Exploring Elementary and Early Childhood Teaching ED 100A

Exploring Elementary and Early Childhood Teaching ED 100a Fall 2015 Tuesdays & Thursdays 2-3:20 Golding Judaic Center 109 Professor Rachel Kramer Theodorou [email protected] 781-736-2023 Office Hours (ASAC 218): By appointment or just after class.

Overview

ED 100a “Exploring Teaching” is an opportunity to learn what it means to be a teacher and a student in an early childhood or elementary school setting. While this course is required for anyone interested in pursuing elementary or early childhood certification, it is also a comprehensive look at the art of teaching itself. The course pairs weekly classroom observation with educational pedagogy, theory, and history in order to promote the notion that teaching and learning go hand in hand. Participants will explore what it means to develop an “attentive attitude” toward learning about oneself, students, and the act of teaching of curriculum.

Weekly classroom observations are a required and core element of ED 100a. In these 3 hour visits, students will record observations of classroom culture, physical space and use of time, student interactions, teaching, and in particular, information about a focal child. Students will visit their classrooms at least 10 times and assume the role of a classroom participant/observer. In this role, students will primarily observe, but be available and willing to assist a cooperating teacher as necessary.

The Brandeis Education Program asserts four themes that are visited throughout the semester:

Knowing Students as Learners Good teachers work actively to know their students and individuals and learners. The use their knowledge of child development and learning and their knowledge of individual students to inform their planning and teaching. They modify their instruction to support students’ academic learning and social progress.

Teaching for Understanding The Brandeis Education Program strives to prepare teachers who narrow the achievement gap among students through the use of standards-based, learning-centered curricula. Good teachers communicate high standards and expectations for student learning and draw on a repertoire of approaches, using instructional strategies to make knowledge accessible and interesting to diverse learners. Effective teachers help students make connections between what they know and what they are learning. They check for understanding and use multiple forms of assessment including performance assessments, to guide planning and instruction.

Inquiry Effective teachers continually assess and reflect on their own teaching practices and stay aware of current resources and information related to teaching and learning. Teachers need to understand the ways in which research and reflection on research, including their own classroom research, can inform practice. We want to prepare educators who can use their practice as a basis for inquire and continue developing the art and craft of teaching as part of a professional learning community.

Social Justice Issues of social justice and injustice affect schools. Teachers need to work toward greater equity and access to knowledge for all students while creating multicultural, democratic classrooms that celebrate diversity.

Learning Goals

In this course and throughout the Brandeis Education Program, we urge students to be reflective. Teaching requires thoughtfulness, intentional and informed instructional decisions, and honest reflection on everything you do in a given day in school. Hence, much of the work and content of each class will involve a variety of formats and experiences of reflection.

In this course you will be able to demonstrate your thinking about:

 Yourself as a student and human being and how this affects your attitude toward teaching, learning and children.  Your evolving answer to “What is teaching?” and “What is learning?”  How to observe and describe a student and his/her learning needs.  How to plan and execute a “learning occasion” and assess student learning that is child-centered and intentionally designed.

Required Texts & Readings You should plan to acquire the following books and to print and/or download from LATTE readings indicated later in this syllabus. LATTE will also house the syllabus, assignment details, and other important handouts and websites. Each of the books below will also be placed on reserve in the Library and in the Education Program Office (ASAC).

Ayers, William (2010). To Teach: The Journey of a Teacher (3rd Ed.). New York: Teachers College Press.

Paley, Vivian (1997). The Girl with the Brown Crayon. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Willis, A & Greenberg, M. (2007). Heart of the Matter: The Role of Attitude in Teaching. Albany, New York: Publishers Solutions. (purchase in class).

Kramer Theodorou, Rachel (2009). Heart of the Matter: A Practical Guide to Attitude in Teaching. Albany, New York: Publishers Solutions. (purchase in class).

Formal written work should be typed, double spaced and edited carefully. Assignments are due on the dates listed unless otherwise informed. Please send papers via email. Discuss with me any issues you have in completing assignments well before they are due. In this way, we can work out any accommodations necessary. Grades on unexpected late assignments will be lowered. I invite revisions and expect that before they are completed we meet to discuss the work. Each assignment will be distributed in class well before the due dates.

The following are a list of assignments & values toward a final grade for the course (total 100%):  Ayers Myth Paper 10%  Letter to a Favorite Teacher/What is Teaching? (both drafts) 20%  Book Club (preparedness, participation, presentation) & Debates 1/2 20%  Space/Time Paper & Learning Occasion & Lemberg Assignment 10 %  Child Study (includes: journal/field notebook entries, sample work write up, 2 written observations, presentation, final integrative paper) 20%  Class Participation, Preparedness (“Where I’m From” Poem, Heart of Matter Assignments & Red Pen Notes), & Attendance 20%

Class Notes & Participation

Students will need a notebook (electronic or paper) for class lectures and discussions and will include in it “Red Pen Notes”. These are assigned questions/reading excerpts upon which to comment when completing homework and experiencing discussions/activities in class.

Throughout my career in teaching, I have worked in earnest to meet the needs of all of my students. In this regard, I plan to create many possible opportunities for classroom participation. These include small group work, class discussions, dramatic endeavors, artistic and poetic experiences, etc. I hope that students will find comfortable and productive ways to participate and welcome any feedback on this topic. Please discuss with me any particular learning needs.

Fieldwork

Students in ED 100a will observe teaching and learning via a weekly school observation. Students will conduct a “Child Study” (see assignment for details) during these visits along with additional course assignments. During observations, students will collect field study notes in a journal which has a format along with weekly debriefings in class. Include in this journal assignments from the Heart of the Matter Workbook.

School Observation Dates (elementary): Tues. – 9/22, 10/6, 10/13, 10/20, 10/27, 11/3, 11/10, 11/17, 11/24, 12/1, 12/8 Fri. – 9/18, 9/25, 10/2, 10/9, 10/16, 10/23, 10/30, 11/6, 11/13, 11/20, 12/4

Elementary Student Observers – minimum 10 visits at about 3 hours per visit.

School Observation Dates (early childhood): starts week of 8/31

Early Childhood Observers – minimum 12 visits at 4 hours per week.

Attendance

Attendance at each class and your field work is vital to your success in this course for a variety of reasons. First, each week you will be meeting in Child Study Groups (CSGs) to support one another as you strive to truly get to know your focal child. Second, weekly students will meet in Book Clubs investigating teaching through stories from real teachers. Your understanding of teaching and your attitude toward kids and learning will expand with each week’s topics. Be sure to email me ahead of time if you need to be absent. Together we can determine logical ways in which to complete missed work and acquire class notes.

Experiential Learning

This course is designated as an Experiential Learning course. Students will experience first hand the intellectual challenges of being a teacher in elementary and early childhood classrooms. Weekly, students observe both teaching and learning in a school setting. Students simulate the ongoing process of “kidwatching” and practice with instructional decision-making based upon facts observed in a classroom setting. In course assignments and class activities, students learn how teachers integrate their beliefs about the purposes of education with the daily experiences of teaching skills and content. Students learn to reflect upon both their ability to try on teaching skills and analyze how their own experiences as a student impact their vision of a “good teacher/teaching”. As well, students analzye the social, political, and cultural influences on the education system in America identifying how they will affect change in their spheres of influence in the future.

Four-Credit Course (with three hours of class-time per week)

Success in this 4 credit hour course is based on the expectation that students will spend a minimum of 9 hours of study time per week in preparation for class (readings, papers, discussion sections, preparation for exams, etc.).

Academic Accommodation If you need an accommodation because of a documented disability, please contact me as soon as possible and bring your letter of accommodation so we can make appropriate arrangements. If you have questions about documenting a disability or requesting academic accommodations, please contact Beth Rodgers-Kay in Undergraduate Academic Affairs at 6-3470. Accommodations cannot be granted retroactively.

Academic Integrity

Every member of the University community is expected to maintain the highest standards of academic integrity. A student shall not submit work that is falsified or is not the result of the student’s own effort. Infringement of academic honesty by a student subjects that student to serious penalties, which may include failure on the assignment, failure in the course, suspension from the University or other sanctions (see section 20). A student who is in doubt regarding standards of academic honesty in a course or assignment should consult the faculty member responsible for that course or assignment before submitting the work. Any academic integrity report submitted to the Department of Academic Integrity is subject to prior consideration by the appropriate academic school, department or program. Such evaluation is intended to differentiate integrity problems from quality‐of‐work concerns. **Please Note: Any syllabus is a proposal not a blueprint. It is impossible to anticipate how much time each session/assignment will take. So expect some changes throughout the semester as we construct our course together.

Tuesdays Thursdays 8/27 Essential Questions (EQs): “What does our experience being schooled tell us about: what is teaching? Who is a good teacher?”

Readings Due: None

Homework Due: $40 for books (cash/checks payable to Rachel Theodorou) 9/1 EQs: “What does our experience being schooled 9/3 EQs: “What is a kid? How is a kid shaped by tell us about: what is teaching? Who is a good his/her schooling and vice versa?” teacher?” Readings Due: Arthur Willis & Marcia Greenberg, Readings Due: William Ayers To Teach (2001) Chap. 1, Chapter 1 in Heart of the Matter (2007) (HOM) Preface Bruner “Folk Pedagogy” (1997) & Chap. 1, Rachel Kramer Theodorou Heart of Matter: The Role of Attitude in Teaching (2009) (HOM W) Homework Due: Red Pen Notes, Ayers Myth Paper Foreword, Preface & pp. 1-2, Jackson “The Daily Grind”

Homework Due: Red Pen Notes, Book Club choices (numbered in order of preference) 9/8 EQs: “How have history, politics, policy and other forces shaped the common views of and trends in education?” Readings Due: See LATTE (various)

Homework Due: Red Pen Notes 9/17 EQs: “How can we view/collect information on teaching learning with a child-centered approach? What’s critical about this shift in attitude and action?”

Readings Due: Book Club (BC), Balaban, Cohen, Stern “Getting Started”, Bredenkamp, Copple “Developmentally Appropriate Practices…”, & Paley “On Listening to What Children Say”

Homework Due: HOM W “Noticing Simplicities” (pp. 10-12), Red Pen Notes 9/22 EQs: “How can we view/collect information on 9/24 EQs: “How do influences from the past shape teaching learning with a child-centered approach? our attitude toward children as learners? What’s critical about this shift in attitude and action?” Readings Due: BC, Ayers chap. 2, HOM W “The Cacophony of Personality” (pp. 30-31), HOM chap. 2 Readings Due: Patricia F. Carini, “Prospect’s Descriptive Process” and “A Letter to Parents and Homework Due: Red Pen Notes Teachers on Some Ways of Looking at and Reflecting on Children” and Chapter 5 Victoria in Another Angle (2000)

Homework Due: FSG, HOM W “A Collage of the Imagination” (pp. 14-15) & HOM W “The Tragedy of Teaching to the Thinking/Understanding Faculty” (pp. 22-26), Red Pen Notes

10/1 EQs: “What happens when a teacher really ‘gets’ you? How can we fully describe that ‘aha!’ moment in learning? How did you “know” these feelings? Why have they stuck with you?”

Readings Due: BC, HOM W “Paintings and Picture Books” (pp. 5-6), “Feeling Blank and Achieving Attentiveness” (pp. 54-58) & “I Intend to Be Aware” (pp. 7-10),

Homework Due: Draft of Letter to a Favorite Teacher, Red Pen Notes 10/6 EQs: “How does a view of teaching as midwifery 10/8 Who are you? How does this affect how you alter our attitude toward teaching?” teach?”

Readings Due: Belenky, et. al. “Connected Teaching”, Readings Due: BC, Murphy, E. Chapter 3 in The Ayers chap. 4 Developing Child (1992), HOM 4/5, HOM “finding type”, video (see LATTE) Homework Due: FC selection due, FSG, Red Pen Notes Homework Due: Complete Keirsay Temperament Analysis, HOM W “Finding Your Type” (pp. 78) 10/13 “Who are you? Where are you from? How does 10/15 EQs: “How is culture an inseparable this affect how you teach?” aspect of of teaching?” Readings Due: James Stigler & James Hiebert, Selections from Chapters 4, 5, & 6 in The Teaching Readings Due: NO BC, M. & D. Sadker, Gap “Gender Equity: Still Knocking at the Classroom Door” & “An Educator’s Primer to Homework Due: FSG, Red Pen Notes - assigned culture the Gender War”. (see links for citations), t-chart, HOM W “The Mandala and the I/Eye” (pp. 12- Peggy McIntosh “White Privilege: Unpacking 14), all culture readings, HOM Mandala, cycle of oppression chart/social justice reading, the Invisible Knapsack” (1998), Gish Jen “An Ethnic Trump” New York Times, July 7, 1996, Lisa Delpit, “The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People’s Children” in Beyond Silenced Voices: Class, Race, and Gender in United States schools (1993), Ellen Wolpert “Redefining the Norm: Early Childhood Anti-Bias Strategies” in Beyond Heroes and Holidays (2002) Choose 2 to read: From Beyond Heroes and Holidays (2002)  Andrea Ayvaazian “What I’ve Learned About Undoing Racism”& J.  Edler/B. Irons “Distancing Behaviors Often Used by White People”  James Loewen “Lies My Textbook Told Me: Racism and Anti-Racism in U.S. History  Lisa Delpit “Language Diversity & Learning”  Robert B. Moore “Racism in the English Language”

Homework Due: Debate 1 Notes, Christenson, L. “Where I’m From…” reading/poem. 10/20 EQs: “How can we intentionally construct 10/22 EQs: “How can we intentionally construct “Attentive” and inclusive classroom environments?” “Attentive” and inclusive classroom environments?”

Readings Due: William Ayers, Chapter 3 in To Teach Readings Due: BC, 3 Videos by Kathy Schultz on (2001), Short, Kathy Gnacey, “Creating a Community of “Silence as a Form of Classroom Participation” Link Learners” in Talking About Books! Literature courtesy of the Mandel Center (2013), Ruth Charney, Discussion Groups in K-8 Classrooms. (1998), View Foreward, Introduction, Chapter 1 & part of Chapter 2 in “Talk About a Community” website Teaching Children to Care: Classroom Management for (http://www.tc.edu/ncrest/hatch/nd6505/index.htm). Ethical and Academic Growth (2002)

Homework Due: FSG, FC write up #1 due, Draft class Homework Due: Space & Time due, Notebooks due for map due, Notebooks due for check in (Friday observers) check in (Tuesday observers)

10/27 EQs: “How can the stories of teachers help us 10/29 EQs: “How can curriculum be responsive to continue to define what is teaching?” kids while fulfilling the long list of learning ‘must dos’?” Readings due: Complete BC book Readings Due: HOM chap. 6, Ayers chap. 5 Homework due: (no FSG), Book Club Presentation Homework Due: Red Pen Notes 11/3 EQs: “How can curriculum be responsive to kids 11/5 EQs: “How do we plan instruction that frames while fulfilling the long list of learning ‘must dos’?” content and skills as in the service of developing enduring understandings, transferrable strategies, Readings Due: Vivian Gussin Paley, The Girl With the and genuine inquiry?” Brown Crayon (1997) Readings Due: Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe “The Big Homework Due: FSG, other TBA Ideas of UbD” The Understanding By Design Guide to Creating High Quality Units, Bloom’s Taxonomy overview, Ron Berger video (see LATTE)

Homework Due: FC #2 Write up (to peer on Google Docs, cc: Rachel), Red Pen Notes 11/10 EQs: “How do you know when learning has 11/12 EQs: “How is evaluation/assessment a self- happened? What do you do about what you know?” fulfilling prophecy? What is an ‘Attentive’ attitude toward assessing student progress?” Readings Due: Ayers chap. 6, HOM chap. 10, Eleanor Duckworth, Chapter 1 in Having of Wonderful Ideas & Readings Due: Jere Brophy “On Praising Effectively” Other Essays on Teaching & Learning (1996) in The Elementary School Journal (May 1981, Vol. 81, Num. 5), Po Bronson “How NOT to Talk to Your Kids” Homework Due: FSG, Red Pen Notes, HOM in The New York Times, Feb. 11, 2007. “Wonderful Ideas and Thinking/Understanding” (Pp.22- http://nymag.com/news/features/27840/, Rick Stiggins 26 & 28-30), Learning Occasion “Assessment Through Students’ Eyes” in ASCD Educating the Whole Child (May 2007, Vol. 64, Num. 8), Steve Seidel, “Wondering to Be Done: The Collaborative Assessment Conference” in Assessing Student Learning: From Grading to Understanding (1998)

Homework Due: FC sample work due & initial impressions (see assignment) 11/17 EQs: “What is teaching? Who is your focal 11/19 EQs: “What is ‘academic’?” child, what does s/he need to learn, and how do you know?” Readings Due: HOM W “Meaning” (pp. 15-16), Ellen Winner & Lois Hetland “Art for Our Sake” in Boston Readings Due: Ayers chap. 7 Globe (September 2, 2007), Naomi F. Pile, pp. 4-5 & TBA Art Experiences for Young Children (1990), TED Homework Due: FSG, Focal Child Work Analysis, Red talk by Sir Ken Robinson “How Schools Kill Pen Notes Creativity”, 2006.

Homework Due: Debate #2 notes 11/24 FSG Catch Up Day & Meetings with Rachel

Homework Due: Lemberg Observation 12/1 EQs: “How can close observation of a child 12/3 EQs: “How can close observation of a child teach us about teaching?” teach us about teaching?”

Readings Due: None Readings Due: None

Homework Due: Child Study Presentations (first half) Homework Due: Child Study Presentations (second half) TUESDAY 12/8 “How can you characterize the task of teaching? Readings Due: Ayers chap. 8, HOM chap. 9, Walter C. Parker Teaching Against Idiocy in Phi Delta Kappan (1/05), Ira Shor “A Conversation with Paolo Freire” in Education and Democracy Homework Due: Red Pen Notes & Final Letter/WIT webs due (by 15th)

Assignments & Due Dates

Assignment Brief Explanation Due Date Ayers Myth Paper Select and analyze one of Ayers’ Myths from 9/1 Chap. 1. Articulate your own position on the myth using evidence from your own experiences (see handout). Various Heart of the Matter On the weeks assigned, please complete these Ongoing activities. activities IN YOUR FIELDWORK NOTEBOOK. Please date each entry. Various jottings, notes On the weeks assigned, please complete these Ongoing preparations for discussions, activities IN YOUR CLASS NOTEBOOK. etc. Please date each entry. Collection of observations of See Child Study assignment. Ongoing teaching and about a focal child Red Pen Notes Questions/quotes to answer/interpret regarding Various, see dates within readings and discussions in class. weekly syllabus. Draft #1 “Letter to a Favorite See assignment. 10/1 Teacher/What is Teaching?” Select Focal Child See Child Study. 10/6 Temperament Analysis See reading. 10/8 “Where I’m From…” poem See reading. 10/15 Debate #1 Notes See assignment. 10/15 Classroom Map Draft A pencil sketch, bird’s eye view of classroom 10/20 layout. Label all pertinent areas/uses of the “spaces and times”. 1st Focal Child Write Up See Child Study guidelines (no grade). 10/20 Space & Time Paper & Draft 10/22 Classroom Map Project Book Club Presentation See assignment. 10/27 2nd Focal Child Write Up See Child Study guidelines (no grade). 11/5 Learning Occasion See assignment. 11/10 Focal Child Work Sample & Bring in a TBD number of copies of 1 sample of 11/12 Initial Impressions your focal child’s work (see guidelines).

Focal Child Work Analysis See guidelines for complete description of write- 11/17 up (no grade). Debate #2 Notes See assignment. 11/19 Lemberg Observation See assignment. 11/24 Child Study Presentation See Child Study guidelines. 12/1 & 12/3 Child Study Integrative Paper See Child Study guidelines. 12/10 Final Draft “Letter to a See assignment. 12/15 Favorite Teacher/What is Teaching?”