Mark Bailey - Education 533

Required Text:
Bredekamp, S. & Rosengrant, T. (Eds.). (1995). Transforming Early Childhood Curriculum and Assessment: Volume 2. NAEYC: Washington D.C.
Optional Text:
Jacobsen, D. Eggen, P., & Kauchak. (1999). Methods for Teaching: Promoting Student Learning. 6th Edition Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River, N.J.

Click here to link to our WebCT course resources
Click here to link to our In Class Constructions

Educational Philosophy:
I cannot simply teach you what you need to know about early childhood and elementary curricula 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 "problems" or scenarios each wee. 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 course is designed to guide aspiring teachers of early childhood and elementary age learners as they develop skills for designing and organizing units and lessons that: involve students in appropriate learning activities; require thinking at a range of levels and; use 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. This course will be structured in a manner different that most you have had. For the most part it will utilize a problem-based, or guided discovery approach. Each week we will address a question or 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.

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.
• understand a variety of foundational early childhood and elementary curricular models and appropriately incorporate aspects of these models into curriculum design.
• explore classroom management 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
• 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 and 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 three concrete assignments: a rewrite of your philosophy of education, a lesson plan, and an integrated semester project.

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. Do not forget that these lesson plans will also be assessed as part of the technology class.

C. Microteaching - During the semester and on November 19th a short social studies lessons to your peers. The purpose of these lessons will be for you to model and practice selected instructional methods, and to receive feedback on your lessons from your peers. It would be good to work in pairs and it is expected that you would accompany your lesson with a written copy of the lesson plan (including rationales) that you can distribute to your peers prior to the teaching. This assignment will be assessed by everyone in the class using a rubric that we will develop. It will include dimensions of: depth of thought and planning, appropriateness of methods selected, and quality of teaching practice. Use of Technology and expressive arts will also be evaluated if pertinent.

D. Project - It is expected that each of you will complete a final project that you will present to the class on Dec. 10th. This will be a project that thematically integrates the learning we are doing in the three classes we are building together. It needs to 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.

Assessment:
Throughout the course all assessments will be based on a scale of 1-5. A basic guideline will be 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.

On October 22nd 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 December 10th (Wednesday), 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.

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

Date	Problem Topic	Suggested Resources
Sept. 3	Introduction - Syllabus Construction Problem-based learning
10	What is a Curriculum?	Spodek & Saracho Ch. 4 Brede & Rosen(a). Ch. 2 Brophy & All, Ch. 1 Goffin, Ch. 8, 187-208
17	History of ECE-Elem Curriculum & Models Reggio, Montess, Wald, High Scope, Banks Street	Krough(a), 3-30 Billman & Sman Ch. 9. 205-47 Goffin Ch. 9 (209-214)
24	The Roles of Teacher, Student, & Community	Krough(b), ch 2, 45-77 Bredekamp(b) Ch 3 Jacobsen et al., ch.
Oct. 1	Standards, Benchmarks and Social Studies Philosophy rewrite?	Bredekamp(b) Ch 2, & 9 Brophy & All, Ch. 2
8	Planning: From Aims to Assessment	Brophy & All, Ch. 3 Peterson Ch. 3, 4 Jacobsen et al., 2, 3
15	Assessment	Brophy & All, Ch. 10 Puckett ch. 6 Jacobsen et al., ch. Ch. 1
22	Designing Lessons Mid Semester Evaluation Due	Brophy & All, Ch. 5, 6 Peterson ch. 5, 6 Jacobsen et al., ch. 4
29	Social Studies Content & Alt. Methods Lesson Plan ?	Brophy & All, Ch. 7 Spodek & Sar, Ch. 15
Nov. 5	Instructional Strategies – Coop Learning	Kagen Book
12	Instructional Strategies – Centers & Themes	TBD
19	Instructional Strategies: Integration Microteaching, Lesson Plan deadline	Bredekamp(b), Ch12 Krough(b), 83-103
26	THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY?
Dec. 3	Structuring Classrooms For Learning: Physical space and Guidance structure	Brophy & All, Ch. 8 Brewer ch 3 Jacobsen et al., ch. 9
10	Final Presentations: Student Projects Due

Special Needs.
I wish to fully include persons with special needs in this course. Please let me know if you need any special accommodations in the curriculum, instruction, or assessments of this course to enable you to participate fully. I will try to maintain confidentiality of the information you share with me.

References & Readings

Bredekamp, S. & Rosengrant (a), T. (Eds.). (1992). Reaching Potentials: Appropriate Curriculum and Assessment for Young Children: Volume 1. NAEYC: Washington D.C.

Bredekamp, S. & Rosengrant (b), T. (Eds.). (1995). Transforming Early Childhood Curriculum and Assessment: Volume 2. NAEYC: Washington D.C.

Brewer, J. (1995). Early Childhood Education: Preschool Through Primary Grades. Simon and Shuster: Needham Heights, MA.

Chard, S. C. (a) (1998). The Project Approach: Developing the Basic Framework. Scholastic: New York.

Chard, S. C. (a) (1998). The Project Approach: Developing Curriculum with Children. Scholastic: New York.

Goffin, S. G. (1994). Curriculum Models and Early Childhood Education: Appraising the Relationship. Merrill: NY.

Kagen, S.. (1997). Cooperative Learning.

Krough, S. L. (a) (1994). Educating Young Children. McGraw Hill: New York.

Krough, S. L. (b) (1995). The Integrated Early Childhood Curriculum (Second Edition). McGraw Hill: New York.

Peterson, E. A. (1996). Early Childhood Planing, Methods, and Materials. Allyn and Bacon: Boston.

Pucket, M. & Black, J. (1994)Authentic Assessment of the Young Child. Merrill: New York, NY.

Spodek, B. & Saracho, O. (1994). Right From the Start. Allyn & Bacon: Boston, MA.Special Needs.