Tentative Syllabus
EDUC201,
sec. 1
School
and Society
Spring 2008
10:40 Ð 12:10 T-Th
GDH 304
Instructor: Jim Vandergriff
Office Hours: 9:30 Ð 10:30; 12:10 Ð 12:55; 2:30 Ð
3:00 T-Th
Other times
by appointment
Office: 310 George
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Required
Texts Kozol,
Jonathan. (2005). The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid
Schooling in Purpose and
Description of the Course
The purpose of this course is for participants to examine issues that have an
impact on the way in which education is conducted in the A critical aspect of this course is the notion of a community and discussion. It is through the notion of community that we will have the greatest impact. As a result, learning to develop relationships with others is critical to learning and teaching. This means developing and improving our abilities to talk with each other about difficult issues, to educate each other, and to come to understandings so that we can improve teaching and learning. This notion of community influences the structure of the course. Learning Objectives Participants in this course will: understand the basic structures and dilemmas concerning school funding and governance; address the relationship among society, economics, politics and the structure of public schools; identify their own cultural frames of reference and the ways in which their cultural frames are similar to or different from those of others and the ways in which our cultural frames of reference influence how we interpret our experiences; critically analyze differing points of view on one or more current issue in education and present their own; and develop their communication and community building skills. Knox Teaching Standards Also in this course, you are expected to show evidence of progress toward fulfilling the following standards. You will need to develop, identify, and submit to me "performance indicators" for each of these standards. Click here for a version in Microsoft Word format. (Even those who are enrolled for ANSO credit meet this requirement.) A. The candidate understands the role of the community in education and develops and maintains collaborative relationships with colleagues, parents/guardians, and the community to support student learning and well-being.(IPTS # 9) 1 . Expresses democratic values in teaching and learning practices and policies 2. Completes collaborative work 3. Maintains respect during interactions with peers, parents, cooperating teachers, faculty, and staff 4. Creates a learning community in which individual differences are respected 6. Identifies and uses community resources that foster learning 7. Talks with and listens to others, investigates situations, and seeks outside help as needed and appropriate to remedy problems 9. Considers multiple perspectives and interpretations 12. Understands the roles and relationships of school and society and society in schools. B. The candidate is a reflective practitioner who continually evaluates how choices and actions affect students, parents, and other professionals in the learning community and actively seeks opportunities to grow professionally.(IPTS # 10) 1. Is self-regulating and self-directed 2. Thinks critically 3. Willingly receives and gives feedback 4. Engages in teaching and learning as an on-going, reflective process 5. Uses professional research and resources (e.g., colleagues, professional literature) in learning, planning, and teaching 9. Confronts personal cultural perspectives and biases and their effects on teaching. C. The candidate understands education as a profession, maintains standards of professional conduct, and provides leadership to improve student learning and well-being. (IPTS # 11) 3. Abides by state laws and professional codes of conduct 4. Strives for academic excellence 5. Maintains a high level of integrity in educational practices which promotes the highest educational and quality of life potential for all students, including those with disabilities 6. Attends class and makes arrangements for absences and missed work 7. Talks to and listens respectfully to others D. The candidate understands the central concepts, methods of inquiry, and structures of the discipline(s) and creates learning experiences that make the content meaningful to all students.(IPTS # 1) 1. Engages in generating knowledge and testing hypotheses according to methods of inquiry and standards of evidence used in the discipline/s 2. Understands how individual differences, including disabilities, affect processes of inquiry and influence patterns of learning. 3. Uses major concepts, assumptions, and debates central to his/her discipline/s 4. Relates his/her disciplinary knowledge to other subject areas and sees connections to everyday life 5. Displays enthusiasm for his/her discipline/s 6. Effectively uses multiple representations and explanations of concepts G. The candidate uses an understanding of individual and group motivation and behavior to create a learning environment that encourages positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self-motivation. (IPTS # 5) 1. Works productively and cooperatively with others in complex social settings 3. Engages others in individual and cooperative learning activities that help develop motivation and social skill development. 6. Helps the group to develop shared values and expectations for interactions, academic discussions, and individual and group responsibility that create a positive classroom climate of openness, mutual respect, support, and inquiry I. The candidate understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage students' development of critical thinking, problem solving, and performance skills. (IPTS #6) 4. Models sensitivity to gender and cultural differences 7. Uses a variety of media and communication tools, including audio-visual aids and computers. 8. Implements and evaluates personal learning objectives. Structure of the Course The course will meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10:40 Ð 12:10. Students are required to meet in their assigned news and chapter working groups for one additional hour each week and will be asked to certify, under the terms of the Knox Honor Code, that they have done so. Though the additional hours may be scheduled at the convenience of the group, the groups must meet, and they must inform the instructor of the time and location of each meeting well in advance so that he may monitor the meetings as needed. The course includes discussion, presentations made by the instructor, small group activities, presentations made by the participants, and regular reading and writing assignments. Students will also be required to do twenty (20) hours of service in the local community. This project is discussed in an additional handout, "Community Service Project." This syllabus is my current best guess as to how the course will proceed. Though I reserve the right to alter the syllabus as I deem necessary, I expect you to adhere to the schedule and requirements stated herein until such time as I tell you otherwise. Required Kozol, J. (1991). Shame of A Nation.
Assignments You will be completing a variety of reading and writing assignments as well as participating in presentations and classroom discussions. Each assignment is described briefly below. You will find a more detailed description on each on the course website, except for "Participation." This is the only description you'll receive for this part of the course. Please understand clearly at the outset that you must attempt all the work of the course. Failure to turn in any assignment will earn you an "F" in the course. You must do all of the assignments. Late work will be penalized at the rate of one letter grade per class meeting that it is late. It is your responsibility to know when the assignments are due and to have them ready to submit. You must hand them to my TA so he can check them off when they are submitted. You will need to type (word-process) your assignments. Your writing needs to be doubled space, with a 12 point type face and one inch margins, and printed only on one side of the page. I expect/require professional looking work, so do not use paper that has already been used on one side.. Because you will be referencing articles, books and movies in your writing, you need to be familiar with the American Psychological Association (APA) style manual. You can find the APA Style Manual in the library or on-line. There are web links for the APA Style Manual posted on the class web site. Also, make sure that every paper you hand in has your name and the page number on every sheet of the paper (use the header/footer function in your word-processing software), and that your pages are stapled in the upper left corner. Your papers on your presentations are due the class meeting after you give your presentation. Individual
Projects You will have three individual assignments. The first, which will begin on 3/29/06, is a "cultural artifact" presentation. In this assignment, you will have five minutes to tell the class who you are culturally. After you have done your presentation, you will need to compose a two-page reflection on your presentation. How did it go? What went right? What went wrong? What would you do differently next time? The reflection is due the class period following your presentation. The second individual assignment, which will be due at the beginning of the class period on 5/19/06, is a movie review. I will provide you with a list of acceptable movies and guidelines for the paper. No more that two (2) people may do the same movie.
For the third individual assignment, which will include both an oral
presentation and a paper, the paper will be due at the beginning of the class
period on 5/22/06 and the oral presentation will be given during the final
exam period. Each of you will give a 5-minute oral report on
your community service project during the final exam time. (Please
note: because the final exam is oral reports to the group, don't ask to be
excused from the final or to take your final at a different time; such
requests will simply be denied because there is no way to make up that work.)
You will also turn in a three page reflection on your experience. What
did you do? What did you learn about the nature of community?
What was positive about the experience? What was negative? Of
what worth was the experience to you as a growing, thoughtful, caring human
being? Group Projects The news project involves reading two news sources (described elsewhere) for one week and locating in them news stories on education that are relevant to the course. You then create a news log and a written analysis of the news stories for that week. (You create the log as a group; your analyses are done individually, but cover all the news the group presented.) In addition, the group chooses one reading which they will photocopy and hand out to the class in advance and then lead a discussion of that article. The chapter projects involve leading an interactive lesson on a specific topic in a specific chapter. You will be randomly assigned to groups. There will be three of these; you will be in different groups for each of the three. The critique is due the class period after your present. For the Kozol presentation, each group will create a way to represent one of the chapters from Kozol to the class. The critique is due the class period after you present. Each of these study group projects is explained in more detail in a handout. Participation Because a critical aspect of this course is the development of a community, you are expected to participate in the community. A variety of classroom formats will be used--large group and small group discussion, group activities, pair work, and individual presentations--I hope that you will both find a venue in which you are comfortable speaking and experiment with those that may feel more difficult for you. To evaluate your participation, I will be asking you how you contributed to the course and how the course would have been different without you. I expect you to have very concrete, specific things to say about your involvement. Because of the importance of dialogue, I will assume that we all will observe these general guidelines: * speak to all of your colleagues in the class, not just to me or to the person to whom you are responding, * respond to colleagues in ways that continue discussion (no put-downs, no wisecrack responses), * monitor your own participation, and * be respectful of others. See the web site for a more detailed list of discussion rules. You will also be held accountable for your critique of the presentations. Each critique will be worth two participation points, in addition to other participation factors. (It is your responsibility to print off the critique sheets from the class website and have them with you. I will only count critiques done on the "official" critique sheets.) Quizzes You will have a number of quizzes over the assigned readings and the lectures, syllabus, presentations, etc. The quizzes, in aggregate, will equal 13% of your total grade. So, please read the assigned material promptly and carefully. (I will assume -- and require -- that you have read the assigned readings before the beginning of the class period for which they are assigned.) All quizzes will be taken outside of class time. You may take them from anywhere you have internet access, but they will only be available for a limited time, which I will announce in class. Fail to take the quiz during the allotted time and you fail the quiz. I will permit make-up only under extraordinary circumstances.
Class
Participation and Attendance I expect regular class attendance. Every absence will count against your grade. If your absence is unavoidable, such as for medical reasons, I expect an excuse from someone with the authority to say your absence was unavoidable. That excuse will permit you to do some kind of oral presentation to the class to compensate for the class participation you missed and to make up quizzes, exams or presentations that you missed. However, such make up work must be done during the next class meeting (or before, in the case of tests or quizzes), so if you miss you will need to consult with me before the next class meeting. If you don't have a valid written excuse, I don't feel obliged to permit you to make up the work you missed. Athletes who are absent for participation in school sanctioned events are not required to present an excuse. However, you do need to tell me that you are on a team and to let me know ahead of time when you are going to be gone, and you do need to do the make up work. It is the student's responsibility to initiate make-up work. That is, you must come to me or the class TA and request the opportunity to do the make-up. It is not an automatic process, and the opportunity will be denied unless you present a valid excuse. Come to class on time and be prepared to stay until the end of the class period. I expect to start class promptly and to stay on task until our time runs out. Late arrivals and early departures disrupt class. So, for purposes of the participation grade, I will count two late entries, two early departures, or any combination of the two as an absence. I also expect you to be involved in the class on a daily basis. Don't miss my class. You will engage in a lot of small group work and discussion. So, you must be present, you must have read the assigned material, and you must engage in the group work. If you do miss, you should expect to be penalized. There are 17 class meetings. If you miss one, your % immediately drops to 94% Miss 2 and it drops to 88%. Keep in mind that that can seriously affect your grade for the course, since participation is worth 15% of the course grade. However, other things, such as how you participate in group work during class and other ex tempore assignments, will also be included in participation. As noted above, you will also be held accountable for your critique of the presentations. Each critique will be worth two participation points, in addition to other participation factors. (It is your responsibility to print off the critique sheets from the class website and have them with you. I will only count critiques done on the "official" critique sheets.)
We will not have a formal "Final Exam" as such, but we will hold a
full three hour class during the exam period, during which time you will be
giving oral and written reports. Therefore, it is necessary that
everyone be present. That
means no early finals. (If you have already made travel
arrangements that involve your missing the final, you need to either (1)
change them, or (2) drop the class.) The following is quoted directly from the Knox Catalog. Please read it carefully.
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