ARCHIVE - MIT 2003-05

MIT 2003-05

WINTER QUARTER

TLS AND SEMINAR PAPERS

1. Current Status of TLS Papers and Next Steps - Each of you has talked with us about your TLS paper at Advancement to Candidacy and received written feedback on your paper. You should know at this point which parts of your paper and your understanding of teaching and learning seem firm, and which parts need work. If you need to clarify your explanations about the process of learning, keep working on this and checking in with your seminar leader. If your thesis and supporting argument need work, seek assistance at the Writing Center. We expect you to continue to refine your knowledge and explanations so that your TLS PowerPoint presentation is clear, accurate, and concise.

2. TLS PowerPoint Presentation - As you know, your presentation will be given during Evaluation Week. Everyone is expected to attend all the presentations. Our experience with the last cohort was that the presentations were very interesting and individual - I think all of us learned something from each and every talk! So, your presentation will be 10 minutes long with 5 minutes for questions. Your presentation should address what learning is, and how one's understanding of learning, added to the effects of schooling, gender, ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, and individual abilities determine effective approaches to teaching.

3. Seminar Preparation and Seminar Papers: The seminar books and history and democracy projects will help you explore the relationship of schooling and issues of diversity to teaching and learning, while gradeband work will continue to elaborate teaching and learning.

a) To prepare for seminar each week, read the books and then create a visual organizer that allows you to represent the information conceptually and that helps you specify questions and issues to address in seminar. These organizers will be handed in at seminar. Each seminar group will discuss and decide on options for responses.

b) Twice during the quarter, each of you will write and submit a paper that integrates the work we do in the program about schooling and diversity and relates that work to learning and teaching. These papers are intended to help you synthesize the information so that you are prepared to complete your TLS PowerPoint Presentation. Each paper should be at least 5 pages in length for the first paper, and no longer than 10 pages for the second. They should present a thesis, contain a well-organized argument to support the thesis, and use appropriate APA conventions.

Week 4 - One half of you (Group 1assigned in seminar) will post an integrative paper on WebX by 9 p.m. Tuesday and the other half (Group 2 assigned in seminar) will provide feedback by 9 p.m. Wednesday.

Week 5 - Group 2 will post an integrative paper on WebX by 9 p.m. Tuesday night and Group 1 will provide feedback by 9 p.m. Wednesday.

Week 7 - Group 1 will write and post by 9 p.m. Tuesday with Group 2 providing feedback by 9 p.m. Wednesday.

Week 8 - Group 2 will write and post by 9 p.m. Tuesday night and Group 1 will provide feedback 9 p.m. Wednesday.

4. Condensed Version of TLS Paper - After you present your PowerPoint talks, you have one more step to complete. You will sift your paper for key points that you feel are essential to your understanding of teaching, learning, and schooling. Then you will write a statement about who you are as a teacher, what you believe about teaching and learning, and what your approach to classroom management is. This statement can be NO LONGER than 2 pages, double-spaced. Your audiences are possible interview panels and your future students and their parents. This statement will be included in your Advancement to Student Teaching Portfolio.