Background Information 

Welcome again! Students enrolled in the Graduate Childhood Education Program seeking initial New York State Certification in Childhood Education (grades 1-6).  You are a candidate in either Sequence 3 (monolingual experience) or Sequence 4 (bilingual extension).  Within both Sequences, students will be enrolled in 39 credits for either 2-or 3 years, depending on your Plan of Study.  You will take four foundations courses, EDE 721 (Child Development and Assessment); EDE 722 (Program Design in Child Development); EDE 707 ( The Childhood Student with Disabilities), and EDE 709 (Multilingualism in the Classroom).  In particular, we will discuss EDE 721- Childhood Education and Assessment.

I have taught this course before in different semesters with multiple sessions including anywhere from six to 26 students enrolled.  According to to course bulletin, the objectives of this course is as follows:

Study of the integrated factors affecting children’s physical, social, emotional, cognitive, language, and aesthetic development. Exposure to dominant theories of child development and learning through multiple technologies. Informal assessment of how children differ in their development and conditions that affect children’s development, including risk factors, patterns of specific disabilities, cultural and linguistic diversity, and sociocultural and political contexts. Observations in childhood settings with diverse populations, action research, and the development of an academic portfolio. Ten hours of fieldwork required.

We will learn about the development of children observed in real classrooms as well as your own childhood development.  In particular, we’ll engage in collaborative classroom discussion and artifacts around a comparative study of your childhood development versus your observed students’ development.  Additionally, we will analyze childhood development based on the theories and research of prominent theories in childhood development such as Vygotsky and Freud.

The Argument and Evidence

Writing is incorporated throughout this course.  You will write weekly reflections based on your observations of your child of study who will either be in their school, home or community (i.e., library or playground).  In addition, you will be responsible for writing weekly postings on the Discussion Board via Blackboard; discussing topics from the text or research publishings read throughout the week.

The last writing assignment will constitute a formal presentation and a formal paper using formal APA guidelines.  Don’t worry, throughout the course I will teach you the highlighted topics of APA style of writing. In the beginning of the semester you will have a lot of edits, instructional guidance, and revisions to conform to the APA style of writing.  But, trust me, by the end of the semester you will all know APA and will be able to write formal papers in all your courses proceeding this one.

When and how the writing was evaluated?  I will not evaluate your writing too heavily at the onset of the semester.  After instruction on APA and lectures from Lehman’s research librarian, I will expect all your writing after this to follow the APA guidelines.  You will be graded on adherence to the rules of formal writing.  But, do worry I will not grade your heavily on this concept.  I’m talking about not losing no more than 5 points for APA errors.  The main portion of your grading will be based on your understanding of theory its relation to child development.

Concluding Thoughts 

Currently, I teach the student teaching seminar practicum for seniors.  This course supports student teachers complete their edTPA assessment for part of the NYS teacher certification.  I hope to teach EDE 721-Child Development in the future.

If or when I teach this course again, I would continue to develop this course with meaningful writing assignments.  These assignments will only assist you all with taking your teacher certification exams, working with students and differentiation instructions for students with disables, students who are multilingual learners, or students who are gifted and talented.

What shifted me pedagogically was becoming the Site Coordinator of the new Lehman Intensive  Educator (LIEP) Program.  As Site Coordinator I supervise mentor teachers in the NYC DOE, clinical faculty at Lehman and work collaboratively with the Deans in the School of Eduction in transforming the current field experiences in student teaching.  In my new role, I must demonstrate writing as the number one measure of teacher effectiveness.  The edTPA assessment is based on how well the teacher candidate writes their teaching accomplishments and criteria for certification.

My understanding of writing shifted after my enrollment in the WAC program.  While in WAC, I learned writing strategies of low and high stake standards.  Additionally, I learned that keeping my students on the writing path will enable them to be better test takers and more effective teachers in all the main subject; because all the subjects (including math) require some type of writing process.

What would I recommend for others in my department of ECCE is that, at minimum, all the foundation course implement low and high stakes writing projects in their courses.  Since starting my professorship at Lehman, I have found that many students lack prominent writing skills.  When students are enrolled in graduate school And, too often these skills are not addressed in foundation courses

WAC has changed my approach to my own writing and research.  Now, I know how important writing is for both faculty and students.  Now, I know how intriguing writing can be, how productive writing can be and how receptive writing can be. Writing encourages thinking and learning, motivates communication, and makes thought available for self-reflection.