Elementary school is where the power of education is truly unlocked for children. If you have the passion to work with young minds, our Elementary Education Bachelor of Arts degree is your opportunity for a rewarding career.
Understand the courses you’ll take, the curriculum requirements to meet, and the concepts you’ll gain mastery of. Get all the detailed information you’re looking for. We also offer a specifically-outlined Second Bachelor’s Degree Option for this program.
The Feinstein School of Education and Human Development at 鶹ԭ is a nationally recognized leader in the field and has a legacy of producing award-winning educators.
“Through the White House Internship Program, I met U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. He’s from the northeast, Latino and began his career as an elementary school teacher. It was like I was seeing my future self.”
鶹ԭ’s B.A. and B.S. programs in elementary education are considered a national model by literacy experts in preparing teachers for reading instruction.
To pursue our Elementary Education BA, you will first apply to 鶹ԭ through our general Admissions & Financial Aid processes. You will then apply to our Feinstein School of Education and Human Development, once you are a 鶹ԭ student and have completed several introductory courses.
Writing is central to the field of education as it is through writing that we make sense of the world; learners use writing to think, to discover, to understand. Writing is also a means of communication and teacher candidates must show competence in writing to communicate with families and community, contribute to academic reports on students, write plans for substitute teachers and participate in professional writing on district, state and national levels.
Most importantly, writing is an art and a craft: We write to convey, to express, to inform, to entertain, to remember, to explain, to surprise, to examine, to teach, to convince, to persuade, to analyze … and prospective teachers must show competence in these (and other) areas of writing as, ultimately, they will serve as models of writers and writing for students in classrooms.
Both ELED 469 and ECED 469 are capstone courses. They encapsulate the varied writing experiences students will have engaged in throughout program coursework, culminating in the Teacher Candidate Work Sample (TCWS).
The TCWS is an academic piece of writing which tells the story of how students engage in learning a particular aspect of content, while also using writing to:
Students in the Elementary and Early Childhood programs should expect to engage in three broad kinds of writing:
As they write in these three domains, students will have opportunities to practice other kinds of writing, including:
All of the writing in which students engage will help them learn to
Students in the Elementary and Early Childhood programs will experience, first-hand, writing practices they will be asking their students to engage in: choosing topics, one-to-one writing conferences with the professor; meeting in response groups in class to share writing and receive feedback; examining what makes a piece of writing effective – or not effective – and discussing why; reading model pieces in a variety of genres and discussing characteristics of effective writing; participating in the process of developing a rubric on which their own writing will be assessed – engaging in self-assessment, then reflecting on the process of rubric design and assessment and what that means for work with future students.
They should know that writing has power: to inform, to instruct, to influence; that the genre and form depend on the purpose and audience; and that writing is a process which is recursive, not linear and it requires long, uninterrupted blocks of time.
The Feinstein School administers and coordinates all professional education programs at 鶹ԭ. We offer a range of programs, including early childhood, pre-K-12, counseling, school psychology, youth development and health and wellness.