), parent teacher conference(s), and/or a family event

Submit a one page outline/summary of what you will be attending and ideas you and your supervising teacher has come up with for the full project.  Remember the project should meet the need s of the teacher, children and families and include multiple parts. 
Provide the following information in your outline/summary.

  1. With your supervising teacher - identify the need of children and families that you will be addressing
  2. With your supervising teacher - identify how you can tie the need of the children and families to classroom happenings that are already in place
  3. Third – create ideas and discuss them with the supervising teacher. – Set dates
  4. Fourth – Consider connections to the community, resources and links to home

Possible Class Discussion A

Read chapter 13 in Swinging Pendulums.  How do you, as the teacher, partner with families to assure literacy success for the child?

Possible Class Discussion B

How do you support a family to encourage childhood literacy if they cannot read or write themselves?