Department of Teaching and Learning

Course Information

Teaching and Learning Elementary Education / EDEL 323-1003 / 3 Credit Hours
Fall ‘12 / T-R 8:30 a.m.-9:45 p.m.

Instructor

Name
Betsy Arnow / Office Location
CEB 399C / Office Phone
895-2963
Office Hours
Tuesdays and Thursdays 10:00-11:00 AM; 1:00-2:30 PM;
Also by appointment / E-Mail:

Course Description:

Current research-based practices in classroom communication skills, delivery of instruction, questioning techniques, lesson design, and behavior management. Co requisite: Enrollment in EDEL 311. Prerequisite: Admission to Elementary Education Program. 3 credits.

EDEL 323 will provide students with an introduction to effective, research based strategies for instructional delivery. Students will demonstrative their understanding of these strategies through class presentations and written work.

COE Principles Addressed

1. Content Knowledge: The COE graduate knows and understands the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the discipline(s) and creates learning experiences that make these aspects of content meaningful. They are passionate about their subjects and their work.

2. Individual Development: The COE graduate knows and understands how individuals learn and can develop and provide opportunities that support intellectual, career, social, and personal development. They seek ways to enhance the success of their future students.

3. Diverse Learners: The COE graduate knows and understands how individuals differ in their approaches to learning and creates opportunities that are equitable and adaptable to the needs of Diverse learners. They demonstrate dispositions that reﬂect a caring nature toward their clients.

4. Planning Processes: The COE graduate understands planning processes based upon knowledge of content, learners characteristics, the community, and curriculum goals and standards. They are active participants in the local k-12 education system.

5. Strategies and Methods: The COE graduate knows and understands and can employ a variety of strategies and methods and encourages the development of critical thinking, problem solving, decision-making, and performance skills. They create lessons that promote student achievement.

6. Learning Environments: The COE graduate knows and understands individual and group motivation and behavior and creates a learning environment that encourages positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self-motivation. They create enriched learning environments.

7. Communication: The COE graduate knows and understands effective verbal, nonverbal, and media communication techniques and other forms of symbolic representation and can foster active inquiry, collaboration, and supporting interactions. They use technology to facilitate student learning.

8. Assessments: The COE graduate understands and promotes formal and informal assessment strategies and evaluates the learner's continuous intellectual, social, and physical development. They develop fair assessments of student achievement.

9. Collaboration, Ethics, and Relationships: The COE graduate understands and fosters ethical relationships with parents, school colleagues, and organizations in the larger community to support the individual's learning development. They build communication opportunities through trust and genuine regard for student personal and academic growth.

10. Reﬂection and Professional Development: The COE graduate is a reﬂective practitioner who continually evaluates the effects of choices and actions on students, adults, parents, and other professionals in the learning community, and who actively seeks opportunities to grow professionally. They respond to the rapidly changing educational context of Southern Nevada in a thoughtful manner.

General Learning Outcomes: The goal of this course is to establish the relationship between theory and practice, i.e. praxis, in a variety of contexts. A performance-based approach facilitates prospective teachers in recognizing the non-linearity of the multiple dimensions of elementary classrooms, unique skills and abilities of teachers, and the use of technology in attaining effective practice as expressed in NCATE, NBPTS, and INTASC Standards.

Knowledge: INTASC 1 and 5

· Working knowledge of general teaching models including expository, inquiry, demonstration and integration

· Recognition of effective teaching practices

· Differentiation between instructional and managerial dimensions of teaching

Performance: INTASC 1,2,3 and 7

· Demonstration of lesson planning, teaching and exhibit presentation

· Demonstration of teaching strategies

· Integration of relevant technology into teaching demonstrations

Dispositions: INTASC 3,9, and 10

· Demonstration of strategies that promote responsibility, motivation and appreciation of diversity.

· Effective use of technology for purposes of professional development

· Collaboration with colleagues for purposes of effective teaching/learning experiences for themselves and for elementary students. (Deering, 20007)

Results: INTASC 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9, and 10

Respective elementary teachers in this course will address the following NCATE criteria for compliance. Accordingly, perspective teachers will be able to:

o Understand and describe personal beliefs that influence the ways teachers organize and manage classrooms for diverse learners

o Study selected literature on teacher roles, classroom environments, planning, organization and management of instruction, managing behavior, meeting learning needs of diverse students and assessing children’s learning in school

o Apply knowledge of the teaching/learning process in organizing for teaching

o Analyze and discuss the major findings of the educational research ineffective teaching and classroom management

o Identify and analyze methods and processes of effective teaching

o Demonstrate an understanding of the relationships among environment, curriculum, instruction, organization, and management in the elementary classroom

o Understand and demonstrate classroom management strategies that create an effective classroom and support behavioral growth in their students

o Understand lesson design strategies including those developed by Madeline Hunter, Ralph Tyler, Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe.

o Develop lesson plans that align with the Standards of the State of Nevada

o Understand and demonstrate methods of questioning including those of Benjamin Bloom.

o Develop and demonstrate classroom management strategies that allow for whole group, small group, cooperative group, paired/shared grouping patterns that support a variety of learning opportunities for their students.

o Develop skills for assessment of learning and the decision making that a data-driven classroom teacher needs in order to successfully educate students.

o Develop a “toolbox” of teaching strategies in the various content areas.

o Recognize the diversity of learners that they will be expected to teach and develop and demonstrate strategies to meet their needs.

REQUIRED TEXT:

Borich, Gary D. (2011). Effective Teaching Methods. (7th. Ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson

Additional reading is on E-reserve through the Curriculum and Materials Library (CML).

METHODS OF INSTRUCTION:

1) Lecture

2) Small group problem solving

3) Role playing

4) Video presentation

5) Peer interaction

6) Discussion

ASSIGNMENTS POINTS DUE DATE

Attendance, Preparation and Participation 150 points Ongoing

Effective Teaching Strategy Observation 100 points September 20

Lesson Plan 1 150 points October 4

Levels of Questioning 120 points October 11

Classroom Observation Activity 1 100 points October 18

Midterm Exam 130 points October 25

Lesson Plan 2 150 points November 8

Classroom Observation Activity 2 100 points November 29

PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENTS

1. Attendance and Participation (150 points) - Ongoing

Students are to complete reading assignments prior to class to reflect on the meaning and how to use the knowledge gleaned from the textbook. You should be prepared for class activities and discussions by reading all that is assigned before each class meeting. Participation in all class activities is required. During the course, you will be asked to complete a number of activities/workshop/scenarios/role playing exercises in class. Instructions and format will be discussed. Demonstration of your knowledge and participation is expected.

Attendance will be taken at the beginning of each class and will be used in the calculation of the course grade. For the purposes of this class, attendance is defined as presence and participation in class discussions and activities. Lack of participation will be considered an absence from class. As per University policy, excused absences are religious holidays or university-sponsored trips or activities. Students planning to take religious holidays must inform the instructor no later than the last day of late registration. There are no other identified excused absences.

Acceptable, excused absences require a doctor's note or other documentation. Please notify your instructor regarding absences.

Your attendance pattern (absences, late arrivals, early departures, and participation) will influence your final grade as follows:

Absences Effect
0-2 no change in grade
3 - 4 grade drops 1/3 (e.g., A- will drop to a B+)
5 - 6 grade drops 2/3 (e.g., A- will drop to a B)
7 - 8 grade drops 1 letter (e.g., A will drop to a B)
8 F

Prompt attendance at all class meetings is required. Tardiness will also be used in the calculation of the course grade. Three late arrivals and/or early departures (arriving 10 minutes late or leaving 10 minutes early) will result in a grade drop of 1 degree (e.g. A- to B+) and a required conference with the instructor. Three or more absences will result in a failing grade. If you are absent, it is your responsibility to arrange for another student to collect notes and materials for you. In case of an emergency or anticipated absence, please inform the instructor. Lateness to class interferes with the class and is unfair to your classmates as well as the instructor.

2. Effective Teaching Strategy Observation (100 points) - Due September 20

Observe a teacher implementing a lesson using a strategy of your choice (direct-instruction or indirect-instruction) and respond to the following:

c. Outline the major points in the lesson. (20 points)

d. List the objectives of the lesson. (10 points)

e. What was the teacher’s primary content focus? (10 points)

f. How specifically did the teacher demonstrate abstract ideas? (20 points)

g. How did the teacher involve students in the lesson? (20 points)

h. Did students achieve the lesson goal? How do you know? (10 points)

i. What suggestions do you have to improve the lesson? (10 points)

3. Lesson Plan 1 (150 points) - Due October 4

Daily lesson plans generally outline the content to be taught, motivational techniques to be used, materials needed, specific activities, and evaluation methods. During the course, we will discuss various instructional models useful for daily lesson design and implementation. Understanding the theory and the appropriate practical application of each teaching model will help you to design lessons that successfully increase student learning. Using the Elementary Lesson Plan Template, write a complete lesson plan. You may choose the grade level and subject. It will be judged according to the rubric.

4. Levels of Questioning (120 points) – Due October 11

According to Bloom’s Taxonomy, there are 6 levels of cognitive ability that should be addressed in instructional planning which can be used to assess student comprehension. Write two questions (10 points for each question) for each level of competence (Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation).

5. Observation Activity 1 (100 points) - Due October 18

Teachers use a variety of questioning strategies that require various amounts of cognitive processing by students. Observe instruction for thirty minutes. Using the Observation Activity 1 form, record the type of question the teacher asks in regard to the teaching strategy that is used with a tally (/) in the appropriate column; if the strategy is not observed, note this with a minus (-) [50 points]. Discuss the questioning strategies that are utilized and the type of learning that is taking place (50 points).

6. Mid-term – October 25

7. Lesson Plan 2 (150 points) - Due November 8

8. Observation Activity 2 (100 points) - Due November 29

In order to gain a sense of the pace, interruptions and interactions that occur in a classroom, you are to observe instruction for thirty minutes. Divide the time into three 10-minute segments. During the first ten minutes, count the number of teacher-to-student and student-to-teacher interchanges that occur and record the occurrence of each with a tally (/) in the appropriate box on the Observation Activity 2 form. During the next 10 minutes, record the number of teacher-to-student exchanges that pertain to 1) lesson content, 2) procedural matters (directions and clerical tasks), and 3) discipline or classroom management (restating rules, giving warnings, or assigning consequences). During the last 10 minutes, record interactions according to whether the exchange is brief (lasting 5 seconds or less) or extended (lasting more than 5 seconds). The complete exchange (teacher-to-student and student response to teacher) should be recorded as one occurrence. Completing the boxes on the form is worth 50 points. Discuss what you have observed (50 points).

Assignments

Assignments are due at the beginning of the class period of the assigned day unless otherwise stated. If work cannot be completed on time, you are required to make arrangements with the instructor prior to the due date. Late assignments will be accepted only if arrangements with the instructor are made prior to the due date and are subject to the loss of points due to lateness. If an assignment is one week late, the grade is automatically lowered to 80% before being evaluated by the instructor. If two weeks late, the grade is automatically lowered to 60% before being evaluated by the instructor. If an assignment is three or more weeks late, the grade is 0%.

Unless otherwise noted in class, assignments should be word-processed, double-spaced, not FULL justified, and 12 point type. Do not enclose your work in folders, just staple in the upper left corner. Cover pages are unnecessary; place your name, date, and title of assignment in upper right or left corner of the first page. For self-protection, provide yourself with back-up copies of all assignments.

GRADING POLICY

Final grades will be determined by the amount of points earned during the semester. Grading is based on meeting the criteria for each assignment as detailed on the evaluation rubrics. Throughout the semester, formative evaluation will occur through feedback on assignments. In addition, summative evaluation will be based on the evidence of growth toward course objectives. Sources of such evidence are performance on each of the workshops, class participation and attendance, and the quality and preparation of the assignments. Students can earn up to 1000 points during the course to determine the final grade. Students can add the total points for each assignment to determine their grade. Class grades will be determined using the following grading scale: