This is program overview of all of the coursework taken while enrolled in the Adolescent or Childhood Special Education Program at

LIU - Brooklyn. Not included are requirements of the NYC DOE Teaching Fellows Program or certification requirements from NY
State. For information regarding those components of any program, please visit the appropriate website or personnel.

The design of the LIU Special Education program is guided by Disability Studies in Education, Critical Special Education, and Critical
Race Theory. Our course work is intended to help students name and disrupt systems of oppression and exclusion that operate in
schooling. This means that each course is deeply grounded in theory while offering practical understandings of how to teach
inclusively and support and sustain cultural and neurodiversity in classroom practice.

Students begin their coursework with by exploring the histories and contemporary realities of urban education and special education.
This foundation is intended to help them understand the ways that traditional US schooling has been designed around White
supremacist, (ableist), capitalist, patriarchal, imperialist norms (hooks, 2004) and about the pathologizing of difference that serves to
rationalize the disenfranchisement and exclusion of students of color, students with linguistic diversity, and students with disabilities.

As students move through their coursework, they continuously reflect on their own commitments to social justice and the ways in
which their pedagogy works towards or against their curricular aims. Coursework focuses on building supportive and positive
classroom community, designing responsive, engaging, and accessible curriculum, implementing supports and differentiation for
specific learning needs including literacy interventions, academic and cognitive assessment, and understanding the complex lives of
children and adolescents living in and navigating NYC.

In the final semester of their time at LIU, students are asked to build their practice through an inquiry into their individual inclusive
practice and synthesize their learning in the development of a teacher profile.
 1. Summer 1:
TAL 806 Foundations of Teaching Urban Special Education
An introduction to teaching urban children who receive special
education services. Includes historical, philosophical and social
perspectives on schooling, with attention to factors such as
language, socioeconomic class, and ethnicity and their
implications for practice. Teaching fellows will use their
summer student teaching experience as a context through which
to study and practice beginning methods for effective special
education teaching. Students will begin to consider such
foundational teaching skills as unit and lesson planning,
classroom-based assessment, methods of classroom
management for a beginning teacher, and negotiating the
climates of NYC schools in ways that reflect a developing
critical practice in special education.
KEY READINGS:
● Aguilar, E. (2018)​. Onward: Cultivating Emotional
​ an Francisco, CA: John Wiley &
Resilience in Educators. S
Sons.
● Milner IV, H. R. (2015). ​Rac(e) ing to Class: Confronting
Poverty and Race in Schools and Classrooms.​ Cambridge,
MA: Harvard Education Press.
KEY ASSESSMENT:
● Teacher Identity Positioning Paper; School Community
Walk
TAL 803 Perspectives on Disability
Provides an overview of the social, political, historical,
cultural and educational contexts of disability. Students will
explore the history of Special Education legislation and
litigation that have influenced the field, attitudes toward
people with disabilities, images in the media, and different
perspectives on the meaning of disability. Major issues in the
fields of Special Education and Disability Studies as well as
topics central to the lives of people with disabilities such as
transition, employment, and self-determination will be
emphasized.
KEY READINGS:
● Annamma, S.A., Connor, D.J., & Ferri, B.A. (2016).
Touchstone text: Dis/ability critical race studies (DisCrit):
Theorizing at the intersections of race and Dis/ability. In
Connor, D.J., Ferri, B.A. & Annamma, S.A.(Eds.),
DisCrit: Disability studies and critical race theory in
education (pp.9-32). New York, NY: Teachers College
Press.
KEY ASSESSMENT:
● Models of Disability and Instructional Approaches Paper
Fall 1:
TAL 854 Classroom as Community
Students learn to create respectful classroom communities that
support children and adolescents in developing communication
and social skills leading to satisfying interpersonal relationships.
Students will explore various ways of thinking about behavior.
They will also learn approaches grounded in person-centered
values, including collaborative problem-solving processes to
develop individualized interventions. Theoretical foundations
and methods for supporting students with disabilities and
documenting and interpreting their behaviors will be addressed.
Various perspectives on constructing classroom environments
such as Positive Behavior Support, Responsive Classrooms, and
conflict resolution will be explored.
KEY READINGS:
● Greene, R. W. (2008). Lost at school: Why our kids with
behavioral challenges are falling through the cracks and
how we can help them. New York: Scribner.
● Costello, B., Wachtel, J., & Wachtel, T. (2009). ​The
restorative practices handbook: For teachers,
disciplinarians and administrators​. International Institute
for Restorative Practices.
KEY ASSESSMENT:
● Understanding Student Behavior and Collaborative Action
Plan
TAL 885C Student Teaching Alternative Adolescence
Special Ed I
This course is designed for students in an alternative
certification program. It prepares reflective teachers who work
to create excellent secondary classrooms for urban adolescents
with disabilities. Students participate in every aspect of
practice, including planning, implementation, and assessment
of curriculum and instruction. They immerse themselves in the
life of a school, recording and thinking about the purposes,
complexities, and consequences of what they do as teachers in
order to learn from their experiences. Students are supervised
by a university faculty member and meet in regularly
scheduled seminars. Students currently employed as
adolescent special education teachers (grades 7-12) complete
the experience in their place of employment.
KEY READINGS:
● Aguilar, E. (2018)​. Onward: Cultivating Emotional
Resilience in Educators. ​San Francisco, CA: John Wiley
& Sons.
● Capizzi, A. M. (2008). From assessment to annual goal:
Engaging a decision-making process in writing
measurable IEPs. ​Teaching Exceptional Children,​ ​41(​ 1),
18-25.
KEY ASSESSMENT:
● Lesson Plan & Reflection; Co-Planned Lesson Plan &
Reflection; SMART Goals
Spring 1:
TAL 856 Curriculum Theory and Practice in Special Ed:
Middle Child/Adolescence
An exploration of the role of curriculum in schools with an
emphasis on teaching learners with diverse learning needs.
Students will learn to evaluate the appropriateness of existing
curricula for children with disabilities while developing
curricula based on an assessment of learners’ interests,
strengths, and individual needs. Strategies and instructional
technology for modifying and adapting curricula for students
with varying abilities will be presented. Students will investigate
the impact of the NYS/Common Core Learning Standards and
Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) on development and
implementation of curriculum for students with disabilities.
Trends and issues in the field of curriculum will be discussed in
relation to the delivery of special education services.
KEY READINGS:
● Wiggins, G. & J. McTighe. (2005). ​Understanding by
​ pper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
design. U
● Sleeter, C. (2017). ​Un-standardizing curriculum:
Multicultural teaching in the standards-based classroom.​
New York: TC Press.
KEY ASSESSMENT:
● UBD Meets UDL Curriculum Unit
TAL 885D Student Teaching Alternative Adolescence
Special Ed II
This course is designed for students in an alternative
certification program. It prepares reflective teachers who work
to create excellent secondary classrooms for urban adolescents
with disabilities. Students participate in every aspect of
practice, including planning, implementation, and assessment
of curriculum and instruction. They immerse themselves in the
life of a school, recording and thinking about the purposes,
complexities, and consequences of what they do as teachers in
order to learn from their experiences. Students are supervised
by a university faculty member and meet in regularly
scheduled seminars. Students currently employed as
adolescent special education teachers (grades 7-12) complete
the experience in their place of employment.
KEY READINGS:
● Aguilar, E. (2018)​. Onward: Cultivating Emotional
Resilience in Educators. ​San Francisco, CA: John Wiley
& Sons.
● Tomlinson, C. A. (2017). ​How to differentiate instruction
in academically diverse classrooms. ​ASCD.
KEY ASSESSMENT:
● Executive Function Support & Reflection
● Differentiation Enactment [Content, Process, Product] &
Reflection
● edTPA Completion Plan
Summer 2:
TAL 812 Lives of Adolescents
A course that focuses on the experience of preadolescents and
adolescents from diverse backgrounds with a range of abilities
using developmental, non-developmental, historical, and
cultural approaches. Theories of development will be studied as
they apply to the adolescent learner in families, communities,
peer groups and schools. Physical, cognitive, socio-emotional
and moral domains of development with implications for
learning will be studied. Throughout the course, attention will
be given to ways in which culture, gender, disability, race, class,
language, ethnicity and sexual orientation play a role in the
process of learning and development. The lives of adolescents
with typical and atypical development will be explored through
observations and readings.
KEY READINGS:
● Phelan, P., Davidson, H., & Ya, C. (1998). Adolescent
worlds. Negotiating family, peers, and school. New York,
NY: Teachers College Press.
● Emdin, C. (2016). ​For White folks who teach in the hood...
and the rest of y'all too: Reality pedagogy and urban
education.​ Boston, MA.: Beacon Press.
● Lesko, N. (2012). ​Act your age!: A cultural construction of
adolescence.​ New York, NY: Routledge.
KEY ASSESSMENT:
● Co-created Youth Narrative
TAL 802 Language and Literacy
A course focusing on the relationship between oral language
and literacy, highlighting the psycholinguistic and social
foundations of reading. Principles of first and second language
acquisition, dialectal differences, and the development of
literacy in English Language Learners and bilingual children
will be addressed. Students will be introduced to different
philosophical approaches to teaching reading and will explore
the connection between reading and writing. They will
examine the cognitive and sociolinguistic processes involved
in making meaning from text, including the importance of
background knowledge, as well as processes underlying word
recognition. The role of multicultural literature for children
will be highlighted. Students will be introduced to a variety of
literacy resources, including children's libraries and relevant
Web sites.
KEY READINGS:
● Paris, D., & Alim, H.S. (2017). Culturally sustaining
pedagogies. Teachers College Press.
KEY ASSESSMENT:
● Culturally and Linguistically Sustaining Lesson Plan
Summer 2 or Winter year 2:

TAL 822 Assessment and Special Education (Online)

The historical, political and social context of the testing and

standards movements and their relation to assessment practices
in Special Education will be critically examined. The concepts
of reliability and validity will be explored and their relevance to
standardized and teacher-made tests, as well as alternative
assessment techniques, will be discussed. Emphasis will be
given to the underlying assumptions of the tests and to race,
class, language, and gender implications in using the tests. The
process by which students receive special education services
will be investigated

KEY READINGS:
● Allal, L., & Ducrey, G. P. (2000). Assessment of—or
in—the zone of proximal development. Learning and
instruction, 10(2), 137-152.

KEY ASSESSMENT:
● IEP Driven Authentic Assessment Design
Fall 2:
TAL 857 Strategies for Teaching Learners with Diverse
Needs: Middle Child/Adolescence
Characteristics of pre-adolescent and adolescent students with
particular disability classifications, as well as cultural, linguistic,
gender, and ability differences, will be studied as a basis for
considering strategies for teaching. Ideas, methods, and
strategies for assessing student needs and for designing,
adapting, implementing, and evaluating instructional practices in
academic content areas will be considered. Emphasis will be
placed on developing the ability to teach through a variety of
teaching methods, including new technologies and effective
utilization of time, space, materials, and equipment.
Consideration will be given to teaching learners content in
academic subject areas based on the NYS/Common Core
Learning Standards. Teaching methods that support a
collaborative learning environment, such as cooperative learning
groups and co-teaching, will be explored.
KEY READINGS:
● Thousand, J.S., Villa, R.A., & Nevins, A.I. (2015).
Differentiating instruction: Collaborative planning and
teaching for universally designed learning (2nd
ed.)Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
● Casale-Giannola, D., &Green, L.S. (2012). 41 Active
learning strategies for the inclusive classroom, grades
6-12.Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
KEY ASSESSMENT:
● Adaptations Portfolio
*Students are also enrolled in​ ​TAL 885E Student Teaching for Practicing Teacher Alternative I (0 Credit Course)​ for field consultant
support.
TAL 875 Adolescent and Young Adult Emergent Literacy
A course that addresses the language and literacy needs of
adolescents and young adults who have had uneven or poor
schooling. Students will learn how to adapt instruction,
develop materials, and design appropriate curricula to meet the
literacy needs of adolescents and young adults. The specific
needs of English language learners, speakers of a second
dialect, and those with learning difficulties will be considered.
Students will become familiar with reading materials and other
educational resources for this population. The use of
specialized technology and media will be explored.
KEY READINGS:
● Handsfield, L. J. (2015). Literacy theory as practice:
Connecting theory and instruction in K–12 classrooms.
Teachers College Press. (Chapters not full texts)
● Beers, K. (2003). When Kids Can't Read: What Teachers
Can Do. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
● Beers, K., & Probst, R. E. (2012). Notice and note.
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
KEY ASSESSMENT:
● RTI Plan for Supporting Literacy in Your Classroom
Spring 2:
TAL 880 Classroom Inquiry I
A course that aims to develop and improve aspects of teaching
practice by deepening students' understanding of inquiry,
documentation, evidence, questions, and knowledge as
introduced in Classroom Inquiry I. Students will learn
collaborative modes of classroom inquiry by formulating a
question and completing an inquiry into a school or classroom
issue, a curricular activity, or an aspect of their teaching
practice. Students will explore a range of literature related to the
questions being investigated. They will investigate and compare
assumptions about persons and knowledge-making underlying
various modes of inquiry through exposure to a range of
research designs.
KEY READINGS:
● Falk, B., & Blumenreich, M. (2005). ​The power of
questions: A guide to teacher and student research.​
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
● Eperjesi, R. & Forster, C. (2017) ​Action Research for New
Teachers.​ London: Sage Publications.
KEY ASSESSMENT:
● Inquiry to Action Research Project
*Students are also enrolled in​ ​TAL 885F Student Teaching for Practicing Teacher Alternative II (0 Credit Course)​ for field consultant
support.
TAL 971 Capstone Seminar
In this seminar, students meet graduation requirements with
the creation and submission of a portfolio that demonstrates
their attainment of the TAL program standards in the areas of
Knowledge, Enquiry, Empathy, Pluralism and Social
Commitment (the KEEPS Claims). Through the selection and
examination of prior coursework in the context of readings
from the contemporary and historical field of education,
students reflect on the knowledge and skills gained through the
program and the implications for their teaching practice.
KEY READINGS:
● Delpit, L. D. (2011). The silenced dialogue. Thinking
about Schools: A Foundations of Education Reader, 157​.
● Van Manen, M. (1995). On the epistemology of
reflective practice. Teachers and teaching, 1(1), 33-50.
KEY ASSESSMENT:
● Culminating Teacher Portfolio