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Syllabus

Title: Teaching the Reader

Course Description:

In this online course, participants will examine the latest research and classroom techniques in teaching every child in the primary grades to be a successful reader. Participants will learn ways children develop language and the stages of reading development.  In literacy environments, participants will explore instructional approaches for literacy.  A focus will be on observing teacher modeling of effective practices using video clips.  Students will have opportunities to reflect on their own teaching practice.

Objectives:

Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to

1.      Demonstrate an understanding of language development as it relates to literacy.

2.      Use the stages of reading development in lesson planning.

3.      Demonstrate an understanding of a print-rich environment with leveled books.

4.      Use instructional approaches supported by research and best practices in reading.

5.      Incorporate phonemic awareness, phonics, and writing strategies in classrooms.

6.      Demonstrate knowledge of the importance of motivation and engagement for reading.

7.      Demonstrate procedures for ongoing in-class assessment of children’s reading abilities.

Assignments:

This course contains seven sessions divided into activities. Activities are the interactive pieces that the participants complete. Seven activities are labeled as "required assignments". These assignments (one in each session) must be submitted to the course facilitator to receive course credit. Credit has been arranged locally by your PBS Station. As the Credit situation varies by state, your registration confirmation e-mail will outline the credit available to you. It is recommended that as the participants complete these required assignments, they submit them to the course facilitator, Diane Rymer. E-mail her with any concerns at coursefacilitator@mail.mpt.org you will prompted at appropriate times throughout the course to submit your assignments.

Assignments are identified throughout the course site.

  • A red star located on an activity button signals that it links to the required assignment for that session:
                                                
  • An icon on an activity page identifies the required assignment of the session:
                                               

Assignments

Listed below are the required assignments that must be submitted to the course facilitator to receive course credit.

Week 1

Activity 4 ~~ NICHD Pie Chart

Examine the five types of readers in a class and use this data to make a chart.

Week 2

Activity 3 ~~ Stages of Reading in your Classroom

Use a chart to assign reading levels to children and consider modifications to current grouping and assignment of materials.


Week 3

Activity 3 ~~ Book Collection and Leveling

Make a book collection for a classroom library, designate levels for "easy, just right and difficult" reading, and match children with books.


Week 4

Activity 5 ~~Taking and Analyzing a Running Record

Listen to a child read orally and determine strengths and needs.


Week 5

Activity 5 ~~ Five-Day Lesson Plan

Using a model, write a five-day instructional plan for reading that focuses on fluency, comprehension, word work, or ongoing assessment.


Week 6

Activity 6 ~~ Utilizing Reading Strategies

Learn comprehension strategies and plan a lesson for a specific group of readers.


Week 7

Activity 7 ~~ A Prioritized Way for Motivation

Create an implementation plan for fostering motivation in a class on a year-long basis.



Course Outline

 

 Week

 Topics/Objectives

 Activities

Assignments and Estimated Completion Times

Estimated Times to Complete Entire Sessions

1

Language Acquisition

Self-Evaluation

KWLL

KWLL Chart (Part II)

NICHD Pie Chart

NICHD Pie Chart

(2 hours)

3 hours 50 min.

 

2

Stages of Reading

Phonemic Awareness

Phonics & Word Attack

Sight Vocabulary and Word Identification    Strategies

Stages of  Reading (view/reflect)

Stages of Reading in   your Classroom

Phonemic Awareness (read)

Assessing Phonemic    Awareness &   Debriefing

Phonics & Teaching   Models (read)

Theoretical Models   & My School

Read Tech Report &   Reflect

Sight Vocabulary   (read)

Stages of Reading in your Classroom

(1 hour 30 min.)

 

 8 hours 30 min.

3

Print Rich Environments

Leveled Books

Sight Vocabulary & Word Identifications

Read Alouds

Book Collections and Leveling

Read About Favorites

Print Rich Environment Activity

Book Collections and Leveling

(2 hours 30 min.)

 

 

7 hours 15 min.

4

Ongoing Assessment & Observation

Book Time

Assessment Overview

Running Record PowerPoint

Exploring a Running Record

Taking & Analyzing a Running Record

Taking and Analyzing a Running Record

(2 hours 30 min.)

 7 hours 35 min.

5

Instructional Approaches - Fluency

Book Time

PowerPoint Presentation

CIERA electronic article & response

Readers Theater Article and Response

Five-Day Lesson Plan

Shared Reading Simulation and Reflection

Five-day Lesson Plan

(3 hours 30 min.)

5 hours 35 min.

6

Instructional Approaches - Comprehension

Four Levels of Support

Levels of Support in My Classroom

Concepts About Print and Student Survey

Read Alouds and Reader Response Activities

Using Link and Think

Utilizing Reading Strategies

Non-Fiction in the Classroom

Reading Progress

Utilizing Reading Strategies

(2 hours 30 min.)

 7 hours 15 min.

7

Motivation  & Engagement in Reading

Motivating the Primary Reader

The Teacher as an Explicit Model

Creating a Book-rich Classroom Environment

Developing an Effective Classroom Library

Opportunities to Interact Socially

Creat a reading-related incentive program

A Prioritize Plan for Motivation

A Prioritize Plan for Motivation

(30 min.)

 5 hours

      Total: 15 hours Total: 45 hours

 

Instructional Resources

Adams, M. J. (1990).  Beginning to read: Thinking and learning about print.  Cambridge, MA:  MIT Press.

Allington, R.. L. & Cunningham, P.M. (1999). Classrooms that work. Second edition.  NY: Harper Collins College Publishers.

Allington, R. L  & Cunningham, P. M. (1996). Schools that work – where all children read and write.  NY: Harper Collins College Publishers.

Askew, B.J. & Fountas, I.C. (1998) Building an early reading process: active from the start. The Reading Teacher, 52, 126-138.

Au, K.H., & Assam, C.L. (1995). Improving literacy achievement of low-income students of diverse backgrounds. In M.F. Graves, P. VandenBroek, & B.M. Taylor. The first R: Every child’s right to read. NY: Teachers College Press.

Barrentine, S.B.(1996). Engaging with reading through interactive read-alouds. The Reading Teacher, 50, 36-43.

Baumann, J.F.,  &  Ivey, G. (1997). Delicate balances: Striving for curricular and instructional equilibrium in a second grade: Literature/strategy-based classroom. Reading Research Quarterly, 32, 244-276.

Bolton, F. &   Snowball. D. (1999). Spelling K-8: Planning and teaching. ME: Stenhouse Publishing Co.

Brown, K. (1999). What kind of text--for whom and when? Textual scaffolding for beginning readers. The Reading Teacher, 53, 292-307.

Bunting, E. (1994). A day's work. New York, Clarion Books.

Burns, M.S., Griffin, P, & Snow, C.E. (1999). Starting out right, a guide to promoting children’s reading success.  Washington D.C., National Academy Press.

Button, K, Johnson, M.J., Furgeson, P. (1996).  Interactive writing in a primary classroom.  The Reading Teacher, 49, 446-454.

Byrne, D. (1998). How animals move. New York, Rigby Corporation (Discovery World).

Cambourne, B. (1995).  Toward an educationally relevant theory of literacy learning:  Twenty years of inquiry. The Reading Teacher, 49, 182-190.

Campbell,  R. (2001).  Read-Alouds  with  young children.  Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement (CIERA). (2001). Put reading first: The research building blocks for teaching children to read.  Jessup, MD: National Institute for Literacy at ED Pubs.  < www.nifl.gov>

Clay, M.M. (1993). An observation survey of early literacy achievement.  Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Cooper, J. D.  &  Kiger, N. D.  (2001) Literacy assessment. MA: Houghton-Mifflin.

Cunningham, P.M. & Hall, D.P. (1994). Making words. Parsippany, NJ: Good Apple.

Dreher, J.,  Davis, K.,  Waynant, P., & Clewell, S. (2000). Easy steps to writing fantastic research reports.  NY: Scholastic.

Ehri, L., Nunes,  S.R., Willows, et.al. (2001) Phonemic awareness instruction helps children learn to read:  Evidence from the national reading panel’s meta-analysis. Reading Research Quarterly, 36, 250 –287. 

Fountas, I.C. & Pinnell, G.S. (1996).  Guided reading, good first teaching for all students.  Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Gambrell, L.B. (1996). Creating classroom cultures that foster reading motivation.  The Reading Teacher, 50, 14-25.

Harvey, S  (1998). Non-fiction matters. ME: Stenhouse.

Hiebert, E. (1999). Selecting texts for beginning reading instruction (CIERA Report). Ann Arbor, MI: Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement, University of Michigan School of Education. http://www.ciera.org

Holdaway, D. (1979). The foundations of literacy.  Sydney: Ashton-Scholastic.

International Reading Association & the National Association for the Education of Young Children. (1998). Learning to read and write, developmentally appropriate practices for young children.  Newark, DE.

Keene,  E.O  & Zimmerman, S.  (1997). Mosaic of thought: teaching reading comprehension in a reader’s workshop. NH: Heinemann.

Literacy Framework: The Classroom Environment. (1996). Greenvale, NY: Mondo Bookshop, Stage 2 teacher’s manual, pp. 17-20.

Lyon, G. R. (1998),  Why reading is not a natural act. Educational Leadership, 15, 14-18.

Martinez, M.G., Roser, N.J., & Strecker, S. (1999). I never thought I could be a star. A Readers Theatre ticket to fluency. The Reading Teacher, 52, 326-334.

Maryland School Assessment Program Standards.  http://www.mdk12.org.mspp/standards

Marzano, R. J.,  Pickering, D., & McTighe. (1998). Assessing student outcomes; performance assessment using the dimensions of learning model.  Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Moats, L. C., and Lyon, G. R. (1996)   Wanted: Teachers with Knowledge of Language. Topics in Language Disorders 16 (2): 73-86.

Mooney,  M.E. (1990). Reading to, with, and by children. Katonah, NY: Richard Owen.

National Reading Panel (2000). Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction.  Reports of the subgroup. Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health. http://www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/nrp/

O'Donnell, M. and Wood, M. (1999). Becoming a reader, Second edition. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Pearson, P.D. (1996). Six ideas in search of a champion: What policy makers should know about the teaching and learning of literacy in our schools. Journal of Literacy Research, 28 (2), 302-309.

Pressley, M  (1996). A survey of instructional practices of primary teachers nominated as effective in promoting literacy. Elementary School Journal,  96, 363-384.

Richgels, D.L., Poremba, & McGee, L.M. (1996). Kindergartners talk about print:  Phonemic awareness in meaningful contexts.  The Reading Teacher, 49, 632-642.

Robb, L.(1996). Reading strategies that work.  NY: Scholastic.

Saphier, J. & Gower, R. (1997). The skillful teacher.  Carlisle, MA: Research for Better Teaching, Inc.

Snow, C.E.  & Burns, M.S & Griffin, P.  (1998). Preventing reading difficulties in young children.  Washington D.C.:  National Academy Press.

Stahl, S., Duffy-Hester,  A. & Stahl,  K.A. (1998). Everything you wanted to know about phonics but were afraid to ask.  Reading Research Quarterly,  33(3), 338-351.

Wagstaff, J.M. (1997). Building practical knowledge of letter-sound correspondences: A beginner’s word wall and beyond. The Reading Teacher, 51, 298-304.

West, K. R. (1998). Noticing and responding to learners: Literacy evaluation and instruction in the primary grades. The Reading Teacher, 51, 550-559.

Worthy, J., & Broaddus, K. (2002). Fluency beyond the primary grades: From group performance to silent, independent reading.  The Reading Teacher, 55 (4), 334-342.

Yopp, H.K. & Yopp, R.H. (2000). Supporting phonemic awareness development in the classroom.  The Reading Teacher, 54, 130-143.