EDUC 5330 Foundations of Literacy

This course is designed to teach candidates to utilize and teach evidence-based reading practices in content area classes to help struggling readers. Candidates will learn content strategies in phonics, word study, content vocabulary, comprehension, and fluency that can be utilized to help all students. Candidates will also learn various supports and tailored instructional strategies to help struggling with literacy. Directed field experience is required.

Registration Name

Foundations of Literacy

Lecture Hours

3

Lab Hours

0

Credits

3

Offered

Fall, Spring, and Summer

Student Learning Outcomes

Candidates will demonstrate awareness of

• language processes required for proficient reading and writing: phonological, orthographic, semantic, syntactic, and discourse;
• learning to read requires explicit, structured, and cumulative instruction;
• the reciprocal relationships among the foundations of reading (i.e., phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, decoding, word recognition, spelling, and vocabulary knowledge);
• how aspects of cognition and behavior can affect reading and writing development;
• how environmental and social factors contribute to literacy development;
• major research findings on the contribution of linguistic and cognitive factors to literacy outcomes;
• the most common intrinsic differences between proficient and striving readers, including linguistic, cognitive, and neurobiological factors;
• the oral language development, phonemic awareness, decoding skills, printed word recognition, spelling, reading fluency, reading comprehension, and written expression;
• evidence-based instructional approaches that support the development of reading and writing skills, including concepts of print, phonological awareness, phonics, word recognition, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and producing writing appropriate to task;
• disciplinary literacy and content area literacy; developing academic vocabulary and writing for research;
• the principles and practices of scientific reading instruction and apply this understanding to critically examine literacy curricula;