Gain Certification and Leadership Skills with a Master of Arts in Teaching English
Southern New Hampshire University's Master of Arts in Teaching English degree is a 120-credit hour program taught on our main campus in Manchester. Created jointly by the School of Education and School of Arts and Sciences, it combines undergraduate and graduate courses, a research project, and student teaching experience, to give you the training you need to immediately enter a classroom upon graduation and begin to make a difference.
Apply What Your Learn in a Real Classroom
The Master of Arts in Teaching English program culminates with a student teaching experience and seminar series that takes place during your final year. This program is structured so that you teach at a middle or high school in the Manchester area for part of the day, and attend classes on SNHU’s campus the other half of the day. You will work under the close supervision of an experienced teacher so you can ask questions and get advice on how to address specific situations in the classroom.
Required Core Courses
English Major Courses
ENG-350: The English Language
This course is an introduction to the following topics in English linguistics history of English etymology vocabulary morphology phonology dictionaries syntax semantics dialects discourse analysis and child language acquisition The course is designed for students who want to learn about the English language as preparation for teaching or for becoming better writers or for studying literature Students will have the opportunity to research write about and present on a linguistic topic of individual interest such as the language of advertising or propaganda
Prerequisites:
ENG-120
LIT-201: World Lit I Foundations of Culture
This course explores both early European classical and medieval cultures as well as the great non European cultures of Asia Africa and the Americas The material covered will vary but readings will focus on a major theme such as the hero the role of women ethical values views of nature or focus on an important common genre such as epic or lyric poetry Not available every semester Global marker
Prerequisites:
ENG-120
LIT-300: Literary Theory
This course is an introduction to the major schools of contemporary critical theory and an examination of principal exponents of these theories The student will become familiar with the most important features of psychoanalytic criticism Marxism and feminism and examine the meaning of structuralism and post structuralism In addition the course affords an opportunity to practice applying the theories to specific literary texts Not available every semester
Prerequisites:
ENG-120
LIT-319: Shakespeare
Students in LIT 319 study selected Shakespearian comedies tragedies and chronicle plays The course also provides the students with a general overview of the Elizabethan era and the world in which Shakespeare lived and worked Not available every semester
Prerequisites:
ENG-120
Select Two of the Following:
LIT-323: Studies in Drama
This course will focus on drama as a literary genre examining the origins of the genre its literary conventions and its current productions In reading plays that may range from the Greeks to contemporary Broadway students will not only see the changing dynamics of the genres form but also experience the important role the genre has played in American British European and global society and culture
Prerequisites:
ENG-120
LIT-325: Studies in the Novel
This course will focus on the novel as a literary genre tracing its intricate conventions its historical origins and its current manifestations In reading novels from the 18th through 21st centuries students will learn not only the complex dynamics of the genre s form but also the critical influence the novel has had on society cultural and politics over the centuries
Prerequisites:
ENG-120
LIT-327: Studies in Poetry
This course will focus on poetry as a literary genre Students will learn how to interpret and evaluate poetry exploring the elements of poetic form as well as influence poetic responses to critical moments in history Thus we will read landmark works by major poets learn about major movements and schools within poetry and look at poetry written in response to historical events Students will also read a volume of poetry by a poet of their choice and present information on that poets style theme and role within the field of poetry
Prerequisites:
ENG-120
Select One of the Following:
LIT-221: American Literature I
This course is a survey of American literature from its beginnings to 1865 The course will provide students with an introduction to the early history of American literature examining a broad range of literary genres and considering the complex cultural and social context in which these important literary texts were written Authors may include John Winthrop Benjamin Franklin Nathaniel Hawthorne Edgar Allen Poe Ralph Waldo Emerson Henry David Thoreau Harriet Ann Jacobs Frederick Douglass Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson
Prerequisites:
ENG-10,
LIT-222: American Literature II
This course is a survey of American literature from 1865 to the present The course will provide students with an introduction to the history of American literature since the Civil War examining a broad range of literary genres and considering the complex cultural and social context in which these important literary texts were written Authors may include Mark Twain Henry James Jack London Gertrude Stein Virginia Woolf Robert Frost T S Eliot Eugene O Neill Langston Hughes F Scott Fitzgerald Allen Ginsberg and Toni Morrison
Prerequisites:
ENG-10,
LIT-312: Early American Literature
While the authors and texts studied in this course may vary the readings will cover the historical period from 1620 with the settlement of Plymouth Plantation through the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and the early days of the new Republic Although there may be some attention to the literature of early discovery the emphasis will be on literary texts of major historical interest and on authors who pursued the American Dream of economic religious political and artistic freedom
Prerequisites:
ENG-10,
LIT-313: The American Renaissance
While the authors and texts studied in this course may vary this course examines literature from the early 1800s to 1965 the conclusion of the Civil War During this period American literature developed a home grown Romanticism influenced by European intellectual and aesthetic movements as well as a new cultural sensibility of its own Authors may include Irving Poe Hawthorne Emerson Thoreau Melville Douglass Dickinson and the latter day transcendentalism of Whitman
Prerequisites:
ENG-10,
LIT-314: American Realism and Naturalism
While the authors and texts studied in this course may vary this course will focus on the American literature between 1865 1914 with the progression of literary culture from Romanticism to Realism and Naturalism and towards Modernism Students will read literature by authors who were responding to radical shifts in America after the Civil War including Reconstruction the rise of industrialism and the new theories of evolution Authors may include Twain James Chesnutt London Dreiser Wharton Cather and Anderson as well as poets of the early twentieth century
Prerequisites:
ENG-10,
LIT-315: 20th Century American Literature
The course will explore literature by major American writers from the early 20th century to the present Students will read fiction non fiction poetry and plays about the major literary cultural and political events during the 20th century including the wars the Beat and counterculture movements the Civil Rights and women s movements and post 9 11 cultural shifts We will proceed chronologically beginning with poetry about World War I and ending with post modern literature about contemporary issues such as race religion technology and war
Prerequisites:
ENG-120
Select One of the Following:
LIT-219: British Literature I
This course is designed to introduce students to British literature from its beginnings through the eighteenth century Students will read and discuss works by major authors considering such aspects as the work s genre context and style
Prerequisites:
ENG-10 a
LIT-220: British Literature II
This course is designed to introduce students to British literature from the Romantic through the Modernist periods Students will read and discuss works by major authors considering such aspects of the work s genre context and style
Prerequisites:
ENG-10,
LIT-306: Medieval Literature
This course will focus on literature written in England during the Old and Middle English period approximately 500 1485 CE We will spend about half the course on Old English literature and half on Middle English literature
Prerequisites:
ENG-10,
LIT-307: Renaissance and Restoration Literature
This course surveys British Literature from the 16th and 17th centuries a period renowned for the variety and originality of its writers which left a lasting mark on subsequent English literature Students will be introduced to central ideas and writers of the English Reformation English Revolution and the Restoration of the monarchy Renaissance authors studied may include More Marlowe Elizabeth I Jonson Donne and Webster along with Shakespeare and Spenser Writers of the Revolution and Restoration may include Herrick Marvell Milton Dryden Behn and Wycherly Students will encounter Renaissance and Restoration drama epic poetry the sonnet along with early experiments in prose fiction
Prerequisites:
ENG-10,
LIT-308: 18th Century British Literature
This course surveys the literature of the long 18th century from the Restoration to the beginning of Romanticism and studies developments in English literature such as the novel the essay satire journalism and popular theater Authors studied may include Congreve Defoe Swift Pope Johnson Fielding Smollett and Austen This course may also cover developments in the visual arts Themes of the course will vary but may include civil liberty sexuality and gender colonialism city and country and the enlightenment movement
Prerequisites:
ENG-10,
LIT-309: Romantic Literature
The Romantic Era in Britain while short was an intense and influential literary period In this course we will read poetry fiction and nonfiction responding to and shaping events such as the French Revolution and its aftermath the British abolition of slavery and industrialization We will read author such as Wordsworth Keats Austen Blake Wollstonecraft Shelley and Byron
Prerequisites:
ENG-10,
LIT-310: Victorian Literature
Nineteenth century Britain experienced tremendous change in politics economics philosophy art and literature It was a century of industrialization empire building new discoveries and social revolution This course studies representative selections from the major poets and prose writers and explores the social political and intellectual changes reflected in the literature of the Victorian period Authors may include Tennyson Browning Barrett Browning Dickens Charlotte Bronte and Wilde
Prerequisites:
ENG-10,
LIT-311: Modern British Literature
This course will explore the modernist movement in 20th century British fiction through the works of three of its most prominent practitioners James Joyce D H Lawrence and Virginia Woolf as well as selected works by other writers The course will examine the birth of the modern aesthetic in literature not only as a response to the alienation and despair resulting from World War I but also as a reaction to the enormous impact made by the ideas of such thinkers as Darwin Freud Marx and Nietzsche Various modernist writing techniques including stream of consciousness episodic narrative and radical experimentation with punctuation will also be studied
Prerequisites:
ENG-10,
Select One of the Following:
LIT-229: World Mythology
This course introduces students to the study of mythology We will read and discuss myths from both western and non western cultures Students will also choose one cultures myth to concentrate on for a final project
Prerequisites:
ENG-10,
LIT-231: Nature Writers
This course introduces students to the prose and poetry of major British and American writers and naturalists since the 18th century who observe nature vividly and write about humanity s relationship with the natural environment
Prerequisites:
ENG-10,
LIT-328: Multi Ethnic Literature Describing the Hyphen
Since the beginnings of American literature writers have been concerned with defining and creating American identity through their art Since the 1960s during and after the Civil Rights movement numerous writers have defined their American identity in relation to specific ethnic identities writing works that explore how dual or multiple cultural identities coexist within themselves and within American culture sorting through the stories they ve heard and created about who they are In this course we will read fiction poetry and essays by twentieth century American authors who identify with African American Native American Asian American Jewish Latino and Chicano heritages In addition to race and ethnicity we will discuss how class native language religion gender sexuality and history figures into these writers images of an American self and community
Prerequisites:
ENG-120
LIT-330: Gender and Text
This course examines gender in and through literary texts and considers the ways in which categories of sexuality sex race class ethnicity nationality religion and other factors influence writers depictions of gender The course analyzes historical conditions relevant to gender studies and may address social and theoretical topics such as women s suffrage feminisms third world feminism the LGBTQ community and queer theory The course explores these topics through the lens of literature and asks how is gender represented in literary texts how do literary texts not only replicate but sometimes contest or imagine new realities for gendered subjects what does it mean to write as a gendered subject Readings may include works by authors such as Mary Wollstonecraft Oscar Wilde Virginia Woolf Audre Lorde Gloria Anzald a and Michael Cunningham
Prerequisites:
ENG-120
LIT-350: The Black Literary Tradition
This course offers an overview of African American literature with glimpses into African and Caribbean literature Beginning around 1845 with Frederick Douglass Narrative students will read from various literary genres including slave narratives poetry short stories fiction and plays that illuminate both the history of African America and changing ideas of race Students will conduct ongoing independent research which they will present to the class on the major literacy and historical periods we cover including the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s and early 1930s the civil rights movement s the Black Arts movement of the 1960s and early 1970s and the decades following Reading works by Booker T Washington W E B Dubois Zora Neale Thurston Ralph Ellison Gwendolyn Brooks Chinua Achebe Toni Morrison and Ishmael Reed among others will enable us to analyze how sexuality gender class and nationality influence various writers definitions of race and ethnicity Offered as needed
Prerequisites:
ENG-120
Certification Courses
EDU-200: Introduction to Education
This course gives students an overview of American education through analysis of its historical and philosophical roots Contemporary issues in American education are emphasized Non education majors may use this course as a social science elective
EDU-208: Assessment Accountability and Teaching in the Classroom
This basic course for classroom teachers explores various techniques necessary for designing and implementing authentic measures to assess successful student learning
Prerequisites:
EDU-261,
EDU-235: Learning with Technology
This course develops students knowledge and skill with technology with the ultimate aim of using technology to enhance student learning and achievement This course also introduces students to learning target standards outcomes and a general model of curriculum development implementation and assessment Offered every fall and spring
EDU-312: Writing Workshop for Educators
This class is designed to help future teachers to fine tune their own writing while they learn ways to incorporate writing into their teaching The course inspires future teachers to enjoy the possibilities of writing in their classrooms so their students will also An examination of a wide array of useful classroom approaches will promote better reading and learning and support differentiation Well designed writing assessments promote critical thinking as well as higher levels of literacy Topics will include prewriting techniques using art and music to promote writing unlocking the secret to assigning interesting and useful journals techniques for painless peer editing practices that streamline grading of papers and how to find and incorporate excellent models for writing
Prerequisites:
EDU-200
SPED-260: Children with Exceptionalities
This course provides students with deep understanding of children with disabilities and specific characteristics of disabilities and how they impact learning in the general curriculum Students will examine and be prepared to define ways in which such disabilities are diagnosed and possible strategies and techniques to include assistive technology to assist the student in the general classroom to the extent possible Tiered Support Systems will be discussed as a general education initiative that can serve the needs of all students Students will research resources available for families and schools to support the needs of disabled children The role of the family and school as partners will be developed as a critical technique to serve the needs of students as well as facilitating effective meetings and communication efforts that must be part of the role of special educator
English Required Courses
FAS-202: Introduction to Humanities II
This course offers vocabulary understanding and appreciation of the visual arts in their cultural contexts in history religion literature music and ideas It focuses on the cultural periods of the Baroque the Enlightenment Romanticism and Early Modernism while also exploring related issues in non European cultures May be taken independently of FAS 201
HIS-114: United States History II 1865 Present
The second half of the United States history survey course covers the period following the Civil War The economic political and ideological developments that allowed the United States to attain a position of the world leadership are closely examined Required for majors in History and Social Studies Education with a concentration in History
PSY-211: Lifespan Development
The purpose of this course is to engage students in meaningful exploration of theories basic concepts and research methodologies in psychological development Students will gain an understanding of patterns of human development from conception through death including the biological cognitive and social emotional development and the interplay between these areas This course will also explore the roles of environmental and genetic factors culture and history continuity and change in development Offered every semester
Prerequisites:
PSY-108
SCI-212: Principles of Physical Science I
Various concepts within the physical sciences are discussed ranging from the teachings of Aristotle to the theories of Einstein Topics include the influence of the scientific method in generating knowledge the contributions of Galileo Copernicus Newton Kepler and others concerning energy forces and motion gravity the solar system and cosmology and relativity
FAS ELE - Students may select one Fine Arts elective
HIS ELE - Students may select one 200-level History elective
Elective Courses
Choose 5 English or Literature Courses*No more than two at the 200-level, no more than two with an ENG prefix
English (MAT) Major Courses
EDU-511: Methods of Teaching in Secondary Schools
This course teaches students how to develop effective strategies and lesson plans for delivering content knowledge consistent with standards based learning Using each student s primary content area as the context this course investigates developmentally appropriate teaching and classroom management for adolescent learners Strategies and delivery methods include constructivism differentiation peer group learning cross curricular lesson planning and writing across the curriculum
EDU-560: Methods of Teaching English in Middle and High Schools
This course helps prepare students to teach English in middle and high schools It emphasizes integration of reading and literature speaking listening and writing Students will learn how to select appropriate reading materials prepare mini daily and unit lessons organize collaborative learning and design writing assessments Students who prepare an action research proposal in this course
Prerequisites:
EDU-511
EDU-571: Student Teaching and Seminar
All teacher education majors seeking certification will participate in 16 weeks of full time practice teaching at nearby schools During the 16 weeks the student teacher receives close and continuous supervision and guidance from teaching personnel at the school and by a member of the Southern New Hampshire University faculty This course also includes a weekly seminar at the University
EDU-582: Educational Factors of Diversity
This course examines a variety of factors that affect academic achievement for today s students from birth through the high school level Students will examine diversity through the lens of race ethnicity language economics and academics Culturally responsive teaching practices including issues such as gender ability class socio economic status sexual orientation and cultural pluralism will be examined
EFL-501: Language Learning and Acquisition
This course explores contemporary knowledge about foreign language acquisition including the influences of age environment and motivation learning styles including ELSIE Barsch Learning Style Inventory and other cognitive and behavioral scales multiple intelligences and learner language and inter language
RDG-535: Content Area Literacy Grades 5 12
This course focuses on the development of reading and writing skills in support of the content areas in grades 5 12 Students will become familiar with effective practices to support the development of literacy strategies for students on the secondary level
Students may take either EFL-501 or RDG-535.
Select Two of the Following:
LIT-650: Graduate Seminar in American Literature
This course uses a thematic approach to explore works by American writers The specific selections and authors vary each term according to the theme This is an upper level course involving close reading analysis and writing in seminar format
LIT-651: Graduate Seminar in British Literature
This course uses a thematic approach to explore works of British writers The specific selections and authors vary each term according to the theme This is an upper level course involving close reading analysis and writing in a seminar format
LIT-652: Graduate Seminar in Global Literature
This course uses a thematic approach to the works from many literary traditions outside British and American Specific selections and authors vary each term according to the theme This is an upper level course involving close reading analysis and writing in seminar format
Thesis Course:
LIT-685 is taken twice, once in the fall semester and once in the spring.
Students may also select one elective with an EDU, EFL, ENG, LIT, or RDG prefix.
