Leaflet Specialised School Internship June 2020
Dear students,
soon you will beginn your specialised school internship in History. Thus the theoretical and analytical components of your studies combine with the concrete challenges of the subject history in school. Based on your scientific and didactics studies you will now get the opportunity to observe, to plan, to perform and to reflect on history lessons. This poses a demanding and fascinating challenge.
In the course of your master studies the module “specialised internship” strives to prepare you for this challenge. Mr. Huneke will support you in your preparations and mentor you for the duration of your internship.
The documents you will need include a form which the school has to sign as a certification of your attendance (PDF). Please copy this form for your own files. After you have sent your internship to Mr. Huneke (as a PDF attachment by mail) please hand in the above mentioned form along with the seminar certificate at the administration office.
In case of questions, problems or serious difficulties Mr. Huneke is at your disposal:
friedrich.huneke@hist.uni-hannover.de
Please notify Mr. Huneke before you begin your internship and he will provide you with additional information in the form of an instructive reader.
Finding the right school:
It is your own responsibility to find a school for your internship early on (!!) by sending out applications to potential candidates. A list of all grammar schools and all comprehensive schools in the Hannover region can be found here.
General advice for your internship:
Put up a short, tabular letter with your name (large letters), a photo, your subjects and a friendly introduction on the notice board in the teacher's lounge. We recommend you accompany one class for the duration of one school day in order to gain a pupil’s perspective. In the same manner you should try and find a teacher to accompany for more than one lesson.
The department heads should put you in touch with the college. Talk to various teachers and student teachers so you find out who you get along with.
The internship regulations determines the duration of the internship (5 weeks) only, not the number of lessons you should observe or hold yourself. Though we recommend to make good use of your internship because during your traineeship you will benefit from the experience. We recommend to observe 16 to 20 lessons weekly (45 min each, which equals 8 to 10 ‘blocks’ 90 min each) and 3 lessons which you prepare and hold yourself (45 or 90 min).
In your internship report (about 15 pages plus annexe) you should:
1.) … include the following components
Cover page, table of contents, about one page where you report which experience you have gained, two lesson concepts (one in detail, one as a schematic table), one or two observation reports including your own comments and notes; annexe: materials you used for your two lessons.
2.) … include two of your own lessons with the written basis for planning
Each student ought to arrange a visit with Mr. Huneke to one of their own lessons and provide him with the schematic table, the learning objectives, and materials/book titles if necessary until 9 pm the preceding evening by mail. The information leaflet ‘lesson concept’ (Unterrichtsentwurf) offers a guideline for your own planning and should be taken logically and comprehensibly. The resulting written lesson concept 1 is the main part of your internship report, the short concept 2 (schematic table and learning objectives) can be added if the total extent of your report allows for it.
3.) … observe and comment one or two lessons in detail
We recommend the concept from Grell (instructive reader) for your lesson observations. Chose one observation method and log one or two history lessons which you have observed for your internship report. Distinguish between your observations and your own, assessing comments. Attempt to write down a detailed event log: teacher comments word for word and selected pupils’ comments. Mark the pupils’ comments so that a distinction can be made: P1 (pupil 1): …/ P2: …, etc.
4.) … record your general impressions during your internship on about one page
Which teachers did you accompany to which classes and lessons, which topics were covered (in summary or with an interesting prioritisation), general impressions, summary of your experience.
The specialised internship offers you a chance to address the challenges of the teaching role prior to your traineeship, to gather ideas and experience, to apply didactical knowledge and to plan own lessons prior to the traineeship. If you’re able to succeed, great, but improvable experiences are at least as valuable.
I’d like to repeat: If there should be any issues or difficulties, Mr. Huneke is happy to support you.
sgd. Prof. Dr. Meik Zülsdorf-Kersting