English Teaching Course Descriptions: Spring 2026
| Course | Course Description |
|---|---|
| ENGL 3510: Teaching Young Adult Literature (Rose-Dougherty: In-person) |
ENGL 3510 challenges training teachers to interrogate their conceptions of who young adults are and, in essence, who their future students will be. This course begins with theoretical and empirical readings and discussion, through which teacher candidates will explore evolving–historical and contemporary–conversations of teacher researchers about how young adults are positioned in educational spaces. Then, the course takes a two-pronged approach; teacher candidates will participate in genre-specific book clubs as students (e.g. fiction narrative, graphic novel, and novel in verse) and, then, will discuss their developing stances and choices about teaching YAL as teachers. Participants in this course will self-select book club texts, supplementary readings, and ways of expressing their learning. Further, they will apply their learning by teaching lessons around YAL to colleagues in the course, rationalizing their pedagogical moves and justifying which topics and texts they chose to explore in their developing teaching practice. |
| ENGL 4200: Linguistic Structures (Manuel-Dupont: Online) |
This course offers an introduction to the many areas that Linguists study. We begin with an overview of world languages—which are thriving, which are not and why. We discuss the anatomical and social changes needed for early man to use language to communicate. Then we learn about the building blocks of language we use today—the sounds, the pieces of words (morphology), the words that make up sentences (syntax). We also learn how children learn a language and the role that parents play in that acquisition. We learn about dialects—why, when and how they arise and fall. Throughout the semester we work on a community engaged project that involves literature that you choose to work with. In the end, we donate all of these units to a school. |
| ENGL 4500: Teaching Writing (Gunsberg: In-person) |
This course will help students chart their own path to becoming successful English teachers by providing readings, activities, and assignments that inform the practical, psychological, and philosophical dimensions of writing instruction. Woven into this course will be opportunities for regular writing, examination of digital resources, practice teaching, and sustained work on designing a writing-based unit centered on a topic of special interest to the student. Techniques taught include designing effective writing assignments, responding constructively to student writing, assessing student writing, and incorporating technology into writing courses. Students will reflect deeply about the teaching of writing, building habits of mind and attitudes that sustain efforts in the classroom. |
| ENGL 4510: Teaching Literature (Piotrowski: Virtual hybrid) |
English 4510 prepares students to teach literature in the secondary grades, broadly defined to include canonical, contemporary, digital, print, fiction, and nonfiction texts. The course explores a variety of pedagogical strategies for teaching diverse literary traditions to students of various backgrounds and developmental levels. Students will engage both the philosophical and practical dimensions of secondary English teaching through opportunities for regular writing, discussing strategies for engaging students in reading literature, and learning about methods for supporting students who struggle with reading.. Students will create a unit centered on a literary text(s) of their choosing in order to engage with the complexities of lesson planning and assessment. |
| ENGL 4520: Teaching Literacy in Diverse Classrooms (Rose-Dougherty: In-person |
ENGL 4520 supports teaching candidates by providing an opportunity to intentionally observe classroom moments and learn about teaching from a range of educational stakeholders, including secondary students, peers, mentor teachers, and scholars. Paired together, ENGL 4520 and its accompanying clinical experience create a process-oriented learning experience. The focus of the course's study is English Language Arts (ELA) teachers’ roles and their responsibilities to students, parents/guardians, colleagues, and administrators within the context of a specific curriculum. To that end, teacher candidates will actively study scholarship related to teaching and learning, observe learners and learning communities, provide instructional support, deliver instruction, and reflect upon the process of becoming a teacher. Engaging in each of these processes provides an opportunity to grapple with the connection between educational theory and practice. Teacher candidates will study, in other words, how teachers create, apply, and interrogate their understandings of teaching and learning for ELA learners. More specifically, these processes provide an opportunity for teacher candidates to grow their understanding of the strategies teachers use to establish and build relationships; generate interest and enthusiasm in course content; create a productive learning environment and foster student engagement; organize teaching materials; plan and deliver quality instruction; build students’ confidence and skills; assess student learning; and celebrate student success. |