EDC 371 Teaching ALL the Children to Read (09435)
Spring, 2009
Cohort C
Class time: Wednesday 1-4
Office: Sanchez 334M and 334L
(512) 471-4041
Office Hours: Friday 12-2 and by
appointment
Place: Mathews Elementary
906 West Lynn, 414-4406
The Bat Cave, 1807 W. 11
524-1489
Instructors:
Nancy Roser nlroser@uts.cc.utexas.edu Angie Zapata AngieZ10@aol.com
Katie Peterson kepeterson55@hotmail.com
Course Goals
The purpose of this course is to make you a close and informed observer of childrenʼs
language and literacy. We want you to understand more about the contexts and
factors that shape both oral and written language development. We believe by learning
to look closely at what children do and to listen carefully to what they say better
prepares you for learning to instruct their language and literacy. If we do our part well,
you will be provided with a set of experiences that strengthen your understandings of
how language and literacy develop, readings that make you knowledgeable, a forum for
sharing ideas and resources, and demonstrations that build a repertoire of skills with
informal assessment and interpretation. The course will offer you both theory and
practice in the teaching of literacy, asking you to observe, interact, instruct, and
analyze results. At the end of the course, you should be able to:
• appreciate the complex influences of culture, language, race, and gender on
becoming literate;
• analyze instructional environments;
• assess and interpret childrenʼs print concepts;
• use a variety of informal assessments to determine studentsʼ reading levels,
strengths, and interests;
• match children with appropriate (manageable, interesting) reading materials;
• make decisions about childrenʼs writing development and strengths;
• use childrenʼs spellings of words to understand their grasp of written English;
• know examples of childrenʼs literature that support conversations about difference;
• weigh ideas and write persuasively about your own;
• learn to recognize comprehension instruction that considers text and child;
• evaluate book discussions with well-selected literature;
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•
•
know examples of childrenʼs literature that support conversations about differences;
and
produce a professional case study focusing on one child.
Course Readings and Materials
Required Texts
•
Johnston, P. (1997). Knowing Literacy. Stenhouse Publishers
(www.stenhouse.com)
•
Owacki, G. & Goodman, Y. (2002). Kidwatching. Documenting a Childʼs Literacy
Development. Heinemann
•
Handouts of informal literacy assessments. Provided electronically.
Childrenʼs Literature
•
Hesse, K. (1997). Just Juice. New York: Scholastic.
(available in libraries and online).
Other Materials
•
Please purchase a three-ring binder or folder (for three-hole-punch paper) for your
informal evaluation forms.
Learning to Look Closely at Literacy
A major part of the course responsibilities will involve learning to look closely at the
community contexts, classrooms, and experiences that shape the children you will
teach. Forty-five minutes of our class day will be devoted to learn to use a variety of
assessment tools. In the remaining class time, we will focus on theory and application
through discussion, demonstrations, and lecture. As part of your practicum experience,
you will have opportunity to learn about and work with students and families from
backgrounds that might be different from your own.
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“Typical” Class Schedule
08:55
Arrive at Mathews. Meet outside the office.
Each week, we will enter the designated classrooms as a
group (so the door doesnʼt open and close repeatedly). It will
be critically important to be on-time or early.
09:00 – 09:45
Practicum in an elementary school classroom, e.g., work on a
specific assessment with an assigned child or engage in a
directed observation of a classroom.
09:45 – 10:00
Break, moving to The Bat Cave. On-the-move, debrief about
what youʼve seen and are thinking.
10:00 – 10:50
Group debriefing; reconstructing the prior weekʼs learning;
discussion of readings; sharing of a childrenʼs book in which
the protagonist is both different and special.
10:55 – 11:40
Lecture and/or demonstration (Nancy, Angie, or Katie)
11:40 – 11:50
Planning for the following week
Optional Professional Development Opportunities
Attend the Texas Book Festival (observing children being read to by favorite
authors); ask to attend a local conference or a professional workshop with your
cooperating teacher; attend a staff meeting devoted to professional
development. [Write critically about any of these events to add to you grade
and your knowledge store.]
Join an online book discussion group (such as Good Reads) and get to know
more about childrenʼs literature to introduce in classrooms.
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Responsibilities and Assignments
Being a teacher is one of the most difficult, and if it is truly what you want to do, one of
the most rewarding. During this semester, we will expect you to assume the mantle of
responsible teacher. Read this syllabus carefully and review it during the
semester. In a sense, it represents our contract.
Attendance
Please do not be absent or late to class. If, due to medical circumstances, you must
miss a class, please arrange to meet with one of your instructors for a make-up
session. More than one absence and/or two late entries will result in a lower
grade.
Talking back to the readings/Dialoguing with a peer
For each weekʼs readings, you will enter into an on-line professional dialogue with
an assigned partner. In a designated Conference Folder, post your response to
what seems to be the essence of the chapter(s), sparked by the central question we
provide to start your thinking. As you write, move beyond the initiating question as
your own thinking/critical reflection dictate. For example, tell what makes good
sense to you, elaborate with a specific example, or disagree (and tell why). You will
enter your post (directing it to your colleague), and check back later to see what
your peer has written to you. Find time to respond to each other during the week.
Due: Your initial post must show up in the folder each Monday by 5:00 p.m. Weʼll
be using your ideas, reactions, and questions to plan for the discussion each
Wednesday.
To earn full credit for the week, just respond to each weekʼs reading assignment
with written reactions that are thoughtful and thorough. It is possible to earn 5
points toward your final grade each weekly by posting thoughtful responses that are
on time. It is possible to lose points through both superficial treatment of the
readings and late postings.
Taking a turn as classroom ethnographer
Learning to “look closely” will also apply to our own classroom. Each week two
different ethnographers will keep field notes of our class session. The notes will
include the focus (topics we touched on), experiences that were valuable, insights
from discussion, and some of our collective learning from the previous week. In
addition the ethnographers will include their own reflective thinking on the previous
week. They will present their findings at the beginning of each seminar in a way
that will be interesting to all of us.
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Due: One time during the semester; date assigned during the third class
Introducing a book about special children
Because our class focuses on the close observation of individuals, selected
examples of childrenʼs literature will help increase our own sensitivity to differences
in classroom—and start critical conversations about differences. Each week, two
interns will share a book (or part of a book) focusing on a character who feels
difference(s) set him/her apart and present challenges. Depending on your ultimate
teaching goal, the book you and your partner present can be a picture book or a
chapter book. We have some ideas for you—and they are appended to this
syllabus. Youʼll have only 10 minutes to share (so reading the whole book wonʼt be
possible). It will be important to plan how youʼll introduce the book, tell us what
classroom conversations it might lead to, and how you think it might help children
talk about differences and similarities in the classroom.
Due: One time during the semester; date assigned during the second class
Writing and presenting a case report
For a selected middle grade child at Mathews School, you will prepare a
professional narrative with an audience of the childʼs teachers, parents, and us,
your instructions. The report will include a summary of evidence related to the
childʼs literacy you have collected during your semester with this child—centering
on what you have learned each week as you have looked closely at the childʼs
interests, reading in different texts, writing, spelling, fluency, comprehension,
response, and more. For the purposes of this class, the case study will report your
childʼs language and literacy development and growth. The case report may include
the following:
•
Evidence that you talked with your childʼs teacher and the childʼs parent (if
possible). Include summaries, details, insights, and reflections of your
conversations about the child in the case study. In the first contact (should be in
person if possible), find out everything you can about the childʼs literacy history,
and ask for suggestions from the parent/teacher. Take really good notes for your
case report. The second contact (teacher) can be in the form of a written note or
emails (make a copy for the case study).
•
Other specific information about your childʼs literacy development. The case will
also paint a picture of your childʼs strengths as a “talker,” a reader, and a writer.
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It should point toward what a teacher could next focus upon with the child. For
this part, you will again use your observational skills, anecdotal or field notes, as
well as reports of interviews and informal assessments you draw from your
packet, such as his/her interests, word recognition, writing efforts, spellings,
phonological awareness, comprehension—attending to strengths, needs,
behaviors, attitudes, and self-reports. The use of many inventories will be
demonstrated during the semester.
Due: Class presentation December 2 (You will produce both a
professionally written report that will be shared with the childʼs teacher and
may be shown to parents, as well as a multimedia class presentation with
a film or audio clip) that introduces your childʼs literacy to peers.
Grades: Grades in the course will be based on the following point breakdown:
Reading and Writing Dialogues
Attendance/participation
Book Sharing
Case Report
Ethnographer
Total
60 points
20 points
20 points
150 points
50 points
300 points
Grades: Grades in the course will be based on the following point breakdown:
To earn an A, you must earn 93% of the points or > 279 points
To earn an A-, you must earn 90% to 92% or > 270
To earn a B+, you must earn 87% to 89% or > 261
To earn a B, you must earn 83% to 86% or > 249
To earn a B-, you must earn 80% to 82% or > 240
To earn a C+, you must earn 77% to 79% or > 231
To earn a C, you must earn 73% to 76%, or > 219
To earn a C-, you must earn 70% to 72%, or > 210
To earn a D, you must earn 60% to 69%, or > 180
Below 60% is F.
And so on.
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Course Calendar
Date
In-class Topics and
August 26
An introduction to the semester
September 2
Toward understanding
cultural/linguistic diversity
To read, prepare, bring to class
Please read
Kidwatching, Chapter 2
as well as
Catherine Compton-Lilly,
Listening to Families over
Time: Seven Lessons Learned
about Literacy in Families from
Language Arts, July, 2009
(weʼll provide a copy).
September 9
What good talk sounds like in a
classroom—considering the
book, the context, about the
thought
Weʼll be observing the literacy
potential of storytime in a first
grade classroom.
September
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Looking in classrooms:
Classroom environments and
what they tell us about how
literacy is approached within
each.
Weʼll be observing in PreK and
kindergarten classrooms.
Please read Kidwatching,
Chapter 5 and Knowing
Literacy, Chapter 17.
Please read Maria Nichols,
Comprehension through
Conversation: The Power of
Purposeful Talk in the Reading
Workshop. Heinemann, 2006.
(Weʼll post the segment youʼll
read on TeachNet).
Please read Kidwatching,
Chapter 1, and Knowing
Literacy, Chapter 5
Look over the observation
instrument called ELLCO. Itʼs
the one weʼll try out in
classrooms (PreK and K).
Weʼll provide a copy.
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September
23
How reading and writing work
at the beginning (childrenʼs
concepts of print)
Please read Kidwatching,
Chapters 3 and 4 and Knowing
Literacy, Chapters 11-12.
Weʼll work with a
prekindergarten child this week
(if we get permission!)
Concepts of print material will
be provided via TeachNet.
.
September
30
Childrenʼs reading and writing
interests—how to know them,
how to grow them. How
children see themselves as
readers and writers
Weʼll work with our assigned
middle grader this week (and
for the next 6 weeks).
October 7
Download and adapt an
interest inventory from
Teachnet, or use one from
Kidwatching, or make your
own.
Assess a childʼs interests
today, using an interview, a trip
to the library (and perhaps),
pictures they bring from home.
In addition, read JoBeth Allen
et al, PhOLKS Lore: Learning
from Photographs, Families
and Children, Language Arts,
July 2009. (Weʼll provide a
copy).
Understanding phonemic
awareness, the written code,
and how readers and writers
use it.
Please read Kidwatching,
Chapter 7
Be prepared to assess
phonemic awareness, soundsymbol associations, and
structural analysis today.
October 14
Please read Knowing Literacy,
Chapters 7, 8 and 19 and
Appendix C.
Determining how well kids are
reading varying types of texts:
Please read Knowing Literacy,
Chapter 13.
Please read Hallie Yopp, A
Test for Assessing Phonemic
Awareness in Young Children,
The Reading Teacher,
September, 1995 (Weʼll post on
TeachNet.
Please read Kidwatching,
Chapter 6 and Knowing
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Administering running
records—what they are and
how to use them
Literacy, Chapters 21 & 22.
Try a running record with your
child today.
October 21
What childrenʼs spellings tell us
Be ready to conduct and
interpret a spelling inventory
with your child today.
Please read Laura Hauerwas
and Joanne Walker, What Can
Childrenʼs Spelling of Running
and Jumped Tell Us about their
Need for Spelling Instruction?,
The Reading Teacher, 2004.
(Weʼll post it on Teachnet),
Knowing Literacy, Chapter 11
October 28
What fluency means, and how
it sounds
Do some pre-and post-practice
reading timings and fluency
assessments today with your
child.
Please read Mary Applegate et
al, “Sheʼs My Best Reader; She
Just Canʼt Comprehend.” The
Reading Teacher, March,
2009.
Tim Rasinski, What Fluent
Reading Sounds Like,
Educational Leadership, March
2004
(Weʼll post both of these
articles on TeachNet).
November 4
Improving comprehension of
Please read Knowing Literacy,
content material, and knowing it Chapters 23 and 24.
when you see it
Youʼll be trying some
comprehension strategy
instruction and assessment
with your child today.
In addition, read Cathy Block
and Susan Israel, ABCs of
Performing Effective Thinkalouds, The Reading Teacher,
October, 2004.
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November 11 Vocabulary is more than word
meaning?
Letʼs look closely at childrenʼs
vocabulary knowledge, their
usage, their retellings, their
audience awareness, their
appreciation for words, and
their precision in language.
November 18 Learning to make meaning in
book clubs
Youʼll meet today (with three of
your peers) in a book club to
discuss Just Juice. Youʼll need
a tape recorder (and a quiet
coffee shop).
Please read Michael Graves
and Susan Watts-Taffe, For the
Love of Words: Fostering Word
Consciousness in Young
Readers, The Reading
Teacher, November, 2008.
Please read the childrenʼs
chapter book, Just Juice by
Karen Hesse. Prepare a
checklist of the types of talk
(and thought) to be expected
when literate people think
together about text. For
example, literate people may
compare texts or notice a
literary device or connect the
bookʼs theme with their own
lives. Think of others; write as
many as you can.
Meet together with at least 3
other classmates. Tape record
your talk. Listen to the tape
with your colleagues. Using
your lists, determine what types
of talk (and thought) you
demonstrated as you discussed
a book about a child who
struggled with literacy.
At the close, write to your
teachers: What I learned from
participating in this Book Club.
November 25 Thanksgiving begins early here
Travel safely
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December 2
Class meets on UT campus:
Sharing Case Reports
Read Knowing Literacy,
Chapter 28
Present the “case study” child
you have worked on all
semester.
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Signing up for sharing a week to share a GREAT book in which a character
feels alienated or discriminated against because of being different or special in
some way (learning difference, poverty, gender role, heritage, race,
stereotyping, etc.).
Date
Name #1
Name #2
September 2
September 9
September 16
September 23
September 30
October 7
October 14
October 21
October 28
November 4
November 11
Angie
Katie
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Signing up for sharing a week to take field notes in our class (our experiences,
our topics, our discussion highlights)—and your reflections on those—and
present your recap/reflection on the date below.
Date
Name #1
Name #2
September 2
September 9
September 16
September 23
September 30
October 7
October 14
October 21
October 28
November 4
November 11
Angie
Katie
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Title
My Name is Maria Isabel
Oliver Button is a Sissy
Thank You, Mr. Falker
Wemberly Worried
Owen
Leo the Late Bloomer
Stargone John
Ish
The Gold Cadillac
The Flunking of Joshua T. Bates
Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key
My Name is Yoon
The Upside Down Boy
Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry
Yolandaʼs Genius
Diceyʼs Song
Flying Solo
Trout and Me
Susan Laughs
Crow Boy
Ronald Morgan
My Name is Brain Brian
Armando and the Blue Tarp
School
Beatriceʼs Goat
Howard Thurmanʼs Great Hope
La Mariposa
More Than Anything Else
Rubyʼs Wish
The Royal Bee
Tómas and the Library Lady
Author
Alma Flor Ada
Tomie dePaola
Patricia Polacco
Kevin Henkes
Kevin Henkes
Robert Kraus and Jose Aruego
Ellen Kindt Mckenzie
Peter H. Reynolds
Mildred D. Taylor and Max Ginsberg
Susan Shreve
Jack Gantos
Helen Recorvits and Gabi Swiatkowska
Juan Felipe Herrera
Mildred D. Taylor
Carol Fenner
Cynthia Voigt
Ralph Fletcher
Susan Shreve
Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross
Taro Yashima
Patricia Reilly Giff
Jeanne Betancourt
Edith Hope Fine & Judith Pinkerton
Josepshson
Page McBrier
Kai Jackson Issa
Francisco Jímnez
Marie Bradby
Shirin Yin Bridges
France Park and Ginger Park
Pat Mora
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Old People, Frogs, and Albert
Someday Angeline
Milkweed
The Secret School
Janitorʼs Boy
The Flunking of Joshua T. Bates
Sparks
Losers, Inc.
Not Exactly Normal
The Man Who Loved Clowns
Nancy Hope Wilson
Louis Sachar
Jerry Spinelli
Avi
Andrew Clements
Susan Shreve
Graham McNamee
Claudia Mills
Devin Brown
June Rae Wood
Website: http://www.worcpublib.org/kids/booklists/characters.html
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The case report should have these sections:
•
Introduction (general traits and characteristics, i.e., age, gender, grade,
etc.)
o Information from observation
o Information from classroom teacher
o Information from parent (if possible)
•
Attitude and Interests toward Reading/Writing: (This is the general and
even historical description of the interests of the child as a reader and
writer)
•
Strengths and skills of the child as a reader (and how you know)
o Word recognition
o Fluency
o Vocabulary
o Compehension
o Reading level
•
Strengths and skills of the child as a writer (and how you know)
o Confidence
o Idea Generation
o Narrative strength
o Organization
o Cohesion
o Conventions (grammar, spelling, punctuation)
o Willingness to revise
•
Interpretations and recommendations for school (and home)
All of this information will be interpreted and presented in an organized way
reflecting the “voice” and perspectives of both you and the child. Your voice
should be that of an informed professional speaking to a variety of audiences.
Naturally, you should be able to read or speak everything in the report to the
childʼs parent. The childʼs voice should come off the page in your writing.
Readers of the report should come to know your child well.