Online Master of Education in Literacy and Second Language Studies

Foundations of First and Second Language Learning

This course introduces students to foundational knowlege in first and second language learning. Specific topics include major theoretical paradigms and constructs that affect learning.

Literacy as a Linguistic and Cultural Tool

This course examines the social, cultural, and community aspects of literacies, the linguistic and cultural aspects of learning English as a additional language, and the ways in which schoolsmight recognize, maintain, develop, and build uponthe "ways with words" that contemporary students acquire and learn in out-of-school contexts. The course is based on a sociocultural view of literacy, encompassing multidisciplinary approaches and focuses on key sociocultural arguments, influential studies, and their classroom implications.

Master's Culminating Experience: Literacy and Second Language Studies

This course provides students with the opportunity to learn about portfolios and reflective practice as Literacy and Second Language professionals in the field, while applying key understandings to the creation of their own reflective portfolios.

Adolescent Literature, Media & Popular Culture

This course, required for candidates pursuing an Ohio Adolescent to Young Adult English Language Arts teaching license, explores and critiques response-based approaches to literary texts as well as expanded notions of textuality (e.g. literature, popular culture, media, information), and critical approaches to all of the above.

Teaching Literature of Ethnic American Populations

The focus of this course is the illumination of the salient cultural features embedded in the literature of African-, Asian-, Latino-, and Native-Americans. Participants will address the value and use of this literature in classroom settings. This course offers an exploration of historical and pedagogical perspectives, trends, issues, and controversies in multicultural literature for children and young adults. Studentswill be required to read and discuss children's and young adult literature to determine and assessthe literary merit of the literature, its culturalcontent (the lived cultural experience and its accompanying diverse definition of what it means to be an American within a specific culture).

Seminar: Literature for Children and Adolescents

This course covers selected or provisional topics,explores new research, or offers experimental educational experiences in the study of children'sand adolescent literature.

Seminar in Literacy and Second Language Studies

This course covers selected or provisional topics,pilots new courses, or offers experimental educational experiences in literacy and second language studies.

Sociolinguistics and Bilingual Education

This course is an overview of sociolinguistic factors affecting second language acquisition, societal and individual influences on language choice, use, maintenance, and change. It examines some major topics such as variations of language, language attitudes and motivations, language policies and their implications for TESL, and someof the major research methods in sociolinguistics.It also covers philosophies, theories, pedagogicalmethods applicable to bilingual development and bilingual education.

PreK-12 Methods of TESOL

This course is designed to explore classroom strategies, instructional procedures, and pedagogical applications for ESL students in conjunction with research/evidence-based principles and second language teaching and learning. Each teaching strategy will be addressed from a theoretical perspective, and will exemplify the ideas to be used in practical classroom settings.

Evaluation and Assessment for K-12 TESOL

This course is designed to equip candidates with the knowledge and skills to effectively assess and evaluate limited English proficient students' performance in English. It addresses current trends in assessment, cultural and linguistic issues and biases in measurement, understanding of concepts in assessment as well as formative and summative assessments. It also discusses a way to evaluate curriculum and materials within a framework for determining the effectiveness and appropriate uses for evaluations and assessments, including norm-referenced, curriculum-based, performance-based, and alternative assessments.

Language and Emergent Literacy

This course examines the development of language and emergent literacy in young children. The period from birth to school age has always been ofinterest to researchers and educators concerned with young children's language development. This course begins with a discussion of research on oral (face-to-face) language acquisition and its relationship to emergent literacy development, then moves to research reports written by prominent scholars who investigate the written language development of very young children. Theseresearchers address significant issues from a variety of disciplinary perspectives including anthropology, linguistics, psychology, and education.

Adolescent Literacy

This seminar explores multiple and often competingviews of "adolescent literacy" that influence middle grades and secondary classrooms, educational policies, and academic research. The course examines major position papers and policy documents in adolescent literacy, critiques simplistic notions of "adolescence" and "literacy," and draws upon multidisciplinary research to expand and shift how educators understand adolescents and cultivate more productive and culturally relevant contexts for language, literacy, and learning in school.

Survey of Research in Reading and Writing

Survey of Research in Reading and Writing will involve an examination of classic and current investigations that have been influential in the field of literacy. The course will involve students in analysis, synthesis, critical appraisal of historical and recent studies in the field.

Current Issues in Literacy

This course is an investigation and analysis of current issues, problems, and instructional materials used in the process of acquiring literate behavior. The seminar format will engage graduate students in critical discussion and appraisal of a wide-range of current issues in thefield of literacy.

Teaching and Assessing Adult ESL: Reading and Writing

This course will present and combine current theories and approaches to ESL reading and writing. Multiple perspectives address issues relevant to researchers, teacher educators, in-service ESL educators, curriculum designers, program administrators, and mainstream compositionand reading teachers.

Teaching and Assessing ADULT ESL: Oral Communication

The course covers major issues related to oral communication in English in academic, professional, and social contexts. Students will have opportunities to read and discuss recent works of representative scholars and current trends and issues, as well as theory and research,and explore best practices in teaching college ESL.

Foundations of Adolescent/Adult Literacy Instruction

Examines literacy instruction for adolescent and adult learners from historical, theoretical, and pedagogical perspectives.

Literacy Instruction: Methods for Teaching Reading

This course examines methods and techniques of adolescent/adult literacy instruction with a focus on teaching reading to strengthen college and career readiness skills.

Literacy Instruction: Methods for Teaching Writing

This course examines methods and techniques of adolescent/adult literacy instruction with a focus on teaching writing to strengthen college and career readiness skills.

Teaching Literacy in a Diverse Society

This course examines issues of diversity in adolescent/adult educational contexts with a focus on sociocultural theories of literacy and culturally responsive teaching practices.

Educational Research for Masters Students

Students will explore the full range of educational research in current practice and develop an understanding of the role and limitations of research for informing educational practice. Students will select a topic of interestto them and conduct a literature review of this topic culminating in a final paper that demonstrates their knowledge of the literature, ability to read and synthesize research, and writeaccording to standard protocols.

Teaching and Learning in Diverse Classrooms

This course is a required course for middle childhood and secondary licensure. This course exposes students to the problems, issues, and experiences of students from under-represented groups based on race, ethnicity, language, socio-economic status, and sexual identity. Students will use their experiences in field placements as starting points for reflection.

Global Education: Immigrant Children and Their Families

Focus on sociocultural issues impacting immigrant student learning and on communication among teachers, students and families.

Research in Science Learning

This course examines empirical research in scienceeducation, including instructional practices, curriculum materials, student thinking and achievement, technology integration, and teacher decision making. Focuses on a variety of methods used and how researcher purposes influence methodology.

Science Learning in Laboratory and Inquiry Settings

This course explores the historical development oflaboratory and active learning experiences in science curriculum and classrooms. Students will explore the research on science learning through the use of demonstrations, lab activities, studentinquiries, and problem-based learning.

Mathematics as Problem Solving

This course is appropriate for students who teach mathematics, science or interdisciplinary course work in a variety of school settings and grade levels, K-12. Specific strategies and general heuristics are discussed.

Using Literature in Social Studies

This course is designed to help potential and practicing educators explore the ways in which literature can be used to enrich the teaching of history and social studies in grades 4 through 12.This course builds upon the Ohio Content Standardsfor teaching Social Studies and the National Council for the Social Studies Curriculum Standards.

Applications and Issues of Technology in the Classroom

This course provides an overview of the increasingly complex array of digital media and technology-based resources available for use in face-to-face environments. Some of the topics covered are learning theories and integration models for technology-enhanced instruction, integrating digital technologies and software tools into the teaching, and national educational technology standards. Students will also explore the social, ethical, legal and human issues surrounding current technology use and predict theimpact of emerging trends.

Global Education: Educational Systems

Introduction to educational systems around the world and the philosophical bases of those systems. Designed to increase teacher awareness ofthe range of educational philosophies and practices in the cultures of their native and immigrant students and to prepare educators for work in a global society.

Individuals with Exceptionalities

An introduction to concepts and issues related to the schooling, learning, and instruction of individuals who vary from their peers.

Engaging and Supporting Families with Members withDisabilities

This course supports non-special education majors in utilizing a social systems ecological approach for understanding families with members with disabilities, assessment, selecting collaborative models and activities, implementing family engagement and education activities, and evaluating those activities.

Transition to Work Endorsement: Collaboration and Teaming

This course explores the role of the transition towork specialist in collaboration and serving effectively as a member of a team on behalf of students with disabilities.

Universal Design for Learning

This course provides an overview of how the principles of Universal Design for Learning can be used to design online and blended learning experiences that meet the needs of diverse learners including those who are accelerated and those who are struggling for a variety of reasons. Special attention will be given to integrating technologies, such as Generative AI, multimedia, and other digital tools, that support student engagement, authentic learning, and general accessibility supports.