ECE 440
Fall 2001

Instructor: Mellisa A. Clawson, Ph.D.
Office Location: 201A Franklin Hall
E-mail: mellisa.clawson {at} maine(.)edu
Class Meetings: Wednesdays 2:00 4:30 p.m.
Office Hours:Tuesdays 1:00 2:30, Wednesdays 11:00 12:30, Thursdays 1:00 3:00

Required Texts

Diffily, D., & K. Morrison (Eds). (1996). Family-friendly communication for early childhood programs. Washington D.C.: NAEYC.

Polakow, V. (1993). Lives on the edge: Single mothers and their children in the other America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Powell, D. R. (1989). Families and early childhood programs. Research Monographs of the National Association for the Education of Young Children, Vol. 3. Washington D.C.: NAEYC.

Articles (will be made available in class)

Course Overview:
The purpose of this course is to familiarize students with the relationships between families and early childhood settings/schools. Students will learn about historical and contemporary views of families and the wide diversity characterizing today s families. Students will examine the choices of early childhood education available to families based on ecological variables, such as culture and socioeconomic status. Students also will become familiar with different models of parent-school partnerships. Effective communication with families will be emphasized throughout the course, and students will have several have the opportunity to apply their learning through a service learning project.

UMF Standards for Initial Teacher Certification:
This course is intended to facilitate students achievement of the following UMF Standards for Initial Teacher Certification:

1. The beginning teacher demonstrates knowledge of the diverse ways in which students learn and develop by providing learning opportunities that support their intellectual, physical, emotional, social, and cultural development.
2. The beginning teacher plans instruction based upon knowledge of subject matter, students, curriculum goals, and learning and developmental theory.
3. The beginning teacher uses a variety of instructional strategies and appropriate technology to meet students needs.
4. The beginning teacher creates and maintains a classroom environment which supports and encourages learning.
5. The beginning teacher demonstrates the ability to support students learning and well-being by engaging students, home, school, colleagues, and community.
6. The beginning teacher understands and uses a variety of formal and informal assessment strategies to evaluate and support the development of the learner.
7. The beginning teacher demonstrates an awareness of and commitment to ethical and legal responsibilities of a teacher.
8. The beginning teacher demonstrates a strong professional ethic and desire to contribute to the education profession.

Course Objectives:
In addition to the UMF Standards for Initial Teacher Certification listed above, this course is intended to address the following objectives:

1. Students will understand the diversity present in contemporary family systems in order to relate them to child care choices.
2. Students will develop skills for evaluating program features appropriate for specialized settings (e.g., multi-cultural, infant-toddler, special needs).
3. Students will review and evaluate basic models of teacher-parent-child interaction in the early childhood setting.
4. Students will become familiar with parent involvement programs and the challenges of collaborative work.
5. Students will develop an appreciation for the role of families, teachers, and communities in supporting healthy child development.
6. Students will synthesize and apply information learned in the course through a service learning project completed at Kerr House.

Course Assignments:

Attendance and Participation: Attendance is an important part of this course because the discussions that take place during class meetings provide important learning opportunities. Detailed instructions for course assignments also occur during these times. Therefore, students can earn a possible 30 points for attendance in class throughout the semester.

Students may earn an additional 30 points for participation throughout the semester. Participation includes meaningful and insightful comments pertaining to reading and lecture material, demonstration of understanding and enthusiasm for course content, and listening respectfully to the instructor and peers.

Examinations: A midterm and final exam will be given during the semester. Both will consist of short-answer and essay questions. Each exam is worth 100 points, making the total possible for exams 200 points.

Parent Interviews: One method of understanding the issues faced by families when it comes to locating high quality and affordable child care is to ask them. This assignment gives you the opportunity to speak directly with parents about their experiences in finding child care. You may find some surprising answers, even from people you know well.

You will develop a set of questions and interview two different parents (not spouses and not your own parents) about the forms of child care they have used for each of their children. Information should be gathered about the following:

the method used in selecting child care< > things parents looked for in finding care< > the relationships parents have with caregivers< > level of satisfaction with child care arrangements< > any topic of special interest to you (at least one additional topic is required).

After conducting the interviews you will write a paper summarizing your findings. Please do not submit a transcript or list responses from each interview. Instead, you are asked to write a narrative in which you:

describe the families you interviewed and explain why you chose them
indicate the questions you asked and the answers given by the families (please summarize; do not use exact words!)
identify the topic of special interest to you, explain why it s interesting, state how you asked the families about this particular topic, and summarize their responses
conclude by summarizing what you learned about child care and families that you may not have known before

Your written report is worth 50 points possible.

Internet Resources Annotated Bibliography: It is likely that most if not all of you are well versed in using internet resources to obtain information or answer questions. You ve probably found that some sites are better than others in terms of quality of information provided, navigation, clarity, and other features.

As an early childhood educator, you will be approached by families for up-to-date information on issues related to child development, parenting, education, etc. Suggesting internet resources to parents may be particularly useful as sites may provide valuable information and are accessible to families who have a computer at home or access to a public library. This assignment is intended to help you build a set of resources you can share with families.

Use an effective search engine to locate and summarize 6 internet resources on parenting and child care issues. You should plan on spending a significant amount of time on searching so as to find resources that you could wholeheartedly recommend to parents. Remember, the first websites you find may not be the BEST.

You will submit an annotated bibliography of your sources. For each source you should include the following:

complete title and site address
description of the ease with which one can navigate the site and locate information (and any helpful hints to navigation that you come across)
a summary of the content of the site
why you find the site helpful for parents
appendix containing printouts of the first page of the website

Each annotation should be about _ page in length, and all 6 should be submitted together. The annotated bibliography must be typed, have no grammatical or spelling errors, and look professional. This assignment is worth 50 points. NOTE: Final drafts of annotated bibliographies will be bound and placed at the service learning site.

Parenting Workshop: One role for which many early childhood educators feel unprepared is working with families outside of the classroom setting. This is unfortunate, since many early childhood programs and schools require staff to provide parenting workshops to the families they serve. Even if a program does not require parenting workshops, many times teachers find that families have similar questions and concerns. It makes sense to provide information at one time, rather than 12 different times to 12 different families.

This assignment requires that you plan and present a parenting workshop. The workshop is to be as real life as possible in several respects:

You will be asked to work in teams of 4-5 people.
You will be asked to give the presentation on a specific topic.
You will actually give the workshop to the class, just as you would to a group of parents.

Regardless of type of program you work in or even the state in which you live, some topics are requested repeatedly by parents. These topics are listed below, and you may choose one of them for your own workshop:< > Helping children deal with divorce or separation
What can I do now to make sure my child is successful in school later
Discipline techniques
Talking with young children about sex and sexuality
Helping a child adjust to a new sibling

You will be assigned randomly to a group, and as a group, you may select one of the above topics. A sign-up sheet of dates for workshops will be available in class. Your workshop should be characterized by the following:

Brief (no more than 15 minutes)
Props (posters, displays of books and toys, resources, hand-outs; no videotapes please)
Interactive (role play, question and answer session, icebreaker activity, etc.)
Accurate (up to date, accurate, and helpful information)
Professional (dress and speak appropriately and professionally; props should look professional)
Videotaped (please arrange for camera and videotape to be in classroom on the date of your presentation)
Clear evidence that ALL group members contributed (peer evaluations will be completed anonymously at the end of the presentation. These will count 10% of your grade in this assignment).

This assignment is worth a possible 75 points. You will be permitted to keep the videotape, as it would make a fine addition to your senior portfolio.

Families Unit: Individually you will develop an integrated unit on some aspect of Families. Your theme need not be families per se, but must have something to do with families. You may wish to focus at least somewhat on how people are connected, as this is a real interest for young children.

Your unit should cover the major curriculum areas. You may select the age group/developmental level that is most appropriate for your professional goals. The age or grade must be made clear in the unit you submit.

Your unit should include the following:

Introduction or letter indicating what the theme is, your intended goals or learning outcomes, the age group of children for which the unit is appropriate, general information on accommodations and curriculum areas addressed in the unit
Curriculum web or map delineating curriculum areas and specific activities within each
Activity plans for each activity (according to specified format to be described in class)
Book list for the unit (full reference, along with 1-2 sentence description of book contents)
Three different forms of parent communication (see Diffily book)

The unit should be professional in appearance. That is, it should be in a notebook or file folder, printed, in order, and attractive. Think about ways to use color and graphics to better illustrate activities to the reader. Make sure that parent communication is attractive, informative, and professional. At the end of the semester everyone will set up a table displaying their written unit, along with books and activities pertaining to the unit. This type of informal presentation will allow your classmates to learn new ideas from you. The unit is worth a possible 100 points.

Service Learning Project: We will develop a resource store for Kerr House, a family model group home created for pregnant and parenting teenagers, located in Farmington. While the majority of our class time will be spent discussing various topics related to families, approximately 45 minutes of each class will be devoted to the project. A history of Kerr House and the population it serves will be given on the first day of class. This project requires your participation throughout the whole semester. It will be a valuable learning experience on several levels: learning about family diversity, seeing firsthand the kind of labor that goes into social service programs such as these, and discovering skills you never knew you had!

Successful service learning requires collaboration. As a class we will collaborate with Kerr House to meet a definite need. We also will collaborate with Butterfly McQueen s, a business in the community. Our goal is to create an attractive space to display clothing and supplies for infants, toddlers, children, pregnant girls, and nursing mothers. This space will be used by Kerr House as a store, where its clients can purchase clothing for a small fee, while at the same time learning financial management skills.

You will be asked to sign up to work on at least 1 aspect of the project:

Soliciting donations
Preparing the environment construction, painting of walls, floor, etc.
Preparing furnishings painting, refinishing shelving units, cabinetry, etc.
Arranging the d