Sara St. John's Coursework Page
This page showcases the coursework I completed in the Masters of Art in Education with concentrations in Literacy and Special Education through Michigan State University. I started these courses in the fall of 2008 during my year student teaching and finished my final course in August of 2012. Each course has a short description and work samples to view.
TE 802: Reflection and Inquiry in Teaching Practice I Instructor: Gina Garner Fall 2008 Grade: 4.00/4.00
Course Description: TE 802 was a course that accompanies the internship field experience with a focus on literacy. The course was a semester of experiences that tied coursework in the classroom by planning, teaching, assessing, and reflecting. The overall goal of the course was to create a Literacy Unit to use in the student teaching classroom. My Folktale Unit Plan and daily lesson plans can be viewed below.
Folktale Unit Map
Folktale Lesson Plan
Gallery Walk Power Point
Course Description: TE 802 was a course that accompanies the internship field experience with a focus on literacy. The course was a semester of experiences that tied coursework in the classroom by planning, teaching, assessing, and reflecting. The overall goal of the course was to create a Literacy Unit to use in the student teaching classroom. My Folktale Unit Plan and daily lesson plans can be viewed below.
Folktale Unit Map
Folktale Lesson Plan
Gallery Walk Power Point
TE 803: Professional Roles and Teaching Practices
Instructor: Emily Moore Fall 2008 Grade: 4.00/4.00 Course Description: TE 803 was a course with a focus on planning and executing an integrated social studies curriculum plan to use while student teaching. The course was also an introduction to special education and learning how to modify instruction to accommodate special needs. The second grade social studies unit plan for Economics that I created and the handout on Cognitive Impairment are attached below to view. Economics Unit Plan |
ED 800: Concepts of Educational Inquiry
Instructor: Dr. Steven Weiland Fall 2010 Grade: 4.00/4.00
Course Description: ED 800 was a foundational course where we learned about the history of education, teaching styles of different educators, and examples of teachers that did research projects on their students. Howard Gardner, Vivian Paley, and Mary Catherine Bateson were a few of the influential thinkers whose philosophies we focused on during the course. The course assignments consisted of reading research and publications of those well known in the education field and responding their writings. An example of one of my reading responses is below.
Vivian Paley Reading Response
Instructor: Dr. Steven Weiland Fall 2010 Grade: 4.00/4.00
Course Description: ED 800 was a foundational course where we learned about the history of education, teaching styles of different educators, and examples of teachers that did research projects on their students. Howard Gardner, Vivian Paley, and Mary Catherine Bateson were a few of the influential thinkers whose philosophies we focused on during the course. The course assignments consisted of reading research and publications of those well known in the education field and responding their writings. An example of one of my reading responses is below.
Vivian Paley Reading Response
CEP 842: Educating Students with Challenging Behaviors
Instructor: Angie Maupin Spring 2011 Grade: 4.00/4.00
Course Syllabus
Course Description: In CEP 832 we learned the psychological and behavioral characteristics of children who are "tough to teach," and learned "best practices" for instruction and classroom management for these students. The course covered working with aggressive, angry, impulsive, active, shy, withdrawn, socially isolated, and low achieving students. The final project for the course was a case student on a student with challenging behavior. I had to identify the problems of the student, implement interventions, and reflect on any changes the interventions had on the student’s behavior problem. The case study and final paper required a lot of time but it was a very rewarding experience that I learned a lot from.
Case Study
Instructor: Angie Maupin Spring 2011 Grade: 4.00/4.00
Course Syllabus
Course Description: In CEP 832 we learned the psychological and behavioral characteristics of children who are "tough to teach," and learned "best practices" for instruction and classroom management for these students. The course covered working with aggressive, angry, impulsive, active, shy, withdrawn, socially isolated, and low achieving students. The final project for the course was a case student on a student with challenging behavior. I had to identify the problems of the student, implement interventions, and reflect on any changes the interventions had on the student’s behavior problem. The case study and final paper required a lot of time but it was a very rewarding experience that I learned a lot from.
Case Study
TE 846: Accommodating Differences in Literacy Learners
Instructor: Zoa Bonofiglio Summer 2011 Grade: 4.00/4.00
Course Syllabus
Course Description: In TE 846 we learned about the five areas associated with literacy instruction and assessment practices. The course utilized online discussions with classmates as well as a term project that focused on pretesting a student, implementing interventions, and post-testing with a literacy assessment. The term project was a very lengthy project but I enjoyed components of the project and was a great to tie everything together from the course. My lesson plans and summary from the term project can be viewed below.
Term Project Lesson Plan
Term Project Summary
Instructor: Zoa Bonofiglio Summer 2011 Grade: 4.00/4.00
Course Syllabus
Course Description: In TE 846 we learned about the five areas associated with literacy instruction and assessment practices. The course utilized online discussions with classmates as well as a term project that focused on pretesting a student, implementing interventions, and post-testing with a literacy assessment. The term project was a very lengthy project but I enjoyed components of the project and was a great to tie everything together from the course. My lesson plans and summary from the term project can be viewed below.
Term Project Lesson Plan
Term Project Summary
CEP 840: Policies, Practices, and Perspectives in Special Education
Instructor: Laura Ann Oliver Summer 2011 Grade: 4.00/4.00
Course Syllabus
Course Description: CEP 840 was an introduction to the different aspects of teaching Special Education students. This course was very important to take because each year I have students in special education in my classroom and I had never had a course or training in special education practices. The course focused on becoming familiar with RTI, No Child Left Behind, Section 504, accommodations, modifications, and the different characteristics of students with disabilities and impairments. The final project in the course was to research a topic related to special education and create a wiki to share the information. The link to my ADHD wiki is below.
ADHD Wiki
Instructor: Laura Ann Oliver Summer 2011 Grade: 4.00/4.00
Course Syllabus
Course Description: CEP 840 was an introduction to the different aspects of teaching Special Education students. This course was very important to take because each year I have students in special education in my classroom and I had never had a course or training in special education practices. The course focused on becoming familiar with RTI, No Child Left Behind, Section 504, accommodations, modifications, and the different characteristics of students with disabilities and impairments. The final project in the course was to research a topic related to special education and create a wiki to share the information. The link to my ADHD wiki is below.
ADHD Wiki
TE 849: Methods & Materials of Children’s Literature
Instructor: Kristin K.A. McIlhagga Fall 2012 Grade: 4.00/4.00
Course Syllabus
Course Description: In TE 849 we focused on becoming familiar with a wide range of children’s texts and evaluating the literature. We learned more in depth about the different ways for students to respond to text. I enjoyed the opportunity to read so many children’s books and learn how to integrate them into my classroom as well as becoming familiar with well known children’s authors. My Literature Position Paper below was my final paper in the course where I reflected on my changes in thinking about literature, what changes I plan on making, and what I want for my students related to literature.
Literature Position Paper
Picture Books Across Time
Instructor: Kristin K.A. McIlhagga Fall 2012 Grade: 4.00/4.00
Course Syllabus
Course Description: In TE 849 we focused on becoming familiar with a wide range of children’s texts and evaluating the literature. We learned more in depth about the different ways for students to respond to text. I enjoyed the opportunity to read so many children’s books and learn how to integrate them into my classroom as well as becoming familiar with well known children’s authors. My Literature Position Paper below was my final paper in the course where I reflected on my changes in thinking about literature, what changes I plan on making, and what I want for my students related to literature.
Literature Position Paper
Picture Books Across Time
TE 842: Elementary Reading Assessments & Instruction
Instructor: Maria Selena O. Protacio Spring 2012 Grade: 4.00/4.00
Course Syllabus
Course Description: In TE 842 we learned effective practices for reading instruction including fluency, vocabulary, morphology, phonological awareness, phonics, and reading motivation. The course included discussions and group projects to create a learning community of teachers. My favorite part of the course was the final Focus Project where I focused on increasing student reading motivation. The project included researching reading motivation, working with a small group of students, having book talks, reading conferences, using reading surveys, and compiling everything I had learned into a wiki. It was a lengthy process but I learned a lot that I plan on using in my future years as teacher.
Reading Motivation Website
Instructor: Maria Selena O. Protacio Spring 2012 Grade: 4.00/4.00
Course Syllabus
Course Description: In TE 842 we learned effective practices for reading instruction including fluency, vocabulary, morphology, phonological awareness, phonics, and reading motivation. The course included discussions and group projects to create a learning community of teachers. My favorite part of the course was the final Focus Project where I focused on increasing student reading motivation. The project included researching reading motivation, working with a small group of students, having book talks, reading conferences, using reading surveys, and compiling everything I had learned into a wiki. It was a lengthy process but I learned a lot that I plan on using in my future years as teacher.
Reading Motivation Website
ED 870: Capstone Seminar
Instructors: Dr. Matthew J. Koehler, William Cain, Penny Thompson
Summer 2012
Course Description: In ED 870 we reflect on our learning while in the Master’s Program at MSU. We created a web based professional portfolio to showcase our learning and work.
Instructors: Dr. Matthew J. Koehler, William Cain, Penny Thompson
Summer 2012
Course Description: In ED 870 we reflect on our learning while in the Master’s Program at MSU. We created a web based professional portfolio to showcase our learning and work.