ED596.1 Curriculum Project Spring 2014 Peter Appelbaum, Arcadia University Congratulations!

! Everyone in this course is completing a culminating project, the final requirement for the masters degree at Arcadia. So we are all almost there! This course will be run as a seminar and support group. It has the following goals: 1. Each person completes a culminating project that meets the following criteria: The Culminating Project must: a. Evolve out of your passion and interest b. Be more than an academic paper c. Be large enough in scope to keep you engaged for the equivalent of 3 credits of course work d. Represent a synthesis of your masters program coursework. e. Connect you in some way to a world outside of Arcadia f. Raise consciousness about some issue or idea g. Connect you with someone else that you confer with over the semester h. Include a list of at least five references that informed and helped shape your project. i. Be useful or make an impact on at least one of the following: your current job; a prospective job; other people. j. Include a public presentation about the project. ***There may be additional specific requirements for the culminating project in your particular degree program. 2. Each member of the class will leave with the following items on their resume: a. A completed action research project b. Experience consulting on the actions research projects of others c. Comprehensive expertise in a subfield/topic area related to their project d. Experience designing a presentation or educational sharing of their original work for a carefully chosen audience, using a carefully designed form of taking action Required Texts The primary texts will be articles that you find through your own library research, and the data that you are collecting and analyzing throughout the semester. However, we will also be reading, viewing, and exploring some ways that educators have shared their work with others; we will explore these together. They will be of varying forms, but should not require any purchases pdf files available online, websites, videos, etc. In addition, I and/or your adviser will assign you several books and other resources of particular value to your project. The one additional text we will read together is Too Big To Know: Rethinking Knowledge Now That the Facts Aren't the Facts, Experts Are Everywhere, and the Smartest Person in the Room Is the Room, by David Weinberger (Basic Books, 2012 ISBN: 0465021425). Check also: alibris and abebooks. Assignments The primary assignment for this course is that you undertake and document an action research culminating project for your masters degree. In addition, you will complete the following: 1. An initial proposal describing your beginning ideas for meeting the project criteria above. 2. An initial reflective outline looking back over your coursework at Arcadia. 3. Weekly blog entries about your progress and reflections on your evolving understanding of your obligations as an expert with a masters degree, your developing understanding of your field of specialization, and your professional plans. See http://arcadiateacheraction2014.weebly.com 4. Regular meetings with critical friends 5. Consultations with experts who can push your work along and/or support your work in significant ways.

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6. 7. 8. 9.

Create an annotated bibliography of research related to your project. Create a data collection plan and carry it out, including ongoing analysis Create a checkpoint report and a prcis of your project Take Action: Identify a particularly appropriate audience for your work, and design a way to share your work with that audience.

Tentative Schedule Date January 13 20 No Class MLK Day Complete before this day Assignments due Syllabus Email to register at arcadiateacheraction2014.weebly.com Proposal; Reflective outline on masters coursework; First blog entry: create a personal page and introduce yourself; upload a photo for your page. Ideas for possible data collection; keywords for searching literature related to your project interests. Blog: add the reflection, "How will this project be different ? Data Collection Plan. Proposal, pt. 2; new keywords?

Meet or schedule meeting with your adviser; Teachers, researchers, and curriculum

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Library

February 3 10 17

Action Research Design

Pecha Kucha Classroom Management Pecha Kucha on Pecha Kucha Prezi with Voice-Over

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February 28-March 1 Penn Ethnography Forum March Too Big to Know, Prologue & 3 chs 1-3 Action idea: series of short videos: Flipping my Classroom pt.1 ; pt.2 ; pt.3 ; & pt. 4 ; Vi Hart Blog ; and Dan Meyer TEDTalk

Plans for critical friends meetings; initial plans for consultant meetings; Research articles & books Research articles & books Action idea: Self-published book Action idea: Radio Podcasts High Stakes Testing ; Playlist, with commentary?; Students speak out Action idea: Youtube Documentary or Promotional Video: Sudbury Valley school; Transnational & Post/DeColonial Theory; 3,600 Students and One Uniform; Hamilton Commons for more

Annotated bibliography

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10 spring break 17 24 Too Big to Know, chs 4-6 Action idea: narrative article
Doll, I Teach, Therefore I Am; Fine, Anand, Jordan, Sherman, Before the Bleach Gets Us All, Levy, What is the Ideal Classroom?

Audience identification

Monday, March 1 April 3 AAACS 31 Come to the opening night of AAACS! AERA: April 3-7, 2014 April Too Big to Know, chs 7-9; 7 Action idea: This American Life journalism 14 Action idea: This I Believe polemic Friday, April 11-Saturday, April 12 NAME 21 Precis 28 Movie Night / Festival Taking Action May 15
(3:30? lineup; 5:00? ceremony)

Commencement!

Some more details on assignments Note that your project can take any form, as long as it synthesizes and applies your coursework at Arcadia. You should get started on this work immediately, and allow it to mutate and evolve over time in response to your ongoing understanding of the role of action research and the nature of professional knowledge. Possible Formats include: Grant Proposal based on Pilot Study Development, implementation, and assessment of major instructional unit Field-based or classroom-based action research paper Development, implementation, and assessment of staff development activities Portfolio or other presentation of significant individual creative work through which themes and important knowledge gained in the program are examined and interpreted. Extra individual study in an area related to previous work for the degree, resulting in a research paper, a performance, or a public exhibit. This course depends much more than any other in your program on you. What you put into this determines what you get out of it. The course is a structure for a primarily independent project. You make the decisions, within the criteria, If you feel lost, the group is there to help you; in the process, we all get the benefit of working on every other project in the class, to some degree, not just our own. This course is a transition from graduate student to graduate someone whom others go to for advice on what to do, as opposed to someone who does what others tell them, someone with the experience and wisdom to offer informed perspectives grounded in research and theory, someone who acts on his or her beliefs.

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Proposal Guidelines; include comments on the following: What do you want to do? Why do you want to do this? How does it grow out of your passion and interest? How will this project be useful or have an impact? How are you thinking you want to start? What else are you considering for how you will go about working on this project? What resources do you have in mind? (Be as specific as possible; cite references if possible.) What will the data be that you can analyze? Lay out an approximate timeline What are you considering for a final presentation format? How does this format speak to your goals for this project? Proposal, pt. 2: After reading Teachers, Researchers, and Curriculum, use it to place your project plans within Each of the 5 dimensions Within the range of orientations to teacher knowledge and professionalism Across the technical, practical and strategic views Add further specific plans sparked by our work so far Data Collection Plan Data can take many forms. Some examples include: Daily or weekly journal entries listing what you have done and your reflection on that. Student work samples, audio or video of short clinical interviews of students Videos of classroom activity, photos taken by students Parent/Guardian surveys Observational records Student-created art, music, poetry; records of role-plays A plan includes regular collection of data (daily, weekly, biweekly); multiple forms of data can provide contrast or support conclusions (a popular technique is to use 3 different kinds of data, thus triangulating the research). Blog entries Add at least two entries every week one on your personal page and one on a group page. Increase your sophistication with blogging each week: experiment with different media, new menu options, etc. Share this blob on FaceBook, Twitter, Tumblr, et al., invite friends and colleagues to participate in our discussions! arcadiateacheraction2014.weebly.com. Critical Friends These are people in a similar position as you are in another teacher or administrator in your school, a parent who can provide a family perspective anyone who can bounce ideas back and forth and call you out when you are not challenging yourself or when you are making too many assumptions. Someone who can offer advice. Consultants These are people with experience similar to what you are trying to do, or who might be in a position to make what you want to do possible. They should not be people who are easy to schedule appointments with, but instead, people who you need to convince to take the time to meet with you. Taking Action We will be looking at samples of how others have approached this. Your project will lead you to taking on 2-3 of these ideas, and combining them to facilitate the impact your work can have on others.

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Prcis This must take on different forms depending on your project, your choice of taking action, and your ongoing sense of direction in your career. (Prcis: a concise summary of essential points, statements, or facts)