Register for a Graduate Teacher Education Course

This course covers current policy and practice related to English Learners (ELs) in schools with a special focus on Sheltered English Immersion (SEI) Settings. Topics will include diversity issues, content/academic vocabulary development and literacy skills (including listening, speaking, reading and writing) to provide teachers with the knowledge and strategies to support ELs in classrooms. 

This course runs January 21–May 4, 2025.

This course introduces students to the reality of schools as diverse spaces encompassing a range of student needs and examines efforts to ensure equity in education. Issues of race, class, culture, language, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, and ability will be discussed & examined, especially how they intersect to reproduce inequality. Students will reflect on individual beliefs in relation to social justice education and democratic education and examine unintended consequences of policy/practice that create or perpetuate inequitable environments and opportunities in schools. Strategies for promoting educational equity and inclusivity will be discussed.

This course runs January 21–March 7, 2025.

This course explores supportive, preventative, and proactive approaches to addressing the social and academic behaviors of students with disabilities and other diverse populations. Strategies for developing a positive classroom climate to support social and emotional development, including trauma and anxiety, will be central to the learning of the course. A variety of approaches, including the connection between communication & behavior, identifying contributing factors to challenging behavior, FBA, and behavior support plans will be explored. 

This course runs March 17–May 4, 2025.

This course will examine intersectionality and the complex racial, gendered, and class-based dimensions that perpetuate inequitable environments and opportunities in schools. We will explore critical race theory (CRT) and its theoretical relevance as a framework to examine and challenge disparate educational opportunities for students of color. The course will offer an examination of the policies, procedures, and structures that perpetuate disproportionality and overrepresentation. This course will analyze assumptions about race, gender, and class, as well as how these dynamics play out in U.S. public schooling and history through political, sociological, theoretical, and pedagogical lenses.

This course runs January 21–March 7, 2025.

This course will examine the complexities of gender, identity, expression, and sexual orientation in schools, as well as how their interrelated dynamics and complexities unfold in the history of U.S. schools to present day. The course will explore the concepts of identity development and school structures that disenfranchise non-binary and LGBTQA+ students and examine constructions of gender identity, sexuality, and equality and binary/nonbinary conceptions. The course will examine inclusivity and exclusion through an examination of gender models, perpetuation of stereotypes, and implicit biases. The course analyzes key conceptual and methodological frameworks of gender, class, sexuality, power, and intersectionality.

This course runs March 17–May 4, 2025.

This course will review social understanding, stress, anxiety and trauma in autistic people. The course will explore the role of anxiety, stress, and trauma on relationships, self-regulation, health/ well-being and academic achievement. This course will stress intersectionality and explore gender/culture/race influences on understanding autism. Course participants will develop social supports and curricula focused on neurodiverse social behavior that help to mitigate the effects of stress/anxiety/trauma and develop resilience. 

This course runs January 21–March 7, 2025.

In this course, autistic behavior, including tenets of neurodiversity, sociocultural views of "normalcy," and self-regulation will be explored. Participants in the course will examine a range of strategies and systems to support, develop, actualize, and sustain positive behavior. Participants will examine sensory development and regulation, connections to behavior, stress, and learn de-escalation techniques. 

This course runs January 21–March 7, 2025.

This credit-bearing special topics course will cover topics of special interest in Education. Special topics courses may be offered in regular semesters, as professional development courses or in response to special events/opportunities.

This course runs January 21–March 7, 2025.

This is a preparation course to help students prepare for the required Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure. Students will review content and strategies Foundations of Reading licensure test. The course will cover test-taking strategies and approaches, practice tests, and offer targeted feedback. Prerequisite: completion of a bachelor's degree.

This course runs March 17–May 4, 2025.

This credit-bearing special topics course will cover topics of special interest in Education. Special topics courses may be offered in regular semesters, as professional development courses or in response to special events/opportunities.

This course runs March 17–May 4, 2025.

This is a preparation course to help students prepare for the required Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure. Students will review content and strategies Foundations of Reading licensure test. The course will cover test-taking strategies and approaches, practice tests, and offer targeted feedback. Prerequisite: completion of a bachelor's degree.

This course runs March 17–May 4, 2025.

This course covers current policy and practice related to English Learners (ELs) in schools with a special focus on Sheltered English Immersion (SEI) Settings. Topics will include diversity issues, content/academic vocabulary development and literacy skills (including listening, speaking, reading and writing) to provide teachers with the knowledge and strategies to support ELs in classrooms. 

This course runs January 21–May 4, 2025.

This course explores how curriculum built on the goal of student understanding, integrated with instructional approaches that emphasize reaching every learner, can provide teachers with more specific teaching targets and more flexible ways to reach them. Students will examine the teaching, instruction, and curricula required to meet the needs of diverse learners, who by virtue of their experiential, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds, challenge traditional curriculum and instructional programs.

Course participants will determine how to deconstruct curricular barriers and create and apply curricular solutions, including assistive technology and AAC, to maximize access and academic success.

This course runs January 21–May 4, 2025.

This three-credit course provides an opportunity to unpack the perspective of various academic content areas through action/inquiry research. This course will assist teacher candidates in developing professional voice through the inquiry process. Inquiry and action research provides educators, administrators, and community leaders a method to study classroom challenges using an emic, or “insiders” perspective in order to investigate and improve their practice. This course will provide teacher candidates with the knowledge and skills needed to use action/inquiry research as a basis to make curricular and instructional decisions both school-wide and at the classroom level, and develop an action research project to address a school or classroom issue.

This course runs January 21–May 4, 2025.

This course explores quality of life considerations, measures, and supports for autistic students/persons. Educators will learn techniques to support autistic students moving from school to adult life, including developing self-advocacy skills, educator advocacy/allyship, family advocacy, person-centered planning, and transition plans. Ethical issues and philosophical challenges relating to sociocultural context, theories, and positioning, anti-oppressive education, and involvement/lack of involvement of self-advocates' perspectives will be explored in the development of pathways to higher education, career and technical education, employment, and independent living. 

This course runs March 17–May 4, 2025.

This course explores literacy for young learners and provides participants with information on how to effectively teach literacy to all students. Course participants will learn how to design literacy lessons, utilizing universal design for learning and assessment practices, to create thriving readers and writers. Through this course, participants will learn about how to design and implement lessons focused on phonemic awareness, comprehension, oral reading fluency, and vocabulary. Additionally, course participants will learn pedagogical strategies for supporting young writers. Strategies to assess students’ literacy growth will also be addressed.

This course runs January 21–March 7, 2025.

This course examines methods of teaching mathematics to diverse learners and contemporary methods of math assessment to ensure all students succeed mathematically. Course participants will develop instructional routines and apply standards in the design of curricula to improve how math can be humanized in classrooms. The course explores issues related to technology, math pedagogy, and math equity.

This course runs March 17–May 4, 2025.

This course explores language and literacy instruction for middle/high school students with disabilities. The course will emphasize how to design literacy lessons for diverse adolescent learners, including how to assess students’ literacy progress. Course participants will learn about the specific aspects of reading and explore how to support students’ needs in all areas. The course will provide participants with assessment strategies in literacy. Participants will also learn specific strategies to support students writing skills throughout all content areas.

This course runs January 21–March 7, 2025.

This course examines the pedagogy of math instruction for middle and high school aged diverse students. The course will explore instructional strategies and routines to support all learners to develop mathematical thinking. Participants will develop instructional routines and apply standards in the design of curricula to improve how math can be humanized in classrooms. The course explores issues related to technology, math pedagogy, and math equity.

This course runs March 17–May 4, 2025.