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. Requires a prepracticum in a community-based setting.

When do we bring up race and racism in a classroom? What do teachers need to interrupt racism and other types of oppression? How do societal issues affect schools and communities? This course examines the historical, social, and legal underpinnings of social constructions and how perspectives on race have influenced lives within school communities. Topics included will be white privilege and accountability, achievement and opportunity gaps, and the impact of antiracist pedagogies on multiple levels. Intersectionality of race and other identities will also be addressed.

Performance study - individual instruction.

This course will follow the origins and evolution of jazz from the late nineteenth century to the present, with emphases on prominent stylistic trends and significant individuals. Along with some analysis of the musical language jazz employs, the music will be examined in its relation to the social contexts that helped produce and shape it. The ability to read music is not a requirement for this course.

Judaism is a 3,500-year-old tradition that has developed over time as Jewish communities all over the world creatively interacted with the different cultural and historical milieus in which they lived. This course explores the ways in which Judaism has sought to transform ordinary life into sacred life. What are the ways in which Judaism conceives of God, and what is the meaning of life? What roles do study, prayer, ethics, sex, marriage, family, rituals of the life cycle, and community play in Judaism?