GRAD > edc g
Education Courses
edc g 556 Advanced High School Biology for Urban Teachers +
Description:
This course is designed for current or future high school teachers o f biology in urban settings. It is especially designed for those who are teaching an advanced or capstone biology course for high school juniors or seniors, and want to prepare students for college level work in biology or for the College Board AP Biology exam in May. All elements of the course will be anchored in a cognitivist theoretical framework that utilizes Learning Progressions as a means to understand how to teach concepts and skills to high school student in ways that build from what they already understand and prepare them for more advanced material in college. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
edc g 597 Special Topics +
Description:
This course offers study of selected topics in the field of education. Course content and credits vary according to topic and are announced prior to the registration period. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
edc g 603 Creating Effective Learning Environments +
Description:
This introductory course is designed to provide students with knowledge of current early childhood curriculum theory, research, and methods. The course also introduces methods for the creation of effective learning environments in classrooms that are increasingly diverse, culturally and linguistically. Students explore a variety of methods to facilitate planning, classroom organization for cooperative and active learning, curriculum development, student evaluation and assessment, team and co-teaching, and the uses of new educational technologies. Attention is given to challenges posed by inclusionary classrooms and to the ways in which student cultural and linguistic differences can be recognized and respected in order to enhance the educational and linguistic experiences of all students. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
edc g 606 Sociocultural Foundations of Education +
Description:
This course examines the interrelationships among students, schools, and society. Participants learn about the ways in which race, class, language, and ethnicity influence how we define ourselves and each other in our various encounters within the broader culture of US society. The course examines the historical antecedents influencing how the lives of the immigrant and colonized peoples in the US are defined. It is designed as a foundation for understanding the policies, goals, assumptions, strategies, and practices of multicultural approaches to education. It draws on a variety of models to construct educational curricula that are multicultural and socially reconstructionist. Readings are placed within the context of public schooling today in order to develop students' ''cultural consciousness'' and awareness of the individual and shared societal assumptions we bring to our teaching experiences. This class includes required fieldwork hours. More Info
Offered in:edc g 612 Coding for Non-Coders +
Description:
This course is designed for students who have no previous coding experience to learn the basics of coding by using iterative design to solve a series of problems embedded within a gamestory. In doing so, students will learn how to use decomposition to break tasks into sub-problems, debug software to troubleshoot code, and design algorithms to solve problems. By the end of the course, students will be able to code an interactive game using block-based programming. More Info
Offered in:edc g 619 Designing Instruction: Science +
Description:
This course explores techniques for teaching science concepts to students in grades N-6, examining materials, methods, and curricula currently in use. The course focuses on the development of participants' skills in science and on the use of questioning methods that help develop higher-order thinking skills in the young child. Participants have the opportunity to be both learners and instructors in a wide range of science activities. More Info
Offered in:edc g 621 Teaching Writing in the K-12 Classroom +
Description:
This course deals with the teaching of writing, the teacher as writer, and the interactions between reading and writing. Readings and presentations offer up-to-date information, theory, and practical techniques for teaching reading and writing in all subject areas. Students meet regularly in reader-writer response groups to work on their own writing and to respond to one another's writing about reading. There are a number of guest lecture-demonstrations by elementary and secondary teachers who are teacher/consultants with the Boston Writing Project. The course combines writing process theory with practical methods. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
edc g 625 Designing Instruction in Mathematics and Science +
Description:
This course explores theoretical and practical perspectives on teaching mathematics and science in Grades K-6. It aims to enable participants to create classroom environments that promote inquiry and make mathematics and science accessible to all children. Principles of curriculum and instruction, issues of equity, and the processes of learning mathematics and science are central themes of the course. Participants engage in extended investigations in order to deepen their understanding of mathematics and science. They also design and evaluate curriculum materials for K-6 classrooms using national and state standards and critically analyze their own roles in helping children learn mathematics and science. More Info
Offered in:edc g 626 Integrating Social Studies and the Arts +
Description:
This course is designed to engage prospective teachers in developing philosophical perspectives and practical approaches to teaching art, social studies, and language arts. Critical thinking about issues in art, social studies, and language arts education, including curriculum, instruction, and assessment, is integral to this course. Special emphasis is given to practices that are responsive to the needs and strengths of elementary students in social groups, classrooms, and schools. More Info
Offered in:edc g 628 Community, School & Classroom Structures +
Description:
This course explores school and classroom structures that are relevant to teachers preparing to teach in urban middle and high schools. It also explores relationships between school and community that can be crucial to creating an effective learning environment in urban classrooms. The course includes three main parts: (1) A study of school/community collaboration in urban settings; (2) a look at the history of American middle and high school structures, including those that are currently being tried as ways of improving on the traditional models; and (3) an exploration of possible ways for structuring classrooms to achieve effective learning environments for all students, including a focus on the inclusion model and a study of various classroom management approaches. A field-based component is required. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
edc g 630 Inclusion PreK-12:Diversity and Equity in Inclusive Settings +
Description:
In this course participants will study the theoretical and practical issues that educators must address as they implement effective culturally and linguistically relevant inclusion of children with disabilities in general education classrooms. Using principles of Universal Design of Learning (UDL), Multicultural Education, and Linguistically Relevant Pedagogy, we will identify and apply appropriate strategies to design and modify curriculum, instructional materials, and assessment for students with moderate disabilities in general education classroom environments. Grounded in Narrative Inquiry, participants will examine various perceptions of disability and diversity; study the historical and legal foundations of inclusion; interrogate the misrepresentation of culturally and linguistically diverse students in special education; design inclusive, academically rigorous, culturally and linguistically responsive environments for all students; and develop and reflect on their philosophy of inclusion. Students will anchor their analysis of these issues on a pedagogy of equity, diversity, and transformation by applying the framework of intersectionality. Through Backwards Design Planning, Team-Based Learning, the Jig-Saw classroom, reflective teaching, and digital storytelling we will investigate the intersections among various social categories -- among them ability, language, culture, race, and socioeconomic status -- and explore how we can promote inclusive and equitable educational practices for all learners. More Info
Offered in:edc g 634 Introduction to Game-Based Teaching +
Description:
The primary objective in this course is for students to design their own curricular game by incorporating techniques from video games. In doing so, students will use a wide range of software tools to make thinking visible such as concept mapping and comic strip creation tools; use technologies to uncover, discover, represent, redesign, and experiment with systems including tools to design diagrams and flowcharts; use technologies such as googledocs, googleforms, and wikis to collaborate in designing new products; use technologies to maximize accessibility and usability for all by addressing the needs of English Language Learners and students with special needs and repurpose technology tools such as video editing tools, spreadsheets, presentation software, social media, animation software, and word processing tools to teach problem-solving skills in a gaming environment. In the process, students will develop criteria for evaluating pedagogical uses of video games; examine the legal, ethical, and moral issues surrounding pedagogical uses of technologies; and make the argument for the pedagogical soundness of their own curricular game. Students will use rigorous playtesting to revise their curricular game and write a teaching implementation plan which will include how their curricular game teaches, assesses, and adjusts to student needs. Lastly, students will help a k-12 teacher outside of class develop his or her own curricular game. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
edc g 643 Fostering Equitable and Affirming Classroom Environments +
Description:
This course explores a diverse range of dispositions and strategies that lead to equity-based and affirming classrooms and support all students' abilities to grow and thrive. The course focuses on the role of social inequity in the history of school discipline, examines routines and structures that create positive classroom environments, and offers ways to build better connections between the classroom and students' home lives and families. All students in this class should have a field placement in a public school classroom or be a teacher of record in a public school. More Info
Offered in:edc g 644 Developmental Stages across the Lifespan +
Description:
This course examines current research and theory about human intellectual, social, and affective development across the lifespan. Topics include the development of linguistic, symbolic, and quantitative systems; cognition; creativity; the developmental interactions of culture; thought, language, and learning; and the implications of current developmental theory and research for educators. Students are required to tutor at least three individuals at different stages of development. More Info
Offered in:edc g 646 Understanding Reading: Principles and Practices +
Description:
This is the first of a two-course literacy sequence required for the Graduate Program leading to Initial Licensure as an elementary Teacher. It introduces the foundations of reading development and engages participants in reflective, critical consideration of student's diverse needs in the acquisition of literacy. Emphasis is given to assessment-driven instruction in a comprehensive literacy program requiring a minimum of six hours observing and assessing an elementary reader. Topics include: oral language development for emergent literacy; lesson planning with clear assessment goals for enduring understandings; foundational reading skills for meaningful text comprehension; organization of classroom literacy instruction; management of responsive, differentiated literacy classrooms; and strengthening home/school connections. A consistent focus is the teachers as a knowledgeable and skilled decision maker. More Info
Offered in:edc g 648 New Literacies and Emerging Technologies across the Content Areas +
Description:
This course explores the changing landscape of reading and writing as emerging technologies place new demands, challenges, and opportunities for readers and writers. To do so, this course aims to deepen students' understandings of the reading and writing processes with written, hyper, and multi-modal texts as well as content-specific strategies for assisting K-12 students' development in these processes. This include selecting developmentally appropriate reading materials and composition activities for a range of learners; identifying prerequisite skills, concepts, and vocabulary necessary for content-specific learning activities; and determining which strategies best meet particular content learning objectives. In doing so, techniques for incorporating new technologies into teaching as well as the legal and ethical challenges for both teachers and students will be examined. More Info
Offered in:edc g 650 Rethinking Equity and Teaching for English Language Learners +
Description:
This course fulfills the Sheltered English Immersion (SEI) endorsement requirement for core academic teachers outlined by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education as part of the Commonwealth's Rethinking Equity and Teaching for English Language Learners (RETELL) initiative. The purpose of this course is to prepare the Commonwealth's teachers with the knowledge and skills to effectively shelter their content instruction so that our growing population of English language learners (ELLs) can access curriculum, achieve academic success, and contribute their multilingual and multicultural resources as participants and future leaders in the 21st century global economy. This course debunks notions of linguistic deficit and explore avenues to support multilingual students in the construction of knowledge and skills in the content areas. Participants will engage in the reflective and interactive design of instruction that integrates the WIDA (ELD) standards with Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks, exploring and implementing strategies to teach multilingual learners to read and write in the content areas. More Info
Offered in:edc g 656 Teaching the English Language Arts at the Elementary Level +
Description:
This is the second of a two course literacy sequence required for the Graduate Program leading to initial licensure as an Elementary teacher. This course addresses the subject matter knowledge necessary for integrating the English Language Arts when teaching in an elementary classroom where learners have different academic needs and are socially, culturally and linguistically diverse. It prepares pre-service elementary teachers to address three of the four areas important to the Common Core State Standards (and related MA ELA Curriculum Frameworks): Reading Literature, Reading Informational text, and Writing. The class will focus on teaching students to become critically literature as they analyze, comprehend, and compose genres important to academic and social success in the 21st century including children's literature, informational texts found in content area disciplines, and multimodal texts. More Info
Offered in:edc g 658 Pre-practicum seminar +
Description:
Students observe, co-plan, and assist in teaching in a school, with supervision by both a certified cooperating teacher and a member of the University faculty. They also attend a seminar led by the latter. The seminar provides an opportunity for student teachers to share their experiences, to try out and critique plans and ideas, to air and solve problems, and to reflect on the process by which they are becoming education professionals. A formal application must be filed by March 15th to do a fall pre-practicum. This course is taken in conjunction with a Methods class. More Info
Offered in:edc g 660 Using Data to Plan Curriculum and Instruction +
Description:
This course focuses on how to design and implement diagnostic, formative, and summative assessments and how to analyze the data from such assessments as well as formal, large group standardized assessments in order to improve curriculum and instruction to better assist middle and secondary students in meeting state and national standards. Students are asked to design curriculum units and lesson plans designed to elicit such data and to be able to respond to the results. More Info
Offered in:edc g 662 Social Studies Methods +
Description:
This course provides an introduction to the theory and practice of teaching the social studies, including history, civics and government, geography, and economics, at the middle and secondary levels. Students will design units of study, individual lessons, and assessments in social studies attentive to the increasing socioeconomic, cultural, linguistic, and ability-level diversity of students in today's classrooms. A required field experience component is included; students are responsible for securing access to a classroom at the level of licensure sought. More Info
Offered in:edc g 663 Assessment in Teaching +
Description:
This is an introduction to the theoretical and practical issues of classroom assessment. Participants develop competence in selecting and using appropriate and educationally sound assessments. They compare and analyze different forms of authentic and standardized assessment (including the MCAS and MCET exams); gain practice in evaluating and responding to student work; compare and design rubrics and rating scales; consider the premises and effects of high-stakes testing; and develop assignments and assessment tasks. The focus throughout is on assessment strategies that enhance the learning of all students and that make creative use of the cultural diversity that characterizes urban classrooms. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
edc g 664 Digital Literacies/Computer Science Methods +
Description:
This course provides an introduction to the theory and practice of teaching Computer Science in middle and secondary classrooms, in particular in ways that take into account the needs and expectations of diverse learners in a multicultural society. As such, a variety of teaching methods will be explored and practiced. The course focuses on participants' on-going inquiry and reflection of field experiences. Participants will connect observed teaching practices, experiences of learners within the major components of the computer science curriculum, and the relationship and impact of the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks on best practices. All students must be in a pre-practicum field placement or be a teacher of record. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
edc g 665 Science Methods +
Description:
This course focuses on the teaching of science at the middle and secondary levels. It explores strategies that support the implementation of current standards in science education, addressing inquiry and experimentation as well as the role of technology in science teaching. The course examines various approaches to teaching selected topics and core concepts in the content areas of earth and space science, life science, physical science, the history and nature of science, and science as it relates to technology and social perspectives. The course introduces participants to resources and legal obligations relevant to the teaching of science and provides experience in designing standards-based lessons and assessments. More Info
Offered in:edc g 667 English Methods +
Description:
This course provides an introduction to the theory and practice of teaching English in middle and secondary classrooms, in particular in ways that take into account the needs and expectations of diverse learners in a multicultural society. The course focuses on participants' on-going inquiry and reflection of field experiences. Participants will connect observed teaching practices, experiences of learners within the major components of the English curriculum, and the relationship and impact of the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks and high stakes testing preparation on the best practices. More Info
Offered in:edc g 668 Content & Methods for Teaching Elementary School Mathematics +
Description:
This course examines content knowledge and methodologies for teaching mathematics to Elementary School students. Primary emphasis is given to the development of the number systems; the decimal system; the use of technology and various manipulatives; the standard algorithms for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of integers, fractions and decimals, and their rationales; and the relationship of elementary mathematics and various curricula to more advanced mathematics. Lesson planning, assessment, mathematics curricula, and making mathematics lessons and concepts accessible to all students are discussed. The course is intended to help the prospective elementary school teacher see elementary school mathematics education as an integral and fundamental part of a student's overall mathematical education. More Info
Offered in:edc g 669 Math Methods +
Description:
This course examines content knowledge and methodologies for teaching mathematics to Middle and Secondary School students. The course covers various aspects of problems solving; the use of calculators, Excel and other technologies; number theory, complex numbers, the solution of polynomial equations with real and complex coefficients, and probability. Lesson planning, assessment, curricula, and making mathematics lessons and concepts accessible to all students are discussed. More Info
Offered in:edc g 676 Advanced Strategies for Teaching History, Social Studies, and Ethnic Studies +
Description:
This is an advanced course in the theory and practice of teaching social studies, including history, civics and government, geography, economics, and ethnic studies. Students will develop an understanding of social justice-oriented and inquiry-focused curriculum and develop equity-based pedagogies for history and the social sciences. Intended for pre-service or in-service history, social studies or ethnic studies teachers. More Info
Offered in:edc g 686 Graduate Practicum: Student Teaching Elementary Education +
Description:
(Elementary Education)See EDC G 687 and 688. Each practicum provides students with the opportunity to put theory and technique into practice at the level of their specialization. Students demonstrate their teaching skills in a school, with supervision by both a certified cooperating teacher and a member of the University faculty. They also attend a seminar led by the latter. The seminar provides an opportunity for student teachers to share their practicum experiences, to try out and critique plans and ideas, to air and solve problems, and to reflect on the process by which they are becoming education professionals. More Info
Offered in:edc g 687 Graduate Practicum: Student Teaching Middle School Education +
Description:
Each practicum provides students with the opportunity to put theory and technique into practice at the level of their specialization. Students demonstrate their teaching skills in a school, with supervision by both a certified cooperating teacher and a member of the University faculty. They also attend a seminar led by the latter. The seminar provides an opportunity for student teachers to share their practicum experiences, to try out and critique plans and ideas, to air and solve problems, and to reflect on the process by which they are becoming education professionals. More Info
Offered in:edc g 688 Graduate Practicum: Student Teaching Secondary Education +
Description:
Each practicum provides students with the opportunity to put theory and technique into practice at the level of their specialization. Students demonstrate their teaching skills in a school, with supervision by both a certified cooperating teacher and a member of the University faculty. They also attend a seminar led by the latter. The seminar provides an opportunity for student teachers to share their practicum experiences, to try out and critique plans and ideas, to air and solve problems, and to reflect on the process by which they are becoming education professionals. More Info
Offered in:edc g 689 Teacher Research +
Description:
The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the methodology and methods of teacher research. Teacher research is characterized by a careful documentation and analysis of teaching practice over time. Participants ask critical questions, analyze methods, and develop a teacher-research project. This course lays the groundwork for the professional licensure clinical experience. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
edc g 696 Independent Study +
Description:
This is a directed study of a particular topic in education. The work is guided and assessed by the instructor. More Info
Offered in:edc g 697 Special Topics in Education +
Description:
This advanced course offers intensive study of selected topics in the field of education. Course content and credits vary according to topic and are announced prior to the advance pre-registration period. More Info
Offered in:edc g 698 Internship in Education +
Description:
An intern is an employed teacher, fulfilling the practicum requirement for licensure in his or her own classroom, under the joint supervision of a University-based faculty member and a designated mentor at the school. As a regularly employed teacher, the intern works with children and applies practical and theoretical knowledge. Interns plan lessons, teach classes, and evaluate students. They also review student records and apply their knowledge of curriculum by selecting materials and designing learning activities. They draw on current ideas and research to develop and demonstrate their own classroom teaching. Interns meet regularly with the University supervisor and other practicum students in a seminar to reflect on the practicum experience. Applicants for an internship must take two steps: 1) a special internship application form must be approved by the Department of Education, the school-based supervisor, and the University Licensure Officer; and 2) a program practicum application form must be approved by the Graduate Program Director. More Info
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