TE 408: Crafting Teaching Practices in English language Arts
TE 408 – Crafting Teaching Practices in English Language Arts
Instructor: Michael Sherry (734)255-3241
Class: Mon./Wed. 8-9:50am “Office” Hours: Wed. 10am
Course Description:
Because this course is situated between your English Department courses, your lab course, and your field placement, there will necessarily be some overlap in the material. Your instructors are in contact with each other, working to make this overlap complementary; we appreciate your patient and inquisitive feedback about how to best make this set of courses work together for you.
TE 408 is a senior-level methods course for English educators. It builds on the understandings of teaching English Language Arts (ELA) to diverse learners and of lesson planning you accrued in TE 407; it continues the practice you began in the lab of preparing, implementing, and evaluating ELA teaching techniques in workshop style; it draws on your knowledge of literacy and adolescence as explored in ENG 408; and it depends on your efforts in your placement to know your students and context. TE 408 adds to this foundation an experience of planning and teaching on a larger scale: a full unit within an institutional context.
Crafting teaching practices during a unit taught within a school context requires a balance you noted in TE 407 between routine and flexibility: what must remain consistent and systematic? what must be adapted and improvised? Of particular interest in this course is how to teach to general standards and institutional expectations while still maintaining the student-centered approach you learned about in TE 407.
Understandings and Assignments:
What are the characteristics of a good ELA unit plan?
Like a lesson plan, a unit plan has features that are common across various formulae; however, because a unit involves teaching and learning over time, it requires attention to trajectory, the sequence of ideas, and responsiveness.
What makes good ELA practice?
Now that you know something about various ELA techniques including groupwork, discussion, lecture, and writing assessment, we’ll focus on how to implement and evaluate these techniques effectively in relation to your purposes and context.
How can I teach to standards in a way that advocates for students?
Standards and standardized tests need not be mysterious obstacles: together, we’ll explore how to address these as members of an educational community responsible for the success of each of our students.
What ELA professional resources can help me improve?
(Re)evaluating your practice doesn’t end when you leave the preparation program. We’ll talk about how you can continue to learn and grow as an ELA professional through personal and communal reflection.
All of your assignments will focus on how to improve your practice as a member of a community of professionals:
Assignments and Weights:
All of your assignments depend on feedback from me and your peers; late work makes this difficult or impossible. As such, late work may result in a lowering of your grade. Please notify me in advance or keep me informed in an emergency. If you have put effort into an assignment, but are not happy with the result after grading, please see me about revising again for partial credit.
15% Journal – a regular record of your changing perspectives on readings and on teaching; also a place for assignment drafts. No one will read this unless invited. At the end of the semester, I’ll ask you to do some analysis and synthesis of what you’ve written here.
20% Lesson Plan – Together we will collaboratively construct and teach a unit; you and a group of peers will be responsible for teaching two consecutive lessons of this unit, which will be given a group grade based on the rubric we developed last semester; you get to choose which plan counts for you.
25% Unit Plan – You will create a unit consisting of ten lesson plans geared toward the topic(s) of your choice and toward your particular placement and students.
15% Peer- and self-evaluations – You respond to and reflect on lesson plans before and after they are taught as part of our collaborative unit.
15% Professional Resource Club – You and a group synthesize what you learn about how to teach writing in the context of standards and institution.
15% In-Class Participation – you and I will evaluate your participation daily; how you play your role in a group, contribute to class discussions, and complete your weekly work in a timely fashion will affect this portion of your grade.
Note: you must pass (2.0) all parts of this year’s program (seminar, lab, and fieldwork) to move on to the internship.
Course Texts: The course texts are the same ones you have bought for TE 407, though we may decide to purchase others for our collaborative unit. In addition, you and your professional resource group will choose among other readings.
1. Joseph Milner & Lucy Milner (2003). Bridging English. Publisher: Merrill Prentice Hall.
- Peter Smagorinsky (2002). Teaching English through principled practice. Publisher: Merrill Prentice Hall
3. Peggy O’Brien (ed). (1993) Shakespeare Set Free: Teaching Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Publisher: Folger Library.
4. Shakespeare, (1998) Romeo and Juliet (ed. Rex Gibson) (Cambridge School Shakespeare). Publisher: Cambridge University Press.
“Professional Resources” Texts (choose one for this cycle)
Cycle 2 – Professional ResourcesBest Practice (Zemelman, Daniels, & Hyde 2005)
Because Writing Matters (NWP & Nagin 2006)
Writing a Life (Bomer 2005)
Writing on Demand (Gere, Christenbury, & Sassi 2005)
Writing to the Prompt (Angelillo 2005)
National Council of Teachers of English
As professionals, we teachers continue educating ourselves to improve our craft and stay up with developments in subject matter and teaching resources. One important source is our professional organization, the National Council of Teacher of English. If you haven’t already, please join the NCTE this year and begin taking advantage of the range of resources it provides English teachers. You can gain information and join through the NCTE website, at www.ncte.org. [Note: Student membership is $20 and includes one professional journal of your choice. We are recommending you choose The English Journal. Additional journals, should you be interested, are $5.]
Policies:
Attendance/Tardy policy:
Our work together is important to me: it depends on us being present in order to support and challenge each other as a community. As such, I ask that you respect the following guidelines:
More than two absences from this course will result in a lowering of your grade, except in emergency situations. In an emergency, please keep me informed and, if possible, notify me in advance.
Arriving more than 10 minutes late will be considered an absence, even if you remain for the rest of the class (unless you have warned me ahead of time).
Please remember to turn off cell phones and other electronic devices that might make it harder for you or your classmates to be “present” during class; failure to do this may result in a lowering of your grade.
You are expected to attend your placement for 4 hours each week; this should be divided into two 2-hour visits. Your cooperating teacher (CT) and I expect you to be present, on-time, appropriately attired, and helpful.
Writing Center
The MSU Writing Center (300 Bessey Hall, and in the library) is an excellent resource for writing assistance for writers of any ability level at any stage of the writing process. As you know, even good writers can benefit from peer review, and you might be interested simply in seeing how they do it.
I encourage you to make appointments at the Writing Center early. The schedule often becomes very busy during the semester--making appointments early will assure that you get assistance and will give you deadlines for drafts.
University Policies
Grading - TE Program policy dictates that in order to pass TE 407 and 408, all parts of the course (seminar, field experience, labs) must be passed with a 2.0 or above. This means satisfactory reports from your lab instructor and the teachers in the field experiences. If you receive less than a 2.0 in the course, the entire course must be repeated in order to continue in the Teacher Preparation Program.
Academic Honesty- Article 2.3.3 of the Academic Freedom Report states that “the student shares with the faculty the responsibility for maintaining the integrity of scholarship, grades, and professional standards.” In addition, the College of Education adheres to the policies on academic honesty as specified in General Student Regulations, 1.0, Protection of Scholarship and Grades, and in the all-University Policy on Integrity of Scholarship and Grades, which are included in Spartan Life: Student Handbook and Resource Guide. Students who commit an act of academic dishonesty may receive a 0.0 on the assignment or in the course. For additional information, see the MSU ombudsman’s website.
Accommodations for Disabilities: I would like to accommodate anyone with disabilities; please don’t hesitate to contact me. Students with disabilities should also contact the Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities to establish reasonable accommodations. For an appointment with a counselor, call 353-9642 or 355-1293.
Drops and Adds: The last day to drop or add this course is the end of the first week of classes.
Observing a Major Religious Holiday: You may make up course work missed to observe a major religious holiday only if you make arrangements in advance with the instructor.
Schedule: (subject to change
please be understanding)
(note: This monthly schedule shows the approximate dates of assignments; for a detailed list of lesson topics, activities, readings, and assignments, please see the web-based version of the syllabus at http://www.msu.edu/~sherrymi/)
January / February / March1/8 / 1/10 / 2/5
Unit Plan: Overview / 2/7 / 3/5
Break / 3/7 Break
1/15 MLK jr. / 1/17 Unit Plan / 2/12
PRC / 2/14 / 3/12
PRC / 3/14
1/22 Professional Resources Club (PRC) / 1/23 / 2/19
Unit Plan: Assignment / 2/21 / 3/19
Unit Plan:
5 Plans / 3/21
1/29
PRC / 1/31 / 2/26
PRC / 2/28 / 3/26
PRC / 3/28
April / April (cont’d)
4/2 Professional Resources Club / 4/4 / 4/23
Portfolio conferences / 4/25
4/9 / 4/11
4/16 / 4/18 Unit Plan / 4/30 – 5/4
Portfolio conferences
Final Exam (Journal Synthesis)
Date TBA
This font = Assignment handed out
This font = Assignment due