Kyle Trosien - Field Experience

During my ten hours of field experience observing the literacy practices in classrooms, there were a number of practices that are a part of the historical discipline that I saw used and emphasized in the high school setting. The whole program, from my point of view, and as expressed by a number of other teachers, was focused on building the disciplinary literacy as opposed to building knowledge. The courses emphasized research, corroboration, citation, and source investigation. The Historical content was used as a backdrop, or a method to be able to teach the students how to use disciplinary literacy skills associated with the higher processes of learning. There were whole summative projects that were focused on the students doing their own research on topics that would be traditionally taught in a lecture format. Some of the teachers very much liked the change to teaching the disciplinary practices as opposed to the content. However, others, namely a majority of the experienced teachers, saw this as a hinderance to the students. While they were learning useful skills, they had little to no knowledge on the subjects themselves. Especially on the aspects of the subject that they were not researching. Another aspect that I noticed in the classes that I visited over several weeks, was that there was a large emphasis on digital literacy in the classroom. Every student had chromebooks, and were expected to be able to use them in the classroom. Every classroom also had a smartboard that was utilized by the teacher. While the use of this was not always mandatory, the use of laptops seemed to be a very much encouraged aspect of the classroom culture. The students had to have their laptops charged and be able to use their computer as well as their digital classroom to be able be successful in their schooling. The most common classroom strategy that was also seen was the use of guided notes for the lectures that did happen or videos. Which this strategy was still about encouraging the skill of note taking considering that the students would be able to use these guided notes on exams and quizzes. Therefore continuing the practice of encouraging skills over the respective content.