Newly Admitted Students - TESL

These courses, of which a minimum of 6 credits must be ENGL subject courses, may be any course in the Faculty of Arts or any course in the Faculty of Science.

Combined with your 6 elective credits, they are best used to give you additional background in teaching subjects in order to maximize your post-graduate marketability. There are two strategies you might use when choosing them:

1. Specialist - Concentrate your course choices in one or two areas in the rough equivalent of a second teachable subject (such as Social Studies, Geography, English, Science and Technology, Mathematics, or Ethics Religious Culture). Note that MELS will not issue a brevet (specialist certification) in a second subject, but you may mention in job applications or interviews that you have some training in this additional area.
2. Generalist - Spread your course choices over a number of areas to give you the widest possible background knowledge, which will serve you well in teaching language, as well as a basis for teaching other subjects should the opportunity arise.

Note that of your Complementary Academic Courses, a maximum of 9 credits may be in a foreign language (not English).

The Freshman Program consists of 30 credits of the students’ choice, verified by an advisor. There are no required courses in the Freshman Program, though the department recommends that students use the opportunity to take 100 or 200 level courses in the subjects taught in Elementary or Secondary school, as well as to explore areas that are not normally taken as academic complementary courses within B.Ed. programs (e.g. Sociology, Psychology, Political Science, etc.).

The department also recommends the following courses:

• EDEC 203 - Communication in Education (Winter only)
• EDEM 220 - Contemporary Issues in Ed.
• EDEE 325 - Children's Literature or EDES 366 - Literature for Young Adults
• A French Language course (FRSL 101, 207, 211). Placement Test Required. Note that in Quebec ESL is taught within the French school system and EDSL 215 - Effective Comm. in French is a required course in the TESL program. Pre-requisite FRSL courses may be needed before taking EDSL 215 and if so, the freshman year is the ideal time to do so.
• Other language courses, such as Arabic, Chinese, German, Greek, Japanese, Spanish, etc.
• LING 200 - Intro to the Study of Language or LING 201 - Introduction to Linguistics
• ENGL 199 - FYS: Literature and Democracy
• ENGL 229 - Canadian Literature 2
• For more examples of courses suitable for Freshman Year 0 students, see the course list for the Freshman Program of the Faculty of Arts.

If you are admitted into McGill with advanced standing (International Baccalaureate, Advanced Placement, etc.), those credits may be used to fulfill some or all of your Freshman requirements.

Freshman Advising

All Freshman students must have their Fall and Winter course selections verified prior to the start of classes. This can be done by email or by attending the group advising session in late August. To verify your course selection by email, send a message to advisedise [dot] education [at] mcgill [dot] ca with the subject “Freshman Course Selection” and your student ID number in the body.

Step by step instructions and a tutorial video can be found on this website. In addition, the Education Student Affairs Office is available to help you with registration difficulties.

See the overviews above to find the semesters in which you should complete your field experiences. In addition, the start and end dates for all field experiences each year can be found on the Office of Student Teaching website.

No it does not.  If you are registering for the fall semester courses found on the overview (4 year or 3 year), your Fall semester courses will end early, in November, after which your First Field Experience (EDFE 209) and your First Year Seminar (EDSL 210) will begin and run until mid-December.  Your first Fall semester will be unique in this way.

EDFE 209 and EDSL 210 must be registered for simultaneously.  To do this, make note of the CRNs of both courses (first column on left when you search for courses) and enter them both into the "Quick Add" feature on Minerva (step 2 on the registration menu).

Yes, the provincial governement requires that all students in teacher education programs demonstrate their proficiency in the language of instruction.  More information can be found here.

For EDSL 215, depending on your level of French you may not need to take this course and can take a Complementary Academics course instead (this is the meaning of the note).  There are two ways to be exempted from EDSL 215:

• If you attended a French Secondary School or CEGEP (not French immersion)
• If you take the French Language Centre placement test and are placed in FRSL 321 or higher.

If you did not attend a French Secondary School or CEGEP, you should take the FLC placement test (instructions can be found on their website) and determine whether or not you need to take EDSL 215. If you are exempt from EDSL 215, you will need to take an additional complementary academics course in its place.

Registration for courses for newly admitted students begins in June and ends a couple weeks after classes in the semester begin.  A complete list of registration start and end dates can be found here.

If you are getting an error such as 'program restriction' or 'reserve closed' when attempting to register for a course, first ensure that you are selecting the section designated for your program (see the notes under the course in class schedule search on Minerva).  If you are still having trouble, contact the department offering the course (Educational and Counselling Psychology for EDPE and EDPI courses, Linguistics for LING courses, English for ENGL courses, etc.).  The calendar entry for the course will indicate the offering department.

Information about French courses and the French Placement Test can be found on the French Language Centre website.