Social Sciences Education

SSE 4600 5641 Web Center

Social Science Education Home Courses, Syllabi, and Availability

SSE 4600 is limited to undergraduate students only

SSE 5641 is for Non-degree and Graduate Students

 

Two Versions: Online and Traditional Classroom

This course may be offered either in a traditional classroom setting or as an on-line course that may be taken by anyone anywhere in the country. Both course versions achieve the same goals.  Because the traditional version is scheduled and offered in a classroom, the instructor will provide a syllabus on the first day of class and the course will meet under the traditional attendance policies of the social sciences education program.

The Online Version

As you may or may not know online courses are rapidly growing in the field of education. If this is your first online course, you will likely find it unlike any other learning situation you have ever experienced. Most students, given their complicated schedules, enjoy the greater flexibility and autonomy associated with an online course. However, success requires some skills and abilities that are not necessarily required in traditional classroom courses. We do not recommend adding this course after the first day of classes because your grade will likely be affected.

Special Expectations for Internet-based Courses

Students participating in Internet-based courses must be aware of a number of important aspects of an Internet-based course prior to registering.

  • An online course can never duplicate an in-class experience. It is a different paradigm and is not intended to replace the classroom. No number of e-mail communications, discussion board activities, or descriptions of tasks, as examples, can replace the iterative and interactive personal communication that occurs in a classroom.
    As a consequence, the emphasis is on the written word and there is a premium on a student's ability to carefully read, monitor his or her own thoughts, follow directions, and reflect on both the content and the tasks that must be accomplished if a student wants to have the same level of success that he or she have experienced in an in-classroom course.
    The same holds true for student-initiated communication. Because written communications is the only available material that the instructor uses for evaluation, students need to take much greater care to be concise, thorough, logical, structured, clear, and free of jargon when composing for e-mails, discussion boards, assignments, and alike.
    If these skills have not traditionally been among your strengths, you will find the course more challenging and because it is an internet course, only you - the student - by your own actions can overcome the hurdles. Fortunately, diligence by a student can overcome all of these potentially limiting dispositions and skills.
  • The technology, both the nature of technology and required computer skills, can impact your success.  Technology is only as dependable as the computers in the network and their users.  Technical difficulties are anticipated by the instructors and should be anticipated by students.  Email accounts malfunction, servers go down, and attachments don’t always open! In the final analysis, it is the student's responsibility to insure that their assignments/artifacts are submitted on time and as required.
  • This course also requires that students be familiar with the technology required to participate in this course, including sending emails, opening/sending attachments, internet navigation, and file management. 
    • Avoid submitting assignments at the last minute since assignment deadlines cannot be extended even if you experience a technical problem.
    • ONLY use MSWord and carefully follow the directions on how to upload documents.
  • One major misconception by students new to Internet-based courses is that they think it is a self-paced, independent study course. To the contrary, there are specific timelines for various Tasks such as online discussions, assignment deadlines, tests, etc. and once those deadlines pass, the work may not be submitted.
Obtaining a Net ID

You must have a net id to access this course. You can apply for a net id at https://una.acomp.usf.edu/. You must have a USF ID card to get a Net ID. If you need a USF ID card and cannot come to campus, you can submit a form online at http://www.auxsvc.usf.edu/form_distance_learning.asp. This request should be placed well in advance of the first week of class.

Accessing Blackboard

Blackboard can be accessed at https://my.usf.edu. You will need to register for a Net ID to access the course. Courses usually begin appearing on your MyUSF about a week before the first week of classes.

Email Correspondence

Students must use their USF email for corresponding with the instructors. Personal email accounts are not listed under Blackboard, and no correspondence can take place through them for this reason. You can check the class roll to determine the email address listed for you in this course. It is your obligation to routinely check your USF email account and correspond only through this account. E-mails are usually answered within 24 hours.  If your e-mail goes unanswered, resubmit your email to the instructor because it is likely something went wrong on your end.


Purpose of the Course

This course is designed to help pre-service and practicing teachers integrate high quality literacy instruction into their normal content teaching and enable them to assist students in developing solid literacy skills in their content area. It is not designed to produce a reading teacher, but rather to encourage secondary teachers to become teachers of reading and provide them with the skills necessary to do so in their content area.

The Course and Blackboard - Summary

  • Blackboard is the software that is used to manage and deliver an online course. You will automatically have access to Blackboard once you are admitted and obtain a Net ID and logon to MyUSF.
  • Either SSE 4600 or SSE 5641 will appear as a course in your MyUSF once you are enrolled. Although the course may appear in your MyUSF blackboard course listing, the course materials may not appear until the University releases the content just prior to the beginning of the semester.
  • The first five modules will be completed in the first week, and include:
    • Welcome/Orientation
    • Overview and Grading Standards
    • ePortfolio --- Chalk and Wire submission
    • Important Downloads
    • Policies and Procedures
  • In the second week, the course will begin in earnest when you will begin to complete modules 6 through 22. The topics covered are:
    • Reading in the Social Studies
    • Content Area Reading and the Principles of Learning
    • Three Interactive Elements
    • Assessment
    • Vocabulary in the Social Studies
    • Strategic Teaching and Learning
    • Using Reading Strategies
    • Comprehension
    • Research Skills
  • Modules contain specific information about tasks to be completed and the specific weekly time periods and deadlines, usually by Saturday at 11:55 pm of the week of the module. Once a modules time has expired, you will no longer have access to it. Modules usually include tasks associated with:
    • Readings
    • Assignments
    • Quizzes - are timed for one hour and are only available on Saturday from 12 am to 11:55 pm
    • Virtual Discussions
    • Development of a Multi-Day Lesson Plan (MDLP)
  • At Blackboard, you will find the following content for this course. The information is usually released to students about 5 days prior to the first class day of the semester:
    • The Syllabus and Course Schedule
    • Communication, the link to the Discussion Board and email.
    • The Modules with detailed information on deadlines and how to complete each module and tasks.
    • Course Documents which will include the templates and rubrics for the MDLP.
    • Web Resources selected for your use in the course.
    • A Grades where you can track what has been received and graded
    • Announcements should be checked weekly along with your USF email.
  • You will be assigned a specific middle or high school chapter from a social studies textbook that is to be used in the development of your multi-day reading lesson plan. Those PDF copies are available at this website, see the right hand panel => =>

Required Texts (subject to change, see Blackboard)

  • Bill Meyer, R.,& Barton, M.L. (2002). Teaching reading in the content areas: If not me, then who? Teacher’s manual,( 2nd ed.). Aurora, CO: McRel.
  •  Tovani, C. (2000). I read it, but I don’t get it: Comprehension strategies for adolescent readers. Portland, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers.
  •  Educational Leadership. (Nov. 2002). Reading and writing in the content areas. Volume 60, Number 3.

Optional Text

  • Bill Meyer, R.,& Barton, M.L. (2002). Teaching reading in the content areas: If not me, then who? Blackline masters, ( 2nd ed.). Aurora, CO: McRel.

Book Ordering Information
Books will be needed by the 3rd week of class.

The Billmeyer book and Educational Leadership journal can be purchased at:

The Tovani book can be purchased at:

 Completing Tasks and Assignments

Time is of the Essence

  • All tasks and assignments must be submitted through the designated electronic option described for that  assignment. Do not send them as email attachments to the instructor.
  • Use ONLY Microsoft Word, NOT Word Perfect
  • Assignments are considered “submitted” only after the instructor has opened them. That means that you are responsible for assuring that your files and attachments are submitted in a conventional format that can be easily opened and read using standard software.
  • If you are having difficulty submitting files, you should contact the instructor for assistance.
  • Quizzes will automatically be graded by the Blackboard system after the student completes the quiz.

Late Assignments and Completion of Tasks

Students are expected to complete all assignments on time and as expected. Just as it would be unthinkable for you to tell your school principal that you are not prepared to teach, it should be unthinkable not to submit your assignments on time. Assume you will receive zero points if the assignment is not submitted on time. The technology precludes submission of late assignments or taking quizzes after the due date.

In extraordinary circumstances of documented hardship, usually demonstrably unequivocally unavoidable situations such as hospitalization or immediate family tragedy, instructors may consider exceptions as long as requested immediately at the time of the due date. You may email the instructor providing a detailed explanation and attach documentation (hospital bills, obituary notice, etc) to substantiate the unusual circumstances.

Course Completion

An “I” grade will only be considered by the instructor for students with documented circumstances of the greatest magnitude that are demonstrably unequivocally and unavoidable - usually hospitalization or immediate family tragedy that occurs within days of the final assignment due date. Students who find themselves in such a circumstance, should petition by e-mail – within 2 days of the precipitating event - explaining the circumstance. At that time a judgment will be made as to the merits of the petition, the kind of documentation to be submitted for verification will be explained, if necessary, and then the student will be informed of the required remedy. Judgments also take into account the overall quality of work and professional disposition.

Course/Internet Conduct

Students are expected to adhere to the highest standards of civility, ethics, and professional behavior. Students are expected to cooperate with one another and with the instructors; contribute fairly to discussions and class activities; and represent their own work fairly and honestly. Course members will treat one another and the instructors respectfully and with courtesy. Foul language, racism, sexism, and other forms of intolerance are inappropriate in a just, democratic society and especially in a discipline devoted to the preservation and expansion of human rights and opportunities to all people.  Under university and college policies, a breach in professional standards constitutes grounds for disciplinary action, including suspension or expulsion from the University or removal from the course with a failing grade. If you have any questions about the propriety of an action, please do not hesitate to discuss it with the instructor. Course conduct is a consideration in assessing student’s Professional Disposition. 

Honor Policy & Plagiarism

Plagiarism means presenting work done (in whole or in part) by someone else as if it were one’s own. Students are expected to do their own work.  Students providing students their solutions to assignments and the MDLP or answers to quizzes, are as culpable as students who request or receive this kind of assistance.  Students who cheat or plagiarize will be removed from class, given an FF grade and reported to University authorities for further disciplinary actions. Citing sources for ideas from experts can be a part of every submission. Former or current students or their assignments–even these derived from the Virtual Discussions— may not be used as a source or abstracted. Ideas must be transformed into your original work. Furthermore, helping another student plagiarize by sharing with them your work products is also a violation of the honor policy. 

The University of South Florida has an account with an automated plagiarism detection service which allows instructors to submit student assignments to be checked for plagiarism.  We reserve the right to 1) request that assignments be submitted to us as electronic files and 2) electronically submit assignments through the Safe Assignment link.  Assignments are compared automatically with a huge database of journal articles, web articles, and previously submitted papers.  The instructors receive a report showing exactly how a student’s paper was plagiarized.  For more information, go to http://www.ugs.usf.edu/catalogs/0304/adadap.htm#plagiarism

Exclusive Work Products

In many courses students are encouraged to work together in the development of individual assignments. However, the State of Florida requires that faculty only award passing grades to students who demonstrate self-sufficiency: That is, those students who have demonstrated that they have completed the course requirement on their own. Therefore, unless informed otherwise, each student is to do his or her own work based exclusively on his or her own ability. Each assignment, quiz, and the MDLP should be considered a take home test. Any conduct that would be inappropriate or unethical during a test in class (getting answers from other students, copying other students’ answers, rephrasing other students’ answers, asking to see other students work, etc.) would be inappropriate for the tasks for this course as well.

  • The Discussion Board can be used to clarify concepts and share ideas.
  • The Discussion Board CANNOT be used to give students answers or specific language to be used in quizzes, assignments or the MDLP.
  • Any attachments or discussion must be specifically related to course content. Students are prohibited from posting or emailing their assignments or MDLPs to other current or future students.
  • Students providing students their solutions to assignments or the MDLP or answers to quizzes, are as culpable as students who request or receive this kind of assistance.  Students who cheat or plagiarize will be removed from class, given an FF grade and reported to University authorities for further disciplinary actions.
IF YOU HAVE A QUESTION ABOUT AN ASSINGMENT, please submit that question to your instructor. Such clarifying questions are frequently generalized and the information sent to all students.

 


Social Science Education Program Standards

All professions are characterized by the common attributes of shared vocabulary, concepts, and skills. Teaching is a craft because it reflects both science and art practiced in pursuit of excellence by individuals who have formed a disposition appropriate to the profession.

Based on the following program goals, expectations, and policy statements, the Social Science Education program has identified the kind of evidence and indicators used to assess its students.

Program Expectations, Goals, and Policy Statements

Program Expectations

The basic premise of the Social Science Education program is that the student is responsible for demonstrating the knowledge, abilities, and dispositions that, in the faculty’s professional judgment, leads to the conclusion that an individual is prepared to enter the profession. Students are expected to demonstrate their readiness to enter the profession based on in-class and out-of-class interactions with university and K-12 school personnel and students and by a combination of objective and qualitative assessments.

Program Goals

The goal of the Social Science Education program is to provide potential teachers with the opportunity to acquire the knowledge, skills, and abilities to be an effective teacher and to demonstrate that they have the disposition to enter the profession.

Policy Statements

The following provide multiple indicators of readiness for the profession.

  1. Accomplished Practices adopted by the State of Florida. These accomplished practices have established what teachers should know and be able to do upon completion of our FDOE (Florida Department of Education) Approved Social Science Education Program  at http://www.firn.edu/doe/dpe/publications/preprofessional4-99.pdf;
  2. The Conceptual Framework of the College of Education at http://www.coedu.usf.edu/main/documents/CFFINALDOCUMENT-1-06_001.pdf;
  3. The democratic beliefs and ethical conduct espoused in the NCSS Code of Ethics for the Social Science Education Profession at http://www.socialstudies.org/positions/ethics/; and
  4. The Florida Code of Ethics for teachers at http://www.firn.edu/doe/rules/final6b1.pdf.

Evidence and Indicators

Based on the above statements, the Social Science Education program has established the following course and program standards.  

Evidence of Competency in Pedagogical Content Knowledge

Students are expected to show evidence of competency in content and pedagogical knowledge. This includes demonstrating:

A command of terminology, concepts, facts, and applications in both the disciplines of social sciences education and pedagogy

An ability to apply pedagogical knowledge to content knowledge  

Evidence of Professional Disposition

A disposition is developed over a lifetime and includes the temperament, aptitudes, beliefs, values, etc. that students exhibit while completing a teacher education program. The following Professional Disposition Indicators are used during the quantitative and qualitative assessment by instructors and the program in the determination of course grades and continued enrollment in the program.

Selected Profession Disposition Indicators

  • Ability to complete work autonomously
  • Aptitude to objectively consider new ideas
  • Attendance, punctuality, and undivided attention during class
  • Capacity to objectively reflect on one’s disposition and behaviors
  • Civility, diplomacy, and sensitivity to others
  • Enthusiasm for ideas and intellectual curiosity
  • Foresight to predict outcomes and consequences
  • Following directions
  • Honesty
  • Positive response to feedback
  • Self-initiative
  • Thorough preparation
  • Timely completion of tasks
  • Thoughtful participation
  • “With-it-ness”
  • Following special provisions for a Web-based course.

It is the student’s responsibility to take those affirmative steps to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the professor that their disposition is appropriate to the profession. Profession Disposition points are assigned at the end of the course.


Modification of Course Sequence and Expectations

The instructor reserves the right to alter the syllabus during the term by announcement to the class. This website is considered part of the syllabus. The syllabus will be delivered to you through Blackboard.

Student should keep copies of all submitted materials until final grades are posted.

The course electronic files are discarded two weeks after final grades are posted.

     

    ePortfolio*******Chalk & Wire

    The Social Science Education Program of the USF College of Education (COEDU) is a NCATE, FDOE, and NCSS approved program. For students to have the benefits of such a program, there are special assessment and reporting requirements that students and instructors must meet. A number of required COEDU courses (not courses in other colleges) will have assignments identified as Critical Tasks.   

    The ONLY process by which you will meet the reporting requirements is the creation of an ePortfolio and you will be required to use the software Chalk and Wire. COEDU offers a full support system of seminars, e-mail inquiries, a walk-in help center, and phone assistance to assist you in learning the system and completing the ePortfolio, see http://www.coedu.usf.edu/main/chalkandwire/index.htm.  Also, and most important, please review the SSE ePortfolio polices at http://www.coedu.usf.edu/main/departments/seced/SocialS/SSEePortfolio.htm so that your grade is not adversely affected as a result of your not meeting the mandatory deadlines. There are two critical tasks for SSE 4600/5641:

    1. SSE Program Standards Acknowledgement Form. [This is a different form from the Chalk and Wire Consent Form that you submit when setting up Chalk and Wire]. It must be submitted to your ePortfolio during the first week of classes.
    2. Multi Day Lesson -Name this Artifact SSE 4600 Multi Day Lesson Plan or SSE 5332 Multi Day Lesson Plan. This is submitted contemporaneously by you at the time you submit your multi-day lesson plan that will be submitted to Blackboard. Deadline will be provided by your instructor.

    Chalk and Wire Help

    COEDU offers a full support system of seminars, e-mail inquiries, a walk-in help center, and phone assistance to assist you in learning the system and completing the ePortfolio, see http://www.coedu.usf.edu/main/chalkandwire/index.htm.
    If you have any questions about how to perform these tasks associated with Chalk and Wire, YOU NEED TO CONTACT THE Chalk and Wire OFFICE.

    When you set up your ePortfolio, under Table of Contents Undergraduates will select

    • Social Science Education (B.S.)
    • MATs will select under Social Science Education (MAT)

    Chalk and Wire Purchase

    • Purchase a Chalk and Wire License Online CHALK + WIRE
      Both the first time user and the renewal codes can be purchased on-line.

      1. Log on to the Bookstore
      2. Go to the BUY YOUR BOOKS ONLINE SECTION.
      3. Please select the correct Term and use Department EDF, Course 0000 and Section 000 to purchase Chalk and Wire
      4. You will be emailed the code if this is the only item you purchase, so for this transaction only purchase Chalk and Wire.
      5. You will be emailed the code within 48 hours (excluding weekends).
      6. If not received within 48 hours, call (813) 9745412 or (813) 9744712 or email, gmcqueen@admin.usf.edu

     

 

ePortfolio

Critical Task

1. SSE Program Standards Acknowledgement Form
2. Multi Day Lesson -Name this Artifact SSE 4600 Multi Day Lesson Plan or SSE 5332 Multi Day Lesson Plan

 

Directions for ePortfolio

Links

USF ID CARD

Obtain a Net ID

IDMyUSF


 

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