The online licensure program in middle school communication arts and literature is intended to serve three primary audiences:
Others may, of course, take the courses if they are interested.
The English Department and the Elementary Education and Early Childhood program are committed to making the program as accessible as possible. All required courses are offered both online and on-campus (almost exclusively at night) each year.
Several of the courses include chat sessions and discussions using Desire to Learn (D2L), the MnSCU online learning platform.
| Course # | Course Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| ENG 242 | Introduction to Creative Writing |
4
|
| ENG 285 | Practical Grammar |
2
|
| ENG 4/525 | Topics in Children's Literature |
3
|
| ENG 4/564 | Teaching Literature in the Middle School |
3
|
| Course # | Course Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| KSP 646 | The Middle School |
3
|
| EEC 647 | Effective Reading for Content Areas in the Middle School |
3
|
| KSP 648 | Field Experiences in the Middle School |
3
|
In addition to the courses above, students may need to take the Minnesota Teachers Licensure Exam for middle school English language arts. Anyone adding the communication arts and literature middle school license to an elementary major needs to take the MTLE, and so does anyone adding the license to an existing secondary license in a content area other than English. Anyone changing a 7-12 English license to a 5-12 Communications Arts and Literature does not need to take the MTLE. For more information about these exams, see http://ed.mnsu.edu/advising/praxis2.html.
Previous course work may be accepted for the above requirements. For evaluation of coursework and experience which may meet the Education course requirements, contact Peggy Ballard in EEC (peggy.ballard@mnsu.edu); for evaluation of coursework which may meet the English requirements contact John Banschbach (john.banschbach@mnsu.edu).
This is an introduction to writing poetry and fiction. The course does not assume previous creative writing experience. One hour chat per week.
This course is designed for those who will work with language professionally—language arts teachers, writers, and editors. It is not intended as a remedial course for students who have difficulty writing correct sentences. By the end of the course, students should be able to identify the part of speech and the grammatical function of every word in most English sentences and to identify the most common kinds of phrases in English sentences.
This course may be repeated provided the topic is different. Topics may include different genres—fantasy, historical fiction, realism—or thematic topics—survival or journeys or world literature.
Students will become familiar with a variety of books on topics of interest to middle school students, will become familiar with print and internet resources for teaching literature in the middle school, will experiment with a variety of methods of responding to and analyzing literature, and will be introduced to methods of teaching English in the middle school.
Note: Syllabi for most courses are posted well before registration.
| Fall 2011 | ENG 242 | M 6:00--8:00 |
| ENG 4/564 | W 5:00--6:00 | |
| Spring 2012 | ENG 242 | Asynchronous |
| ENG 4/525 | T 5:30--6:30 | |
| Summer 2012 | Eng 242 | 5/21--6/22, MW 6:00--7:00 |
| Eng 242 | 5/21--6/22, TH 6:00--7:00 | |
| Eng 242 | 6/25--7/27, TH 5:30--6:30 | |
| Eng 285 | 6/25--7/27, MW 4:30--5:30 | |
| Eng 4/525 | 5/21--6/22, T 4:30--6:00 | |
| Fall 2012 | Eng 4/564 | W 5:00--6:00 |
