Summer 2014 Graduate Education Courses

Courses offered, dates, and times subject to change.  Summer registration for accepted students starts February 4th and March 3rd for all others.  Paper registration form found under "Academic Forms".

GED 508 Current Topics in Special Education: Co-Teaching: Why & How? (3cr.)

Instructor: Deirdre Donovan and Arlene Moore

Are two teachers better than one? Explore the benefits of the co-teaching model in a week long, intensive course. Participants will focus on how co-teachers share responsibilities for planning, instruction and assessment. They will also explore how a content area teacher and a special educator combine their professional strengths, philosophies and personalities to create a positive, cohesive classroom to ensure success for each and every student.

GED 520 Child and Adolescent Development (3cr.)
Instructor: Diane Guarino

This course provides an analysis of developmental theories for school-age children and adolescents. Students will examine specifics of cognitive, social, emotional, moral and physical development. Stages and theories will be reviewed from an interdisciplinary perspective and related to implications for learning.

GED 526A Success for Students with Challenging Behaviors: Understanding Students (1 cr.) 

GED 526B Success for Students with Challenging Behavior: Creating and Using the FBA  (1 cr.)

Instructors:  Glenn Patterson & Andrea Griffin

This course, for general educators and special educators, is designed as a refresher course on understanding and completing a Functional Behavioral Assessment on students demonstrating challenging behaviors. This module also will explore what should be done after an FBA is conducted.  We’ll discuss important components of an FBA and how to make a plan to ensure student success once an FBA has been completed.  This course can be taken independently or as part of the three part course module which also includes Success for Students with Challenging Behaviors: Understanding Students  And Success for Students with Challenging Behaviors: Keeping Kids in Their Schools.

GED 526C: Success for Students with Challenging Behaviors

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GED 526D Creativity and the Neuroscience of Teaching (3 cr.)

Instructor: Sam Crowell

This course will focus on reducing stress in educators' lives and creating less stressful environments in elementary, secondary and higher education classrooms. Research and experience will be integrated in a way that deepens understanding and enriches practical knowledge. Participants will experience a wide variety of stress reduction practices that promote a sense of well-being and enhance creativity, learning and achievement.

GED 526E Cultural Competency in the Classroom (1 cr.)

GED 535 Children's Literature: Author and Illustrator Study (3cr.)

Instructor: Anita Silvey

After the instructor presents the components of a successful picture book, seven author-illustrators will be traced from their first book to their final work -- Virginia Lee Burton, James Marshall, Ezra Jack Keats, Lois Ehlert, Eric Carle, David Wiesner, and Laura Vacarro Seeger. Class members will read and evaluate the works of these creators and in the final class present an author study. Drawing on forty years of experience in publishing and reviewing books, Anita Silvey will model different approaches to author units and help each student execute a final project that can be used in the classroom or library.

GED 542 Differentiated Curriculum in the K-12 Classroom (3cr.)

Instructor: Katie Lenox

Students will explore the principles and elements of differentiated instruction, a term identified and defined by the work of Carol Tomlinson. Students will also learn basic elements of Understanding by Design and the connections between the two approaches. We will study instructional and management strategies that help teachers respond to students according to their readiness, interests, and learning profiles. We will focus on ways to differentiate the content, the learning process and products for all students. We will use the Vermont Grade Level Expectations or the Common Core. This course is specifically designed for practicing classroom teachers.

GED 558 Educator as Researcher (3cr.)

Instructor: Amy Cole

This course introduces students to the broad range of educational research, develops critical skills needed for analyzing research studies, and provides intensive assignments directed toward writing a research proposal. Among the skills students develop are the abilities to access and synthesize information from multiple sources; choreograph a research project; and write a literature review. Students should come prepared with a question to research. Required writing assessment for Candidacy included in course. First class meets in the Library on June 5th from 5:00-6:30 pm.

GED 595 Launching & Developing a Writers’ Workshop in the Elementary Grades (3cr.)

Instructor: Libby Bonesteel

This course explores the components of writing workshop in the elementary grades (K-6). Participants focus on the structures on workshop teaching; learning the continuum of strategies writers draw from and how to teach those within a conference or small group; planning at the unit, whole group, small group, and individual levels; giving productive feedback to students; and changing our mindsets to support the most challenged writers. Participants will be designing a unit of study to put in action in their classrooms. The Common Core will be studied as a document that centers the work within the writing workshop. TEXTS: The Writing Workshop: Working Through the Hard Parts (And They're All Hard Parts), Katie Wood Ray w/ Lester Laminack, 2001 by National Council of Teachers of English and Seft-Directed Writers: The Third Essential Element in the Writing Workshop 2013 by Leah Mermelstein.

GED 607 Literacy Instruction for Readers Who Struggle (3 cr.)

Instructor: David Mendenhall

The What Works Clearinghouse, the International Reading Association, and the National Council of Teachers of English have all examined research on effective classroom and intervention practices for struggling adolescents. This course is designed to build on this knowledge base as we explore ways to assess and adjust literacy instruction to the strengths and needs of adolescent students.

GED 618 From Assessment to Action: Using Data to Transform Schools (3cr.)

Instructor: Amy Cole

This course will provide students with an understanding of the cultural shifts inherent in schools evolving from NCLB legislation and the increased focus on monitoring student learning. Students will develop the necessary understandings and tools to make connections between Vermont's grade expectations, the Common Core, local curriculum and formative and summative assessment of student learning. Students will explore ways to use state and local student assessment data to make decisions about instruction, professional development and school/supervisory union based action planning. Students will develop an understanding of curriculum in the context of standards, assessment, instruction and student learning. Students will need access to school assessment data that will be used throughout the course. Students without a teacher license require instructor approval. The course syllabus and reading material will be sent to participants prior to the beginning of the course. Access to some element of student performance data (class, grade, school-wide) required or otherwise arranged with instructor prior to initial class).

GED 631 Development, Learning, Behavior and Individual Differences (3cr.)

Instructor: Judith Christensen

This course examines cognitive, emotional, behavioral and social development from birth through early adulthood, considering how development impacts learning at all stages.  Students examine how educational learning theory relates to cognitive, emotional, behavioral and social development. In addition to a comprehensive review of developmental and learning literature, each student has the opportunity to engage in self-directed learning by selecting a relevant topic and creating a project that is either student-based or curriculum-based.   Students will have the second to the last week free of class meetings to work on their selected projects to present the last week.

GED 635 Middle Grades Summer Institute (3cr.)

Must register through Middle Grades Collaborative, see below.Monday – Friday, June 23-27, 8:00 am – 5:00 pm.  Follow up conference is January, 2015.
To be held at the University of Vermont.

The Middle Grades Collaborative offers an annual intensive week-long institute for middle-level educators.  The major goal of the institute is to foster young adolescent development where every student becomes an intellectually reflective person, a person en route to a lifetime of meaningful work, a good citizen, and a caring and ethical individual.  Courses include:

                 GED 635A:  Middle Grades Organization
                 GED 635B:  Middle Grades Curriculum   
                 GED 635C:  Embedded Literacy in Middle Grades
                 GED 635D:  Brain Based Education for Young Adolescents
                 GED 635E:  Middle School is Not a Building
                 GED 635F:  Middle Grades Learners and Technology
                 GED 635G: Foundations in English Language Learner Instruction
                 GED 635H:  Place-based Education
                 GED 635I:  Teaming in High Schools                            

Participants select one of the above courses. The first four courses can be credited toward a middle level endorsement. Individuals and teams of teachers seeking further professional development in middle grades philosophy and practice are encouraged to enroll in Middle School in Not a Building and Middle Grades Learners and Technology. Individuals and teams of teachers seeking further professional development in teaming at the high school level are encouraged to enroll in Teaming in High Schools.

For registration and information please contact James Nagle at Saint Michael's College, jnagle2@smcvt.edu.  Costs for the Institute are: $1,250 for non-credit; and $1,750 for credit. Tuition includes room and board, but residency is not required. Checks and money orders are payable to the Middle Grades Collaborative. www.middlegradescollaborative.org

GED 641 Teaching in an Inclusive Classroom K-12 (3cr.)

Instructor: Beth Peterson

In this course participants will learn how to teach and accommodate students with disabilities in any regular classroom.  Basic special education history and laws will be examined.  Participants will explore the complex nature of serving students with special needs and discover specific strategies for making inclusion work.  Participants will be responsible for finding a student to tutor for 2 hours per week to complete a case study as a part of the course requirements. 

GED 643 Instruction of Students with Learning Challenges in the Area of Language Arts: Elementary Level (3cr.)

Instructors: Sarah Schoolcraft and Chris Sedic-Lawton

Held at St. Francis Xavier School, Winooski
This course provides an in-depth study of sound instructional practices and materials to use with unsuccessful learners based on an analysis of the learner’s strengths and weaknesses in the area of reading and written language. Methods used to teach reading, spelling, study and writing skills are covered. The emphasis is on working with students in elementary schools. Course times include practicum experience.

GED 668 Administration and Interpretation of the Woodcock-Johnson IV (3cr.)

Instructor:  Rich Reid

The Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery - Fourth Edition (WJ-IV) is a wide-range, comprehensive set of individually administered tests for measuring cognitive abilities, academic achievement, and oral language development.  The WJ-IV has been updated to reflect the contemporary research on cognitive abilities, to increase utility relative to determining special education eligibility, to provide greater diagnostic capabilities to inform instruction, and to reflect the research regarding language development and overall academic achievement.  Through participation in this course, participants will learn about the tests, factors, and scoring options that result from the administration of this test battery.  Students will also learn to administer, score, and interpret the WJ-IV.  Classroom discussions, demonstrations, and activities will be supplemented by three complete administrations of the battery.  Students who successfully complete this course will have met the training criteria recommended by the authors and publisher of the WJ-IV.  The course will also include a discussion of a variety of essential related topics such as Vermont's special education eligibility criteria as they relate to tests and scoring options.  The WJ-IV will also be thoroughly examined in regard to its use within Responsiveness to Intervention (RtI) model of student support. 

GED 673A: Portraits and Manuscripts: Off Grid (1 cr.)
Instructor:  Ben Patrick

Classroom and art teachers ask their students to make portraits and visual documents for many different curriculum projects.  Through a series of hands-on activities this course is designed for educators to gain confidence and expand the possibilities in their ability to help their students express identity and perspective.  We will use mixed media to draw, collage, and sculpt portraits and make manuscripts as well as be inspired by the varied ways artists have interpreted portraits and manuscripts in the past.  To model an integrated curriculum project we will explore Homer’s Odyssey to demonstrate how to visually convey different emotions, values, and physical attributes.  In the process of creating portraits and manuscripts we will keenly observe the range between abstraction and representation and use of symbols, text, metaphor, and layering.

GED 673B: Creating Stories from Art History and Our Visual Culture (1 cr.)
Instructor:  Jonathan Silverman

Have you ever looked at a piece of art and wondered how to talk about it?  How do you help your students critically and imaginatively respond to the visual culture we live in? How might contemporary art work inspire the creative process and lead to personal expressive interpretations on the environment, human rights, or globalization? This one credit course is open to those who want to extend their knowledge of inspiring works of art, make sense of visual culture, engage in the creative process, and generate ideas to include arts literacy in educational environments. The essential premise for this class is that the arts have not only been an enduring literacy to all cultures they provide a moral, spiritual, and aesthetic window into our culture today and the future.  As we read a variety of images and understand the context in which these images are made and the stories they tell, we will build our observational skills and perception.  We will enrich our vocabulary to communicate about images, spark our creativity by being inspired by works of art and review accessible resources. After participating in a variety of active aesthetic education exercises students will design an inquiry project of personal interest and/or one that relates directly to their curricula. This course is designed for those with or without (positive) art history experiences and who seek to explore vibrant ways to integrate art and history, visual and culture and imagination and creativity.

GED 673C:  Enlivening Reading with Drama (1 cr.)
Instructor:   Joan Robinson

Research has shown that creative drama builds reading skills and yet, it is rarely used in teaching reading. This course, designed for K-12 teachers with all levels of acting experience, presents ways to teach theater skills and to easily interweave drama into the study of both fiction and non-fiction texts. A reading list will be available by mid-June.

GED 673D Special Topics in Art:  Science, Bookmaking, Arts (3 cr)
Instructors: Linda Lembke and Susan Sawyer

In this course we will explore bookmaking as a means to support scientific concepts and drawing as an essential tool for communication of observations, processes, and concepts in science. In the mornings, Linda Lembke will lead students through the construction of several book models suggested by concepts of cycles, sequences, and classification as well as field journals designed for scientific exploration. In the afternoons, Susan Sawyer will lead drawing exercises to demonstrate that much of the content of science can best be communicated visually. Together we will work on a collaborative science project that brings together both bookmaking and drawing skills. The course is designed for art, science, and classroom educators at all grade levels. Independent projects will relate to students’ interest in developing an area of the science curriculum or a scientific concept with a related book form. There is a $100.00 materials fee due at registration.

GED 673E Thinking Like DaVinci: Bringing Innovation to Interdiciplinary Curriculum & the Common Core (3 cr.)

Instructor: Autumn Bangoura

With the newly developed Common COre Standards focusing primarily on literacy and mathematics, many educators are struggling to maintain an adequate focus on Science, History and the Arts. Inspired by DaVinci's innovative way of thinking about the worlds of science, art, technology, writing, mathematics, and invention, this course is designed to help teachers develop a cross-disciplinary approach to unit planning. Conducive to K-8 educators, teaching artists, and museum educators this course provides opportunities for participants to experience model lessons that employ such cross-disciplinary (and Common Core friendly) skills as observation, prediction, experimentation, inquiry, and imagination that will lead to individually designed "DaVinci" units.

GED 674 Multicultural Arts (3cr.)
Instructor:  Ann Joppe-Mercure

This course will combine the discipline of visual arts with the concept of multicultural studies. By engaging in hands-on projects, using artifacts, going on field trips, and discussing professional readings, participants will learn to integrate multicultural studies into their curriculum. The major themes of the course include inquiry based exploration of cultural artifacts, similarities across cultures and folk art. Connections will be made to the Common Core’s goal of understanding other perspectives and cultures. This course fulfills the integrated arts requirement in the Arts in Education concentration. A $50.00 materials fee is due upon registration.

GED 684 School and Community (3cr.)

Instructor: Valerie Gardner

This course introduces current and prospective educators and administrators to the ever changing, but closely coupled, relationship between school and community. Emphasis will be placed on how the community informs what happens in schools, and how the schools, in turn, influence the community. The course will also look closely at the role played by economic, political and social forces.

GED 695 Teaching K-8 Science and Design Technology (3cr.)

Instructor: Tim Whiteford

This course is designed to explore the many facets of teaching science and design technology at the K-8 levels. Course participants will explore Inquiry-Centered Science and Design Technology concepts and skills through a variety of hands-on, minds-on activities. Course topics will include an exploration of the National Science Standards as well as State and local science standards, instructional resource materials, selected science programs, the application of technology in science education as well as ways students construct a meaningful understanding of science concepts. A $25.00 materials fee is required and due at registration.

GED 699 Capstone Seminar (3cr.)

Instructor: Beth Peterson
(First meeting will be on Thursday, April 10th, 3:30-4:30 pm.)
This course is designed to support students as they complete their studies in the M.Ed. program. Students conduct research in a topic of interest and then complete a paper and presentation demonstrating their in-depth understanding of this topic. Research skills, critique, reflection, and interactive presentations are included in the course. Students must have their proposal and timeline approved by the instructor before the first class, April 10, 2014. Prerequisite: GED 558 Educator as Researcher.

Future Education Course Offerings

NOTE: This is a tentative schedule for planning purposes. Some courses may need to be offered during other terms or days. Fall and spring courses are offered in the evening from 5:00-7:30 with a few exceptions beginning 30 minutes earlier or later. Contact Karen Abbott, kabbott@smcvt.edu, directly with any questions.