Assignments

BLOG POSTS (40 points): You will be expected to post to our course bog a minimum of three times during the semester:

  • Children’s Book Review (15 points): You will review one (1) children’s books of your choice from http://weneeddiversebooks.org/. Your reviews must include your reactions and/or personal opinion of each book, and how it could contribute to building a diverse classroom community. Be sure to include the full bibliographic information of the books, including the title, author, copyright date, place of publication, and publisher of each book in APA format. Your reviews should be no longer than 500 words each. Reviews will be posted as blog posts on our course blog.
  • Journal Article Review (15 points): You will review one (1) professional journal article pertaining to teaching and learning in diverse early childhood or elementary classrooms. Topics may include but are not limited to: teaching techniques or strategies for students with different academic and ability levels, motivational techniques and strategies to help students become interested in learning, community building through cooperative learning, inclusion classrooms, creating a multicultural classroom, as well as issues related to social economic status, gender, ethnicity, and prejudice. In the review, you will write a brief summary of the article and a succinct, well-written paragraph regarding the relevance of the articles to this course. The review will be shared in an oral presentation in a small group. You will post your review on our course blog. Use APA format.
    • See Slides #10-14 from Class 25 for more info on how to complete this.
    • Use this template and then post to our blog using “Journal Article Review” as the category.
  • Dialectic Journal (10 points): For one course meeting, you will be expected to initiate a discussion about assigned course material (readings and/or viewings). In preparation for the meeting, you will compose a blog post on our course blog in two columns. In the post, you will use the left side of the table to choose a minimum of two brief quotes from the text that struck you as important for further thought. On the right side of the table, you will add your thoughts, questions, concerns, or ideas. You may be as candid as you would like, but keep in mind that this is not a completely private website, and using compassionate, inclusive, and thoughtful language is required. [Hint on formatting this: type it up as a table in a Word doc first, and cut and paste into your post.].
  • Instructions on posting to our blog can be found here.

PARTIAL LESSON PLAN (10 points): For this assignment, you will complete a portion of the Elementary Education Lesson Plan for a Common Core State Standard we will determine together. You will complete the following parts: Learning Standard(s), Content Overview, Objective, and Method(s) of Assessment & Evaluation Criteria. You will use the book you chose for the Children’s Book Review assignment for the basis of your lesson.

As discussed in class, complete your partial lesson plan:

  • with this template — share it with Dr. Greene on email at greenek@hawkmail.newpaltz.edu (if you don’t include ‘hawkmail’ it won’t work)
  • here’s a sample
  • Things to remember:
    • you’re completing this with CCSS SL1.1d
    • you could use the book you read for your children’s book review; however, if you decide to use a different book, that’s okay, too

MIDTERM (15 points): The midterm will be due by the end of class on the midterm date. In roughly 2-pages, respond to the following:

What about your learning in this class so far has made an impact on your thinking as an educator in training? What, if anything, have you learned about your own biases? What did you learn that you might not have realized before?

In your essay, be sure to reference class materials and activities, and remember that this is meant to be a think-out-loud piece. While my expectation is that it is well written, logically organized, and relevant to our work together, you need not draw complete conclusions, and you are invited to raise further questions for discussion.

SELF PORTRAIT OF A FUTURE B-6 TEACHER (20 points): This final assignment of the semester will be an exploration in digital pedagogy and autobiography. You will create a digital presentation (a video or voiceover powerpoint) to share with your classmates about what it means to you, as both a student and a teacher, to have an equitable, diverse learning environment in early childhood and elementary school.

PARTICIPATION & PROFESSIONALISM (15 points): You are expected to arrive to every class on time, having read or viewed assigned course materials and responded to instructions provided for assignments. As a future educator, you are also expected to use inclusive, thoughtful, compassionate language with your colleagues and instructor. See previous section for further information.