Carleton College Courses

EDUC 234 Educational Psychology

Course description: Human development and learning theories are studied in relation to the teaching-learning process and the sociocultural contexts of schools. Three hours outside of class per week are devoted to observing learning activities in public school elementary and secondary classrooms and working with students.

EDUC 395 Senior Seminar: The School to Prison Pipeline

Course description: This senior seminar is the culmination of the students’ work as a concentrator in Educational Studies. This seminar is focused on educational practice, policy, and reform within the context of the School-to-Prison Pipeline. The primary goal of the course is to broaden and deepen students’ understanding of issues related to the School-to-Prison Pipeline. Underlying this topic are issues such as educational equity and access, discipline policies in schools, the systematic criminalization of youth, the achievement gap, and the workings of the prison industrial complex. The course combines traditional coursework such as reading, writing and discussion, with experiential components such as site visits, interviews, and fieldwork..

EDUC 395 Senior Seminar: Achievement/Opportunity Gap

Course description: This senior seminar is the culmination of the students’ work as a concentrator in Educational Studies. This seminar is focused on educational practice, policy, and reform within the context of the “Achievement/Opportunity Gap.” The students will build their study of educational theory and praxis and current educational issues. The course combines traditional coursework such as reading, writing, and discussion with experiential components such as site visits, interviews, and guest speakers.

EDUC 344 Teenage Wasteland

Course description: Is adolescence real or invented? How does the American high school affect the nature of American adolescence? How does adolescence affect the characteristics of middle and high schools? In addition to treating the concept historically, this interdisciplinary course focuses on psychological, sociological, and literary views of adolescence in and out of the classroom. We will also analyze how adolescence is represented in popular culture, including television, film, and music..

EDUC 395 Senior Seminar: Gender, Sexuality and Schooling

Course description: This is a research and design seminar for educational studies concentrators. It focuses on a contemporary issue in American education. Recent seminars have been on educational reform and reformers, service learning, literacy leaders in education, education and the emotions, and personal essays about education. Some off campus work with public school students and teachers is an integral part of the seminar.

EDUC 379 Methods of Literacy Instruction

Course description: This course introduces students to a variety of approaches and perspective in teaching English language arts in grades 5-12. We will explore methodologies and issues surrounding the teaching of reading, literature, language and composition in middle and high schools. In addition to the usual course components of reading, writing, and discussion approximately one day per week outside of class time will be devoted to observation and mini-teaching in 5-12 grade English classes in the Twin Cities.

Stillwater Prison courses

Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop: Writing the Personal Essay

Course description: This course focuses on the forms and subjects of contemporary personal essays: an exploration of the current state of a classic form. We will read exemplary essays from 2014 and explore the ways in which they enact the genre, at times redefining ‘the essay’.

Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop: Advanced Creative Writing

Course description: This class is a celebration of the written word, an affirmation of the craft of writing, and an acknowledgement of your talent as a writer. The class is a journey, a quest for the heart of what you see in the world and inside yourself. The class is demanding, requiring that you imagine, envision, take risks, write from the gut, and be willing to be vulnerable, as all good writers are.