Course Description
This course provides an overview of current theory regarding the teaching of reading. Students become familiar with the philosophical and research bases of various reading techniques. Emphasis is placed on acquiring new strategies for instruction and assessment, which are practiced during the course practicum. Included in the practicum is the opportunity for each student to tutor a school-aged child in reading.
Topics and Objectives
Analyzing Instructional Approaches and Theories
- Explain various theories of the reading process.
- Analyze principles on which effective reading is based.
- Express the characteristics of integrated language approaches to reading instruction.
- Compare and contrast a directed reading activity with a directed reading-thinking activity.
- Identify effective teaching strategies that focus on the communicative aspects of oral reading.
Assessing Growth in Literacy
- Investigate the use of various assessments, including norm-referenced tests, criterion-referenced tests, and informal assessments.
- Analyze an Informal Reading Inventory (IRI) to identify a student's strengths, weaknesses, and reading level.
- Design and implement a program of remediation based on assessment findings.
Comprehension Connections and Vocabulary Building
- Identify instructional practices and methods for teaching comprehension using Cloze procedures.
- Evaluate comprehension-learning activities to be used in a tutorial/classroom context.
- Examine characteristics of passive readers.
- Explain how schema theory relates to reading comprehension.
- Examine pre-reading, during-reading, and post-reading activities that enhance comprehension.
- Analyze research concerning pedagogical approaches in vocabulary development.
- Examine several techniques of vocabulary instruction.
Emergent Literacy
- Examine the concept of emergent literacy.
- Analyze the interrelationships among cognitive development, metalinguistic awareness, and language learning.
- Identify instructional strategies and activities for early literacy acquisition.
Transforming Print to Meaning
- Examine word attack strategies for enhancing a student's development of a sight vocabulary.
- Investigate the use of phonic and structural analysis generalizations.
Developing Literacy Abilities in Content Areas
- Examine techniques for teaching students study skills at all grade levels.
- Analyze the skills and techniques for developing literacy abilities in the content areas.
