Emily Cullen-Dunn

Art of Teaching Graduate Seminar, taken in our students’ final semester, is designed to support the integration and synthesis of students’ inquiry into teaching and learning, conducted throughout their time in the graduate program, as they prepare to enter their own classrooms. Students will make connections and reflect across their experiences in Field Work, Student-Teaching, and other coursework. They will gain further insight into various areas of content, pedagogy, and professional topics in the field of education. The course is conducted in collaboration with our Early Childhood Center faculty and staff and offers the students additional opportunities to learn from them through hands-on, reflective workshops on a variety of topics in Early Childhood and Childhood Education. In addition, Sarah Lawrence College faculty, Art of Teaching alumni and other guest speakers will lead sessions on topics within particular content-area disciplines. Students will also use the course as a primary space for collaboration and feedback (in addition to individual advising) on the development and preparation of their Masters Oral Thesis presentations.

Inclusive Emergent Curriculum and Responsive Environments is a semester-long course in which children’s interests and approaches to learning are at the forefront. Central to the course is understanding how to create curriculum that is driven by ideas - striving for wholeness, integration, coherence, meaning – and focused on assisting children in applying knowledge and thinking to real-life problems. During the semester, we will focus on curriculum development, planning, and multiple strategies for teaching diverse students within the full range of abilities. We will learn how to develop curricula that are culturally, emotionally, and developmentally responsive with multiple entry points that are inclusive of all students' strengths and interests. We will explore teaching methods that expand children’s knowledge and modes of thinking and learning along with strategies to respond to the unique needs of all children. We will discuss how children’s interests and questions connect to the large ideas and questions at the core of the subject matter disciplines using the Understanding by Design framework. You will learn effective practices for individualizing instruction and creating safe, positive and collaborative learning environments. We will focus on how to create responsive classroom communities in which the full spectrum of children are positively seen, included and supported. We will incorporate the tenets of Universal Design for Learning in order to honor our students' individual strengths and interests and provide multiple means for engagement, representation, and expression. Classroom design and organization, media and materials, and approaches to teaching and learning across disciplines will be discussed. Value will be placed on enabling in-depth inquiry, experimentation and discovery, and on establishing inclusive classroom communities based on collaborative learning. New York State Standards for the Arts, Social Studies, and Sciences will be examined, critiqued, and integrated into our work. We will also explore how to integrate assistive technology and technology for instruction in order to develop students skills in acquiring information, communicating, and enhancing learning. We will discuss curriculum and teaching strategies for individual subject areas, with an emphasis on the connections among disciplines, building toward an interdisciplinary approach to curriculum and instruction. The roles of the teacher as observer, provisioner, collaborator and facilitator will be discussed. During the semester, we will engage in hands-on inquiry in workshop settings, reflecting on our own learning and that of our peers. Implications will be drawn forward regarding the teacher’s role in accommodating different approaches to learning.

All children have strengths and vulnerabilities. Children have areas where they excel and areas where they feel insecure. There are times when learning is difficult; however, all children have the capacity to be creative and to learn. Understanding the individual differences of an entire class of students is a challenge. To plan and to meet the needs of the children in each classroom, we must understand what each child knows and how they learn. By carefully observing children in a variety of environments, teachers can develop responsive tools and experiences that further support each child’s development. This course will introduce students to topics related to advocacy and education of children with disabilities. We will learn about history, laws, classifications, approaches, policies and systems put in place to provide education for children with special needs. We will examine and discuss special education and its effect on the child, the classroom and school, families, and community. We will explore the concepts of inclusion, special needs diagnostic categories, designing curriculum that is responsive to children, differentiating curriculum to support skill development; keeping in mind that each child is unique. The goals of the course are to integrate our perspective of children’s individual needs while planning classroom inquiry; to explore ways of working with parents of children who require special support; to understand how to access support and feedback for children that require additional assistance; to consider implications for teaching in an inclusive classroom, school.

Practicum is designed to support and assist future teachers in preparing to begin working in their own classrooms. The course will provide students with resources, feedback, and the encouragement of others facing similar challenges. In our work we will seek, among other things, to gain insight into the processes and challenges of learning and teaching, both by drawing on the wisdom of those who have examined it critically and by reflecting on experience and practice in student-teaching and field work. In sum, the goal is for us all to become better “reflective practitioners” and to (re)design our teaching in response to those reflections. We will consider different approaches to teaching and pedagogic practices and explore what these might tell us about the implicit and explicit philosophies of learning exhibited in classrooms today. We will establish and clarify personal teaching values. We will hone skills and practices in the areas of class preparation and presentation; the development and assessment of curriculum; and the challenges of dealing with the contemporary, diverse student body. Other topics of importance in the course are the creation of opportunities and processes for collaboration among teachers, parents, and administrators and the development of strategies to reflect on, renew, and revise teaching with an emphasis on the importance of professional development. The roles of the family, school, and community in educating children are explored, as well as current philosophies and the climate regarding home, school, and community relationships. Overall, a primary goal is to help equip the Art of Teaching students to tackle the demands of the classroom and the needs of diverse learners. The class also aims to help students develop professional skills and burnish their teaching credentials as they consider applying for jobs. With this in mind, the class will concurrently work on the design of a teaching portfolio to submit with job applications.

All children in early-childhood settings and the elementary grades have strengths and weaknesses. All children have areas in which they excel and areas in which they feel insecure. All children have times when academic learning is difficult for them while, at the same time, all children have the capacity to learn. Understanding the individual differences of an entire class of students is a challenge; and in order to meet the needs of our students, we must observe their differences and individual patterns of behavior. This course will explore the concepts of inclusion; special-needs diagnostic categories; curriculum design that is responsive to children; and curriculum differentiation that supports skill development, keeping in mind that each child is unique. The goals of the course are: to integrate our perspectives of children’s individual needs while planning classroom inquiry; to explore ways of working with parents of children who require special support; to understand how to access support and feedback for children that require additional assistance; and to consider implications for teaching in an inclusive classroom and school.

The Practicum Seminar is a yearlong course that supports early-childhood and childhood student-teaching experiences and provides opportunities to draw together the ideas, processes, and approaches in early-childhood and childhood teaching practice, curriculum development, and instructional planning across content disciplines in prekindergarten through grade-two settings and in grades one-through-six classrooms. Issues and questions that arise in student teaching and continue to be present in classrooms and schools will be explored, including: the role of observation and documentation as they inform assessments of children’s learning and of teaching itself; the creation of learning environments for children from birth through grade two and in grades one through six, inclusive of all children across racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and learning differences; the development of approaches that enable continuity for children between home and school and in their school lives; the development of classrooms as communities of learners; and the exploration of the teacher’s role and approaches to classroom organization and structure that relate to very young and elementary-age children. Other topics of importance in the course are the creation of opportunities and processes for collaboration among teachers, parents, and administrators and the development of strategies to reflect on, renew, and revise teaching with an emphasis on the importance of professional development. The Practicum Seminar also supports students in their continued efforts to understand the political nature of teaching, placing emphasis on educating for a democratic society. The roles of the family, school, and community in educating children are explored, as well as current philosophies and the climate regarding home, school, and community relationships. Practicum Seminar students will keep a reflective journal of their field placement and student-teaching experiences, including observation and documentation of children, classrooms, activities, curriculum planning and facilitation, materials, and media. Students will also begin to develop, refine, and share their thinking regarding their master’s project topics.