In accordance with Michigan State University course standards, this transcript attests that the Michigan State University Master of Arts in Education (MAED) program requirements for graduation have been met. Courses are organized according to year and semester they were taken and consist of course title, number, instructor(s), and a concise summary of what was learned throughout.
CEP: Counseling, Educational Psychology, and Special Education
Spring 2019
TE848: Writing Assessment & Instruction
Dr. Patricia A. Edwards and Tracy Weippert
In the multiple writing opportunities I had, I studied the significance of writing and its implications for K-5 writers. In order to successfully teach writing and support the writing skills of these young students, I learned how to engage with different genres of text as a writer myself. Researching and assessing became key to learning how to differentiate instruction for special writing populations. Through learning how to design an inclusive writing program to strategies for teaching and learning in writing, I created an effective writing curriculum that could be used in my school district. The class was also fortunate enough to have the opportunity to have an interview with one of the authors of the class text, Best Practices in Writing Instruction, Dr. Steve Graham. Getting to speak personally with Dr. Graham about his research abroad was intriguing and inspired me to continue my research interests in the future.
TE849: Methods and Materials for Teaching Children’s and Adolescent Literature
Dr. Laura Apol
A wonderful course that looks at the breadth and depth of culturally diverse children’s and young adult literature. The books chosen are centralized on themes that often emerge within groups that are marginalized based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, nationality, physical characteristics, or immigration status. The purpose of this course was to learn how to engage children and young adults in literature through discussion and self-reflection. Every week or two, the class would read a text, highlighting the controversial issues that affected or currently affect a group suffering from inequality. I spent much of the time conversing with my classmates, strongly reflecting on the stories, the characters, how it relates to me, and how I can involve my students in this diversity. Children’s and Young Adult literature is not confined to those that it is intended for.
Summer 2019
CEP883: Psychology of Classroom Discipline
Dr. My T. Lien
This six-week school psychology-based course raised awareness of student needs and what environment teachers can provide to best suit their learner needs. I researched the strategies that have proven to be effective to promote intrinsic motivation, how to change the classroom climate, be proactive in the classroom, and how to use extrinsic motivation in a way to support positive behavior in and outside the classroom. I spent time doing my own research in this field and then would meet with a small group of classmates on a weekly basis to discuss my thoughts, ideas, and suggestions. Each week our group would work together to create a behavioral support plan for an imaginary student with a specific type of behavioral issue. To demonstrate my course understanding, my final project culminated in a complete classroom management plan which included my classroom expectations, rules, and how I would define the relationship between my students and their families that could be used in my own real classroom.
ED800: Concepts of Educational Inquiry
Dr. Steven Weiland and Nathan Clason
An investigation into the five central education domains has led me to develop my own line of questioning and answers to the issues posed in these fields. This self-paced, six week unit course prompted me to conduct further research into specific educational areas such as: philosophy, teacher experience, historical biography, curriculum organization, observation, and self-reflection . Each inquiry strand was filled with a rich list of reading material and to supplement these works, listening and viewing resources were used. At the end of each unit, I wrote a personal persuasive response to a question posed by Dr. Weiland using the knowledge and insight I had gathered from my course readings and other media to discuss my interpretation of the given information. For my final piece, I chose one form of inquiry and its significance in the study of education.
Fall 2019
TE842: Elementary Reading Assessment & Instruction
Blythe Anderson
In this course, I learned how to effectively assess elementary-aged students through well-researched and known reading assessments. I examined these assessments such as the Qualitative Reading Inventory (QRI-5) and Fry Sight Word List along with others in order to understand what makes these assessments beneficial along with understanding which assessments are most suitable to use for differentiated instruction. Using my expertise, I significantly improve students’ reading ability. Throughout the course I was given student data analyses to analyze for individual work and also to share my findings with my classmates. In order to foster a more cohesive class, great emphasis was placed on participation and leadership. The class was split into small book clubs and I had the opportunity to discuss the scholarly nature of literacy instruction to tie together the nature of research and assessing.
TE845: Language Diversity & Literacy Instruction and Assessment
Dr. Patricia A. Edwards
For this course, I looked at many of the myths and realities that surround the field of English language learning. Working with my small group to discuss the current issues English language learners and their teachers are facing, I learned how to create a diverse classroom environment that is responsive to ELL student needs. By beginning to understand the ELL perspective, I needed to examine my own family’s historical origins. I investigated my family’s background through a language heritage report. This led me to acknowledge that I must understand a student’s past before making assumptions about the present. I incorporated numerous old photos, official documents and maps to facilitate my work. My final project concluded with a thorough assessment of an English language learning student of mine. Supplying the student with a lesson plan consisting of pre-reading/writing activities and tasks, I summarized my findings and created a short-term literacy plan to strengthen their English proficiency.
Spring 2020
CEP801: Psychological Development: Learner Differences and Commonalities
Brooke Harris-Thomas
Across the world, classrooms are filled with diverse students, each possessing their own psychological differences and thus require their own unique approach to learning. Throughout this class, I learned various individual differences and commonalities amongst the student population. Before diving into student psychology, first I learned about the foundational methods that are used in psychology such as understanding the difference between validity and reliability, correlation and causation. I had to provide my own examples of these pieces of research to compare with my classmates’ example in order to see that there are a myriad of ways to represent these terms. Other topics explored were the Dynamic Systems Theory, Nature and Nurture, Cultural Similarities and Differences, and Learner Differences. What I found most profound was how influential our personal characteristics and environment shape the way we learn. In my course project to illustrate my discovery, I explored the different motivational factors between Chinese and Spanish-speaking English language learners.
CEP832: Educating Students with Challenging Behaviors
Dr. Vicky Mousouli and Dr. Jana Aupperlee
For many teachers, there have been times of frustration, self-doubt, and outright surrender when dealing with cases of students with challenging behaviors. This course has been one of the most valuable for me as I learned such an array of methods and support systems to positively impact and manage students with behavioral issues. Each week, I had focused on a particularly common group of psychological and behavior-based difficulties that can be found in the classroom such as: aggressiveness, impulsiveness, shyness, socially isolating tendencies, low achieving, and failure oriented students. Each week I read from our text that offered real word examples to our real word problems along with multiple solutions to help facilitate an easy transition for those students back into the whole class group. The weekly group discussions led to many insightful ideas that my group mates and I took to heart. In order to put what I learned into practice, I spent the course creating an Addressing Behavior Challenges (ABC) project. I chose a student I was currently teaching and created a comprehensive behavior plan, complete with behavior changing strategies and rewards.
TE846: Accommodating Differences in Literacy Learners
Dr. Laura Tortorelli
If you’re like myself and have a strong interest in reading about the nitty gritty of reading research then this class is for you. This class was similar to TE842: Elementary Reading Assessment & Instruction in that I studied multiple assessments that correlated to specific parts of language instruction. I was first introduced to today’s current standards and the state of literacy in U.S. schools today. Following this, topics such as word-level, vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, and written expression were featured in their own week-long modules. Each topic of instruction included course readings, but also additional PowerPoints and video to support comprehension. By analyzing each of these topics in depth, my knowledge of learner differences especially ESL students was broadened. Mastery of the course was demonstrated through my final literacy case study. Using a student of mine, I created two reading lessons for said student for the purpose of making improvements to the student’s current reading curriculum based on the complete learner profile I developed.
Summer 2020
ED870: Capstone Portfolio Course
Dr. Matthew Koehler and Aric Gaunt
The end of my time in the Master of Arts in Education program has come to an end. Through a well-known online website building platform, I created an electronic portfolio consisting of my personal and professional accomplishments during my master’s degree program at Michigan State University. My portfolio offers myself and others the opportunity to look back on my academic endeavors in a collective and categorized order. Over the course of 15 weeks, I developed page by page of my portfolio. As I see my portfolio become the visual representation of my hard efforts, I feel a sense of pride in all that I’ve done. This is the first website I’ve ever built and couldn’t be happier with my results. Upon completion, I hope potential employers will also take notice of my portfolio and see my drive for change.