San Diego State University
School of Teacher Education
TE 960
Seminar for Directed Internship
Fall 2014
San Diego Partnership Block
Instructor: Catherine Close
2 Unit Course
Office hours: Before or after class
Or TBA on request
Phone / FAX: (858) 481-9076
Email Address: czclose@san.rr.com
Course Overview and Description:
This course has been designed to prepare you, as first semester student teachers, to effectively work in the
classroom, schools and communities of San Diego Unified School District. You will be presented with a
holistic view of teaching through collaborative discussions, textual readings, observations, familiarity with the
California Teaching Performance Expectations and reflecting on your student teaching experiences. An
emphasis in this course will be helping you develop effective teaching skills and behaviors by engaging in
two specifically identified rotations of planning, teaching, reflecting, discerning problems, and applying new
strategies that are supported and guided by a Professional Learning Community (PLC) that includes guide
teachers, peer teacher candidates and a university liaison. You will also learn to self-evaluate your
instructional practices by analyzing your own video recorded lessons and to use the collective feedback and
ideas from other members in your PLC to develop your own “Growth Plan” for continued learning and
professional development.
This course is also designed to help support you in understanding and completing the various assessment
tasks related to the PACT teaching event and Content Area Tasks with an emphasis on the “Context for
Learning”
Student Learning Outcomes: (Addressing the following TPEs1 ,4, 5, 8, 9,10,11,12 and 13)
Upon completing this course you will be able to:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Discuss and adhere to the policies and expectations of San Diego State University Credential
Program and the State of California Teaching and Credentialing Laws and expectations.
List and discuss the various Teaching Performance Expectations (TPEs) for the state of Calif.
Use personal video recorded lessons to identify and examine your own teaching practices and
behaviors for successes and areas of improvement.
Critically think about and incorporate ideas and suggestions from others to improve your teaching
practices
Provide feedback and suggestions and ideas to peers for improving their teaching
Write a “professional growth summary” in which teaching accomplishments as well as goals for
continued practice in teaching effectiveness are identified and described.
Identify and implement strategies for starting the school year successfully and establishing a positive
classroom (social) environment.
Identify and articulate both orally an understanding your students’ as learners including their
background knowledge and experience, language and academic proficiency, family, culture and
economic influences and social and emotional maturity
Identify and discuss the key components of effective lesson planning and the role or function of each
component in student learning and in evaluating learning outcomes.
Write measurable lesson objectives including but not limited to applying Bloom’s Taxonomy of
educational objectives to designing lesson plans
Discuss, analyze and write to the Context for Learning Form and Commentary and the rubric strands
and expectations for the California Performance Assessment (Teaching Event and Content Area
Tasks)
Required Texts / Materials / Wed Based Platforms:
• SDSU Credential Program Handbook
• SMILE Handbook
• California Teaching Performance Expectations (TPEs)
• CAT forms and tasks (Context for Learning)
• TaskStream
• Selected articles and handouts,
• PowerPoint presentations and videos
Course Requirements and Assignments:
1. Acts Professionally and Demonstrates Professional Growth: (TPE 12,13):
(25% of grade)
The following criteria will be considered: Failure to meet as few as 1 or 2 of these
expectations could result in receiving 0% credit for this requirement.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Becomes familiar with and FOLLOWS all expectations and laws relating to professional conduct and
student privacy, health and safety as described in the SDSU Credential Program Handbook and
state and district policies
Demonstrates a positive, collegial and collaborative attitude – avoids complaining
Demonstrates initiative by fulfilling classroom and professional obligations in a timely manner.
Actively participates in classroom discussions and activities with peers and instructor
Demonstrate an openness and respect to the ideas and opinions of others
Communicates respectfully including avoiding gossiping about others
Uses feedback and suggestions on assignments to show improvement or growth in demonstrating
the various TPEs (Understanding of student learners and applying effective pedagogical skills and
behaviors.)
Takes an active responsibility to incorporate corrective measures when advised – self examines
rather than blames others.
Has good attendance (misses less than 20% of class hours) contacts the instructor by e-mail or
phone when needing to be absent
Completes ALL homework and classroom assignments in a timely and professional manner***.
(Timely is defined as the specified due date or a renegotiated due date previously discussed and
agreed upon between the student and instructor)
***Students will have an opportunity to re-do any assignment for a higher grade/credit, if the
assignment is originally submitted at the designated or renegotiated due date.
2. Develops effective teaching skills and behaviors through participation in a
Professional Learning Community (PLC) (TPE 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12 and 13)
(25% of Grade)
This assignment includes:
 Attending and participating in the discussions of all Mentoring Rotation PLC meetings including
both soliciting and giving feedback and suggestions
 Being prepared for each PLC meeting with required materials or documents (lesson plans, video
recording, classroom management plan, etc.)
 Writing and submitting a “Professional Growth Summary” at the end of each Learning
(Mentoring) rotation.
 Other lesson plans or professional reflections as assigned by University Liaison
3. Demonstrates an understanding of Instructional Planning through the development,
implementation and analysis of specific lessons. (TPEs 1,2,3,4,5,9,11,13)
(20% of grade)
This assignment includes:
• Being able to describe the way in which your lesson objectives, instruction, and assessment are
aligned
• Identifying and using student prior knowledge and personal experiences (culture, language,
interests, etc) for lesson planning
• Identifying ways to “check for student understanding” for a specific lesson.
• Writing and uploading to TaskStream lesson plans using the lesson plan template presented
through SMILE
4. Develops effective teaching skills and behaviors by using video recordings of
personal lessons to identify teaching accomplishments as well as goals for
continued practice. (TPE 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12 and 13)
(20% of grade)
This assignment includes:
 Video Recording 2 – 4 lessons aligned with each Mentoring Rotation editing and uploading to
TaskStream (A total of 4 – 6 for the semester)
 Writing a short “reflection summary” notating the “visible improvements” between one lesson and
the next

Submitting a “Professional Growth Summary” at the end of each Learning (Mentoring)
rotation that is based on evidence seen in the videos.
5. Discusses, analyzes and writes to the various questions, commentaries and rubrics
of the PACT “CONTEXT FOR LEARNING”.(TPEs 4,5,6,7,8,9 and 11)
(10% of grade)
This assignment includes:
• Identifying and applying strategies for gathering background information on the students,
classroom and school where you student teach
• Analyzing and critiquing Context For Learning exemplars
• Completing (write) and submitting Task #1 the “Context for Learning” FORM and
COMMENTARY for the subject content areas of math and social studies
Major Assignment due dates:
•
Uploading to TaskStream all required lesson plans, video clips and Professional Growth Summary
for First Mentoring Rotation by October 17, 2014
•
Uploading to TaskStream all required lesson plans, video clips and Professional Growth Summary
for Second Mentoring Rotation by November 21, 2014
•
Context for Learning final copy due October 24, 2014
Course Evaluation:
This is a credit/no-credit course.
To receive credit in this course you must meet 80% or better of the above requirements.
Cheating an/or Plagiarism is the actual or attempted practice of fraudulent or deceptive acts for the purpose
of improving one’s grade or obtaining course credit; such acts also include assisting another student to do
so. Penalties for cheating and plagiarism will range from a zero on a particular assignment, through the
possibility of NO CREDIT for the course,
Syllabus is Subject to Change: This syllabus and schedule of assignments are subject to change
in the event of extenuating circumstances. If you are absent from class, it is your responsibility to
check on announcements made while you were absent.
Special Notifications:
Accommodations: The University is committed to providing reasonable academic accommodation to
students with disabilities. If you expect or need accommodation through the Americans with Disabilities Act,
please notify your instructor, Catherine Close, by August 26, 2014 as well as contact the Student Disability
Services Office at (http://www.sa.sdsu.edu/dss/dss_home.html) or (619) 594-6473.” so that reasonable
efforts can be made to accommodate you.
Religious Observances: University Policy includes the following statements: “By the end of the second
week of classes, students should notify the instructors of affected courses of planned absences for religious
observances.” Please notify your instructor, Catherine Close, in a timely manner if you will miss class for
religious observances.