Syllabus for EDL-520
STANDARDS-BASED CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT, PRE-K–12
Description | Objectives | Materials | Structure | Assessment | Grading | Integrity
Curriculum revision is an ongoing process that requires professional guidance and support. Potential educational leaders need to understand the importance of curriculum development in the success of the educational experience and recognize the organization and relevance of curriculum change. Through the examination of various curriculum designs, educators will visualize an overview of systematic curriculum development. Standards-Based Curriculum Development, Pre-K–12 allows students to examine essential components of a cohesive curriculum based on such influences as national and state standards established to guide local curricular planning and development to meet the changing needs of students and other stakeholders in a diverse community. Processes for development of curricula at classroom, building, and district levels, regardless of grade, academic discipline, or kind of student, will be considered in preparation for hands-on experience in creating curriculum in the student's primary discipline. Integrating differentiated instruction through various curriculum designs will allow the educator to develop necessary skills, as an instructional leader, to facilitate his or her faculty's creation of successful curriculum documents. The entire process, from initial needs assessment to implementation, will be the focus of this course. (ISLLC 1, 2, 4, 5; NJDOE 1, 2, 4, 5).
On successful completion of this course, you should be able to accomplish the following:
You will need the following materials to do the work of the course. The required textbooks are available from the College's textbook supplier, MBS Direct.
Required Textbooks
Oliva, P. F. (2009). Developing the curriculum (7th ed.). Boston: Pearson Allyn & Bacon. ISBN-10: 0-205-59350-X.
Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (expanded 2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Merrill/Prentice Hall. ISBN-10: 0-13-195084-3.
McTighe, J., & Wiggins, G. (2004). Understanding by design professional development workbook. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. ISBN-10: 0-87120-855-5.
Standards-Based Curriculum Development, Pre-K–12 is a three-credit, graduate course, consisting of eight modules. Modules include topics, learning objectives, study materials (textbook readings and lecture notes), and assignments. Module titles and topics/key ideas are listed below.
In addition to module assignments, you are required to complete a curriculum unit or project. For information about the curriculum unit or project, see the discussion below or go to the Curriculum Unit/Project area of the course Web site.
For your formal work in the course, you are required to participate in nine (9) online discussion forums, complete nine (9) written assignments, and submit a curriculum unit or project. See below for more details.
Consult the course Calendar for assignment due dates.
Online Discussion Forums
Each module in the course has an online class discussion forum (Module 5 has two forums). All discussion forums take place asynchronously on the class Discussion Board.
Online discussions provide an opportunity for you to interact with your classmates. During this aspect of the course, you respond to prompts that assist you in developing your ideas, you share those ideas with your classmates, and you comment on their posts. Discussion Board interactions promote development of a community of learners, critical thinking, and exploratory learning.
Please participate in online discussions as you would in constructive face-to-face discussions. You are expected to post well-reasoned and thoughtful reflections for each item, making reference, as appropriate, to your readings. You are also expected to reply to your classmates' posts in a respectful, professional, and courteous manner. You may, of course, post questions asking for clarification or further elucidation on a topic.
For posting guidelines and additional help with Discussion Board assignments, please see the Student Handbook located within the General Information area of the course Web site.
Written Assignments
Each module in the course concludes with a short writing assignment of about 500 words (Module 5 has two writing assignments). The writing assignments require you to write well-reasoned and thoughtful papers on questions derived from the module objectives, making reference, as appropriate, to the readings and other sources of information. You are required to use APA format for your work and for all references. Written Assignment 7, in Module 7, requires a short PowerPoint presentation.
To submit all written assignments, go to the Submit Assignments area of the course Web site.
For additional help regarding preparing and submitting assignments, see the Student Handbook located within the General Information area of the course Web site.
Curriculum Unit or Project
The curriculum unit or project constitutes a principal artifact for your portfolio and counts 37 percent toward your grade. Choose one of the following options:
- Curriculum Unit option—Develop an actual curriculum unit based on one of the two designs: (a) traditional design, as presented in Oliva; or (b) Essential Question through UbD, as presented in McTighe and Wiggins. Begin with an introduction including demographics and population. Follow a traditional template or the templates in Understanding by Design Professional Development Workbook, by McTighe and Wiggins, if that is your choice.
- Project option—An alternative to the curriculum unit would be a practical project, for example, a revision of a program, participation in a curriculum design effort, or a curriculum alignment effort. Involved in this process would be an overall description of your role, an example of the work you developed or wrote, and other artifacts of your participation.
You will complete your work on the curriculum unit or project in two stages: (a) by first submitting a proposal to your mentor for feedback and approval (Stage 1) and (b) by then submitting your completed unit or project for evaluation and grading (Stage 2). Please see the Curriculum Unit/Project area of the course Web site for further details and the course Calendar for due dates.
To submit both your proposal and the final curriculum unit or project, go to the Submit Assignments area of the course Web site.
For additional help regarding preparing and submitting assignments, see the Student Handbook located within the General Information area of the course Web site.
Portfolio Artifacts and Reflective Narrative
The principal artifacts for this course are the essential question chart (WA 5.1), backward design (WA 5.2), PowerPoint presentation (WA 7.1), and the curriculum unit or project. Accompanying each artifact is a reflective narrative that describes the process and how the artifact meets specific standards and prepares you for school leadership.
Upload your artifacts to your electronic portfolio, and be certain to indicate their alignment to the applicable ISLLC standards.
Your grade in the course will be determined as follows:
|
Writing assignments (9) |
45 percent |
|---|---|
|
Online discussions (9) |
18 percent |
| Curriculum unit or project |
37 percent |
All assignments will receive a numerical grade of 0–100. You will receive a score of 0 for any work not submitted. Your final grade in the course will be a letter grade. Letter grade equivalents for numerical grades are as follows:
| A | = | 93–100 |
| A– | = | 90–92 |
| B+ | = | 88–89 |
| B | = | 83–87 |
| B– | = | 80–82 |
| C+ | = | 78–79 |
| C | = | 73–77 |
| C– | = | 70–72 |
| D | = | 60–69 |
| F | = | Below 60 |
Thomas Edison State College expects all of its students to approach their education with academic integrity—the pursuit of scholarly activity free from fraud and deception. All mentors and administrative staff members at the College insist on strict standards of academic honesty in all courses. Academic dishonesty undermines this objective. Academic dishonesty takes the following forms:
Academic dishonesty will result in disciplinary action and possible dismissal from the College. Students who submit papers that are found to be plagiarized will receive an F on the plagiarized assignment, may receive a grade of F for the course, and may face dismissal from the College.
A student who is charged with academic dishonesty will be given oral or written notice of the charge. If a mentor or College official believes the infraction is serious enough to warrant referral of the case to the academic dean, or if the mentor awards a final grade of F in the course because of the infraction, the student and the mentor will be afforded formal due process.
If a student is found cheating or using unauthorized materials on an examination, he or she will automatically receive a grade of F on that examination. Students who believe they have been falsely accused of academic dishonesty should seek redress through informal discussions with the mentor, through the office of the dean, or through an executive officer of Thomas Edison State College.
Plagiarism
Using someone else's work as your own is plagiarism. Although it may seem like simple dishonesty, plagiarism is against the law. Thomas Edison State College takes a strong stance against plagiarism, and students found to be plagiarizing will be severely penalized. If you copy phrases, sentences, paragraphs, or whole documents word-for-word—or if you paraphrase by changing a word here and there—without identifying the author, then you are plagiarizing. Please keep in mind that this type of identification applies to Internet sources as well as to print-based sources. Copying and pasting from the Internet, without using quotation marks and without acknowledging sources, constitutes plagiarism. (For information about how to cite Internet sources, see the "Academic Standards" section of the Online Student Handbook and the citation links under Writing Style Guides located in the General Information area of the course Web site.)
Accidentally copying the words and ideas of another writer does not excuse the charge of plagiarism. It is easy to jot down notes and ideas from many sources and then write your own paper without knowing which words are your own and which are someone else's. It is more difficult to keep track of each and every source. However, the conscientious writer who wishes to avoid plagiarizing never fails to keep careful track of sources.
Always be aware that if you write without acknowledging the sources of your ideas, you run the risk of being charged with plagiarism.
Clearly, plagiarism, no matter the degree of intent to deceive, defeats the purpose of education. If you plagiarize deliberately, you are not educating yourself, and you are wasting your time on courses meant to improve your skills. If you plagiarize through carelessness, you are deceiving yourself.
For examples of unintentional plagiarism and advice on when to quote and when to paraphrase, click the links provided below.
Examples of Unintentional Plagiarism
When to Quote and When to Paraphrase