week a

ESE634: EDUCATION-BASED COLLABORATIVE RELATIONSHIPS

Hello everyone, 

As we continue to navigate special education terminology and language, it is important to know and understand the differences between IDEA and Section 504.  This is often a misunderstood concept, but something that should be addressed and clarified.  I am including a brief article/resource below.  Something to think about...How would you respond if a teacher asked if a Section 504 Plan and IEP were the same?  Similar? 

http://www.ldonline.org/article/6086/

Instructor Guidance

Week 1

Welcome to ESE634: Education-Based Collaborative Relationships!  Please be sure to review the Week 1 homepage for this course to see:

· The specific learning outcomes for the week.

· The schedule overview.

· The required and recommended resources.

· The introduction to the week.

· A listing of the assessments.

It is important to note that the Instructor Guidance has been developed to directly compliment the learning outcomes in each week of this course.  Be sure to read this entire Instructor Guidance section each week.

Overview

This guidance begins with a few words about the importance of reading the weekly Instructor Guidance pages. Next, this overview provides a section about the course learning outcomes and their relationship to the weekly outcomes and program outcomes. It concludes with helpful information about active reading strategies and academic writing, which will be useful to you for excelling in this course and in future classes. About the Instructor Guidance Pages The guidance pages provide an overview of the week, a section with intellectual elaboration written by professors at the University of Arizona Global Campus about the course topics explored during the current week, and additional specific guidance for the assessments (i.e., assignments and discussions) written by the course designers to supplement the instructions provided with the assessments and in the grading rubrics that are located on the weekly unit homepages. Supplemental resources are also included in the Instructor Guidance. You are encouraged to consider using these resources to support your completion of the weekly assessments beyond using the required and recommended resources provided on the weekly unit homepages and in the consolidated list of resources on the Course Materials page.  Thus, you are strongly encouraged to review the Instructor Guidance each week as part of your study plan. Not only does the Instructor Guidance offer you insights and assistance with the weekly topics and activities, it models effective academic writing, which is expected of you in all of your coursework in this graduate-level course. The Scope and Outcomes of ESE634 Through the assessments in ESE634, you will have opportunities to examine and create original resources you can use as a professional special educator. Upon the successful completion of this course, you will have demonstrated your mastery of the five course learning outcomes, which are listed on the syllabus. Review the Course Map on the Syllabus to learn how each assessment in the course aligns to the five course learning outcomes.    The course learning outcomes guided the design of this course and all align to one or more of the weekly outcomes, which are more specific about what you will do each week and are listed on the weekly unit homepages. The course and weekly outcomes are aligned to the Master of Arts in Special Education (MASE) Program Learning Outcomes, which can be viewed from the MASE Program Details page on the University of Arizona Global Campus website.  As you may recall, the MASE program is founded on the following assumptions a) all children can learn; b) children have diverse learning styles; c) and the teacher’s belief in each child’s abilities supports the child’s success. As with all of your courses, it is imperative that you embrace the premise that, regardless of ability level, cultural background, or learning differences, in physically and emotionally safe environments, all children can learn.  If you have questions about the scope and outcomes of ESE634, please contact the instructor. This course also gives you many opportunities to sharpen your 21st century technology skills. While at first you may not think you are technically savvy enough for the technology enhanced components of the various assessments. Rest assured, your instructor is prepared to assist you when challenges using the technology do arise.  This course, like the rest of the MASE program, was intentionally designed to prepare you for real world, career-based skills that include the application of course content and technology.  Active Reading and Academic Writing in ESE634 Each week in ESE634 you will complete reading from the Cohen and Spenciner (2009) textbook and other resources related to collaboration and communication in the Special Education profession. It is strongly recommended that you start using strategies for active reading now if you do not already as part of your study routine. Review the  Tips for Active Reading (Links to an external site.)  tutorial to learn more about active reading. The tutorial is approximately ten-minutes long and explains the concept of active reading and practical strategies for active reading. This tutorial will be especially useful for you as you read the textbook. Additionally, remember that ESE634 is a graduate-level course. As such, your writing in the discussion and assignment assessments each week is expected to demonstrate your best academic ability, including the area of academic writing. For a review of what academic writing entails, view the  What is Academic Writing? (Links to an external site.)  tutorial. In approximately fourteen-minutes, this video tutorial explains the fundamental components of academic writing and will provide helpful reminders about academic writing to support your writing in all assignments and discussions throughout this and other courses.

Intellectual Elaboration

Continuum of Placement Options This week you will begin to learn about the different settings in the special education profession.  While many people are familiar with settings within the public school, they may be surprised to learn about other settings along the continuum of placement options.   

Cohen & Spenciner, 2009

Cohen and Spenciner (2009) explain each of these settings in detail within Chapter One of the required textbook.  These settings will also be the focus of this week’s discussion post.  Please see the Assessment Guidance section below for more details. Differentiation Regardless of the location, every special education professional will need to be able to craft learning experiences that are differentiated, developmentally appropriate, and challenging.  The approach of “one size fits all” teaching is no longer feasible or acceptable.  According to Tomlinson (2014), “teachers who differentiate provide specific alternatives for individuals to learn as deeply as possible and as quickly as possible, without assuming one student's road map for learning is identical to anyone else's,” (para. 14).  Yu (2014, n.p.) believes that differentiated instruction aims to:

· Improve learning outcomes

· Increase engagement

· Inspire a love of learning

· Increase self-awareness

· Help students learn more efficiently and with deeper understanding

Differentiation requires that teachers become students of their students, studying them to see how they learn best and why.  Professionals in special education must also ensure that their learning experiences meet the developmental needs of each student.  The term “developmentally appropriate practice” (DAP) is often relegated to the early childhood education realm, but it is equally important in special education.  The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) (n.d.) refer to DAP as a framework “designed to promote young children’s optimal learning and development.  DAP involves teachers meeting young children where they are (by stage of development), both as individuals and as part of a group; and helping each child meet challenging and achievable learning goals,” (para. 1-2).  DAP requires teachers to utilize research-based knowledge to understand about developmental milestones of the age group, knowledge of their individual students’ needs, and cultural values of their students and their families to gear their teaching toward the collective and individual needs of their students.  To learn more about differentiation, check out this website (Links to an external site.) .  If you would like to read more about developmentally appropriate practice, this position statement (Links to an external site.)  will provide you with informative background knowledge.  Collaborative Relationships Regardless of the setting in which you work, it will rarely be in isolation; therefore, this week you will begin to think about working in collaborative relationships.  The video on the following web page describes the power of the collaborative relationship, using Paul McCartney and John Lennon as an example: http://www.slate.com/articles/life/creative_pairs/2010/09/two_is_the_magic_number.html (Links to an external site.)

Within the video, Shenk and Jensen (2010) point out, “As a culture, we’re obsessed with the idea of the lone genius… and relationships have really been neglected.”  This is particularly true in education where teachers typically close their doors and work independently without much communication between teachers, across grade levels, or between departments.  However, studies have shown that this is detrimental to both students and teachers.  Leana (2011), who conducted numerous studies in school districts across the country, found “when the relationships among teachers in a school are characterized by high trust and frequent interaction—that is, when social capital is strong—student achievement scores improve,” (para. 14). Others studies have found similar outcomes, including better teacher retention.  Since communication and collaboration are skills that will benefit not only the students, but the teacher as well, they are important tenets that will run throughout all the discussions and assignments in this course. When people think about collaboration in schools, they probably envision students working together in groups.  For this course, we will not be focusing on the ways in which students collaborate, but rather how educators can collaborate in different settings and for different purposes.  As you are about to embark on a new learning journey, take some time to reflect on collaborative relationships that you had in the past. 

· What made them successful?  

· What characteristics were detrimental to the relationship?  

· What kind of work and effort did you have to put in to maintain the relationship?  

· Were you able to accomplish tasks that you could not have done on your own?  

· What would you change about your prior experiences to make your future collaborative relationships more effective?  

Keep your responses in mind as you learn more about collaboration over the next few weeks. One of the main skills involved in collaboration is communication.  This week and next, you will be asked to compose an email to Mr. Franklin, a general education teacher.  The way that you communicate through writing is very important and can be considered virtual body language, “You can tell a lot about someone from the way they chat, text, or email online. Attitude, humor, aggression, it's all detectable if you pay attention and know what cues to look for. It's called virtual body language and it's for real” (Tobak, 2011, para. 1).  The following article (Links to an external site.)  will be useful as you consider your voice and tone in your email response for your Week One and Week Two Assignment.  

Assessment Guidance

This section includes additional specific assistance for excelling in the assessments for Week One as a supplement to the instructions and grading rubrics. If you have questions about what is expected on any assessment for Week One, or any other week, contact your instructor using the Ask Your Instructor discussion before the due date. Discussion 1: Post Your Introduction The Post Your Introduction Discussion is your first opportunity to get to know your peers and your instructor.  In this introduction, you will not only be sharing about yourself and your interests, you will be reflecting on your career plans and developmentally appropriate practice (see Intellectual Elaboration above).  For your introduction, you are asked to incorporate technology.  You may choose any multimedia tool that you would like, such as Jing, Present.me, or Voicethread.  Here are some resources for Jing and Present.me in case you are in need of help.  Please contact your instructor if you have any issues completing the multimedia component of this discussion. 

Online Tutorials:

· How to create a narrated PowerPoint presentation using Jing (Links to an external site.)

· How to create a narrated PowerPoint presentation using Present.me (Links to an external site.)

Discussion 2: For this discussion, you will be exploring the different settings in which special educators work and the roles that they carry out in the settings.  Within the discussion prompt, you are asked to identify two settings to contrast.  Please see the Intellectual Elaboration section above for the figure that highlights the different settings.  This is also a great opportunity to refer to your textbook.  Cohen and Spenciner (2009) elaborate on this within the Environments Where Special Education Teachers Work section of Chapter One.  Within your analysis of the settings, you will also need to describe how the special educator will function in the settings and how this will affect their collaboration.  If you have not worked in the special education profession before, Cohen and Spenciner (2009) provide a fantastic snapshot about special education teachers working in different settings.  This is located in the same section of the textbook as mentioned previously (pages 28-29).  The final component of this discussion post requires you to describe differentiated and developmentally appropriate learning experiences as well as to provide examples of each.  Please refer back to the Intellectual Elaboration section for specific resources you may utilize to fulfill this particular component.   Assignment: The Week One assignment is an opportunity to take the knowledge that you have gained through the readings and discussion posts and put it into action.  You will be responding to an email from a familiar general education teacher, Mr. Franklin, about a lesson that you be teaching together.  You will be providing feedback about the lesson and offering strategies for ways to differentiate the lesson.  Some of the differentiation strategies within the lesson will be based on a familiar student, Manual, from previous courses in this program.  Please read over Manual’s Goals and Recommendations (see abbreviated Annual Goals below) to refresh your memory about his particular needs.  Manual’s Annual IEP Goals:

1. Ability to Recognize Letters From Their Name/Sounds (Content Strand: Decoding and Word Recognition)

· Manual will increase reading readiness skills in the area(s) of phonemics to 80% accuracy in core content academic activities as measured by running records, teacher observation, anecdotal records, and work samples.

2. Reading Fluency/ Accuracy of Pronunciation of Words/Letter Sounds (Content Strand: Reading Accuracy And Fluency)

· Manual will increase reading accuracy and fluency to his corresponding grade level to 80% accuracy in core content academic activities in 5/5 days as measured by teacher observation, running records, anecdotal records, and work samples.

3. Reading Comprehension (Content Strand: Reading Comprehension)

· Manual will increase comprehension of a variety of printed materials to grade level proficiency with 80% accuracy as measured by running records, teacher observation, teacher made tests, anecdotal data, and performance assessments.

4. Writing -- Sequencing/Story Construction (Content Strand: Writing)

· Manual will increase his writing skills to grade level in the areas of ideas and content, vocabulary usage, and organization as measured by curriculum based informal assessment, analysis of writing samples, and spelling inventory.

5. Attention to Task (Content Strand: Attention)

· Manual will increase his ability to focus his sustained attention to multiple types of individual and group academic tasks 80% of the time as measured by teacher observation.

6. Transition (Content Strand: Career Development)

· Manual will analyze, explore and identify his characteristics related to personal, educational and career planning with 4/5 opportunities as measured by the specified district informal career assessment tool.

7. Assistive Technology (Content Strand:  Career Preparedness/Assistive Technology)

· Manual will be able to operate his school issued lap top computer independently by turning it on, opening files, reading files, inputting data, and printing work with no assistance from an adult in 5/5 opportunities 90% of the time as measured by teacher observation.

You will also be practicing your communication and collaboration skills by offering feedback on the actual lesson.  In the prompt, the feedback sandwich method was mentioned.  

(image retrieved from: http://www.surveycrest.com/blog/dilemma-of-sandwich-approach-for-negative-feedback/)

With the feedback sandwich, both slices of bread are positive feedback and the fixings inside the sandwich are constructive feedback.  To carry out this method, you start by offering an overall positive statement.  You follow this up with a piece of constructive feedback.  Here are some tips to keep in mind when you are crafting your constructive feedback:

· If you can't think of a constructive purpose for giving feedback, don't give it at all.

· Focus on description rather than judgment.

· Focus on observation rather than inference.

· Focus on behavior rather than the person.

· Be aware of feedback overload.

(Priolo, 2012, n.p.)

After providing the constructive feedback, end with a statement of encouragement.  To see a specific example of the feedback sandwich, check out this link (Links to an external site.) .  The format of this paper will be a little different because you are composing an email in response to Mr. Franklin, rather than writing a traditional paper.  Keep in mind that since this is an email between two professionals, you need to ensure that it is formatted appropriately and utilizes suitable language.  The experts at the Writing Center strongly suggest the following website (Links to an external site.)  for tips on crafting a professional email.  

Looking Ahead

Within Week 2, you will be creating a set of interview questions to ask a practicing general education teacher and a special education teacher.  You will be conducting the interviews during Week Three and writing about the findings in Week 4.  You will conduct the interviews over the phone or in person.  Now would be a good time to start thinking about who you would like to interview.  If you do not have any connections to a school or teachers, here are some ideas:

· Inquire at your child’s school or your neighborhood school

· Email your local school board

· Check out the websites of local schools

· Network with local parents or friends

· Conduct a search on LinkedIn

· Start a conversation with peers in the Global Campus Café

Part of the challenge of this assignment is in the process of locating an interviewee. If this does not yield any results after multiple attempts, contact your instructor for help. Your instructor should not be your first contact and he/she will be interested in the methods that you have already exhausted before you seek his/her help.

Recommendation

The MASE program provides the opportunity for you to create an online portfolio that can be used in your career development and professional practice. Throughout the program you will have various assessments that can be included in this e-portfolio and these will be finalized in the last course of the MASE program, Capstone course, ESE699. You may select this assignment and subsequent coursework to include as artifacts. Therefore, it is strongly encouraged you save your coursework on a flash-drive (e.g., a USB removable drive) or store in a cloud-based option such as Dropbox, Google Drive, or other similar applications.

References

Cohen, L. G., & Spenciner, L. J. (2009).  Teaching students with mild and moderate disabilities: Research-based practices.  Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. 

Leana, C. R. (2011).  The missing link in school reform (Links to an external site.) .  Retrieved from http://ssir.org/articles/entry/the_missing_link_in_school_reform/

National Association for the Education of Young Children (n.d.).  Developmentally appropriate practice (Links to an external site.) .  Retrieved from http://www.naeyc.org/DAP

Priolo, D. (2012).  Six strategies for giving constructive feedback (Links to an external site.) .  Retrieved from http://info.profilesinternational.com/profiles-employee-assessment-blog/bid/102411/6-Strategies-in-Giving-Constructive-Feedback

Shenk, J. W. (Host), & Jensen, T. (Producer) (2010).   Creative pairs: Lennon and McCartney (Links to an external site.)  [Video file].  Retrieved from http://www.slate.com/articles/life/creative_pairs/2010/09/two_is_the_magic_number.single.html

Tobak, S. (2011). How to read virtual body language in email (Links to an external site.) .  Retrieved from http://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-to-read-virtual-body-language-in-email/

Yu, C. (2014, September 26).  10 examples & non-examples of differentiated instruction (Links to an external site.) .  Te@chthought.  Retrieved from http://www.teachthought.com/teaching/what-is-differentiated-instruction/