Brandeis University
ED 107A: Teaching and Learning Reading in Elementary and Pre- Schools
Spring, 2014
Class Meeting: Thursday 2:00 – 5:00
Location: Lown Center for Judaic Studies 302
Deborah Moriarty
Cell: 617-838-0124
Email:
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Texts:
Tompkins, Gail E. Literacy for the 21st Century: A Balanced Approach. 6th Edition. New Jersey, Pearson Education, Inc. (Merrill Prentice Hall), 2013.
Baer, G. Thomas. Self-Paced Phonics. 5th Edition. New Jersey, Pearson Education, Inc. (Merrill Prentice Hall), 2013.
Requirements:
Attendance/Class Participation: Attendance is vital. PLEASE contact me prior to class if you are unable to attend. Your thoughtful participation is essential to the class and to your learning.
Weekly Readings and Homework Assignments: Reading assignments are due the following class as assigned. Written assignments must be typed and double-spaced on standard paper. All assignments are due on the date specified. Late assignments will be marked down one grade for each day of lateness unless you have contacted me and we have worked out an alternate arrangement due to extraordinary circumstances. Lesson plan requirements will be provided on a separate handout.
· Lesson Plan
· Group Presentation
Fieldwork Attendance/Participation and Notebook: As discussed in class.
Fieldwork Observation Report and Child Study: You will give a written account of how reading operates in the classroom in which you have been assigned. You will observe and track one student in your fieldwork placement. These will be described in separate handouts.
Library Research: You will visit a public library. This assignment will be described in a separate handout.
What is Literacy? Final Project: To be presented Monday, May 6.
Grading: DUE:
Attendance/Class Participation 10% Weekly
Fieldwork Attendance & Performance 10% Weekly
Fieldwork Notebook 10% Weekly
Library Research Assignment 10% February 27
Lesson Plan 10% March 20
Group Presentation 5% March 27
Fieldwork Observation Report & Child Study 20% April 10
Fieldwork/Child Study Presentation 10% April 10
What is Literacy? Final Project 15% May 5
Academic Accommodations
If you are a student who needs academic accommodations because of a documented disability you should contact me and present your letter of accommodation as soon as possible. If you have questions about documenting a disability or requesting academic accommodations you should contact Undergraduate Academic Affairs at 6-3470. Letters of accommodation should be presented at the start of the semester to ensure provision of accommodations. Accommodations cannot be granted retroactively.
Academic Integrity
In this course, you will work jointly with other students and you will be completing work independently. Within the context of this course, you will also participate in a number of in-class activities. In all cases, I ask that you put forth your best effort to learn with integrity and to support the learning of others. If you have a question about any aspect of the course, please let me know: I am available to discuss any question, concern, or interest you may have that relates to this course.
Academic integrity is central to the mission of educational excellence at Brandeis University. Each student is expected to turn in work completed independently, except when assignments specifically authorize collaborative effort. It is not acceptable to use the words or ideas of another person—be it a world-class philosopher or your lab partner—without proper acknowledgment of the source. This means that you must use footnotes and quotation marks to indicate the source of any phrases, sentences, paragraphs, or ideas in published volumes, on the Internet, or created by another student. Violations of University policies on academic integrity, described in Section 3 of Rights and Responsibilities, may result in failure in the course or on the assignment, and could end in suspension from the University. If you are in doubt about the instructions for any assignment in this course, you must ask for clarification.
If you are working in a group that I have authorized, I will expect your answers to resemble those of your partners; otherwise I expect you to do your work separately from your friends, classmates, family members, and so on. You are not permitted to have anyone other than your professor help you on written assignments outside of class. If you have questions on the type of help you may receive, please ask me before you seek help from someone.
Projected Overview of Class Sessions:
Thurs., Jan.16 Class #1
· Introductions
· Course Overview/Assignments
· Fieldwork: Expectations
· Reading Interview & “My Life as a Reader”
· Chapter 1: Becoming an Effective Teacher of Reading
· 8 Principles of an Effective Reading Program
Assignments:
Ø Read Literacy for the 21st Century (Gail E. Tompkins) chapters 1 and 2.
Ø Read article, “What is this thing called “balance?”” (J. Fitzgerald, Oct. 1999).
Thurs., Jan. 23 Class #2
· Fieldwork: Observation Guide & Child Study
· Components of Balanced Literacy
· Chapter 2: Teaching the Reading and Writing Processes
· Reading Process (“Real” reading)
· Writing Process
Assignments:
Ø Read Literacy for the 21st Century (Gail E. Tompkins) chapter 3.
Ø Read 1 article, “Building effective practice: Using small discoveries…” (M. Taylor Stewart, Mar. 2003)/”The effective teacher of reading: Considering the “what” and “how” of instruction” (Blair, Rupley & Nichols, Feb. 2007).
Thurs., Jan. 30 Class #3
· Modified Jigsaw: 2 articles
· Chapter 3: Assessing Students’ Literacy Development
· Comprehension Assessment
· Just Right Books
· Leveled Texts
· Reading Conferences
· Running Records
· Portfolios
Assignments:
Ø Read Self-Paced Phonics (G. Thomas Baer) chapters 1 – 4.
Ø Read Literacy for the 21st Century (Gail E. Tompkins) chapter 4.
Ø Read article: “Organizing Literacy Classrooms For Effective Instruction A Survival Guide” (Reutzel, & Clark, Oct. 2011).
Thurs., Feb. 6 Class #4
· Chapter 4: Working with Young Readers and Writers
o Concepts about Print, Words, & Alphabet
o 3 Stages of Learning: emergent, beginning, fluent
§ Word ID
§ Fluency
· Morning Message
· Shared Reading
· Language Experience Approach
· Interactive Writing
Assignments:
Ø Read Self-Paced Phonics (G. Thomas Baer) chapters 5 –9.
Ø Read Literacy for the 21st Century (Gail E. Tompkins) chapter 5.
Ø Read articles: “Phonemic awareness helps…” (Griffith & Olson, Mar. 1992) and “Supporting phonemic awareness development in the classroom” (Yopp & Yopp, Oct. 2000).
Thurs., Feb. 13 Class #5
· Chapter 5: Cracking the Alphabetic Code
· Phonemic Awareness
· Phonics
· Spelling
o Word Wall, Making Words
Assignments:
Ø Read Literacy for the 21st Century (Gail E. Tompkins) chapter 6.
Ø Read “What We Know About How to Teach Phonics” (Chapter 5: What Research Has to Say About Reading Instruction, P. Cunningham & J. Cunningham, International Reading Associaiton, 2002,)
Ø Read article: “Invention, convention, and intervention: Invented spelling…” (L. Sipe, Nov. 2001).
Thurs., Feb. 20 WINTER RECESS/NO CLASS
Thurs., Feb. 27 Class #6
· LIBRARY RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT DUE
o Present:
§ 4 Picture books: book talks
§ 1 Chapter book: book report
· Chapter 6: Developing Fluent Readers and Writers
o Word Recognition
§ High Frequency Words
§ Word Wall
o Word Identification
§ Word families
o Reading Fluency
Assignment:
Ø Read Literacy for the 21st Century (Gail E. Tompkins) chapter 7.
Ø Read article: “Building walls of words” (Brabham & Villaume, Apr. 2001).
Thurs., Mar. 6 Class #7
· MIDTERM ASSESSMENT
· Chapter 7: Expanding Students’ Knowledge of Words
o Vocabulary
o Word-Study Concepts
§ 3 Tiers of Words
§ Word Study Activities
Assignments:
Ø Read Literacy for the 21st Century (Gail E. Tompkins) chapter 8.
Ø Read article: “For the Love of Words: Fostering Word Consciousness…” (Graves & Watts-Taffe, Nov. 2008).
Thurs., Mar. 13 Class #8
· Lesson Plan Format & ASSIGNMENT: PHONICS/WORD STUDY LESSON PLAN
· Chapter 8: Facilitating Students’ Comprehension: Reader Factors
· Comprehension Strategies
· Strategies vs. Skills
· Explicit, effective instruction
Assignment:
Ø Read Literacy for the 21st Century (Gail E. Tompkins) chapter 9.
Ø Read article: “Using the think aloud…” (L. Oster, Sept. 2001).
Thurs., Mar. 20 Class #9
· PHONICS/WORD STUDY LESSON PLAN DUE
· BRING STUDENT WORK SAMPLE for FSG
· Chapter 9: Facilitating Students’ Comprehension: Text Factors
· Three Main Types of Literature: stories, informational books, poems
· Text Factors
Assignment:
Ø ***Read Literacy for the 21st Century (Gail E. Tompkins) chapter 10, 11 or 12: Group Prep***.
Ø Read articles: “Bringing together fictional and informational texts to improve comprehension” (J. Soalt, Apr. 2005) and “Authentic literacy activities for developing comprehension and writing” (Duke, Purcell-Gates, Hall & Tower, Dec. 2006/Jan. 2007).
Thurs., Mar. 27 Class #10
· GROUP PRESENTATIONS: Chapters 10, 11, 12
· Chapter 10: Organizing for Instruction
· Basal Reading Programs
· Literature Focus Units
· Literature Circles
· Reading and Writing Workshop
· Chapter 11: Differentiating Reading and Writing Instruction
· Content, Process & Product
· Guided Reading
· Literacy Centers
· Chapter 12: Reading and Writing in the Content Areas
· Writing as a Learning Tool
· Writing to Demonstrate Learning
· Textbooks
· Thematic Units
Assignment:
Ø Read Amber Brown is Not a Crayon (Paula Danziger). Prep for Literature Circle.
Ø Read articles: “Decisions, decisions: Responding to primary students during guided reading” (Robert M. Schwartz, 2005), “Communicating mathematically…” (P. Moyer, Nov. 2000) and “Using the Internet and children’s literature…” (R. Karchmer, Sept. 2000).
Thurs., Apr. 3 Class #11
· Amber Brown is Not a Crayon Literature Circle
Assignment:
Ø Read Literacy for the 21st Century (Gail E. Tompkins): Part 4: Instructional Procedures pages 426 – 481.
Thurs., Apr. 10 Class #12
· FIELDWORK OBSERVATION REPORT & CHILD STUDY DUE—Present to class
· Effective read aloud and interactive read aloud
Assignment:
Ø Read articles: “Maximizing the effectiveness of reading aloud” (Lane & Wright, Apr. 2007) and “Interactive read-alouds: Is there a common set of implementation practices?” (Fisher, Flood, Lapp & Frey, Sept. 2004).
Ø Select a picture book for read aloud.
Thurs., Apr. 17 SPRING RECESS/NO CLASS
Thurs., Apr. 24 Class #13
· Share Read alouds
· Instructional procedures
· MA State “Foundations of Reading” Test
Assignment:
Ø Complete Course Evaluation online.
FINAL EXAM: MONDAY, MAY 5 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Ø What is Literacy?
§ Present: Final Project