2024-Sum-SPEC_ED-301-ONLIN-DYN-G01-02095-Educ of Exceptional Children

The final syllabus will be available in the Learning Management System.

This is a past syllabus providing a general idea of what the course entails. This does not represent the current course's syllabus, requirements or expectations.

Course Overview

This will be a very time-consuming course, so please plan your schedule accordingly. The expected work load for this class (readings, assignments) may be as much as 6-10 hours per week, depending on your personal circumstances.

In this course we will explore issues and trends in Special Education from children with disabilities and their families. Included will be an introduction to the history of and legislation related to Special Education; discussion of the nature of disabilities, multicultural and diversity issues; and information regarding the ways in which educators, families and other professionals work together in the process of providing Special Education services to children. We will apply this information to “real life” situations such as may be encountered in professional practice.

Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs)

When this course is finished you should be able to:

• Demonstrate your understanding and appreciation of the historical contexts from which Special Education developed as an academic discipline. [WAC {Washington Administrative Code} 180-82-360 (5)]
• Describe significant federal and Washington State legislation and its impact on children and families receiving Special Education services. [WAC 180-82-360 (5)]
• Define which students are eligible for Special Education services [WAC 180-82-360 (1,11)]
• Become familiar with the established categories of disabilities according to IDEA [WAC180-82-360 (1,11)
• Discuss the important issues related to diversity and multiculturalism in Special Education (including gender bias, ethnicity, English Language Learners, socio-economic status, and geographic factors.) [WAC 180-82-360 (8)]
• Describe the Special Education process including the roles of parents and professional in educational planning meetings (i.e. IEP/IFSP development), team collaboration, confidentiality issues, and service delivery options. [WAC 180-82-360 (4c, 6, 7, 8, 12)]
• Apply newly gained knowledge of Special Education to a “real life” case study from identification to educational plan development. [WAC 180-82-360 (4c, 6, 7, 8, 12)]

Note: the sections and subsections of the Washington Administrative Code {WAC} 392-172A (01000-07070) are reflected in all course goals and objectives.

Learning Outcomes and Assessment for this Course

Course Work

Group Leadership

Assignments

Note: Typed papers for 301 are not to be recycled texts from another class. Most of the content for this assignment is to be your newly-created text. Education uses the APA Manual, 7^th Edition for referencing.

“Self-plagiarism. Just as researchers do not present the work of others as their own (plagiarism), they do not present their own previously published work as new scholarship (self-plagiarism). There are, however, limited circumstances (e.g., describing the details of an instrument or an analytic approach) under which authors may wish to duplicate without attribution (citation) their previously used words, feeling that extensive self-referencing is undesirable or awkward. When the duplicated words are limited in scope, this approach is permissible. When duplication of one’s own words is more extensive, citation of the duplicated words should be the norm. What constitutes the maximum acceptable length of duplicated material is difficult to define but must conform to legal notions of fair use. The general view is that the core of the new document must constitute an original contribution to knowledge, and only the amount of previously published material necessary to understand that contribution should be included, primarily in the discussion of theory and methodology. When feasible, all of the author’s own words that are cited should be located in a single paragraph or a few paragraphs, with a citation at the end of each. Opening such paragraphs with a phrase like “as I have previously discussed” will also alert readers to the status of the upcoming material.”

Referencing in Written Assignments (e.g., discussion forums' Answer posts, written papers, presentations, posters)

In-text citations and a Reference list must be included whenever you refer to others’ ideas (e.g., discussing two strategy ideas to help a student improve), per the university’s policy about Academic Integrity. Writers are not claim the words of another author as their own (per APA Ethics Code Standard 8.11, Plagiarism). Quotation marks should be used to indicate the exact words of another. Each time you paraphrase another author (i.e., summarize a passage or rearrange the order of a sentence and change some of the words), you need to credit the source in the text” (p. 16)…in-text citations (Brown, 2008) and a Reference list.

Example:

Mnemonic strategies (e.g., Plan, Organize, Write; POW; Saddler , Moran, Graham, & Harris, 2004) offer a step-by-step set of directions for how to manage generation and editing of prose for a publishable text.

References

Brophy, J. (2013). Motivating students to learn. New York: Routledge.

Dunn, M. W. (2014). Writing-skills Intervention programming and its being a component of response to intervention. Journal of Education and Learning, 8, 368-386.

Saddler, B., Moran, S., Graham, S., and Harris, K. (2004). Preventing writing difficulties: The effects of planning strategy instruction on the writing performance of struggling writers. Exceptionality, 12, 3-17.

APA Style

APA_Sample_Paper.docx

Assignments' Descriptions

1. Class Discussions: 300 points (3 weeks for grading @ 100 points each)  Students are to complete tasks for each week as listed in the Course Schedule: complete all short assignments and post to each Discussion prompt. 
2. Lessons 4 and 9 Assignments (50 and 25 points)
3. Research Paper (50): Choose a disability type to research more in-depth (beyond the textbook) or propose to the instructor an outline of a topic you would like to discuss. See the rubric under the Assignments tab (at left) for the full criteria.

Reminder - Late Policy: Assignments turned in late will be penalized 10% per day. If the student initiates a discussion with the instructor before the due date about circumstances rendering it difficult to have the assignment completed by the date specified, the instructor may wave this penalty. 

Grading