An Overview of the Clinically Rich Integrated Science Program by Professor Pamela Fraser-Abder This one-year teacher residency program prepares career changers and college graduates to become science teachers in urban public schools. The curriculum immerses aspiring teachers in the science classroom and integrates theory, practice, and science content into daily teaching and learning experiences.
Graduates are eligible for initial/professional certification in Teaching Science (Biology, Chemistry, or Physics), grades 7-12.
Key Features
- Immersion in a public school classroom
As a CRISP teacher resident, you will spend three weeks in July at a middle school in Brooklyn and then 4 days a week from September through June in one of three host middle or high schools on Manhattan's Lower East Side, such as The Dr. Sun Yat Sen School (M.S. 131). You will work closely with your classroom teacher/mentor and your school's senior leadership and science faculty, and receive intensive weekly coaching by your mentor, the CRISP Residency Coach, and NYU's Urban Master Teacher in Science.
- Increasing responsibility as a classroom teacher
You will start the school year in September as an observer and assistant in one science class and progress to co-teaching two science classes -- one with younger students and the other with older students -- assuming joint responsibility for planning, teaching, and managing those classes.
- Dual focus on groups of learners and individual learners
In addition to learning to teach a full class, you will also work with individual students to understand and address their special learning needs. You will follow closely and tutor a small group of students and take responsibility for improving their individual academic outcomes. Your group will include literacy-challenged students, students with Individualized Education Plans, English language learners, and students from different racial and ethnic backgrounds.
- Focused explorations of classrooms and other learning environments
You will participate, on a weekly or near-weekly basis, in instructional "rounds" led by NYU and school faculty, similar to clinical rounds common in medical education. Rounds will visit fellow CRISP residents' classrooms, other learning environments in the host and nearby schools, and community settings, such as the Henry Street Settlement and the New York City Center for Space Science Education. Through observation and analysis you will gain perspective on the important dimensions of establishing classroom and laboratory systems, norms, and behavioral habits.
- Academic courses offered on site in host schools
NYU Steinhardt faculty teach selected graduate courses in teaching, literacy and language acquisition, and data and assessment on site in host schools. These field-based courses integrate your experiences in the classroom and with your small groups into your coursework and provide opportunities for you to interact with and learn from members of school inquiry teams, early career teachers, and master teachers.
- Campus-based courses and networking
Year-long courses combine work on campus, work in the field, and online learning to immerse you in modern science concepts, scientific advances, and research.
- Technology-infused curriculum
You will use technology throughout the teacher residency program -- smart boards in classrooms, iPad-based or other handheld text and video exchanges, blogs and wikis, Cisco-supported video- and teleconferencing, online course work in collaboration with our partner, the American Museum of Natural History, and web-based courseware. Your own use of new media and technologies prepares you to incorporate multimedia teaching and learning techniques into your own classroom practice.
- Generous scholarships and a living stipend
CRISP students receive $30,000 in tuition scholarships from NYU Steinhardt and New York State through the federal Race to the Top initiative and a $20,000 living stipend for full-time study.
CRISP strives to prepare teachers who:
- know science deeply and are connected to a community of scientists and science educators;
- know intimately and are prepared to meet the challenges of teaching students affected by poverty, disabilities, and deficits in academic literacy;
- have the skills, tools, dispositions, and connections to learning communities in order to thrive as early-career teachers and to ensure their students thrive as well; and
- will stay in teaching, serving students in greatest need of their teaching.