EDRD 314

Development and Instruction for Emergent and Beginning Readers

Spring 2011

Instructor: Dr. Jennifer Jones

Office: A019

Office Phone:540.831.5311

Cell Phone: 540.998.3634

Email: (please do not use WebCT email)

Office Hours: Tuesdays, 2-3pm; Wednesdays, 2:00 – 3:30pm; Thursdays,(Higher Education Center) 1:00 – 2:30pm;orby appointment

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

Students will learn developmental reading skills and abilities for emergent and beginning readers. The course specifically focuses on teaching strategies and activities in the areas of word attack, fluency, and comprehension.

PREREQUISITES:

2.5 GPA in previous coursework

COURSE GOALS & OBJECTIVES:

Students will learn developmental reading skills and abilities for emergent and beginning readers. The course specifically focuses on teaching strategies and activities in the areas of word attack, fluency, and comprehension.

In the course described above, students will:

  • Begin to understand the developmental nature of learning to read.
  • Develop an understanding of the theoretical underpinnings of reading & language development.
  • Recognize the importance of literacy for personal and social growth.
  • Understand, respect, and value cultural, linguistic, and ethnic diversity.
  • Understand that balanced literacy consists of listening, speaking, reading, writing, and viewing, and that effective instruction includes the integration of these components.
  • Understand and recognize the different stages (and the experiences & instruction that support them) of reading development.
  • Be able to model and provide guided support for students as they learn to apply word identification strategies such as syntactic, semantic, and graphophonemic relations.
  • Begin to learn about comprehension strategies and how to teach them to elementary grade students.
  • Model strategies to enhance vocabulary.
  • Learn about how to effectively design, implement, and reflect on literacy lesson plans.
  • Become inducted into the profession of teaching by participating in professional development programs and becoming familiar with local, regional, and state organizations that promote literacy.

REQUIRED TEXTS:

Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton, & Johnston (2004). Word study for phonics, vocabulary, and spelling. (3rd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Zarillo, J. (2006). Are you prepared to teach reading? Prentice Hall.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS & EXPECTATIONS:

Projects and assignments must be completed at the beginning of class on the due date. There will be a 10% grade deduction for each day the assignment is late without prior notice. Late papers must be turned in as hard copies in my office or mailbox. I will not accept electronic versions. Problems with due dates and exams must be discussed with the instructorbefore the assignment/exam due date. Any work that you submit must be completed your own (except for the Microteaching assignment) or properly referenced. Failure of this course or of the assignment may result if you represent the work of others (including students) as your own. (I encourage you to use the Internet as a resource when designing lesson plans. However, the language of the lesson plan must be your own!) All submissions must be word-processed and they must follow APA format (this includes references). Please use 12-point font, double spacing, one inch margins, and left justification when writing papers. Assignments should be well-written, grammatically correct, and free of typographical errors and corrections. Please refer to the “No Mistakes” document. Incorrect usage of a “no mistake” word will result in a deduction of one point from the final grade of the assignment. Unacceptable work will be returned. Archive all assignments. Make backup copies!

  1. Attendance, Participation, & Professionalism
  • Many of the topics and content explored in the course will be taught and communicated via class demonstrations, activities, and discussions. Therefore, attendance and participation are crucial for a complete understanding of course material. It is imperative that you are present and arrive on time for all classes and are prepared to participate fully in all in-class activities and discussions. You cannot participate if you are not present. An absence or tardy for whatever reason count as time taken from the course and will result in a lowered participation grade. Arriving on time, remaining on-task, coming to class prepared, and participating in our learning community are all part of the professionalism that you are developing. Late arrivals count as time missed. Since you are a valuable member of our learning community it is important that you provide prior notice of when you will be absent or late to class. It is my expectation that you will email or call me ahead of time to let me know.
  • It is expected that students will show respect for the views of all members of our community and that students and the professor will use professional standards of language and behavior. Unprofessional behaviors (e.g., answering cell phones, sleeping, surfing the Internet, texting) will also result in a lowered participation grade. Please turn off or silence all cell phones BEFORE class begins.
  • Please see participation rubric for a detailed explanation of how your participation grade will be calculated.
  1. Literacy Autobiography
  2. This assignment has two main components: 1) a reflection, presented orally using artifacts or representations,and 2) a visual representation of what “literacy” means to you. You will write and briefly present a “reflective memoir” of your own literacy learning history to your colleagues. In this self-study you will recall and reflect on your personal literacy development. Discuss the “literacy culture” in which you became a reader. How did your home culture and educational experiences influence your quest to be a reader? Discuss the methods, skills, materials, and strategies that assisted you in becoming literate. How will your culture and training influence the way you teach students to read? Discuss the role of culture and your own biases and how these might influence you as a teacher of reading. Next, articulate your own personal definition of “literacy” using a visual representation to illustrate your definition. Finally, discuss how you currently envision “effective literacy instruction”. Your brown bag should include:
  3. Item(s) to symbolize the culture which cultivated your growth as a reader
  4. Item(s) to symbolize your formal literacy education
  5. Your definition of literacy.
  1. Read-aloud
  2. During the course you will learn how to conduct effective read-alouds that promote comprehension. You will have the opportunity to do a read-aloud in front of elementary-agedchildren. You will also record your read-aloud in order to reflect on it. I have made arrangements with the TRC to provide recording devices. The reflection will follow a rubric and you will self-assess on several read-aloud practices. Details of this assignment will be discussed in class.
  1. Microteaching
  • As a precursor to your blocking experience, you will complete one microteaching experience during the semester. Microteaching experiences will enable you to prepare and teach mini-lessons on specific aspects of reading that correlate with topics covered in class. This semester we will focus our microteaching on emergent andbeginning readers. These lessons will be taught to a group or class of elementary students. These lessons will be constructed and taught in groups. While you will have some in class time to prepare the lesson and ask questions, it is my expectation that the group will meet outside of class. Each group will provide me with one copy of the lesson plan for your microteaching lesson the day that the group teaches. The lesson plan should also articulate how you plan to meet state literacy standards, address the differential needs of students within the classroom. See “Lesson Plan Format” for directions on how to construct a thorough lesson plan.

Words Their Way provides a plethora of engaging activities to use with emergent and beginning readers. Other texts that you may wish to explore for activities are listed below. Use of the Internet as a resource is strongly encouraged; however you must use your own language when writing the lesson. (Please feel free to create your own activities or to use other texts, journals, etc. This list is merely a place to start!)

  • Classrooms that work: They can all read and write by Cunningham & Richard L. Allington
  • Book Buddies: A guide for community volunteers by Johnston, Juel, & Invernizzi.
  • Literature-based reading activities by Yopp & Yopp.
  • Stories, songs, and poetry to teach reading and writing by McCracken & McCracken.
  • Communication in action by Hennings.
  • Phonics they use Patricia Cunningham.
  • Literacy’s Beginnings by McGee & Richgels
  • Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening (PALS) website,
  • Webbing into Literacy website,
  • Word sorts and more by Ganske.
  • Word matters by Pinnell & Fountas
  • Fluency instruction: Research-based practices by Rasinski, Blachowicz, & Lems.
  • From phonics to fluency: Effective teaching of decoding and reading fluency in the elementary school by Rasinski & Padak
  1. Tool-kit assignment
  2. You will prepare a lesson plan that may be used when working with emergent, beginning, or instructional readers. For this assignment, you will prepare a lesson plan, complete with materials, to address one area of the reading diet: 1) fluency; 2) word knowledge; 3) comprehension. Words Their Way provides a plethora of fun activities to use with each reader-type. Other texts that students may wish to explore for activities are listed below. Use of the world wide web as a resource is strongly encouraged; however, lessons from this resource must be put into your own words and must be formatted to the lesson plan format provided in class. (*Please feel free to create your own activities or to use other texts, journals, etc. –This list is merely a place to start).
  3. Classrooms that work: They can all read and write by Cunningham & Richard L. Allington
  4. Book Buddies: A guide for community volunteers by Johnston, Juel, & Invernizzi.
  5. Literature-based reading activities by Yopp & Yopp.
  6. Stories, songs, and poetry to teach reading and writing by McCracken & McCracken.
  7. Communication in action by Hennings.
  8. Phonics they use Patricia Cunningham.
  9. Literacy’s Beginnings by McGee & Richgels
  10. Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening (PALS) website,
  11. Webbing into Literacy website,
  12. Word sorts and more by Ganske.
  13. Word matters by Pinnell & Fountas
  14. Fluency instruction: Research-based practices by Rasinski, Blachowicz, & Lems.
  15. From phonics to fluency: Effective teaching of decoding and reading fluency in the elementary school by Rasinski & Padak
  1. Quizzes
  • You will be held accountable for learning information from reading and lectures through two quizzes. Quizzes will be noncumulative, in that they will cover information discussed within specific units of instruction. Each of the three quizzes will be each worth 5% of the total grade.Your highest quiz grade will be doubled to make up the remaining 5%. The nature and content of each quiz will be specified clearly in class. Quiz dates are listed on the accompanying course calendar.
  1. Developmental Spelling Analysis
  2. As you learn the developmental stages of spelling and reading, you will learn how to assess a child’s developmental spelling level. You will use the Developmental Spelling Analysis to assess a child’s spelling level and determine what type of instruction is best suited for the child in regard to spelling.
  1. Final Exam
  • To assure your knowledge and competency of important terms and concepts in literacy, you will be assessed with a final exam. This final exam will be cumulative, in that it will cover content from the entire semester. We will review extensively in class prior to the exam.

GRADES:

Final course grades will be determined using the following grading criteria:

EDRD 314 Course Requirements

Personal Autobiography 50 points

Read-aloud and Reflection100 points

Quizzes (2)200 points

Microteaching200 points

Instructional Tool Kit100 points

Developmental Spelling Analysis100 points

Final Exam Assignment125 points

Participation & Attendance125 points

Total: 1000 points

*Grading Scale:

1000 – 930 Points100-93%A

929 – 850 Points92-85%B

849 – 750 Points84-75%C

749 – 650 Points74-65%D

Below 649 Pointsbelow 65%F

*Note: This is the grading scale used by all elementary education courses.

HONOR STATEMENT:

By accepting admission to Radford University, each student makes a commitment to understand, support, and abide by the University Honor Code without compromise or exception. Violations of academic integrity will not be tolerated. This class will be conducted in strict observance of the Honor Code. Refer to your Student Handbook for details. If you are unsure of what constitutes plagiarism or are unsure about how to properly cite others work, please seek assistance before an assignment is due!

STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES:

If you are seeking classroom accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act, you are required to register with the Disability Resource Office (DRO). The DRO is located in Room 32, Tyler Hall. The phone number is 831-6350. To receive academic accommodations for this class, please obtain the proper DRO forms and meet with me at the beginning of the semester.

I believe that each of us brings important understandings and experiences to each class session and that we can all learn a great deal from each other. I look forward to working with you this semester. You can plan on learning a lot, working hard, and hopefully have some fun as well!

Dr. Jennifer Jones