ACCELA Course Descriptions:
EDUC 500L Student Teaching: ESL (3 credits)
This course is designed for participants who are seeking an ESL license. Participants should complete all required courses, pass all required state certification exams, and submit all paperwork before enrolling in this course. Please see your advisor for approval and guidance.
EDUC 533 Theories & Methods for Sheltered Instruction in ELL (3 credits)
This course is a practical introduction to the methods, materials, and instructional practices (e.g., SIOP) on the teaching of the English language to culturally diverse learners (CDL/ELL/ESOL). Participants will be apprenticed to a theory-based practice by creating a lesson plan and teaching an activity/mini-lesson using a chosen methodology informed by a second language acquisition theoretical framework. All of the course activities will serve as the basis for the development of a final project that will include the student's teaching philosophy specific practice/methodology, a lesson plan, and self-reflection on their teaching.
EDUC 611 Testing, Assessment, and Evaluation: Bilingual & ESL Education (3 credits)
The purpose of this course is to provide an introduction to the field of testing, assessment, and evaluation in second language education. Readings, activities, and discussions will focus on the complexities of monitoring student identification, placement, progress, and achievement to inform appropriate instructional decision making about content, language, and literacy objectives. The goal is to learn how to use assessment, testing, and evaluation to increasingly build from what students already know to expand their content knowledge, increase language and literacy development, and build strong identities as capable learners who can be active contributors to their local and wider communities.
EDUC 616 Principles of Second Language Learning and Teaching (3 credits)
The purpose of this course is to support teachers in constructing an informed, explicit understanding of second language learning and teaching through a close analysis of actual classroom interactions. The objectives of this course are to develop the ability to analyze classroom interactions or "discourse" in terms of their power to support students' academic language development; respond to the new insights regarding second language learning by developing more responsive classroom practices; critique different theories of first and second language acquisition and the implications of these theories for your classroom practice; develop the ability to use technology as a valuable professional development tool (e.g., digital video, web resources, PowerPoint); and develop the ability to collaborate with colleagues in analyzing student learning and making responsive pedagogical decisions.
EDUC 670 Language and Language Learning (3 credits)
This course focuses on grammar and how the grammatical choices we make in our everyday lives and in our academic work reflect and create the nature of the relationships we have with others; the topics we communicate about; and the modes through which we interact (on-line, face to face, print). The course draws on a systemic functional perspective of language to support participants in designing, implementing, and reflecting on the academic language development of English language learners. As such, on completion of this course participants will be able to understand how a functional perspective on grammar differs from traditional grammar and what difference this perspectives makes in supporting learners; understand and analyze how cultural and local contexts influence how people make meaning with language and other semiotic means; recognize and analyze critically the linguistic features of the genres students are routinely asked to read and write in school (e.g., narrative, descriptions, summaries, reports, explanations, arguments); analyze critically the linguistic features of student writing samples as students attempt to become more expert producers and critical readers of a school-based genres; and develop an action plan for teaching grade-level, content-based academic language to students drawing on the principles and tools of systemic functional linguistics.
EDUC 681 Teaching Reading and Writing for Content and Language Learning (3 credits)
The purpose of this course is to support participants in designing curriculum, instruction, and assessment for English language learners in content area learning. The course focuses on an approach to curriculum planning called Understanding by Design, with additional attention to genre theory and multimodal literacies. Participants will explore challenges that second language learners encounter in learning academic content in classroom, study theoretical and research perspectives on academic language that inform the teaching of ELLs, and develop a curriculum project that simultaneously teach language and content knowledge.
EDUC 684 Reading, Writing, Language & Thinking (3 credits)
The purpose of this course is to provide teachers with an understanding how classroom practices support and/or constrain the academic literacy development of linguistically and culturally diverse students. To achieve this purpose, this course is organized around four main activities: Exploring a sociocultural perspective of literacy development and contrasting this perspective with other orientations in the field of first (L1) and second language (L2) literacy studies; reading case studies of L1 and L2 literacy development conducted in a variety of contexts; collaborating with other members of the seminar in developing an in-depth analysis of the literacy practices of a focal student; and developing an explicit, concrete action plan for how you will design, implement, and reflect on students' literacy practices in your work as an educator. As a way of uniting these four activities, all of our work this semester will focus on the analysis and preparation of case studies of the literacy development of L2 learners.
EDUC 687 Language Development and Literacy (3 credits)
The purpose of the course is to examine current theory and research on children's development of oral and written language and its implications for reading, writing, and language instruction. Course readings and discussions will focus on the changing conceptions of language and literacy, with additional attention to be paid to the development of varieties of English and heritage languages other than English.
EDUC 692L Workshop in LLC Project Development (3 credits)
The purpose of this course is to support participants in conducting a curriculum project or action-oriented research that couples theory and practice in a way that reflects the goals of their programs of study. This project is a requirement for completing a master's and/or CAGS degree. Participants should consult with their advisors as well as the course instructor in planning, designing, implementing, and writing their projects.
EDUC 696UU Independent Study (1-6 credits)
The purpose of this course is to prepare participants for required MTEL certification exams and/or to support them in completing an advisor-approval project.
EDUC 698LA Prepracticum I: ACCELA (3 credits)
This pre-practicum course is designed for ACCELA candidates in the ESL Licensure Pathway to provide them with the necessary tools to engage in an ongoing analysis and reflection of the teaching and learning processes in ESL/ELL classrooms. The objectives of this course are to support participants in becoming familiar with the ESL Professional Standards (e.g., TESOL, DESE) and their implementation in daily teaching practices with ESL/ELL students; developing an in-depth understanding of ESL/ELL students' second/other language acquisition and literacy development; developing an understanding of the role of culture in learning and teaching of ELL students in the classroom; and reflecting on and analyzing one's own teaching practices and how they are conductive to ELL students' development of academic language in content areas.
EDUC 698LB Prepracticum II: ACCELA (3 credits)
This second pre-practicum course is designed for ACCELA candidates in the ESL Licensure Pathway to provide them with the necessary tools to engage in an ongoing analysis and reflection of the teaching and learning processes in ESL/ELL classrooms. The objectives of this course is to support participants in designing and implementing a curriculum unit in a sheltered instruction setting; conducting an in-depth analysis of one focal students' literacy development and response to teaching, assignments, and assessments; and reflecting on the importance of using different kinds of assessment and evaluation of ESL/ELL students' performance and how these assessments/evaluation demonstrate (or not) students' literacy development.
EDUC 698R Practicum – Teacher of Reading
This practicum course is designed for participants who are seeking a Reading Specialist license. Participants should complete all required courses, pass all required state certification exams, and submit all required paperwork before enrolling in this course. Please see your advisor for approval and specific guidance.
EDUC 783 Diagnosing Reading Difficulties (3 credits)
This course focuses on diagnosis and treatment of reading and writing difficulties. Participants will study theories and interpretations of diagnostic procedures.
EDUC 784 Issues in Children's Literature (3 credits)
The purpose of this course is to use children's literature that focuses on the Puerto Rican and Latino communities to explore the historical, philosophical, sociocultural, sociopolitical, and pedagogical foundations of multicultural education. Children's literature will be used throughout the course as a way to understand the Puerto Rican experience in the United States, as a model for incorporating issues of language, culture, and power into the curriculum, and as a way to reach out to the community.
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