Curriculum & Course Schedule

SSTE 215: Foundations of Secondary Education

This intensive course is intended to function as an advance organizer (Advance Organizer: An overview or cognitive roadmap for the content to follow) as well as an immersion into gaining a critical foundation of the complex ecology of the classroom. (3 units)

SSTE 340: Teaching for Social Justice

In this course, we will collectively explore what it means to teach for social justice and liberation. We will examine, analyze, and apply various critical theoretical frameworks in our respective classrooms and schools;engage in activities that challenge us to critically reflect on who we are (our ideologies, prior experiences, behaviors, attitudes, and actions); learn about how educators, cultural workers, and artists resist dominant ideologies to create theworld they want to see through community programs, arts, and activism; and develop projects with our school communities that push against systemic inequality in our schools and communities. As a learning community, we will critically analyze how our diverse social positions and identities influence the way we see and experience the world. (3 units)

SSTE 211: Social and Psychological Foundations

This course is provides the background for candidates to understand, evaluate and apply a variety of theories dealing with how children and adolescents learn and develop so that they can make well-informed decisions in the classroom. This course explores the philosophical, historical and cultural context of education and the resulting implication for teaching. Candidates will also examine the psychological, sociological, moral and cognitive processes in childhood and adolescence, and the resulting implications for teaching. (3 units)

SSTE 350: Humanizing Education Methods

Teaching and learning is a practice of liberation and a practice of humanization. In this class, you will learn to teach responsively, drawing from an assets-based and community cultural wealth-oriented stance. This course is designed to help potential teachers develop the knowledge, skills and strategies necessary to implement effective programs for all students. You will learn unit design, lesson planning, how to integrate complex instruction, approaches to establishing a productive classroom community, elements of formative and summative assessment, how to alter teaching through reflection and to involve students in their own learning through self-reflection, how to learn from community partners and guardians, and how to use data to drive instruction and the arts and technology to enrich it in humanizing ways. Within the subject matter breakouts, you will also be supported in the development of your pedagogical content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and content knowledge in your subject matter disciplines. (4 units)

SSTE 375: Praxis Seminar I+ Fieldwork

In this class, you will continue to be challenged as intellectuals and as critically reflective practitioners. You will take what you learn here and directly apply it to your observation of cooperating teachers and to your own teaching practice. You will also be called to integrate what you have learned in your placements into your methods class. The two are not separate; rather theories, principles, classroom practice, and reflection inform one another in the praxis cycle. In this class, you will closely observe mentor teachers in their practices of establishing classroom communities. You will be challenged to learn more about your students and integrate what you learn into your planning. Throughout the class, you will be guided through shared inquiry and reflection as a method of improving your practice as a professional educator. (4 units)

SSTE 227: Teacher Performance Assessment Support

The purpose of this course is to support students as they prepare for their Teacher Performance Assessment (TPA). Within this broad purpose, the course has two primary goals: 1) help students understand what is required of them in the edTPA Teaching Event and plan how to meet each of these requirements; 2) learn how to participate in a professional learning community for the purpose of pedagogical self-study and development. (1 unit)

SSTE 274: Universal Design for Learning

This course is designed to prepare teacher candidates with the knowledge and skills to effectively organize and implement instruction for students with diverse backgrounds and with diverse learning needs, including English learners and students  with special needs. This course will examine federal and state laws that regulate programs and services for English Learners and students with special needs, including students with disabilities and gifted and talented. Candidates will demonstrate  skills in the use of differentiated instructional strategies that ensure that all students have access and achievement in relation to the academic content standards. (3 units)

SSTE 380: Methods for Liberation

In this class, we will engage in critical self-reflection to discover who we are as engaged educators. We will build educational partnerships with one another and mentor teachers as we form critical inquiry groups to interrogate and augment our teaching practices and the beliefs that inform them. We will learn how to communicate nonviolently and how to build restorative and deeply connected learning communities.  We will build project based learning units that are developmentally, linguistically, and culturally appropriate; that are aligned with California state subject matter standards and real life  applications; that provide students “choice and voice”; that include assessments for, assessments of, and assessments as learning; that integrate the arts and technology; and that allow for 360 degree reflection and evaluation. (4 units)

SSTE 254: Foundations of Literacy

In this course, we will examine and deepen our understanding of literacy development, beyond decoding and performing timed writing proficiencies. We will explore the many literacies (multiliteracies) our students bring with them, which are too often dismissed and/or undervalued in the school and the classroom. We will specifically address issues related to non-dominant students whose language and literacy practices do not mirror those expected in schools (TPEs 7B). We will address the literacy needs of English Language Learners (BCLAD Standards from Domain 3) speakers of non-dominant varieties of English, students with disabilities, and youth who struggle with developing 21st century literacy skills. (2 units)

SSTE 276: Health Education

Health Education examines concepts of health and health education in the schools. Emphasis will be placed on current health issues for children and adolescents viewed in the context of child development; on the responsibilities of teachers and the school community in promoting child health; and on curricular strategies that contribute to the healthful behavior of children. (1 unit)

SSTE 385 Praxis Seminar II + Fieldwork

This class builds on what you are learning in SSTE 380: Methods for Liberation. In this class, you will be challenged to develop as a reflective practitioner as part of a critical inquiry group, a collective of educators that brings a social justice lens to their teaching practices as they embark on problem-posing pedagogy. You will take what you learn here and in the Methods for Liberation course and directly apply it to your student teaching practice. You will also be called to integrate what you have learned in your placements into your methods class. The seminar will expose you to the practices of critical inquiry groups established out of grassroots educational justice organizations from across the United States. Finally, the seminar will prepare you to empower yourselves to form and maintain critical inquiry groups within and outside of your school sites the following school year and beyond. (7 units)