Program requirements

Prerequisites (if any):

Catalog Description:

Introduces instruction for reading, writing, speaking and listening development for grades 5-12. Teachers will learn productive research-based strategies, materials, and assessment practices, and reflect on their own literacy as a resource for understanding students’ literacy development. Involves practical literacy experiences for adolescents. (5 practicum hours).

Extended Description:

This course focuses on strategies in the content areas in typical grades 5-12 curricula. Strategies consider the social construction of knowledge within the classroom and wider New York Standards for specific disciplines. In this course, students will:
1) plan a unit or chapter that incorporates whole class and individual reading lessons/strategies along with other teaching resources;
2) participate in 20 strategies for teaching reading;
3) conduct formal and informal assessments of reading and writing;
4) conduct an informal reading inventory assessing specifically word knowledge, comprehension and syntax;
5) engage with an adolescent in a reading/writing workshop.

Program goals:

** major goal

Pedagogical Content Knowledge

language and literacy development: the nature, breadth, and depth of and the overt markers of that development

individual and cultural differences: knowledge of economic, academic, social, and cultural diversity; use of this knowledge to inform instructional decisions

** methods and materials: the range of techniques and materials appropriate for literacy instruction

task difficulty: relation to student learning, independence, and development

assessment of literacy: the value and properties of assessment methods and instruments

prevention and solution of literacy difficulties: management of the classroom context to prevent difficulties in the acquisition of literacy as well as to solve learning difficulties when they occur

technology: understand the nature and functions of information technologies in contemporary literacy practices; use relevant information technologies for teaching and assessment

organization of instruction: organization, regulation, and reform of literacy instruction

NYSED standards and core curriculum: knowledge of English Language Arts, Social Studies, Mathematics, Science and Technology

self-extended learning: how to engage critically with professional text and research to extend learning, including success with their own professional reading and writing

Teaching Skills

** basic teaching routines: nurturing children's language and literacy abilities individually and in groups. Includes appropriate strategies for developing specific reading and writing competencies such as comprehension, critical reading, studying, vocabulary knowledge, word knowledge (phonological insight, spelling, and analysis), composing, revising, and editing

children's literacy development: documenting and analyzing reading, writing, speaking and listening, both through observational practices and through more formal techniques such as the Early Literacy Profile and standardized tests

instructional decisions: matching learners with appropriate materials and creating independent learners; analyzing and solving instructional problems that arise in the regular or instructional support classroom, especially as they relate to learners who are struggling, or whose literacy abilities are so advanced that they need additional challenges

** learning communities for students: generating productive contexts such that children learn from one another as well as from the teacher

** prevention and solution of literacy difficulties: managing the classroom context to prevent difficulties in the acquisition of literacy as well as to solve learning difficulties when they occur

communication: collaborating with colleagues, other specialists, parents, and the public on literacy issues showing sensitivity to different perspectives and different language

Readings

(Note: these are suggested texts—actual readings in this course will be listed in the current course outline)

Literacy Learning:
1. Strategic reading
2. Comprehension’
3. Reader response
4. Writing (to learn;for publication)
5. Word study (word parts; vocabulary; spelling)
6. Speaking/Listening (discourse appropriacy:language use in specific contexts; participating in specific activities; awareness of roles, positions, and positioning)

Literacy Teaching for Ongoing Development
1. Organizing instruction (unit planning with content area classroom texts)
2. Reading/Writing workshop

Assessment
1. Formal & periodic (NY State exams)
2. Informal and ongoing

Contexts of Learning
1. Outside/Inside classroom
2. Instructional environments (e.g., special education, science classroom) 

Vacca, R. T., & Vacca, J. A. L. (2002). Content area reading: Literacy and learning across the curriculum. New York: Longman.

Zemelman, S., & Daniels, H. (1988). A community of writers: Teaching writing in the junior and senior high school. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Wilhelm, J. D. (1996). ‘You gotta be the book’: Teaching engaged and reflective reading with adolescents. New York: Teachers College Press.