Saturday, March 21, 2009

Possible Course Description

I know we need to edit this but it's a start:

EDU-2045-VO01 - Curriculum Development for Early Childhood Education
Location: Online
Credits: 3
Day/Times: Meets online
Semester Dates: 26-May-09 to 17-Aug-09
Instructor: Lynn Silvestro and Suzanne Purcell

Course Description:

In this course, learners develop an understanding of the philosophical principles, societal expectations, and practical demands of building curriculum for early childhood education. Emphasis is on developing a child-centered, integrated, and developmentally appropriate curriculum for the early years from infancy to age 8. A variety of curricular approaches will be modeled and assessed.

Essential Objectives:

1. Discuss the historical influences and evolution of early childhood education as it connects to curriculum development, theories, and practices.
2. Describe key concepts (goals, objectives, articulation, etc.), data sources (society, subject matter, state and national guidelines, etc.) and specific models of curricular development, along with their rationales and limitations.
3. Design a curriculum based on theories and research in child development that is inclusive and based on children's interests, strengths, and needs (e.g. learning style modalities, multiple intelligences, exceptionalities, learning domains, etc.) that incorporates the Vermont Early Childhood Learning Standards.
4. Articulate the definition of play, its importance in curriculum for children, and how children construct their knowledge through play.
5. Design and experiment with a variety of open-ended learning resources and materials for children including the use of technology.
6. Assess the effectiveness of a curriculum and make appropriate changes to increase learning (e.g. using an ongoing cycle of observation, reflection, and response).
7. Reflect on the many roles of the teacher, including teacher as researcher and develop a personal-professional philosophy of education and curriculum.

Textbook: Early Education Curriculum: A Child’s Connection to the World, by Hilda L. Jackman 4th ed. ISBN 1428322469

VELS – can be downloaded from the Vermont Department of Education web site.

Attendance/Discussion Forum Regular attendance and participation in classes are essential components of a student's success in college and are completion requirements for courses at CCV. The forum will be our primary source of information. Sharing ideas, concepts, methods and information will help us all learn from one another as well as to build our own portfolios with great websites, resources and materials. Attendance is through the forum. If you miss a forum you have missed class. Three absences constitute a failure in this class. A pattern of late arrival or early departure will constitute absence at the instructor's discretion. Class will run from Tuesday midnight to Monday midnight, the following week. You have one week to submit your responses and questions to the forum. Please post questions no later than Friday midnight so others will have the opportunity to respond. Your first response to one of our questions must be posted no later than Friday midnight.

Assignments: There are several assignments including a final reflection essay. See the assignments folder and syllabus for descriptions and due dates.

Grading Policy

A few words about grading: It is not our favorite part of teaching. However, it is necessary and gives you an idea of how you are doing throughout the class. We will make every effort to post your grades for the week as soon as possible.

The grading system for this course is based on a scale of 10. You can earn as many as 10 points for each week’s assignments, which include posts, submission of assigned projects, essays, and responses. The final project is worth 25 points
The total number of points you can earn for the course is 165. This means the grading for the semester looks like this:

148 – 165 points = A
132 – 147 points = B
116 – 131 points = C
99 – 115 points = D

At Midterm: (maximum points available: 70)
63 – 70 points = A
56 – 62 points = B
49 – 55 points = C
42 – 48 points = D

8-10 points = Excellent posts which include information from the reading assignments and critical thinking on your part. Responses are spread throughout the week and indicate that you have not only read the assigned reading, but your peers’ posts as well.

7 points = Several posts which include some references to the reading material, and more than two responses which are posted at different times.

5-6 points = A post which addresses the question in a very general way, and one or two responses that are written at the same time. Blackboard tracks posting times, so it is evident when you have spent 15 minutes on your posts for the week. Even though you may in fact be reading every post all week, I have no way of knowing this if you do not interact with your peers.

An absence is indicated by a grade of 0 for the week.

As the above criteria indicates, we are looking for meaningful synthesis of the reading material, quality interactions spread over the course of the week, and “critical thinking” on your part. Critical thinking is indicated by your opinion on the topic, and why you feel the way you do.

Please note: In order to receive accommodations for disabilities in this course, students must make an appointment to see the Americans with Disabilities Coordinator in their site and bring documentation with them.

Academic Honesty: CCV has a commitment to honesty and excellence in academic work and expects the same from all students. Academic dishonesty, or cheating, can occur whenever you present -as your own work- something that you did not do. You can also be guilty of cheating if you help someone else cheat. Being unaware of what constitutes academic dishonesty (such as knowing what plagiarism is) does not absolve a student of the responsibility to be honest in his/her academic work. Academic dishonesty is taken very seriously and may lead to dismissal from the College.

Course description details subject to change. Please refer to this document frequently.

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