Teaching and Instructional Activities

As a faculty member in the Division of Teacher Education at Dominican College, I developed the Early Childhood Certification Courses, the Educational Technology course and the Early Literacy course. From 2005-2023 I was the primary instructor for all of these courses, and coordinated all changes to content and methodology. My work with these very different programs allowed me to use a variety of instructional methods and strategies in order to produce successful future teachers. 

Early Childhood Program Description and Developments from 2005-2023:

The early childhood education program emphasizes hands-on experience and work. The students spend a great deal of time with children in field experiences and are asked to bring their experiences in the early childhood classroom into our college classroom. As I teach them about development and learning and how to effectively instruct young children, they are invited to share their own experiences and teaching strategies that they have seen. The merits of each are debated and sometimes different conclusions are reached about effective practice. 

All three of the early childhood courses are updated each year based on new developments in the field. I am able to effectively update the courses because I have a relationship with many early childhood educators in New York and New Jersey, and especially with Head Start of Rockland (HSOR) and Campus Fun and Learn Child Development Center (CFL) at SUNY Rockland. I am a member of the HSOR advisory board and the CFL executive board, and my students complete field work at both locations for three of the early childhood courses. I meet often with the directors of HSOR and CFL to discuss new developments and the needs of the program, as well as to keep me abreast of the teachers’ role in their classrooms so that I can transfer that information to my students. 

For example, the ED 333 and ED 334 students learn about, observe and document the learning and development of infants, toddlers and preschoolers. This work occurs at CFL and Head Start respectively, and the students are asked to complete an extensive set of observations, documentations, and reflections that mirror the same work of the teachers whose classrooms they are working in. This direct connection to the field not only trains the students in the observation and documentation techniques that are required for their field, but allows them to see how the techniques are performed by in-service teachers. 

In ED 335, the students are asked to bring all of their knowledge of early childhood education together and plan learning experiences for young children. They are extensively trained to plan effective and developmentally appropriate small and large group learning experiences, and how to incorporate children’s interests and ideas into their planning and instruction. After traveling to Italy in July 2008 to study early childhood education, I revised the students’ work to include “The Project Approach,” which has proven effective in early childhood instruction in that region. I have also used this approach in my own teaching of young children and have found it to be authentic and meaningful for the children and the teachers. After observing how the use of this approach allowed the early childhood teachers in Italy to effectively incorporate the children’s interests and ideas into their teaching, it made sense to bring it to my own instruction. The feedback from the students each year is very positive, and they are able to see how this type of planning and instruction is effective and enjoyable for teachers and students. My 335 students' Project Approach documentations are considered models for current and future early childhood educators in Rockland County, and many have been asked to help train new UPK teachers in the county on the approach by presenting their work and discussing their planning and instruction.

Recent Developments:

Beginning in the 2017-18 school year, the early childhood certification courses went fully online in Google Classroom. The online offering as well as the exposure to Google Classroom (a learning management system used in school districts throughout the country) has opened the classes to students outside of Dominican College. Both graduate and undergraduate students take the courses in order to pursue the additional ECE certification.

Educational Technology Program: ED 225 – Technology in Education

I created the Educational Technology Program that is now used in our division. Students are introduced to content in ED 225 that they are then required to use in all of their subsequent education courses. No semester is quite the same since technology and its integration changes almost daily. My collaboration with educators in the field has allowed me to bring the most up-to-date information into the class, and my students are always aware of the latest software being used in K-12 education. 

ED 225 has evolved into a course that exposes our education students to all of the relevant technology and software available to them for use in their teaching. The class is now conducted 100% electronically, utilizing the internet and various software and programs. It is also a fully hybrid-online course, where the students work digitally on the first day of the week and in class on the second class of the week. This hybrid model is a "flipped classroom" model, which utilizes tutorial videos and student-paced work/account creation on day one, and in-class work and project creation on day two. This model is used frequently in K-12 education, and the ED 225 students are well-versed and comfortable with "flipping the classroom" when they enter their teaching careers. 

The technological skills that our students leave the course with has been recognized as high quality by my fellow teacher education colleagues as well as the schools that they complete their field work and student teaching experiences in. Because of these large scale technology requirements and integrations, Dominican College is now known in the tri-state area for sending students into field work and student teaching experiences with a high level of technological skills, and our preservice teachers typically teach their cooperating teachers how to use the technology that is available in the school. Numerous student teachers conduct the technology trainings in their schools while completing their experiences, and serve as a model and guide for teachers not familiar with the latest technology capabilities. 

All projects and assignments are relevant to their future work in the field both as a professional and as a teacher of children and adolescents. Students work in Google for Education and Microsoft Office 365. Our teacher education students are completely literate in Google for Education and Office 365/Microsoft for Education by the end of the semester, and then can then implement these platforms in their future classes, student teaching and teaching careers. This knowledge is important for their future teaching career and in their daily lives.

ED 328 - Elements of Literacy

Early literacy instruction is a key skill set that all teachers must have. After receiving feedback from student teachers and their cooperating teachers about the value of ED 336 (Emergent Literacy in ECE - an original early childhood course), we as a division decided to reformat it into a course for all teacher education students (K-12). I developed ED 328 to teach all students pursuing teacher certification early literacy skill development and assessment. Students learn how to identify, plan for instruction and then assess every literacy skill that all students must have. They also complete a Child Case Study where they choose one child to assess in all his/her literacy skills. Since the inception of the edTPA, the Case Study has shifted to a similar format. Students fill in templates as they do in the edTPA, and must describe their planning, assessment and "next steps" for instruction for each literacy skill they assess with their chosen child. Here is an example of one of the assessments and templates that the students must complete:

Reading: Thursday 3/23 OR Tuesday 3/28

• Give the child a book they have never read before. This should be a basal/guided reading text from their classroom. You need to find out what reading level they are on from their teacher. If the child is not reading yet (in Kindergarten this is OK!), ask the teacher what book s/he would give the child to read right now. Ask the child to read the book to you. Do not help them at all but encourage them if they need it. Record the child reading. If the child reads the book with very little errors, give them the next level up and use that as your Running Record. If they struggle beyond frustration level, give them the next level down and use that as your Running Record. Therefore, you should have at least 3 books at 3 levels with you for this assessment. 

  • Perform a Running Record as the child reads (the recording will help you to make sure this is done right - you can listen to it again later).

  • You are assessing the child's reading ability and fluency. 

  • Make sure that your suggestions focus on any decoding errors AND any fluency issues.

TEMPLATE:

ED 328 Student’s Name:

Case Study Child’s Name:

Assessment: Reading

Documentation Form Included: A complete Running Record.

Specific Assessment Directions: Your reflection should focus on the Running Record errors AND the child’s fluency when reading.

What was the mood of the child during the assessment?

How did the assessment go? Briefly tell me about the process.

Identification of Literacy Skills: What skills did the child exhibit success, partial success and/or failure in from the assessment? Tell me specifically what the child could and could not do, and what gave him difficulty. 

·       What specific decoding errors (and self corrects) did the child make?

Assessment of Performance: Based on the child’s performance, why do you think he made the errors and/or struggled where he did? 

·       Look at the decoding errors and tell me specifically WHY you think the errors were made. Look at % of accuracy as well. 

·       Assess the child’s fluency skills (3 PARTS): Automaticity/Accuracy, Speed and Prosody.

Next Steps for Instruction: What SPECIFIC STRATEGIES would you implement with the child either individually or in a group/class to help him be successful at the partial success/failures in the assessment? Tell me why the strategies you suggest would improve the child’s learning.

·       Next steps for DECODING ERRORS 

·       Next steps for FLUENCY ISSUES

 Please visit the class website below to see the complete Case Study as well as all of the digital work used in ED 328: