Another Degree Path >.> English Education

[Narianne]

My brother directed me here and so far I've found a lot of useful and encouraging information... What I haven't managed to dig up is a degree path from someone who has done a similar course of study as what I'm looking into completing.

I would like to get either an English Degree or a Single Subject Education Degree in English. I have looked into going through TESC, but as many people, and my bother, recommend, I would like to get as much as possible out of the way before paying tuition at a school. I am on a very limited income so my ability to pay tuition is limited as well and I'm not secure in how much I can get in Financial Aid so the less that has to be paid in the long run, the better.


Here are the courses I have already taken:

ADM 100- Introduction to the Administration of Justice

ASTR 101- Descriptive Astronomy

BIO 101- General Biology

BIO 101L- General Biology Laboratory

DRAM 105- Introduction to Theater

DRAM 106- Study of Filmed Plays

ECON 100- Survey of Economics

ENGL 100- Composition and Reading

ENGL 201- Critical Thinking and Composition

FREN 101- Elementary French 1

GEOG 101- Physical Geography

HEAL 101 Principles of Health

HEAL 101L Principles of Health Laboratory

MUS 101- Theory 1

MUS 102- Theory 2

MUS 103- Musicianship

MUS 105- Music Fundamentals

MUS 116- Survey of World Music

MUS 120- Beginning Keyboard

MUS 141- Music Fundamentals

MUS 144- Applied Music

MUS 145- Performance Lab

MUS 165- College Choral Ensemble

PLSC 102- American Institutions and History

There are a number of courses that were repeatable such as MUS 165, and DRAM 105. The total credit amount for the courses listed above is 56.5 Credits

I know I need a college level math and am planning to do Statistics for Behavioral Sciences through ALEKS. I also need

Communications 101- Principles of Oral Communication and
Communications 220- Introduction to Mass Communications

Literature 120- Introductions to Literature OR
Literature 270- World Literature

and then either the set of American Literature courses (LIT 250 & 251) or English Literature (LIT 260 & 261)

If anyone could give me some heads up as to what things I can get out of the way via DANTES and CLEPS and what not I would greatly appreciate it.

[cinderly]

These search results may or may not be of use to you.

I am aware of English majors on this board who went through both Excelsior and TESC. (There may also be a Charter Oakster, but I'm drawing a blank there.)

EC allows (allowed?) Subject GRE exams to count toward your major; TESC does not. (That exam is no joke. I'm a good test-taker, and I remember feeling way out of my depth. I should have studied more and more diligently.)

TESC allows FEMA for electives without additional transcription and counts more courses as upper-level than TESC.

As far as the English Education bit, if you're looking to teach at the K-12 level in the US, check with the department of education in the state(s) in which you hope to be licensed to teach for requirements, as they vary by state.

[alissaroot]

Let me see here...you have a couple different ways to go about doing this. The English part isn't where you're going to have trouble. There are many exams and distance learning courses that will take care of that part of it. The trouble is the Education part. Education requires certification in your state if you plan to teach up to the secondary level. I'm not sure how your state does it, but to get the certification you will probably have to have some student teaching, criminal background checks, and passing scores on the relevant Praxis exams.

I will be happy to help you with a degree plan, but it would help to know about your state's requirements and at which level you would like to teach in order to give you a good idea of which course of action to take. Are you interested in pursuing a Master degree, as well?

In the meantime, you could consider taking the following exams:

DSST Foundations of Education
CLEP Intro. to Educational Psychology
DSST Principles of Public Speaking
CLEP American Literature
CLEP English Literature
CLEP Analyzing & Interpreting Literature

If you are interested in taking the GRE Literature for credit, here's the link to the ETS site: Literature in English

and for upper level credit, you may want to look at Ohio U exams in English and Humanities: Ohio University Course Credit by Examination

Good luck!

[Narianne]

Thank you so very much for the information. That is a definitely a great starting point.

To answer your questions-

1. I hunted around the Education Departments website last night and could not find a single helpful page explaining to me what in the world they wanted. I am in Washington state so again, if anyone has any experience on THAT front I would appreciate a heads up there. '

2. The ultimate goal here is-
A. Finish my degree and start working as a tutor or substitute teacher while working on my Masters.

B. Finish my Masters, get my Teaching Cert. (unless needed for part A) and teach ESL at the Junior College

C. Do training and receive certification to teach English overseas.


So that is the game plan. Thanks again for all the help

[cinderly]

Hi, Narianne. If you're wanting to teach at the post-secondary level (like a junior college), you may not need a teaching certificate as those are generally for K-12. It look's like Washington's sub requirements are relatively stringent - only certified teachers may sub in Washington state. (Wow!)

When I designed my degree program, I worked backwards from the teacher prep programs I was considering. By ensuring that my coursework for Excelsior met UAS' pre-requisite requirements, I'm not having to redo a bunch of work at the end of my undergrad program. In your case, I'd work backwards from the Master's program you're looking at, since your teacher prep program seems like an interim requirement. I'm not sure what the requirements are to teach English overseas; most of the ads I've seen recruiting teachers require a bachelor's (any subject) or better.

The approved programs for Washington can be found on this page. If you think you might want to teach K-12 in other states in the future, consider researching their requirements, too, in case those are more stringent. A physical education class now is worth double in 15 years when you're in the middle of trying to move house!

Another option would be to pursue an associate's degree at one of the Big 3 and apply to an undergraduate teacher prep program (so you end up doing your Methods and student teaching as part of your undergrad.)

Finally, you might look into a program like Western Governors University. I don't fully understand their teacher education programs, but they are NCATE certified (highest certification for teacher prep) and big on independent study. They have both undergraduate and post-graduate teacher prep programs.

[YokotaJo]

Another thing to consider with your Teaching Certification and on to your Masters in Teaching is what is called "Content Competencies". I researched a hundred (well it seemed like that) Masters in Teaching that would lead to certification (huge issue when looking at Masters in Ed or Teaching) and no one bothered to mention Content Compentecies. What it comes down to is: Your Masters degree will want to see that you had certain liberal arts studies in your BA prep. So I had a huge amount of Geography from my first 4 years of college way back in the day, I finished up my BA in Psychology thru TESC all by testing. All great and dandy. Well, my Masters in Teaching, Elem Ed at Liberty University (love love the school, staff, program and courses) reviewed my BA courses and determined that I need a Lit and a World History class to round out my Content Competencies. It is all fine and not a huge deal but I have run into people that had BA's in engineering etc and they had a long list of Content Competencies to fulfill. The Content Comps can be CLEPS, community colleges etc --all undergrad so that makes it a bit easier. So in all of your research of test, classes and schools that will help you lead to your teaching career, I suggest you be sure to add "what Content Competecies do I need in my BA?" to your list of questions.