Literacy/Literature I w/ Field

Catalog description

This course prepares teacher candidates to develop engaged, strategic, and independent readers and writers. Candidates will develop understandings about: 1. Literacy-rich, engaging, and culturally affirming environments for nurturing students’ literacy learning, 2. How emergent/beginning readers and writers develop oral language, concepts of print, phonemic awareness, alphabetic and orthographic knowledge, vocabulary and conceptual knowledge, concept of word in text, concepts of stories and story language, and writing, 3. Appropriate assessments for identifying students’ literacy abilities and targeting instruction, 4. Instructional strategies for advancing students’ literacy abilities, and 5. The use of children’s literature in the early primary grades (big books, pattern books, leveled decodable and natural language readers, informational texts, poetry, fiction, personal narrative and persuasive texts). The course emphasizes meaning-based approaches consistent with constructivism and transactional models of literacy, in addition to systematic, targeted phonics instruction. Course objectives align with the Common Core and PA State Standards for English Language Arts for grades PK-1. *This course builds candidate’s competencies outlined in Charlotte Danielson’s Framework for Teaching (see Appendix A). Candidates are asked to reflect on key assignments in relation to Danielson’ Framework to include in their Professional Educator ePortfolio.