Problem Statement, Advocacy Plan, and Commentary (20 points)
~6 pages, typewritten, double-spaced, 12 point type, standard margins, APA guidelines for use of citations
Advocacy topic : lack of resources in early childhood classrooms
A. Statement of the problem: Write 2-3 paragraphs defining and describing the advocacy issue in the context of early childhood education. Discuss how the early childhood advocacy issue affects children and families in New York City, if possible. Be sure to address the following:
What is the specific problem/concern?
Who is affected by the issue?
How are children, families and the community being affected?
Why does the issue need to be addressed now?
Where is the problem the greatest?
When is intervention needed to avoid negative consequences?
What intervention is needed?
Who is your target audience (who are you trying to influence/get to take
action about the issue) and why they are in a position to help?
B. Research Source Summaries: Provide summaries of three relevant research sources (See Summary Writing Handout for the format for creating a research summary). Your research sources should come from education journals (accessed through library databases), newspapers (from The New York Times, Daily News, New York Post, Education Week), Radio reports (NPR) or Blog Posts (e.g. Diane Ravich’s blog). At least one of your three sources must be from an educational journal that you access through the BMCC library (https://www.bmcc.cuny.edu/library/). All of your sources must be cited properly using APA formatting for references and in-text citations (see APA handouts provided). Each research source summary should be a minimum of 3 paragraphs long. In each summary, be sure to address the following:
Paragraph 1:
Start with an introductory sentence that states the author name(s), the year of publication (in parentheses), the name of the article, and the main topic of the piece. Write several sentences that elaborate on the main issue the article is addressing. Conclude this paragraph by explaining what the purpose of this article is: To inform? To call to action?
Paragraph 2:
Write several sentences that document what evidence (for example, data from research, strategies the authors share…) the article provides to make the main points.
Paragraph 3:
Conclude by writing several sentences that describe what advocacy and action are suggested by this article in order to address these issues.
C. Small advocacy action: Write one paragraph explaining what type of advocacy and action is needed by you to bring your issue to the attention of the target audience.
Large advocacy action: Write 2 paragraphs about reasonable action that could be taken by the target audience to address the issue. Realistically, outline a plan for what can/should be done to fix the problem. In addition, explain how different stakeholders (teachers, school leaders, parents, children, other community members) could be affected and/or play a role.
Commentary: Write a concluding paragraph about why you choose this issue to advocate for. Why is this issue personally meaningful to you? How does this topic impact you as an early childhood educator?
