ECPK 481
2
Prior to First Visit
Students planning to take ECPK 481 complete the Request for Practicum Supervision form and submit the form to the Early Education and Care Practicum Liaison by:
- For Fall Semester Placement – May 1st
- For Spring Semester Placement – November 1st
- For Summer Term Placement – April 1st
The Early Education and Care Practicum Liaison assigns BSU supervisors to students and registers the student in the course. The BSU supervisor may contact the student prior to the beginning of the semester to arrange an initial visit; or during the one on-campus group meeting. The on-campus meeting is designed to help you be successful in your practicum experience and attendance is required.
The Early Education and Care Practicum Liaison will contact the students and supervisors prior to the meeting with a note similar to this:
Sample Save the Date Note
Welcome to ECPK 481 and ECPK 492,
I sent your registration to the registrar today. You should see the course on your schedule soon. You will notice on your schedule that you are either in the Full Summer (10 weeks) Session from May 21-August 10 or registered for Summer Session II July 09-August 10. Your request for supervision indicated which session to enroll you in.
I will see you Thursday, May 3 from 6-8 in Moakley 300 at the on-campus meeting designed to help you be successful in your practicum experience. Remember your attendance is required.
At the meeting, you will spend time with your supervisor and schedule your meetings for over the summer. Be prepared to set up an initial visit. The initial visit includes an observation (about 1 hour) and a meeting with your site supervisor. The BSU supervisor will schedule about 2 hours of time for the entire visit. The site supervisor needs to be available for at least 30 minutes during the time.
For example, the initial visit is scheduled from 10-12 am. The BSU supervisor plans to observe you interacting with children from 10-11. From 11:15-11:45, the site supervisor, BSU supervisor and you meet to discuss the expectations of the 481 or 492 experience and sign the initial visit form. From 11:45-12:00, the BSU supervisor and you discuss the observation and goals for growth. The site supervisor is welcome to stay for the discussion and can leave during this part of the visit if necessary for coverage.
Come on May 3rd with:
- Name of your site supervisor and their position in the program
- Dates you will complete the field placement experience
- Possible dates for the initial visit – talk to your site supervisor and get at least 3 dates AND times they are available in May to meet for 30 minutes knowing you are out of the room and not counted toward ratio.
Let me know if you have any questions. Happy sunny day~ Dr. Eliason
After attending the BSU group meeting, a suitable schedule will be approved by the student, the site supervisor, and the BSU supervisor. Examples of workable schedules for the ECPK 481 experience are:
| ECPK 481 | ||
| Hours Per Day | Days A Week (Must be at least 2) | Number of Weeks |
| 5 | 5 | 4 |
| 6.25 | 4 | 4 |
| 4 | 5 | 5 |
| 3.25 | 3 | 10 |
| 3.25 | 2 | 15 |
Logistics of the Initial Visit
At the initial visit, the BSU supervisor will likely observe first. After observing, the supervisor and student will discuss the observation with the site supervisor. It might be helpful to have the student reflect on the observation and send you a response later in the week. Here are examples of questions to guide the student reflection from an observation [choose only a few!]:
Dear Student, Please respond by email by [insert date]
- What are your thoughts and feelings after reading the observation and participating in the discussion?
- Answer the questions or comments you read in the observation.
- How do you provide opportunities for ____________________?
- How are you developing relationships with the children (and encouraging relationships between children)?
- How are you being responsive and sensitive to children’s demonstrated needs and interests?
- How are you scaffolding more effective concept development as you monitor the room?
- How can you improve the quality of feedback you provide to children, without depending on correction or praise?
- How are you providing language modeling in the classroom?
- How are you documenting development you see in children?
The last part of the initial visit is the 3-way conference with the site supervisor. During this conversation, you will
- Complete the initial visit form so that you have contact information and a formalized schedule.
- Discuss the time sheet requirements and give the form to the student.
- Explain the final 3-way summative field evaluation and highlight the relationship to the observation form.
- Determine the dates for the next observations and the final 3-way conference.
- Answer any lingering questions.
The number of weeks the student selects will determine the timeline. This is a flexible and sequential schedule:
Week 1-2: Initial Visit and submission of the reflection about first observation to the BSU supervisor.
Week 2-4: Submit an activity plan for a small group activity to the BSU supervisor. The BSU supervisor will observe this activity or lesson at Visit #2. Guidance for designing activities is after the timeline in this chapter.
Week 3-6:
Second visit with a discussion of teaching. After the visit, the student submits a reflection which includes a post teaching reflection for the planned activity.
If there is any concern about the student’s progress after the visit; the BSU supervisor will submit a student of concern form. The BSU supervisor meets with the student and if possible the site supervisor to discuss the form. The goal of the meeting is to agree on the goals, a timeline, and plan for improvement. The BSU supervisor will distribute the written plan for improvement to the student, the site supervisor, the Early Education and Care Practicum Liaison (currently Dr. Susan Eliason) and the Elementary and Early Childhood Education Department Chair (currently Dr. Nicole Glen).
The student submits a second activity plan (likely for a small group) that the BSU supervisor will observe at Visit #3 which may be the final visit.
The BSU supervisor coaches, mentors, and monitors the student’s progress toward the improvement goals.
Week 4-8:
Final Visit. After the visit, the student uploads the final 3-way field evaluation and 3 observation reports to their Google Sites Portfolio.
