Courses
C&T 4000 Disability, Exclusion, and Schooling
This course focuses on the cultural and historical bases of ableism in the U.S., in particular the ways in which ableism operates in schools. We will examine current legal and bureaucratic structures, discourses, and practices of education and learn about the pedagogical supports necessary to provide students access to equitable education in U.S. schools. We will also consider the ways in which disability status intersects with other facets of identity (such as one’s race, ethnicity, class, language background, gender, sexuality, religious [non]affiliation, etc.) to understand how intersections work in tandem in the cultural processes of exclusion in schools. The course is open to all; it is designed to address issues relevant to educators, administrators, and policymakers who work with students with disabilities.
C&T 4019
This course prepares preservice teachers to teach elementary-aged students to read. The course explores the teaching and assessing of literacy for developing readers with an emphasis on providing multiple pathways for students to access and interact with texts and learn to make meaning as they read. Throughout the course, we will investigate teaching practices that build students’ knowledge and flexible use of key dimensions of reading,including alphabetics (concepts of print; phonological awareness; alphabetic principle; phonograms; multisyllabic words), word learning (strategic word learning and high-frequency words), and meaning construction (fluency; vocabulary and oral language development; comprehension and general knowledge). As a part of this, we will also consider how technological tools can support developing readers of all ages. The course is designed to prepare teachers for individual and small group instruction with monolingual and emergent bilingual students.
C&T 4037 Relational Approaches to Challenging Behavior
This course explores the possibilities for building strong classroom communities when students’ behavior is understood as communication rather than defiance and when supports are understood as relational rather than punitive. Course content critiques punishment and reward systems for disciplining and managing students. Punishment systems, behavior modification, and positive behavior support approaches are typically implemented for students with disabilities and youth of color and are exclusionary, oppressive, ableist, and carceral. We’ll examine approaches that focus on compliance and zero-tolerance policies, which are a gateway to funneling youth into the school-to-prison pipeline. Instead, this course emphasizes approaches that build trusting relationships, are culturally sustaining, and inclusive. We will specifically focus on healing practices, restorative justice, conscious discipline, and collaborative and proactive solutions and illuminate how these practices intersect with disability studies, dis/crit, anti-oppressive, and abolitionist principles and pedagogies.
C&T 4060 Instruction for Students with Complex Support Needs
This course offers an inclusive approach to instructional support for students with complex support needs or students labeled as “significantly disabled”. Using principles of teaching-learning that inform inclusive classrooms, we will critically examine instructional approaches that support the academic and social learning of students with complex needs. We will explore the linkages between literacy, communication and technology-based supports--including alternative and augmentative communication (AAC)--for increasing learning and participation in the classroom. We will situate these pedagogical practices within a critical examination of legislation governing the education of students with disabilities.
C&T 4123 Curriculum and Instruction in Elementary Inclusive Education
Curriculum and Instruction in Elementary Inclusive Education is an introduction to teaching, learning, and curriculum in elementary classrooms. In keeping with the conceptual framework that undergirds teacher education at Teachers College, the course emphasizes inquiry about children and classrooms, planning curriculum and instruction, and preparing to be social justice-oriented educators. Throughout the semester, we use reflection on our own cultural identities to inventory and analyze our own funds of knowledge and then prioritize our next steps as lifelong learners.
C&T 4124 Curriculum and Instruction in Elementary Inclusive Education
Curriculum and Instruction in Elementary Inclusive Education is an introduction to teaching, learning, and curriculum in elementary classrooms. In keeping with the conceptual framework that undergirds teacher education at Teachers College, the course emphasizes inquiry about children and classrooms, planning curriculum and instruction, and preparing to be social justice-oriented educators. Throughout the semester, we use reflection on our own cultural identities to inventory and analyze our own funds of knowledge and then prioritize our next steps as lifelong learners.
C&T 4132 Language and teaching in the primary reading/writing classroom
Examines principles of literacy learning in young children and introduces theories, practices, and materials for teaching reading/writing in primary grades in diverse settings.
C&T 4135 Emergent Bi/Multilingual Learners in Inclusive English-Medium Classrooms
This course is an introduction to the education of emergent multilinguals. It is designed to prepare educators to teach students who are identified as English Language Learners in classrooms that are not designated as bilingual settings, and it is particularly relevant for monolingual, English-speaking teachers. We will learn about second language acquisition and engage with pedagogical approaches that build on students’ knowledge from asset-based frameworks (e,g., UDL and translanguaging). We will examine historical, legal, cultural, linguistic facets of education relevant to emergent bilinguals and consider the responsibilities of teachers in navigating these areas. We will explore current issues and tensions among research, policies and practices in educating multilingual learners, with particular attention to the forms of intersectional marginalization disabled, multilingual learners experience both institutionally and interpersonally. This 1 credit course is open to students across the College.
C&T 4143 Social Studies for Justice and Inclusion: Elementary and Middle Grades
A critical study of the social world begins with an examination of our social locations, how we have come to be, and the various forms of expression social life may take. Therefore, in developing and analyzing social studies curriculum, one must be enriched by a multiplicity of perspectives and likewise critical of cultural and social exclusion. In this course, students will engage in work that gives recognition to divergent viewpoints on curriculum; deconstruction of archetypes and stereotypes; power, politics, and the critique of media; controversial subjects; the arts; social action; and future visions for social studies teaching and learning. Course readings, class discussions, reflective assignments, and the culminating project will offer students opportunities to approach teaching as an intellectual and moral endeavor. As the foundation of teaching is believed to emerge principally from the values, beliefs, and thoughts of the teacher, this course is designed to embrace the teacher as both a social being and a professional educator.
C&T 4301 Educational Assessment of Students with Disabilities (Grades 1-6)
This course is designed to acquaint educators with selected formal and informal tests and assessments used to identify and support students with disabilities. The purpose of this course is to engage educators in critically evaluating how assessments are designed and conducted and what these practices and processes mean in terms of equity and justice for students with disabilities. This course is not just about learning about assessments and how to use them, but to pay attention to the ways in which assessments can both help and harm disabled students, and students labeled with disabilities. This course is designed within a larger framework of critical disability studies and disability justice, both of which aim to pay attention to the ways in which we can address persistent inequities in the field of special and inclusive education, while also considering ways to elevate and enrich how we teach and support students in our classrooms.
C&T 4320 Practicum for Disability, Exclusion, and Schooling
This practicum is designed to support students’ learning of course concepts in C&T 4000, Disability, Exclusion, and Schooling. The field component is intended to integrate theory with practice as students examine the cultural, historical, and ideological constructions of disability. The focus is on the New York City Department of Education special education system and practices.
C&T 4321 Practicum for Instructor Students with Complex Support Need
This practicum is designed to support students’ learning of pedagogic strategies and the overall literacy development of students with significant disabilities (grades 1-6). This practicum is offered in conjunction with students’ participation in C&T 5080, Access to Full Participation in Schools. This field component is intended to integrate theory with practice as students examine structural frameworks/models of instruction that regulate the education of students with significant disabilities. Students will work directly with students who have complex support needs. Students are required to spend a minimum of 2 hours each week engaged with this practicum. Students will observe, participate in, and lead classroom activities for a small group and/or for individual students.
C&T 4726 Professional laboratory experiences/student teaching (year-long) in elementary education
Permission required. Students engage in an intensive field placement under the sponsorship of a classroom teacher with supervision shared by the cooperating teacher and Teachers College staff members. Students spend a minimum of 3.5 days in the classroom each week. Classrooms provide experience with younger and older children in various urban settings.
C&T 4729 Professional laboratory experiences/student teaching in elementary education
Permission required. Students engage in an intensive field placement under the sponsorship of a classroom teacher with supervision shared by the cooperating teacher and Teachers College staff members. Students spend a minimum of 3.5 days in the classroom each week. Classrooms provide experience with younger and older children in various urban settings.
C&T 5081 Collaborative Comm Cult Cntxts
This course explores, from a disability studies perspective, strategies for developing effective communication and interpersonal interaction skills appropriate for both collaborative and consultative relationships in schools. Focus is on the development of these skills in interactions with both school professionals and family members of students. Particular attention is paid to the development of these skills in ways that are responsive and relevant to people from marginalized groups.