Journaling has a critical role to play as you move through your clinical practice. Journaling provides opportunities for you to reflect on the contextual factors of the school, and your understanding of the occurrences that you observe; it is not a repository for minute-to-minute recording of incidents. Further, journaling promotes your ability to reflect on your experiences in and out of the P – 12 classroom, and to share your impressions of the events in which you engage with faculty who are entrusted with your guidance and supervision. Journal Expectations Timeliness: Teacher candidate submits weekly journal entries as requested without reminders. Critical Thinking: Teacher candidate responds to journal prompts with substantial information demonstrating 1) application of knowledge, 2) connections between experience and content taught in preparation program. Substantive Entry: Teacher candidate submits organized and logically sequenced journal and reflection responses. The entry contains detailed information, connections and reflections of experience. Writing: Teacher candidate communicates effectively in writing using correct grammar, punctuation and spelling. Reflection: Teacher candidate deeply reflects on his/her own practice with evidence of analysis, synthesis or evaluation. Provides detailed examples and makes connections between practice, research and theory. Instructions: 1. Use the weekly template, linked below, to respond to the journal and reflection writing prompt.2. Save (Save As) your journal entry in a location where you will be able to retrieve it for submission and reference. 3. E-mail your weekly journal entry as an attachment to your clinical supervisor. Submit your journal entries as requested by your seminar instructor.4. Write your journal entry using academic language. Proof read your work. Remember: Do not use student, teacher or other staff names in any journal entry. The journal is used to build an understanding of community, school and classroom factors; and to provide an opportunity to reflect on your professional practice and observations. It is not appropriate to pass judgement. Each journal and reflection prompt supports candidates’ growth in the COE Competencies and are tagged with the competency(s) to which they are aligned. Clinical Practice I Journal Expectations and Prompts Week Clinical Practice I Journal Prompts(Revised August 2021) Week 1 Journal Prompt: Review the school website and share the school’s mission statement. Describe how this mission statement aligns with your goals for the school year. What opportunities are there for you to support the school’s mission statement? Find out about and describe how you might participate in the following professional activities: grade meetings, co-planning lessons, family night, IEP meetings, communication with families (i.e., introduction letter). (C15) Week 2 Journal Prompt: Meet with your CE and discuss their professional expectations for your internship. Describe your schedule for the semester. Specifically, describe 1) when you will attempt using different co-teaching models; 2) new classroom responsibilities and tasks; 3) the plan for teaching lessons. Review: Guide for Clinical Practice I Thinking forward: What professional skills/ dispositions do you plan to practice this semester? How do you intend to improve this area? (C16) Week 3 Journal Prompt: Describe three routines your CE uses to facilitate a healthy, safe and organized learning environment. Next describe how you and your CE learn about your students’ cultural and personal backgrounds. How would you use information about students to inform your curriculum? (C3) Week 4 Journal Prompt: After a few weeks in the classroom, how do you and your CE learn/ research the interests, strengths, and needs of your students? How can students’ assets and needs influence your instructional planning? Think about one learner. What are some strengths and interests the student has (cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional and physical)? How can you use the student’s strengths and interests to design lessons which tap these assets? (C1) Week 5 Reflection Prompt: Name at least three effective instructional strategies you have observed. Which strategies do you intend to incorporate in your own lessons? How are these strategies supported by research? Why do you think they are effective? (C11) Week 6 Reflection Prompt: How do your students know specific learning goals/ evaluation criteria for a lesson you taught? Describe and given an example of a time when you shared specific feedback with a learner. What feedback did you share? How did you provide feedback? How did the learner use / apply the feedback? Describe how you know the learner understood or did not understand your feedback. (C10) Week 7 Journal Prompt: In your own words, what is classroom management? Management is often referred to as “invisible” when implemented successfully. What are some strategies your Clinical Educator and you use to help develop a safe and positive community of learning? Share an example of when you attempted a strategy. Explain whether the strategy worked or not and why. (C3) Week 8 Journal Prompt: Probing and eliciting learners’ responses requires many techniques (rephrasing using students’ response, wait time, affirmation). To deepen learners’ understanding we must vary the questions we ask and follow up on learners’ responses. What techniques or strategies do you use to improve your questioning strategies? What is an example of a time during a lesson when you attempted to deepen a learner’s understanding based on the learner’s response (i.e., learner did not respond, only responded with one word, offered an unexpected response, or answered incorrectly)? (C12) Week 9 Reflection Prompt: What assessment tools have you used to measure learning objectives? How do you ensure that assessment tools used align with learning objectives? Think of a recent lesson you taught; share one informal and one formal assessment you used. How did the results of this assessment indicate learners’ progress in meeting objectives? (C8) Week 10 Reflection Prompt: Select one lesson. Look carefully at the data from one assessment (formal or informal). Considering the objective this assessment was designed to measure, describe the performance of the whole class. Focus on one student’s performance; describe your next steps to support this student’s meeting of the learning objective (i.e. additional supports; reteaching; flexible grouping; scaffolding material) (C9) Week 11 Reflection Prompt: Describe a variety of language supports used to support learners’ understanding and use of the content-related academic language. Select one lesson and give specific examples of how you understandings related to the learning experience. (C7) Week 12 Journal Prompt: Select a lesson you recently taught that integrated technology; analyze assessment data from this lesson. While analyzing the lesson’s assessment data, reflect back to “how” you taught the lesson and how the technology supported student growth. Make connections between students’ strengths and weaknesses and the specific strategies/ techniques you used. Next, identify teaching strategies, resources, and materials that may improve the lesson. What steps will you take to improve your teaching. What goals do you have for CPII? (C14) Week 13 Journal Prompt: Give at least two specific examples of either planned or on-the-spot strategies you used to integrate accommodations and differentiated instruction in your lessons. Reflect on the challenges and lessons you have learned from supporting students’ varied needs. What differentiation advice might you share with a colleague? (C2) Week 14 Journal Prompt: What concerns have you overcome during Clinical Practice I? Identify THREE instructional goals (avoid referring to time-management/ classroom management) you have for Clinical Practice II?
