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Course Activity: Collaborating with Parents-Considerations
In this course, a significant seminar topic is caregiver/family engagement, specifically the need to include multiple, significant, and diverse stakeholders in efforts to improve the educative experiences of all students. Instructor and CI students discuss and brainstorm effective and ineffective methods of communication including email, phone, letters home, and shared documents. In discussion, we examine assumptions that can inhibit meaningful engagement-e.g., assuming all families have reliable internet, internet access, cell phones, private phone, etc. Students examine materials for parent engagement and note pros and cons of each as they consider how best to engage all families/caregivers.
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Course Activity: Universal Design for Learning Module
For these learning modules, students gain knowledge of a variety of tools to pedagogically present information in ways that include and involve all students through the conceptual lens and applied practice of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). UDL is a set of principles for inclusive and differentiated curriculum development that gives every student the opportunity to access content and express understanding. Students explore various media presentations-via YouTube and CAST) on UDL concepts and practices- including: The Myth of Average, UDL Guidelines, UDL at a Glance, and UDL Principles and Practice. Reflective and threaded discussions follow each of the modules/presentations.
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Course Activity: Involving Students in Self-Assessment and Goal Setting
This activity engages CI students in discovering how k-12 students’ self-assessment can illuminate where students are academically and facilitate differentiated/inclusive forms of instruction for the success of all students, including English language learners and dysfluent readers/writers. CI students watch videos on middle school student conferences, kindergarten student conferences, and reading student conferences. Students then discuss these prompts: How do students demonstrate their understanding of where they are in the process of learning? How can self-assessment conferences strengthen the relationship between school & home and provide for each individual student’s success?
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Course Activity: All Are Included
One of the ways to ensure safe and positive learning environments is to make sure ALL students are welcomed and included in classrooms without exception. For this activity, students watch a classroom read-aloud: All Are Welcome By: Alexandra Penfold & Suzanne Kaufman, which follows a group of children through a day in their school, where everyone is welcomed, no matter their race, religion, or background. CI students then read one article (provided by the professor) focusing on including authentically students with disabilities, LGBTQ students, and students of color. Whole group discussions follow-centering on implications for the classroom and the students and families with whom teachers work.
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Course Assignment: Philosophy of Leadership
From the course materials and activities (e.g., readings, assignments, discussions, leadership research, exemplars of leadership success), students use this assignment to delineate their understandings and assert their aspirations for themselves as an educational leader. Using a pyramid graphic organizer, they develop their leadership characteristics, traits, style, innovative inclusion of diversity, equity, social justice. gender, and global perspectives. Finally, using the self-realization process, students conduct an inventory of the leadership skills they currently have, the competencies they intend to work on, and the societal challenges of our diverse world that most engage them.