|
COURSE LINKS
Home Page
Syllabus
Calendar
Assignments
Oncourse
|
INDEX OF
PAGE CONTENTS
You will be required to submit a proposal for this project
following these guidelines.
Your proposal should be submitted on or before its due date (see
the L517 calendar) and should be approved by your instructor before you
proceed with your research. Submitting a late proposal will result in a 1/2
letter grade deduction from your final paper grade. Failing to submit a proposal
will result in a full letter grade deduction from your final paper grade.
For this assignment you will review the professional
literature on a topic that is of particular interest to you, and that is
related to literacy and teaching or learning at the secondary school
level. The audience for your paper is other pre-service and in-service
teachers who want to learn more about the topic, as well as how to make positive
changes in their classrooms that are related to the topic. (Your paper can be
written for all content area pre-/in-service secondary school teachers, or it
can be written for pre-/-in-service secondary school teachers of a specific
content area.) Your paper should include the following information,
according to the professional literature that you reviewed:
 |
Background information about the topic. Here you will describe
the topic and define any terms that might be misinterpreted or confusing
to your audience. Present the issues related to the topic, and if
appropriate, the history of the topic. Also, if according to the
professional literature there are conflicting viewpoints about the
topic, present those here. Your paper should present a balanced picture
of the topic. (Keep in mind that this is not an opinion paper.
Your opinion about the topic or issues related to the topic should
not be introduced in the paper. This should simply be a review of
the professional literature.)
|
|
|
Concrete, instructional practices or strategies related to the topic.
After introducing the topic to your audience in the first part of your
paper, the second part of your paper should include practical classroom
strategies that teachers/students can use that are directly related to
your topic. Include ideas from published sources that content-area
teachers can easily incorporate into their classrooms.
These ideas should come from published sources. |
Roughly half to two-thirds of your paper should be devoted to
a discussion of the topic, and the other one-third to one-half should be devoted to providing
teachers with suggestions for concrete practices and strategies related to the
topic.
Following are specific requirements for this research paper.
Content
Your
paper should:
Format and Style
Your paper should:
|
|
Be approximately
8 to 10 double-spaced pages in length, not including your bibliography.
|
|
|
Include a bibliography of references following a well-accepted
bibliographic style. Examples include MLA or APA style.
|
|
|
Site sources within the text following a well-accepted citation style.
Examples include MLA or APA style.
|
|
|
Have a clear organization.
|
|
|
Have smooth transitions.
|
|
|
Be written using correct grammar.
|
|
|
Include no spelling errors.
|
Each
of the following areas will be graded on a 4-point scale (3=excellent; 2=good;
1=fair; 0=poor). Your final score will be out of 21 points.
|
|
Introduction: Writing
 |
Includes a logical and clear
organization of ideas from beginning to end. |
|
|
Includes appropriate transitions from
one idea to the next. |
|
|
If the introduction includes more than
one paragraph, there are appropriate transitions from one paragraph to
the next. |
|
|
Each paragraph focuses on one subject. |
|
|
Grammar, punctuation, and spelling are
correct. |
|
|
|
Introduction: Content
|
|
The focus/intent of the paper is
clearly expressed. |
|
|
The focus/intent is logical and
appropriate for the audience. |
|
|
The focus/intent is clearly related to
secondary school literacy. |
|
|
An overview of what the reader can
expect to learn about in the rest of the paper is provided. |
|
|
No personal opinions of the author are
expressed. |
|
|
|
Background information: Writing
|
|
Includes a logical and clear organization
of ideas from beginning to end. |
|
|
Includes appropriate transitions from one
idea to the next, and from one paragraph to the next. |
|
|
Each paragraph focuses on one subject. |
|
|
Grammar, punctuation, and spelling are
correct. |
|
|
|
Background information: Content
|
|
Ideas are clearly developed. |
|
|
Any unclear or ambiguous terms are
defined. |
|
|
It is clear what all information has to do
with the overarching topic, and the inclusions of all information seems
logical given the audience and intent of your paper. |
|
|
All major issues/well-known viewpoints are
presented. |
|
|
No personal opinions of the author are
expressed. |
|
|
|
Instructional practices/strategies: Writing
|
|
Includes a logical and clear organization
of ideas from beginning to end. |
|
|
Includes appropriate transitions from one
idea to the next, and from one paragraph to the next. |
|
|
Each paragraph focuses on one subject. |
|
|
Grammar, punctuation, and spelling are
correct. |
|
|
|
Instructional practices/strategies: Content
|
|
All practices/strategies are explained
with enough detail that a teacher could incorporate them into his/her
classroom without needing to do more research of his/her own. |
|
|
It is clear how all strategies/practices
are related to the overarching topic, and the inclusions of all
strategies/practices seems logical given the audience and intent of your
paper. |
|
|
|
Parenthetical notations/Bibliography
|
|
It is clear from the parenthetical
notations to whom all ideas expressed in the are attributed. |
|
|
Parenthetical notations and bibliography
follow a well-accepted style, such as APA or MLA. |
|
|
At least 8 professional, published sources
are referred to in the paper and appear in the bibliography.
(Professional, published sources include published books, doctoral
dissertations, and peer-reviewed journal articles. If you are using
information from another source as one of the required 8 and you are not
certain it is from an acceptable source, please e-mail your instructor.) |
|
|