Secondary English Major
This program provides undergraduate students with a robust and appropriate set of courses that will prepare them for teaching in the high school setting. The English major will prepare students for the state of Illinois Professional Educator License (PEL) with a Secondary Subject-Matter Endorsement.
This program and its associated major, minor, and concentration coursework is offered in both blended and online formats.
Program Details
- Requires 180 QH including General Education for completion
- Requires completion of all courses in the program with a grade of "C" or better, with the exception of SEC 470A and SEC 470B, which must be completed with a grade of "B" or better
- Demonstrate a 3.0 GPA or greater on a 4.0 scale
- Requires completion of the following courses at NLU: EAL 412, EDU 351, SEC 401, SEC 405, SEC 411A, SEC 411B, SEC 470A, and SEC 470B Requires successful completion of necessary program assessments, including the professional disposition assessment
- Credit for Prior Learning may be accepted for CAR 202, CAR 203, EDU 210, and EDU 305
- Candidates are required to complete Educator Preparation English Minor as part of the Secondary Education degree requirements in order to qualify for English endorsement
- Candidates may complete one of the concentrations listed below:
- To be eligible for the ESL and/or Bilingual endorsements, students must take EAL 412 and EAL 431 as elective coursework, in addition to the ESL/Bilingual concentration
- To be eligible for the Special Education endorsement, students must take SPE 450 as an elective course, in addition to the Special Education concentration
- Students pursuing the Bilingual-Spanish endorsement may take SPAN 407 as an optional elective
Graduation and Licensure Requirements:
Completion of the degree requires the following be met:
- All courses leading to licensure must have a grade of C or better, except for SEC 470A and SEC 470B.
- SEC 470A and SEC 470B must have grades of B or better.
- Have an overall GPA of 3.0 or higher.
- Achieve a satisfactory rating on all field assessments during student teaching demonstrating knowledge, skills and dispositions to teach Secondary Education.
Completion of the Professional Educator License (PEL), awarded by ISBE:
Completing the ISBE PEL requires the above, as well as the following:
Program Learning Outcomes
PLO1. Apply knowledge of self, students, curriculum, content, and effective instruction to develop appropriate learning outcomes and design activities that meet diverse learner needs, including racial, ethnic, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds.
PLO2. Develop formative and summative assessments to engage learners in their own growth, monitor learner progress, and use data to guide the teacher's and learner’s decision-making.
PLO3. Demonstrate practices that view and value students as individuals within the context of their families and communities, and demonstrate respectful and responsive interactions with students that motivate, support, and advance their development and learning.
PLO4. Establish an asset-based learning environment of high expectations that centers learning around students’ experiences and positions them as co-creators, disrupting previously held beliefs or models of education that have underserved historically marginalized students.
PLO5. Engage students in learning through effective use of intentionally selected technologies, emphasizing flexibility and adaptability in the use of digital tools.
PLO6. Use feedback from a variety of stakeholders to continuously improve professional practice. PLO7. Develop information literacy and civic-mindedness in students through explicit instruction in the evaluation of sources, critical analysis, and authentic application.
PLO8. Use culturally responsive communication to collaborate with colleagues, families, and community members toward the goal of sharing responsibility for student success and well-being.
PLO9. Demonstrate culturally responsive methodologies of English and Literacy instruction in middle and secondary grade classrooms, including supporting students who are learning to read in a new or second language.
Admission Requirements
Admission to the B.A in Secondary Education program is a two-step process. In the first step, students are admitted to National Louis University with a preliminary admission status in the B.A in Secondary Education program. In the second step, students must be admitted to the licensure program which updates the admission to fully admitted status in the B.A in Secondary Education program. Students must be admitted to the licensure program within 60 days of meeting the Licensure Program Admission Requirements.
Licensure Program Admission Requirements:
- Achieve junior standing (90 quarter hours or more)
- Achieve a GPA of 2.5 or better on all previous coursework, with grade of "C" or better in all courses
- Creation of account in the Educator Licensure Information System (ELIS)
Required Courses
General Education Requirements
Communications
The following courses are recommended:
| ENG 101 | Beginning English Composition | 5 |
| ENG 201 | Intermediate English | 5 |
| ENG 203 | Effective Speaking for the Undergraduate | 5 |
Note: Students transferring credit from other institutions or applying coursework previously completed at NLU may use any three general education courses in the following disciplines: one in academic writing, one in oral communications, and one course in the area of communications.
Humanities and Fine Arts
| ART 105 | Race, Identity and Experience in American Art | 5 |
| HIS 103 | History Across the Globe | 5 |
Note: Students transferring credit from other institutions or applying coursework previously completed at NLU may use any two general education courses in the following disciplines:
- Humanities: foreign language, history, literature, philosophy, religious studies, interdisciplinary humanities and fine arts, interdisciplinary humanities and social sciences
- Fine Arts: visual arts (including art history, art appreciation, and studio arts, such as drawing, painting, digital art, or film), film and cinema studies, and performing arts (including music appreciation, music theory, and music performance, theatre appreciation and performance, and dance)
Mathematics and Natural Sciences
Choose three courses from the list below (one must be math and one must be a natural science):
| MTH 101 | Introduction to Mathematical Concepts | 5 |
| MTH 102 | Statistical Foundations | 5 |
| SCI 101 | Physical Science | 5 |
| SCI 105 | Environmental Biology with Lab | 5 |
Note: Students transferring credit from other institutions or applying coursework previously completed at NLU may use three general education courses in the following disciplines (one must be math and one must be a natural science course):
- Mathematics: college-level and not developmental in nature
- Natural Sciences: physics, chemistry, earth science, astronomy, geology, physical geography, biology, human anatomy and physiology, microbiology, genetics, botany and zoology; and interdisciplinary fields such as environmental science, and ecology and conservation
- Mathematics or Natural Sciences
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Choose two courses from the list below:
| HIS 102 | Civics and American Government | 5 |
| EDU 200 | Applied Educational Psychology | 5 |
Note: Students transferring credit from other institutions or applying coursework previously completed at NLU may use any two general education courses in the area of Social and Behavioral Sciences in the following disciplines: anthropology, economics, geography, history, human geography, political science, psychology, sociology, interdisciplinary social/behavioral science, interdisciplinary humanities and social and behavioral science.
Program Specific General Education Requirements
| EDU 220 | Children’s Literature for Educators | 5 |
| EDU 305 | Equity in Education | 5 |
Additional General Education Requirements
| GEN 103 | Student Success Seminar | 5 |
| or | |
| GEN 203 | NLU & You: Tools & Strategies for Student Success | 3 |
Note: GEN 103 is required for the first-time freshman students only. Students transferring in less than 90 QH are required to complete GEN 203.
Career Development Requirements
| CAR 214 | Creating and Communicating the Professional Brand | 5 |
Note: Career Development requirement will be waived for students who completed at least 15 QH of previous college coursework.
Program Requirements - 60 QH
| EAL 400 | Educational Foundations for Learning English as an Additional Language | 5 |
| EAL 412 | Linguistic Considerations for Learning to Read in a New Language | 5 |
| EDU 210 | Educational Philosophy- A Historical Account | 5 |
| EDU 301 | Adolescent Development | 5 |
| EDU 351 | Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment in Middle and Secondary Education | 5 |
| ENG 425 | Literary Criticism and Analysis | 5 |
| SPE 445 | Foundations of Special Education: Dignity, Rights, and Advocacy | 5 |
| SEC 401 | Methods of Teaching English in Middle and Secondary Education | 5 |
| SEC 405 | Methods of Teaching Literacy in Middle and Secondary Education | 5 |
| SEC 411A | Culturally Responsive Pedagogy in Secondary English/Practicum Field Experience | 0 |
| SEC 411B | Culturally Responsive Pedagogy in Secondary English/Practicum | 5 |
| SEC 470A | Secondary Education Student Teaching Field Experience | 5 |
| SEC 470B | Secondary Education Student Teaching Seminar | 5 |
Educator Preparation English Minor - 30 QH
| ENG 300 | American Literature to 1865 | 5 |
| ENG 301 | Advanced English Composition | 5 |
| ENG 310 | American Literature 1865 to Present | 5 |
| ENG 320 | Latinx Literature | 5 |
| ENG 330 | British Literature | 5 |
| ENG 340 | Literature of the Black Diaspora | 5 |
NOTE: Secondary English majors must also take the Educator Preparation English minor.
Students in the Secondary English major are required to have 36 QH (minimum hours required by ISBE) including general education in English coursework. It is recommended that these hours are completed in the following areas:
- Composition
- American Literature
- English or Shakespearean Literature
- Non-Western or Ethnic American Literature
- Additional English Courses, including general education, (topics include Writing, Literature, Literary Criticism, Speech, Poetry or Journalism) to reach 36QH.
NOTE: All coursework requirements in the B.A. Secondary Education program with a major and minor in English must be completed.