Student Teaching: Provides Teacher Candidate with an intensive and extensive full-time culminating activity. Candidates are immersed in the learning community and are provided opportunities to develop and demonstrate competence in the professional roles for which they are preparing including an ability to teach all learners. Candidates apply content area pedagogy and methodology.
Corresponding Courses
- EDUC 475/672: Student Teaching
- EDLL 475: Student Teaching/ESOL
- SPED 475/575: Student Teaching
Stages of Responsibility
Student teaching is a progression of collaborative experiences scaffolded through the expertise and modeling of the cooperating teacher, other building personnel, and the university supervisor. Teacher candidates assume responsibility for classroom teaching through the gradual process of collaborating with their cooperating teachers. Please see Opportunities for Learning & Teaching during Field Experience for a list of specific activities to consider during stages 1-4.
- Stage 1: Orientation – Observing a master teacher establish classroom procedures, assess student needs, and introduce teacher candidates to the school and classroom is important for all teacher candidates. Becoming acquainted with staff members, students, and the school building is the initial step in student teaching. Teacher candidates should familiarize themselves with the instructional and the non-instructional duties that teachers perform each day, as well as the students’ backgrounds and specific curriculum requirements for the school.
- Stage 2: Observation – During the first weeks of the fall field experience, the teacher candidate observes the cooperating teacher in the classroom, focusing on how expectations are clarified to students, interpersonal style with students, methods of instruction, time management, etc. During this period, the teacher candidate may also benefit from observing other teachers. It is at this time that the “One teach, one observe” approach might be the most prevalent collaborative model. Please be reminded that observation must be purposeful.
- Stage 3: Participation as a Team Member – The teacher candidate should rapidly begin to assume minor roles in the classroom by helping with class routines, monitoring students, and working with individuals and small groups. This is the perfect time to utilize the “One teach, one assist” approach in which one teacher provides assistance as needed to students around the classroom while the other leads the entire group. This might be the stage in which to transition into parallel or station teaching.
- Stage 4: Increased Collaboration – As comfort with their collaborative roles increases, the teacher candidate and cooperating teacher develop a tentative schedule of how the teacher candidate will assume increasing responsibilities. The plan should call for the teacher candidate to gradually increase their collaborative contributions each week. This typically includes increased parallel, shared, and station teaching. In many cases, the teacher candidate may begin teaching a lesson from the cooperating teacher’s plans. Often it is advantageous to first observe the cooperating teacher, then model and adapt the plans during a subsequent class period. Later, of course, the teacher candidate should create their own plans. During this stage, it is essential that the teacher candidate becomes facile with classroom routines and curriculum materials as they collaborate on planning objectives, appropriate learning experiences, and the evaluation of future units of study. The teacher candidate should be preparing to implement the unit of study they are designing, in a manner that integrates into the existing classroom structure.
*For candidates completing fall Field Experience in the classroom where they will be Student Teaching: the candidate is encouraged to reach Stage 4: Increased Collaboration prior to entering full-time Student Teaching, with the cooperating teacher’s support and guidance, at a pace that is comfortable to both parties.
*For candidates who haven’t yet had an opportunity to develop a relationship with a teaching and learning community prior to full-time Student Teaching: the candidate should plan to progress through Stages 1-4 more rapidly as a co-teaching team, so as to reach Stage 5: Assuming Teaching Responsibilities at an adequate time to take the lead.
The following is a suggested timeline for transitioning to and from lead teaching:
– See sample schedules for elementary multiple subjects, secondary single subjects, 9-week placements, and half-time full year placements in Appendix 10 of the Student Teaching Handbook.
– Teacher candidates will benefit from any additional opportunities to develop their teaching skills, and may take the lead for more than 5 weeks of the placement if agreed on by the supervision team.
– The length of transition weeks prior to and after Lead Teaching can also be approached flexibly.
- Stage 5: Assuming Teaching Responsibilities – During this stage, the teacher candidate begins to take responsibility for leading the collaboration for an entire lesson, class periods, and eventually whole days. The teacher candidate and cooperating teacher should jointly determine when it is appropriate to make this transition. Before teaching lessons, the teacher candidate should discuss plans with the cooperating teacher, looking for appropriateness of objectives, time allotments, types of activities, prepared handouts, tests, and any suggestions. It is important for both collaborators to reflect on the lessons after they have been taught. During this stage, the “One teach to the whole group, one teach one-on-one or small group” collaborative approach is particularly useful.
Often cooperating teachers find it beneficial to be absent from the first part of a lesson led by the teacher candidate, and discreetly reappear during the lesson. (While in the class, cooperating teachers will invariably find that their students continue to ask them questions. It is useful for the cooperating teacher to redirect students to the teacher candidate, letting them know that “______ is your teacher today.”).
Although constant observation by a cooperating teacher is not necessary, it is important to frequently monitor lessons and provide regular written feedback, encouragement, and suggestions both orally and in writing to the teacher candidate. A weekly formal observation followed by a conference can be extremely valuable (see Supervision Protocol).
Under any of the collaborative teaching partnership models, when the teacher candidate is taking the lead on planning, they must adhere to the lesson plan policy in the school and share/discuss all lesson and unit plans with their cooperating teacher in advance. Those plans must be shared with the cooperating teacher prior to teaching. This is important not only to inform the cooperating teacher but also to solicit suggestions. Although consistency is important for students in the class, teacher candidates should also be encouraged to experiment with new approaches and develop their own teaching styles.
For formal lesson observations, lesson plans must be shared with the observer (Cooperating Teacher and/or University Supervisor) at least 24 hours prior the lesson. While lesson plans do not need to be the full edTPA template for day-to-day planning or for observations, they must include the following elements at a minimum:
- State-adopted student academic content standards that are the target of student learning
- Learning objectives associated with the content standards
- Formal and informal assessments used to monitor student learning, including type(s) of assessment and what is being assessed
- Instructional strategies and learning tasks (including what you and the students will be doing) that support diverse student needs
- Instructional resources and materials used to engage students in learning
The candidates are learning to utilize a variety of lesson plan templates to find ones that best suit their style, but there are sample templates that may be used here.
Cooperating Teachers and University Supervisors, please complete Observation Reports to Google Forms (using the unique links provided) within 72 hours after a formal observation.