Elementary Education
Graduate Programs
Description
The Elementary Education programs are designed to meet the professional development needs of current and aspiring elementary teachers.
Majors |
Program | Locations | Major / Total Credits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elementary Education MS | MS - Master of Science |
|
31 / 31 |
| Elementary Teaching MS | MS - Master of Science |
|
42 / 42 |
Certificates |
Program | Locations | Major / Total Credits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elementary Math Pedagogy GC |
|
9 / 9 |
Policies & Faculty
Policies
Preference is given to students who have an undergraduate GPA of 3.0 or higher. Students with a GPA less than 3.0 will be considered for admission after successfully completing six (6) graduate credits within the department with a grade of B or higher as a non-degree-seeking student. Students must submit two recommendation forms that address the student's professional competence.
Admission
- A bachelor's degree from an accredited U.S. institution, or a comparable degree from a recognized college or university in another country, is required.
- 2.75 GPA or above is required for immediate consideration of your application. If your GPA is less than 2.75, your application will require special review. In this situation, an Extenuating Circumstances statement may be appropriate.
- Transcripts: Official transcripts from all previous institutions.
- Resume: Tailor your resume to highlight your experiences and achievements working with children and youth.
- Essay.
- Letters of recommendation. Two letters of recommendation from those who can speak to your experience working with children or youth, or who can vouch for your commitment to educational equity.
- Extenuating circumstances statement (optional). While this is not required, if there is something on your transcript that does not accurately reflect who you are as a student, please write no more than 500 words documenting unusual circumstances or hardships you have faced and the ways in which you have overcome or responded to them.
P/NC Standards: Courses may not be taken as P/NC.
Retention Standards: Continuance throughout the program is not automatic. Students will be monitored for a cumulative GPA of 2.75 or higher.
Contact Information
328 Armstrong Hall
Main Office (507) 389-1516https://ed.mnsu.edu/academic-programs/Elementary-literacy-education/
Faculty
Chair
- Beth Beschorner, Ph.D.
Graduate Program Coordinator
- Rebekah Degener, Ph.D.
Administrative Assistant
- Sara Sletten
Faculty
500 Level
Credits: 2
To prepare pre-service and in-service teachers to use technology in the elementary classroom. Applications to each content area will be considered.Prerequisites: none
Credits: 3
Foundation level knowledge concerning the reading process and how it pertains to the ESL student including strategy instruction.Prerequisites: none
Credits: 3
Presents strategies for teaching and reading knowledge, attitudes and skills in the various teaching content areas.Prerequisites: none
Credits: 2
Through hands-on experiences students learn the basics of engineering needed to teach this content at the elementary school level. Topics include the engineering design process, reverse engineering, engineering fields/professions, and experience with instructional strategies. The course focuses on the engineering strand of the K-6 Minnesota State Science Standards.Prerequisites: none
Credits: 2
Students will develop competency using the specific technology skills needed to become effective Elementary Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) teachers.Prerequisites: none
Credits: 1
Students will become familiar with important, emerging topics in the field of elementary STEM education.Prerequisites: none
Credits: 2
Students will learn to integrate the four disciplines of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) into their instruction in the elementary classroom.Prerequisites: none
600 Level
Credits: 3
Students will understand current trends in mathematics instruction for elementary students and develop competencies in the following: promoting reasoning and problem-solving, using mathematical representations, facilitating meaningful mathematical discourse, posing purposeful questions, building procedural fluency from conceptual understanding, supporting productive struggle, eliciting evidence of student thinking, and creating equitable opportunities in teaching and learning mathematics. Emphasis is on National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Principles of effective mathematics teaching and Standards for Mathematical Practice.Prerequisites: none
Credits: 1-4
Selected topics explored for elementary or secondary teaching. May be repeated.Prerequisites: none
Credits: 3
This course focuses on developing skills related to academic writing.Prerequisites: none
Credits: 3
This course focuses on implementing high quality, research based literacy instruction for all children in preschool through second grade. Emphasis is placed on the use of varied instructional approaches and materials for young learners. Students will develop the ability to: understand major theories and research describing literacy development, implement a balanced curriculum, design an environment to optimize student learning that includes choice and motivation, and differentiate instruction.Prerequisites: none
Credits: 3
This course provides an introduction to the Response to Intervention (RTI) initiative. Different implementation models will be reviewed, along with specific factors important to consider when designing programs. An overview of progress monitoring and intervention strategies will be provided.Prerequisites: none
Credits: 3
This purpose of this course is to develop a theoretical and research-based understanding of 21st Century learning that will provide the foundational underpinnings for utilizing instructional practices that foster empowered citizenship within the elementary classroom.Prerequisites: none
Credits: 3
This course provides an in-depth study of assessment strategies for readers at different levels. Effective reading assessments for groups and individual learners, data-driven decision-making, and assessment of curriculum will be emphasized. Data analysis and patterns of performance will be highlighted.Prerequisites: none
Credits: 3
This course focuses on implementing high-quality, research based literacy instruction within the disciplines/content areas. The course emphasizes the use of varied instructional approaches and materials related to vocabulary and comprehension of a wide-range of print-based and multimodal texts. Students will be able to: identify features of a motivating environment for literacy learning and plan appropriate explicit instruction for literacy within disciplines/content areas.Prerequisites: none
Credits: 3
This course provides an in-depth study of instructional strategies and interventions for readers at different levels. Effective reading strategies for groups and individual learners, data-based curriculum decisions, and selection of appropriate materials and instructional strategies will be emphasized.Prerequisites: none
Credits: 3
This course focuses on recent research, issues, and instructional approaches in K-12 reading. Emphasis is placed on providing effective instruction for all learners and includes topics related to content and pedagogy. Students will develop the ability to: explain components of a balanced approach to literacy instruction, describe phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension and their contribution to reading, plan and deliver effective instruction, and reflect on literacy instruction.Prerequisites: none
Credits: 3
Presents information about elementary learners' writing development, genres for the elementary curriculum, and assessment of elementary students' writing. Research-validated practices for teaching diverse learners will be the focus of the course.Prerequisites: none
Credits: 3
Students will develop expertise in working with culturally and linguistically diverse students in literacy learning. The course focuses on culturally responsive instructional strategies for literacy learning in reading, writing, and oral language to meet the cognitive, linguistic, cultural, and dispositional needs of English learners and culturally diverse learners. English language development, linguistics, academic language, assessment, family engagement, strengthening students' cultural connections, vocabulary development, comprehension strategies, writing instruction, and differentiation are major topics.Prerequisites: none
Credits: 3
Examines research and theory in education. Explores major research and theoretical thinking in education.Prerequisites: none
Credits: 1-6
Supervised practical experiences in curricular design and development. Admission by application only.Prerequisites: none
Credits: 3
Investigation of effective elementary classroom instruction through multiple methods of formal and informal assessment strategies that support student engagement, student progress monitoring, and guiding instructional decision making. Examination of assessment strategies for instructional planning and evaluation to promote strong intellectual, social, emotional, and physical development which will support all elementary students.Prerequisites: none
Credits: 3
This course is designed to enhance skills for using formative assessment strategies that elicits elementary children¿s thinking to support learning with understanding. Emphasis is on understanding children¿s mathematical thinking, assessing for mathematical proficiency, positioning children as competent sense makers and valuing diverse ways of thinking.Prerequisites: none
Credits: 3
This course is designed to build understanding and skills for differentiating elementary mathematics in ways that fosters an inclusive environment. Emphasis is on critically evaluating ways differentiation practices can work to marginalize children and perpetuate patterns of inequities within the math classroom and developing with strategies that value diverse ways of knowing and thinking.Prerequisites: none
Credits: 3
Develop skills, knowledge, and dispositions related to technology use for literacy learning in the elementary classroom.Prerequisites: none
Credits: 3
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
Credits: 3
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
Credits: 3
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
Credits: 3
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
Credits: 1-6
Special teaching projects of an experiental and creative nature in the students' field of preparations.Prerequisites: none
Credits: 3
This field-based course is designed as the capstone experience for students completing the reading teacher program. The focus is on assessment and intervention experiences with struggling readers.Prerequisites: none
Credits: 3
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
Credits: 3
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
Credits: 3
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
Credits: 3
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
Credits: 3
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
Credits: 3
Analyze and design instruction and assessment that bridges curriculum with students¿ cultural, racial, linguistic and community assets and reflects students' diverse experiences.Prerequisites: none
Credits: 3
Examines, synthesizes, and applies the research base for a problem of practice within elementary level education.Prerequisites: none
Credits: 1-4
This field-based course is designed for students working with two-year college students and adults in reading. It provides an opportunity to implement knowledge and skills developed in coursework with this population.Prerequisites: none
Credits: 1-4
Opportunity for individual study on curriculum or instruction topics under direction of graduate faculty.Prerequisites: none
Credits: 5
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
Credits: 3
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
Credits: 2
Current research, instructional techniques and materials regarding kindergarten curriculum in language arts, reading, science, mathematics, social studies, psychomotor and creative arts.Prerequisites: none
Credits: 1-2
For students completing a Master's degree with the alternate plan paper option.Prerequisites: none
Credits: 1-2
For students completing a Master's degree with the creative project option.Prerequisites: none
Credits: 1-4
For students completing the Master's or Specialist degree using the thesis option.Prerequisites: none
