Elissa J. McClain
​​​Professional Portfolio
The following is a compilation of the courses I completed as I pursued my master's degree in education through Michigan State University. My educational path began with an internship and led me to accumulate 30 credits. Below, you will find information on each course, as well as assignments I completed in the different courses.
MSU Coursework
MSU Coursework
TE 801:
Professional Roles and Teaching Practice I
Instructor: Kate Johnson
Fall 2010
GPA 4.0
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TE 801 was designed to connect study with practice. This course focused on the various ethical and professional responsibilities of a teacher of mathematics. As a course developed for the beginning of the internship year, there was a focus on the different levels of our own teaching contexts, including the community, classroom and children's perspectives. We also learned how to thoughtfully prepare high-level mathematical tasks, multiple lessons, both formative & summative assessment, and effective student led whole-group discussions. As a final project, I created a unit plan which taught my students about subtraction using problem solving.​
TE 803:
Professional Roles and Teaching Practice II
Instructor: Justin Bruner
Spring 2011
GPA 4.0
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TE 803 focused on the various ethical and professional responsibilities of a teacher of social studies. The main topics of this course were how to develop an integrated curriculum, differentiate instruction, write a cover letter and become a reflective teacher. This course was part of the culmination of the year long internship program. It had a predominant focus of making sure all students were prepared for the amazing journey on which they were hopefully about to embark upon -- being a classroom teacher. In this course, we had to create an integrated unit which incorporated both literacy and social studies. My unit focused on the history of Michigan.
ED 800:
Concepts of Educational Inquiry
Instructor: Scott Weiland
Spring 2012
GPA 4.0
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ED 800 is an introductory class to the online Master's of Education program at MSU. This course was designed to introduce the concepts of inquiry throughout the history of education. Students were challenged to look at the teaching styles of different educators in order to examine personal beliefs about teaching and how students learn. This was done by reading the works of well known educators and researchers in the field of education. We were then given the challenge of applying theories and methods for teacher inquiry into our own classrooms. As a final assignment, were given the task of completing an autobiographical inquiry. I focused on a reflection of what technology means in an educational career based on my own personal experiences.
TE 848:
Writing Assessment & Instruction
Instructor: Lisa Hawkins
Summer 2012
GPA 4.0
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TE 848 examined the theory and pedagogy of writing instruction. The course focused on the development of researched based best-practices to effectively create and assess writing instruction that would support the needs of all learners. Students of this course had to first view themselves as writers and then as teachers of writing. This process allowed each class member to have an understanding of the writing process and the challenges that can arrive throughout the various stages. After analyzing the process as a writer, each student was required to think as a teacher to create strategies that would support students with different needs. As a culminating project, each student is required to pick a specific aspect of writing instruction he/she would like to know more about. I find the stages of revising and editing the most challenging, so I chose to focus my research paper on this topic.
TE 802:
Reflection and Inquiry in Teaching Practice I
Instructor: Jennifer Knight
Fall 2010
GPA 4.0
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TE 802 focused on the various ethical and professional responsibilities of a teacher of literacy. Since this course is designed as an introductory course during the student internship year, it educates interns on research and teaching practices in classrooms. The intention of this course was to help future educators learn about the teaching of diverse academic subjects through the lens of literacy. The content focused primarily on writing in the genres (narrative, exposition and poetry), comprehension instruction, literature-based discussion models, and literacy assessment. For a final project, I designed an interactive lesson on notetaking and story elements to support comprehension.
TE 804:
Reflection and Inquiry in Teaching Practice II
Instructor: Rochelle Rubin
Spring 2011
GPA 4.0
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TE 804 focused on the various ethical and professional responsibilities of a teacher of science. The course helped me to reflect and build upon ideas and concepts of teacher education. I learned how to plan, teach and assess using standards-based practices. Assignments included determining goals and standards that would be the basis of a unit, pre-assessing students to determine needs, developing and teaching science lessons to guide students toward the accomplishment of created goals, and finally creating, then conducting a post-assessment to determine student growth. Throughout the course I developed a unit on motion. Click the link to see the unit planning assignment I created.
TE 846:
Accommodating Differences in Literacy Learners
Instructor: Jennifer Knight
Summer 2012
GPA 4.0
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TE 846 focused on the factors that influence literacy instruction. Developmental processes and both instructional and assessment strategies/practices were looked upon to determine how to best shape literacy instruction to support the needs of all learners. Lessons focused on the importance of creating a differentiated curriculum in a general education classroom. In order to put these factors into practice, we had to create a case study which focused on struggling learner. We had to observe that student, provide accommodations to support his/her needs, create lessons and then analyze the effectiveness of those lessons while modifying them where needed.
CEP 843:
Autism Spectrum Disorders:
​Characteristics and Educational Implications​​
Instructors: Summer Ferreri, Lisa Flis & Sean Strasberger
Summer 2012
GPA 4.0
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CEP 843 focused on the many aspects of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). This course educates it's students on the history of ASD, as well as theories surrounding the disorders, along with interventions and implications of the ASD. It was designed to help develop an understanding of the daily challenges an individual with ASD and his/her family and educators are faced with. This is done through a variety of activities, research and readings, as well as a final research case study project. This project required the study of a true individual with ASD in the classroom (meaning in order to be in this class, you must have access to a student with ASD). We also conducted research on a specific aspect of ASD. I chose the topic of the language deficit associated with ASD, as well as interventions to support speech/language challenges. I created a PowerPoint presentation to summarize my findings.
CEP 832:
Educating Students with Challenging Behavior
Instructor: Vicky Mousouli & Evelyn Oka
Spring 2013
GPA 4.0
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CEP 832 is a course which is designed to teach research- based classroom interventions for students with a variety of disruptive and other behavioral problems. This course taught general education classroom teachers effective teaching approaches for these students. This was done through the case studies which were introduced that focused on a variety of behavioral problems. As a student taking this course, I found it helpful to learn and write about specific behaviors and create interventions that I could use in my own career. This course helped me in my current classroom as I learned more about behaviors I was seeing on a daily basis. I feel this was one of the most beneficial courses I have taken at MSU. As a culminating project, I had to create a PowerPoint of a case study based on a student with a challenging behavior from my own classroom. This case study includes my research, intervention and results for the support I provided for this student.
ED 870:
Capstone Seminar
Instructor: Matthew Koehler
Summer 2013
GPA 4.0
The ED 870 course allowed me the opportunity to revisit my experiences throughout the online master's program. It led me to the creation of this online portfolio and signified the conclusion to my pursuit of a master's degree. This capstone seminar required me to look back on previous work I completed and reflect upon this work weekly as I created this portfolio to share with potential employers, my colleagues and families. While doing this, I had to think about myself as an individual, a learner, and teacher. This allowed me to create a final project focusing on myself and my accomplishments thus far. I shared my progress with my classmates and engaged in discussion to shape my portfolio to successfully support my vision and represent who I am as a student and educator. As a life-long learner, I will continue to adapt my portfolio to my knew experiences and successes throughout my teaching career. Click the link to view my homepage.