Exceptional Needs: Mild Intervention (5-12)

Prepare teacher candidates to use instructional and information technologies to support teaching and learning, manage classroom activities, and enhance scholarship and professional growth. Through hands-on activities, students learn to design and implement technology-supported instruction, launch and maintain online resources, develop multimedia instructional materials, and use technology to communicate, solve problems, and engage in lifelong learning. Fall, every year.

Provides an overview of mild disabilities, including cognitive impairment, learning disabilities, emotional and behavioral disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, communication disorders, visual impairments, hearing impairment, traumatic brain injury, physical disabilities, autism, and other health impairments. Major topics include definitions, characteristics, causes, prevalence, evaluation, and service delivery. Spring, every year.

Prepares teacher candidates to create learning environments that enhance the strengths and abilities of diverse learners, including students from various cultural, racial, ethnic, and social backgrounds; students with differing life and learning styles; students who are gifted/talented; and students with disabilities. Requires admission to the Transition to Teaching Program.

Presents the history and philosophy of special education, state and federal mandates, and implications for teachers. Includes special education procedures such as collaborating with other professionals, accommodating instruction, writing individualized education plans (IEPs), connecting IEP goals and objectives to state standards, conducting annual case reviews, and conferencing with parents and other professionals. Also discusses current trends and issues in special education. Spring, every year. Prerequisite: ED 151.

Studies physical, emotional, intellectual and moral development during adolescence; adjustment to change; peer, adult and institutional influences, relationships and pressure.

The Science of Reading examines a basic question, “How do children learn to read?” This course includes evidence- based reading research that addresses explicit systematic teaching of phonemic awareness and phonics, direct and indirect vocabulary building, guided oral reading to improve fluency and motivation, and exposure to a variety of comprehension strategies for elementary, middle and high school classrooms. Fall semester, every year.

This course provides teachers with the tools they need to lay an educational groundwork that promotes students’ success with informational text. Spring, every year. Prerequisites: ED 262 & ED 261 for Preschool - Grade 3/Mild Intervention, Early Childhood/Mild Intervention, Kindergarten - Grade 6/Mild Intervention, Kindergarten - Grade 6/Mild Intervention (non-licensure), Special Education Mild Intervention P-12.

Prepares teacher candidates to assess the academic and social/behavioral strengths and needs of students with mild disabilities in middle school and high school grades and to develop appropriate instructional interventions that promote positive learning outcomes. Spring, every year. Requires admission to the Teacher Education Program. Prerequisite: ED 273.

Provides background and skills necessary for providing appropriate career planning and transition services to students with special needs at the middle school and high school levels. Discusses models of transition, legal requirements for transition, career and vocational planning, functional curriculum and skills, job analysis, leisure skills, and residential options. Writing and implementing appropriate individualized transition goals will be stressed. Spring, every year. Requires admission to the Teacher Education Program.

Prepares teacher candidates in special education to create and conduct functional behavioral assessments (FBA) and utilize information gathered through FBA to develop, implement, and assess the effectiveness of behavioral intervention plans (BIP). Spring, every year. Requires admission to the Teacher Education Program.

Provides a capstone teaching experience in a middle school/junior high or high school special education or inclusive classroom. Teacher candidates complete 12 weeks of supervised teaching and are responsible for full-time planning and teaching for a minimum of three weeks late in the placement. Course fee. Fall and Spring, every year. Requires Education Department approval, resume, unofficial educational transcripts, and expanded criminal background history.

Seminar sessions include analysis of student teaching experiences, information about licensure requirements and procedures, and career development. Must be taken concurrently with Supervised Teaching. Course fee. Fall and Spring, every year. Requires Education Department approval.