WERKLUND SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMS IN EDUCATION

EDUC 560: FIELD EXPERIENCE IV
PARTNER TEACHER NARRATIVE ASSESSMENT
EXTENDING TEACHING AND CURRICULUM EXPERTISE

Student Teacher: Kim Whitmore ID#: 267492 School:Douglasdale

Partner Teacher: Shannon Salomons Field Instructor: Brenda Dyck

NOTE: This is not a letter of reference and will not be distributed by the WERKLUND SCHOOL OF EDUCATION to potential employers,
however potential employers may ask for this assessment from the student directly.
The purpose of this eight-week field experience is to focus on their ability to extend and deepen their understanding classroom learning as they
move towards meeting the requirements of interim certification. Upon successful completion of this Field Experience, Student Teachers are
prepared to assume the full pedagogical and professional responsibilities of a practicing teacher. Under the guidance of a Partner Teacher, the
Student Teacher has planned and assumed responsibility for 80%-100% of classroom teaching responsibilities in his/her placement classroom.
The following Narrative Assessment should address the Student Teacher’s growth and readiness in relation to the TQS outcomes, available in the
Comprehensive Field Experience Handbook. Finally, an assessment of the Student Teacher’s readiness to take on the role of teacher, including
evidence of professionalism and collegiality, should be described.
_______________________________________________________________________________
During her time in my classroom, Kim has demonstrated growth in a variety of areas, with demonstrated strengths in
the areas of: fostering effective relationships with students, demonstrating a professional body of knowledge,
establishing inclusive learning environments, as well as professionalism and collegiality.

Throughout her time in my classroom, Kim acted consistently with fairness, respect and integrity. She gave each
student equal consideration and demonstrated that she valued each child’s learning. The students looked forward to her
lessons and consistently commented on Kim’s respectful and kind demeanor. Kim took the time to connect with each
student one on one and ensure that she maintained the trust established with the students earlier in the school year.

Kim demonstrated her growing body of professional knowledge by: planning and designing learning activities that
address the learning outcomes in the program of studies, applying short, medium and long-term planning, using a
variety of instructional strategies, planning varied, engaging lessons, and designing lessons to build student capacity
for communication and collaboration. These strengths were clearly demonstrated throughout Kim’s planning and
execution of the Simple Machines/Building Things That Move unit in Science. Kim designed a comprehensive unit
plan that clearly addressed the outcomes from the program of studies. She then successfully divided her plan into
topics that she would address week by week and created detailed daily lesson plans. The lessons she created were
hands-on and highly engaging for students. Kim successfully used technology such as a document camera, smartboard,
websites (ex. cainesarcade.com) to engage students in meaningful learning tasks. Kim also explored our school and
April 13, 2020
Partner Teacher’s Signature_______________________ Date_______________________________

Student Teacher’s Signature________________________ Date_______________________________

Recommendation to the Office of Undergraduate Programs: Credit Non-Credit

Was this assessment reviewed with the student? Yes No

• Please remember to also sign and date any additional pages and attach to this form.
• Please ensure the student signs the Narrative Assessment.
• Please provide the original Narrative Assessment to the student teacher and keep a copy for your own
records.
• The student teacher is required to submit a copy of this Narrative Assessment to their Field Experience
Instructor, as per the instructions of the Field Experience Instructor, in order to receive their final grade.
public libraries for print resources that she referenced throughout the lessons and were used by students throughout
Kim’s time in our classroom. Finally, Kim designed multiple hands-on learning opportunities such as building
catapults, air powered cars and cardboard arcade games that reinforced the concepts being taught, allowed for
extension/modification for individual student needs and provided numerous opportunities for student collaboration in
pairs and small groups.

Kim successfully established and sustained an inclusive learning environment during her time at Douglasdale School.
She utilized a combination of universal and targeted strategies and supports such as: pairing verbal instructions with
visuals, informing students of the learning outcomes at the start of each lesson, giving all students access to learning
technologies such as computers/tablets/Google suite for education, small group support, graphic organizers/scribes for
students who needed additional writing support. Kim demonstrated significant growth in her classroom management
strategies as she learned to identify the scenarios that would lead to distraction and off-task behavior. She then began
to build proactive measures into her lesson plans that would support students to remain focused and on-task such as:
giving verbal instructions in small chunks, having all student materials prepped prior to the lesson, limiting the number
of materials in student work spaces during instructions, building in natural opportunities for movement and having
students repeat the directions/recap their learning back to her.

Kim consistently demonstrated collegiality and professionalism during her time at Douglasdale. She was punctual and
prepared for the day when she arrived at school, and was consistently dressed professionally and appropriately for the
day’s activities. Kim worked with our buddy class’s student teacher to plan shared activities, actively participated in
staff meetings/PLC’s/recess supervision, attended assemblies and joined in staff social gatherings. Staff, students and
family members consistently commented on Kim’s friendliness and enthusiasm for teaching.

In conclusion, it is my professional opinion that Kim will be highly successful as a classroom teacher. She
demonstrates the enthusiasm, attention to detail, planning skills, relationship building and commitment to lifelong
learning necessary to build her capacity as a professional and meet the diverse needs of students. I am confident that
Kim will be a successful, well-regarded classroom teacher in the near future and look forward to the opportunity to
work with her again in the future.

April 13, 2020

Partner Teacher’s Signature_______________________ Date_______________________________

Student Teacher’s Signature________________________ Date_______________________________

Recommendation to the Office of Undergraduate Programs: Credit Non-Credit

Was this assessment reviewed with the student? Yes No

• Please remember to also sign and date any additional pages and attach to this form.
• Please ensure the student signs the Narrative Assessment.
• Please provide the original Narrative Assessment to the student teacher and keep a copy for your own
records.
• The student teacher is required to submit a copy of this Narrative Assessment to their Field Experience
Instructor, as per the instructions of the Field Experience Instructor, in order to receive their final grade.
 WERKLUND SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMS IN EDUCATION
EDUC 560: FIELD EXPERIENCE IV
FIELD EXPERIENCE INSTRUCTOR NARRATIVE ASSESSMENT
EXTENDING TEACHING AND CURRICULUM EXPERTISE

Student Teacher: Kim Whitmore ID#: 00267492 School: Douglasdale

Elementary School

Partner Teacher: Shannon Salamons Field Instructor: Brenda Dyck

NOTE: This is not a letter of reference and will not be distributed by the WERKLUND SCHOOL OF EDUCATION to potential employers,
however potential employers may ask for this assessment from the student directly.
The purpose of this eight-week field experience is to focus on their ability to extend and deepen their understanding classroom learning as they
move towards meeting the requirements of interim certification. Upon successful completion of this Field Experience, Student Teachers are
prepared to assume the full pedagogical and professional responsibilities of a practicing teacher. Under the guidance of a Partner Teacher, the
Student Teacher has planned and assumed responsibility for 80%-100% of classroom teaching responsibilities in his/her placement classroom.
The following Narrative Assessment should address the Student Teacher’s participation in the course as a whole as well as their growth and
readiness in relation to the TQS outcomes. Finally, an assessment of the Student Teacher’s readiness to take on the role of teacher, including
evidence of professionalism and collegiality, should be described.
_______________________________________________________________________________

During Field Studies lV (Winter, 2020), Kim Whitmore returned to Douglasdale Elementary School to work with
the same Grade 4 class she worked with during Field Studies III. Returning to this same class and school enabled Kim
to draw on the prior relationships she established with the students and her Partner Teacher last term and contributed
to Kim’s growing understanding of the unique needs of the students in this class. This prior understanding of her
students also allowed Kim to plan more effectively for individual needs and to use this understanding when grouping
her students for collaboration. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak (Spring 2020), the Field Studies IV practicum was
truncated by four weeks. This narrative assessment is based on my observations of Kim’s teaching during the first four
week’s Field Studies IV.

It was evident that Kim worked hard to facilitate an atmosphere of mutual respect and caring in the classroom
(Alberta Teaching Quality Standard 1b). Her warm personality, pleasant disposition and genuine interest in the children
enabled her to develop a strong rapport with each of her students. As she taught she comfortably narrated her
thinking/observations and responded in a timely manner to unexpected student behavior. Kim is very observant,
responsive to the attentiveness (or lack of attention) in her students and capable of modifying her instructional plan
while teaching. In Kim’s Week 3 D2L reflection she explained her goal to foster effective relationships with parents and
guardians. Kim wrote: “My goal for this is to build productive relationships with not only the students, but also with
their parents/ guardians. Parents/ guardians are a very important part of student learning. If you involve them in
student learning and the things that are going on within the classroom then they have the ability to become
partners in education. I believe that if parents/ guardians know what is going on within the classroom then they can
support our program and become a valuable part of student learning. We also have a variety of field trips coming
up where I will have opportunities to connect with parents to help me build these meaningful relationships ”
(Whitmore, 2020).

Field Instructor: Brenda Dyck

Signature

Date: April 18, 2020

For Field Experience IV: Extending Teaching and Learning, the recommendation is:
Credit ( X )
Non-Credit ( )
 During one observed Grade 4 Science lesson, Kim’s lesson focused on Three Classes of Levers. She began
the lesson with a clear opener- asking students to recall what they had learned in the previous class. She asked
guiding questions such as: Who can tell me the six simple machines we talked about last class? What is the main
purpose of a simple machine? Can anyone tell me how a lever works? To make sure students were listening to their
peer’s responses, Kim asked: Did everyone hear ______? Can anyone tell me what _____ said? From here, Kim
explained that today’s lesson would build on what they had learned about levers- Three Classes of Levers. Before
watching a short video about three types of levers, Kim asked her students to think about what they should be
watching for while viewing the video. Several students responded- Kim added several ideas to what they suggested.
Setting a goal or purpose for what students should watch for helped to keep students accountable and attentive. After
watching the video, Kim asked comprehension questions to check for understanding (ex: What are the three types of
levers? What is the force, effort, load, fulcrum?). As students discussed what they had learned from the video, Kim
drew a diagram of each type of lever on the board and labeled it. In the debrief meeting after the lesson, Kim and her
Field Instructor discussed the value of involving students in instruction whenever possible- how active involvement
contributes to making a lesson more engaging and memorable for students and how in the case of the lever diagrams,
the teacher could have labeled the class one lever (modeling) and then invited several other students to label class
two and three levers.

From here Kim explained the hands-on task: to work together as a table group to use the materials at their
table to build their own Class 1, 2, and 3 levers and to draw their creations in their visual journal (on the top half of the
page). Using a document camera, Kim demonstrated how to go about doing this, reminding them to label their
creations and to pay close attention to what went in the middle of each lever. Smith & Stein (2011) suggested that “By
first anticipating the wide range of things a student might do… a teacher is in a better position to recognize and
understand what students actually do”. During Kim’s lesson it was observed that she had thought ahead when
planning her lesson, that she had purposely deciding to not place the task materials on the tables before the
instructional part of the lesson had taken place. Thinking that students would likely fiddle with the materials during the
video and while she taught, Kim decided to wait until her students were ready to start the task to hand out the
materials. It was noted that the materials were organized and ready for seamless distribution. Waiting to hand out the
materials proved to be an excellent decision- students paid attention during the instructional section of the lesson and
during the video. As students worked on building their three levers, Kim circulated among the tables, observing,
making suggestions, giving hints and watching for off-task behavior.

Wiggins and McTighe (2005) proposed that “… unpacking curriculum standards, which are not always posed
as ‘clear, consistent, and coherent educational goals’, into big ideas as well as core tasks, is necessary in order to
maximize student success” and that this enabled teachers to better identify the priorities reflected in the curriculum.
Over the course of Field III and IV Kim has developed her ability to design lessons that were based on the assessment
indicators established for the lesson (observable, measurable indicators of student learning). Making use of
assessment indicators enabled Kim to clarify in her mind (and to her students) the main objectives of the lesson and
added depth to Kim’s formative and summative assessments.

As a student teacher leaves the pre-service ranks and becomes a practicing teacher, collegial support
systems continue to be very important. I encourage Kim to continue to seek out opportunities to connect with like-
minded colleagues (face to face or through webinars) for the purpose of professional support and continued learning.
After a successful final term of Field Studies, Kim has met the criteria of Alberta’s Teaching Quality Standards
identified for EDUC 560. I wish Kim the very best as she moves onto the next leg of her learning journey as a
practicing teacher.

Field Instructor: Brenda Dyck

Signature

Date: April 18, 2020

For Field Experience IV: Extending Teaching and Learning, the recommendation is:
Credit ( X )
Non-Credit ( )