Program Description

“How can I most effectively navigate being myself as a teacher of a diverse group of students, their families, communities and our colleagues in ways that support development, social justice & democracy?” This is a question you will collectively explore throughout your time in the program.

We began our investigation in the fall quarter by attending to students and their communities. We operated under the premise that all students have valuable funds of knowledge, life experiences, and interests to which we can connect our instruction. We learned some strategies for learning about students’ backgrounds and prior knowledge. We also began  learning about the cultural, historical contexts of schooling as well as teacher expectations and practices that are implicated in differential access to learning in the school setting. This quarter you will begin to learn how to develop equitable and accessible learning environments. We investigated how people learn and identified some key features of learning opportunities. As a next step in developing routines for planning your instruction, you began to develop practices for uncovering students’ prior knowledge through questioning strategies, conceptual interviews and writing assessments. You also learned to identify and deconstruct standards for the purposes of developing relevant learning targets and appropriate assessments (Stages 1 and 2 in Backward Design). For the next two quarters you will carry this knowledge forward as you continue to refine your knowledge of unit development, lesson design and assessment. You will begin learning how to design meaningful learning opportunities in the context of different endorsement areas (Stage 3 of Backward Design). Elementary folks will work together to learn about Math and Literacy pedagogies. Secondary folks will all study Content Area Literacy and
then pursue either Science, Math, or Language Arts methods. You will also have the opportunity to plan for, teach and critically reflect on a 3-day sequence of lessons to a class or a small group of students in your practicum.

Assignments will continue to entail a range of activities including reading, interviews, collaboration, classroom observations and practice with students. They are specifically designed to help you to explore, reflect on, inform and ultimately demonstrate your understandings and skills. Throughout the quarter you will be expected to use  opportunities to self-assess, set goals for and use opportunities to refine your understanding – in other words to engage in the practice of critical reflection and professional development.