Individual Department and Program Senior Assignment Descriptions
School of Education, Health and Human Behavior
Department of Teaching and Learning
Elementary Education (Department of Teaching and Learning)
The Elementary Literacy Assessment (edTPA) is the program’s senior assignment. This is a performance assessment required by the state of Illinois for licensure. The senior assignment requires teacher candidates to demonstrate their ability to 1) plan for learning and assessment by creating 3-5 lessons; 2) prove instructional abilities with video evidence of lesson implementation; 3) demonstrate assessment of learning with work samples. Written commentary that describes and justifies teacher candidate decisions is required for each task. All written commentary and instructional artifacts are organized into a portfolio that is submitted electronically for an external evaluation.
To prepare for this senior assignment, elementary candidates are placed in a grade 1-6 placement for their entire senior year. During the fall, they attend their field placement two full days per week with two immersion weeks that allow them to attend their placement full time. During the spring, candidates attend this same field placement full time. While in the classroom, candidates engage in teaching activities that develop their abilities to complete the senior assignment, which include being evaluated by their cooperating school teacher, university supervisor, and elementary education faculty. Formal reviews of classroom performance occur at both the midpoint and end of the fall and spring semester. Program coursework which includes scheduled seminars during the fall are used to orient teacher candidate to the components of the senior assignment. This orientation includes collaborative completion and submission of a practice edTPA program faculty who conduct internal performance evaluations. Orientation of cooperating teachers also occurs in the fall to support edTPA performance during spring student teaching. During spring student teaching, scheduled seminars are used to help teacher candidates plan, complete and submit individual senior assignments that are submitted electronically for an external review by Pearson Corp.
A grade of at least a C in all program courses which includes seminar attendance are required for graduation.
Early Childhood Education (Department of Teaching and Learning)
Students enrolled in the licensure track of the Early Childhood Education program complete two student teaching assignments in their final semester in the program; one in early primary grades (Kindergarten, 1st or 2nd grade) and one in preschool classrooms (children ages three through five years). As part of this, students are evaluated by both their cooperating classroom teacher and their SIUE supervisor. Student teachers also complete lesson plans, narratives to reflect three different tasks (Planning for Instruction and Assessment, Instruction and Engagement in Learning, and Assessment of Learning), and personal reflections of teaching practices. These lesson plans, narratives and personal reflections are meant to demonstrate teacher candidates’ integration and application of the knowledge acquired through their progression through the program. This collection of materials is evaluated and scored using universal statewide criteria to determine if licensure is granted to teacher candidates.
Some students in the Early Childhood Education program pursue a non-licensure path and complete an internship instead of student teaching. Therefore, ALL students complete a program-wide senior assignment in the fall semester of the senior year. The program-wide senior assignment incorporates three task assignments that are embedded across three different courses and evaluated accordingly by program faculty. The senior assignment requires students to complete task assignments related to individual student context for learning, planning for and implementation of a direct instruction lesson segment, and assessment of individual student learning related to that lesson segment.
A grade of at least a C in all program courses is required for graduation.
Special Education (Department of Teaching and Learning)
The Senior Assignment for teacher candidates in Special Education is a portfolio assessment called the Teacher Performance Assessment (edTPA). The purpose of edTPA Special Education, a nationally available performance assessment, is to measure readiness to teach learners with identified disabilities. The assessment is designed with a focus on learning and principles from research and theory. It is based on findings that successful teachers:
- Develop and apply knowledge of varied learner needs
- Consider research and theory about how to support learners with varied needs
- Develop learner knowledge and skills using individualized education program/plan1 (IEP) goals, content standards, and ongoing assessment to select instructional objectives
- Provide instruction that meets individual needs with adaptations and accommodations
- Attend to generalization and maintenance of newly learned knowledge and skills
- Reflect on and analyze evidence of the effects of instruction and other planned supports, and use this information to inform future instruction and selection of instructional content
As a performance-based assessment, edTPA is designed to engage candidates in demonstrating their understanding of teaching and learning in authentic ways.
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Exercise Science (Department of Applied Health)
Students are required to produce a community based activity, intervention, program, or product that applies their academic training in exercise science for the enhancement of a sub-population within the greater community. Students will work in teams to design a project that addresses specific needs for a clearly defined population within an established setting. Using current theories and planning models, students will decide on a population to impact, plan an appropriate program to impact an area related exercise, diet, behavior, or policy change, implement the program and evaluate the successes and challenges of the program. The project must be novel, comprehensive, a clear benefit to society, presented in a formal setting and the product of an equal and concerted group effort. The final project summary and outcomes will be collated into a binder and formally presented to faculty and peers.
Public Health (Department of Applied Health)
All Public Health majors complete a two-part Senior Assignment. Using knowledge and skills from their public health curriculum, students design, implement, evaluate, and present results from a health education program for a target population in the local community as part one. As part two, using this experience and others gained throughout their coursework, each senior crafts a website to organize and present evidence of their own mastery of each of the domains expected of public health professionals. Students must achieve a C or better in all Senior Assignment courses (PBHE 490, 491, and 498) in order to graduate.
Speech Language Pathology and Audiology (Department of Applied Health)
Seniors are assessed through routine classroom presentations and examinations, including their performance in SPPA 499: Senior Assignment Seminar. The Senior Assignment in the Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology undergraduate program is a capstone requirement designed to assess student learning of the program's goals and objectives.
The capstone project requires that students present a case study that demonstrates evidence-based practice in a clinical presentation. The assigned case study consists of several components including case history, etiology, diagnosis, intervention, data collection methods and relevant sociocultural considerations. The clinical case study is evaluated by pairs of faculty members during a formal presentation at the end of spring semester.
Nutrition (Department of Applied Health)
The senior assignment in nutrition will bring together the student’s academic training in order for the student to gain real world experience in several areas of nutrition and dietetics (e.g. academics, community, educating the public, research, etc.) Experiences and projects include creating educational handouts, teaching classes, putting on nutrition workshops, and/or, volunteering with organizations. This capstone class requires students demonstrate evidence-based practice in nutrition and dietetics. The assigned projects will give students practice in researching a disease, relating nutrition to that disease, assessing a person’s nutritional status, documentation, nutrition intervention plans and follow up. The final projects are presented and evaluated by all nutrition faculty members at the end of the semester.
All students at SIUE are required to complete a Senior Assignment in order to graduate. In the Psychology Department, this is typically accomplished during the Senior Capstone class, PSYC 494. In order to pass the Senior Assignment requirement, students must 1) pass the Capstone course with a grade of C or better 2) present a poster based on the project completed in the Capstone class at the Department of Psychology's Senior Assignment Poster Session, 3) have the poster deemed acceptable by the faculty (i.e., a mean rating of 3 or above out of 5 on the faculty evaluation form), and 4) fulfill any other senior assignment requirements stipulated by the Capstone professor.
In the event that a student does not fulfill all four requirements in a given semester, they will need to retake the Capstone course and complete all four requirements in a subsequent semester. For example, if a student receives a grade below a C in the Capstone course, even if the poster presentation is deemed acceptable by the faculty, the student will fail to complete the Senior Assignment requirement and must retake Capstone in its entirety with a new project. If a student receives a C or better in the Capstone course, but their poster presentation is deemed unacceptable by the faculty, this in most circumstances will result in having to retake Capstone in its entirety (unless the Capstone professor presents evidence to the contrary).
Students who have applied to and been accepted into the department’s Robert J. McLaughlin Honors Academy in Psychology complete the department’s senior assignment requirement through the successful completion of an honors thesis (see Robert J. McLaughlin Honors Academy in Psychology).
