Online Elementary Education Degree: Curriculum
Curriculum Details
120 total credits required
Greenville University’s online Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education features a curriculum that prepares you for the edTPA exam and initial teaching licensure for grades one through six in the state of Illinois. This flexible program consists of 15 courses, which are eight or 16 weeks in duration.
In addition to courses needed for the elementary education major, you will need to complete general education and elective courses for a total of 120 credits. You will also complete approximately 400 classroom hours as part of your program.
This program is based on a 2+2 model, in which students begin their elementary education courses at the associate level and transfer the credits they earn to Greenville University. This model allows community college students to save on tuition costs by completing some courses needed for the elementary education major at lower tuition rates.
When you begin your studies at Greenville University, you will have completed an initial semester of elementary education-related coursework and field experience, allowing you to make the most of your associate degree credits and fast-track your bachelor’s degree. Most students finish their bachelor’s degree in two years after transferring their previously earned associate credits.
Greenville University has special partnerships with five institutions to allow for a seamless transfer of associate degree credits into the B.S. in Elementary Education program. Partner schools include:
- Kaskaskia College
- Lake Land Community College
- Lewis and Clark Community College
- Lincoln Land Community College
- Southwestern Illinois College
Greenville University’s elementary education programs are nationally accredited by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation and approved by the Illinois State Board of Education.
Core Courses
The content of this course focuses on using art, music, and movement to enhance student learning in the elementary classroom core curriculum. The course includes the study of tools, techniques, and technology of art, music, and movement. It provides candidates an understanding of the educational, communicative, and aesthetic values of dance, music, and visual arts and the role fine arts plays in reflecting history and culture. Field experiences required.
Emphasis is on the identification and remediation of reading problems at the elementary school level. Prevention of reading problems through early intervention is addressed. Informal assessment and teaching strategies are stressed. Field experiences required. Prerequisite: EDUC 312 and admission to the Teacher Education Program.
Our everyday wellbeing and sustenance are connected to our environment in many ways, but many of these connections are not obvious. This course focuses on how human society relates to and depends on the environment. This course incorporates the topics of human population, patterns of resource use, energy, and pollution while considering how to move toward a sustainable future for the Creation. Some aspects of the following disciplines are included: ecology, animal and plant biology, physics, chemistry, oceanography, and atmospheric science. (Three hours of lecture and two hours lab per week.)
Students must select either BIOL 108 Environmental Science and Stewardship or BIOL 115 Plants and People.
Major emphases in this course are the scientific method; structure and function of plants, and their economic and ecological importance; and discussion of current issues such as genetic modification of crops. (Three hours lecture and two hours lab per week.)
Students must select either BIOL 108 Environmental Science and Stewardship or BIOL 115 Plants and People.
This course examines the settlement, colonization and nation-building of the United States from roughly 1600-1865. This course focuses on the context in which European settlers and the Africans whom they enslaved built a nation, wresting North America from native tribes. We will investigate the loyalties that guided settlers’ beliefs and actions; the multi-faceted conflicts that led future generations to demand liberty; and the conflicted notions of equality, democracy and justice that guided the United States in its first eight decades.
Students must select either HIST 304 American History I or HIST 205 American History II.
In this course, we will consider how Americans responded to rapidly changing conditions that followed the Civil War. We will consider how a national culture developed in the post-Civil War period, and we will evaluate the benefits and liabilities of this transition. Further we will examine the ways in which the United States assumed a new global identity through the course of the mid-nineteenth to the late twentieth century and consider the repercussions of this new consciousness. Finally, we will study the ways in which Americans placed limitations on state power in order to provide more consistent equality and equity for all.
Students must select either HIST 304 American History I or HIST 205 American History II.
This course articulates the value of physical education for the elementary school student and trains elementary teachers in the design, development, implementation and evaluation of elementary physical education programs.
Students must select either PHED 254 Elementary Physical Education or PHED 356 Adapted Physical Education.
This course provides experience in formulating individualized performance objectives, key teaching and therapy skills, and programming for specific problems in organization and administration of students with disabilities. Provides a brief review of the legislative and history of adapted physical education.
Professional Education Courses
This course will investigate the structures of a safe and healthy learning environment that facilitates cultural and linguistic responsiveness, positive social interaction, active engagement, and academic risk-taking. A three tiered level of positive behavior supports (PBS) will be explored as a framework for creating plans to accomplish a productive learning environment. Twenty hours of field experience required. Prerequisite: EDUC 280
This course is designed to explore classroom evaluation of student growth as an integral part of instruction. Candidates explore the purpose of evaluation as it relates to planning instruction. Professional, social, ethical, and philosophical considerations related to teaching/learning are also explored. Prerequisite: Admission to the Teacher Education Program.
After admission to the professional internship, candidates receive student teaching placements. Candidates work with their cooperating teachers during the first week of school. Five days of clinical experience required. Prerequisite: Admission to the Professional Internship.
This course is a general methods course to prepare candidates for teaching at the elementary level. It is conducted with a major emphasis on actual clinical experiences focusing on the role of the elementary school teacher within the community, school, and classroom. Methods and techniques of classroom management, lesson planning, student assessment, and reporting are also considered, as candidates work with clinical instructors. As part of this clinical experience, students will complete a practice edTPA. Professional ethics and dispositions are also covered. Meets the general education upper division writing intensive requirement.
For candidates completing the elementary program. Fifteen weeks of student teaching are required. Prerequisite: Admission to the Professional Internship.
The seminar addresses professional topics within the field of education. In addition, the seminar provides an opportunity for teacher candidates to focus on the required performance assessment. The performance assessment, aligned with state standards, is an authentic assessment tool that shows how teacher candidates develop and evaluate student learning. The centerpiece is a portfolio that describes and documents authentic practices from the candidate’s teaching experience. The portfolio addresses planning, instruction, assessment, analyzing teaching, and academic language to reveal the impact of a candidate’s teaching performance on student learning. As a capstone seminar, the course requires students reflect mastery of self-reflection and critical self-awareness, collaboration across disciplines, communication in multiple modes with multiple audiences, and reflection on how Christian faith impacts and guides their daily work. The seminar topics and tasks guide and support the candidate’s progress in the teaching profession.
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