La disciplina del idioma español
The Spanish Language Discipline

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Spanish 502: Introduction to Latin American Literature

This course focuses on the interpretation of literary texts from Latin America. It covers a broad range historically- from pre-Conquest times to the present- and presents all literary genres, including poetry, short stories, novels, essays, and plays. Attention is paid to the expression of complex thought in response to literary texts, both verbally and in writing. 
 

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Spanish 513: Summer School Field Experience

Students spend time tutoring in a local summer school program. This introduction to the public schools provides MAT students with opportunities to work with students one-on-one or in small groups in a tutorial mode. As a first experience with the public schools, graduate students are involved with diagnostic approaches to teaching, focusing on individuals with various kinds of recognized academic needs. These experiences provide real contexts for inquiry and study in the summer teaching strand.
 

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Spanish 554: In Words and Images: On Contemporary (Auto) Biography

This course will propose a possible archeology of (auto)biographical films and literary works produced in contemporary Spain, put in dialogue with Latin American manifestations. Students will focus on some of the numerous literary and film productions of our cultural present that seek to undermine the foundations of the split between fiction and reality. Students will consider, among others, literary works by Jorge Luis Borges, Javier Marias, and Soledad Puertolas. 
 

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Spanish 566: The Afterlives of Frederico Garcia Lorca

Frederico Garcia Lorca is Spain’s most well-known and widely read poet and playwright of the 20th Century. It is perhaps in part due to this well-deserved fame that he has traditionally been considered as the quintessential Spanish contemporary writer. His works are virtually untranslatable and hermetically personal, and yet continue to draw the spellbound interest of a loyal readership all around the globe. In this course students will study Lorca’s poetry and drama closely- from his early classicist texts to his late avant-garde production. Throughout the course, students will also lend an equally attentive ear to hose traits that seem foreign, strange and discordant in this well-rounded figure, with the idea of reaching a better understanding of the tragic element that may still propel Lorca’s ghostly afterlife beyond the narrow boundaries of the Spanish historical context. 
 

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Education 502: Schooling in the 21st Century

These workshops introduce students to an alternative pedagogical model in which informal writing practices create a culture of learning that stimulates inquiry, focused reflection, and close collaboration among learners. The workshops acquaint students with the kinds of reflective practice that will characterize and, eventually, shape their own teaching practices. 
 

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Education 516: Teaching English Language Learners

There are approximately 5 million children (accounting for 21% of all students) in U.S. public schools who are learning English. ELLs are the fastest-growing student population group; by 2025, it is estimated that 1 in 4 public school students will be ELLs. An estimated 300 languages are spoken in schools across the country. In this three-part course, students will explore what it means to be an English Language Learner in school today, the social-emotional and academic challenges that ELLs face, and how to provide both rigorous academic instruction and a welcoming, inclusive classroom to one or our most at-risk populations.
 

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Education 512: Identity, Culture, and the Classroom

In this course, students consider what it means for them to teach-and for adolescents to learn-in the context of contemporary American society. The course focuses on identity development and how it is influenced by cultural power dynamics around such factors as race, gender, sexual orientation, class, ability, ethnicity, and language. Students begin by exploring the concept of identity in broad terms, drawing on Erikson's developmental model as well as numerous contemporary writings. The remainder of the course focuses on the ways in which specific identity-related issues affect adolescents' school experiences. Students investigate research topics including the black/white test score gap and the school-based risks faced by sexual minority students, as well as the work of researcher/theorists Gilligan, Ogbu, Steele, Tatum, and others. The purpose of the course is to move students toward a deeper understanding of the ways identity, culture, and schooling intersect so that they can develop a repertoire of reflective, analytical, and practical strategies to use in their ongoing work as teachers.
 

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Education 522: Curriculum and Assessment

This course emphasizes curriculum design and implementation by looking at how assessment protocols contribute to learning and answer essential questions about teaching practices. The course asks the question "What is it we teach in our subject area and how should we teach it?" Answering these questions prepares students for the work of instruction and planning as teachers in the public schools. Readings cover current educational research and curriculum theory; research focuses on the ways that the skills and literacies of a particular discipline develop in the classroom setting.
 

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Education 524: Language, Literacy, and the Adolescent Learner

Since the early 1980s, the perspectives and frameworks for studying literacy have shifted. Rather than seeing literacy as a set of reading and writing skills, literacy has come to refer to multiple literacies—the many ways of reading, writing, speaking and meaning making that are varied, contextual, and part of communities, families, and ways of life. In contrast to the ways that literacy is typically understood, this course takes up a range of perspectives on literacy—cognitive, socio-cultural and critical perspectives of literacy. Students develop pedagogical tools and practices that will support adolescent learners in their subject areas.  
 

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Education 515, 525, 535: Teaching Lab Strands I, II, III

This three-semester, weekly lab course complements the work in discipline courses, education courses, and student teaching throughout the year. Practice lessons, assessment of actual middle and high school student work, and aspects of disciplinary inquiry unique to each subject form the basis of the lab course in the summer and fall terms. Then, in the spring term, the lab meets in inter-disciplinary groups (humanities and STEM) to examine issues of interest to teachers across subject areas such as classroom management, understanding the special education system and the needs of students with Individualized Education Plans (IEPs), and the use of classroom-based data to improve teaching practice.