COURSE REQUIREMENTS

This is a total distance delivery coursethat will not have any face-to-face meetings on campus.

Student responsibility calls for:

1. reading the text, reserve material, and professor's PowerPoint files according to the schedule;

2. participation in small group work on the WebBoard;

3. participation in the first three required group online office hours;

4. completion of individual assignments;

5. completion of one book review;

6. completion of a research paper;

7. viewing PBS broadcast for class and completing activity;

8. completion of final exam.

Scroll down to see the details of each assignment or click a link to go directly to a specific assignment.

Research Report

This will be a 10-20 page report with a minimum of 10 references (not including our textbook) in which you provide a graduate quality research report on a topic in the area of School Leadership. The report should include an introduction in which your topic and any issues or questions you are investigating are stated. The paper should also include a review of related literature and research on the topic. The final section should include your conclusions based on the information you obtained in your research. Please refer to the handouts provided to you for APA formatting and Writing a Research Paper.

Choosing a topic: Your topic must be about the job of being a school leader. This is not a curriculum class, so don't choose a curriculum topic; although your topic can be about being an instructional leader. Look through the topics in the textbook and the class schedule. If you aren't sure if your topic is appropriate for this class, please get your topic approved by your professor.

The use of a Peer Writing Coach to review and edit your paper at least once is required prior to turning it in. Peer Coach forms are available online as well as the grading rubric. You are required to turn in all drafts of the report, the Peer Coach forms, and your peer coach's scoring rubric. Your peer coach must be a class member. If you do not know anyone in the class to ask, please let your professor know and he will find you a peer coach.

WRITING STYLE FOR RESEARCH PAPER AND BOOK REVIEW: Use a 12-point font, such as Arial, Times, or Bookman. All papers should be typed with 1 and 1/2 spacing or double line spacing, page numbers at the top right, and adequate margins.Referencing within text and at end of papers (as well as other writing style questions) should use the APA format of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. There are APA online resources available on the Educational Leadership website.

Book Review

Select one book to read during the term from the reading list attached to the syllabus, or another book by the same authors (get approval first). When you have completed a book, write a 5 to 10 page review. The review will consist of two parts. The first part will be a summary of the main contents of the book. The second part will discuss the application of the information to educational leadership and schools. This last section will also include a critique of the book that discusses whether the book is helpful to educators and why you think so. Both parts are equally important and should be of equal length approximately. They may be mixed together, but if so, the application information should be obvious to the reader. Each section should be given equal weight in your review. A review that omits either part will receive a grade no higher than a “C”.

Writing style requirements are the same as for the Research Report above.

Participation and Attendance

Some of the learning in this class will take place in cooperative groups settings; therefore, group participation on the WebBoard is critical. Alack of participation in group work will result in a reduction of 10 points per activity.

In addition, you are required to participate in the first three group online office hours. You access this through the WebBoard and then click on "chat" at 6pm on Wednesday evenings. During the online office hours, students are free to ask clarifying questions about the assignments, textbook, and PowerPoint presentations. We should be able to generate some lively discussions online. Office hours will be held until 7pm each Wednesday.

Reading

Reading assignments for each class must be completed for successful contributions to group activities. Students must be prepared for group work. The class schedule below is a tentative schedule of reading assignments from the textbook. This plan will be modified as needed.

PowerPoint Presentations

Reading the PowerPoint slide presentations will help prepare you to understand those concepts in the textbook that I consider the most important. I summarize these for you. In addition, some PowerPoint presentations present additional information not included in the textbook or readings.

Small Group Work

For some of the textbook chapters, small group work will be assigned. This group work will be completed on the class WebBoard. You will need your student identification number given to you during registration to access the WebBoard. At the beginning of the semester, I will assign each of you to a group.

For each activity, I will assign a different leader for each group. The leader's responsibility is to insure that each person becomes actively engaged in the learning process, that the group completes its assignment on time, and that the group's conclusion to the activity is written in a clearly presented report. This report will be posted for all other groups to review and then ask questions about or comment upon.

I prefer to see a discussion on the WebBoard so I can see everyone's contribution and participation. However, if you have a chat or met in person about the problem/activity, I will accept the leader's posting of the group summary response. However, in this regard, I want the leader to tell me more detail about the answer--I want to hear all of the group's contributions, even listing names of group members where possible. So, if you only have the leader(s) respond, I will expect more from the leader than if the discussion is posted individually by each member of the group. It is the leader's responsibility to be sure that everyone has participated and the professor is informed either through email or posting to the WebBoard how the group arrived at its consensus.

Exam

The only exam in the course will be a take home final. It will be distributed Nov. 24.