Methods of Teaching Early Reading and Writing

Catalog description

Early literacy development and its relationship to a child's oral language are explored. The role of developmentally appropriate children's literature, vocabulary development and prior experience, and the use of print in the classroom are covered. Teacher candidates will learn the importance of early phonemic awareness, phonics, reading comprehension, and spelling development and acquire strategies to assess and teach reading literacy skills. Research based methods for teaching reading and writing in the early grades are taught and practiced in an early childhood classroom setting. Candidates will learn reading assessments and apply the knowledge when students have difficulty with reading and/or writing and utilize strategies for remediation. Specific techniques for children with disabilities, for children from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, and for gifted will be emphasized. A complete schedule of clinic/lab experiences will be distributed in class.