Semester Project

Due by End of Week, see Calendar

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Expectations

Note: Before beginning your effort as a presentation team be sure to share contact information (emails, phone numbers, etc.)

You will be assigned to work with a diverse team of your peers (determined from your Learning Style Delineator results) throughout the semester to design and complete a three-part project:

1st

Create a scenario. Determine an ill-defined but realistic problem that might happen at school due to some type of diversity (socioeconomic status, culture, ethnicity, language, gender, age, ability, etc.). 

2nd

Show how to respond. Design and act out a scenario demonstrating how the problem could be addressed appropriately or contrast appropriate and inappropriate responses. 

3rd

Provide analysis. Think about your presentation team's solution, do some research, and discuss other appropriate responses to handling similar problems.

Remember: The most important objective of this project is illustrating how to be responsive in teaching diverse individuals such as those who come from different cultural, linguistic, and/or economic backgrounds. This responsiveness piece should be at the forefront of your presentation.You will complete and submit this assignment in three videos (each no longer than five-minutes) throughout the semester. Near the end of the semester the whole class will review your team's presentations. Each presentation team should post their videos in the Discussion Board provided.

Part 01

Define the problem.Choose an ill-defined problem that could exist in diverse educational settings. These are problems where there are no clear answers on how to handle them. They require understanding of the children, families, and school cultures before an appropriate solution or action can be taken. For this part of the activity you will need to: 

• choose a scenario likely to occur in a school setting, but which was not expected in the lesson plan
  • the lesson plan or class activity should be age appropriate (for preschool-K or PreK-12th grade) and should include:
    • skills being taught,
    • clear, measurable teaching objective(s), and/or
    • steps to the activity(ies)
• create and present the documents necessary to explain the proposed situation 
  • explain how the scenario will affect the day's planned activities 
• post the video URL of your team's materials in Lesson 03  

For example, suppose you have a child that is calling another child a name. The child uses a racial slur that his family uses openly but is not acceptable in the school. The child does not recognize completely what he said and is a little defiant about the feedback from the teacher as a result of using the racial slur. Explain the implications you see. How would such a situation affect your lesson plans? Why might this be a difficult situation to handle? How could the teacher work with the family to explain any disciplinary consequences and/or prevent it from happening again? What are some of the possible ramification(s) if the situation is not addressed in some way? 

 

You will be graded on the following criteria:

• The presentation team described an ill-defined problems existing as a consequence of diversity in an educational setting. The problem had no clear answers on how to handle them.
• The presentation team illustrated how an understanding of the children, families, and school cultures played a role in devising an appropriate solution or action to be taken.
• The team developed a scenario for addressing the problem(s) (not presented, but discussed).
• The presentation team created and presented documents necessary to explaining the proposed situation; explained how the scenario would affect the day's planned activities. They also created and presented the documents necessary to explain the proposed solution.
• The presentation team posted video and other relevant materials in a friendly and clear way for others in the class to be able to view easily.

Part 02

Illustrate through role playing (or other instructor-approved method) the resolution of the scenario described in Part 1. Focus on possible responses or solutions to the scenario your team described in Part 1. The main purpose of Part 2 is to illustrate the seriousness of the ill-defined problem and create a video revealing the emotions and crisis associated with learning and developing in the diverse context.  

• decide the best course of action to address the problem
• create a scenario (role-play) showing how your team would handle the problem while being sensitive to the diversity of those involved
  • teachers', administrators' and/or other participants behaviors should illustrate responsiveness to the cultural, linguistic, and/or social diversity of the students
  • record your solution as a video (Jing is preferred) for the rest of the class to view
    • This can be presented in many ways: You could record a video discussion, write a script with slides and photos, make an animation, or use any other creative format that works for your team.
    • make sure that all of your team members are able to contribute equally
• post the url of your team's Part 2 video in Lesson 07 

You will be graded on the following criteria:

• The posted video illustrates a course of action to address the problem.
• The posted video illustrates a scenario (role-play) showing how the team would/could handle the problem while being sensitive to the diversity of those involved.
• The posted video is creative and well-illustrated.
• All presentation team members able to contribute equally.

Part 03

Analyze your team's solution (the Part 2 video), do some additional research, and discuss alternative ways to think about and to solve such ill-defined problems.

This part of the project will help you refine your perspective and look at other options to your scenario. Think about your presentation team's chosen solution. Now look for additional perspectives. Review appropriate readings from class. Look at what scholars are saying using Google Scholar. What help can the scriptures or words from Church leaders provide?

Using several sources, analyze your proposed solution and suggest some other alternatives for solving your team's scenario. In your video, present additional perspectives and insights to the ill-defined problem and an alternative to consider and/or do in response to the child and his/her learning. This part of the project should include the "why" to what your team has presented earlier and a discussion of both pro and con arguments to other solutions and responses. 

• what factors became most important in your team's decision?
• why did your presentation team choose the solution they proposed in Part 2?
  • an analysis of the lesson plan and presentation should show how activities or curriculum and actions were changed or could have been changed to be responsive to the children/families with diverse needs.
• what other responses might also be appropriate given particular diversity factors?
• consider how your team's diversity impacted the production of your presentations.
• create a presentation that explains your team's ideas
• post the URL of your team's research into other responses for the class in Lesson 09

Part 3: Analysis Rubric
The team researched alternate methods for solving the proposed problem and used them to refine their understanding of the problem.							10
Team research included finding at least three other appropriate readings - one from a  class reading, one from other scholarly work, and one from a scriptural/church publication. These were cited (including a short summary of the reading) in the analysis.							10
The team suggested some alternatives (as informed by the additional research) for solving the problem as demonstrated in the part 2 video. They demonstrated greater sensitivity and understanding of the ill-defined problem and suggested other things to consider and/or do in response to the child and his/her learning.							5
The team explained which factors had become most important in the team's decision about how to address the problem.							5
The team explained why they had chosen the solution they proposed in Part 2.							5
The team articulated a few additional responses that might also be appropriate given different or additional diversity factors.							5
The team adequately explained how their team's diversity impacted the production of the presentation.							10
Total:							50

Semester Project Reflection - In addition to the videos, you will write a personal reflection about your experience completing this project. This will be turned in during lesson 11. With this final reflection, you should go back to the course readings/videos/PowerPoints and the outside sources your group considered and discuss how you feel about the practices/strategies that exist (or talk about what does not exist) that surround your target ill-defined problem. Include how you felt about what you did and how working in a presentation team impacted your perspective and your product that was finally posted. Consider your presentation team and how you worked with them and what you wished you had or knew if you were to do this project again. Your reflection should be two pages doubled spaced.

Semester Project Presentation Teams are Different from Small Discussion Groups

Semester Project presentation teams will remain intact throughout the semester so that you can work together on these three videos. Your teams are separate and distinct from the discussion groups which meet to discuss the weekly reading/ videos/ PowerPoints. Discussion groups will be different weekly to allow you to hear more of your classmates' perspectives about the things you are learning.

Your presentation team will have a private discussion board (Semester Project Presentation Team Discussion Board and Adobe Connect meeting room) to use to complete this activity. Once the presentation teams have been organized, it will be your responsibility to make contact with your team members and determine how best to complete the various stages of this project. You may meet in whatever way is most conducive for completing the project: e.g. face-to-face, conference calls, Adobe Connect, Skype, discussion boards, etc., but you will need to be talking with each other weekly in order to determine roles and responsibilities and finish each part by its deadline. All presentation team members need to participate equally. Start early and communicate often in order to complete each phase of this project on time.