Field
Observation 2003 Information
Purpose
of the Field Observation
To observe teachers and students using a sample
of CWD materials and to gather feedback about the experience of
using the materials.
Dates
Wednesday, September 3 – Tuesday, September
16, 2003
Sites for the Observation
Our target is to schedule
ONE 7th OR 8th grade classroom in each of the schools listed below
for ONE class period. If possible, I would like them evenly divided
between Chemistry and the Constitution.
Canter
Carnegie
Dumas
Fermi
Fiske
Fuller
Kenwood A.C.
Kozminski
McCosh
Mollison
Price
Reavis
Revere
Robinson
Wadsworth
Woodson
School
setting for the Observation
Either the lab or classroom
Process for setting
up the Observation
· CWD rep recruits tech coordinator to participate in field
test.
· The tech coordinator identifies a teacher to partner with
for the field observation.
· CWD rep confirms that all participants have completed COSA.
· The tech coordinator and teacher meet with a CWD representative
for training on the materials.
· CWD rep reviews field observation info (below) with teacher
and tech coordinator.
· Set field observation date using CUIP calendar.
· Distribute CWD info.
· Get summer contact information for follow-up after August
15 when field observation materials will be available online.
· Teacher and tech coordinator should make a plan for their
field observation and email it to CWD by June 20 (see next section).
· CWD reps will be available prior to the field observation
to answer any questions.
· CWD rep needs to document training, either with a sign-in
sheet or evaluation form.
Making
a Plan for the Observation
The plan for field observation is simply a statement about how
the teacher and tech coordinator intend to set up their classroom
or lab to use the lesson. A plan includes the following information:
· Where will the field observation take place (classroom
or lab)?
· What materials are going to be used (chemistry or constitution)?
· What is the grade level of students (7th or 8th)?
· Is any special equipment needed, such as a projector?
· Who will be leading the group? Just the teacher? The teacher
and tech coordinator?
· What is the instructional scenario they envision? Refer
to the section called Examples of Instructional
Scenarios from Past Field Tests for ideas.
The
Day of the Field Test
· In the days preceding the field observation, CWD staff
will drop off permission slips for students to participate in the
field test and can answer any last minute questions, review the
plan, etc.
· On the day of the field observation, CWD staff will arrive
at the school and help set up the lab or classroom for the test
(turn on computers, display the lesson to be used, etc.).
· The teacher and tech coordinator will carry out the plan
they submitted to CWD in June.
· CWD staff will observe and will use a standardized form
to document the observation.
· CWD staff will help with troubleshooting but are not involved
in instruction.
· At the end of the class period, teacher and tech coordinator
ask students questions about their experience with the materials.
Questions may be provided by CWD.
· CWD will provide teachers with packs of Skittles to distribute
to students who participated in the field observation.
· Teachers will complete a survey or provide other feedback
immediately following the field observation.
Examples
of Instructional Scenarios from Past Field Tests
The following are observations from WebDocent field-testing
of the lesson Losing
the Farm, conducted in June 2002. They illustrate typical instructional
scenarios for using CWD lessons with students.
Karen George, a 5th grade teacher at Clinton Elementary School,
assembled her class of 24 students in the school computer lab. She
distributed a list of 27 vocabulary words from the tour Losing the
Farm, the story of Woody, whose family is forced to leave their
tenant farm when the Dust Bowl and Great Depression strike. The
tour is from the module on Economics in American History for 4th
and 5th graders.
In the computer lab students used Internet resources
to find definitions to the vocabulary words, which they wrote out
on notebook paper. With the assistance of Carole Rivera, the Technology
Coordinator, students conducted research on topics related to the
Great Depression. Students printed out their research and assembled
it back in the classroom as a study guide. One example of a study
guide includes lyrics from a Woody Guthrie song, transcripts from
Dust Bowl survivors, information on the Civilian Conservation Corps,
and a 10-question geography quiz focusing on Oklahoma. One student
bound her study guide in purple construction paper. She decorated
the cover with a cut-out map of Oklahoma she printed from an Internet
resource, and drew a picture of the sun and a barn. In purple and
black lettering, she titled her guide Losing the Farm.
The next day Ms. George brought her class back to
the computer lab. Students arranged chairs “auditorium style”
in front of the tour Losing the Farm, which was projected on a screen.
Ms. George started out by reading the first page. When she encountered
a vocabulary word, she asked students to volunteer the definition.
To check answers, Ms. George clicked on the link to the Words to
Know box, which opens to an “encyclopedia” of words
and images associated with the tour. After checking vocabulary words,
Ms. George clicked on the link to view the full-size picture of
Woody, which is displayed as a thumbnail on the page. She asked
students to describe what they saw. One student said, “He
looks sad.” “Why does he look sad?” Ms. George
asked. The students chimed in their answers. “He isn’t
smiling.” “His head is down.” “The picture
is black and white.”
Ms. George asked students to take turns reading pages
out loud to the group, consulting the Words to Know box when necessary
and spending time discussing the pictures with students. Occasionally
Ms. George would add a Language Arts question. She asked what literary
technique was at work when Woody says “I believe I could have
built a million dirt snowmen that day.” “Hyperbole!”
called out a student.
Near the end of the class period, Ms. George exited
the tour and went to the Library of Congress’s American Memory
site, where students looked at a collection of images from the Dust
Bowl, including Dorothea Lang’s famous “Migrant Mothers”
series. Students were especially interested in how people traveled
from Oklahoma to California. They asked Ms. George, “How did
they get gasoline?” “Where did they sleep?” “Did
they have any money?” “What about food?”
It was time to return to the classroom. The lights
came on and the students replaced chairs. Then they lined up and
left the lab, thanking Ms. Rivera.
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Alison Bendarsky, a 4th grade teacher at Ariel Community
Academy, brought her students to the school computer lab at 10:15.
Ms. Bendarsky assembled 14 pairs of students¾a strong reader
with a student who needs help with reading. She seated each pair
at a computer, while the Technology Coordinator, Edie Fabiyi, set
up the tour, Losing the Farm, on a projector.
“What do you know about the Great Depression?”
Ms. Bendarsky asked the students. A boy raised his hand. “It
was a time when everyone lost their money and were real poor.”
Another student answered “It was a time when people were real
sad.” Several children began sharing answers.
“This is Woody,” Ms. Bendarsky continued,
pointing to the projected image of a boy. “His father was
a tenant farmer. That means he did not own the farm he worked on.
His family had to leave the farm after the Dust Bowl and the Great
Depression. Does anyone remember learning about the Dust Bowl.”
Hands went up. “It got real dark and dusty.” “The
plants didn’t grow.” “People were hungry.”
Ms. Bendarsky paused after reading the first page
to point out the clickable features. Using the projector to demonstrate,
she showed students how to go to the next and previous pages, how
to open and close a picture box, and how to use the Words to Know
box. “The red J means there is a journal question on this
page. Today we aren’t going to work on the journal questions,
we’ll just read the tour.”
Ms. Bendarsky instructed students to take turns reading
out loud to each other. Students huddled together and quietly began
reading. In a few minutes, a low of hum of voices could be heard.
Ms. Bendarsky and Ms. Fabiyi circulated around the room. They consulted
the Progress Bar at the top of the tour page to track how far along
students were in the tour.
After 10 minutes, Ms. Bendarsky asked the students
to pause. “Does anyone have any questions? Any problems? You
should be up to page 13 by now.” Then students resumed reading.
Ms. Bendarsky checked progress 15 minutes later.
At that point she told students they would stop at 11:05 to return
to their classroom.
After students left the lab, Ms. Fabiyi went
around to the computers to exit from the tours. She discovered that
a pair of girls who had been reading together wrote an answer in
the online journal. To the question, “How would you feel if
you had to work as a laborer instead of going to school,”
they responded, “We would be sad and would work to try to
change things.”
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