Syllabus: EdSe4215- 5 credits
Teaching Reading/Literature, 5-12 Tuesday/Thursday 4-6:30 ; Humanities 480
Instructor: Dr. Linda Miller-Cleary 417 Humanities - English Department Phone: 726-7296 Office Hours: M Th: 2-4:00
Grading Contract for EdSe5215
Attention: Lateness of multiple assignments or unexcused absences (in excess of two) will lower your grade.
C Contract 1. Read four books of young adult literature beyond the required reading for literature circles. See Note Card instructions for your way of reporting this reading. 2. Participate in all classroom activities. 3. Respond to assigned readings; form of response to be negotiated in class 4. Interview in preparation for the censorship simulation.
5. Regular attendance and participation.
6. An apprenticeship journal focussing on reading.
7. Lesson plans for your apprenticeship class: a lesson using a reading strategy and a lesson using multiple perspectives.
B Contract 1. Complete the C Contract. 2. Prepare and present a project related to young adult fiction; you are encouraged to collaborate in this project with another student. Prepare an annotated bibliography. Conference with the instructor about your topic and presentation. (see Project Presentation page) 3. Interview and research in preparation for the censorship simulation. Include the xerox copy of something new for your censorship file. 4. Read 5 adolescent literature books beyond the required readings and prepare the accompanying literature cards.
5. Prepare a set of Reading Principles.
A Contract 1. Do excellent work on the B Contract. This is an important component. You may want to check in with your instructor to make sure that you are on track. 2. Either tutor a student in reading, starting week 3 (from your apprenticeship class or as arranged by your instructor). See Tutoring Project. Prepare and present a tutee plan for progress to the classroom teacher and/or the student's parents.
Or: Plan a reading inquiry project, carry it out during your apprenticeship and report it to the class in the last week of class.
Required Texts:
When Kids Can't Read: What Teachers Can Do by Kylene Beers
Teaching Literature to Adolescents by Richard Beach, Deborah Appleman, Susan Hynds, Jeffrey Wilhelm
For literature circles (two of the three):: The Giver. Lois Lowry, Monster. Walter Dean Myers, Speak. Laurie Halse Anderson
For the classics section: The Scarlet Letter or The Merchant of Venice
For the censorship simulation: Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes. Chris Crutcher
For the Multicultural component of the course (suggested literature circle readings): Shizuko's Daughter. Kyoki Mori, or Whale Rider. Witi Ihimaera
Optional Texts:
In the Middle. Nancie Atwell. Heinemann (sections of this text will be read in class). For those who are sure they will teach at the Middle School level, this is an excellent book.
Attention: Individuals who have any disability, either permanent or temporary, which might affect their ability to perform in this class are encouraged to inform the instructor at the start of the quarter. Adaptations of methods, materials, or testing may be made as required to provide for equitable participation.
Minnesota State Licensure Outcomes to be Introduced or Met in this Course:
A teacher of communication arts & literature understands central concepts common to the teaching and learning of communication arts and literature content. The teacher must understand and apply:
INSTRUCTION
PRESENTED
A.2) the phonological, grammatical, and semantic functions of language
lecture on three cues for decoding instructing: grapho-phonemic, syntactic, and semantic
Successful miscue analysis of tutee, close analysis of tutee, as reported in Practicum Journal journal, exercises in identifying tutee's reading problem areas; mid-term exams on concepts in reading and teaching reading;
A.11) strategies for selecting and using texts and materials which recognize and accept a broad range of common and diverse perspectives;
"Finding the Right Book"- Beers, Ch 14; Appleman- Critical Encounters, Ch. 1-2.
Lecture on techniques of matching a student with high interest books. Nancie Atwell's concept of the "Nudge" in "Reading Workshop"
Practicum journal. Selection of texts for tutees.
lesson plan for microteaching in apprenticeship site on diverse perspectives or on a critical theory
A.8) the social, intellectual, and political importance and impact of communication;
Lecture on the politics of reading and socio-psycholinguistic approach to reading.
Miller Cleary "Jefferson, Democracy and Literacy."
Beers pp220-222
Written response to readings.
Document produced for students electronic website: "Reading Principles"
A teacher of communication arts & literature demonstrates understanding and skills essential to the teaching and learning of reading, writing, speaking, listening, media literacy, and literature. The teacher must demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and ability to teach reading including:
B.a) the interactive and constructive nature of reading comprehension and how it functions in the literal, inferential, and schema-based levels of understanding
lecture on schemata based levels of understanding
Comprehension/constructive nature of reading: Beers, Chapters 5 (Learning to Make an Inference);
analysis of comprehension of tutee and resultant "Plan for Progress" for tutee
Mid-term exam on concepts in reading and teaching reading;
Lesson plan for teaching a reading strategy in practicum placement
B.b) the stages of the reading process so as to model and teach strategies that occur before, during, and after reading
Kylene Beers, Chapters 6 (Frontloading Meaning: Pre-Reading Strategies); 7 (Constructing Meaning: During Reading Strategies); 8 (Extending Meaning: After-Reading Strategies) Reading Apprenticeship
Reading apprenticeship video
Use of strategies with tutee, as reported in practicum journal ;
In-class mini lessons given by students in use of strategies;
B.c) content area reading strategies to encourage competence and independence for lifelong learning
Beers, p. 47-57
As above, strategies, modeled, practiced, and used with tutee and in practicum classes
Practicum Journal as it reports use of strategies with tutee and with practicum classes
B.d) comprehension strategies for a variety of purposes to various materials and tasks, including everyday life situations
B.e) the ability to find and synthesize information from a variety of textual and nontextual sources;
Use of internet, university library, local town library, and library data bases for projects
Work with tutee, as reported in Practicum Journal; project presentations
B.f) the selection and teaching of vocabulary in all settings; and
Beer, Chapter 9; Lecture on vocabulary acquisition and lexical access; article by Comber and Peet; modeling by word-for-the-day (a reading concept presented in every class)
Teaching of vocabulary in apprenticeship and with tutee: reported in Practicum Journal
Mid-term exam on reading concepts.
B.g) the use of books and other printed sources for personal growth and lifelong learning
"Finding the Right Book"- Beers, Ch 14
Adolescent literature cart use, independent literature projects,
Adolescent literature cards as proof of reading in area of interest. Finding reading books of interest to encourage life long learning for tutee and other practicum students, as reported in Practicum Journal
6) The teacher must demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and ability to teach literature including:
B6a) A repertoire of literary texts, including fiction and non-fiction, classic and contemporary works written for preadolescents and adolescents by a diversity of authors.
The reading of assigned adolescent literature and independent reading from adolescent literature cart to support project . Prior reading in the classes: World Literature, American Literature I and II, and Biritish Literature. Reading of multi-cultural literature: Whale Rider and Shizuko's Daughter
Book talks about independent books read; Adolescent literature cards and project presentation about adolescent literature; Literature circle reading presentations.
B6c) tools of interpretation including literary devices, critical theories, and various methods of analysis, interpretation, presentation, and evaluation of literature
Deborah Appleman’s book Critical Encounters in High School English; knowledge also presented in prior literature courses and Methods of Literary Study
Application of literary devices and theoretical approaches and analyses in Literature Circle presentations, and in lesson plans for apprenticeship class; ( as reported in Practicum Journal)
B6d) how to help students respond to, interpret, and evaluate texts in a variety of ways, including text centered and reader centered approaches
Deborah Appleman’s book Critical Encounters in High School English; Garber: "My Kinsman, Major Molineux": Some Interpretive and Critical Probes"
Responses to class readings from the beginning of the term: response from response guidelines (see deadlines); letters to author, generated questions, pop quiz, web x, blog, debates, fish bowl, dialogue journals, class discussion, author's chair, and panels;
B6e) how to encourage students to respond to texts through written and oral communication, both privately and publicly
Daniels: Literature Circles- e-reserve reading, pgs. 1-30, role sheets: A1-C5
Romano – Clearing the Way, Chapters 9 and 10
B6f) how to help students construct meaning out of texts through various processes applied before, during, and after reading
Reading Apprenticeship strategies, Strategies in Kylene Beers, Chapters 6 (Frontloading Meaning: Pre-Reading Stragegies); 7 (Constructing Meaning: During Reading Strategies); 8 (Extending Meaning: After-Reading Strategies)
Use of strategies with tutee and with practicum class, reported and reflected upon in the Practicum Journal
B6g) how context shapes meaning
Use of vocabulary in context, Comber and Peet article; all interpretive strategies in Appleman's Critical Encounters
Exercise from Weaver’s book as quiz; comparison of students' interpretations in class response to literature and in literature circles.
B6h) how to encourage students to become lifelong readers and writers
Beers, Chapter 14 "Finding the Right Book", examination of collection principles for classroom libraries, Atwell's concept "the nudge" in Reading Workshop settings
Use of selection principles in work with tutee, as reported in Practicum Journal. "Reading Principles" document philosophy, as loaded on the student's website
C: The teacher of communication arts and literature to preadolescent and adolescent students in grades 5-12 shall:
jC8. Understand the impact of reading ability on student achievement, recognize the varying reading comprehension and fluency levels represented by students, and possess the strategies to assist students to read more effectively;
Strategies as presented in books by Appleman and Beers and as indicated above under other areas of this document.
Analysis of tutee's reading using close analysis, miscue analysis, comprehension analysis, interest inventories, assessed by review of the Practicum Journal, by viewing practicum lesson plans, and by mid-term exam
My further objectives for this course are to provide experiences which will help you to develop:
1. an understanding of the nature of language acquisition and of reading acquisition in accomplished, less proficient, beginning, and diverse readers; 2. an increased awareness of the factors influencing motivation in reading for adolescents and adults, assessed by the tutoring requirement journals and in the written exam; 3. a set of working principles to guide future reading instruction and the assessment of reading, assessed by the portfolio version of your Writing Principles; 4. an understanding of censorship, its causes and effects, assessed during your performance in the censorship simulation and related reflective writings.