|
Family, Career and Technical Education
STAR
INTRODUCTION
In an effort to confront the national crisis of "Teacher Shortage,” Louisiana has been offering secondary courses in teacher preparation for over ten years. Through a consolidated effort between the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE), Northwestern State University (NSU), and the Consortium for Education, Research, and Technology of North Louisiana (CERT), a committee of various educators was formed. This committee has compiled a complete curriculum titled, STAR-Students Teaching And Reaching, to serve as the one teacher preparation course to be used by secondary teachers in Louisiana.
The STAR curriculum is designed to provide a career focus by offering an overview of the teaching profession. STAR students are provided with means and guidance for self-assessment, learning about others, and diversity within Louisiana classrooms. Students will gain a foundational knowledge of the history of education, both national and statewide. In addition, students will be provided meaningful field experiences, with an emphasis in critical shortage areas, designed to paint a realistic picture of the teaching profession. They will be given tools that help them manage what is one of the most important and ever-changing careers.
STAR:
• Attracts high school students to explore teaching as a career and addresses the teacher shortage. Based on Louisiana’s occupational forecast, there is an annual demand for over 2,200 teachers. STAR begins early nurturing young people’s interest in teaching.
• Offers a standards-based curriculum. STAR is a challenging, authentic curriculum that is aligned with the Louisiana Content Standards, Foundation Skills, National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), and Louisiana Components of Effective Teaching.
• Serves as a recruitment and retention tool for Louisiana schools and universities through articulation agreements.
• Provides structured field experiences. STAR encourages students to consider teaching in elementary, middle, and high schools, as well as in critical shortage areas such as math, science, and special education.
The goal of STAR is to encourage secondary students to examine teaching as a career and, in effect, improve the state of Louisiana. "I am proud that we have developed a program that will engage today’s students in the field of education,” said State Superintendent of Education Cecil J. Picard. "These are the teachers of the future, who will see a rewarding career field in its reality, and make informed decisions about their career choice. The STAR curriculum will assist in ensuring that sufficient numbers of quality educators will be in our classrooms in coming years.” Dr. E. Joseph Savoie, Commissioner of Higher Education stated, "I’ve said on many occasions that Louisiana can’t hope to reach its social and economic potential until every child in every classroom in the state has a caring and competent teacher. If we’re going to realize that goal, we need to encourage our young people to choose teaching as a career.” STAR is designed to do just that!
Some particulars that should be noted in the STAR Curriculum are:
• The curriculum has "stars” on each lesson plan as well as related information. The "star” in the upper right hand corner of each lesson plan designates the lesson plan number within the curriculum. Those lesson plans that have "Required LP” above the lesson plan number are lesson plans that must be taught as a part of the curriculum. Those that do not have "Required LP” at the top are optional lesson plans to be taught if time permits.
• Other important information within the curriculum has "stars” on the upper left hand corner of the pages. These "stars” will have either an "S” (Student page), "T” (Teacher page), "A” (Assessment page), or "R” (Resource page) inside the "star.” This will help designate to what or to whom the page is pertinent.
• All rubrics used in the curriculum can be found in the Rubric section. Some rubrics which are specific to certain lessons will have that lesson number inside a "star” at the top right of the page. Rubrics having no "star” are used in more than one lesson.
• In the Forms section, forms needed for both students and teachers can be found. Included in this section are application forms for the program (students should complete the application process prior to being admitted into the STAR program). Additionally, weekly and cumulative student time sheets can be found where students must document their field experience hours. This is extremely important with respect to articulation of this course for college credit.
• The first three lesson plans included in the curriculum (Lesson Plan A, B, and C) are lettered instead of being numbered because they are simply informational lesson plans that must be covered at the beginning of the course. They cover such course requirements such as: the portfolio, service learning project, and classroom issues. There is no hourly requirement in the STAR curriculum for the service learning project. It can be done individually, in small groups, or as an entire class project, but should be a meaningful true service learning project.
• In addition to the above information, STAR students should have the field experience component of the curriculum explained to them early in the school year/semester. Students are required to have 20 hours of field experiences. They must observe in preschool/elementary, middle school, high school, and special education classrooms (for a total of no more than five hours total for all observations). The additional 15 hours of field work will be spent in one classroom doing tutorial, one-on-one, small group, and/or large group work. STAR students must teach one lesson, under the close supervision of the cooperating teacher, to a small group or whole class of students. STAR teachers will be responsible for securing, monitoring, and evaluating field placements for STAR students.
Click on the link below to access the STAR curriculum. If you are interested in bringing STAR to your school, please contact the Louisiana Department of Education, Career and Technical Education, at 225-219-0364, in order to schedule teacher training for the program. STAR may not be offered until teacher training has been completed.
STAR Curriculum
PDF
|
 |
Some of the content on this page is available in Portable Document Format (PDF). To view these files you must have the FREE Adobe Reader or an equivalent PDF reader installed on your computer. |
|
