English Teaching Descriptions: Fall 2026

English 3500 is one of the required courses designed specifically for students in the English Education degree program. Students are also required to register for the clinical course that accompanies this class (SCED 3300). This class is designed as an introduction to the profession of English teaching. In the class, you’ll have an opportunity to reflect upon your reasons for becoming an English teacher and consider how those reasons connect with the larger enterprise of education. As a class, we will explore the following questions: What teaching/learning conditions shape a teacher’s day-to-day experiences? How do teaching beliefs and values shape a teacher’s engagement in their teaching? How do teaching/learning standards impact teacher effectiveness and student learning? Why do teachers need theoretical and practical knowledge? Our course texts will support our investigation into these questions. At the end of the course, you’ll have the opportunity to articulate what you’ve learned about the profession of English teaching, as well as your role in the field and how you’d like to keep growing as an English teacher.

The goal of this course and the clinical experience is for preservice teachers to experience the classroom and its students from the perspective of a teacher. Throughout your undergraduate education, you have focused on subject matter content; in this experience, you’ll be looking more closely at the process of teaching and learning. In particular, you’ll be observing how a teacher functions in the classroom as well as the teacher’s relationships with students, parents, colleagues, and school leaders. You will also have the opportunity to practice teaching in the classroom. The clinical practicum requires 45 hours minimum in a middle or secondary school setting. We will learn about teaching English Language Arts as a subject, and we will reflect on teaching and learning.

Co-enrollment: Students in this course must also enroll in my section of SCED 3300 and complete 45 clinical hours in a secondary English classroom. This clinical experience is a requirement of the Secondary Teacher Education Program (STEP). You must register for my section of SCED 3300 along with ENGL 3500 as these two courses must be taken together.

Through the process of reading and discussing a wide range of diverse young adult literature, we will explore central trends and issues in the field of Young Adult Literature and a variety of ways of interpreting, analyzing, and teaching Young Adult Literature.

We will explore the following questions this semester:

1. What is young adult literature and why do we teach it?
2. What role can reading young adult literature play in middle/high school students’ lives?
3. What does it mean to teach young adult literature? What are the possibilities and challenges of teaching young adult literature?
4. What do readers need to support and develop their engagement with young adult literature?
5. How do educational issues surrounding technology, the canon, genre, media, popular culture, and assessment intersect with the theory and practice of teaching young adult literature?

As we explore these questions, you will be asked to critically examine the experiences that have shaped you as the reader, writer, and student you are today. One of our primary goals will be to consider the transition from the role of student to the role of teacher. Throughout all of our work together, we will look to theories and research about reading, literature, and teaching in order to contextualize, understand, and problematize our own theories and experiences. During the semester, we will examine young adult literature from two angles: first, that of literary analysis. We will interpret and evaluate young adult literature as readers. Second, we will practice thinking like a teacher-scholar. This course, then, will ultimately help you understand who you hope to become as a literature teacher and participate in our profession’s conversations about the teaching of young adult literature.