The Courture Seminar

The Courture Fellowship Seminar is the focal point of the Courture Fellowship’s summer program. Led by Professor Sam Intrator, Chair of the Education and Child Study program at Smith College, the course is designed to complement and support the work that Grant teachers do in the classroom. As a multifaceted course, the seminar trains Grant teachers in pedagogical best practices, and introduces them to the forces that are shaping today’s educational policy paradigm.

Seminar topics included:

  • Facilitating equal academic opportunity for students with learning challenges
  • Cultivating classroom culture and powerful learning pillars.
  • Active learning through developing question frameworks, chalk talk activity and visual thinking strategies.

Fellowship activities:

Weekly Seminar

The Courture Fellowship supports a weekly seminar for Grant teachers, beginning late in spring and concluding in August. Each seminar, led by seasoned educator Sam Intrator, focuses on developing core skills needed to teach middle school students, including curriculum development, content engagement, classroom planning, learning strategies, and more. Each seminar concludes with a case study, or “problem,” experienced, described and shared by a member of the teaching staff, which the Courture fellows solve as a group.

1-1 Mentorship

Prior to start the summer program, a team of experienced teaching mentors will be assigned to each member of the teaching team. These mentors work individually with teachers to support them in developing and revising their curricula as well as to serve as a source of continued support. Drawing on their years of experience in education, the mentorship team was crucial in helping teachers identify areas of growth to better align with student interests as they started to more fully understand their classrooms.