Grace BarkerEPSY 485- De La RueNovember 20, 2012

1. Context

I am teaching ina micro-urban high school. The school is located near downtown Champaign, IL. There are about 25 students in the class. The class is about 50% Caucasian, 40% African American, and 10% Hispanic/Latino. There are two students in the class that have 504 plans, and no students with IEPs. Some of the students come from troubled households, and one student has recently been released from jail.

My students are juniors and seniors in high school. They are all enrolled in Introduction to Sociology at the high school. According to my cooperating teacher, half of the students are taking the course as an introduction to a college-type course. These students are college bound, and know that they will have to have some type of sociology as part of their college curriculum. The other half of the class are students were guided by their counselors to enroll in the class. These students often come to the class the first week with the idea that the course will be a “blow off”, as it is an elective course, and not required.

2. Unit of Study

The unit we are working on is entitled Deviance in Context. Over the next three weeks, students will discuss the topic of deviance and its role in our society. Essential questions that students will explore throughout the unit include: What is deviance? What makes an action deviant? Who does deviance affect? Is an activity deviant no matter who commits the act? Is one particular act considered deviant in all societies?

I have also created two learning objectives from this unit to be used in the assignments presented. They are developed from the ILS Standards (Bloom’s Taxonomy in parentheses):

1. Students should be able to define the concept of deviance as well as a deviant act’s context. They should be able to explain why an act is considered deviant and why the act goes against societal norms as well as the different types of deviance. (knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis)

2. Students will be able to complete a social experiment and analyze the data received to think critically about the information and draw out well-thought conclusions from the data. (knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, evaluation)

3. Students will understand the concept of structural functionalism. Students will also be able to discuss how structural functionalism relates to the concept of deviance. (understanding, application)

3. Assessment During Instruction Activity:

Directions: Use the information you have learned today to answer the following questions. This assignment should be done individually. Have questions about what we learned? Ask me!

1. Which of the following acts is NOT a deviant action?a. Robbing a bankb. Sitting down on the mall escalatorc. Breathingd. Singing by yourself loudly in public

2. True or False: A hypothesis is only needed for science experiments, and not needed for social experiments. False

3. On a scale from 1-10 with 1 being the least deviant and 10 being the most deviant, rate one of the following deviant acts: murder, driving under the influence, smoking, texting in class, and speeding. Why is the act deviant? Would the act be deviant if a high school student committed the act? Would the act be deviant if an elderly man did it? Please write your answer using complete sentences. The student’s number scale choice does not matter, but should coincide with their reasoning.. The student will be graded on their ability to express their comprehension of deviance. Some examples, like texting in class or speeding, are relative. The student must reflect this in their scale choice as well as present both sides in their answer.

4. White-Collar Crime is a type of deviant act that is motivated by money. It is a non-violent crime that includes the illegal gain of money. Possible answers: white-collar crime, organized crime, hate crime (choose ONE)

5. In your own words, what is the definition of structural functionalism? Based on the definition you have provided, what role does it play in deviance? Please write your answer using complete sentences.

Structural functionalism is the sociological framework of a social society. It examines the social structure and functions of a society. This is important to the concept of deviance because deviance’s role changes in each society. Knowing the structure and functions of a society can help one to decipher whether or not an action is considered deviant in each society.

Evidence for Question 1: The first question applies to the unit’s first learning objective. This multiple choice question does not deeply assess the student’s greater understanding of the context of deviance, but does allow me to gage whether or not my students understand the basic

concept of what deviance is and that just because an act isn’t illegal does not mean that it is not deviant.

Evidence for Question 2: The second question applies to the unit’s second learning objective. This question measures the student’s basic knowledge of the components of a social experiment. This is a reliable question, as there is only one possible correct answer. Although one could argue that there are ways that some of the other possible answers could be considered non-deviant, the only true answer of an action that is not deviant 100% of the time is breathing. The question also measures the students’ basic understanding of the structure of a social experiment, which is imperative to their success on the unit’s final assessment, a project including a social experiment and a lab report.

Evidence for Question 3: This question addresses the higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy in terms of the first learning objective. It is absolutely necessary for the students to come out of this unit with a better understanding of the context of deviance. Previously in class, I turned the room into a “deviant scale” with one side being the least deviant and the other end of the room being the most deviant. We discussed each action and its rating as group. This short answer question allows me to gain a grasp as to where students are at in their understanding of deviance through the analysis of a deviant action. This question is valid because it does not grade the student based on the scale score they assign to the action, but rather by the student’s knowledge of how the action’s deviance level can be relative to the context of when the action was committed. Students must somehow relay through their answer that they understand the relativity of deviance through their reasoning for the scores they have assigned.

Evidence for Question 4: The fourth question addresses the student’s ability to apply their knowledge of the different types of deviance by asking them to fill in the proper type of deviance when given a definition. This question addresses the students’ knowledge of the definition of white-collar crime. At the same time, it addresses the students’ ability to apply their knowledge of what a white-collar crime is by asking them to choose which type of crime best fits the description provided.

Evidence for Question 5: The fifth question addresses the third learning objective. The lower levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy are addressed through asking students to simply define what structural functionalism is, based on the day’s lesson. This provides the teacher with a basic assessment of how well the concept was taught and defined in the day’s lesson. The question addresses the higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy by asking students to further evaluate how structural functionalism relates to the

unit’s deviance theme. The student must justify how the definition of structural functionalism applies to deviance in all forms.

I believe this to be a fair assessment because although it does rely on definitions provided by the book, these concepts have all been discussed as a group during the lesson as well. Students’ comprehensions of these concepts were not solely on readings, but also on classroom discussions and activities. In terms of reliability, I plan on grading each student’s responses individually, paying close attention to the short answer questions. The student responses, especially those with short answers, will provide me with an idea of what worked in the lesson and what still needs to be further taught. These questions will also provide me with an idea of the gaps in understanding amongst the class. In terms of validity, I have created this assessment with the unit’s learning objectives in mind. I have focused on creating questions that address all levels of thinking as identified by Bloom’s Taxonomy. I plan to use this assessment as an evaluation of the effectiveness of the lesson in order to help gage an idea of overall classroom comprehension. This assessment will provide me with a tool to help shape future lessons in the unit in order to reach full student comprehension in the subject.

4. Explanation

Conducting assessment and grading: This lesson provides an introductory look into the learning objectives of the unit. I would conduct this assessment at the end of the lesson in the form of a worksheet, giving students 10-15 minutes to complete the questions individually. At the start of the next class period, we will go over the answers as a group. At that time, students will have the opportunity to ask questions about any of the information that they do not understand. This is not the only opportunity for students to ask these questions, but it is a designated time to eliminate some confusion about the topic amongst the class. This assignment will be taken for a small participation grade equaling five points. While all of these concepts will be further discussed in the weeks to come, this assessment will aid me in planning how much time to spend on each of the learning objectives. Additionally, the assessment will provide me with an idea as to where there are some learning gaps amongst the students.

Performance Criteria: When considering students’ performance criteria, I will be particularly looking at the student’s ability to answer each question to their full potential. For the multiple choice, true/false, and fill in the blank questions, there is only one correct answer. For those questions, I will know right away whether or not the students understand the question by their ability to answer it correctly. The short answer questions will be assessed by the students’ ability to answer the entire question, being sure

to address each part of the question individually. I will use the following scale to determine the level of student understanding:

Skillful Understanding: The student fully answers the questions correctly. Answers are complete, and each aspect of the question is answered to the student’s full potential. Adequate learning is displayed through their answer.

Sufficient Understanding: The student’s answers the majority of the questions correctly. Student may not have answered every aspect of each question to the fullest or answered parts of the questions incorrectly. Student has demonstrated some understanding of the topics presented from the lesson.

Inadequate Understanding: The student has answered the majority of the questions incorrectly. He or she is unable to adequately identify every part of the question and did not apply the concepts discussed in the lesson correctly on the assessment.

Going forward, I plan to use this knowledge to shape future lessons. If the majority of students appear to understand the basic concepts of the learning objectives of the unit, I will begin to spend several days divulging deeper into each of the objectives separately. These next few days will focus on critical thinking and analyzing these objectives. If the majority of students do not seem to have gained a proper understanding of the learning objectives, I will still divulge deeper into these objectives separately, but will focus more on basic concepts rather than critical thinking and analyzing. It is absolutely necessary for students to completely understand the basic principles of the learning objectives before being able to think deeper about the subjects. Regardless of student understanding based on the assessment, we will revert back to the basic concepts throughout the unit as we also reach the higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy.