practicum and internship
All teacher preparation programs include a required practicum and internship experience. A unique facet of this program is that you pick your own practicum and internship experience! In order to do this, you want to start contacting potential educational institutions you are interested in working with to build your professional experience/resume; to lead to a potential full-time job; and/or to work with a highly acclaimed ASL teacher/mentor.
A practicum experience is a required professional field experience consisting of a minimum of 45 observation/assisting hours. During this experience, the practicum student observes (and when appropriate, assists) an ASL teacher throughout the full semester/course. Many consider this role similar to a TA (Teacher Assistant). A TA may teach briefly, grade student work, sit and observe, work in small groups or develop activities. The ASL teacher of your course would decide the level of your participation in the course. Be sure to communicate your interest early with your ASL teacher.
An internship experience is a required professional field experience consisting of a minimum of 45 teaching hours. During this experience, the intern teaches a full semester/course including developing lessons and grading student work.
There are two different types of internship opportunities:
Why 45 hours? Most college-level ASL courses run 3 hours per week for 15 weeks = 45 hours. If the numbers at your college's ASL course fall slightly below 45 hours, you can make up additional hours through after-class tutoring or hosting an optional activity night for ASL students to reach 45 hours.
On top of your practicum and internship course at the educational institution of your choice, you will be also participating in an online course at Gallaudet University devoted to your practicum and internship experience.
Your practicum course at Gallaudet will include seminars about current trends in teaching, method analysis, lesson plan writing and assessment tool analysis. This is a collaborative, interactive course where you will also learn about your classmates' practicum placements as well.
Your internship course at Gallaudet is more of an individual experience where your internship faculty will observe you teach live through videochat software three times during the semester, and giving feedback on your teaching strategies, lesson planning, assessment tools and self-assessment. The goal here is to catch your strengths, maximize them and identify your challenges early, and to work on those challenges with the goal of improving from the first observation to your second observation and becoming even better with your third observation.
Let's get started seeking potential practicum and internship sites early - do not delay! Here's a letter for your potential site that you can use... Click here to download the letter.
A practicum experience is a required professional field experience consisting of a minimum of 45 observation/assisting hours. During this experience, the practicum student observes (and when appropriate, assists) an ASL teacher throughout the full semester/course. Many consider this role similar to a TA (Teacher Assistant). A TA may teach briefly, grade student work, sit and observe, work in small groups or develop activities. The ASL teacher of your course would decide the level of your participation in the course. Be sure to communicate your interest early with your ASL teacher.
An internship experience is a required professional field experience consisting of a minimum of 45 teaching hours. During this experience, the intern teaches a full semester/course including developing lessons and grading student work.
There are two different types of internship opportunities:
- Student internship: This category is particularly for students new to the world of teaching or for those who prefer a mentorship opportunity. The student seeks out an ASL teacher/mentor, and asks the teacher for the opportunity to teach his/her course with the ASL teacher sitting and observing (and assisting when needed) throughout the semester. The student intern does not get paid.
- On-the-job internship: This category is particularly for the more experienced student who may have already taught in the past (or assisted/tutored in the past). This category also includes those who already work as an ASL teacher. You would be applying directly to colleges to obtain a teaching job (full-time or adjunct) and choosing one ASL course to "count" towards your internship experience and getting paid in the process.
Why 45 hours? Most college-level ASL courses run 3 hours per week for 15 weeks = 45 hours. If the numbers at your college's ASL course fall slightly below 45 hours, you can make up additional hours through after-class tutoring or hosting an optional activity night for ASL students to reach 45 hours.
On top of your practicum and internship course at the educational institution of your choice, you will be also participating in an online course at Gallaudet University devoted to your practicum and internship experience.
Your practicum course at Gallaudet will include seminars about current trends in teaching, method analysis, lesson plan writing and assessment tool analysis. This is a collaborative, interactive course where you will also learn about your classmates' practicum placements as well.
Your internship course at Gallaudet is more of an individual experience where your internship faculty will observe you teach live through videochat software three times during the semester, and giving feedback on your teaching strategies, lesson planning, assessment tools and self-assessment. The goal here is to catch your strengths, maximize them and identify your challenges early, and to work on those challenges with the goal of improving from the first observation to your second observation and becoming even better with your third observation.
Let's get started seeking potential practicum and internship sites early - do not delay! Here's a letter for your potential site that you can use... Click here to download the letter.
Are you an experienced ASL teacher?
Interested in having your practicum and internship requirement waived? Please fill out this form and send the form along with all required materials to the program coordinator.
Waiver approved? Congratulations! Fill in this form for each course you are waived and send to program coordinator. Make sure you write down the full course name and number (e.g. ASL 752: Sign Language Practicum).
Waiver approved? Congratulations! Fill in this form for each course you are waived and send to program coordinator. Make sure you write down the full course name and number (e.g. ASL 752: Sign Language Practicum).