FIELDWORK SUMMARY GUIDELINES 2022-2023 

Eight of your courses at Mount St. Vincent College require fieldwork hours to meet New York State requirements for Teacher Certification. Please refer to the attached handout for specific course numbers and required hours/location in  order to ensure that you observe in the correct setting (i.e., general education or special  education). 

Fieldwork experience must be within your certification area only (Pre-Nursery through Grade 2). Thus, the classroom must be learning at an academic level of grade 2 or below. (PLEASE NOTE: STUDENT TEACHING must be done at actual grade level, meaning students cannot be older than 7 years of age.) 

Fieldwork required in a Special Education setting may be fulfilled by observing in a self-contained classroom, a  1:1 school setting, or an inclusion classroom (i.e., a General Education setting that contains students with IEPs)  where you focus on the child(ren) with disabilities. Of course, self-contained classrooms may only be used for Special  Education hours. Therefore, if you are working in an educational setting that is designed ONLY for students with disabilities, you will have to plan to observe in a general education setting to meet requirements for  those courses that require general education hours. 

According to the NYS Department of Education, each student’s fieldwork portfolio must exhibit “diversity”. This means that you cannot do all your fieldwork experiences in the same school. It is the student’s responsibility to  make sure that fieldwork experience is varied.  

• There are a total of 240 hours of fieldwork required. You must have a  minimum of four school locations throughout your graduate program.  

• Depending on the course, your instructor may allow a limited number of  video observations, research, assignments, and home settings in lieu of  classroom fieldwork hours. Across the whole program, up to 60 hours of fieldwork may be completed as assignment hours. classroom fieldwork and assignment fieldwork are documented in two separate forms. Please see the grid below.

• A specific school may be used for a maximum of 130 classroom hours; 15 hours is the minimum number of hours that must be  documented in the remaining 3 classroom settings. 

Sample breakdown:
130 hours – School A (Includes EDUC 710) 

15 hours – School B 

15 hours – School C 

20 hours – School D (Reading Clinic) 

60 hours – Assignments/Home Visits/Research/Videos 

Your fieldwork forms will be completed electronically via a link on Canvas. Once completed, forms should be downloaded in PDF format and posted to Canvas. Assignment hours are signed by the course instructor only.  

Classroom observation hours must be signed by your classroom (cooperating) teacher and then uploaded to Canvas for your course instructor to grade. ELECTRONIC SIGNATURES ARE NOT ACCEPTED. (Classroom observation hours are not applicable to  EDUC 535 and EDUC 622.) You may download a PDF copy of the form from the fieldwork link on your audit sheet so that you can take notes while you are in the classroom, but all fieldwork forms posted to Canvas must be typed.

Remember, the fieldwork must relate to the course content. For example, if you are taking EDUC 621 (Teaching Literacy) all your experiences must relate to emergent literacy, phonics instruction, writing, etc. The fieldwork form has place for brief, detailed notes of the topics/activities covered. Do not simply write “Math” “Literacy”  “Social Studies” but specify and summarize the content and activities. Exemplars are posted on Canvas for all courses. 

Please use standard English and pay attention to spelling and grammar when describing topics and activities. Your fieldwork submission is worth 15 points. Professional writing is factored into the grade.

YOU MAY NOT USE THE SAME FIELDWORK HOURS FOR TWO COURSES. 

At registration, you will be required to confirm your fieldwork placements during the past semester. This record will fulfill the diversity requirement necessary for graduation.  

Please keep hard copies of all your fieldwork logs in case of audit. 

Dr. Donn is our Fieldwork Coordinator. If you have specific questions about fieldwork, e-mail [email protected]