Discussions and fieldwork provide the student with an opportunity to understand the classroom as a learning community. The tutorial includes several meetings focusing on the student's participant observations and assigned readings. Fieldwork includes a minimum of 20 hours on site, individually scheduled in early childhood (pre K-2) or elementary (1-6) settings. Assessment includes in-progress reports and a final project related to fieldwork. Course graded on a credit/no credit basis.

Students participate in full-time student teaching in early childhood and elementary classrooms for 12 weeks. During this semester-long field-based placement, students hone classroom management skills, implement an extended integrated curriculum unit, deliver lessons in all content areas, and develop a wide range of assessment skills. The practicum culminates in two weeks of Lead Teaching, during which the student is responsible for managing all aspects of the classroom program.

This weekly seminar provides students with opportunities to examine curriculum development models, develop an integrated curriculum unit utilizing state and national content area standards, review researched based models of classroom management, and engage in dialogue with practicing teachers regarding numerous aspects of teaching and student learning. Additional topics covered include the arts in education, physical education, legal obligations of teachers, and home-school communication.

Students are expected to complete a supervised field experience full-time every day during January Intersession in an inclusive classroom in a school setting. Placements can be located within or outside of the Five College area. In addition to the field experience component, students attend three course meetings (detailed below).

Through a balanced and integrated approach students will learn to develop literacy in early childhood/elementary schools. Class members will learn about emergent literacy, diagnosing language needs, integrating phonics skills in a literature-based program, the teaching of process writing, children's fiction and nonfiction literature, and the use of portfolios for assessment. Course required for spring semester practicum students. Course evaluation is based on written and oral work done individually and in groups. Requires a prepracticum.

What do we learn? How do we learn? Why do we learn? In this course, we will study issues of learning, teaching, and motivation that are central to educational psychology. We will explore the shifting paradigms within educational psychology, multiple subject matter areas, (dis)continuities between classroom and home cultures, students' prior experiences, teachers as learners, ethnic and gender identity in the classroom, and learning in out-of-school settings.

Did you really learn everything you needed to know in kindergarten? In this course we will explore how children's development, with a focus on early childhood (ages 0-8), is shaped by the family, school, community, cultural, and policy contexts in which they participate and live. We will read research conducted by psychologists, sociologists, and education researchers, as well as investigate representations of childhood in popular media and literature.

Language is a living system. It grows and changes, despite efforts to preserve it. This course examines how slang participates in these changes. What separates slang from standard language, and who sets the standard? Through readings in linguistics and literature, this course examines how we use language to connect, create, and control.

How do we represent ourselves as we document our lives and communicate with others? In this seminar we will move beyond critiques of selfie culture, instead analyzing self-representation as an important avenue for forming identities. We will study forms of self-representation across history and will focus on visual and new media as platforms for performing selfhood. Students will discuss the politics and aesthetics of self-fashioning across these media forms, and will execute multiple forms of self-expression, including the argumentative essay, the op-ed, the blog post, and the tweet.