English Teaching Program

Mission Statement

The academic mission of the SUU English Department's program in teaching is to prepare students for a career in secondary education. The department pursues these objectives through a comprehensive program of classes in literature, language arts, critical theory, and pedagogy. Instructors provide students with the pedagogical models and methodologies for a career in education related fields.

Learning Outcomes

Students who successfully complete the graduation requirements for the BA degree in English: Secondary Education will be able to

• identify, describe, and compare the literary features of a variety of genres across different historical periods and cultures;

• create lesson plans specific to the study of literary analysis, writing, and language arts;

• apply and assess a range of pedagogical theories appropriate to various secondary-education settings and experiential learning opportunities;

• apply teaching practices, tutoring strategies, and classroom management skills in the context of national common core requirements of secondary education; and

• present a diverse approach to literature and language arts in the classroom and broader community.

Program Goals

Academic Excellence and Resources

• Add a new tenure-track line for a faculty member with a PhD in English Education

• Provide workshops focusing on English content and curriculum issues for English teachers

• Implement partnership/internships between Iron County School District schools (particularly high schools) to introduce English education students into the program earlier

• Create open dialogue between student teachers of English and co-operating teachers/supervisors to provide professional development

• Study, propose, and implement a master's degree in rhetoric

Student Success and Engagement

• Develop procedures to assess our course offerings better from the perspective of recent English Education graduates 

• Offer one-to-one help in the Writing Center for students in Introduction to Grammar and Advanced Grammar courses

• Prepare students better for successful completion of student teaching requirements

• Implement new capstone rhetoric class in such a way that would make it accessible to teachers—i.e., a Saturday or one-day-a-week evening class

• Facilitate the formation of an English Education Forum to provide a venue for networking among students and discussion of issues related to teaching

Organizational Effectiveness

• Hold regular meetings of the education subcommittee for creating, evaluating, and assessing curriculum

• Develop clear standards and guidelines for all faculty in the area of teaching, scholarship/creative work, service, collegiality, and engagement

• Formalize learning goals and outcomes for experiential learning connected to education

• Cultivate a departmental environment that promotes collegiality, collaboration, and lifelong learning

• Define the responsibilities of the student teacher supervisor better and provide opportunities for professional development connected with that position

Faculty and Staff Development

• Provide opportunities for faculty of all ranks to develop leadership skills and to participate in department governance

• Reward innovative teaching, especially in the area of experiential learning

• Develop a system of rotating course breaks to allow faculty to pursue scholarly and creative projects in greater depth

• Develop opportunities for experiential learning connected to tutoring positions and opportunities for national peer tutoring certification in the Writing Center and in the ENGL 0990 program

• Use our disciplinary expertise to reach out to colleagues and to larger communities for the purpose of promoting mutual understanding and of identifying and solving problems of shared concern