See assignment sheet for details. Typically, the reading will have been completed before your arrival in September. Assessment: complete/incomplete. Submitted by due date: 15 marks; submitted after due date: 10 marks; not submitted: 0. Due Friday September 20, 2013.

Because this assignment is due soon after you arrive in September, many of you will want to get a head start on this reading. Here are some details in advance.

Context

PROF 190, Theory and Professional Practice, is taught by an instructor who will also visit you during your practicum. This assignment is part of your ongoing professional learning, as required by the Ontario College of Teachers and described in their document The Foundations of Professional Practice.

The Professional Reading Assignment

To help you prepare for your fall practicum, read one of the books on professional practice or classroom management, listed below; or read another teaching-related or classroom management-related book of your choice.

Prepare a written double-spaced 2-3-page review, using point form or narrative. Include:

• Author and Title of your chosen book
• Strengths/weaknesses of the book
• Three classroom management strategies or key ideas, and how you will try to implement them in the classroom
• Personal reflections indicating how the book is connected with the things you care most about as a teacher

Bring a copy of your review to your PROF 190 class on September 20 and be prepared to discuss your book in a small group during class time. If you are unable to complete the review by September 20, you need to discuss this with your instructor.

Grading

Complete/Not Complete - Value 10 Marks

For further information about this assignment, please contact Ellie Deir (coordinator of PROF 190) at 613-533-6000 ext. 77673, or by email at deire@queensu.ca.

Readings

You may purchase any of these books from the Queen's University Campus Book Store (613-533-2955); frontdesk@campusbookstore.com, or find them in the Education Library.You may choose to read and report upon a book not from the list by arrangement with Ellie Deir.

Allen, R. (2002). Impact teaching. Toronto: Allyn & Bacon.
Ideas and strategies for creating effective lessons to maximize student learning and influence students positively.

Bennett, Barrie, & Rolheiser, C. (2001). Beyond Monet: the artful science of instructional integration. Toronto: Bookation.
This book focuses on how to integrate a variety of instructional skills and strategies based on knowledge of how students learn. It provides sample lessons by teacher at all grade levels.

Bloom, Lisa. (2009). Classroom management: creating positive outcomes for all students. Upper Saddle River NJ: Pearson.
This text sees teachers as professionals who use research and wisdom as well as knowledge of their unique classrooms to develop solutions to unique situations.

Evertson, Carolyn. (2006). 7th edition. Classroom management for elementary teachers. Toronto: Pearson.
A comprehensive guide to managing the school classroom with chapters on managing instruction, cooperative learning and behaviour.

Faber, Adele, & Mazlish, Elaine (1995). How to talk so kids can learn. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
Using unique communications strategies, the authors show teachers how to defuse difficult situations, avoid classroom clashes, and help children handle everyday problems that interfere with learning. Down-to-earth classroom strategies and advice.

Fennimore, B. S. (1995). Student-centered classroom management. Toronto, ON: Delmar.
Classroom management in elementary schools is addressed in a student-centered approach. This text shows how to connect issues in classroom management and discipline to curricular design and developmentally appropriate practice.

Jones, Vernon F., & Jones, Louise S. (2001). Comprehensive classroom management: creating communities of support and solving problems. (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn, Bacon.
A guide to establishing positive school and classroom climates, organizing classrooms, improving instruction, dealing with discipline problems, and developing individualized instruction plans.

Kohn, Alfie. (1996). Beyond discipline: from compliance to community. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Kohn questions the assumption that problems in the classroom are the fault of students who do not do what they are told suggesting that we might reconsider what they have been told.

Levin, J., Nolan, J. (2009). Principles of classroom management: a professional decision-making model. 2nd Canadian edition. Toronto, ON: Pearson.
Decision-making options to guide thinking about how to approach typical classroom management situations and prevent or solve a variety of problems.

Marzano, Robert. (2003). Classroom management that works: research based strategies. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Research supports a variety of specific strategies that educators can use to manage classrooms and learning effectively. A guide to the critical role of classroom management in student learning

Marzano, Robert. (2003). What works in schools:  translating research into action. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Marzano synthesizes research and provides support for teachers looking to improve their practice.

Naested, Irene. (2004). Understanding the landscape of teaching.Toronto: Pearson.
Canadian content.Useful textbook for teacher education. Teacher candidates are encouraged to question assumptions about learning, teaching and schooling.

Noddings, Nel. (1992). The challenge to care in schools.NY: Teachers College Press.
Different people have different strengths, and schools should be based on this notion. Strengths should be nurtured in a climate of caring, not competition, according to this vision.

Parkay, Forrest. (2012). Becoming a teacher. 4th Canadian Edition. Toronto, ON: Pearson.
Provides tools and information to explore 21st century teaching practices and issues. A detailed overview of education and teaching in Canada: "school 101."

Stronge, James. (2007). Qualities of effective teachers. 2nd edition. Alexandria VA: ASCD.
Explores qualities and skills of effective teachers.

Due Dates: First Draft due Wednesday November 20, 2013. Final Draft due April 30 as part of your Professional Portfolio, shared at your Exit Conference. 5 marks for each draft, total 10 marks.

Your task is to develop a statement of your beliefs about teaching and learning that will guide you in your B. Ed year and beyond. Your thinking will evolve, always centring on what you care most about as a teacher and learner. You will want to have a Statement of Beliefs (with perhaps a different title) as part of the application package you will be preparing for your job search. Your ideas, and your written statement, will change as you deepen your understandings about teaching and learning. Education Career Services will provide further guidance for you as you work through this important task of thinking about and expressing your ideas. Here are some categories to help you focus on what you might include in your statement.

Areas of Focus

• Students — In what ways are your students central to your thinking?
• Learning — To what extent are you focused on the processes of learning, and cultivating a love of learning?
• Community — What emphasis do you place on learning in community, on cooperating and collaborating?
• Society — In what ways are you concerned with students understanding their society and in becoming good citizens?
• Environment — In what ways do you want to focus on having your students think and act in ways that reflect understanding and respect for the environmental consequences of what they do?

An Evolving Statement

The idea behind this activity is to begin to articulate a philosophy of teaching and learning based on an ethic of caring (Noddings, 1992). As the year unfolds, recognize that in any particular teaching situation, the central focus of your belief statement may change.

Revisit your belief statement at various times during your B.Ed./Dip.Ed. year. Here are some purposes for this kind of thinking:

• to enhance your curriculum planning
• to enhance your teaching practice;
• to guide your action research project;
• to guide the development and implementation of your Professional Development Plan
• to provide you with help in creating materials for job interviews.

Assessment

Candidates include this Statement in their Professional Portfolios. 5 marks for early draft, 5 for April draft.

Queen's B.Ed./Dip.Ed. program requires each candidate to create and enact a Professional Learning Plan, develop a Professional Portfolio and conduct an Exit Conference at the end of April. These activities span the academic year, beginning shortly after your arrival in September. You will begin to articulate and refine your Statement of Beliefs beginning in the fall, with Draft 1 due on Wednesday November 20. Final Statement of Beliefs is due April 30 in your Professional Portfolio. Your Professional Learning Plan, Draft 1, is due by Wednesday November 20. Final draft of your Professional Learning Plan is due April 30, in your Professional Portfolio. You will develop a Reflective Practice statement based around an event during your practicum. This Reflective Practice statement is due Monday January 20, for 5 marks. Your professional learning will include the development of your professional portfolio, which you will present as part of the Exit Conference. Exit Conference participation: 15 marks. Due April 30, 2014.

1. Timeline and Activities

In September and during the Fall On-Campus weeks, you need to review the guidelines for the professional learning component of your program with your peers and/or your PROF 190 instructor. Design an initial professional learning plan, using the Annual Learning Plan template provided in your course pack. Use the sample Professional Learning Plan created by a former B. Ed. candidate as a guide -- find it in your Prof 190 course pack.

During your B. Ed/Dip. Ed year, you need to enact your Professional Learning Plan. Create a professional portfolio for artifacts related to your professional learning. Some examples: teaching materials, student work, articles, pictures, newspaper clippings, course work and more. Reflect on your professional learning, using the materials that arise out of your coursework and Practicum. Document your progress towards your professional learning goals, and revise your learning goals and strategies as necessary.

After your Winter School and Alternate Practica, you need to begin to organize your portfolio to show your professional growth. Select artifacts that help you tell the story of your professional learning this year. Summarize your professional learning and use your summary as an abstract for potential employers as well as your peers during your Exit Conference.

Exit Conference. Be sure you are clear on the time and location of your Exit Conference. Review the guidelines for preparing and managing your time and information sharing. Join two peers and share the process and outcomes of your professional learning in a celebration of your work. You will also participate in the Exit Conference presentation of two peers, and provide them with written comments.

Grading

To graduate from the Faculty of Education, you must participate fully in all parts of this professional learning activity.

2. Your Professional Learning Plan

What goes into your Professional Learning Plan? Review the concerns you identified as you began your B Ed year.  Connect your concerns with the Standards of Practice for the Teaching Profession of the Ontario College of Teachers. The lists of professional development areas below may also be helpful.  Identify a manageable goal that you feel you can address on your own this year. You may want to share your plan to your course instructor.

You need to send a draft Professional Learning Plan to your course instructor by Wednesday November 20, 2013. this is worth 5 marks. An April version of your PLP will be part of your Professional Portfolio and will be shared at your Exit Conference, for 5 marks. Total for the PLP: 10 marks. 

What is involved? Create a plan, and then....

Carry out your plan. Select at least 4 activities and document your learning. What are some possible activities?Attend a professional development conference; attend a workshop; give a workshop; watch some videos;complete practical or scholarly extensions of workshop learning; create curriculum, assessment or instructional materials other than assignments; develop new skills: play an instrument, learn to sketch, learn computer software, etc; acquire formal certifications: CPR, First Aid, coaching certificates, etc.; provide service to the community or a school by tutoring or other service; do professional reading that is not assigned; complete an action research project that is not assigned; work with a "critical friend".

General areas for Professional Learning: curriculum planning, instruction, curriculum development models and theories, classroom management, student-centred learning environments, integrating computer and information technology, forms of assessment, assessing for learning, contemporary developments within subject disciplines, active learning, arts-based education, experiential education, unit planning integrated across disciplines, unit planning integrated across grade levels, split-grade classrooms, team teaching, provincial standardized testing programs, professional learning communities in schools, cooperative small group learning

Addressing individual needs and differences: establishing inclusive learning environments, diagnosing special needs, individual education plans, school to community programs, school and community support services, programs for at-risk, gifted learners, or other selected populations

Understanding contemporary issues: anti-racist/anti-bias education, gender issues in schooling, parent councils, media and learning, school governance, school/community partnerships, substance abuse, violence in schools, bullying

3. Your Professional Portfolio

As part of your B.Ed. program here at Queen's you are required to create a professional portfolio. You will use your portfolio in a variety of ways, to record your professional learning, to support your Exit Conference discussion, and to support your job search and job interviews. If you have already begun to develop a portfolio, simply continue to maintain and expand it throughout the year and use it in relation to your self-directed professional learning. The Ontario College of Teachers requires continuous professional learning as part of its Standards of Practice for the Teaching Profession, and your portfolio will be one of the ways for you to document your ongoing professional growth. 

What is a professional portfolio? It is a collection of your professional beliefs, goals, practices, and achievements. It combines process (the actual process of synthesizing learning and selecting artifacts) as well as products (the artifacts). Your portfolio will be a vehicle to capture some of the features of your own teaching and learning.

Typically, your portfolio will be housed in a binder, divided according to the headings provided by the Standards of Practice. Here are the headings: Commitment to Student Learning; Professional Knowledge; Teaching Practice; Leadership and Community; Ongoing Professional Learning. Your portfolio will document: your professional competence; your professional goals and beliefs; your teaching, learning, and professional growth; areas of professional strength and areas for further growth.

Your portfolio will be a collection of information about your professional learning and your teaching practice. It will not be a scrapbook or steamer trunk, but rather a set of artifacts collected systematically and arranged thoughtfully to show your understandings, growth, and professional accomplishments. What sorts of artifacts might you include? Statement of Beliefs about teaching and learning; summary of formal professional activities such as workshops; samples of your students' exemplary work with identifying information blacked out;influential professional reading; résumé; notes from your students about your teaching; samples of curriculum, assessment or lesson materials you have developed or adapted; records of strategies you have used to handle classroom management concerns, exceptionalities; samples of any research you have undertaken, for example action research; information about co-curricular involvement during your Practicum placement.

Purpose of this portfolio?

• to make you more aware of how you teach and learn
• to improve the quality of your teaching and your students' learning
• to develop your skills of reflective practice
• to use as part of your materials for employment
• to use as part of your Teacher Performance Appraisal (if employed in Ontario)

Sort through your artifacts and select those which represent your most important learning. Annotate these artifacts and insert them into your portfolio. Understand that your portfolio will always be a work in progress and will likely not be in a paper format at all in a future iteration. Your professional growth will be ongoing throughout your teaching career.

Check the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario website for information and help in creating Annual Learning Plans and portfolios. The site also contains lots of current information for elementary teachers.

• PortfolioMaker.ca — This site will help you create a portfolio.
• Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario — On this website you will find information to help teachers create portfolios and annual learning plans. There are also many other current documents relating to Ontario elementary school teaching and learning.

4. Exit Conference

Each teacher candidate must participate in a peer-attended Exit Conference in order to complete the requirements of the B.Ed/Dip.Ed program at Queen's. At your Exit Conference you will share and celebrate your professional learning and develop experience in self- and peer assessment. This structured experience will also provide you with feedback and further opportunities to consolidate your learning. The Exit Conference will take place on the final day of our Education term in April. Exit Conference participation is worth 15 marks.

You will lead a 35-45 minute conference with two peers. You will describe and summarize your professional growth during the past year, using your Professional Learning Plan and your professional portfolio.

Prior to your Exit Conference, prepare a one-page summary of your professional learning. Make copies for your peer reviewers and your instructor, and bring them to your Exit Conference.

What happens during your Exit Conference?

• First 5 Minutes: distribute your summary of professional learning to two peers and your instructor. Ask a peer to monitor your use of time.
• Next 30 Minutes: Discuss your professional learning goals, activities you chose to address these goals, and growth you feel you have experienced. Use your portfolio to support your discussion.
• Final 5 Minutes: Have peers provide feedback on your presentation.

References

Paulsen, F. Paulsen P, Meyer, C. (1991). What makes a portfolio a portfolio? Educational Leadership 48(5), 60-63.

Due Date: either January 27, 2014 or April 11, 2014, to be set by your instructor

Your Inquiry will take the form of Action Research related to a question or issue arising out of your Practicum. You will get further details from your course instructor. To complete your Action Research inquiry, aimed at improving your understanding of your own teaching practice, you will:

• identify a concern in your Practicum;
• submit a project plan using the Proposal and Consent Form;
• conduct an inquiry drawing upon your experience, professional dialogue with peers and Associate Teachers, and analysis of professional literature;
• report on your learning in a paper and in class, using the Reporting template below.

Assessment: see Assessment Rubric. Due Date: Friday January 27, 2103, for projects completed during the Fall Practicum, or Friday April 11, 2014 for projects completed during the Winter Practicum.

What about this Action Research Project? Here is the Big Picture

1. You have a "concern" derived from your Practicum.
2. You plan and make informed changes in your teaching during the Practicum to address your concern.
3. You communicate your findings, including an evaluation of your learning.

The Details

1. Identify a Concern in your Teaching Practice

Typically, as part of your school practicum, you will record your observations, reflections, questions, and feelings, as well as understandings, in a journal, as you attempt to make sense of your practicum experiences. These observations and questions will enable you to identify your “concern.”  Try to connect your concern to issues  that you identified in your reading and courses here.

• Example 1: I don't have enough useful strategies for getting the students in my class organized for work, especially after transitions, every day;
• Example 2:  I don’t have enough useful strategies or information for dealing appropriately with bullying on the playground at recess ;
• Example 3: I am unhappy with my knowledge of ways to modify the curriculum for a student in my class with xxx characteristics;
• Example 4: I need to find better ways to motivate the students in my class to stay on task.

There are as many examples as there are classrooms. Many of you may decide to focus your inquiry on classroom management, instruction or assessment. Typically, your topic will come from your own practicum, but will be something that will likely recur in another setting.

2. Plan your research process

Understand the ethical concerns, as well as the procedures you need to follow, before you begin your Action Research project. Be clear about the parameters of your project, as well as the assessment rubric your Instructor will be using to evaluate your work. Be clear about ethical concerns surrounding your project. Use the guidelines and Proposal and Consent Form parameters to guide your information gathering. Procedurally, you need to identify your topic and narrow it to a manageable level. You need to read the list of possible information sources for your examination of possible ways to deal with your concern (see handout Action Research Proposal and Consent Form). Note the methods you are expected to use to assist in your research, and the methods you are not to use. Your form will guide your work, and you will return it, signed by your Faculty Liaison, Associate Teacher and yourself, when you hand in your completed Action Research paper. You will need to discuss your plans with your Faculty Liaison as well as your Associate Teacher.

3. Develop a Proposal

Develop a proposal that indicates your concern, and the sorts of actions you intend to take and resources you intend to examine in conducting your inquiry and preparing your essay. Use the Proposal and Consent Form.

• Proposal and Consent Form: PROF 190/191 Action Research Assignment

Your action research plan will be approved and signed by your Prof 190 Instructor and your Associate Teacher or another professional from your school.

• Ethical Guidelines for PROF 190/191 Professional Inquiry (Action Research) Assignment 

4. Explore various information sources as you implement your plan

You need to use data from your own observations about your practice, as well as from Associate Teachers and the professional literature. Take advantage of the wealth of on-line journals and other professional literature that can guide your work. Use all or most of these sources of information: observation of students; conversations with students; analysis of student work; written feedback from students submitted anonymously through the Associate Teacher; your notes on classroom or playground events; notes on your own work; journal notes and reflections; notes from conversations with your peers, Faculty Liaison and Associate Teacher; professional readings. Please note that you may not use information obtained through interviewing, conducting surveys, video recording, audio recording, photographs, notes naming individuals or identifying your school or any students. Be sure to take a critical stance toward all the resources you consult.

5. Write and submit a reflective paper

Use the online reporting template, found on the course website. When you use the reporting template, your paper will meet these criteria:

1. 6 to 10 pages, double-spaced, using appropriate and consistent referencing
2. clear description of your concern, without identifying people or places
3. steps you took to address your concern
4. discussion of the concern from the point of view of the data you gathered and the resources you consulted, including critical comments about the resources
5. steps you intend to take to deal with this concern in your professional practice
6. reflections on your own learning about this concern
7. reflections on the process of conducting Action Research
8. Your paper must adhere to the Ethical Guidelines. Please consult them if you are unsure.

All candidates completing Action Research will hand in their completed, signed Proposal and Consent Form along with their completed essay, to their instructor. Instructors will send the signed Proposal and Consent Form to the Coordinator to be held for audit by the Education Research Ethics Board for audit.

For further information about how your paper will be assessed by your Instructor see attached action research rubric.

• Assessment Rubric for Action Research Paper
• Template for Action Research Reporting

Attendance and participation in Classes and Weekly Meetings: 10 marks. Teacher candidates are expected to attend all Weekly Meetings during the Practicum. As well, candidates are expected to complete a makeup activity for all missed classes.

Extenuating Circumstances: Extenuating circumstances are dealt with by the Associate Dean, B. Ed. It is the responsibility of teacher candidates to inform the instructor and the Associate Dean of extenuating circumstances.