Student Teaching Resource Page: Introduction and Overview

Teacher Candidate’s (TC) Role and Responsibilities

Professional Expectations

Overall:

• Be present. Embrace this challenging experience to learn as much as possible about teaching and learning, supporting students, and developing as a nimble, aware artist educator. Begin to build professional relationships and networks.  

• Learn to navigate a school setting. Observe and begin to understand how institutions function, how teachers function in them, and what teachers’ opportunities and constraints are within organizations.

• Comply with site policies and regulations. Be familiar with policies, regulations, disciplinary consequences, and strategies to support emotional and physical safety, emergency procedures, online and cell-phone restrictions, homework, off-campus permissions and behaviors, family interactions and communications, and so forth (CAP element 2.B.1, Safe Learning Environment). Dress and act professionally in accordance with any Faculty and Student Handbooks at the site.

• Maintain skillful communication. Communicate with the PS and SP often and continuously regarding scheduling, schedule changes, and needed support.

  • Contact the PS immediately if you  encounters problems, cannot find answers to questions, or if personal problems conflict with the Practicum.

  • Check your MassArt email everyday.

• Take an active role to explore and demonstrate your future capabilities as a teacher. Be responsible for arranging your duties, schedules, and planning, and for staying on top of deadlines.

• Avoid any role in intra-school/organizational politics. Remember, TCs are in the site for a short period of time, and taking sides in controversial issues is likely to do much more harm than good.

• Be punctual. Follow your SPs schedule exactly. Attend special meetings, assigned duties, and professional development when you are permitted. In case of illness, follow the site’s procedure for reporting absences and notify the SP as soon as possible. If an observation is scheduled, call your PS as well. Exchange schedules with your SP, including requesting a school calendar.

In the classroom:

• Take responsibility for the classroom/educational environment. Be conscientious about room care, clean up, and use of supplies. Anticipate needs and offer help. Remember, the SP’s responsibilities to the school and the students continue even while hosting a TC.

• Establish clear and consistent expectations, routines, and rituals around student behavior and have systems in place, developed in collaboration with the SP and/or the students. Demonstrate effective classroom management, which is emphasized in the CAP (Essential Element 2.B.1. Safe Learning Environment).

  • Reinforce expectations with consequences.

  • Ensure that students have central roles in holding themselves and others accountable, including resolving conflicts and eliminating harassment and bullying according to district/organizational policies and procedures.

  • Establish class agreements about classroom behavior, routines for getting attention, setting up and cleaning up, leaving class, illness, or emergencies, lining up and moving in hallways, and more.  Use multiple-modalities to convey information.

  • Treat students respectfully and appropriately and model this through having unconditional positive regard, with personal boundaries as well as responding to questions and needs in a warm and professional manner, soliciting student thoughts and feelings without prying, encouraging questioning, experimentation, problem-solving, and risk-taking. Assure that instructional strategies engage all students and support individual and collaborative group work.

• Pay attention to ways the SP communicates with parents/ family/ caregivers.  The SP will communicate on your behalf, but you should be alert and consider how you will navigate these relationships in your future classroom (see the Professional Standards for Teachers, Standard 3). Any incident or behavioral issue with a student should be clearly documented in written form and sent through appropriate channels set by site policy.

At MassArt:

• Use MassArt for support.

  • Contact the PSs immediately if you encounter problems, cannot find answers to questions, or if personal problems conflict with the practicum.

  • Contact teaching faculty as a resource regarding materials, processes, and content.

  • Use MassArt’s library, Including the online catalogue, book/article requests, previews of artist books, learning technologies, films, reproductions. Also consult the librarians, who who are available for planning teaching responsibilities.

  • Use student support services, including the Student Development Office and the Academic Resource Center. Get accommodations if you need them -- there are many resources available to those with documented needs and students in general.

  • Use Career Development. Go to them for help with your resume. Job listings are posted by Career Development on https://massart.edu/careerdevelopment under Handshake. Jobs and Internships. Alumni and some faculty also post jobs in the Mass Art Education FaceBook group (Please note this is an informal group, not a formal site by MassArt’s Art Education Department).

  • MassArt equipment policy prohibits students from taking college equipment (including media) to practica sites.

• Provide feedback to your Sponsoring Organization (MassArt, specifically the Art Education Department) about your experiences throughout your preparation program (in classes and on surveys).

Teacher Candidate Tasks

In addition to the responsibilities above, TCs will complete these tasks throughout the practica. See the timeline tab for more details on the timing.

Overview of Tasks

Details about the TC’s tasks:

• Assemble a quality Artist-Teacher Portfolio. Students qualifying for Initial state licenses are required to submit a portfolio that synthesizes their Practicum experiences. PSs help TCs with ideas and suggestions during the practicum semester. These are reviewed by the PS, other Art Education faculty, and an outside reviewer. The Portfolio serves as a valuable tool during job interviews and can become part of the continued documentation required by school districts for Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) and professional growth and development.

• Submit weekly Reflections in seminar (10 minimum)

• Reflections serve as:

• Evidence that TC is demonstrating a disposition (skills, inclination to use those skills, and alertness of when to use them) for each of the seven CAP Elements.

• A communication tool with the PS. Include questions, concerns, opinions, and reflections.

• A resource when creating an Optional Additional Evidence Form and the Artist Teacher Portfolio for Student Teaching Seminar.

• Content and Structure of Weekly Reflections and Photo Documentation are defined by seminar instructors.

• Participate in the CAP process (see the CAP Process tab for an overview)

  • Achieve minimum threshold levels on the three criteria (Quality, Consistency, and Scope) for all seven of the CAP Elements

  • Be available for observations and attend follow-up meetings.

    • Announced Observation 1 (AO1) and observation debrief Triad meeting (TC, SP and PS)

    • Unannounced Observation 1 (UO1) and observation debrief meeting (TC and SP)

    • Announced Observation 2 (AO2) and observation debrief and Formative Assessment Triad meeting (TC, SP and PS)

    • Unannounced Observation 2 (UO2) and observation debrief and Summative Assessment Triad meeting (TC, SP and PS)

  • Collect teaching artifacts to document their experience and abilities using the Categories of Evidence (for details, see CAP Guidelines, pg. 12).

  • Complete CAP Rubric Summary and Self Assessment forms on DESE's CAP Online Platform.

  • Complete a Measure of Student Learning (two Measures of Student Learning for year-long TCs) (see Guidance for Measuring Candidate Impact on Student Learning)

  • Set and meet a Professional Practice Goal (see Candidate: Preliminary Goal-Setting & Plan Development Form), and collaborate with SP and PS in completing Finalized Goal and Implementation Plan form on DESE’s CAP Online Platform.

  • Administer Student Feedback Surveys in collaboration with the SP (see CAP Student Feedback Forms Advisory)

  • Collect additional candidate artifacts, including

    • Unit/ lesson plans (see below)

    • Examples of students’ work - Be sure these show growth -- e.g., photos or drafts of a series of works over time or of a single work at different stages of development; of thinking (through drawn and/or written student reflections that address learning goals and/or standards); development of an artistic disposition over time, and examples of evaluations of student work.

    • Behavior plans/data - e.g., how a student acts over a period of time from observations.

    • Audio/video recordings of the TC and/or students. Aim to represent all five structures mentioned in Hetland’s book Studio Thinking 2: Demonstration-Lectures, Students-at-Work (TC interactions with individuals and small groups), critiques, studio transitions (for classroom management evidence), and exhibitions.

    • Reflection logs- TC’s weekly written reflections completed for seminar (see below).

• Conduct “ride-along” and observations (in art and non-art classrooms). Accompany a student for a half or full day to experience the school day from the student’s perspective. Observe other teachers at the site. Arrange to speak with personnel who are not teachers (maintenance, secretarial/administrative, etc.) to get a fuller understanding of the school. These observations broaden TCs’ views and help them better understand young people’s lives at the sites, generate ideas for art, arts-integrated and interdisciplinary connections, and provide additional models  for classroom organization and management.

• Develop/ adapt curriculum and submit written lesson plans. Lessons/ units must be written in advance and reviewed with the SP, and with the PS for announced observations.

  • Use lesson plans, even if the SP does not. The TC and SP will agree on a lesson plan format, which must include a learning goal (linked to the Visual Art Standards (state frameworks and national), an assessment (what students will do, say or write that will show their learning), and a sequence of experiences (what the teacher and students will do to work toward that goal). Models used in previous MassArt classes can assist in developing lessons and units appropriate to teaching situations.

  • Discuss all ideas with SP before writing plans to ensure that your thinking aligns with the SP’s and the school’s curriculum.

  • Model the lessons on the SP’s lessons during the first half of the Practicum (if TC wishes). By the second half, lesson ideas and unit plans are designed (or substantially adapted) by the TC, while still aligning with the SP’s curriculum.

  • Develop and utilize a variety of assessments that provide clear, specific, and supportive feedback with suggestions to support student learning (examples: teacher observations of students at work, informal or formal performance measures of student learning, written or oral responses from students)

  • For the portfolio, revise ALL lesson plans to a single format for consistency.

  • For CAP Announced observations

    • Discuss lesson idea with the SP.

    • Email a complete copy of your lesson plan to your Program Supervisor at least 72 hours before he/she comes for an observation.

    • Meet with the PS to review the lesson before announced observations, either in person, by phone, or by email.

    • Print a hard copy for each observation (for the SP and PS).

• Facilitate curation of a Student Exhibition. TCs plan a student exhibition,  and install it near the end of their student teaching.  TCs work with their students to hang a selection of student artwork at their practica sites or in a designated location, guided by their SP. TCs designate students to complete tasks associated with the exhibition, such as designing invitations, acting as curator(s), planning and hosting a reception, preparing labels for the artwork, and deinstalling the show. See Chapters 4 and 16 in Studio Thinking 2.

• Request and obtain recommendations AND references for job applications. Recommendations are a most important factor in securing a teaching position upon graduation. MassArt only requests evaluative statements about the TCs’ teaching performance from the SPs.  TCs must ask for their own recommendation letters AND ask permission to list people as references as well.

  • Make all requests -- preferably by mid-term and definitely before completing the Practicum (do not assume someone will agree to write for you — that is the decision of the recommender upon your request). Letters usually are more descriptive and accurate if written during the student teaching.

  • People to ask include SPs, PSs, principals, other teachers at the school or site, and any MassArt faculty or outside supervisors who have supervised your teaching. By law, references are called for any job, so be sure to acquire and provide accurate contact information.

• Write thank-you notes. A thank-you is a convention that helps you begin establishing a network of professionals to support you in your career. It is remembered, appreciated, and could make the difference in securing a position. Write notes to SPs and all others who assisted throughout your student teaching.

Introduction to CAP

The Teaching Practicum experience is outlined by the Candidate Assessment of Performance (CAP) cycle.  The Teacher Candidate (TC), Supervising Practitioner (SP), and Program Supervisor (PS) triad will use the CAP online tool (required by DESE since Fall 2016) to gather evidence of the TCs’ teaching abilities and demonstrate teacher readiness.

The CAP is similar to the Preservice Performance Assessment for Teachers (PPA), which was previously required during MassArt student teaching experiences.  CAP is built on a clinical supervision model and is designed to mirror the MA Educator Evaluation system (used to evaluate certified teachers), while focusing on seven essential elements of novice teachers.

Assessment in CAP:

• Includes a rubric with descriptors for various levels of performance

• Focuses assessment on seven essential elements

• Uses multiple measures to determine performance

• Distributes the responsibility of evidence collection between PSs, SPs, and TCs

• Emphasizes targeted feedback and creates structures to document improvement in practice

The Seven Essential Elements of CAP

TCs must demonstrate meeting the following proficient descriptors by the end of their practicum.

CAP Rubric

The CAP Rubric is used at the beginning (baseline), middle (formative), and end (summative) of the student teaching experience.  For each of the seven elements, TCs are evaluated for the quality, scope, and consistency at which they meet each standard.  The CAP Rubric makes it possible for Program Supervisors and Supervising Practitioners to appropriately differentiate expectations for novice teachers without changing the fundamental components of effective practice.

Note: To be ready to teach, TCs must be at least Proficient in quality and Needs Improvement for scope and consistency for all seven elements (indicated by the * on the rubric).

Quality: ability to perform the skill, action or behavior as described in the proficient descriptor

Scope: the scale of impact (e.g., one student, subset of children, all students) to which the skill, action or behavior is demonstrated with quality

Consistency: the frequency (e.g., all the time, sometimes, once) that the skill, action or behavior is demonstrated with quality

Example from CAP Rubric: Well-Structured Lessons Element

Link for the full CAP Rubric

TCs will fill out the CAP Rubric in connection with their Self-Assessment on DESE's CAP Online Platform. SPs, and PSs will fill out the CAP Rubric on DESE's CAP Online Platform in connection with both the formative and the summative assessments.

DESE's CAP Online Platform

The CAP process will be documented on DESE's CAP Online Platform by the PS/SP/TC team over the course of the practicum. The website will guide them through the forms they need to complete. The CAP Guidelines and CAP Implementation Handbook resources from DESE explain the process in detail.

CACP cycles will be started and ended by the CAP Manager. The CAP Manager will also register CAP users (TSs, SPs & PSs) with DESE.

Login credentials for the CAP Online Platform are assigned by DESE. DESE will email initial login credentials directly to TCs and SPs after they have been registered. The CAP Manager will send initial login credentials to PSs. Initial login credentials expire after one use and you will be immediately prompted to create your unique password upon logging into the portal.

SP’s will have a login credential in addition to, and unique from, the log-in credential they use to access their educator profile in ELAR.

TCs will access the CAP Online Platform through their ELAR account. PSs and SPs will access the CAP Online Platform through the DESE Security Portal. Once registered, the CAP Online Platform will appear under the list of applications.

What is documented on DESE's CAP Online Platform?

All CAP forms and evidence are recorded on this site.   Additional artifacts are uploaded as supporting evidence of demonstrating the CAP essential elements.

Hints for using DESE's CAP Online Platform:

• SPs and PSs will use the same account with multiple TCs.

• Some fields are only able to be edited by some of the PS/SP/TC team.

• On the observation and assessment forms:

  • Both the SP and PS must click complete for the TC to be able to see the calibrated evidence.  The TC may not see the individual notes added by the SP or PS. SPs and PSs may cut and paste from their individual notes to the calibrated notes section when it is helpful.

  • As the system times-out without warning, it is helpful to type first in an outside document to save. Then copy/paste the text into the online form, and immediately hit save for each section.

DESE CAP Resources

DESE's Candidate Assessment of Performance was revised to include the seventh element: Subject Matter Knowledge. The rubric language and element indicators were also updated to better align with the current PSTs. As this revision was launched in Fall 2020, some resources may still be in the process of being updated to reflect the updated language.

DESE’s CAP Online Platform resource page - This page has links to the login portals, the CAP Guidelines, the CAP Handbook, the CAP 2.0 Online Platform User Guide and to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s).

CAP Resource page from DESE  - This page includes links to the other webpages for the following resources to download.

For everyone:

CAP Overview Webinar

Quick Reference Guide for the CAP cycle

Quick Reference Guide for the CAP rubric

Quick Reference Guide for the roles of the SP, PS, TC team

Workshop: Using the Rubric

For SPs and PSs:

Workshop: Conducting Observations and Providing Meaningful Feedback

Online Calibration Training Tool

For TCs:

CAP Model Student Feedback Surveys