Universityof North Carolina Chapel Hill Middle Grades Education
http://soe.unc.edu/academics/middle/
Overview
The Middle Grades Education Program at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a professional studies program that prepares students for initial licensure as middle grades teachers. Undergraduate students working toward the bachelor's degree, and non-degree students who already hold the bachelor's degree and who are seeking middle grades licensure choose from four specialty content areas:
Language Arts
Mathematics
Science
Social Studies
Components of the curriculum for Middle Grades Education include:
general studiesthat undergraduates complete primarily in their first two years at the university and that some students seeking licensure only, which includes lateral entry teachers, may have completed as part of their studies for the bachelor's degree
studies in the College of Arts and Sciences that meet state licensure requirements for preparation in the content area(s) selected
professional studies that provide 30 hours of course credit for undergraduates who are licensed in two content areas. Licensure only candidates take a minimum of 27 hours in professional studies or 30 if they seek a second licensure area. Fifteen hours of professional studies are available for lateral entry teachers.
The program's faculty, with the cooperation of local area schools and teachers, are dedicated to providing students with early and frequent real-life experiences in middle school classrooms. Beginning in the first semester of the first year of the program, courses include focused observations and experience in working with adolescents ages 10-14 in grades 6 to 9. The culminating clinical experience is the student teaching internship, which students complete in the spring semester of the second year. As interns complete the practicum in their chosen content areas, they are supervised, mentored and evaluated by local middle school teachers and a university supervisor. During the student teaching semester, interns also take a seminar course that engages them in self-assessment, collaborative inquiry, and reflection on professional practice and standards. Field experiences include placements in Research Triangle Schools Partnership (RTSP)sites that provide access to diverse settings and a variety of school populations and classrooms.
Lateral Entry teachers who seek the middle grades license in their content field complete clinical experiences in their own classrooms.
The Middle Grades program has recognized the diversity and unique complexity of young adolescents as an invitation to important and meaningful work for middle grade teachers. The program utilizes a course of study based on research-based best practices, provides early and extensive clinical experiences, engages practicing teachers in collaborative inquiry and program improvement, and emphasizes the importance of advocacy for change that supports equitable, democratic schools attuned to the special needs of adolescents. The aim of the program is to develop new teachers with the skills necessary to be informed decision makers, reflective practitioners, caring and competent professionals, and effective teachers of middle school students.