Our English Education programs are built around the concept that an English teacher’s first and foremost goal must be to encourage a lifelong love of reading and writing in students. As a teacher of English, you will be nurturing in students the skills of reading and writing, skills that are foundational to a productive and satisfying life.
We offer two programs in English education: an elementary program, Language Arts, and a secondary one, English Language and Literature. Each program pairs a literature track with a pedagogical one, providing you with a balanced training in content and in theory and practice. In the literature track, you will engage in the study of topics such as American literature, literature by diverse writers, composition theory, comics and film, grammar, and children’s and young adult literature. The education track provides you with the practical and pedagogical training to become an effective teacher. Each degree culminates in a senior project in which you conduct research on a topic of your choice and fieldwork in local schools.
A major or minor for those wishing to certify to teach English to middle or high school students. As an English Language and Literature–Secondary Education major, you can take courses on YA Literature and visual texts such as graphic novels. You can learn how to publish your own future students’ work in student journals by working as an editing intern in the department or lead a community writing workshop. You’ll also get to practice your teaching skills in our 21st century learning environment.
This program prepares you:
A minimum of 124 credits (at the 100 level or higher) must be earned for graduation with a cumulative gpa of 2.70 or higher. A gpa of 2.70 or higher is required in your Major, and a gpa of 2.00 or higher is required in your General Education Requirements.
English Teacher Median Salary
Welcome to the Lake Superior State University First-Year Writing Program website! We offer three classes, ENGL 110 First-Year Composition I, ENGL 105 First-Year Composition Workshop, and ENGL 111 First-Year Composition II. Below is a brief introduction to our placement policy, followed by answers to frequently asked questions about our program.
At Lake State, all students may sign up for ENGL 110 First-Year Composition I (3) and begin earning college credit their very first semester in English. Incoming students have three choices when selecting an ENGL 110 section:
Research shows that a range of factors must be considered in order to predict whether you are ready to take ENGL 110 without the workshop. Some of these factors are writing and reading experience, self-confidence as a writer and reader, high-school GPA, proofreading ability, and understanding of grammar. Many universities force students with low test scores or low GPAs to take college prep courses that do not count toward graduation. At Lake State, ENGL 105 is for credit, and taking it is your choice.
First-Year Composition I introduces you to the discipline of writing through an exploration of your own writing processes and products. In this course, you will learn to think critically about your own writing and address issues of coherence, grammar, mechanics, organization, clarity, and content. You will also consider the role of literacy in society, the ways in which readers engage text, and the role of writing at the college level.
ENGL 105 is a co-requisite skill-building course that you can take at the same time as ENGL 110. It is limited to 10-11 students per section and meets two hours a week in a computer lab. During workshop hours, you will consult with your ENGL 110 professor and your classmates to write and receive individualized feedback on ENGL 110 writing assignments. You will learn to write clearly, proofread your own work, practice effective peer-editing strategies, improve writing self-confidence, and independently apply the writing process, with emphasis on development, revision, editing for clarity and meaning, and proofreading final products.
In deciding whether to add ENGL 105 to your schedule, you should consider a range of factors. Standardized tests alone cannot predict whether students are ready to take English 110 without help. ENGL 110 is designed for the student who agrees with five or more of the following statements:
If you agree with five or fewer of these statements, consider choosing a workshop section with an affiliated ENGL 105 section and adding both to your schedule.
By the end of the first-year composition program, you must be prepared to independently find and evaluate sources, conduct academic research, and write papers of ten or more pages using a recursive writing process. Some students are ready to do this after six credits of study. Others take eight. Ultimately, first-year composition courses are intended to prepare you for success with the sort of advanced writing assignments required in upper-level courses at Lake State, such as research papers, case study analyses, critical analyses, case studies, annotated bibliographies, reviews of the literature, and senior theses.
First-Year Composition II prepares you for the complex demands of academic literacy and research. These require you to be able to critically observe personal and public knowledge; ask questions of reading and research; formulate hypotheses; design and conduct research projects, both in the library and in the field; and identify further avenues of inquiry. To help you develop these abilities, the course also teaches the basic skills of analysis, interpretation, critical thinking, and documentation. Required coursework includes completion of an extended 10-page research project. Prerequisite: C or higher in ENGL 110.
The LSSU Department of English would like to thank Royer and Gilles, authors of the article “Directed Self-Placement: An Attitude of Orientation” in College Composition & Communication, and Nicola Blake, author of “Embedded Remediation: A New Paradigm” in NADE Digest, for their important contributions to the field of composition pedagogy.
Complete and submit the following form, reflecting upon what you have learned in ENGL 110 and ENGL 111.
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