ED 17: CURRICULUM AND METHODS SEMINAR
Spring 2002 Ann Renninger
(krennin1; X-8347)
Class:
Mondays 1/21 and 1/28, and
Thursdays 6:15-9:15
Course:
The course in Curriculum and Methods is designed to provide students with the skills required for certification in teaching by the State of Pennsylvania. It will provide a forum for exploring applications of educational theory to practice. We will operate with a flexible workshop-type format.
Course Requirements:
• Attendance at all classes is required for certification. (Class will be held over Spring break; your calendar is the calendar of the school where you are student teaching.)
• Complete all weekly and long-range assignments.
• Build portfolios for yourself and for your students.
• Attend Special Topics Workshops.
• Attend one professional meeting.
• Exam - written and oral competency exam at end of term.
Long-range Assignments:
Talk with your cooperating teacher and supervisor about
the ideas and goals you laid out in the assignment you wrote over the
winter break. In addition, you might want to ask them about something
you'd really like to know, such as: Why did you become a teacher? What
observations do you have about working with student teachers? How do you
schedule your work so that you can get exercise and sleep too? How have
your conceptions of teaching and learning changed over time? etc.
Write a description of the school in which you are teaching,
the department(s) or cohort of teachers with whom you are working, and
the students with whom you are working. File this in your portfolio.
Observations: (Summaries of each observation are to be filed
in your portfolio.)
a. Observe two-three times a day in your cooperating teacher's classes,
particularly in classes you will ultimately take over. (Learn the names
of all students in these classes.)
Observe three classes/topics taught by someone other than
your cooperating teacher.
c. Observe at least one class in a grade level before and one in a grade
level beyond the one you will teach.
Observe at least two classes outside your subject or grade.
Follow one student through an entire day.
Observe a resource room class for students at the grade level you are
teaching.
Collect the lesson plans and copies of any supporting materials
from a sequence of three consecutive lessons you teach in one class. These
should reflect your abilities to both give information (lecture) as well
as employ more interactive classroom formats in ways that meet the strengths
and needs of the students you are teaching. These materials should be
included in your portfolio. A two-paragraph introduction to the materials
should precede them in the portfolio. This should overview the students,
class content and the school culture briefly.
Multicultural Approaches
a. You should familiarize yourself with at least 3 resources in the Materials
Center that would enable you to work on making the classroom in which
you are teaching more multicultural.
b. Sometime during the term use some of the ideas from these materials to develop either specific lessons of specific approaches to working with your students.
c. Summarize the way in which multiculturalism was built into your class. Include in your statement consideration of how the content and/or process of the class would need to be adjusted if the racial/ethnic/gender composition of the class were different. This statement should be placed in your portfolio.
6. Professional journals
You are expected to become familiar with at least 2-3 journals
in your field. They might include: English Journal, The Reading Teacher,
Mathematics Teacher, History Teacher, Teaching K-8, Teacher, Learning
Magazine, KAPPAN, Educational Leadership, etc. Speak to your cooperating
teacher or me for suggestions.
b. Sometime during the term you are expected to use ideas from your journal
reading in your lessons.
File lesson plans that build on materials read in professional
journals in your portfolio.
Prepare a lecture about the National and State standards
in your field that will be presented to the seminar. Notes from your presentation
should be put into your portfolio.
Computer Software, the Internet and the Web
You are expected to be both familiar with and critical of the software
appropriate to your content area. To the degree possible in your placement,
develop and use computer software or other technologies in your teaching.
Summarize your effort/effects and file this in your portfolio.
You are expected to familiarize yourself with listserves, Websites, and
interactive projects pertinent to your content area
c. Develop and use at least one lesson in your teaching which employs
computers. This lesson should be summarized and evaluated in terms of
its strengths and limitations. File your summary and evaluation in your
portfolio.
d. With assistance, you are expected to create a website (preferably interactive) for either your students, their parents, or for colleagues. For instance, you might create a website in which students and parents can check for homework assignments and support; you might make a database with links around a particular theme or classroom topic; you might create a problem through which students might interact and experience learning. This is a very open assignment.
e. With assistance, you are expected to prepare a portfolio of your work in student teaching that is then posted as a webpage.
9. Collect representative samples of three students' work over the term. Select students who differ in strengths and needs. All identifying information should be removed and then these samples should be included in your portfolio.
10. Write narrative reports describing student work in your classes. Include three of these in your portfolio. Note, it may be useful in terms of the overall organization of your portfolio to include narratives for the work of the same students on whom you report in #8.
11. Write a rubric for a content you teach in your classroom. This should be included in your portfolio.
12. Write 1-3 essays that address: (These should be included in your portfolio.)
a. Reflections - A short essay based on materials in the portfolio in which you re-look at your working theory of instruction written for Educational Psychology.
b. Connections - A short essay based on materials in the portfolio in which you demonstrate thoughtful connections between the content of the Swarthmore education courses you have taken and your experience teaching.
c. Applications - A short essay/analysis of materials in the portfolio in which you analyze the application of content-specific standards in your discipline to the curriculum with which you worked. Based on the standards, make suggestions for the revision of this curriculum the next time it is taught.
Prepare your résumé. File it in your portfolio.
14. Secondary students--you must arrange to be observed teaching by a content-area faculty member before April 5.
Schedule and Topics:
M 1/21 Competency-based teacher education
Th 1/24 Instructional objectives, planning, school, and classroom culture/
Lesson and unit planning
M 1/28 Questioning/Verbal and nonverbal interaction
Th 1/31 Micro-teach
Th 2/7 Classroom management, routines, and environment
Th 2/14 Lesson Planning/Questioning, nonquestioning, tasks, theses, class discussion and student voice
Th 2/21 Student assessment: Documenting, discerning, and understanding progress; Feedback, test construction and evaluation
*Schedule Conference with Ann, portfolios should be up-to-date.
Th 2/28 Computers and software/Using technology
Th 3/7 Reading, writing, thinking, speaking, and learning
Th 3/14 State of the disciplines
Th 3/21 Multicultural, nonsexist, non racist education
3/28 Break
Th 4/4 Web unit workshop
Th 4/11 Conferencing: Supervisors, students, parents, community, etc.
*Secondary Students, schedule yourselves to be observed by someone from your content-area department.
Th 4/18 Inclusion/Standardized tests and measurement
Th 4/25 Inclusion/Mainstreaming, in class support, individualizing
Th 5/2 Professionalism/Rights and Responsibilities
Th 5/9 Portfolio Writers’ Conference
M 5/13 Portfolios due
W-Th 5/15-16 Self-scheduled exams
Texts available in bookstore (others are on Ed 17 Shelf in EMC):
Atwell, N. (1987). In the middle: Writing, reading, and learning with adolescents. Portsmouth: Boynton-Cook.
Charney, R. S. (1992). Teaching children to care: Management in the responsive classroom. Greenfield: Northeast Foundation for Children.
Maria, K. (1990). Reading comprehension. Parkton, MD: York Press.
McCarney, S. B. & Wunderlich, K. C. (1993). The Pre-referral intervention manual. Columbia, Mo: Hawthorne Educational Services, Inc.
Pauk, W. (2001). How to study in college. NewYork, NY: Houghton Mifflin Co.
Stigler, J. W. & Hiebert, J. (1999). The teaching gap: Best ideas from the world’s teachers for improving education in the classroom. New York, NY: The Free Press.