VAN BUREN - Ashley Mitchell, a teacher-in-training from Springdale, noticed how a first-grade boy became quiet when reading out loud with his teacher and two other children.
“On the computer, he was super excited, talking to himself,” said Mitchell, a senior at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith. “In a group setting, he’s not as interactive with his peers.”
Mitchell is among a select group of seniors from the university participating in a program this semester that places classes for teachers-in-training on the campusof Central Elementary School in Van Buren, rather than on the university campus. As part of an assignment for her Assessment of the Young Child class, Mitchell had to choose one child to observe in Kristie Mendez’s classroom at Central Elementary, paying attention to the child’s temperament, activities that excite him, how he interacted with other children and his use of language.
This is the second semester that the university is offering four senior-level courses at Central Elementary School through a “professional development school” model the university and Van Buren School District have started,said Laura Witherington, director of school partnerships for the university. The classes meet at the elementary school so that the university students can observe teachers in action in conjunction with lessons in their textbooks on those teaching skills.
The professional-development school mimics medical school for doctors, Witherington said. Doctors take classes, but toward the end of their class work, they work alongside professionals in rotations and have opportunities to ask questions about treatments and help with the care of patients.
Thousands of public schools across the countryinvite teacher candidates onto their campuses, but a professional-development school model involves more, said Bruce Field, former president of the National Association for Professional Development Schools. The association, which formed in 2005, has an annual membership of about 1,000 educators.
The professional-development school creates a closer relationship between universities and schools, said Field, who coordinates partnerships between public schools and the University of South Carolina. The concept has existed since the mid-1980s.
“You’re preparing thenext generation of teachers, sustaining the current generation of teachers and engaging in collaborative research to benefit the profession,” Field said.
TEACHERS-IN-TRAINING
Before they begin student-teacher internships, all university students must work with a mentor teacher and complete 60 hours of observation, Witherington said. The university students in the professional development school complete additional hours of observation on top of those 60 hours.
Teachers-in-training had to apply to be in the professional-development school, said Deebe Milford, an assistant professor in the College of Education who teaches the Practicum II class at Central. Ten seniors out of about 45 were selected this semester. Milford’s students have studied note-taking and group work in their textbooks and then walked down the hall to seeteachers at Central using those strategies with their pupils. Milford’s students were invited this week to a meeting of first-year teachers who were in a training session with their principal and a curriculum coach.
“It truly makes sense when they’re able to see what we’ve taught them in action,” Milford said. “It’s just very natural.”
Chelsea Jones, who grew up in Van Buren, had studied the use of reading workshops for elementary students, but she said she had a hard time envisioning how she might pull aside small groups while her other pupils read by themselves or with a partner.
“I don’t understand how you’re supposed to keep it going and not have kids outof control,” she said.
When Jones went to Mendez’s classroom for her assessment class, Jones saw Mendez pull groups of three or four first-graders to hear them read out loud. Mendez gave the other children freedom to find a comfortable spot in the classroom, whether in a desk or on the floor, to read as many books as they can from a bucket.
“I get to see the teacher interact with a small group and the other groups are going at the same time,” Jones said. “It gives me more confidence.”
During the visit, Mitchell saw the difference in behavior of the 6-year-old boy when he played games on the computer and when he read A Birthday Cake for Ben at a table with two other children and Mendez.
Mitchell also saw a bookmark Mendez created for each child in her class. The bookmark list has illustrations to remind children of reading strategies to use. Tips include looking at the book’s pictures, seeing if the words make sense with the pictures and drawing aline under each letter of a word.
“The most important skill you can teach a first-grader is to read,” Mendez said. Of the bookmark, she said, “It’s just my interpretation of the best reading instruction that we use.”DISCUSSING OBSERVATIONS
After observing the reading class, the university students returned to a classroom set aside for them to meet. They spent time discussing what they observed with Ginger Osburn, an assistant professor who is teaching the assessment class at Central. Osburn told Mitchell that the children in Mendez’s class can explain which reading strategies are helping them as they read.
During the classroom observation, Hannah Watlington, a teacher-in-training from Fort Smith, spent time with a lively boy who would get distracted when he was supposed to be reading. Osburn advised Watlington and her classmates to think how they might help keep a child focused in their classrooms. They talked aboutfinding books that would keep his attention and offering lots of support and encouragement.
The future teachers can reflect on the different children they saw in Mendez’s classroom and think about how they might respond to similar children when they have their own classrooms, Osburn said.
New national accreditation standards encourage teacher preparation programs to work more closely with the schools where their graduates will be working, and the professional-development school model fosters that kind of a close relationship, Witherington said. The model is challenging to implement because space is limited.
Witherington anticipates that the professional-development school will remain an option for university students. University officials hope the model will increase the quality of teachers, she said.
Witherington plans to expand the professional-development school in January with the addition of a junior high school, she said.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 15 on 09/29/2013