Practicum+Requirement

Beginning Fall 2010, English education students (both majors and minors) will complete 10 of the required 40 hours of pre-service teaching as a part of the class requirements for English 408 (Writing for Writing Teachers). The 10 hours will connect to the Writer’s Profile assignment in which 408 students currently correspond with high school students throughout the semester and meet with the students as a whole class (either at EMU or at the high school).
 * Practicum Hours in English 408**

The revised assignment will require 10 hours of contact with high school writers. These hours can be met in the following ways: · Through the whole class visitation by the 408 class to the high school class (usually 1.5-2 hours) · Through individual visits to the classroom of the high school writer during times of writing instruction (arranged through the teacher) · Through individual visits to another class taught by the same teacher during times of writing instruction · Through visits to other teachers and classrooms during times of writing instruction, selected from a list of EMWP Teacher Consultants prepared by the English education faculty · Through visits to other approved types of tutoring and/or workshop sites that focus on writing instruction (826michigan, EMWP’s Family Literacy Initiative workshops, for example). English 408 students will need to complete the COE form on preservice hours, which will be signed by the 408 instructor.

__What should 408 students do during their observational hours?__ With approval from the teacher: · Observe your writer at work: Watch what she does during writing time, noting how she gets started, revises, etc. · Talk to your writer about writing: What does he think about writing? How does he get started? What revising strategies work best for him? What kinds of writing does he like or dislike? · Observe the teacher at work. Watch how she structures time, encourages students to write, assigns writing and assesses writing. · Talk to the teacher about how he teaches writing: Why does he teach writing in the way he does? What kinds of assignments seem to work best? How does he deal with commenting on writing? Assessing writing? · Observe the context of the class. Watch the interaction among students, between and among students and teachers. Notice the reactions of students to the assignments; look at body language of students, the physical set-up of the classroom. Listen to what students say in whole-class settings.

__What outcomes will result from the practicum hours?__ · Teacher candidates will demonstrate what they’ve learned from their contact hours with students through an expanded version of the Writer’s Profile assignment. · By observing and situating the student writer within the context of the classroom, teacher candidates will gain additional information about a particular writer; By expanding observation to the teacher and to other writers, teacher candidates will learn how to situate the case study writer within a context of high school writers and writing. Log field hours on "field experiences hours sheet: