ACCESS

Our team was challenged with brainstorming methods for providing practicum experiences for students during the COVID-19 crisis. In order to do this, we, as individuals, must determine the purpose for the practicum based on course, program, and state requirements: why do we have practicum and what do we hope for students to gain during their experiences? 

Mary Harrill from NAEYC joined one of our meetings and outlined the requirements as meeting NAEYC Higher Education Accreditation Standard 7. There is no minimum required number of hours for practicum. 

The group has also been looking at different ways of adapting and amending assignments in the practicum course to see if the course/program/state objectives can be met through alternate methods. A strong recommendation was to look at your course objectives and utilize the philosophy of backwards design. 

Our team created the following padlets to organize our work. A padlet is like a virtual bulletin board. 

We invite you to use the padlets to borrow or contribute ideas, strategies, or tools for adapting your practicum courses and assignments.