Bella Roumain 3/1/2024

Field Experience Write up ED 243

Step 1. (5 points)
A. Description of the Critical Incident or Practice
Choose an incident that is complex and likely to draw you into an exploration of ideas, beliefs, and
dispositions you have learned about in your teacher education classes. Completely describe the ONE
critical incident or practice that you have selected as the focus for this entry. Your entry should include
sufficient detail so that the reader can easily understand your focus. This section should be purely
descriptive. Simply explain what you saw or experienced or the way something worked. The description
should be 1-3 well developed paragraphs in length.

I spent the second and third block in Erin Boise's 8th Grade Resource Room. This class focuses on
phonics and reading. Irene asked Butler students to work one-on-one with her students because it would
help students to practice their reading and listen to someone else read aloud. I had the opportunity to work
with Lucas. We read The Phantom of Room Twelve out of the Spire curriculum workbook. The students
in Ms. Boise's room was working on their -ph sound. Lucas and I took turns reading paragraphs from this
story.

Lucas was a very proficient reader. He demonstrated fluency and confidence while reading. I provided
positive encouragement after each of his turns. One time, he read his section and he naturally progressed
to the next paragraph, but I didn't interrupt him. After reading two sentences, he realized that it technically
wasn't his turn anymore and apologized. I assured him that it was okay and I encouraged him to finish the
rest of the paragraph.

B. Feelings
In this section, briefly describe your feelings in relation to the event. Your feelings are emotional
responses whereas your thoughts are cognitive responses. Therefore, do not mix your thoughts and
feelings (such as happiness, anger, frustration, etc.) For example don’t write, “I felt that I should have
been more concerned.” This sentence describes a thought not a feeling. Your feelings should be written in
short sentences or bullets. Do your best to stick with these four words (or their many close synonyms) to
describe your feelings: mad, glad, sad, scared.

I felt happy, welcomed and excited while in Ms. Boise's room. I appreciate that Irene gave me this
opportunity. I felt excited while working with Lucas because he was enthusiastic about reading aloud. I
felt motivated to provide him any support that he needed.

C. Thoughts
In this section, describe your initial thoughts and opinions in relation to the description and feelings you
provided in Sections A and B. Essentially, you are trying to convey what you were thinking at the point in
time in which the event occurred. Think of it as if someone was listening in on your inner dialogue as you
experienced the event.
I'm grateful that I had the opportunity to work one-on-one with Lucas because I felt like I was making a
difference. I contributed to his learning which was motivating. His level of calmness made me feel less
nervous. As he read, I followed along with my pen to make sure he didn't accidentally skip over any
words.

Ms. Boise had the big LED lights off, instead she had string lights to illuminate her room. The lighting of
a room makes a big difference to my comfortability level and I'm sure the students feel at ease too. In her
room, the students sit at desks but there are other seating options such as a high top table and bungee
chairs in the corner.

D. Now make connections to your thinking....

What went well?
What didn’t go so well?
What do I want to do the same next time?
What do I want to do differently next time?

Something that went well was the opportunity to work with Lucas on a reading. Something that didn't go
well was the lack of engagement in Ms. Myer's Social Studies class because I was only there for one
block. If we went back to Clay, I would want to return to Ms. Boise's room. Something I would do
differently is check in with the other students in the resource room.

Step 2: (1 Point)
Make at least one connection to personal experience, other texts you’ve read, and/or what you know about
schools.

In ED 491, we discussed the importance of providing multiple seating options so students have choice in
the classroom.

Step 3: (5 Points)
Expand on five High Leverage Practices or more you chose to use in your write up by telling which
one, how you used it and what your thinking was in choosing this for your student/students.

HLP #7 Establish a Consistent, Organized, and Respectful Learning Environment: I could tell that Ms.
Boise has set clear classroom expectations because when students entered the room, they sat in specific
spots and talked quietly amongst themselves.
HLPs #8 and #22 Provide Positive & Constructive Feedback to Guide Students' Learn: While Ms. Boise
led a mini-lesson, she provided positive feedback when students responded to her questions. Feedback is
really important to build students' confidence.
HLP #18 Use Strategies to Promote Active Student Engagement: Irene asked Butler students to work with
the 8th graders which promoted engagement because the students were excited to work with us.
HLP #12 - Systematically Designed Instruction: Ms. Myers has clear learning goals on the white board.
She connects old material to their current assignments. She explains why the information is important and
relevant, giving the students a purpose for learning.
​HLP #16 - Explicit Instruction: Ms. Myers gave students an activity to complete on paper and she gave
students to engage in a discussion. She asked questions, waited for an answer, then reiterated what the
students said using more specific language.

Step 4: (5 points)
Field Experience -PROFESSIONAL NEXT STEPS- Please pick three of the questions below and
expand on them with your field experience write up with five or more sentences. You should look for
pieces that succinctly enhance your understanding of your possible / potential life as an education
professional. (HINT: Think about how this step connects to your future as a professional and your next
steps in your learning.)

· Speak about the clutter and organization of the classroom

Ms. Boise has a very organized classroom. There were bins on the shelf that were labeled with the blocks
so she could efficiently grab materials based on which students were coming to her classroom.

· How was instruction delivered? Small group, co teaching, groups, stations, cooperative learning

In Ms. Boise's room, the students were engaged in an online independent game, a group mini-lesson, and
one-on-one learning with Butler buddies.

· If you did a lesson with students, What instructional strategies do you plan to use to engage students
cognitively?
I did a shared read aloud with a student. I reminded myself to give Lucas wait time if he self-corrected.
Additionally, I paid extra attention to my pronunciation and tone while I read because I wanted to model
good reading tendencies. While Lucas read, he followed along with his finger so I did too.