This instructional methods course provides an opportunity to explore issues and strategies related to current models and trends in literacy teaching and learning. Creating inclusive learning communities characterized by equity, access and social justice requires the continued development of all students’ capacities to use language and construct meaning through print. A foundational assumption of this course is that literacy is not a ’subject’ but a tool for social, cultural, and academic engagement.

In this course students engage in reflective cycles of teaching practice. Using their teaching internship as a source of inquiry, students make their practice public, share teaching issues, and problem-solve through collegial dialogue. Participants critically reflect on curriculum, student learning, and student identities by posing questions, surfacing assumptions, reframing issues, and developing action steps to transform their teaching.

This seminar involves weekly meetings in which students examine a range of issues emanating from school-based experiences. In addition, the course fulfills specific Washington Administrative Code (WAC) requirements for teacher preparation. Students hear selected speakers on professional topics related to sexual harassment, appropriate relationships and touch in school, school contract law, IEP/504 students, and child neglect/abuse.

This school-based field experience accompanies the elementary and secondary curriculum and instruction courses. MAT students observe and participate in elementary and/or secondary classroom teaching and learning experiences.

This is the capstone course and culminating experience for the Education Studies minor. Participants should have completed most or all of their Education Studies coursework before enrolling. During the course, students work with a mentor teacher to examine instructional practice and student learning in a classroom setting. Students learn about action research, and develop a study in their school-based classroom, identifying relevant questions, collecting and analyzing data, and developing practical implications.

The central topic of this course is the ways teachers view learning, instruction, classroom organization, and motivation. This course takes a micro-analytical approach focusing on classroom interactions and how a teacher plans for a range of student interests, experiences, strengths, and needs.

This course focuses on the ways in which educators, politicians, and the public view the state of American schools. Broad philosophies of education guide an analysis of schools, which include historical lenses as well as the current literature on classroom reforms. This course contrasts central issues of schooling as seen from the "outside" political domain and the "inside" experience of students. In particular, the course addresses how issues of race and social class as well as economic inequality surround current debates over the best way to improve schools in the 21st century.

Teaching about the past tells us where we came from and provides a narrative that communicates who "we" are. Using primary sources with K-12 students is often touted as one of the best ways to shape inclusive narratives while developing reading, writing, and critical thinking. And yet, primary sources are rarely used at the pre-college level. This class is designed to introduce students to using primary documents to help K-12 students understand alternative perspectives of the past.