MLE5270 Content Area Literacy Dr. Gail Lockart Fall, 2008 Buzzard 2430 Monday: 4:30-7 p.m. [email protected] Phone: 581-7884 (O) Office: 2207: 345-3771 (H) Unit Theme: The Educator as a Creator of Effective Educational Environments: Integrating Students, Subjects, Strategies, and Societies Mission Statement The Department of Early Childhood, Elementary, and Middle Level Education seeks to advance scholarly preparation by providing quality teaching and promoting excellence in research/creative activity in order for graduate students to exemplify best teaching practices for children from birth through age fourteen. The Department is dedicated to the preparation of knowledgeable citizens of the 1ast century and seeks to empower individuals to meet the challenges faced by professional educators in a rapidly changing society. Candidates for the Master of Science in Education Degree will be prepared to teaching diverse environments recognizing multiple pathways of learning. The Department is committed to enhancing the graduate academic experience in order to create educators who can function effectively in a culturally diverse, technologically advanced, and global environment in order to engage learning at all levels. ===================================================================================== Dispositions: Teachers in the graduate program of EC/ELE/MLE will exhibit professional ethical practices, effective communication, sensitivity to diversity, and the ability to provide varied teaching practices evidenced in a supportive and encouraging atmosphere for learning. Course Description: Implementation of an in-depth understanding of content level reading issues, reading strategies, approaches to reading instruction, and informal assessment of middle school age readers in the content area. In addition, teachers need to have individual metacognitive awareness of the reading process and be able to teach students metacognitive skills. Objectives of the Course: • Develop a desire of lifelong learning in students and personally display one’s own desire for lifelong learning, including self-evaluation skills. • Demonstrate good communication skills. • Demonstrate and exhibit compassion to students of all cultures. • Design instruction to develop and utilize the cognitive process by which students learn. • Demonstrate knowledge of children’s language acquisition. • Describe the factors that influence the development of language. • Demonstrate knowledge of facts and an understanding of fundamental principles, ideas, and relationships among various knowledge domains. • Demonstrate knowledge of past and present developments, issues, research, and social influences in the field of education. • Describe cultural influences that are reflected in the history of the English language. • Demonstrate knowledge of current issues in the language arts domain. GRADUATE LEVEL STANDARDS: 1. Content knowledge including effective technology skills and ethical behaviors22. Critical thinking and problem solving 3. Oral and written communication skills 4. Advanced scholarship through research and creative activity 5. Assessment measures, methods, expectations, results, and feedback 6. Ability to work with diverse clientele recognizing individual differences 7. Ability to collaborate and create positive relationships within the school community and profession in which they work Course Requirements and Demonstrated Competencies are Aligned with the Standards: International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) www.iste.org/standards Illinois Professional Teaching Standards: (IPTS) http://www.isbe,net/profprep/CASCDvr/pdfs/24100_ipts.pdf Illinois Core Technology Standards: (ICTS) http://www.isbe,net/profprep/CASCDvr/pdfs/24100_coretechnology.pdf For assistance with APA: www.easybib.com http://citationmachine.net http://webster.commnet.edu/apa/index.htm Textbook(s): Brozo, W. & Simpson, M. (2003). Readers, teachers, learners: Expanding literacy across the content area. Merrill Prentice Hall. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. Model of Teaching: Inductive Model—This model developed by Hilda Taba, was designed to help students improve their ability to categorize and to use categories. Three cognitive tasks are included in this strategy: 1. Concept formation, which includes identifying and enumerating data, grouping data, and developing categories and labels for groups. 2. Interpreting, inferring, and generalizing data. 3. Applying principles to explain new phenomena, or predicting consequences. This model was specifically developed to improve and increase thinking capacity. Course Goals: • Develop an enduring capacity to care, in particular, about the literacy needs of all students by utilizing the content area classroom as a vehicle for teaching and extending the reading skills to the students you serve. • Recognize that the vast range of individual differences at the middle and secondary levels requires dedication to acquiring, developing, and pursuing instructional strategies and resources as you become a lifelong learner. Course Requirements: 1. Attendance/Participation: Attendance and class participation are essential. (5 points will be taken off for each absence.) Students will participate in guided discussions during class, take comprehensive notes, and read the assigned text. 2. Group Work: Small groups will meet during some class sessions to engage students in thoughtful discussion on a variety of group assignments. 3. Reading Strategy Portfolio: In class, students will present content reading strategies and accumulate and assemble at least one strategy for comprehension (Ch. 3), vocabulary (Ch. 6), writing (Ch. 7), a study strategy (Ch. 9), and a graphic organizer. Make a copy of your strategies for each class member and the instructor and present in class the night we discuss each chapter.. 4. Conduct a book search and list at least twenty books for your academic content area. Incorporate both fiction and non-fiction literature and picture books. Be sure to address all ability levels of reading when you compile your list of content area books. Prepare a book talk from this list of books. Include in your book talk: a visual, the title, author’s name, summary of the book, genre, and how this book could be used in your content area. Assemble the list of books into a