Curriculum

This course is designed to provide practicing teachers with a foundation for literacy instruction in K–12 classrooms. Teacher participants will examine literacy in terms of its definition, the factors contributing to its development, the stages of literacy growth, and the role of literacy in enabling full societal participation. The teacher’s role in providing effective, appropriate instruction to ensure that all students reach their literacy potential will be emphasized. This will include an awareness of the New York State Learning Standards and the Ontario Expectations as guides to levels of literacy achievement. In addition, participants will examine effective instructional practices across the grade levels and explore how they can develop families as literacy partners, address diverse needs of students, use effective assessment to guide instruction, and incorporate technology into literacy instruction.

This course provides the basic theories, issues and concepts related to teaching bilingual students in Pre-K-12 classrooms. Program models will be presented that employ bilingual education and integrated English as a Second Language (ESL) services as well as other models. Classroom strategies impacting student behavior and student learning are discussed. Current issues are discussed and provide students with opportunities to complete library research. Graduate students will complete a significant research project as part of this course. Field experience required.

This course takes a global approach to the promotion of literacy. Focusing on juvenile and children’s literature as well as on literature applicable to adolescents, the course will provide an in-depth study of literacy beyond our national borders. Methods of teaching literacy — reading, writing, speaking, comprehending, and thinking — to ELL students will be infused in the course. Students will develop lessons, literature-teaching modules, and develop materials for use in future classroom work. Field experience required.

This course will present current theories of second language acquisition (SLA) as well as provide an overview of linguistic phenomena in phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and discourse analysis germane to the second language classroom. Language transfer, BICS vs. CALP, hypotheses of major theorist in the fields of SLA and linguistics will be discussed. The course will analyze fundamental concepts, such as SLA in adults and children, in formal and informal learning contexts, and in diverse sociocultural settings, and take an interdisciplinary approach, encouraging students to consider SLA from linguistic, psycho-logical and social perspectives. The course will emphasize how to teach pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar/syntax, and discourse in an ESL classroom and allow students to apply research-based practices. Field experience is required.

This course will approach sociolinguistic considerations germane to the ESL classroom from a humanities perspective. After reviewing models of first and second language acquisition, this course will discuss socio-linguistic phenomena such as code switching, dialects and idiolects, language transfer, loan words, and appropriate discourse. Students will apply theoretical models to ESL classroom practice through research and projects.

Credit Hours: 3

This course focuses on language acquisition and early literacy development. Candidates will examine current theories and research including typical and atypical development, the impact of medical impairments, the influence of family and community, and media. Planning developmentally appropriate environments and instruction for inclusive instruction is emphasized.

This course is designed to develop effective teachers of literacy for learners in the intermediate grades 3-6, examining both theory and practice. Practicing teachers will examine effective instructional practices that address the New York State Standards and Ontario Expectations, integration of the language arts, the diverse needs of students, the use of technology for literacy learning, and assessment.

This course offers the grade 7-12 teacher the opportunity to design instructional and assessment materials in reading, writing and study skills in the content subjects for his/her own classroom use. This course will sensitize the practicing teacher to the important role that reading plays in learning any subject. The course will provide a knowledge base about the reading process and opportunities to use that knowledge in instruction, assessment and program organization.

This course is designed to explore required content standards (pre-K-12) and to develop instructional practice for meaningful learning in the ESL classroom. Cognitive-Academic Language Learning Approaches (CALLA) and other content-area Specially Designed Academic Instruction in English (SDAIE) lessons will be covered. The Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) model will be emphasized. Participants in the course will learn how to deliver instruction and how to create instructional materials using this model. Assessment of learning in the second language content-area classroom is conducted. Field experience required.

This course is designed to help practicing teachers develop greater effectiveness in teaching reading diagnostically in K-12 classrooms, especially in individualized or small group settings. Teacher participants will examine a variety of factors that influence literacy acquisition, discuss and identify various reading problems, learn to conduct a diagnostic assessment of a student’s reading performance, analyze the assessment, and plan for appropriate reading instruction.

This course serves as an introduction to various issues (e.g. cultural and linguistic bias, political, social, and psychological factors diagnostic, formative and summative) in assessment, IQ, and special education testing (including gifted and talented); the importance of standards; and the difference between language proficiency and other types of assessment (e.g. standardized achievement tests of overall mastery), as they affect ESOL student learning. The statistical principles of validity and reliability, and the variety, selection and use of standardized language tests will be discussed. Consideration is also given to a variety of standards-based language proficiency instruments and performance based assessment tools and techniques that are used to inform instruction and for identification, placement, and demonstration of language growth of ESOL students.

(120 hours) in elementary and secondary setting*

This practicum is designed to allow teacher candidates the opportunity to develop competence in teaching English to speakers of other languages in grades K-12. Standards-based practices and strategies related to planning, implementing, and managing ESOL and content instruction, including classroom organization, teaching strategies for developing and integrating language skills, and choosing and adapting classroom resources will be discussed. This practicum provides a supervised professional experience for candidates. Candidates are placed in an ESOL classroom or resource room at a grade level appropriate to their circumstances: candidates will be placed in a grade K-6 (elementary) setting and in a grade 7-12 (secondary) setting for a balanced total of 100 clock hours. Teacher candidates are expected to demonstrate attitudes, knowledge, and skills essential to effective teaching consistent with New York State Learning Standards and Ontario Expectations. Teacher candidates will develop their final professional portfolio through the semester in conjunction with the professional seminar. Candidates are supervised by an experienced mentor and the university supervisor.

The literacy practicum is designed to enable practicing teachers to develop and demonstrate competence in teaching literacy. Candidates are expected to demonstrate the attitudes, knowledge and skills commensurate with effective literacy instruction. Candidates will be observed by university-designated supervisors as they perform the activities of a reading teacher in a variety of contexts.

This course is designed to assist candidates in the advanced graduate programs in the College of Education as they develop their comprehensive portfolios that evidence the knowledge, skills, and dispositions recognized by the highest national and international professional organizations within their program areas. The course will explore the general and specific directives of portfolio preparation including format and composition. Personal guidance will be provided by the instructor through regular meetings.