Course Rotation (2022-2023) Course Descriptions
Description of Required Courses
M.Ed. in Secondary Education Humanizing & Culturally Affirming Teacher (HCAT) Program
Description of Required Courses
Course Rotation
First Year Summer Session 1 (June/July)
TLS 553 Classroom Management and Instruction (3 units)
Course Description: Analysis of theories and practice of instruction, management techniques and assessment. This course is designed to prepare students to begin teaching in their own classrooms. In addition, this course prepares students to develop a discipline plan and a classroom management plan, including class rules appropriate for the first day of school. Students will examine the crucial role of values and beliefs in classroom management decisions.
TLS 516 Structured English Immersion (3 units)
Course Description: Analysis of reading and writing situations encountered by bilingual and second language learners; phonological, semantic, and syntactic aspects of instruction; materials, and methods of teaching reading and writing in the native language. Graduate-level requirements include an in-depth research paper or other project.
First Year Summer Session 2 (July/August)
TLS 566 Methods and models of Instruction for Practicing Teachers (3 units)
Course Description: This course is designed to reflect three basic goals: Developing a repertoire of teaching practices and reflection upon those practices; developing effective habits of mind and using theory and research on teaching and learning as a basis for the reflective practice. Students completing this course should develop a repertoire of methods of teaching and develop the ability to critique teaching according to the standards of the specific models. Reflections on teaching models should include consideration of philosophical issues concerning the models of teaching as well as theory and research studied in class. The format for the class will include: (1) presentations of the theory and the research base behind effective teaching strategies, techniques and procedures; (2) analysis of various methods and (3) opportunities to explore the relation of theory to practice.
First Year Fall: These courses are part of the monthly Teacher Education Seminars (TES)
TLS 593C Field Experience in Secondary School (6 units)
Course description: This is an internship course that provides students with credit for their full time teaching in the classroom. Students on intern certificates are required by the state to be enrolled in an internship course for the duration of their time on the intern certificate. The monthly TES will provide students the opportunity to build teaching skills and to reflect on teaching experiences in a robust Professional Learning Community. In addition to providing peer support, TES gives students the opportunity to improve their teaching practices by focusing on lesson planning, methods of instruction, classroom management, delivery of instruction, equity literacy, and reflection on In-TASC teaching standards.
TLS 584 Equity Literacy (3 units)
Course Description: This course places equity (fairness) at the core of its investigation of schooling. Within the context of the cultures of students, schools, and communities, the course is designed to reflect knowledge growth in teaching as well as the critical/social theoretical frameworks in education that examine equity and inequity, justice and injustice. The course is based on the belief that students’ and teachers’ realities, experiences, values, and assumptions affect their interpretations and understandings of their own learning and teaching.
First Year Spring: These courses are part of the monthly Teacher Education Seminars (TES)
TLS 593C Field Experience in Secondary School (6 units)
Course Description: This is an internship course that provides students with credit for their full time teaching in the classroom. Students on intern certificates are required by the state to be enrolled in an internship course for the duration of their time on the intern certificate. The monthly TES will provide students the opportunity to build teaching skills and to reflect on teaching experiences in a robust Professional Learning Community. In addition to providing peer support, TES gives students the opportunity to improve their teaching practices by focusing on lesson planning, methods of instruction, classroom management, delivery of instruction, equity literacy, and reflection on In-TASC teaching standards.
TLS 549 Transformative Ethnic Studies Teaching (3 units)
Course Description: This course is designed to describe and analyze K-12 school Ethnic Studies teaching. Through critical reflection around issues of race, gender, class, language, culture, ethnicity, and the discourse of whiteness in schooling. The course will examine transformational Ethnic Studies pedagogical strategies rooted in Indigenous Meso-American epistemologies that were the framework for the highly successful Mexican American Studies program in Tucson, Arizona. In addition, students will identify, apply and share humanizing practices in their classroom engagement of Ethnic Studies through critical praxis, and building curriculum lessons and units aligned to Ethnic Studies tenets. Students will incorporate an equity literacy lens grounded in the critique of schooling and teaching. The course will draw upon analyses of empirical and theoretical literature as well as conceptual self-reflection. Furthermore, students will experience how to cultivate a classroom culture that will support the development of student critical thought, analysis and action beyond required standards.
Second Year Summer Session 1 (June/July) These courses are online
SERP 500 Introduction to Special Learning Needs (3 units)
Course Description: This course provides beginning graduate students with a knowledge of issues surrounding the fields of special education and rehabilitation. Issues include legal; principles and concepts of assessment; principles of teaching and counseling. Students will examine and develop their personal philosophies regarding assessment of, services to and intervention with individuals with exceptionalities.
Second Year Summer Session 2 (July/August)
TLS 577 Adolescent Development (3 units)
Course Description: This course applies psychological principles of child and adolescent development and provides a critical examination of factors (gender, socioeconomic status (SES), race, ethnicity, culture, and language) that have an impact on physical, cognitive, social, emotional, and moral developmental outcomes.
Second Year Fall: These courses are part of the monthly Teacher Education Seminars (TES)
TLS 570 Introduction to Educational Research (3 units)
Course Description: This course introduces students to qualitative/participant research methods that can be utilized when conducting research in their classrooms as a requirement for the Alternative Path M.Ed. in Secondary Education. It is designed to assist students in the development of data literacy skills that are necessary to conduct qualitative research projects. In addition, students develop the skills to be critical consumers of educational research and to expand their equity literacy perspective on research and practice.
TLS 593D Field Experience in Secondary School (6 units)
Course Description: This is an internship course that provides students with credit for their full time teaching in the classroom. Students on intern certificates are required by the state to be enrolled in an internship course for the duration of their time on the intern certificate. The monthly TES will provide students the opportunity to build teaching skills and to reflect on teaching experiences in a robust Professional Learning Community. In addition to providing peer support, TES gives students the opportunity to improve their teaching practices by focusing on lesson planning, methods of instruction, classroom management, delivery of instruction, equity literacy, and reflection on In-TASC teaching standards.
Second Year Spring: These courses are part of the monthly Teacher Education Seminars (TES)
TLS 593D Field Experience in Secondary School (6 units)
Course Description: This is an internship course that provides students with credit for their full time teaching in the classroom. Students on intern certificates are required by the state to be enrolled in an internship course for the duration of their time on the intern certificate. The monthly TES will provide students the opportunity to build teaching skills and to reflect on teaching experiences in a robust Professional Learning Community. In addition to providing peer support, TES gives students the opportunity to improve their teaching practices by focusing on lesson planning, methods of instruction, classroom management, delivery of instruction, equity literacy, and reflection on In-TASC teaching standards.
TLS 597R Action Inquiry Workshop (3 units)
Course Description: This course is designed to provide graduate students with an overview of recent scholarship about teaching and schooling in the United States. A number of research studies and other scholarly works will be examined from the perspective of their assumptions, methodologies, findings, significance, and implications for policy and practice. We will explore and analyze the underlying issues within contemporary educational policies, practices, and theories. We will attempt to ground the day-to-day realities of the classroom within a larger philosophical, historical, anthropological, political, and sociological context. An interdisciplinary perspective will create a lens to reflect upon the perceptions and practices of education in the United States and provide a foundation from which to continue reflective and critical educational practices as educational leaders.
A primary emphasis of the course will be on critique, analysis, and reflection in relation to the course content and equity in schooling. It is expected that students will use or develop the academic habits of mind that promote serious and deep understandings of the topics and methodologies we encounter in education. We will raise and explore key questions about research findings in light of how those questions and findings impact what teachers and schools can do to support an educational climate of the students they serve.
Credit hours in the M.Ed. Program: 51