Week FIVE -- Bibliographies

This week we submitted annotated bibliographies to our online forum and then we were required to comment on several of our classmates' sources -- whether we had questions or constructive criticism, etc.  I found that most of my classmates really didn't have any questions or constructive criticisms of others. It was all pretty much, "I like your sources!" This frustrated me because the peer-review requirements this week took me away from my writing. I just wanted to dig in and write, but I had to keep checking the online forum and it was maddening to not really learn very much from the cheery responses to most of the submissions.

I was also a little perturbed to find out halfway through the week that the bibliographies for the actual project aren't annotated...so it just felt like I was doing more work than necessary this week, and I don't like doing more work than I have to.

Are people annoyed with me? Not much traffic on my thread in the online forum.

Also, I've been working so hard....I haven't had time to go to the gym.  I am cranky.

Here are the sources I submitted.

Clarkson, Sarah. Caught up in a Story: Fostering a Storyformed Life of Great Books and Imagination with Your Children. Monument: Whole Heart, 2013. Print. 
The author studied children’s literature at Oxford and is the founder of Storyformed.com, a literary resource website for parents and teachers.

Common Core State Standards Initiative, Web. 15 Feb. 2016
The official website for Common Core, presented to parents. It explains the process by which Common Core was created, why the creators feel it is important, and also lists the state standards, organized by grade level. 

Lickona, Thomas. Educating for Character: How Our Schools Can Teach Respect and Responsibility. New York, NY: Bantam, 1991. Print. 
The author is a developmental psychologist with over 40 years of experience as a professor of early childhood education. He is an Emeritus SUNY Corlandt faculty member. In the span of his career, he has obtained more the $2 million from foundations and grants to support his work.
 Ludwig, Meredith, Mary Beth Marlin, and Mengli Song. "Arts Integration: A Promising Approach to Improving Early Learning." American Institutes for Research. 16 Feb. 2016. Web. 23 Feb. 2016.
This report comes out of work done at the Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts in Vienna, Virginia. The Institute’s mission is to help very young children learn critical skills (such as creativity, collaboration, math, and language arts) and to prepare them to be innovative and confident leaders.

Pritchard, Michael S. Reasonable Children: Moral Education and Moral Learning. Lawrence: U of Kansas, 1996. Print. 
The author is a professor of philosophy and the Director of The Center for the Study of Ethics in Society at Western Michigan University. He supports philosopher Matthew Lipman’s work at the Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children (IAPC) at Montclair State College in Upper Montclair, New Jersey. Both authors agree that young children can obtain critical thinking skills and universal morality through storytelling.

Shakespeare in America, National Endowment for the Arts Presents Shakespeare in American Communities. Web. 17 Feb. 2016
Presented by an independent federal agency that exists to bring opportunity and exposure to the arts to Americas, this website is directed at teachers that wish to learn more about Shakespeare. It provides a teaching guide for the Elizabethan Age, Elizabethan Theater, the life of William Shakespeare, his plays, iambic pentameter, etc.

Singh, Anita. "Why Shakespeare Should Be Child's Play." Http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/william-shakespeare/10625363/Why-Shakespeare-should-be-childs-play.html. The Telegraph, 09 Feb. 2014. Web. 19 Jan. 2016.
The author is the Arts and Entertainment Editor at The Telegraph, a popular daily UK newspaper. She reports on the benefits of the children’s programming at the Royal Shakespeare Company, which is considered by many to be the leading expert of Shakespeare’s works in performance.  

Social and Emotional Learning Core Competencies, CASEL: Collaborative for Social and Emotional Learning. Web. 22 Feb. 2016.
CASEL is an American organization that provides research, practice and policies that support evidence-based social and emotional learning for students, pre-school through high school. Their mission is to ensure that all children become knowledgeable, responsible, caring and contributing members of society.

Strauss, Valerie. "6 Reasons to Reject Common Core K-3 Standards and 6 Rules to Guide Policy." The Washington Post. 2 May 2014. Web. 23 Feb. 2016. 
In contrast to the website information provided by Common Core, this Washington Post author, who reports specifically on education, gives detailed reasons for why Common Core is failing young children and also offers ideas for improvement.