Special Education Course Listing

Core Curriculum
18 SPED 702: Partnership and Collaboration (3 hrs)
Participants will become familiar with the philosophical bases and practical application of interacting collaboratively with colleagues, parents, community members, other professionals, and learners. An introduction to the concepts and issues related to the schooling, learning, and instruction of individuals who experience significant disabilities.

18 SPED 705: Advanced Assistive Technology and Universal Design for Learning (3 hrs)
This course (second in a three-quarter sequence) focuses on design, implementation, and assessment of instructional activities for challenging learners.

18 SPED 766: Health, Wellness, and Transitions (3 hrs)
This course studies the techniques of delivering career education to individuals with disabilities.

18 SPED 725: Strategies in Special Education (3 hrs)
This course is designed for masters students enrolled in the online Special Education masters program at the University of Cincinnati. This course covers (a) advanced instructional strategies and curricular planning for children and youth with exceptionalities and (b) advanced methods in providing instructional best practices to the heterogeneous groups of students found in general education context.

Research Core Courses:
18 CI 701: Research Methods (3 hrs)
This course explores research and bibliographic methods in curriculum and instruction; analytic, evaluative writing about research; use of research facilities.

18 SPED 786: Project Guidance I (3 hrs)
This project offers individual guidance for Special Education majors who are working on a special project in the master’s degree program. This course is designed to facilitate participants’ development of skills related to critical self-reflection as individuals and as professional educators. The purpose of this seminar is to support candidates in completing a research-validated (evidence-based) project that supports the academic, life-skill, occupational, and/or social/emotional development of students.

18 SPED 787: Project Guidance II (3 hrs)
Master’s Project Guidance I and II are online seminar courses completed during a Candidate’s final year of the program. These seminars facilitate participants’ development of skills related to critical self-reflection as individuals and as professional educators. The purpose of Project Guidance I was to support Candidates in generating the first portion of a research validated (evidence-based) project that supports the academic, life-skill, occupational, and/or social/emotional development of students. The design of the master’s project is one of the main outcomes of Project Guidance I, including a well organized literature review reporting on the current status of literature-based knowledge about a topic.

Choose two of the following:
18 EDST 750: Classroom Based Action Research (3 hrs)
This course offers an introduction to the practice of educational action research.

18 EDST 755: Introduction to Research Method (3 hrs)
This course is an overview of the research process from problem formulation, literature review, research design, and data analysis to report writing.

18 PSYCH 860: Applied Behavior Analysis I (3 hrs)
This course provides intensive introduction and practice in applied behavior analysis procedures and their use in developing classroom intervention strategies.

18 PSYCH 861: Applied Behavior Analysis II (3 hrs)
Examines and provides practice in implementing and evaluating school based interventions within the methodology of applied behavior analysis. Emphasis is on application with social-emotional problems.

Electives (Must complete six of the following)
18 LTCY 751: Making Meaning from Text (3 hrs)
Examines the various systems that readers and writers use to make meaning from text and how they orchestrate and integrate the various language systems. Also examines current methods for literacy instruction.

18 LTCY 755: Assessing and Supporting Literacy Skills and Development (3 hrs)
This course examines a wide range of assessment instruments and instructional methods to support the literacy development of K-12 struggling learners. The course stresses the application and interpretation of assessment tools and instruction within the context of individual differences and individual development. Also includes study in methods of communicating results to a wide variety of audiences.

18 LTCY 771: Literacy as a Cultural Linguistic Tool (3 hrs)
This course is an analysis of the social, community, and cultural influences on literacy and literacy learners. It focuses on creating socially and culturally responsive classroom practices and examines issues of second language learning in the content of the regular literacy program.

18 LTCY 787: Applied Linguistics (3 hrs)
Focused on theoretical perspectives, major issues, and current controversies, this course is designed to facilitate the candidate’s knowledge and understanding of the linguistic structure as a system, including morphology, syntax, and semantics, in order to be effective language teachers. It is a goal of this course that the candidates use knowledge of these interrelated aspects of language as they support ESL students’ acquisition/learning of English.

18 LTCY 872: Reading Literacy (3 hrs)
This course is designed to provide advanced graduate students opportunities for further in-depth study of and extensive reading in selected topics in the field of literacy.

18 LTCY 880: Principles of Organizing a Literacy Curriculum (3 hrs)
Planning, implementing, and supervising literacy programs.

18 CI 702: Inquiry into Teaching and Learning (3 hrs)
This course explores various modes, formal and informal, for posing and pursuing questions about teaching and learning. Emphasis is on teachers as knowledge generators.

18 CI 704: Shaping the School Curriculum (3 hrs)
Examines philosophical, historical, political/legislative, and socio-cultural forces shaping school curricula, past and present. This course also provides multiple perspectives for identifying and evaluating the consequences of curricular choices.

18 CI 776: Technology in the Classroom (3 hrs)
This course provides an overview of the increasingly complex array of technology-based media and hardware available for use in the classroom. Some of the topics covered are learning theories and integration models for technology-enhanced instruction, integrating digital technologies and software tools into the classroom, distance learning, and national and state educational technology standards for teachers and students.

18 CI 785: Instructional Effectiveness (3 hrs)
This course is a study of teacher behaviors that influence the academic achievement of students.

18 CI 572: Individual Study (3 hrs)
Individual research on a problem related to major field of study.

Special Education Curriculum – Licensure (Mild to Moderate)
SPED 533P: Assessment and Intervention (3 hrs)
This course is a discussion and practice of components of effective assessment.

SPED 511P: Teaching Reading and Writing I (4 hrs)
This course for the Special Education Program meets partial requirements for ODE reading mandate in the area of reading and writing for learners with mild to moderate disabilities.

SPED 512P: Teaching Reading and Writing II (3 hrs)
This is a two-course sequence emphasizing reading methods, remediation, and intervention strategies to accommodate learners with reading disorders. This course will include interactions with students with disabilities in an applied setting.

SPED 508P: Instructional Strategies (3 hrs)
This course offers instructional strategies for students with mild to moderate educational needs.

SPED 601P: Law, Visioning and the IEP (3 hrs)
Topics associated with IDEA and related laws. Other topics include theories, learner characteristics, due process, IEP, services, professional ethics, and accountability issues.

SPED 612P: Teaching Reading and Writing through Literature (3 hrs)
Teaching reading and writing through the use of literature.

SPED 532P: Management of Behavior (3 hrs)
Foundations of theoretical and behavioral models, with special focus on positive behavioral support, functional assessments, and behavior support plans.

SPED 538P: Language Development (3 hrs)
This is a survey of normal language development in children; factors influencing development and learning; effects of disabilities and other conditions on language development and learning.

SPED 509P: Curriculum Planning (3 hrs)
Introduction to concepts and issues related to individual learning differences.

SPED 604P: Mild to Moderate Internship (3-12 hrs)
Special Education Internship Mild/Moderate is designed to give the pre-service teacher classroom experiences teaching children with mild/moderate disabilities. Children in mild/moderate classrooms settings typically are able to access the general education curriculum with minimal modifications. At times this type of setting can be a self-contained classroom or resource room with the intervention specialist providing instruction in all subject areas if the behavioral or emotional needs of the children are best met in a more restricted environment. The children will, however, continue to access the general education curriculum with minimal modifications. Interns often will co-teach with general education content teachers during this field experience. The Teacher Work Sample, Collaborative Assessment Log and the Pre-Service Goal Teacher Goal Setting Agreement are processes integral to the internship process.

SPED 641P: Phonics I (2 hrs)
This course is designed to provide research-based and historical/cultural information about the teaching and learning of phonetics, phonics, word study, and spelling in relation to developing learners and a total reading program.

SPED 642P: Phonics II (3 hrs)
This course is designed to provide research-based and historical/cultural information about the teaching and learning of phonetics, phonics, word study, and spelling in relation to developing learners and a total reading program.

SPED 611P: Foundations of Literacy (3 hrs)
This course focuses on instructional strategies to help children become literate.

SPED 519P: Assistive Technology and Universal Design for Learning (3 hrs)
This course is an integration of principles of language development with principles of augmentative communication.

SPED 530P: Applied Behavior Analysis for Teachers (3 hrs)
This course creates a learning environment for classrooms with a special focus on the challenging learner.

SPED 691P: Autism Spectrum Disorders (3 hrs)
This course examines the psychological models and behavioral characteristics of autism spectrum disorders. Participants examine and develop an in-depth understanding of the underpinnings of autism, how autism manifests in an individual’s life, and the influence of autism on daily functioning at home, school, and in the community. Course content includes the characteristics of autism spectrum disorders (triad), the historical context, the brain-behavior connection, and the three major psychological models (i.e., Theory of Mind, Executive Function, and Central Coherence). The purpose of the course is for participants to understand the cognitive underpinnings of ASD and how these influence everyday life.