The following courses are available from USC Rossier Online’s Master of Arts in Teaching program from the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education:

New Media Literacies in High Needs Schools
No prerequisite
New Media Literacies in High Needs Schools is designed to provide candidates with the opportunities to explore an emerging body of literature where media and communication studies converge with educators, researchers and public policy makers. This course attempts to facilitate the convergence of students’ interests in communications, cultural studies, media production and literacy education. Candidates will examine curricular materials, as well as apply learning theories, content knowledge and the pedagogical repertoire of skills acquired in concurrent courses and threaded throughout the program as the basis for decision making to positively affect student participation, learning and outcomes.

Culture Learning in Schools: Latino
No prerequisite
Through this course, participants will learn about themselves and their own culture. We begin by exploring our own beliefs, attitudes, perceptions and experiences as members of diverse ethnic backgrounds. This helps us understand the similarities and differences within and across ethnic cultures to gain a better understanding of diversity. As we gain a deeper understanding of ourselves as individuals and as learners we can begin to understand the decisions we make as teachers working with diverse student populations.

Political and Academic Issues Affecting Gifted Students
No prerequisite
This course has been designed to assist educators to understand the beliefs and misconceptions about the political, academic, social and personal decisions related to identifying and educating gifted and high-ability students. This course is intended to uncover the reasons contributing to both the achievement and underachievement of gifted and high-ability students. Learning theories and teaching practices that contribute to nurturing and/or denying the realization of potential in gifted and all students will be examined for their implications to differentiate curriculum, align pedagogical practices and design the intellectual environment of a classroom.

Relationships with peers, parents, community members and policy makers that foster the multiple dimensions of gifted and high-ability students of cultural, linguistic and economic diversity are areas of study in this course. An outcome for course participants is to become an “educational leader” in the field of gifted education. Education leaders are defined as teachers of the gifted, coordinators of gifted services, counselors working with gifted students, curriculum developers, professional development consultants or advocates.