Joy Stapleton

Preservice teachers teach writing: Implications for teacher educators

Abstract This study examined the perceptions of preservice teachers as they reflected upon teaching the writing process to second grade students over the course of one semester. Implications for teacher educators were identified based on the findings: Preservice teachers benefited from teaching writing on a consistent basis; preservice teachers learned and applied the course content in a highly individualistic manner suggesting that they also must be scaffolded in the learning process; and the design and organization of the field‐based experience was an influential variable in their learning. Effective components of a field‐based experience included working with a small group of students, teaching in groups of three, and receiving support and feedback from a variety of sources.

Empty Tissue Boxes considering Poverty in Diversity Discourse

A preservice teacher doing her internship overhears some of her students asking a classmate why he regularly takes home empty tissue boxes. The boy replies that he builds cities and bridges with his empty boxes. His classmates then ask why he does not just build a city with Legos or building blocks. The preservice teacher listens intently as the little boy explains, matteroffactly, that he does not have any Legos or building blocks; what he does have are the empty tissue boxes his teacher saves for him. The preservice teacher begins saving empty tissue boxes to give to the child. When she gives him the tissue boxes, the child reacts as if it were the best gift in the world. A few weeks later, the clinical teacher learns that the child will be moving. The child solemnly asks his teacher to please write a letter to his new teacher, asking his new teacher to save empty tissue boxes for him. This child is not going to accept any deficit as a limitation. He is willing and able to create his own resources. For the preservice teacher, this was a lesson in the resiliency of children and the importance of knowing and understanding her students‘ diverse needs.

Developing Expertise: Using Video to Hone Teacher Candidates' Classroom Observation Skills.

ABSTRACT This article explores the impact of a video observation model developed for teacher candidates in an early experiences course. Video Grand Rounds (VGR) combines a structured observation protocol, videos, and directed debriefing to enhance teacher candidates’ observations skills within nonstructured and field-based observations. A comparative research design was employed for this VGR study, and both quantitative and qualitative data inform the results. Findings indicate that VGR teacher candidates demonstrated significantly greater growth than non-VGR teacher candidates in their abilities to focus on salient features of classroom interactions to identify the complexity of classroom interactions and to readily transfer observation skills from a video platform to an in-school platform.