ELAN 3461 Service Learning in Teacher Education

Mondays, 4:40-7:25PM 116/117 Aderhold Hall
Professor: Peter Smagorinsky

Office Phone:706-542-4505

smago@uga.edu
Office Hours: Mondays, 3:30-4:30
and by appointment

 

Course Description from the UGA Bulletin

Community work with adolescents (mentoring, tutoring, etc.), common readings in education, and interactions with professional educators. English education majors build on individual and shared experiences and readings to examine issues of English education in public schools.
Non-traditional format: Discussion plus community service work.

 

My Description of Service Learning in Teacher Education

This course involves UGA students who aspire to teach in a tutoring relationship with a community member whose cultural background and life experiences are substantially different from their own. This community member will be a secondary student enrolled in Classic City High School: A Performance Learning Center located at 440 Dearing Extension in Athens. (Other sites for tutoring and mentoring are listed at School and Community Sites for Tutoring and Mentoring). You will both tutor this student and produce a Course Project through which you will reflect on this experience and consider its implications for secondary school teaching in diverse educational settings. Your relationship with this person will extend through the semester by means of weekly visits to a school or community tutoring center totaling a minimum of 15 hours for the semester. In addition, students enrolled in Service Learning in Teacher Education will attend class on campus each week. During these class meetings you will:

  1. Learn Tutoring Procedures for your 15 hours of field work at Classic City High School: A Performance Learning Center.
  2. Conduct Book Club discussions in which you discuss the readings in conjunction with your experiences from your tutoring relationships.
  3. Learn case study methods in order to produce a Course Project for the class.

My goal for the class is for each of you to develop a personal and academic relationship with an Athens-area teen or adult who comes from a cultural background that is different from your own. Through this experience, you will:

Please download and read each of the following documents:
Clarke County Public Schools Volunteer Information Form
Classic City High School (PLC) Mentoring Guide
Athens/Clark County Criminal Background Check Form

Please also download and read the English Education Quality Assurance Contract, which outlines the expectations for professional conduct during your work at Classic City High School: A Performance Learning Center.

The following link takes you to an article on sexual attractions between female teachers and male students. You will be only slightly older than the students you work with and need to be aware of pitfalls of attractions to them. In particular, you need to be aware of the consequences of trying to "rescue" a "bad boy." The article was written by a UGA doctoral student based on her Ph.D. dissertation. Got your attention yet?
Johnson, T. S. (2004). ''It's pointless to deny that that dynamic is there'': Sexual tensions in secondary classrooms. English Education, 37, 5-29.

LEGAL NOTICE: Effective July 1, 2012, Georgia House Bill 1176, Part V, Mandatory Reporting of Child Abuse, Section 5-1, requires volunteers who work with children, including educational services, to report suspected child abuse. The state code reads in part as follows: "If a person is required to report child abuse pursuant to this subsection because that person attends to a child pursuant to such person's duties as a member of the staff of an employee of or volunteer at a hospital, school, social agency, or similar facility, that person shall notify the person in charge of the facility, or the designated delegate thereof, and the person so notified shall report or cause a report to be made in accordance with this 1214 Code section." Natalie Cox, in UGA's Legal Affairs office, adds: "Volunteers should report immediately to the director of the facility and their UGA faculty advisor. In trainings or informational packets with volunteers, you may wish to provide this in a writing that includes a name and contact information of the director and advisor. They can certainly contact Office of Legal Affairs with questions and the UGA advisors should notify us immediately if they receive any reports."

Note: The course syllabus is a general plan for the course; deviations announced to the class by the instructor may be necessary.

Another note: All academic work must meet the standards contained in A Culture of Honesty. All students are responsible for informing themselves about those standards before performing any academic work.

 Final Note: I am required to say these things on my syllabus. I assume that someone who is planning to go into teaching will not be academically dishonorable or personally disreputable.

Please prove me right on this.

Spring Semester Calendar 2013

Spring Semester Calendar 2014