Fieldwork Information for Students

A cumulative GPA of at least 3.0 in all library coursework is required to take the practicum.

By the completion of the practicum, students should have experience at primary and secondary levels. Students will spend 140 hours on the practicum.

Students find their own practicum sites. At least one semester (five months) before you plan to do a practicum, meet with the practicum coordinator, to discuss possible sites. Each site must have a 1902-licensed library media specialist who has been there for at least a year and represents best practices in the field. Remember to be courteous when contacting a potential cooperating librarian. These librarians will not mind hearing from you, but you should not assume they will take you on or ask them to fill out forms in your initial email.

These students will need to find two placement sites at two different levels (elementary, middle, high): one for the majority of their practicum (100 hours) and one to visit for 40 hours. The two levels should be levels not already covered (or least covered) in the student’s previous fieldwork and experience. For example, if a library media minor does their student teaching at an elementary school for their major, they should do the library media practicum placements at a middle and high school. 

Library media minors must do the practicum AFTER you have completed student teaching and at the end of your coursework.

Students will enroll in one practicum course: the 493 or 793c Combined Practicum. Students will spend 140 hours on this practicum total, with the majority of the time spent on projects in their own school.

As part of the 140 practicum hours, students will complete one 40 hour placement at another school. Both primary and secondary levels should be covered during the practicum, so the 40 hour placements should take place at the level different from the student’s own school. There are several options for completing a 40 hour practicum placement while working:

• Seek a school that has spring break a different week than yours and get up to 40 hours during this time. Additional days may have to be completed through another arrangement.
• Use professional development and/or personal days to get into a school. 
• Complete a large portion of the placement at the beginning or the end of the school year, especially at a school with a different start or end date. 
• Seek sabbatical or release time from your district.

It is recommended that students do the 40 hour placement outside their home district to get the widest possible experience, but it is recognized that this may not be possible in some cases.  The practicum placement sites must be approved by the practicum coordinator before finalizing as each must have a 1902-licensed library media specialist who has been there for at least a year and represents best practices in the field.

Those working on a 1902 initial license will do a semester of student teaching at the end of all coursework.  This student teaching experience is a full-time, full-semester placement. As all students should demonstrate proficiency at all three levels, the student teaching placement should be at the level not already covered during EDFNDPRC 210 and the Methods course. 

Students will develop a capstone portfolio that will include cooperating librarian evaluations, university supervisor evaluations, the checklist, evidence of and reflections on projects, artifacts demonstrating content competencies from coursework, and a final philosophy statement.

Instructions for those doing student teaching can be found at the Office of Field Experiences website.  Download the Field Experiences Handbook for more details on the semester.  

A cumulative GPA of at least 3.0 in all library coursework is required to student teach.  There are mandatory meetings for those seeking to student teach, so make sure to meet with your program advisor at least 9 months in advance to make sure you meet all the deadlines. The program advisor will work with the Office of Field Experiences to set up the student teaching site.

A cumulative GPA of at least 3.0 in all library coursework is required to take the practicum.

Students will spend 150 hours on the public library practicum.

Students find their own practicum sites. At least one semester (five months) before you plan to do a practicum, meet with the practicum coordinator, to discuss possible sites. Remember to be courteous when contacting a potential cooperating librarian. These librarians will not mind hearing from you, but you should not assume they will take you on or ask them to fill out forms in your initial email.

The FINAL TASK is to submit your  portfolio to your university supervisor in electronic format. Students are expected to create an electronic portfolio for each practicum experience, that, along with artifacts from courses to demonstrate the 1902 competencies, becomes the capstone portfolio. This final portfolio is examined by the library media faculty at UW-Whitewater when granting this licensure. It is your responsibility, not the cooperating librarians', to complete this. You should not expect to complete it during your hours in the school.

Artifacts

It is most useful to organize the portfolio by the five major areas:

• Collection Development, Organization and Access
• Technology
• Administration
• Information Literacy and Teaching
• Reading and Literacy

For the last two categories, cover both the elementary and secondary levels across the two projects.

Images from the Libraries 

Include several images from your practicum placements with captions describing what this tells you about the environment.

Course Artifacts 

Projects from library courses as well as examples from the practicum and professional practice can be included to demonstrate the competencies.  See the 1902 Competencies page for a list of competencies by category.

Project Documentation

Each project done in your practicum should result in materials that show what you have done. This may include lesson plans, web pages, documents, photos, etc. These should be included in electronic format in the portfolio. The student may have to scan some of these to turn them into electronic format, but most can be included as Word documents, PDF files, graphics files, HTML documents, or links. If linking to a file on another server, make sure it is shared so all can see it.

Evidence of Success

In addition to the documentation of the project, the student will need to include the evidence of success, including a summary of this. This may include teacher or library media specialist surveys, written observations or comments (paraphrasing is fine here), test scores with summarization, sample student products with rubrics showing achievement of skills taught, etc.

Log

The daily log with the hours and activities undertaken and reflections about them should be included next. This can be in grid or narrative format but should clearly show how time was spent. The student should make sure to include time spent on projects in his/her own or other schools and/or activities at conferences. 

Reflection

The reflection on each project should describe how the student feels the project demonstrates mastery of the 1902 licensure competencies (see 1902 Competencies page ) and where he/she feels it necessary to continue to develop knowledge and skills, with specific reference to your project. The focus should be mainly on the competencies the practicum agreement said were covered in the project, but the student may reflect on the category of competencies as a whole. A final reflection on each experience should look at all the student accomplished during the time and describe where he/she feels there are strengths and weaknesses in the five categories which cover all eight of the program's courses. Also answer the final questions for the school or public library practicum (see above).

• Collection Development, Organization and Access (Finding and Using Information Organizing Information, Library Administration, Children's Literature, Young Adult Literature)
• Technology (Digital Tools)
• Administration  (Library Administration, Leadership)
• Information Literacy and Teaching  (Information Literacy)
• Reading and Literacy (Children's Literature, Young Adult Literature)

See public library practicum agreement form for appropriate categories for that experience.

The portfolio should be organized in the following way:

• Practicum agreement(s) (student may have to scan the signature page to include it)
• Practicum checklist of activities (use electronic version in Microsoft Word to indicate what was have done or scan as PDF)
• Practicum log
• Artifacts and reflections arranged by the five categories of competencies. These will represent both the practicum projects and any artifacts from coursework. Public library practicum goals will have a slightly different format.
  • Collection Development, Organization and Access
  • Technology
  • Administration
  • Information Literacy and Teaching
  • Reading and Literacy
• Final reflection on experience with response to questions. 

 The projects should be put in the categories where they demonstrate the most competencies, but indicate how they might meet competencies in the other categories in the reflection. At the end of the practicum, the student should include the following for all sites:

• Cooperating librarian evaluations
• University supervisor evaluations

The student may have to scan these documents for inclusion. PDF format is the best for this purpose. Make sure none of the files names have spaces in them and all have the correct extension (e.g., .doc, .pdf, .jpg).

The portfolio must be submitted through a student-created website. This can be done by loading it on one's own webserver and sending the URL to the university supervisor, or by publishing it on the web through a site such as GoogleSites, Wix, or Weebly. Make sure the university supervisor has permission to view the site.