Learning Outcome # 1: Demonstrate a solid foundation in the arts and sciences The first SUNY Cortland learning outcome requires that I demonstrate proficiency in my Undergraduate educational background, thus providing validity that I am able to teach English Language Arts in grades 7-12. Please take some time to browse through the following list of courses that I have completed throughout my Undergraduate career at SUNY Cortland and while abroad in Florence, Italy. At the bottom of this page you will be able to witness my strong foundation in the arts and sciences.
In an attempt to satisfy this standard, I believe that "through modeling, advisement, instruction, field experiences, assessment of performance, and involvement in professional organizations, candidates adopt and strengthen professional attitudes needed by English language arts teachers." In effect, educators should "plan and carry out frequent and extended learning experiences that integrate arts and humanities into the daily learning of their students" (ccss). According to the NYS Common Core ELA and Literacy Standards, literacy educators should be teaching fundamentals skills needed to excel in reading, writing, speaking/ listening, and language. However, the job does not simply end here. As a 21st century educator, educators should give their students multiple opportunities to question the societies in which they live, and in essence, criticize the injustices they face, or may encounter down the road. Critical thinking skills are vital elements for America's youth to acquire; therefore, they will learn how to successfully, and effectively question the world, communities, societies, or lifestyles in which they function day to day. According to NYSED, critical thinking skills are exponentially required in order for students to "habitually perform the critical reading
necessary to pick carefully through the staggering amount of information
available today in print and digitally. They actively seek the wide, deep, and
thoughtful engagement with high-quality literary and informational texts that
builds knowledge, enlarges experience, and broadens worldviews. They
reflexively demonstrate the cogent reasoning and use of evidence that is
essential to both private deliberation and responsible citizenship in a
democratic republic"(1). These abilities call upon the teachers need to be well versed in the arts, and science.
According to Christensen's article, Teaching for Joy and Justice, she delineates how important it is to incorporate "life" into classrooms, which are essentially real world issues that kids are facing, for
both the students and the teachers. Furthermore, she stresses the dire need for movement, fluidity,
happiness, sadness, laughter, tears, and anger in curriculums because without "life," teaching has no meaning. Teaching students this way is necessary to promote critical engagement and to enable our youth to find
their places within the world. ELA is a unique discourse, unlike math, or science, which entails primarily 'factual' based curriculum because English offers a way to provide transferrable knowledge. In essence, students are being prepared for life-long learning. For example, inferencing, questioning, analyzing, criticizing, evaluating, and critically engaging with texts, as well as real-live scenarios guide students towards life long literacy.
EVIDENCE THAT MEETS THE STANDARDS AND SUBCATEGORIES: Lessons should include historical information about the authors that we are studying, and during my second half of student teaching that would included information about Mark Twain, and Barbara Ehrenreich. This demonstrates proficiency in the arts and sciences because students were exposed to other disciplines, and learned about the history of an author's life. Thus, students uncovered how an experience(s) affected authors, based upon the time period(s) in which they lived, the culture(s) surrounding them, and inequalities/ normalities they witnessed. Hence, in my classroom, students learned how Twain's life and background affected his writing in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
It is also imperative to continuously demonstrate an effort to relate material (texts) to other aspects of our students' lives, so that they can understand the relevance and importance to texts, and novels, even if they were written numerous years prior. One lesson I taught, in particular, with my two junior classes included the recent admittance of Jason Collin's, an American professional basketball player on the Washington Wizards, being homosexual, which was paired with the "social significance" from chapters 16, 17, and 18 in Huck Finn. In addition, with my three senior classes, the Obama Care Bill, real estate prices, job listings, movie clips on capitalism, and an NPR radio interview with an illegal Mexico farm worker turned brain surgeon enabled me to bring "emotions/ feelings," "relevance," and "life" into Ehrenreich's text, Nickel and Dimed. Many of my students do not live "easy" lives, and by providing them with useful knowledge, "the skills, (CCSS) and information learned becomes transferable to all aspects of their lives, both in school and in their daily lives" (standard 2.6).
What would need to be in examples of student work to demonstrate mastery of this standard? For my three senior classes, I assigned a budget and a three-page written journal component. For the budget, students would be given a $1500 budget. In turn, they were to research to find housing, a job, with nothing higher than a H.S. diploma, and decipher how to manage food, necessities, utilities, and transportation. Afterwards, they had to type up, at minimum, a three-page paper outlining "life" for one day in that budget. Students not only have to use their knowledge they gained from the text, Nickel and Dimed, but they need to expand across disciplines, using economics, mathematic skills, an understanding of the politics and history that surround low-wage working conditions, and lastly, their ELA skills in order to successfully master this project. One student, in particular, said to me, "This project is going to be easy because I live like this everyday, anyway," which made me cringe. My students, by no means, have easy lives, and my main goal is to instill confidence and motivation into their brains in hopes that they can question society, and break free from any 'stereotypes' or 'statistic(s)' that they may be living in. I want to promote a healthy learning environment for all of those involved. I want to use the arts and sciences in a way that allows students to acknowledge education as something highly useful, and perhaps strive to better where they are at, and to become active participants in society, seeking to make change, one little step at a time.
What kind of scholarly writing might be useful?Reading, point blank, provides any individual with knowledge and information. Therefore, when reading scholarly texts, articles, or novels, as educators, we learn how to make sure we are adequately demonstrating a proficiency in the arts and sciences, as well as an in depth knowledge of the English Language Arts. For example, Teaching for Joy and Justice by Christensen, Rhetoric by Lindemann, The Motivated Student by Sullo, With Rigor for All by Jago, Doing Literary Criticism by Gillespie, and 50 Ways to Develop Strategic Writers by Tompkins and Blanchfield are only several works that could be useful.
SUNY Cortland (124 credit hours) English Language Arts CPN 100: Writing Studies I CPN 101: Writing Studies II ENG 203: Intro Poetry Eng 252: Intro Modern American Multicultural Literature ENG 307: New Media Literacy’s and ELA ENG 325: American Literature before 1900 ENG 326: American Literature since 1900 ENG 355: Major Figures: British Literature to 1780 ENG 356: Major Figures: British Literature 1780-Present ENG 374: Literature for Adolescence ENG 407: Study of English Language ENG 433: Shakespeare ENG 438: 17th Century Literature: Sex, Death & Salvation
General Education PSY 101: General Psychology I PSY 232: Adolescent Psychology HLH 110: Personal and Community Health MAT 201: Statistical Methods GLY 171: Earth Science SCI 300: Science & Its Social Context BIO 110: Principles of Biology I SOC 150: Sociology HIS 100: The World to 1500 POL 101: Intro World Politics ATS 104: Ceramics I CRM 303: The Criminal Justice System
Education AED 308: Grammar & the Writing Process AED 309: Participation-Observation: Writing Process AED 341: Intro English Language Arts AED 408: Teaching Writing (AEN) AED 409: Participation- Observation: Teaching Writing AED 441: Methods: Teaching Literature and Critical Literacy AED 377: Student Teaching English in the H.S. AED 376: Student Teaching English in the M.S. AED 378: Student Teaching Colloquia EDU 471: Foundations of Modern Education
Language ITA 101: Beginning Italian I ITA 102: Beginning Italian II SPA 102: Beginning Spanish II SPA 201: Intermediate Spanish I SPA 202: Intermediate Spanish II LAS 1XX: Tuscany and Its Wines
Internships CPV: Internship: International Programs