Project Overview for Pre-Service Teachers
This page is designed to offer additional information for pre-service teachers (and students enrolled in English 460) who will be acting as mentors and guides during the implementation of our project.
Technical Assistance
You will accomplish this task by scheduling specific times you will be available to assist on site at the "host school." If you are offerring this project from a remote location where site visitation is not feasible then you will need to set up online office hours for the students you will be mentoring. You will need to register students enrolled in the project, check their pass-words, and provide basic instruction in the use of Blackboard 5.
Journal Writing
As mentors, you will need to be sure all students understand what is required for their journals. You should make suggestions on recording, organizing, and analyzing information. Your primary purpose is to insure that students view keeping accurate and updated journals as an important and useful component that will help them during the construction of their entire project. We do not want students to view journal writing simply as an "activity." Please stress that our format is meant to assist them in the completion of their project. You will be required to read your mentee's journal submissions each week and offer suggestions to ensure that the information they have collected serves as a resource. You also need to ensure that all students understand the criteria that will be used to evaluate their journals. This information can be found on the journal assessment rubric.
Interviewing Techniques
We have provided suggestions for interviewing, but it will be most helpful for you to make sure students understand the suggestions we have made. You will be assisting students during their process of selecting approriate individuals to interview. You will also want to implement a similar methodology in assisting students to identify and request advise from experts via the Internet and in sending and responding to e-mail. Please remember that if students wish to continue receiving responses from experts using e-mail, they must respond to and thank these individuals as soon as possible.
Web Page Design and Development
Your primary objective is to identify technology resources available to students particpating in this project and to scale your site design accordingly. Students particpating in our project will have a wide range of resources available to them. Our primary objectives regarding web site design should be consistent with our student web page assessment rubric. We also want to insure that these web pages offer the opportunity for continued expansion and for interactivity. In short, view the design and development of web pages as the creation of a series of opportunities for students to share and acquire knowledge rather then merely display a finished product.
In situations where it is possible for students to visit our computer lab at the university, we might wish to work on web pages with these students and provide them with the opportunity for enhancing their pages with state of the art design programs.
Assessment
Students will be evaluated according to rubrics provided for the project. Since you will not be assigning grades for this project, your focus should be to "coach" or to direct students towards achieving expectations as they are defined within each of our rubrics. It is required that you meet with the classroom teacher in person or online to ensure that there is a clear understanding regarding the content and appropriateness of all assessment rubrics before beginning this project. If any modifications are suggested, you are responsible for submitting these requests to me for approval.
Students enrolled in Engl.460
My evaluation of students enrolled in Engl. 460 will be according to guidelines found on our course syllabus. In general, I will be looking at your degree of project participation (including class attendance) and documented evidence of your strategies and techniques used to insure the success of students you have mentored.