Helpful Information for CSU Faculty and Instructions

Instructors

The CLC offers a unique opportunity for faculty and students to work directly with children and families from the community. The program provides CSU students with an in-class laboratory experience where they are able to practice delivering newly-learned instructional strategies or assessment techniques to children. This "guided" learning experience allows faculty to observe their students apply various instructional and/or assessment procedures.
 

The In-Class Field Experience

We want to honor the time and effort it takes for families to participate in the field experience. Therefore, each tutoring session should be well planned (with an individualized focus) and should provide high-quality support to students. To ensure high quality support, faculty are encouraged to view our faculty orientation video and incorporate suggested guidelines for the experience into their courses.

Faculty who wish to partner with the Center must first complete a Faculty Intake Form. This form provides us important information to plan for your experience. You will need to identify the semester, dates and times of the experience, enrollment projections, and a short description of your course for advertising purposes.

Prepare Students for Field Experience—We would like for all CSU students to benefit from this experience. To do so, it is critically important that they are fully prepared to work with children. Please have your students view the Tutor Orientation Video prior to beginning the experience. 

Communicate with Parents—An important part of teaching is the ability to communicate and engage with parents. Therefore, the field experience also gives CSU students an opportunity to interact with parents. Please plan to provide guidance for your students related to effective communication practices with families.

Supervision— The Center will help facilitate the experience and will be available to support you and your students. The faculty instructor for the course section will serve as the primary supervisor. There are two important reasons that faculty and instructors must monitor the tutoring sessions. First, many CSU students have had minimal experience teaching young children. Therefore, it is imperative that faculty and instructors continuously monitor the field experience and provide supportive feedback and guidance as necessary. Secondly, monitoring the tutoring sessions will ensure the safety of all children and will allow the instructors to observe how CSU students are interacting with the children.