Advanced Techniques for Teaching Secondary Content
Spring 2009
Instructor:
Rozanne Sparks
Office Hours:
By appointment, as needed. This course is essentially an on-line course, although your content advisor will visit
and other means of submitting assignments may be utilized.
Course
Description:
Instructional
Resources:
Course Goals
and Objectives:
Phone: 620-235-4488
This course is designed to provide an introduction to the methodology, curriculum, and current
research in selected content areas for secondary classroom teachers.
* Differentiating Instruction in the Regular Classroom: How to Reach and Teach All
Learners, Grades 3-12 by Diane Heacox;
* National professional organization;
* State Curriculum documents including curricular standards available from KSDE
(http://www.ksde.org/);
* Internet resources;
Upon completion of this course, the student should be able to:
 Identify content specific standards for his/her assigned content area.
 Locate and utilize a variety of content specific resources.
 Utilize a variety of delivery strategies to maximize student success.
Method of
Evaluation
Projects:
The student will be assigned individual projects, which may include, but not necessarily be limited to, those in the
following list.
1) Article Review: A review of three (3) articles – one of general education content and two specific to the
content area being taught.
2) Teaching Unit: A unit plan that will be taught and which includes Bloom’s Taxonomy and reflective discussion
in the unit.
3) Internet Project: Due to the wealth of intern-based resources for classroom teachers, you will review three
different sites you can use in your teaching.
4) Textbook Assignments: One or more projects based upon the textbook for this course will be expected.
5) Standards Project: Students will be expected to examine and analyze the professional organization’s national
and state (KS or MO) curricular standards.
Assignments listed on the next page are required for successful completion of this class. You may complete them
in any order that works best for you. Please submit each assignment as it is completed.
ASSIGNMENT 1:
Article Reviews:



Read and Analyze a minimum of three (3) articles during the semester – 1 of general education content and
2 specific to your content area (Biology/Science, History, etc.)
The publication of these articles should NOT predate January 1, 2000.
The summary/analysis should be a minimum of two (2) pages in length, double-spaced (1-inch margins,
maximum).
ASSIGNMENT 2:
Teaching Unit:
The major project for this course is a teaching unit that you design in conjunction with your class’ curriculum
objectives. This unit should consist of a minimum of three consecutive lesson plans. A part of this unit will be a
reflective component about its success within your classroom and what remediation techniques you would
employ for struggling students.
Unit plan format and Bloom Taxonomy documents are attached.
ASSIGNMENT 3:
Internet Project:
You are to do an in-depth analysis/critique of three (3) Internet sites. Select links related to your content area.
Your analysis/critique consists of completing the website checklist (attached), which also has a narrative
component located at the end.
ASSIGNMENT 4:
Textbook Assignments: The Tiered Assignment (#1) is required. You have the option of doing the second
assignment or selecting another lesson format from the text.
1.
Tiered Assignments: Chapter 6 (on page 91 in the textbook) describes “Tiered Assignments”. Please use on
of the tiering methods described in this chapter to design an assignment for your class. Please write the
lesson as if you were actually going to use it in you class at some time (you could include this in your Unit
Plan Assignment). Following are instructions:
 In the lesson, you should tier the activities for at least 3 different levels of students. You should make it
clear in the title or the introduction what type of tiered structure you are using. For example, is it tiered by
complexity, by resources, by outcome, etc.
 You can find an example of how to write out this lesson on page 92 in the inset titled “Tiered Activity”.
You should also write out individual instructions for the students just as the textbook has modeled in the
worksheets for the different groups on page 97.
 Lastly, be sure to read about “making Tiering Invisible” on pages 98-100. Invisibility of the tiers is an
important part of keeping up good morale in the classroom, Please include a paragraph that explains how
you have attempted to make your tiering scheme invisible.
2.
Select one of your classes to complete the Interest Inventory (pages 29-31) and Projects, Presentations,
Performances (pages 34-35). Send the Multiple Intelligence Checklist (pages 38-39) along with the Parent
letter (page 42) to the parents of the students that completed the Interest Inventory and Projects, etc. sheets.
(NOTE: Since you will not be teaching a class for which you can collect the information for this project, look
through the instructions and then develop responses you would possibly get if you actually had student data)
Once you have collected all inventories and calculated the results, write a summary paper of what you
learned about the students, how you can use this information in planning learning experiences for the class,
responses from parents (positive or negative responses), and your personal belief about how important it is
for you, as the teacher, to know all the information you have gathered.
ASSESSMENT 5:
Standards Project:
This project requires you to examine and analyze the professional organization’s national and state (KS or MO)
curricular standards. After reviewing the standards, write a summary (1) describing how you use (or will use) the
standards in your teaching; (2) how using standards helps you evaluate student performance; and, (3) whether or
not you believe it is possible for students to master all of the standards and, if they can, how does this benefit the
students.
Contact:
Dr. Rozanne Sparks
110 Hughes Hall
Pittsburg State University
Pittsburg, KS 66762
Email: rsparks@pittstate.edu
Work Phone: 620-235-4488
Home Phone: 620-232-6762
Fax: 620-235-4421