Bill Bigelow, Linda Christensen, Stan Karp, Barbara Miner, & Bob Peterson, (Eds.). (1994) Rethinking our Classrooms: Teaching for Equity and Social Justice. Vol. 1. Rethinking Schools: Williston, VT.
Bredekamp, S. & Rosengrant, T. (Eds.). (1995). Transforming Early Childhood Curriculum and Assessment: Volume 2. NAEYC: Washington D.C.

Educational Philosophy:
I cannot simply teach you what you need to know about early childhood and elementary curricula, social studies and methods. In order for you to effectively learn this material you must be willing to be an active participant in the learning process; constructing an understanding of this material that is personally relevant and meaningful. Therefore I see my role more as that of a facilitator and a co-learner than as a lecturer. What I will do is help you work in small group teams as we work on specific issues each week. I will provide you with a variety of resources that can assist you in learning and your job will be to work with your peers, utilize these resources, ask questions, and help me to know what you do and do not understand. I have set aside time for office hours so that I can help. You may also drop in unannounced any time I am in the office. Furthermore, I have included my email address in order to encourage your questions and comments, and my home phone number in case you encounter pressing questions or problems. The bottom line is that the amount you learn in this course will be directly proportional to your level of involvement, both temporal and cognitive.

Course Description:
This two-part course is designed to guide aspiring teachers of early childhood and elementary age learners. We will develop skills for designing and organizing units and lessons that: involve students in appropriate and authentic learning activities; require thinking at a range of levels; encourage the sensitive and individualized treatment of students of all cultures, abilities, and backgrounds and; utilize a variety of appropriate assessment methods. Course content will include an examination of curriculum foundations, a variety of specific curricular models, instructional skills and strategies, assessment methods, and classroom management systems. Throughout this course, social studies concepts will serve as the content and provide a context around which treatments of general methods will be organized. The integrating foundation of the course will be a focus on issues of educational equity and social justice. The first part of this course will be structured in a manner different that most you have experienced. For the most part it will utilize a student-centered, problem-based, or guided discovery approach. Each week we will address questions central to the study of educational methods and together we will seek out resources, learn the material and share what we have found with each other. Because of the nature of this course I have already compiled many resources that will assist the process, but these are to be viewed as a starting point..

The second part of the course will take place in January. This short 3 weeks is structured to help us better understand how to design, write, and implement a unit of learning. The focus will not be on reading someone else’s work and discussing it in class, but instead will be on helping you to think about, plan, write, critique, rewrite, and finalize your own unit.
By the end of this 3-week unit, students will be able to demonstrate their understanding of how to design an authentic and thematically integrated unit, by submitting a work sample that contains all the elements addressed in the guidesheet.
The authentic assessment of this objective will be submission of a first draft of a work sample.

Tentative Course Goals and Objectives
As a result of participating in this course, prospective teachers will be able to:
• demonstrate a functional understanding of the fundamental elements of curriculum for early childhood through elementary.
• formulate educational goals and objectives that are appropriate and require working at higher cognitive levels.
• experience a variety of instructional strategies, including cooperative learning, and identify appropriate application for early childhood and elementary classroom.
• become familiar with a number of student-centered learning strategies including the project approach and emergent curriculum approach.
• prepare lessons and units that use a variety of instructional strategies and skills, incorporate learning theory, Bloom's Taxonomy, learning styles, and multiple intelligences, and are appropriate to developmental levels, goals and objectives.
• design lessons with activities and learning centers that allow children to move at their own pace in acquiring important skills in all developmental areas-physical, social, emotional, and intellectual.
• use effective instructional practices in the design of lesson plans.
• understand a variety of foundational early childhood and elementary curricular models and appropriately incorporate aspects of these models into curriculum design.
• explore classroom management/guidance systems.
• use a variety of methods for assessing student learning and performance.
• explore a variety of new ideas in education and analyze their effectiveness in the early childhood and elementary setting.
• consider child developmental theory and the principles of educational psychology when making curricular decisions.
• identify appropriate social education and social studies goals and use as a guide to select content that teaches social understanding and civic efficacy.
• evaluate one's own classroom instruction through micro-teaching and peer coaching experiences.
• recognize fundamental social studies concepts and benchmarks, and demonstrate the ability to integrate them into lessons and thematic units.
• investigate alternative methods for teaching Social Studies content
• relearn social studies content, reflecting on historical and political accuracy.
• explore issues of social justice and educational empowerment, and discuss their relevance in ece/elem classrooms
• demonstrate the ability to include parents and family in their classroom and develop ideas for involving the students in the community.
• examine methods for structuring one’s time in and out of the classroom
• develop a library of relevant pedagogical resources
• examine learning from and with each other in a fun and creative atmosphere
• demonstrate the ability to design contingency plans that can serve as alternatives or extensions for planned activities
• design a modified work sample for early childhood and elementary learners that incorporates an understanding of best practices for teaching these age groups, includes a variety of appropriate learning experiences & instructional models, and utilizes authentic performance tasks and scoring guides
In the spirit of student-centered learning, we will begin the course by discussing the goals you have for this course and make sure that these are integral to our class together.

Course Requirements
This course will utilize very few formal requirements. It is expected that you will attend class, help to design and complete suggested readings and outside readings and contribute to class and small group discussions and projects. Suggestions will be made regarding observations in your early childhood placements. There will be at least five concrete assignments: a rewrite of your philosophy of education, a lesson plan, your WS rationale, an integrated semester project and a polished draft of your work sample.

Attendance. You are expected to attend each class. Because some materials that will be presented and discussed in your small group and in class are not contained in the listed resources, and because of your role in your small group, it is important that you attend every class.

Reading Assignments.This is a student-centered course, which means that each class will revolve around the interests and ideas that you bring to the class, and the work you do outside of class. Therefore it is important that you come prepared to contribute to discussions. You are expected to read whatever material you feel is necessary to come to class prepared to contribute to the small group and class discussions. Sometimes this will be assigned work, sometimes the topics will necessitate independent readings. I have compiled readings that are on reserve in the library and will list suggested chapters in the textbooks and provide URLs that will be helpful for your work. Reading carefully and thinking about the material before class will give you time to formulate questions and ideas that you may have about the readings and allow you to more fully participate during that class period.

Observations and Journal - Throughout the semester I will encourage you to make specific observations or gather specific data in your placements. This information may be discussed during class so please come prepared. The length of your observations and notes may vary depending on the nature of the observations or the level of your participation. I encourage you to continue the journal that you were asked to begin during the summer and to keep your observations and reflections in this journal.

Writing Assignments. Any writing assignments will be assessed on three criteria:
1. Clarity of expression. It is expected that papers and projects will be well written following the guidelines for appropriate grammar and style. Papers should be double spaced and printed using a #12 font.
2. Level of critical analysis and depth of thought. It is expected that your papers, projects and presentations will go beyond simply describing and applying information, and will include analytical thinking and the synthesis of ideas.
3. Specific assignment criteria. Each assignment has specific criteria and papers will be evaluated on how well those criteria are met.
All writing should be considered a work in progress. After I have assessed and returned any of your work, you have the option of making whatever changes that you would like and resubmitting your paper for a new assessment. When you resubmit a paper please be sure to submit your original version along with the new version.

A. Philosophy of Education. I strongly encourage you to rewrite your philosophy of education. I expect that everyone who rewrites their philosophy will have at least one or two peers read and evaluate it this semester prior to submitting it to me. In this manner, not only will you receive feedback from a couple of peers, presumably you will have the opportunity to read and review the philosophies of a couple of your peers. I believe this structure will benefit everyone.

B. Lesson Plan. The object of this project is to allow you to select some component of the early childhood social studies curriculum that interests you, investigate it more fully, and design a lesson plan around this component. You are free to select any social studies component and design any curricular application that interests you and that is relevant. You may pick any level: age 3 through grade 8. I expect your work to be founded on theory and research, and references to scholarly work are required. Rationales are expected to be included for each element of your plan. You may work collaboratively with a peer, however your work should reflect twice the effort.

C. Rationale - A draft of your rationale is due in class on Nov. 30th. The rationale should be written in keeping with the work sample description sheet and will be evaluated baseed on the scoring guide.

D. Project - It is expected that each of you will complete a final project that you will present to the class on Dec. 15th. Ideally this will be a project that thematically integrates the learning we are doing in the three classes we are building together. It could contain social studies content, well designed methods, have a technology component and involve the use of an expressive arts activity. While parameters of the project will be distributed later, I will remain flexible to accommodate individual creativity and topic that truly motivate you.

E. Work Sample - The final authentic assessment of this course will be the submission of a first draft of a work sample. This work sample draft must contain elements A through L, as they are described in the description sheet. Elements M through P must also be present, however instead of describing what you DID do to differentiate, adapt or design instruction, describe how you PLAN to do these things. Elements Q through T do not yet need to be addressed (they will be in your final draft). I would like you to reflect some on your planning and to provide a bibliography (T and U), and of course to present a well-written worksample as described in V. For this draft of your worksample none of the elements should be evaluated lower than a 3 or they may need to be rewritten. This draft is due on or before Wed. January 18th, and will be accepted no later than Friday Jan. 20th. As a means of pacing this requirement, on January 13 you are required to come to class with parts A-E completed for review by your peers during the two hour period.
The final draft of this WS will be submitted to your University Supervisor after you have taught the unit. It must contain freshly printed pages so that any comments that I have made on previous versions are manifest in changes incorporated in your new version. It is recommended that you speak with your supervisor and work closely with him/her during the final writing and teaching of your unit so that there are no surprises in your WS’s final evaluation. Your supervisor will be evaluating your WS using the Description sheet and scoring guide that is posted on my website and that I will hand out as part of the WS packet. For this evaluation of your WS, you must have an average rating of a 4 and none of your individual elements can be lower than a 3.

Assessment:
Your grade in the course will be based on a final assessment on your work throughout the fall term, and an evaluation of the worksample as an authentic assessment of your synthesis of the course materials. You will be expected to submit a reflective self-assessment of your work throughout the course that is due on January 20st.

There will be two different assessment options from which you are welcome to choose this semester. Option 1 is a more holistic approach and involves ongoing self-assessment, Option 2 is a more concrete approach and involves finite point totals for specific assignments. You are required to email me your assessment option selection for this course no later than October 4th.

Throughout the course, assessments will be based on rubrics that we will develop and some that are already published online. A basic guideline for evaluation is as follows.

A score of 5 will be given when the work is thorough, insightful, and demonstrates a comprehensive understanding.
A score of 3 will be given when the work is adequate, accurate, and demonstrates a basic understanding.
A score of 1 will be given when the work is inadequate, demonstrates misunderstanding, and is lacking in effort.

Option 1.
Throughout the course, assessment will be based on a rubric developed for that specific assignment. Each submitted assignment will be accompanied with a brief self-assessment based on that rubric. A basic guideline for assessments can be found above.

On October 27th you will submit a midsemester personal evaluation indicating how you are progressing in meeting the course goals and objectives, and noting progress on your final project. On January 21st, you will submit a final evaluation of your progress in meeting class goals and objectives. This will include reflections on the student and professor feedback you have received on your assignments and final project. This evaluation will include a final grade for yourself based on this self evaluation. Where in most cases this will be the final grade you will receive for this course, I reserve the right to submit an alternative final grade if I believe there is a lack of veridical connection between the work completed and your self-evaluation.

Option 2.
Throughout the course all assessments will be based on rubrics developed for that specific assignment. Scores will be totaled at the end of the semester to determine semester grade.
On October 27th you will submit a midsemester personal evaluation indicating how you are progressing in meeting the course goals and objectives, and noting progress on your final project. On Jan 21st, you will submit a final evaluation of your progress in meeting class goals and objectives. This will include reflections on the student and professor feedback you have received on your assignments and final project.

Required Assignments:
1. Philosophy rewrite (10 points)
2. Lesson Plan (20 points)
3. Final Project (30 points)
4. Work Sample Draft (40 points)

Course Topics. Topics are linked to the relevant section of the course resources page.

Date	Problem Topic	Suggested Resources
Sept. 7	Introduction – Designing the Semester
14	What is Curriculum, What is Social Studies: Teaching for Equity and Justice	ROC.1, 4 - 5 Goffin, Ch. 8, 187-208 Brophy & All, Ch. 1, 2 Levine, 52-60
21	History of ECE-Elem Curriculum & Models Reggio, Montess, Wald, High Scope, Banks Street	Spodek & Saracho 90-115 Krough(a), 3-30 Billman & Sman Ch. 9. 205-47 Goffin Ch. 9 (209-214)
28	Planning: From Units to Lesson Plans	Brophy & All, Ch. 3 - 6
Oct. 5	Perspectives on History Philosophy rewrite Encouraged	ROC.1, 137-140, 150-157 ROC 2, 45-56, 76-80 RC, 32–43, 47–55, 69-70 79-84 Brophy & All, 7
12	Standards, Benchmarks and NCLB	Bredekamp Ch 2, & 9 Yell & Drasgow, 1-26 Weblinks
19	Civics and Social Consciousness Classroom Collaboration (DLAM)	Brophy & All, Ch. 8 ROC 2, 34-41
26	Geography and Economics Mid Semester Evaluation Due	ROC 2, 112-114 Kaiser & Wood, 1-43
Nov. 2	Assessment Strategies Lesson Plan Due	Brophy & All, Ch. 10 Puckett ch. 6 ROC 1, 171-175, 178-181 ROC 2, 204-206,219-218
9	Culture, Curriculum and Classroom	Derman Sparks 17-22 Christensen, 18-22
16	Designing a Unit of Learning – Rationale to Wrapup Presentation and discussion of the entire Work Sample Contents.	Work Sample Description Work Sample Scoring Guide
24	THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY?
Dec1	Inductive Methodologies :Discovery, Centers, & Play Rationale Draft Due	Bredekamp, Ch12 Parker, 311-341 ROC 2, 214-224
8	Topic of Your Choice
15	Final Presentations: Student Projects Due
Jan. 9	Your Unit of Study: The Work Sample - Please come to class with your rationale, goals, benchmarks, learning points and Content relationships ready to share with your peers (A - E)
Jan 13	Working Session - sharing drafts and ideas
18	Final Review - Working through any questions or issues that have emerged. Bring a current draft for final feedback.
23	Work Sample Due - Final working session to finish off submissions. Peer Reviewing, Peer editing.
27	Final Due date and Class Meeting -