APA Writing Practice
The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th Edition
Now that you have a background in APA manuscript style, you are ready to begin completing the APA writing practice assignment. Don’t be discouraged if you have to search hard in the APA manual for information to use in this assignment. You’ll get faster as you familiarize yourself with the manual’s format and content. That’s the point of practicing! You are not expected to memorize the book—it’s a reference book—but eventually you’ll find yourself remembering the information that’s most important to your needs.
Following are two excerpts, one from a textbook and the other from an educational journal, which you will use for this assignment.
The first excerpt is from a popular educational journal and describes actual research done in Wisconsin. The second excerpt is from a textbook on curriculum. In the quoted passages, the authors explore this question: Who is responsible for what happens in the classroom curriculum?
Assignment Directions:
The APA Writing Assignment is actually composed of 6 different mini-assignments. Please do each task and then draw a line OR leave several spaces in order to separate each task. This way, one is able to retain indenting and proper APA alignment as well as to avoid the hassles that arise by numbering each (isolated) task. Also, do not be surprised if you a quoting and paraphrasing the same information while completing the 6 mini-assignments; the sources are so short that it is likely that you will use the same information to show competency with different APA documentation tasks.
(Double spaced, Times New Roman font size 12; one-inch margins on all sides, standard indents for paragraphs)
- Reference citations: Paraphrase four ideas (two from each source) in your own words from the excerpts given. Varying your presentation, provide in-text citations for each paraphrase.
- Seriation within a paragraph: From the Marsh and Willis article, give three short reasons why teachers cannot control everything in the curriculum. Write introductory sentences to the issue, followed by the seriation. Remember to cite your source. (See p. 40 of Cheryl Prentice’s APA manual.)
- Seriation, numerical list: You will use your own experience, not the print sources, to complete this task. Provide some introductory sentences to briefly describe your role as a professional. Then, using complete sentences, use bullet points to describe three important aspects of your work. (See page 39.)
- Short quotations: Give four short quotations, two from each source. Preface two quotes with a sentence in your own words. In the other two, make the quotation part of a complete sentence. This is to give you practice in APA writing style. (See page 6.)
- Long or block quotations (40+ words): Give two long quotations, one from each excerpt. Compose an introduction for each of the quotes. (See page 6.)
- References: On a separate page, construct a reference list in APA style. You will need to use correct formatting for the two articles in this packet. (See page 11-24.)
Excerpt #1 (Journal)
This excerpt, titled “Reducing Class Size Leads to Individualized Instruction,” is from Educational Leadership, 2013, number 1, volume 57, page 51. The author is John A. Zahorik. In the following excerpt, the author pointed out the emergence of individualization in smaller classes.
Small class size has three main effects that lead to increased individualization: fewer discipline problems and more instruction, more knowledge of students, and more teacher enthusiasm for teaching. In small class sizes, there is less misbehavior. When misbehavior does occur, it is more noticeable, and teachers can treat it immediately before it becomes a major problem. This reduced, if not totally eliminated, time spent on discipline leads to more time available for instruction.
More knowledge of individual students is an important result of smaller class size. Teachers come to know students personally, and they have a much greater understanding of each student’s place in the learning cycle. A caring, family-like atmosphere develops in the classroom. When classes are small, teachers do what needs to be done. As stress is reduced, enthusiasm and satisfaction increase, and educators begin to implement teaching procedures that they know will benefit students. The main result of more instructional time, knowledge of students, and teacher enthusiasm is individualization. Often the individualization is one-to-one tutoring, but it also occurs in other ways. Teachers individualize when they form and instruct small groups on the basis of perceived need. And teachers individualize during whole group instruction when they provide numerous opportunities for each student to express his or her understanding.
The product of the emphasis on individualization is a greater coverage of content, and to some extent, greater in-depth treatment of the content. Many teachers completed the grade-level curriculum well before the end of the year. The outcome of this broader, and possible deeper coverage, is greater student achievement.
Although individualization is the main product of teaching in small-size classes, some increase in the use of hands-on activities, such as manipulative activities, interest centers, and cooperative groups, occurs because of less student misbehavior and greater teacher enthusiasm. These activities, then, also contribute to increased student achievement.
Excerpt #2 (Textbook)
This excerpt is from Curriculum: Alternative Approaches, Ongoing Issues, page 323, by Colin Marsh and George Willis, published in 2015 by Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.
One reason, among others, why teachers cannot control everything that happens to students is that the curricula that they implement have usually been planned in part by others. Various individuals and groups, therefore, ordinarily share responsibility for the intended and actual curricula. In schools, individual teachers are required to teach planned specifics and to aim their teaching at certain standards of achievement for their students, but the conditions which the work under are influenced by other teachers, by principals, by superintendents, by school boards, by parents and by the community at large. Some teachers receive ample psychological and material support; other teachers receive very little support of any kind. While teachers should always be held responsible for sound practice, there is always the temptation, nonetheless, to hold them responsible for what their students do or do not learn. In their professional capacities, teachers are, after all, the principal mediators between the planned curriculum (which may be stated in terms of intended learning outcomes) and their students, those for whom the curriculum is meant. And, of course, no matter how good or bad the average teacher is, it is always the case that some teachers will teach more effecitevely than others.
Efforts to fix responsibility for what happens in education have been growing steadily since the 1970s under the name of “accountability.” (We also discuss “accountability” in chapter 9). The basic rationale for accountability is that when people are held responsible for their performance, their weaknesses can be identified and eliminated. Accountability does not work, however, if responsibility cannot be fixed. Applied specifically to curriculum, accountability often means that the teacher is held responsible for what happens to students when the planned curriculum is implemented, whether the planned curriculum is defective or not, whether it has been properly matched with students, and regardless of the level of support the teacher receives. Increasingly, whole schools have been reviewed partly for reasons of accountability but also as a means of coordinating programs across schools. Data are now routinely obtained not only from school personnel, but also from students and parents. There are, obviously, caveats to be observed, especially about whose interests are being served when responsibility that should be shared is placed on the shoulders of only one of the individuals or groups involved.
