Fieldwork Paper

By Whitney Raeon
September 8, 2013
National Louis University













Fieldwork Paper
Howe School of Excellence is located in the Austin neighborhood of Chicago and is a
fifth year Academy of Urban School Leadership turnaround school. I will complete a one year


teaching residency at Howe and hope to use the information I gathered during the fieldwork
project to tailor my lessons to the needs of my students. In this paper I will provide a description
of the project and explain the goals I set for myself from the beginning. Additionally, I will
describe what I did to gather information to answer my driving questions. Finally, this paper will
describe what I learned from my research and reflect upon what I might do differently if I were
to do this project again. With Howe being a turnaround school, I was surprised by the
information I gathered and am interested in continuing to research the importance of including
life skills in the schools curriculum.
The purpose of the fieldwork project was to investigate a driving question about the
school where you will complete your AUSL teaching residency by setting goals and conducting
interviews and research. My driving questions are, does Howe incorporate civics, finance, and
other important life skills in the curriculum? And, how does the inclusion/exclusion of these
subjects affect the students, community, and contribute to the functionality of democracy in the
United States? After establishing what I wanted to research, I set my objectives for the project.
My goals were to interview the staff at Howe to understand how important and necessary life
skills are incorporated into the curriculum, as well as, learn how the inclusion/exclusion of these
skills affect the students throughout their lives. I was also interested in learning if the teachers at
Howe felt constrained by the guidelines of the Common Core and AUSL curriculums to the
point where they were unable to extend their lessons to include these important skills. Once I set
my goals, I was able to begin my research and answer my driving questions.
Since I am teaching kindergarten this year, I wanted to focus on how life skills are
incorporated into the early childhood curriculum. Therefore, I interviewed the two kindergarten
teachers, Mrs. Philips and Ms. Ricchio, to learn about their role in preparing students to become
productive citizens. I also interviewed Mrs. Anthony, the afterschool program director, about
student enrichment opportunities provided by Howe. Additionally, I conducted research on the
new Common Core Standards, the community of Austin, and Howe School of Excellence. The
information I gathered through interviews and research allowed me to learn valuable information
pertaining to my driving questions.


Through research, I was able to answer aspects of my driving questions. I learned that the
majority of the life skills offered at Howe are through after school programs since the school day
is packed with curriculum geared toward meeting the new standards and improving ISAT scores.
I gathered my after school program information from Mrs. Anthony because the Howe School of
Excellence website did not provide any. Mrs. Anthony described the abundance of activities
offered. The most popular were Culinary Arts, Business Club, Robotics and Animation, Mad
Science, Build a Bike, Girl Scouts, and Cheerleading. She explained that the clubs all focus on
providing students with skills that they can use in and out of school (Anthony, personal
communication, September 5, 2013). For example, nutrition, character building, positive peer
and social-emotional interactions, math and science skills, money sense, and problem solving.
The skills that these after school programs provide benefit children in the classroom, on state
tests, when interacting with peers, and when managing their money. Mrs. Anthony explained that
math and science scores rose last year at Howe on the ISAT, which she attributed to the
programs offered after school (Anthony, personal communication, September 5, 2013). She also
noted that the programs help increase student attendance and parental involvement. While
students in these after school programs benefit in several aspects of life, I was disappointed that
only around 175 students enroll in these each year. With a student population of 606 students, I
was surprised that the number was not higher (Howe School of Excellence, n.d.). This makes
me wish that I had more time to research if there is a correlation between involvement in the
after school programs offered and student achievement.
Since the school year just began, I was unable to witness any lessons focussing on civics
or finance. I was informed by Mrs. Philips and Ms. Richio that the only material taught in
kindergarten that falls under the civics categories is Boys Town and Positive Action (Philips,
Richio, personal communication, August 26, 2013). Boys Town and Positive Action strive to
improve the lives of children by teaching them important life skills that enable them to become
productive citizens (Boys Town, n.d., Positive Action, n.d.). In regards to finance, Mrs.
Philips explained that the new Common Core Standards do not incorporate money into the
kindergarten standards and there is no time to add it (Philips, personal communication, August


26, 2013) . As a result, civics and finance are not taught frequently or at all because of the
standards and curriculum established by the Common Core and AUSL.
After researching my driving questions, there are several things that I would do
differently. For example, I would change the second aspect of my driving question about how the
curriculum at Howe contributes to the functionality of democracy in the United States since it is
difficult to research and gauge the effects. Additionally, I would like to do this project later in the
school year when I can observe relevant lessons and when I know the employees and the
expectations at Howe better so I can gather additional information.
Howe School of Excellence is a turnaround school that is trying to produce citizens who
are catalysts for change (Our Vision, n.d.). I learned through my fieldwork project that
although this is the schools vision, by only extensively teaching life skills to a small amount of
the student population, Howe is struggling to arm students with the skills to become such
catalysts. In this paper I described the project and the goals I set, as well as, how I gathered
information relevant to my driving questions. Finally, I presented what I learned from the
fieldwork project and what I would do differently if I were to complete the project again. The
information gathered will assist me in becoming a better teacher to my students and has
encouraged me to attempt to incorporate civics, finance, and other life skills into my lessons
since such subjects are not widely incorporated in the Common Core Standards and the
curriculum expectations at Howe.




Fieldwork Hour Log
8/7: 1 hour researching topics for Fieldwork Project and Proposal
8/8: 1 hours working with Kate Frost on google docs creating our Fieldwork Proposal


8/19: 30 min. Introduction to Howe School of Excellence
8/20: 2 hours speaking with school employees and researching student test results.
8/22: 5 hours and 15 minutes learning about the curriculum, common core implementation, and
preparing students for success inside and outside of school. Boys Town.
8/23: 1 hour community walk
8/26: 2 hours speaking with kindergarten teachers about goals for the year pertinent to this
project.
9/4: 2 hours conducting online research
9/5: 1 hours speaking with Mrs. Anthony about after school programs that prepare students
with life skills.


Bibliography
Boys Town . (n.d.). Boys Town. Retrieved August 22, 2013, from
http://www.boystown.org/about/our-history

Howe School of Excellence | Academy for Urban School Leadership (AUSL). (n.d.).
Home. Retrieved September 4, 2013, from http://auslchicago.org/schools/pages/howe

Our Vision. (n.d.). Howe School of Excellence. Retrieved September 4, 2013, from
http://www.howeschoolofexcellence.org/school-information/our-vision/

Positive Action. (n.d.). Positive Action. Retrieved September 4, 2013, from
https://www.positiveaction.net/