4-Year-Old Helps Future Teachers Learn to Teach
One faculty member's latest class assignment gave new meaning to the concept of bringing one's child to work – and helped teach fundamental education concepts to future teachers in the process.
Dr. John Romig, assistant professor of special education, recently brought his son Jack to his course “SPED 4301: Strategies for Teaching Individuals with High Incidence Disabilities: Reading and Writing.”
In the class, UTA undergraduate students learn to administer curriculum-based measurements – a method of monitoring a child’s progress – as that child learns to read and write. Romig's students, all of whom are on track to become certified special education teachers with a Bachelor of Science in Education, get experience with content planning, curriculum development, instruction, assessment, and data collection for elementary and secondary students with mild disabilities.
“Collecting this data is kind of cognitively overwhelming,” said Romig. “You have to read standardized instructions, time the student, listen to what they are saying, and record their responses. So, it's challenging for beginning teachers to keep it all straight. The practice was for them to become more comfortable with administering it.”
Typically, Romig’s students practice with one another. However, with 4-year-old Jack present, they took turns asking Jack to identify letters of the alphabet.
“Having a real kid made the practice more authentic because he made mistakes like real kids make,” he added. “When they practice with each other, they don't make the mistakes that a kid would make. Because they each got to practice with him, they were able to see how his scores fluctuated from administration to administration, discuss why that might be happening, and learn about various data principles in his data.”
As for Jack’s thoughts on the activity, Romig said his son’s experience on campus was exciting.
“It took him a little while to warm up to the students at the beginning, but he definitely enjoyed it in the end,” Romig said. “He still talks about ‘the college students with the letters,’ as he calls them."
