EDUC 466

I. Course Title: Student Teaching in English Grades 6-12

II. Course Number: EDUC 466

III. Credit Hours: 12 credits

IV. Prerequisites: Admission into the Teacher Education Program; successful completion of Early Field Experiences in Teaching English Grades 6-12 (EDUC 446); recommendation of the candidate’s university field supervisor.

V. Course Description: 

This semester-long full-time field experience provides teacher candidates extensive clinical experience in a grade level appropriate for licensure in English teaching at the middle level (grades 6-8) or secondary level (grades 6-12). Candidates design and deliver a wide variety of learning experiences in their placement with the advantage of mentorship and coaching provided by schools, licensed teachers, and university faculty. Candidates begin by observing and co-teaching with their cooperating teachers and then transition to assume full responsibility for appropriate English classes. Regularly scheduled seminars enhance professional development of the candidate and are included as a weighted percentage of the student teaching grade. 

VI. Detailed Description of Content of the Course:

During this clinical experience, candidates are placed in a middle/secondary (grades 6-12) English classroom with a certified cooperating teacher. The semester begins with the candidate completing observations of the teacher and the students and learning classroom routines and expectations; candidates assume co-teaching responsibilities within the first few weeks and subsequently transition into full-time teaching, first using the cooperating teacher’s lesson plans and then their own. Candidates will develop their own lessons, provide instruction, and assess student learning in all appropriate classes for a minimum of two consecutive weeks. Candidates’ practices will utilize the Virginia Department of Education standards and the National Council of Teachers of English Standards for K-12 English Language Arts Education for planning and instruction.

Weekly seminars are scheduled to enhance the professional development of candidates enrolled in this field experience. Seminar participation is a weighted part of the student teaching grade. Topics include, but are not limited to the following: 

1. Classroom management and student motivation
2. Teaching diverse learners in the English classroom
3. Professional growth, reflection, and evaluation 
4. Communicating with families
5. Tools and resources for English Language Arts classrooms
6. Applications of instructional planning, pedagogy, and assessment

VI. Detailed Description of Conduct of Course:

Candidate placements are made in appropriate English classrooms in grades 6-12. Candidates practice teaching diverse learners under the supervision of approved cooperating teachers and university supervisors. Candidates are embedded in schools full-time throughout the semester; effective lesson planning, assessment, instructional delivery, and classroom management are key focus areas. The experience begins with observation and culminates in assumption of full teaching responsibility. The student teaching experience provides for a minimum of 300 clock hours with at least 150 hours spent supervised in direct teaching activities.

VII. Goals and Objectives of the Course:

Goals, objectives, and assignments address the Virginia Department of Education regulations for preparing middle/secondary (grades 6-12) English educators. Candidates successfully completing this course will be able to demonstrate developing knowledge, skills, and dispositions of the following:

Goal 1: Apply theories of learning and integration to English instruction and incorporate state and national standards 

• Design and implement structured, differentiated, original lessons that address multiple aspects of the English curriculum.

Goal 2: Plan evidence-based instruction and assessments to include differentiated instruction for diverse learners and select appropriate objectives, activities and teaching materials for English instruction.

• Apply theories of learning and integration to English instruction and incorporating technologies in learning.  Candidates will learn to contextualize teaching and draw effectively on representations from the students’ own experiences and cultures. 
• Design and implement lessons that use the NCTE best practices as foundational to students’ learning.

Goal 3: Demonstrate understanding of evidence-based literacy strategies in developing instructional tasks, activities, and/or lessons.

• Design instruction using reading strategies and techniques used to enhance reading comprehension skills in both fiction and nonfiction texts.
• Explain critical literacy and its potential impact on helping students learn English content and critical thinking.
• Design and implement lessons that incorporate instructional strategies to advance students’ content knowledge and encourage critical thinking skills
• Design instruction to teach research including ethical accessing, evaluating, organizing, crediting, and synthesizing information.

Goal 4: Meet the diverse needs of learners to engage them in English content learning.

• Identify technology, materials, manipulatives, and activities that engage all literacy learners across ability and achievement levels and support student knowledge of communication and media literacy skills
• Demonstrate an understanding of and proficiency in pedagogy to incorporate writing as an instructional and assessment tool for candidates to generate, gather, plan, organize, and present ideas in writing to communicate for a variety of purposes.

Goal 5:  Candidates demonstrate knowledge of English language arts subject matter content that specifically includes literature and multimedia texts as well as knowledge of the nature of adolescents as readers. 

• Design instruction incorporating reading strategies and techniques used to enhance reading comprehension skills in both fiction and nonfiction texts using fiction and non-fiction texts from young adult, British, American, world, and ethnic and minority texts appropriate for English instruction.
• Design instruction incorporating writing as an instructional and assessment tool.

Goal 6: Apply classroom [and behavior] management techniques and individual interventions, including techniques that promote the emotional well-being of learners. 

• Plan instruction using strategies to maintain student behavioral conduct consistent with norms, standards and rules of the educational environment.
• Design instruction to address diverse approaches based upon behavioral, cognitive, affective, social and ecological theory and practice.

Goal 7: Understand how to develop effective lessons, activities, and assessments.

• Interpret and analyze valid, standards-based assessments to make decisions about how to improve instruction and student performance.
• Design instruction with evidence of understanding the relationships among assessment, instruction, and student progress, as well as the ability to interpret valid assessments in order to measure student attainment of essential skills in a standards-based environment.

Goal 8: Develop skills as reflective practitioners.

Teacher candidates will be able to…

• Describe how adolescent development, school culture, and community intersect with the English instructional methods occurring in field placement sites. 
• Examine and use student data to reflect upon their lessons.

Goal 9: Build a repository of rigorous, meaningful teaching strategies and material for bringing ELA content to life for diverse learners. 

Teacher candidates will be able to:

• Write a yearlong plan for teaching an English course of the candidate’s choice. This plan will include a description of a teaching context, a rationale justifying chosen teaching and assessment approaches, detailed overviews of 6-9 units suitable for the teaching context, and additional elements.

Goal 10: Use multimodal composition and communication technologies to facilitate reflection and instruction.

Teacher candidates will be able to: 

• Write a unit of study that allows for a variety of means of expression, including writing, speaking and listening, and multiliteracies (e.g., artistic responses, film-making, digital narratives, podcasts, or whatever else you feel will promote understanding of the concepts at hand).

Goal 11: Teach a range of lessons, reflecting on and using feedback for continued growth, inquiry, and pedagogical skill.

Teacher candidates will be able to: 

• Write a teaching unit encompassing about 4-6 weeks of instruction organized around a specific theme or principle and should be derived from the theories of learning and teaching discussed as part of this course.

VIII. Assessment Measures:

Assessment in student teaching is both formative and summative; it is performance-based in an authentic field setting, and completed collaboratively by the classroom teacher and university faculty. Evaluation is based upon the INTASC Standards for Beginning Teachers embedded in the Teacher Candidate Evaluation form.  Key assessments include:

1. CAEP Performance Assessments: Lesson Planning 
2. CAEP Performance Assessments: Observation
3. CAEP Performance Assessment: Impact on Student Learning Project
4. CAEP Performance Assessment Final Evaluation
5. Key CAEP Performance Assessment: Professional Characteristics and Dispositions form
6. 150 successful teaching hours 
7. Participation in seminar (discussions and small-group activities; reflective writings as appropriate)
8. Completion of a student teaching portfolio that includes information about the community, school, students, instructional practices, assessments, analysis, and reflection on the student teaching experience.

Review and Approval

August 2020