EDU 6529 Teaching Reading:  Strategies of Instruction

 

Thursdays, 4:30-7:05 p.m., Demaray 259

 

Winter Quarter     1/6/05 – 3/10/05

 

 

Text Box: Academic Vision of SPU Seattle Pacific University seeks to educate students to make a difference in the world. Goals include graduating People of Competence People of Character People of Wisdom People of Grace School of Education Mission Statement To prepare educators for service and leadership in schools and communities by developing their professional competence and character within a framework of Christian faith and values. Graduate Student Goals The School of Education seeks to graduate educators who demonstrate Effective Leadership Clear Communication Analytical and Problem Solving Skills Foundational Knowledge and Skills A Positive Impact on Student Learning Professionalism

PROFESSOR:

 

William E. Nagy

Office:  Peterson 309

Hours:  By appointment

Phone: 206 281-2253 / Fax: 206 281-2756

Email:  wnagy@spu.edu

 

SNOW HOTLINE: 206 281-2800:

 

An attempt is made to provide word on the snow hotline of a campus closure for evening classes by 2:00 pm.  Your safety is of primary importance.  If you believe it is unsafe to you to travel to SPU, don’t come.  If possible, also notify me at wnagy@spu.edu or 206 281-2253.

 

EMERGENCY PROCEDURES:

 

If it is necessary to evacuate the classroom, we are to re-assemble at the 5th Avenue Streetscape, that is, the paved area east of Demaray this side of Marston-Watson.  If this area is inaccessible, the secondary assembly point is in the Nickerson Parking Lot, between Emerson Hall and Nickerson Avenue.

 

DISABILITY SUPPORT SERVICES:

 

Students with disabilities need to contact Disability Support Services in the Center for learning to request academic accommodations.  Disability Support Services sends Disability Verification Letters out to all your professors indicating the appropriate accommodations for the classroom based on your disability.

 

RESPECT FOR DIVERSITY:

 

Intellectual integrity requires that even though it may at times be necessary to be ruthless with ideas, we must always be not just civil in our discourse, but respectful and gentle with all persons.  This respect is especially important when we communicate about, or across, differences of race, ethnicity, gender, and class.

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

 

The purpose of this course is to survey current methods of teaching reading, and to gain deeper understanding of the principles that underlie them, so that they can be adapted and applied flexibly and effectively.  This course is a requirement for the Reading and Language Arts specialization of the Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction, and is also available as an elective to students in other programs. 

 

Course objectives:

 

All course objectives are for the purpose of helping students address the four commitments of the School of Education’s Conceptual Framework - competence, character, service, and leadership – and the skills and attributes outlined in the Graduate Student Goals.  The primary focus of this course is to build competence through developing students’ foundational knowledge and skills necessary for literacy instruction that will positively impact student learning.  The presentations required of students (see Course Requirements) stress the clear communication of instructional practices necessary for exercising effective leadership in schools.

 

Course requirements:

 

Required text:

 

Graves, M., Juel, C., & Graves, B. (2004).  Teaching Reading in the 21st Century (3rd edition).  Boston:  Allyn and Bacon

 

The companion website for this text is:   http://wps.ablongman.com/ab_graves_teachread_3

 

Additional readings will be assigned during the quarter.

 

Attendance and participation.  The success of this class, both for you and for your fellow students, depends on your active participation in class discussion, informed by having studied the assigned readings for each class meeting.

 

Workshop presentation.  Each student will give a presentation, in the form of a “dress rehearsal” for a brief (15 minute) workshop (or one segment of a longer workshop) on a particular instructional strategy or approach, such as could be given for other teachers in one’s building.  The presentation should include any handouts, overheads, or other materials or media that would be used in the actual workshop.  Time limits will be strictly observed, so plan carefully.  Along with the presentation you will also provide a plan for collecting constructive feedback, both oral and written, from your classmates.

 

Paper.   The main written assignment for this course, besides the weekly written responses to the readings, will be a paper.  Unless otherwise arranged, the paper will take the form of a proposal to present the workshop you have done for the class – that is, a document that could, for example, be submitted to your principal, describing the purpose of the workshop, the need that was being addressed, the intended benefits, the theoretical rationale and research support, and a description of the content, materials, and activities that would be involved.

 

COURSE REQUIREMENTS, continued:

 

Written responses to readings.   Each week you are to post a written response to the assigned readings for that week in the Blackboard discussion board for this class.  To receive full credit for a week’s response, it must be submitted no later than 24 hours before the start of class, that is, by 4:30 pm on Wednesday.  The responses may be brief (i.e., 1-2 paragraphs), and can take a variety of forms, for example, a question, an insight, a disagreement with a point made in the assigned readings, a possible application in your classroom, or a way you have already applied something in the readings and found it successful (or unsuccessful).  In any case the response should reflect your attempt to process the reading, and should identify as precisely as possible what it was in the reading (and where it was) that prompted this response.  Several readings may be assigned for a class, but you are only required to address one of them in a response.  You are also encouraged to respond to the postings of other students.

 

Assignment for the electronic portfolio system.  In each course offered by the School of Education, students are required to post at least one specified assignment to their electronic portfolio.  For this course the paper will be revised and posted.

 

Evaluation:

 

Grades are determined by the following criteria:

 

Participation in class discussions                        10%

Written responses to readings                           15%

Workshop presentation                         30%

Paper                                                               45%

 

 

 

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY:

 

Students at Seattle Pacific University are expected to demonstrate academic integrity in their work.  Both the students and the instructor have obligations to report and to prevent cheating, plagiarism or other academic misconduct.  Guidelines for how academic dishonesty will be handled are printed in the Graduate Catalog (pp. 25-26).  In this class, no credit will be given for an assignment in which it is determined that the student has represented someone else’s work as one’s own without properly citing the author. 

 

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TENTATIVE SCHEDULE

 

 

 

Week

 

Date

Topic        

Assigned Readings

1

1/6/05

 

The Nature of Proficient Reading

 

2

1/13/05

 

Instructional Principles

Chapters 1 & 2

3

1/20/05

 

Emergent Literacy

Chapter 3

4

1/27/05

 

Word Recognition

 

Chapter 4

5

2/3/05

 

Comprehension Instruction

Chapter 6

6

2/10/05

 

Comprehension Strategies

Chapter 7

7

2/17/05

 

Independent Reading

Chapter 8

8

2/24/05

 

Content Area Reading

Chapter 9

9

3/3/05

 

English Language Learners

Chapter 11

10

3/10/05

 

Topic to be selected

Chapter 5, 10, or 12