Changing a School District to a Learning Organization

/in /by

 Question:

Assignment 1: Reform Proposal – Changing a School District to a Learning Organization

Due Week 4 and worth 180 points

Students, parents, teachers, principals, central office staff, superintendents, and school board members all play important roles in school systems. Use the Internet to research a school district in your area and use the information you locate to complete this assignment. Imagine that you are a teacher leader and you have been asked to supply ideas to the selected school district to help it transform into a learning organization with more effective leadership practices. You will research one reform policy to assist in changing your district into learning organization. Write a proposal to change your district into learning organization.

Write a four to six (4-6) page paper in which you:

  1. Briefly (one (1) paragraph) describe the size and setting of the school district. Propose a new model in your reformed school. Describe the model and the reformed school into a learning organization.
  2. Evaluate the relationship of the selected policy to historical and traditional methods of adopting school reform policies. How could you change or modify this policy to assist in creating a learning organization?
  3. Propose and describe three or four best practices of effective leadership in the learning organization.
  4. Propose the modifications that you would like to make to the existing school reform policy. Determine three (3) ways to implement the desired changes and lead the change of the policy.
  5. Provide one (1) suggestion that will help to transition the each of the following stakeholders (all 7 below) from their current role to their role in a learning organization.Then pick 5 of the 7 stakeholders to discuss how each stakeholder supports the transition from a traditional bureaucratic model to a learning organization.Describe the Learning Organization and Model’s impact on students and staff.Then describe how the school would work for students and staff using the proposed model.
  6. Students
  7. Parents
  8. Teachers
  9. Principals
  10. Central office staff
  11. Superintendent
  12. School board
  13. Describe the Learning Organization and Model’s impact on students and staff. Then describe how the school would work for students and staff using the proposed model.
  14. Include at least three (3) references with (1) of these needs to be from a peer reviewed journal. Note: Make sure references are no more than five (5) years old from material outside the textbook.

Complete this chart. Make sure all your activities support each other and align with the anchor standard. See below for guidance/prompts

/in /by

Week 5 – Final Project

Summative Assessment – Balanced Literacy Plan

Summative Assessment – Balanced Literacy Lesson Plan

As you found in Week Four, there are many variations of balanced literacy. The main consistencies are that balanced literacy includes reading, writing, listening, and speaking. In addition, the main blocks of balanced literacy are known as Read-Aloud/Shared Reading, Guided Reading, Word Study, and Independent Reading.

  1. For your final assignment, you will create a balanced literacy lesson plan for grades pre-K to third. In a 10- to 12-page paper (not including title and reference pages) written in APA style, include the following components: Grade Level (pick a grade from pre-K to third)
  2. Anchor Standard
  3. Text—include author/illustrator, title, brief summary
  4. Complete this chart. Make sure all your activities support each other and align with the anchor standard. See below for guidance/prompts.

Balanced Literacy Block

Your Example

Read-Aloud/Shared Reading

Word Study

Guided Reading

Independent Reading

  1. Explain how reading, writing, listening, and speaking are promoted in your lesson plan. (All four should be featured in each block.)
  2. Describe how your activities support the anchor standard.
  3. Describe your assessments. How do these assessments evaluate students’ reading skills and/or progress?
  4. Discuss the benefits of teaching from a balanced literacy approach.

Below are some prompts to help you plan your balanced literacy blocks:

Balanced Literacy Block

Guidance—Do not include this column in your chart

Read-Aloud/Shared Reading (30 minutes)

Revise your Week Four, Discussion 1 assignment.

In this block, the teacher activates prior knowledge and interactively reads aloud a piece of quality writing to the whole class. The teacher will stop at planned points to ask a variety of questions that elicit student response. Following the teacher’s modeling and prompting, students learn to think deeply about text, to listen to others, and to develop their own ideas. This block is not meant for students to just listen to the teacher reading aloud; it is designed for students to interact with the teacher and learn how to think about text from the teacher. The teacher uses this time to explicitly model reading strategies and skills that the students need to learn. For younger readers, you might want to read from a “big book” that has large print and pictures. Logistically, you could also use the document camera to show the book pages on the big screen. Traditionally, teachers have read on the carpet as well. You need to somehow arrange it so students can see your text.

Describe or show via video how you will read aloud the text and how you will model questioning and thinking strategies. Be very specific about listing the questions you will ask and at which points in the book or text you will ask the questions or model the critical thinking. Indicate page numbers, etc.

Write this out so that a substitute teacher can implement your lesson plans.

Word Study(10 minutes)

Revise your Week Four, Discussion 2 assignment.

In this block, the teacher works with the whole class to develop word study or vocabulary skills. Word study is the study of our alphabetic symbol system. This includes mini-lessons that address one of more of the following: phonics (letter/sound relationships), morphemic analysis (using word parts to denote meaning), and automaticity for sight words. Word study involves both the decoding (reading) and encoding (phonics and spelling) of our symbol system; the objectives of word study are to help students make meaning from an author’s message and to help them convey meaning in their own messages.

Describe one word study activity that supports your Read-Aloud and that can be implemented to the whole class. How would you present this to your whole class? How will you facilitate the students’ learning and make sure they are all engaged and challenged?

Write this out so that a substitute teacher can implement your lesson plans.

Guided Reading (40 minutes; you will meet with each group for 10-20 minutes)

Revise your Week Four Written Assignment.

Guided reading groups are also known as strategy groups. In this block, the teacher meets with a small group of students who read at the same reading level. The teacher works on specific strategies or skills. Each student has a copy of the text, which can be a basal, passage, or trade book. The teacher uses this time to explicitly model and practice.

Create a guided reading lesson plan for one of the following reading level groups: Far Below Grade Level Reading Expectations, Below Grade Level Reading Expectations, At Grade Level Reading Expectations, Above Grade Level Reading Expectations, or Far Above Grade Level Reading Expectations. Your guided reading lesson plan must include the following components: group level, text, objectives, phonics skills or word study, pre-reading, new vocabulary, during-reading, after reading, and writing connection.

Write this out so that a substitute teacher can implement your lesson plans.

Independent Reading

Review your work for Week Five, Discussion 2.

In this block, the teacher sets up routines for students to engage in independent reading. There may be time for SSR or DEAR, but for the most part, teachers are conducting guided reading group lessons while students are independently reading and/or participating in literacy centers. Independent reading is a time when students read text (either self-selected or teacher recommended) at their independent reading level to practice reading strategies and/or develop fluency and automaticity. This is not free reading; it is purposeful reading. Teachers may also confer with individual students at this time for brief reading conferences. Teachers also have students respond to the text in meaningful ways through writing, sketching, etc.

Describe how you will accommodate independent reading. Be specific about routines, student expectations, teacher expectations, texts, etc. Include a description of your classroom library.

Write this out so that a substitute teacher can implement your lesson plans.

Source: Adapted from: http://www.methuen.k12.ma.us/images/ELA_Mapping/Balanced Literacy Model.pdf (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Note: As you have noticed, this final assignment pulls various tasks from the course. You may use your previous assignments from this course, but make sure to revise appropriately to ensure alignment and flow. You need to make sure that you include reading, writing, listening, and speaking in each block. You also need to make sure that all your activities in each block support the anchor standard and, that together, all the activities make sense. Include all instructional materials, including handouts, word cards, manipulatives, etc. Be as detailed and specific as possible. You want to include scripts and procedures. Pretend that you are writing lesson plans for a substitute teacher.

Analyze how attachment experiences might affect the psychosocial, cognitive and physical development of children and adolescents.

/in /by

Week 1 – Discussion

week one discussion 1.

Your initial discussion thread is due on Day 3 (Thursday) and you have until Day 7 (Monday) to respond to your classmates. Your grade will reflect both the quality of your initial post and the depth of your responses. Refer to the Discussion Forum Grading Rubric under the Settings icon above for guidance on how your discussion will be evaluated.

Infant Attachment

Prior to completing this discussion, please read chapter 13 in the textbook and watch the two required videos: John Bowlby: Attachment theory across generations: Elements of attachment Theory and Mary Ainsworth: Attachment and the growth of love: Patterns of attachment and the strange situation: Results

Research has shown that early attachment can have far reaching effects on development.  The works of Bowlby and Ainsworth have illustrated the importance of early experiences with caregivers to healthy development. Your original post must be a minimum of 300 words and cite the three required sources listed above. In this discussion, address the following:

  • In your own words briefly describe the four stages of attachment identified by Bowlby and the four types of attachment identified by Ainsworth.
  • Analyze how attachment experiences might affect the psychosocial, cognitive and physical development of children and adolescents.
    • What are the possible long term effects of poor attachment experiences in each of these developmental domains?
    • How do positive attachment experiences promote healthy development?

Guided Response: Respond to at least two peers. Choose posts that present different ideas than yours.  In your responses, consider and comment about how their ideas about the effects of attachment coincide with Bowlby and Ainsworth’s theories. Continue to monitor this discussion through 5:00 p.m. (Mountain Time) on Day 7 of this week.

Assignment week one

The Role Of School Board Leadership

/in /by

Use the following video to complete this activity

This video is specifically about the Commonwealth Public Schools.  However, you will probably find the role of school boards in that state are not much different from those in any other state.

Link(s):   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhjkLZdDHpE&app=desktop

  1. What did you learn about what our school board members do that you did not know before?
  2. If you could appoint your own school board as a school executive, what type of personalities would you like to put together to make up the board?
  3. Why did you choose these particular traits?

Your initial responses are due by 11:55 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday and should be between 200-250 words. The initial posting should be a statement of your point of view on the question, supported by the required readings.

principles of life describes a fundamental requirement for the growth of an organism:

/in /by

BIOL 101 QUIZ 1

· Question 1 

1.6 out of 1.6 points

Body systems work with each other   in highly related ways. They perform functions that no one system could do   alone.  Which “Principle of Life” summarizes these facts?

Selected Answer:

· Question 2 

0 out of 1.6 points

Which of the following principles   of life describes a fundamental requirement for the growth of an organism:

Selected Answer:

· Question 3 

0 out of 1.6 points

Plants and Animals are examples of   major groups or organisms within a

Selected Answer:

· Question 4 

1.6 out of 1.6 points

Which of the following is not a   major group of organisms within a six-Kingdom classification system?

Selected Answer:

· Question 5 

0 out of 1.6 points

Which of the following principles   of life describes a fundamental requirement for the growth of an organism:

Selected Answer:

Limited opportunities for recreation and leisure

/in /by

Choose three parental challenges to address at a Parent Information Night from the list below.

  • Financial issues
  • Limited opportunities for recreation and leisure
  • Sibling issues
  • Constant care and supervision of a child with a disability
  • Increased potential for marital problems
  • Logistical issues such as transportation
  • Difficulty getting time away from job
  • Frequent disability-related crises
  • Health issues of family, other members
  • Difficulties obtaining appropriate educational services

Design a 10-15 slide electronic presentation (e.g., PowerPoint, Prezi or other presentation software) that describes each challenge and include potential solutions, strategies, and resources that could help parents facing such a challenge. Include presenter’s notes, a title slide, reference slide, and in-text citations within your presentation.

Support your findings with a minimum of three scholarly resources.

While APA format is not required for the body of this assignment, solid academic writing is expected, and in-text citations and references should be presented using APA documentation guidelines, which can be found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

Standard And Learning Objective

/in /by

This assignment is part of the larger benchmark assignment that will be due in Topic 6. In this topic you will complete the “Unwrapping the Standards” Template which contains some of the planning elements within a lesson plan.

Complete the “Unwrapping the Standards” template by including:

  1. A grade level (1-8) of students based on the strengths and diverse backgrounds of the students in the “Class Profile.”
  2. A standard from the Reading Standards for Informational Text strand from the Arizona English Language Arts (ELA) Standards, Common Core, or the ELA equivalent from your state.
  3. Your learning objective (refer to your textbook for guidance on writing objectives).
  4. An informational text from Appendix B: Text Exemplars and Sample Performance Tasks. Check the table of contents for suggested informational texts for the grade level of your choice. Choose an informational text that you have access to or can obtain from your local library.
  5. A few sentences that briefly summarize your lesson and its central focus.
  6. A list of instructional materials, equipment, and technology to be utilized for this lesson.

GCU format is not required, but solid academic writing is expected.

This assignment uses a rubric. Review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

Concert performer(s) and program content, including title and composer as performed in sequence (10%)

/in /by

Include the following:

1) Concert performer(s) and program content, including title and composer as performed in sequence (10%)

(2) Details of the performance venue, including venue, arrangement of musicians and instruments, descriptions of instruments,and audience responses (20%)

(3) Musical elements for each of the four movements (listed below) following the “Guide to Writing a Concert Report” – use time marks (00:00) as a reference in the narrative (70%)

1) Concert performer(s) and program content, including title and composer as performed in sequence (10%)

(2) Details of the performance venue, including venue, arrangement of musicians and instruments, descriptions of instruments,and audience responses (20%)

(3) Musical elements for each of the four movements (listed below) following the “Guide to Writing a Concert Report” – use time marks (00:00) as a reference in the narrative (70%)

  • Show that you’ve learned something in this course. Use your newly developed musical vocabulary. Don’t say, for example, “The instruments moved the melody around.” Rather, say specifically, “The violins convincingly effected a modulation of the theme through different keys from 0:45-1:24.” (Which keys doesn’t matter; you’d have to have perfect pitch to know that, and only 1 person in 10,000 has perfect pitch.)
  • Use correct vocabulary. Please don’t call an overture or a set of instrumental variations a “song.” This will drive your instructor berserk. It is a piece, composition, work, oeuvre, symphonic movement, and so on. Unless there is a text and your piece is sung, it is not a song.

800 word count minimum

How your self-assessment supports your professional dispositions statement.

/in /by

Complete the “Professional Dispositions Assessment” to inform your “Professional Dispositions Statement.”

In 250-500 words, write a reflection that addresses the following:

  • Your personal professional disposition statement.
  • How your self-assessment supports your professional dispositions statement.
  • Reflects on how you have grown in your professional dispositions throughout your Program of Study, supported by specific examples.
  • Steps you will take to improve where necessary.

Describe significant differences and similarities in how the branches of Islam (Sunni, Shiite, and Sufi) practice their traditions.

/in /by

Write a 700- to 1,050-word summary that includes the following:

  • Brief summary of the history of Islam
  • Explain the importance of these elements for Muslims:
  • Qur’an
  • Five Pillars
  • Ramadan
  • General Islamic Ethics
  • Describe significant differences and similarities in how the branches of Islam (Sunni, Shiite, and Sufi) practice their traditions.

 

The paper links   theory to relevant examples of current experience and industry practice and   uses the vocabulary of the theory correctly.

 

Major points are   stated clearly and are supported by specific details, examples, or analysis.