Field Experience Graphic Organizer/Write up Directions

ED 243

Task
Field Experience Write up ED 243
Step 1. Provide a Summary of what you experienced so the reader
knows what you did and what you experienced.
This Critical Reflection Assignment will walk you through the kind of
thought-process that allows a teacher to step outside of a
thought-provoking experience, to put it into perspective, and to react to it in
constructive ways. The “scaffolding”, or steps provided to guide this
assignment will give you an opportunity to practice “deconstructing” an
experience—thinking about the situatedness of a particular critical incident
in the larger systems of power--and using that new framework to make a
thoughtful and purposeful response.
Your chosen event should be a moment from your Study Trip, a hallway
interaction with a student, an administrator, or a colleague, or a
parent/family member interaction. Choose an event that puzzles you, that
frustrates you, troubles you, excites you. As you reflect on this experience
through a series of different lenses, you will see more layers of meaning
and be able to bring more of what you know and believe to the task of
formulating significant questions about this critical incident and generating
personally relevant answers. In short, you will be practicing the kind of
self-directed learning that is essential to being a professional educator.
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.
During this time, we were in the multi-language learner's classroom
observing students doing a questionnaire for a celebrity. The teacher laid
out a multitude of different celebrities, ranging from singers to actors to
athletes to politicians. The students picked whichever celebrity that they
wanted and had a range of questions that they were supposed to make up
to ask the celebrity.
There were three questions that the students had to write to ask the
celebrity. The first was a yes or no question. The second was a simple
answer or one-word response question. The last one was a sentence
answer or a question that needed a longer answer as a response. After the
students wrote the questions, they then shared their questions with three
other people in the class to get feedback and help if needed.
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.
This made me upset and sad. However it also made me happy.
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.
Throughout this time, I was thinking about the instructions that the students
were given. They were explicit in their instructions; however, with the range
of English learners in the classroom, the carry-out of the instructions was
all over the place. Some students also needed help understanding the
concept of what they were asked in general. One of the students wrote
questions about the celebrity that they would ask someone else. They were
good questions. However, the instructions were to create questions you
would ask the celebrity. The students in the class also have different
struggles , making the educator's job quite challenging. Some students are
good writers in English, while others are better at speaking in English. Also,
there were a lot of behaviors that were going on during this time and with
students being on different levels of english learning, trying to get a task
done was quite difficult. It shows how comfortable they are in the classroom
and how safe they feel, but it takes away from their learning in general
which ultimately hinders them. However, I also think that learning english
and this type of work is difficult and frustrating for them. They are in a new
place for them in a language that they dont understand so I dont blame
them for acting out.
D. Now make connections to your thinking...
What went well?
What went well was the scaffolding of the questions; they made good
progress in difficulty and were easy to understand in the application for
students. Also, the celebrity chooses were very broad in people so it made
the students have a lot of options and that they were able to pick someone
they knew to base questions for.
What didn’t go so well?
The explanation of the instruction was difficult as some students
understood it on their own, but some were lost. Some of them understood
the scaffolding but didn't understand who the questions were supposed to
be targeted towards.
What do I want to do the same next time?
I would love to be in this classroom again and see them working on their
projects and more scaffolded work that is similar to these questions in
formation.
What do I want to do differently next time?
Differently I would love to see these same students in a general
education classroom and how this work translates into those
classroom settings.
Step 2: Make at least one connection to personal experience, other
texts you’ve read, and/or what you know about schools.
Some of the things that I have read and learned about schools is that
behaviors are not always because students want to purposefully be bad. In
this classroom, students are talking to each other during instruction or
during lessons because this is the one space where they are all together
and are given support. They feel comfortable and safe because they are
not being judged or feel less then because they cant understand the
language in the classroom.
Step 3: 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.
1. HLP 7 environment- The environment in this classroom is open and
inviting to all students. As you look around the classroom at the
decorations and pieces you can see that all students are represented
in this space. Students also are able to have flexible seating as well
as having desks to offer multitude of seating options. I want my
classroom to be a space where all students feel comfortable and
represented.
2. HLP 18 Student engagement - The students were engaged the
whole time. During the lesson, the celebrities made it more fun for the
students and with the wide variety of celebrities, each student was
able to find someone that they connected to and were able to
therefore make the lesson about. In my classroom, this type of
application of engagement is often skipped over, but its simple
engagement really invites students to the lesson.
 3. HLP 16 Explicit instruction- The teacher made sure that the
instructions were explicit and straightforward for the students
especially in an MLL classroom. There were also visual and audio
instructions as well as examples that they went through together on
the spot.
4. HLP 15 Scaffolding support- The questions that they were
designing were a great example of scaffolding. The started with a yes
or no then went to one word answer then to a longer answer. This
type of simple scaffolding increases difficulty in a non-overwhelming
way that helps students while not being intimidating. This type of
question format is easily applicable to the work that I will be doing as
an educator in my classroom.
5. HLP 11 Goal setting- The teacher sets clear goals for each day that
are represented clearly on the board and audibly said to the students.
Their overarching goal is to leave the classroom and receive the
support in the general education classroom, however, while they are
in this classroom their goal is to get better everyday and to achieve
the lessons.

Step 4: 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.)
· How was the classroom environment (routines, procedures, student
behavior, physical space, etc.) impact student learning?
If students are not comfortable in their environment, learning
will not take place. In this classroom students were comfortable and
felt safe, therefore, learning was able to take place successfully. This
is one of the big things that is important to me as an educator
because I know how much it impacts learning.
· Speak about the clutter and organization of the classroom
· Do kids like being in the classroom?
The kids love being in this classroom. It is one of the few spaces that they
with students who are going through the same things as them and that they
feel seen and heard by their teacher. They are not judged for being behind
because they dont understand the language into which the material is
being given in.
· What is the classroom environment playing into the kids learning or
does it make a difference?
· We talk at Butler about the environment being the third teacher. Do
you agree and do you see any
pieces of this?
· What kind of rules/procedures does your student/class have difficulty
in meeting?
The students struggle with coming into the classroom and sit down instead
of walking around and talking to each other. They also struggle with not
talking while the teacher is talking but these behaviors are probably caused
by other struggles that the students are going through.
· What “nuisance behaviors” did you encounter?
· What specific externalizing behavior did you see from your target
student, how would you address it,What triggered it and what was the
reaction by the peers and teacher?
· How did the teacher/you handle his or her relationship with the
student/students?
· Describe the room arrangement of the classroom?
· Does the teacher/you have fun with kids and is she or he peaceful in
how they interact with kids?
· List three specific strategies that the teacher/you used to manage the
classroom.
· Are opportunities provided for practice in: Good health habits,
sharing with others, waiting turns,
making rules, emotional control, taking care of their own property,
cleaning up after work, accepting
responsibility, overcoming difficulties, being leaders, being helpful,
enjoying books, hearing music,
 meeting friends, and anything else you wanted to note from your
setting.
· Do you see differentiation based on student interest, student
readiness,
· Do you see any assistive tech. with any of the students?
· Do you see mutual respect?
· Are there Well-established routines?
· Are there Learning objectives posted?
· Are there Clear rules?
· Are there Clear expectations?
· How was instruction delivered? Small group, co teaching, groups,
stations, cooperative learning
· Student-led discussions/activities/lessons?
· Did you use or see adaptations of IEP?
· Do you see/do any lessons designed in multiple levels?
· Do you see materials you would use with other students? Describe
them with students.
· Do you see/use any paraeducators?
· If you did a lesson with students, What instructional strategies do you
plan to use to engage students cognitively?
· What peer/students/teacher feedback am I taking to heart and
receiving?
· What difficulties or misconceptions did you anticipate students
having? How did you address the difficulties or misconceptions?
· What adjustments did I make during the lesson? How? Why?
· Did you use differentiation in this lesson? Explain more
Step 5: Upload your field experience write-up to canvas for your professor
to read.

Rubric
ED 243 Field Experience Rubric
ED 243 Field Experience Rubric
Criteria Ratings Pts
Provide a summary of 5 pts 4.25 pts 3.75 pts 3.25 pts 0 pts 1 pts
what you experienced Exemplar Proficien Emerging Underdeveloped Not
during your visit at the y t Demonstrated
field experience using
the Critical Reflection
pieces.
Make at least one 1 pts 0.85 pts 0.75 pts 0.65 pts 0 pts 1 pts
connection to personal Exemplar Proficien Emerging Underdeveloped Not
experience, other texts y t Demonstrated
you’ve read, and/or
what you know about
schools.

This criterion is linked 5 pts 4.25 pts 3.75 pts 3.25 pts 0 pts 5 pts
to a Learning Outcome Full Proficien Emerging Underdeveloped Not
High Leverage Marks t Demonstrated
Practice
Expanded on High 5
Leverage Practices by
sharing which one,
how you saw it used
by someone else or
yourself, and what
your thinking was in
choosing this for your
student/students.
This criterion is linked 4 pts 3.4 pts 3 pts 2.6 pts 0 pts 3 pts
to a Learning Outcome Full Proficien Emerging Underdeveloped Not
Professional Marks t Demonstrated
Next-Steps
Picked three
professional next-step
questions from the list
and expanded on them
with five or more
sentences.
Total Points: 10