Students with a major or minor in secondary education must maintain a grade point average of 3.0 in the major and minor combined with no grades below a “C”. All courses in the professional education sequence must be at least a “B-“.

TEACHER CERTIFICATION

To qualify for teacher certification in Spanish, in addition to course requirements, students must also meet the following criteria:

  • Pass the Michigan Test for Teacher Certification (MTTC) for Spanish (#28).
  • Achieve state and nationally-accepted ratings (with a minimum of Advanced Low) on an officially administered American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI or OPIc) in Spanish.
  • Achieve state and nationally-accepted ratings (with a minimum of Advanced Low on the ACTFL scales) in reading, writing, and listening in Spanish, as evaluated at NMU.
  • In accordance with state requirements, spend a minimum of four weeks of planned time in a Spanish-speaking country.  (Twelve or more weeks are recommended, and aid students significantly in achieving passing results on the MTTC exam and the ACTFL ratings.)
  • Students who fulfill the SN 310 or SN 312 requirement through a transfer course or a course taken abroad must present a cultural portfolio (4-6 pages) for the corresponding area (Spain for SN 310 or Spanish America for SN 312) citing key perspectives of the target culture, connecting those perspectives to cultural products and practices, and comparing perspectives, products and practices  to those of  their own culture.

For department information or additional degree requirements, go to the Education, Leadership & Public Service, School of department page.

For related information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, http://www.bls.gov/ooh/education-training-and-library/kindergarten-and-elementa…

Total Credits Required 26

Note: Students choosing Spanish as an elementary education minor, must then choose one of the following areas as their second elementary education minor: integrated science, social studies, mathematics, language arts or English.