Second Year Seminars

In the fall semester, second year students take the EGEN 296 Methods of Teaching seminar. The seminar, designed to integrate with the methods courses and the assessment course, helps students to reflect on their clinic experiences through a lens of approaches to teaching. The 296 seminars are taught by methods faculty who have a wealth of knowledge on principles and philosophies of teaching a specific subject area as well as their practical applications. Seminar sections are organized around certification area, so, for example, all secondary English majors participate in the same EGEN 296. Certification-specific groupings allow students to reflect on and analyze each other’s work in the content area and to share specific strategies and challenges associated with teaching their specific subject and grade level.

The seminars help students work on curriculum, instructional strategies, unit and lesson planning, assessment strategies, differentiation of instruction for different learners, and many day-to-day issues of classroom and instructional management. Students work with their seminar leaders to continue to develop a reflective stance and practices that will support their growth as professional educators. Activities are specifically geared toward helping students construct and develop the knowledge, skills, and dispositions they will require for a successful student teaching experience.

While specific clinic assignments for students will vary depending upon their seminar leader, some assignments that students have been expected to complete at this phase of the program in the context of their clinic placement include the following:

• Design and implement a lesson on a topic that is negotiated with the clinic teacher. Also, develop an assessment tool for discerning how well students learned or mastered the objectives of the lesson.
• Collect samples of assessment tools used in the school. Discuss the tools in terms of what they do and do not assess and what they revealed about student learning when employed.
• Videotape yourself teaching a lesson to a small group or the entire class. Review and reflect on the video and submit a detailed analysis of your teaching and your areas for improvement.
• Develop a unit of instruction plan, including rationale for implementation, a calendar of activities, daily lesson plans, handouts, overheads, assignment sheets, assessment tools, and other materials for each day of the unit, and an assessment plan.

Students continue to gather and create materials for their teaching portfolios in the EGEN 296 seminar. Teachers in the clinic setting can be helpful in providing instructional materials to add to the portfolio – just ask!