Tentative Syllabus

Winter 2002

1:00 - 2:30 (5s) T-Th

Instructor:  Jim Vandergriff

E-mail: jvanderg@knox.edu or  jhv@grics.net

Office Hours: 12:00 - 1:00 T-Th; 2:30 - 3:00 T-Th

       Other times by appointment

Office: 310 George Davis Hall

Office Phone:  341-7548

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 United States.  In other words, participants in this course will explore through reading, discussion and writing the forces that influence the ways in which we are taught and, for those who are preservice teachers, the ways in which we will teach.  Specifically, the course has been designed to examine how the social, political, economic, and cultural forces that shape us as individuals as well as students and teachers intersect with the issues of school funding and governance, including law.  The purpose of the course is not to have these issues remain academic or intellectual but to tie them to our understandings and experiences.  For example, how does society's view of gender influence what we think and how teachers teach?  How does the way we think about gender influence how we learn?  This course is based on the premise that the smarter we are about these forces and the system of schooling, the better we are able to alter them.  

            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.

State Objectives

Also in this course, you are expected to show evidence of progress toward fulfilling the following state standards for teacher certification.  You will need to develop, identify, and submit to me “performance indicators” for each of these standards.  (Even those who are enrolled for credit in other departments must 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.(# 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

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.(# 10) 

1. Is self-regulating and self-directed and thinks critically

2. Willingly receives and gives feedback

3. Engages in teaching and learning as an on-going, reflective process

4. Uses professional research and resources (e.g., colleagues, professional literature) in learning, planning, and teaching

C. The candidate understands education as a profession, maintains standards of professional conduct, and provides leadership to improve student learning and well-being. (# 11) 

3. Abides by state laws and professional codes of conduct

4. Strives for academic excellence

5. Attends class and makes arrangements for absences and missed work

6. 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.(# 1) 

1. Engages in generating knowledge and testing hypotheses according to methods of inquiry and standards of evidence used in the discipline/s

2. Uses major concepts, assumptions, and debates central to his/her discipline/s

3. Relates his/her disciplinary knowledge to other subject areas and sees connections to everyday life

4. Displays enthusiasm for his/her discipline/s

5. 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. (# 5) 

1. Works productively and cooperatively with others in complex social settings

5. 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. (#6)

3. Models sensitivity to gender and cultural differences

6. Uses a variety of media and communication tools, including audio-visual aids and computers.

Structure of the Course  

            The course will meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1:00 to 2:30 p. m. (period 5s) in GDH 304.  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 hour 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 Reading

Kozol, J. (1991). Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools. New York: HarperPerennial.

Spring, Joel.  (1999).  American Education, 9th ed. McGraw-Hill.

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 receive a longer handout on each, except for "Participation."  This is the only description you'll receive for this part of the course.

            You will need to type your assignments.  Your writing needs to be typed, doubled space, with a 12 point type face and one inch margins.  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 Manual in the library.  It is also available 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, 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 1/15/02, 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, which will occur alphabetically on 1/15/02 and 1/17/02, 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 second individual assignment, which will be due at the final examination time scheduled for us by the college, 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.

            The third individual assignment, which will include both an oral presentation and a paper, will also be due 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.) 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.  In addition, the group chooses one reading which they will photocopy and handout 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.

            For the Kozol presentation, each group will create a way to represent one of the chapters from Kozol to the class.

            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: 

See the web site for a more detailed list of discussion rules.

Quizzes

            You will have a number of quizzes over the assigned readings, probably one over each assigned chapter.  The quizzes, in aggregate, will equal 8% of your total grade.  So, please read the assigned material promptly and carefully.

Grading Policy

Your grade will be based on the following:

32%.........................Individual Assignments                                                                    

Cultural Presentation.........................................................................9%

Movie Review: due at Final Exam................................................14%

Service Log, oral report & paper: due at Final Exam....................9%

45%........................Group Assignments                                                                

Group News Project ...........................................................................9%  

Chapter 4 Presentation......................................................................9%

Chapter 7 Presentation......................................................................9%

Chapter 11 Presentation....................................................................9%   

Group Kozol Presentation.................................................................9%

8%..........................Quizzes

15%........................Participation     

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 talk to 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 and request the opportunity to do the make-up.  It is not an automatic process, and the opportunity will be denied unless you present me with 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 tardies, 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 19 class meetings.  If you miss one, your % immediately drops to 94.7%  Miss 2 and it drops to 89.5%.  Keep in mind that that can seriously affect your grade for the course, since participation is worth 15% of the course grade.

            We will not have a formal “Final Exam” as such, but we will hold a full two 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.

Class Attendance and Excused Absences 

Students are expected to attend classes regularly and to participate fully in class activities. Students who are absent from class, regardless of the reasons for their absence, are responsible for all work assigned in the course. In all cases of excused absence, appropriate deadlines for the completion of work missed must be arranged by the student with the instructor. Students who fail to attend the first day of class and who have not been excused may be dropped from that class.

In case of illness, it is a student's responsibility to see that written verification of the illness is obtained from the [clinician] or hospital and is provided to one of the Deans of Students, who will notify the student's instructors. If a student was not seen by a Physician or at a hospital, but is known by the Dean of Students to have been ill, the student may obtain verification of illness from the Office of Student Affairs. In case of a verified illness, the student is normally excused from the class; in all other cases the decision is the prerogative of the instructor. 

Instructors may adopt more specific attendance policies in their courses. It is the student's responsibility to be familiar with the instructor's policy and to abide by it. Students should be prepared to accept a grade of an F in a course for failure to adhere to the instructor's attendance policy. Except in the case of illness, it is the instructor's decision whether to excuse a student from class attendance. Reasonable standards of humanity and responsibility are expected to prevail.

Examinations

Quizzes and examinations are administered during the term at the discretion of the instructor. Students who expect to be absent from class due to scheduled athletic events or class field trips should check well in advance with their instructors about possible examinations.

Final examinations must be held according to the published examination schedule. A student should not make plans to leave the campus before his or her last scheduled final examination. Faculty members may not make changes in the time of final examinations without prior approval of the Dean of the College. A student will not normally be permitted to make up missed final examinations, except with an excused absence (e.g., due to illness) approved by the Office of Student Affairs or the Associate Dean of the College. 

Honor Code

I expect all of your work for this class to be done in accordance with the Knox Honor Code.  Unless you are specifically told otherwise, all of the work that contributes to your grade must be exclusively your own.