MODULE 1
Enter. Look around. Visit a class or two. Sit toward the rear and observe the students closely...very closely. At any given time, about how many of them in any average class - including many "college preps" - are honestly engaged intellectually with the lesson at hand?
Bet half weren't! Who's kidding who?
"[To teacher] Stop your presentation before it kills again!...Then he said I can't feel my legs and then I said, stay with me Joe but it was too late. He was gone.
It was the Powerpoint."
- Education Blog, July 2005.
"Our children are living in the most intensively stimulating period on the history of the earth. They are being besieged with information and calls to their attention from every platform, computers, from iPhones, from advertising hoardings from hundreds of television channels; and we're penalizing them now for getting distracted. From what? Boring stuff at school, for the most part."
- Blog, 2010
“Today it is not only business that demands a dramatically different set of skills. Rapidly evolving technologies have made new skills a requirement for success in everyday life”
A. Read carefully …
Please read Part 1 only: “Defining the Need for Change”, pp 6-7
B. Print, read, bring to class and store in notebook...
“Put Understanding First”, Wiggins and McTighe, Educational Leadership, May 2008
Note: If the above link is not operational at the time needed, the journal selection can be obtained through the BSC Library database system—Ebscohost.
B. Out of the Chute Immediately: Expect a quiz on the above reading assignment as early as the second time your team meets this semester. Go to the addendum at the bottom of this module for details on the general quiz procedure in the course.
Possible Quiz Question: Given a copy of an actual lesson plan or unit devised by a secondary-level teacher, anticipate or predict what Wiggins and McTighe might say if they were to examine it and comment at length. Support your response by making references to their essay.
Possible Quiz Question: Return to the Wiggins and McTighe essay. Find the section on "A More Meaningful Sequence" (about page 3). Substitute the given math example on mean, median and mode with an entirely new secondary-level example, preferably from your subject-matter specialty (what you want to teach). Keep the 12 steps but change the example. Make it so good that W and M would feel comfortable replacing their example with yours.
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"A special issue of the Journal of School Health documents that 40 percent to 60 percent of all students are chronically disengaged from schools."
- "Creating a Culture of Attachment," McLaughlin and Blank, Education Week, October 2004
"Robert L. Fried describes the traditional classroom as a 'game' in which students waste time on non-productive 'work' rather than true learning. Fried refers to standardized testing and curricula as a prime example of 'form replacing substance'. When the ends (test scores) are more important that the means (real learning), students lose interest and their desire to be successful in school."
- "Authentic Learning/ Teaching/ Assessment", Askew, online essay
Students will be quizzed on the assigned material frequently. Testing is usually on a team basis.
Students can request taking any team quiz individually at any time if they feel uncomfortable with team quizzes. Additionally, the instructor will identify certain students for individual quizzing. Selection is usually random. Students will not be given long-term notice of this procedure. Be ready for anything.
The instructor will direct the team and individuals to contend with a written quiz. This may be "open book" (where students can work from websites, full-text articles, notebooks, etc.) or "closed book". In closed book quizzes, students will be given time to review requisite material before taking the quiz.
Completed quizzes will be sent to the instructor through email. The quiz will be graded within 24 hours and returned via email.
Each quiz will be judged PASS OR FAIL with gradations:
PASS…5- 4- 3
FAIL… 2- 1- 0
A “PASS-5” signifies truly outstanding performance while a “FAIL-0” means a very poor quiz response indeed.
“PASS-3” equals minimum level passing grade.
Failed quizzes (2, 1, 0 -levels) will be accompanied by comments and suggestions on how to improve. They must be retaken and passed.
But are team quizzes valid as assessment measures?
(Optional) Locate the full-text study identified below and read it. Perhaps it will aid you in making a judgment on the efficacy of team quizzes.
(Academic Search Premier) "Collaborative Exams: An Educationally Sound Practice?", Schindler, The Teaching Professor, August/September 2004
Field Work: Opening Statement
Field Work is an integral component of ED235 and most courses in our Secondary Education Program.
It cannot be stressed enough that the student start early in the semester, laying the groundwork for a successful field work experience in the public schools. The following is to guide you:
1. Contact one or more schools and clear any CORI on you.
- Get this done during September of the Fall semester or January/early February of the Spring semester.
2. (Field Work) Spend the greater part of two school days completing the field work assignments specified in Module 3 and Module 4.
- Begin soon after Module 3 and 4 are covered in class and you clear your CORI. Procrastinate at your own risk.