PROJECTS

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Purpose

The purpose of the class projects is to provide opportunities for you to practice the skills you are learning in EDSPE 510 while I’m still around to help. You’ll begin your projects during the first few weeks of the quarter, then expand and refine them throughout the quarter.

You’ll conduct at least two projects: a Teacher-Manager Project, in which you try to teach another person a useful skill; and a Learner-Manager Project, where you’ll evaluate your efforts to learn the basic "say facts" required in this course.

Teacher-Manager Projects

In the teacher-manager project you will conduct the project in the role of a teacher or therapist, that is, someone helping another person to learn. Specifically, you must:

1) Work with another person. Ideally, you will find a person much like the type of client you plan to serve as a professional. If that is difficult or impossible during the course, any other person will do.

2) Work with the learner on at least 20 separate occasions. Daily instruction (5-7 times a week) is best. If you can only work with your student three or four times a week, plan to start your project as soon as possible so you will have time to get all 20 sessions completed before the end of the term. Also, don't count on your student always being available. Allow time for unexpected illness and other problems.

3) Accelerate behavior. You must teach your learner a new skill or refine an old skill that represents something of worth or value (e.g., "reading aloud," "typing," "pointing to named objects," "eating with a spoon," "writing correct answers to the pre-law exam"). "Skill" does not mean "refraining from doing something bad" (e.g., "staying in seat;" "not saying bad words;" "not drooling"). The deceleration of "undesirable behaviors" can be important, but will not be the focus of this course.

4) Evaluate the application of the skill. We don’t want our learner to perform well only in structured instructional situations. We should teach skills that will be of value outside the instructional situation in the learner’s daily life. In addition to evaluating performance in the instructional situation, therefore, you will also need to evaluate the application of the skill in at least a sampling of the situations in which the skill can be meaningfully applied.

5) Use the procedures taught in EDSPE 510. There are many ways in which one might evaluate learning and use that information to improve an instructional plan. The procedures for which you will be held accountable, however, are those taught in EDSPE 510. If you fail to use those procedures, you will earn a poor grade, regardless of how well your learner progresses. Of course, you will not know all of the procedures taught in EDSPE 510 until the course is over. As the course proceeds, incorporate each new procedure into your project as it is taught in class. At the end of the project you will write a "What if..." section in which you can describe what you would have done differently if you had known everything before the project was started. In essence, you can do just about everything wrong (before it is discussed in class) and still get a fine grade if you explain where you went wrong and what you should have done.

Timeline for the Teacher-Manager Project.

Specific suggestions for maintaining a reasonable timeline for your project are included in the class syllabus. Generally, however:

1) Start looking for learners right away. If you "borrow" a learner from another teacher or parent:

a) Be sure the person understands and approves of what you plan to do. It’s important that your learner understand what you intend to do and participate willingly in your project. If it seems appropriate, share this project overview and other course materials with your learner (and/or, if appropriate, the learner’s parents and other teachers).

b) Show common courtesy to your learner and others who might be involved. Respect confidences; show up when you say you will; work only with behaviors they think are important; only run programs and use procedures which they have had a chance to review and approve; share the results of your work with them. Give them a copy of your final project notebook.

4) Start the project as soon as you can. Pinpoint an instructional target, develop a rudimentary instructional plan, begin collecting data, chart the learner's progress, and begin teaching as quickly as possible. If you can arrange to work in a class or with a person who is already using EDSPE 510 procedures, you can start right away with their help. If you can't find a mentor, then you'll probably have to wait two or three weeks until the basic procedures of pinpointing, data collection, and charting have been covered in class. A note in the syllabus identifies the date that you really must get started in order to finish on time.

5) Add features to your project as they are discussed in class. In some cases the progression of topics discussed in class will seem out of order. For example, you won't learn about writing instructional plans until the middle of the course, perhaps a week or two after you have begun your project. That's o.k. Simply write the plan after we discuss it, and consider what you might write in the "what if" section of your notebook to explain what you might have done differently if we had covered that topic earlier. If your instructional approach still seems fine, just continue as before. If a change in plans seems more appropriate, make the change. Everything you did up to that point will still count.

6) When you add something to your project, get feedback right away. As you add features to your project (e.g., begin charting or write your first instructional plan using the form discussed in class), give me a copy (always keep the original, just in case I lose what you gave me). I’ll review it and provide feedback. That’ll give you a chance to correct any errors before it’s too late. Each element of your project notebook can be revised as many times as you want without penalty, right up to the final due date.

7) Finish your project as soon as possible. Projects take a long time to grade. If they are submitted at least two weeks before the last class, the instructor will review it and provide feedback in time for you to make any final corrections before the end of the term. Students not submitting their projects at least two weeks early might not get feedback in time to correct their mistakes.

Report Organization

The final teacher-manager project reports must be organized in the way described below. Some of the descriptions of contents might not make sense now, but don't worry. By the end of the term they will. The report as a whole should be neat, well organized, and easy to read. It is not necessary to type the report, but it should be legible.

1) Binder/Cover. All reports must be firmly bound and covered with something that will keep everything together. (Hint: those plastic covers with "slip-on" plastic clips are not trustworthy.)

2) Project Checklist. A checklist of all important project components can be found on the "projects" section of the class web site. That checklist should be placed at the very beginning of the project. I’ll use it to make sure I check everything and to provide notes when I grade the project.

Click here to download the Project Checklist: Project Checklist

3) Title Page (one page only). The first page of the report itself should provide the following information:

EDSPE 510: Classroom Measurement & Management
Class Project, Year & Quarter Class was Taken
Your Name
UW Student Number
Email Address (optional) & Telephone Number (optional)
Major Area of Study
Anticipated Professional Position

Note: Including your email and telephone numbers on the cover page of your notebook is optional, but they will allow me to contact you if there are any problems.

4) Introduction (one page maximum). The introduction should provide a little background information concerning the project. For example: who is the learner; why was the learner selected; what is the general instructional target; why was the target selected? Mention anything that would help to put the project into a meaningful perspective.

5) Goal Description Forms (as many as required to describe the purposes of the project). Generally, at least two forms will be required — one to describe the performance aim within the instructional situation, and the second to describe the application aim, or how the skill will be used outside the instructional situation. If you are providing instruction within the situation where it will be applied after instruction, one form might suffice.

Note: Writing a goal description form is also required as one of the probes during the quarter. Even if you will be using the same Goal Description Form for this project, you must include it in this notebook. You don’t need to recopy the form, it will be fine with grades, comments, etc. still attached.

6) Plan Sheets (as many as required to describe project plans). Each instructional and assessment plan must be described on an acceptable form. Standard forms are available under the "materials" tab of the class web site. Many variations of the standard form also exist which would be acceptable, but make sure that any alternative form you use contains all of the same basic information. When in doubt, ask me.

7) Progress Record Sheets (as many sheets as are required for all the project data). All of the instructional data (date, assessment period length, correct count, error count, and comments) should be recorded on approved progress record sheets. Standard forms are available under the "materials" tab of the class web site, but alternative versions presenting the same information will be acceptable. When in doubt, ask me. Be sure to include application probe data as well as instructional data. Both types of data may be presented on the same sheet, or separate sheets may be used.

8) Standard 'Celeration Charts (as many charts as required to present all of the project data). At least one standard 'celeration chart must be included showing the progress of the learner over the course of the project. Standard 'celeration charts will be provided by the instructor during class. A facsimile of the standard chart can also be found on the class web site under the "materials" tab. All standard charting conventions must be used. Any variation in the chart or conventions employed must be approved by the instructor in advance. Be sure to provide some indication on the chart of the results of the application probes. Depending upon the type of application data collected, those data might take the form of charted frequencies, or simple qualitative statements (e.g., "no, some, good") concerning skill application on a given day. Check with the instructor if you need help.

Please submit two copies of all charts (photocopies are fine). One copy should be bound into the report in the appropriate place, the second copy should be paper-clipped to the title page. I’ll keep the paper-clipped copy (I just love to collect charts).

9) What If... (1 to 5 pages — the shorter, the better). Prepare a brief description of what you might have done differently if you had known everything about the course before you started the project. Consider especially...

… how you might have chosen a different instructional target;

… how you might have changed performance aims or aim-dates; and

… how earlier use of the minimum 'celeration lines and data decision rules might have influenced what you did.

Of course, if you really wouldn't have done anything differently after having finished the course, just say so. Be careful, though. If the material covered in EDSPE 510 suggests that something should have been done differently, you should at least recognize that. You don't have to agree, you just have to let me know that you understand what was covered in EDSPE 510.

Try to concentrate on issues specifically relevant to EDSPE 510. Other material (e.g., "boy...if John hadn't been absent so much...,") should be kept to a minimum.

Assuming that you meet the minimum requirements for each of the other sections of your report, the "What If..." section will be the most important factor in determining your final notebook grade.

If you have any questions about the project, see me right away.

Learner-Manager Projects

Each student will be expected to conduct a program to teach themselves the say-facts required in the course. The project will actually be started during the first class session, and then maintained by you during the quarter. At the end of the term you will submit at least the following:

1) A plan sheet describing briefly your basic strategies for studying the say facts during the quarter;

2) Progress record sheets presenting the raw data from your practices during the quarter. No minimum number of practices are required, so it would be possible to simply show the results of the final assessment taken with the instructor. Since frequent practice is the best way to learn, however, that would not be advisable.

3) A standard 'celeration chart showing your progress in mastering the material. All charting conventions should be followed. Note: if you assess yourself more than once on a given day, only one result should be charted. That could be the sum of all assessments, the best assessment, or the worst assessment -- but it should be a convention you follow consistently and have described in your plan sheet.

Each of the forms you will need to complete this project (the plan sheet, progress record sheet, and standard celeration chart) can be found on the "materials" page of the class web site.

As with your teacher-manager projects, everything should be neat and easy to read, and the instructor would appreciate an extra copy of your chart.

The learner-manager project may be submitted in the same binder as the teacher-manager project, but a heavy divider of some sort should separate the two projects.

The learner-manager project per se will not be graded, but all of the basic material outlined above must be submitted in order to get any grade for the course.

Last Reviewed/Updated: 1/2/2005 2:48 PM