EDC 680 Mid-Lvl Ed:Curric,Instr,Assess

Middle Level Education: Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment links various theoretical considerations with middle school practices. Participants will consider research-based practices, reform movements, New York State standards and assessments, and reports from national professional organizations. Participants will engage in the development of goals and instructional objectives, I.E.P's, lesson plans, and unit alignment with the state standards and assessments. The course is based on a four-corner framework for quality teaching. Participants will examine how to set the appropriate climate, teach the content, facilitate interactions and foster reflection in the middle school classroom. Middle level education elements include core-teaching teams, team teaching, interdisciplinary curriculum, student clusters and flexible scheduling will be explored. Using brain-based instruction as the basis for powerful learning, processes for making data-driven instructional decisions and for designing curriculum to address the standards are at the forefront of this course. In addition, emphasis is given to the three critical instructional strategies: cooperative group instruction, a multiple intelligences approach and higher order thinking. Woven throughout the course content is the concept of differentiating instruction and the assessment of individual learners. (3 credits)