Assignment #1 Description of Focus/Topic

• Points 10

This assignment includes information about your context, selected focus/topic, and rationale for your selection. Ensure that you are demonstrating research ethics (e.g., anonymity and confidentiality).

Remember to proofread your paper and review the grading rubric before you submit your assignment.

******OBJECTIVES AND GOALS:

The objectives must say who will do what, when they be able to do it, and how “success” will be

measured (how will you know that they demonstrate the skill?)

When: at the end of the lesson/unit/two weeks, …

Audience/Who: the students (the target group)

Behavior/What: will improve (What is the skill noted in the Purpose section that needs to improve?)

Criteria: to 80% mastery/a gain of five correct words per minute (CWPM), as measured by…

Documentation: By what method—e.g., teacher made test, oral fluency reading test, checklist, etc.— will you use to determine achievement of this objective?)

1)Identify a relevant topic in your discipline and of interest.

2)Establish the rationale for investigating a topic related to your choice

3) Develop an action research plan.

********IDENTIFYING TOPIC: EDUCATION IN AUTISM KIDS IN MIDDLE SCHOOL- DEVELOPMENT AND IMPROVEMENT

•Think about a problem to solve or improve.

•What is something you want to learn more about and apply your knowledge from the courses in your program related to early childhood development?

• What is your passion?

******THESIS STATEMENT: A thesis statement is the main idea or subject of your paper. Thesis statements are often written as a single, concise sentence. For longer or more complex works your thesis might be written in two or three sentences or even a short paragraph (Harris & Kunka, 2011, p. 11).

Example: Education in the United States needs improvement (broad statement to be n narrowed down)

*****Purpose Statement: The purpose of this action research is…..The purpose is not the problem statement. The solution strategy is not the problem. The solution strategy(ies) are identified in the literature.

****Annotated Bibliography for this project

******Rationale: We engage in…….

1-Summarizing: Stating concisely the main points of a piece of writing

2-Defining: Explaining the meaning of a word or concept

3-Analyzing: Breaking the topic into parts and examining how these parts work or interest

4-Persuading: Offering convincing support for a point of view

5-Reporting: Examining all the evidence and data on a subject and presenting an objective overview

6-Evaluating: Setting up and explaining criteria for evaluation and then judging the quality or important of the objective being evaluated

7-Discussing or examining: Considering the main points, implications, and relationships to other topics

8-Interpreting: Explaining either our thoughts or a topic by putting mental notions into written form (Harris & Kunka, 2011, p.11)

******Literature Synthesis; Locating the appropriate literature to support your analysis requires utilizing the Alvin Sherman Library and our databases (over 400). Begin with identifying early childhood journals. Remember that the journal articles that will be used are current (last five years), theoretical (“Theories provide complex and comprehensive conceptual understandings of things that cannot be pinned down: how societies work, how organisations operate, why people interact in certain ways. Theories give researchers different “lenses” through which to look at complicated problems and social issues, focusing their attention on different aspects of the data and providing a framework within which to conduct their analysis” (http://www.bmj.com/content/337/bmj.a949, and to compare and contrast findings of the various studies used to support your analysis.

***** Two main goals reported by Galvan (2013) work well, “Provide a comprehensive and up-to-date review of the topic, and second, try to demonstrate that you have a thorough command of the field you are studying” (p. 13).

*******RESOURCES:

“Jean Piaget’s theory has become one of the most influential theories of cognitive development” (taken directly from http://psychology.about.com/od/piagetstheory/a/keyconcepts.h

Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.[ISBN 978-1-4338-0561-5]

American Psychological Association. (2012). American Psychological Association style guide to electronic references. Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved from http://sherman.library.nova.edu/sites/apa/[ISBN 978-1-4338-0704-6]

Mertler, C. A. (2015). Introduction to educational research (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.[ISBN 978-1-4833-7548-9]

Galvan, J. L. (2013). Writing literature reviews. A guide for students of the social and behavioral sciences (5th ed). Glendale, CA: Pyrczak.

Harris, M., & Kunka, J. L. (2011). Prentice Hall reference guide (8th ed.).Pearson.

*****PLEASE FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS AND ADJUST THE TOPIC FOR THIS PROJECT: “EDUCATION IN AUTISM KIDS IN MIDDLE SCHOOL-DEVELOPMENT AND IMPROVEMENT” *********

THANKS!!!!