Our first two lessons helped you understand from a historical perspective why the educational system was created and the current ways in which the system functions. We explored a brief history of civil and educational rights and now you should be thinking about the current education system. As you explore the content over the next few lessons you will begin to explore inequity and inequality in the current system.

As we continue to explore this topic over the next four lessons, keep these ideas in the back of your mind.

Why are some school systems designed for the success of some students and not others?
Who are the policy makers and entities that might favor maintaining educational equity and why?
Who has historically benefited and who has historically not benefited from educational systems?
Who might oppose the changes that support increased equity? Why?

During your last lesson, you spent time understanding educational inequity and injustice. In this lesson, we will review how those inequities are revealed through educational gaps. Additionally, you will better understand policies and practices that can narrow these gaps.

Throughout this unit, you’ve explored equity and opportunity in public education. You’ll learn about ethics in this lesson with a focus on equity. What are the ethical expectations of educators in Michigan? You’ll evaluate these requirements and consider how some practices support or minimize equity in schools.

This lesson is the culmination of the unit on Equity Opportunity. During this lesson, you’ll explore recent education equity issues in Michigan. You will learn about an issue you care about in education and advocate for change.

For this Unit, you will explore ways to differentiate and design curriculum for our diverse classrooms. In this lesson, you will focus on how teachers choose and create curriculum and classroom content. Are there unconscious biases that might affect teachers’ choices as they develop assignments, pick out books and curriculum, and even give student feedback? It’s important to understand that bias is a complex system that teachers navigate every day. When you think critically about the potential for bias, especially implicit and confirmation bias, it can help you make choices in the classroom that support all the diverse learners.

Throughout this lesson, you will take time to review a variety of teaching methods. You will evaluate and reflect on your own experiences with different ways of teaching and learning experiences. As you learn about those methods or pedagogies, you will explain how teachers promote engagement and participation in their classrooms.

In your previous lesson, you evaluated teaching methods that could be used for a whole class. Throughout this lesson, you’ll explore ways that teachers can differentiate (or make changes) to the way that they teach or the content they teach to ensure that all students are supported throughout the learning process.

Throughout the last lesson, you learned how teachers could adapt lessons and curriculum to engage all students in productive learning. Schools support students with resources and interventions to help them strengthen their skills academically, socially, and emotionally. But what if students need continued support greater than those provided in the general education curriculum? In this lesson, we will explore the answer to that question.

You have explored personal and social identities earlier in this course. In this lesson, you will explore your language identity.

Recall that you learned a community could contain multiple cultures, hence, dominant and subordinate cultures. In our society, English is the predominant spoken language, and it has the power to be uplifting or oppressing when we use it to communicate with others.

Throughout this lesson, you will explore aspects of your own spoken and written language identity and review reflections about language identity and power.

You’ll also learn about teachers who work with English Language learners and explore a few ways to support English Language Learners in your clinical placement.

Throughout this lesson, you will take time to cultivate your own learning stance. You will learn about some of the key terms such as intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, lifelong learning, and various reasons why goal setting is important. You will even consider some specific strategies to help you (and the learners you work with) set goals. Finally, you will identify where you experienced examples of motivation and learning in your field observations.

Through this lesson, you will spend aligning your personal interests and values. Then, you will evaluate future careers that support those interests and values. Over the course of the lesson, you will learn ways to prepare for success after high school. You will also evaluate whether your future goals are a good fit for your skills and interests.

School isn’t always easy. So what do you do when you get stuck or run into difficulty? How do you advocate for what you need in your education, especially in a college setting? Who are your advocacy allies in educational settings? Throughout the lesson, you’ll work on identifying situations where you may need support and find strategies and resources to help you on your learning journey. You’ll also learn to find educational allies and how to self-advocate when you need additional support in the high school and college setting.

Throughout the last few lessons, you’ve learned about college options and how to seek help when you need it. You’ve reflected on and practiced ways to self-advocate. Through this lesson, you’ll think about those skills and options presented to explore different pathways that can lead to a teaching certification.

This lesson is the culmination of your learning from this unit. You’ve explored the path to get to a college or university, learned about ways in which you can attain your teaching certificate, and practiced ways to advocate for yourself and your learning. In this lesson, you will consider the transition to college and the expectations of you in higher education. Let’s start learning about what college is really like, what will be expected of you, and what you can expect.

In this lesson, you will analyze teacher moves in small moments to identify the impact of teacher decisions.

In this lesson, you will carefully consider how feedback and collaboration impact learning. By breaking down the feedback process and connecting it to action, you will make a statement about your own growth.

In this lesson, you will study the phases of a teaching career in order to better understand how teachers grow over time. You will learn about the formal and informal opportunities for learning in each phase, understanding that each can be equally important. Then you will apply your knowledge by building a timeline of learning for a teacher you know.

In this lesson, you will build a statement about your own growth as a result of your learning in this course. You will use artifacts from your learning, including reflections, to support your statement.