PIMA 7220: Teaching Practicum: Syllabus

GRADING 
Your final grade will be based on five items:
Letter and Teaching Philosophy (with revision): 10%
Sample Course Meeting: 30%
Final Course Packet: 30%
Research writing projects: 10%
Peer evaluation submissions: 10%
Participation: 10%

Your grade for the Sample Course Meeting will be determined by your organization, use of class time, general performance, student evaluations, and faculty evaluation. Your final course packet will include a course defense, syllabus, annotated reading list, CV, and teaching statement.
 

ATTENDANCE
Any absences are discouraged since this class depends on collective participation. You are allowed two absences (including illness), after which your grade will be lowered one full grade for each absence. Latenesses and early departures count for 1/2 of an absence.
 

REQUIRED TEXTS
Bain, Ken – What the Best College Teachers Do ($19 on Amazon)
PDFs for the other texts are available on this Wiki

SAMPLE COURSE

• Each student-teacher will prepare a syllabus for an undergraduate course that would meet twice weekly. The syllabus should reflect multiple techniques for teaching (which we will explore in class), and the reading list should include the necessary primary and secondary sources for an introductory course. This project will involve advanced library research.
• Student-teachers will choose (with the 7220 instructor) one day’s lesson from the course syllabus to teach to the 7220 class. The sample 60 minute lesson will include at least three different pedagogical approaches. Each lesson will be preceded by readings (made accessible Monday morning at 9:30am, one week before the sample class meeting, in print or digital form) and one at-home assignment (which will be assessed by the student-teacher by the following week), totaling approximately 2 hours of out-of-class work.
• All of the sample course meetings (see schedule) will be split into two parts to accommodate two student- teacher sample courses—7220 students will only have to do the readings and homework for one of the two weekly sample courses, but are invited to prepare all courses for extra credit and fun.
• Each student-teacher will submit four evaluation questions on the day following their sample course, which will be posted as a survey on our website. Although all are welcome to evaluate each course, students are only required to evaluate the course assigned to them.
• On the day of the final meetings (May 7 and 14), students will turn in a 3-5 page defense of the course, a final draft of the course syllabus, and an annotated course reading list (which should amount to approximately 20-30 items, depending on length). Reading list entries should include one-two sentences describing the text and explaining why it is included in the course (note: “text” is an open term, meant to also include viewings, listenings, and other non-text-based media). Along with this course packet, students will include a CV and teaching statement.
• All writing submitted should be well written and documented according the guidance of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 7th Edition. The book is readily available, and MLA guidelines can also be found at: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01.