Elementary Teaching (MS)

Summary

Elementary Teaching MS prepares students to obtain a MN K-6 Elementary Teaching license. This program is intended for students who have already earned a bachelor’s degree and are now interested in seeking a K-6 teacher licensure program. This includes students who have earned a bachelor’s degree in a non-teaching major and are seeking initial K-6 licensure and students who have earned a bachelor’s degree in a teaching major and are now seeking additional licensure in K-6. 

Catalog Year

2023-2024

Degree

Master of Science

Major Credits

42

Total Credits

42

Locations

Online

This program satisfies licensure-to-practice standards for Minnesota and may satisfy standards for other states or US territories.

Licensure/Certification Disclosure

Program Requirements

Common Core

This course will engage teacher candidates in critically analyzing children¿s texts. Teacher candidates will learn how to integrate diverse literature across the elementary curriculum. Teacher candidates will learn how to engage in critical literacy themselves, as well facilitate critical literacy discussions and tasks with elementary students that promote the learning of skills and strategies within the context of critical engagement with learning content. Teacher candidates will learn how to guide students in developing their literacy identities in order to promote reading engagement and students as independent and collaborative readers.

Prerequisites: none

Develop skill to enact practices that develop learners¿ mathematical proficiency based on three goals: (1) explicitly teach skills for disrupting patterns of injustices and inequities that often get reproduced within the context of elementary mathematics classrooms; (2) develop professional skills for the high-leverage practices of eliciting and interpreting students¿ thinking and leading a group discussion; and (3) gain the mathematical knowledge needed for engaging learners in inquiry-based instruction for number sense & operations, place value, computation, and rational number concepts in grades K-6.

Prerequisites: none

This course will explore practical information, assessment tools, instructional ideas and activities for effective implementation of an inquiry-based approach in elementary curriculum. Teacher candidates will focus on developing inquiry-based methods and strategies for improving student learning while linking one or more elementary content areas.

Prerequisites: none

Examines the elements of anti-racist classroom environments that meet the needs of the whole child (e.g. morning meeting, integrating the arts, etc.).

Prerequisites: none

In this course students learn about and use a variety of developmentally appropriate, motivating techniques and assessments to disrupt predictable patterns of achievement and to advance children¿s: oral and written language, phonemic awareness, phonics, and concepts about print within a balanced literacy framework. Additionally, the interdependent nature of reading, writing, listening, and speaking, stages of spelling development, and role of vocabulary and fluency in comprehension are addressed.

Prerequisites: none

This course will provide elementary teacher candidates with the knowledge and skills necessary to: identify concepts to be explored through scientific investigations, and then design and conduct investigations of those concepts, using appropriate scientific apparatus and mathematical tools to improve their investigations. Students will apply appropriate pedagogies to foster inquiry the elementary classroom. Identify and mitigate their students¿ science misconceptions.

Prerequisites: none

This course is designed to prepare teacher candidates with the understanding and application of concepts related to human diversity and interactions, structures of power, the identity of individuals and communities, and explicitly connects social studies concepts with their influence on educational experiences of diverse learners. The course addresses issues of oppression and social justice related to race/ethnicity, gender, age, class, religion, disability, physical appearance, sexual orientation and nationality.

Prerequisites: none

The purpose of this course is to build the mathematical background and skills for teaching in the elementary school. This course meets the Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board (PELSB) fundamental topics in arithmetic competencies. Topics addressed in this course are addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of whole numbers; number theory related to fractions; fractions; decimals; and integers.

Prerequisites: none

The first semester of a year-long student teaching experience that provides an opportunity for teacher candidates to experience fully the role of the professional elementary educator and demonstrate their ability to successfully enter the induction phase of teaching.

Prerequisites: none

Analyze and design instruction and assessment that bridges curriculum with students¿ cultural, racial, linguistic and community assets and reflects students' diverse experiences.

Prerequisites: none

The second semester of a year-long student teaching experience that provides an opportunity for teacher candidates to experience fully the role of the professional elementary educator and demonstrate their ability to successfully enter the induction phase of teaching.

Prerequisites: none

Seminar brings together knowledge from a variety of disciplines to help students meet the needs of learners within inclusive settings. Specific attention is given to English language support, special education services, ethical and legal issues in teaching, and the edTPA.

Prerequisites: none

Research/Methods Course(s)

Examines, synthesizes, and applies the research base for a problem of practice within elementary level education.

Prerequisites: none

For students completing a Master's degree with the creative project option.

Prerequisites: none