“I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.” – Albert Einstein

EDM 3322 Course Schedule
Integrated Methods I for Middle Grades (5-9)           Syllabus (pdf)          Schedule          Assignments          Rubrics

Spring, 2013 (3 credit hours)                                                                Instructor: John Pecore, Ph.D.
Date/Time: Hybrid (Thursday 6:00-8:45pm and/or online)              Office:  Building 85/Room 176
                                                                                                                 Phone: 850-474-2303
Office Hours: Tuesday-Thursday 9:00-11:00, 1:30-3:30, and by appointment or virtually through eLearning chat.

Course Description

Course Overview: Welcome to integrated methods! This course is an introduction to the teacher’s role in delivering content specific curricula within the middle school. Models of teaching are studied to better understand the goals and strategies as well as to support new teachers in developing a broader perspective regarding teaching practice and their implications for student learning. Each model is based on theoretical assumptions, guided by a view of knowledge constructions, and envisions particular teacher-student interactions. As we investigate these models, we will do so with the following three teaching-learning goals in mind: 1) Analyzing beliefs about developing new perspectives on middle school teaching and learning; 2) Developing a deep understanding of models of teaching as a basis of a beginning repertoire; and 3) acquiring the tools to study teaching.

Accommodations, Communication, Class Participation and Attendance
Students with Disabilities: The Student Disability Resource Center (SDRC) at the University of West Florida supports an inclusive learning environment for all students. If there are aspects of the instruction or design of this course that hinder your full participation, such as time-limited exams, inaccessible web content, or the use of non-captioned videos and podcasts, please notify the instructor or the SDRC as soon as possible. You may contact the SDRC office by e-mail at sdrc@uwf.edu or by phone at (850) 474-2387. Appropriate academic accommodations will be determined based on the documented needs of the individual.

Email & Proper E-mail netiquette: Use UWF e-mail for all correspondence. Students are expected to check e-mail on a frequent and regular basis (a minimum of two to three times weekly) in order to stay current with University-related communications, recognizing that certain communications may be time-critical. It is recommended that e-mail be checked daily. Students are expected to check the eLearning daily for announcements. Please identify yourself by first and last name and indicate the nature of your email (i.e. concerns, questions, comments, assignments or grades).

Class participation is a factor in this course, and you are expected to actively participate in discussion boards. Treat your classmates and your instructor respectfully. As a student in this course you are expected to participate as an active member of the learning community. As such, we all need to help each other with general questions by posting and responding to the and post helpful responses to the Discussion Forum (Questions Answer and Suggestions) – QAS. Everyone in our class should access and read discussion postings several times a week.

The two class rules are 1) You can do anything you want as long as you do not cause a problem for anyone (including me and you) in the class. If there is a problem, I will do something. What I do will depend on you, the problem, and what you are willing to do to solve the problem. 2) Any concerns or issues should first be brought to the attention of your instructor/professor. If you have a concern or issue, make me aware by politely communicating the nature of the problem. For instance, you could email "I would like to speak with you about my grade on the first assignment." I am confident that through open communication we can resolve any problems that may arise during this course.

Attendance is expected and assumed. To do well in this course, you must complete your assignments fully and submit as requested. Unless otherwise noted, all assignments must be completed individually. Weekly assignments are described and outlined in the content pages for each session. To comply with course requirements and be credited for assignments, you will need to read through all components of each session.

• Attendance is defined as the act of attending and is active not passive. To attend in this class implies being prepared for and participating in virtual discussions on course web site in a timely fashion, collaborating with classmates and completing various aspects of class assignments, and demonstrating a positive disposition.
• Excused Absences are not necessary since this course is fully online. Plan out your week in advance so that you can dedicate 7 to 9 hours/week around your other weekly obligations. Since a two (2) day (48 hour) grace period is provided on assignments, no excuses are granted due to sickness, jury duty, religious holiday's, technical difficulties, etc.
• Extended Excused Absences and Incompletes are granted on a very limited basis. Students must notify course instructor prior to or immediately after any incident to be considered for a standard three day extended excused absence (i.e. hospital stay, death of an immediate family member, etc.) or an incomplete.

Pandemic and Severe Weather Policy: In the event of a weather related (i.e. hurricane), pandemic or similar emergency, the university may still require professors to go ahead with their courses, in which case we will continue class over the internet using eLearning, email, etc. Official closures and delays are announced on the UWF website and broadcast on WUWF-FM (88.1 MHz).

Late Work Policy: I grade for full points when assignments are turned in on time, and with the exception of assignments submitted late, seek to provide feedback within one week. Unless otherwise indicated, all deliverables are due by Sunday at noon central standard time. That is, homework in Week 2 is due before noon the Sunday that begins Week 3, and so on going forward. Late assignments will begin to incur a penalty if submitted after 48 hours. The purpose of providing a 48 hour grace period for submitting assignments is to prevent requests for extensions for sickness, jury duty, religious holiday, technical difficulties, etc. Students must notify course instructor prior to or immediately after any incident to be considered for a standard three day extended excused absence (i.e. long deployment military duty, hospital stay, death of an immediate family member, etc.). Extended excused documentation is required and should be uploaded to the "Medical Excuses/Military Leave" dropbox. Unexcused late assignments, if accepted at instructors discretion, will incur at least a 30% and no more than 50% late penalty.

Grades of Incomplete will be granted only on rare occasions. This must be initiated by the student and prearranged prior to the twelfth week of class.  A formal contract will have to be written that outlines the conditions for completing what incomplete work and how it will be scored to calculate the final grade.  The instructor may at his discretion file an “I” (Incomplete) when a student has not completed the work of a course by the time grades must be submitted, but has completed the majority of the work at a passing level and has a written agreement with the instructor and the department regarding completion of the work, including the nature of the work to be completed, the means by which the final grade will be determined, and the date by which the work must be completed. The completion date may be no later than one year from the end of the semester in which the student took the course. The agreement shall also specify a default grade to be received if the work is not completed by the date indicated. One copy of the agreement shall be retained by the instructor, one shall be given to the student, and one shall be filed with the department office.

Dropping the Course: The last day to drop a course from this semester is 1/11/13. The last day to withdraw from a course this semester with a partial refund and a grade of “WR” is 2/1/13. The last day to withdraw from a course this semester with no refund of tuition or fees and a grade of “W” is 3/22/13.

Tentative Schedule
Revisions to the course schedule may be required - please check eLearning announcements regularly for updates and changes!

• Flexible Syllabus: This syllabus is a tentative agreement between the professor and the student enrolled in the course and in no way represents a binding contract. The professor reserves the right to make changes to this document if needed.  Students are responsible for recording any changes on their syllabi.
• A tentative semester overview is provided with this handout. Every attempt will be made to adhere to the schedule provided, but the instructor reserves the right to make changes as needed. Announcements about these changes will be made in class and posted to the course web site.

Study Suggestions: At the end of each chapter there is a summary, which will help you focus on what is important in the chapter. Reviewing the Chapter is helpful because it will provide you with the subject matter and reference it to the page(s) in the chapter where it can be found.

Materials:
Course Website: In this class we use eLearning – a Web-based course management system with password-protected access through MyUWF.edu – to distribute course materials, to communicate and collaborate online, to post grades, to submit assignments, and to give you online quizzes and surveys. You can get support for using eLearning from the “technology Self-help Resources” folder at MyUWF.edu and from http://uwf.edu/helpdesk.

Required Materials
Special Technology Utilized by Students: This course is totally online. All instructional content and interaction takes place over the WWW. In addition to baseline word processing skills and sending/receiving email with attachments, students will be expected to search the Internet and upload / download files. Students a may also need one or more plug-ins, please refer to the content in the first week of class for details.
      • TK20 Subscription available directly at http://uwf.tk20.com or through the UWF campus bookstore
      • Student Access Kits (ISBN 0-9774408-1-8)t
      • Word processor
      • eLearning access
Accessibility Resources: Follow this link for information on accessibility settings in eLearning. Follow this link for information on accessibility features in UWF's Learning Management System (LMS), Desire2Learn.

Required Texts
Pecore, J. L. (2013). Teaching Science in the Elementary School (K-6). Pearson Learning Solutions.
     ISBN: 978-1-26-906633-4

Other Required Readings (Available on Library Course Reserves)
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. (2010). Supporting teaching: Investing in teaching. [Available online:
      http://www.gatesfoundation.org/highschools/Documents/supporting-instruction.pdf].
Cohen, E. G. (1994). Restructuring the classroom: Conditions for productive small groups. Review of Educational
      Research, 64 (1), 1-35.
Hargreaves, A. (2000). Mixed emotions: Teachers’ perceptions of their interactions with students. Teaching and
      Teacher Education, 16 (8), 811-826.
Johnson, D., Johnson, R., and Holubec, E (1994). Chapter 3: Essential components of cooperative learning. In The
      New Circles of Learning: Cooperation in the Classroom and School (25 – 35). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Jones, K. (2012). What is the Purpose of Education? Forbes. Available online at
      http://www.forbes.com/sites/sap/2012/08/15/what-is-the-purpose-of-education/.
Labaree, D. F. (1997). Public goods, private goods: The American struggle over educational goals. American
      Educational Research Journal, 34 (1), 39-81.
Westheimer, J., & Kahne, J. (2000). Education for action: Preparing youth for participatory democracy. School
      Field, 11(1), 21-40.
Zemelman, S., Daniels, H., Hyde, A., Varner, W. (1998). In Best Practice: New Standards for Teaching and
      Learning in America’s Schools. Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Heinemann.