Running head: FIELD WORK ASSIGNMENT !

Field Work Assignment

Caleb Ricks

National University 

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Field Work Assignment

My observation for my fieldwork assignment took place on Monday, April 22 at Tahquitz

High School in the Hemet Unified School District. This school is a Title 1 school with 100% of

its students receiving a free/reduced lunch. I have worked in this district before as an AVID tutor

and am aware the that the students who attend this school come from lower socioeconomic

statuses. In fact, according to the SARC report (2019), 81.6% of students who attend Tahquitz

High School are socioeconomically disadvantaged and 9.1% of the students are English learners.

As I was observing the class, I noticed that the high population of English learners (nearly ten

percent of the student population) had created some interesting challenges in the class. Before

her first period class came in, Mrs. Rogers notified me that her freshman English classes average

at about a third grade reading level. With this in mind, I made sure to pay close attention to

methods Mrs. Rogers employed to help her students read novels and construct effective essays.

When I first walked into Mrs. Rogers’ classroom, I immediately noticed how well

decorated and inviting it was. Her class walls are littered with college flags, pictures of college

mascots, student work, inspirational posters, and art. I believe she did this so as to encourage her

students to have an interest in colleges. The school’s mission, according to the SARC report

(2019) is: “We will empower all students to be college and career ready when they graduate from

Tahquitz by creating pathways for their success through quality instruction in a safe learning

environment.” It is my understanding that the decoration of Mrs. Rogers’ room was to serve as a

point of inspiration for students. Many of the students at Tahquitz High School come from

families where there are no college graduates, meaning that these students do not know about

college or do not consider college as an option. Furthermore, many of the students who do attend
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college are the first in their family to do so. I found this to be significant because in this program,

we are aspiring to become inspiring teachers, and decorating our classrooms with college gear is

one of the many ways we can inspire our students to reach their highest potential.

Mrs. Rogers’ class was also very well organized. On the white board, she had the EQ

(essential question) written on the board and later told me that she bases the daily EQ on state

standards. For the day that I visited, the EQ read, “Analyze various elements of the novella Of

Mice and Men to prepare for a written persuasive essay with text evidence.” Next to the essential

question was the student learning object, or what Mrs. Rogers labels as “I can.” For that day, the

“I can” stated that students would be able to outline their claims with textual evidence, organize

plot events, analyze themes, and collaborate about writing structures. In terms of collaboration, it

was obvious that Mrs. Rogers had set her classroom up so that her students could discuss the

assignments and work on them together. The desks were arranged into table with six students

seated at each table. The students were encouraged to collaborate on the assignment for the day

using Chromebooks as each student had their own laptop to use during class. However, before

discussing the assignment of the day and how it was taught, it is essential to describe the

teaching environment in the classroom.

Mrs. Rogers co-teaches with Ms. Robles, but she only co-teaches during first and third

period. During the rest of the day, Mrs. Rogers teaches the class alone. This is the first time I had

been able to observe co-teaching in practice. According to Pratt, Imbody, Wolf, & Patterson

(2017), “Co-teaching is commonly defined as a partnership between a general education teacher

and a special education teacher that includes shared planning, instruction, and assessment of

students with and without disabilities.” Though Graziano & Navarrete (2012) outline six
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different types of co-teaching, Mrs. Rogers and Ms. Robles best exemplified parallel teaching

(both are teaching same info but divide class and teach simultaneously) and team teaching (both

teachers instruct the same lesson at the same time). There are many benefits to teaching this way.

According to Pratt et al (2017), co-teaching provides less restrictive learning environments,

supports students who need additional attention, and allows the two instructor’s learning styles

to complement one another. Mrs. Rogers and Ms. Robles had great chemistry and it was obvious

that the two of them had met and collaborated on the day’s lesson. They both stood at the front of

the room to explain the directions to the class. They took turns speaking and would often build

upon what the other had said. Also, while one was instructing the class, the other would circle the

room to check students’ binders and homework at the beginning of class. When the students

broke up into groups, both teacher circulated throughout the room to help each group.

When students first walked into the room, Mrs. Rogers had them grab a Chromebook and

take a seat at their desks. On the SmartBoard was a quote by Martin Luther King, Jr. that the

students were to analyze, highlight the main claim, and complete a writing sentence frame as a

warm-up. The writing sentence frame is displayed below:

In the quote by ___________________ he states, “____________.” This means _________.

This is important because ______________.

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As I had previously stated, Mrs. Rogers had notified me that her high school students

were at a third grade reading level. She explained that scaffolds, such as the one above, allow

students to organize and frame their writing to better formulate concise, constructive paragraphs

for their essays. Mrs. Rogers and Ms. Robles then selected certain students to share their quote

analysis. When the student was selected, he or she was to stand while speaking and giving his/

her answer to the class. I thought this was a great way to teach students how to speak confidently

before an audience as they will have to do this in both college and in the workforce. Of course,

the students rolled their eyes when they were reminded to stand while speaking, but I truly

believe that this is a beneficial exercise that teaches students confidence during public speaking.

As the student was discussing to the class how she analyzed the MLK quote, Mrs. Rogers broke

down the quote on the SmartBoard, underlined specific parts of the quote using different colors,

and highlighted the main claim to model for her students how it should be done. Once the warm-

up was finished, Mrs. Rogers and Ms. Robles divided the students into their respective groups so

that that could collaborate on their Of Mice and Men assignment.

Mrs. Rogers and Ms. Robles have created a station function for this project. In groups,

the students cycled through different stations and scanned a QR code (see below) on a piece of

paper using the cameras on their Chromebooks. Once the QR code was scanned, a prompt

appeared on the screens for the students to complete.

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Seeing the QR code in action in the classroom was amazing. Instead of typing out worksheets for

each individual station, Mrs. Rogers was able to use Google Classroom to create a system of QR

codes that, when scanned, link the student to the correlating assignment. Seeing this firsthand

truly revealed to me how education in the classroom has been revolutionized by technology. As

Spring (2018) explains regarding technology in the classroom, technology “is speeding the

global flow of information and creating a library of world knowledges.” By using the QR code,

Mrs. Rogers not only created a way to teach the lesson more quickly by speeding the flow of

information between herself and her students, but she has also connected her students to wealth

of information by allowing them to explore online resources that are linked to the QR code. The

technological set up of this lesson absolutely blew my mind, and so I decided to inspect each

station closely and interact with the students at each station.

The first station I examined was called “Station 1: Events Timeline.” At this station,

students, after scanning the QR code, where given events from Of Mice and Men out of order

and were required to arrange the events in chronological order. Additionally, students had to add

five more events to the timeline that they thought were significant. When I asked one student

what he thought the purpose of the exercise was, he informed me that he believed knowing the

sequence of events allows him to organize his claims for his essay. This is a great way to have

students connect the events in the story to better understand themes and motifs. This exercise

also exemplifies what Slavin ( 2017) describes as outlining and concept mapping. Slavin (2017)

states that outlining “presents the main points of the material in a hierarchical format, with each

detail organized under a higher-level category.” It is easy to see how this exercise allows the

students to construct a hierarchy of events from most important to least important to complete
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their timelines. In turn, these timelines with significant events can be used to construct an essay

regarding theme.

The next station I observed was called “11 Sentence Review.” At this station, students

scanned the QR code and were given a paragraph from Of Mice and Men that contained

important thematic information that one would need to construct an essay. Within this paragraph,

students were required highlight sentences according to specific topics. According to Slavin

(2017), examining the structure of a paragraph is an excellent example of scaffolding where

“higher mental functions, including the ability to direct memory and attention in a purposeful

way and to think in symbols, are mediated behaviors.” The ability to construct the paragraph and

link ideas are mediated by the different colored sentences that the students have highlighted. The

idea, Slavin (2017) explains, is that the students will be able to internalize the symbols of

different colors “so that students will master and internalize the skills that permit higher

cognitive functioning.” By understanding how the topic sentence (yellow) leads to the claims

(blue) that are in turn supported by evidence (pink), Mrs. Rogers hopes that this method of

scaffolding will allow her students to internalize the structure of a successful paragraph.

Furthermore, Slavin (2017) explains, “Scaffolding might include giving students more structure

at the beginning of a set of lessons and gradually turning responsibility over to them to operate

on their own.” If students can internalize this scaffold, then they can write their own paragraphs.

I also witnessed a station that used infographics and graphic organizers to explore the

ideas of theme. When the students scanned the QR code at this station, they were able to access

the template of a graphic organizer that helped to clarify the theme of Of Mice and Men. The

students were required to fill the graphic organizer with quotes and pictures that helped to
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illustrate the theme. The purpose of this station was for students to emphasize how the theme

links to the claims they made in their essay and vice-versa because well-written essays are

recursive in nature. As Slavin (2017), this type of activity “puts reading in a meaningful and

motivational context.” It transforms the text from one form to another, from written to visual. For

visual learners, this may be a great opportunity for them to get a strong grasp on the themes in

the novella and on the claims they are making in their essays. It also provides a more creative

outlet for students to explore concepts.

My greatest takeaway from my observation is the successful collaboration. The students

were eager to discuss the elements of text and support one another complete the assignment.

Though they sometimes got off task, the students ultimately stayed within the confines of the

assignment and stayed on task. Seeing this type of collaboration was an excellent example of

constructivist approaches to writing (Slavin, 2017). Slavin (2017) states that a constructivist

approach to writing “engage[s] students in small peer-response teams in which they work

together to help one another plan, draft, revise, edit, and ‘publish’ compositions.”

Furthermore,” In the process of responding to others’ compositions, children gain insight into the

process of writing and revision” (Slavin, 2017). I witnessed students gain a better understanding

of how to write an excellent paragraph by reading their peers’ paragraphs, discussing the

construction of each one, and using these ideas in their own paragraphs. In regards to the type of

collaborative instruction this lesson employed, Slavin (2017) explains, “Strategies that provide

specific scaffolding, such as instruction in graphic organizers to help children use metacognitive

strategies for planning and evaluating their own work, have been particularly effective.” Mrs.
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Rogers and Ms. Robles had created a collaborative assignment that will be extremely effective as

the students continue to construct their essays and improve their own writing. 

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References

Graziano, K. J., & Navarrete, L. A. (2012). Co-Teaching in a Teacher Education Classroom.

Collaboration, Compromise, and Creativity. Issues in Teacher Education, 21(1), 109–126.

Retrieved from http://search. ebscohost.com.nuls.idm.oclc.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db

=e hh&AN=82827134&site=ehost-live

Pratt, S. M., Imbody, S. M., Wolf, L. D., & Patterson, A. L. (2017). Co-planning in co-teaching:

A practical solution. Intervention in School and Clinic, 52(4), 243–249. https://doi.org/

10.1177/1053451216659474

Slavin, Robert E. (2017). Educational psychology (12th ed.). New York, NY: Pearson.

Spring, Joel (2018). American education (18th ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.
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Interview

1. How long have you been teaching for?

• graduated from University of San Diego and received master’s from National
University

• teaching for 17 years (taught middle school for 15 years and high school for 3)

• when switched to high school, completely intimidated but later better aboe to relate
to students

• feels middle schoolers more extrinsically motivated to please teacher

• middle school is best for new teachers because builds foundational skills

2. What is it like teaching at a Title 1 school?

• many students from high-poverty backgrounds

• 84% of students below poverty line

• majority of students at 3rd and 4th grade reading level

• majority of her students are SPED

• learning for students is 60% life skills, 40% academic

• entire school is 100% free/reduced lunch for all students

• students’ life experiences are heart-wrenching, gangs, and must take into account
that students’ home lives are unpredictable

• many students English Learners

3. How has co-teaching worked in your classroom?

• been co-teaching for 2 years with same teacher

• good chemistry and meet once a week to plan and often text/email

• class better managed when co-taught and better able to support students
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• since many students SPED, students need extra help

• both teachers have equal authority and respect

4. How do you manage behavior in your classroom?

• SLANT (acronym for how to show professionalism)

• Sit up, Listen, Answer, Nod, Track speaker

• uses marbles as form of classroom management

• good behavior/participation = marbles added to jar

• each “shush” = handful of marbles from jar

• when jar full, students get movie day

• despite being high schoolers, very responsive to marbles

5. How do you facilitate collaboration in the classroom?

• desks in tables

• techno classroom is collaborative by nature

• usually collaborate at stations during class

• constant redirection and proximity to groups to manage behavior

• is personable with students, jokes with them when in groups, then redirects to
assignment

• many group projects as well as individual collaborative assignments

• collaboration in classroom emphasized as life skill

6. How do you collaborate with other teachers?

• co-teaching excellent for collaboration

• co-teaching allows one to build weaknesses since constantly observed

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• co-teaching is complementary so instruction is stronger

• allows slight break from instruction

• multitasking during co-teaching = time management

• teaching department also collaborative since share lesson plans, experiences, advice

• department like support group

• administration also helpful in managing behavior and supporting teachers in

classroom

7. How do you contribute to student success and growth?

• By teaching their students life skills such as collaboration and teamwork, teachers are

able to see their students bloom

• see students derive pleasure from their own success

• witness students attend and graduate college, start families, and pursue their dreams

8. How has technology influenced education in your classroom?

• Google Classroom has greatly increased collaboration

• classroom has become paperless and mostly electronic

• most assignments submitted and graded online

• allows for more creative assignments and learning through different platforms

• prepares students to work with technology in work force and real world

• students learn how to use word documents, processing software, etc.

• classroom is very visual (SmartBoard, projector, etc.)