Course is designed to provide freshmen in the Program for Academic and Student Support with a learning environment in which to develop the cognitive and affective strengths needed for college success. The course offers opportunities to become inquisitive, competent, and confident learners.
In this course, students examine multicultural children's literature as both aesthetic form and instructional tool. They examine the social, political and educational implications of such literature and its use in classrooms. The course assists students in recognizing the significance of their development as critical readers, writers and thinkers. Additionally, the course enables prospective and in-service teachers to serve their students in a more efficacious manner with an enhanced instructional repertoire. The course concentrates on analysis of literature for young children (i.e., pre-school through third grade). Additionally, students read and analyze literature for advanced readers and books read by adolescents.
Prerequisite(s): WRIT 105 or HONP 100. This course examines the public purposes of education in our social and political democracy. Students inquire into the role of schools in fostering the development of democratic principles and practices, and examines various curriculum designs and pedagogical strategies. Students also explore the main issues stemming from the efforts to teach democratically in public educational institutions. They examine and analyze successful practices of instruction and classroom management. Students complete 25 hours of fieldwork in an assigned high-performing urban school, which provides a context for these explorations. In order to participate in the fieldwork, students will be required to undergo a criminal history background check with fingerprinting as a required component of this course, which carries a separate fee paid to the state of New Jersey. Attendance at the first class and the fieldwork orientation is required. This course is prerequisite for admission into the teacher education program. Meets the Gen Ed–Interdisciplinary Studies requirement. Mutually Exclusive with READ 210 and EDFD 210.
Corequisite(s): SASE 310; and SASE 312 or EDFD 312 or READ 312. Prerequisite(s): SASE 210, READ 210, or EDFD 210; and admission to Teacher Education Program. This course examines the qualities of teachers, teaching, and schooling that foster the learning of students from diverse social and cultural backgrounds. Students explore the ways in which socialization experiences shape perceptions. They reflect on their own beliefs, assumptions, and perceptions about sociocultural identity and how their own socialization has shaped their perceptions of themselves and other people. Students also examine the nature and impact of the increasing social and cultural diversity in K-12 schools in the United States. They learn ways of teaching all children well and to develop positive relationships among teachers, parents and children. Mutually Exclusive with EDFD 305 and SASE 305.
Corequisite(s): SASE 310; and SASE 305 or EDFD 305 or READ 305. Prerequisite(s): SASE 210, READ 210, or EDFD 210. Restriction(s): Admission to the Teacher Education program. This course module exposes students to the central issues in the education of English language learners in US schools and helps them learn about best practices in education through hands-on experience creating and adjusting lessons and instruction to benefit the academic performance of English language learners as well as of all students. Issues addressed include sociocultural, legal, and political influences on the education of English language learners; principles of second language acquisition; and explicit practice in planning academic content instruction for English language learners. Mutually Exclusive with SASE 312 and EDFD 312.
Restriction(s): Admission to Teacher Education Program. This course introduces future teachers to language and literacy development and instruction in preschool through 3rd grade classrooms. Students learn the components and stages of literacy development from emergent literacy through reading fluency, and examine the cognitive, linguistic, sociocultural and instructional influences on this process. Students carry out an assessment of a child's reading and build a repertoire of culturally responsive teaching practices that address the five essential components of reading instruction identified by the National Reading Panel (2000) (phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension). They practice standards-based lesson planning and design instructional adaptations for English Language Learners.
Prerequisite(s): READ 399. In this course, prospective elementary teachers continue their exploration of key theories and methods for teaching literacy, with an emphasis on the intermediate grades. They focus on reading comprehension, vocabulary development, writing instruction, literacy across the content areas, and the use of technology to develop a breadth of pedagogical knowledge. Particular attention is given to developing expertise in differentiated instructional planning that meets a diverse range of learners, including English Language Learners, students with learning disabilities, struggling readers, and advanced students.
Corequisite(s): SASE 314 and SASE 316. Prerequisite(s): SASE 210, READ 210, or EDFD 210; SASE 305, READ 305, or EDFD 305. Restriction(s): Admission to Teacher Education Program. This course is designed to assist pre-service middle and secondary school teachers across majors in understanding the nature of language and literacy teaching and learning in their content areas. Students review basic components of reading, social and cultural aspects of literacy practice, and the specifics of language and literacy in different disciplines (e.g., distinct vocabulary, particular writing and reading demands). Students learn to develop a repertoire of teaching/learning literacy strategies that enhance comprehension. Students conduct sample assessments and content-area lessons with middle and high school students. Through observation in a content classroom, students learn ways of integrating literacy learning into their lessons as well as ways of organizing and managing the classroom to extend literacy learning. Fieldwork or service-learning experience is required.
Students examine the theoretical and pedagogical foundations of literacy and literacy teaching. This involves learning about reading development, early years and elementary literacy instruction, assessment processes and policies, and practical strategies for ensuring literacy success for all school students.
Techniques of Reading Improvement in the Secondary School introduces pre-service and in-service teachers to an array of cross-content literacy strategies for the improvement of nonclinical reading difficulties. Students learn how to ground literacy strategies in purposeful and meaningful curricular and pedagogical projects.
Prerequisite(s): READ 500 and READ 501. Explores the more complex aspects of organizing and administering reading programs: theory and techniques of leadership, program development, organization of in-service programs, developing a budget, methods of evaluation, etc. Essential background for reading specialists in order to establish or administer a functional school reading program.
Offers background for the development of recreational reading programs in middle schools and high schools. Literature written for students, as well as literature intended to be read widely by adolescents, criteria for book selection, censorship, role of mass media, minority group identification through books, bibliotherapy, bibliographic tools, and the importance of the librarian.
Language learning and related psychological factors; methodology and reading instruction; literature and the reading program and innovations in reading instruction are examined.
Prerequisite(s): READ 511 and READ 513. Students learn to be savvy consumers and producers of literacy research within this course. Students engage in practical ways with the key dimensions of conducting effective research, including developing a theoretical framework, designing and implementing a coherent and manageable study, and reporting findings to peers.
Reviews software, hardware, multi-media sensory materials available in schools and in adjunct facilities. Philosophical, psychological and academic considerations of reading resources are considered. Materials are demonstrated and assessed.
Pre-service and in-service teachers examine the concept of reading comprehension. Students make the link between influential theories of reading comprehension, specific elements of reading as a practice, and real-world reading and teaching situations. Over the course of the semester, students articulate and reflect upon their own concepts of reading comprehension, and identify useful approaches for working with a range of school students and types of readers.
In Critical Thinking and Literacy, students learn various epistemological approaches to critical thinking and literacy development and practice, including, for example, sociological, psychological, cultural, historical and sociolinguistic approaches. Students link approaches to classroom pedagogy, and use insights gained from this course to critique habituated ways of knowing, seeing, and acting with respect to literacy teaching, with a particular emphasis on how language and literacies condition reality and our belief in the possibility of transforming it.
Prerequisite(s): Departmental approval. Provides students opportunities to observe, participate and report community-based activities of agencies. For students in long-range research, students with limited teaching experience, and students who need additional field and clinical experience. Independent study.
Prerequisite(s): READ 500 and READ 501. Offers opportunities to learn the techniques for diagnosing reading difficulties, evaluating the most frequently used tests and inventories, and the testing of a child with reading problems. Group and individual tests, survey and diagnostic tests, standardized and informal tests and reporting to parents, schools and agencies are discussed. The course develops skills in diagnosing and ameliorating reading problems. Additional diagnostic hours arranged.
Corequisite(s): READ 514. Prerequisite(s): READ 511. For advanced students and specialists involved in some aspect of remedial instruction. Investigates and interprets serious reading problems, causes of reading difficulties, and techniques of remedial and corrective treatment. Clients are drawn from children in surrounding communities. Additional tutoring hours will be arranged.
Corequisite(s): READ 513. Prerequisite(s): READ 511. For advanced students and specialists involved in some aspect of remedial instruction. Examines selection and adaptation of suitable improvement devices, materials and ideas; intensive treatment in a practicum situation. Clients are drawn from children in the surrounding communities. Additional tutoring hours will be arranged.
Prerequisite(s): ECSE 502 and ECSE 505. Students develop a) an understanding of literacy as a multiple, complex set of practices including issues of identity, context, definition and assumption, and b) a repertoire of pedagogic strategies for supporting the literacy development of diverse groups of learners in inclusive classrooms. Particular attention is paid to structurally differentiating workshop models of literacy instruction for diverse learners, incorporating assessment and intervention initiatives such as Response to Intervention (RTI), and integrating new literacies and multimedia, along with assistive technologies (AT) (including the role of augmentative/alternative communication systems [AACS]), in literacy instruction.
This course examines the nature of language, communication, and literacy development in children of diverse backgrounds and abilities during the foundational early childhood period from birth through age five. Students explore how children acquire language in social context and the impact of biological, psycholinguistic, and sociocultural factors on language development in both typically and atypically developing children. Students examine the relationships between language skills and emergent literacy, and the role of parents, teachers and other caregivers in helping prepare children to successfully acquire school-based Literacies. Students explore state and national policies that seek to improve preschool supports for language and early literacy development and the impact of increasing linguistic and cultural diversity on early childhood language arts/literacy education.
This course introduces students to the theory and practice of language and early literacy development, with a focus on bilingualism and second language acquisition from birth to five years of age. Students examine the major subsystems of language - phonology, morphology, vocabulary, grammar, pragmatics, and discourse - and the development of these subsystems in both first and second language acquisition processes. Students explore social, cultural, cognitive and instructional influences on language and early literacy development, and learn strategies to facilitate dual language learning in preschool classroom contexts. They use language research procedures to document a child's bilingual development and plan instructional adaptations that support dual language and emergent literacy growth.
This course explores the reading, writing and language development of bilingual students during the elementary school years. Students examine the social and policy context of literacy achievement for English language learners, and the research base for varying program models to build academic language and literacy- including two-way immersion, transitional bilingual, and ESL services. Teachers learn to create culturally responsive and academically engaging literacy environments, to teach component literacy skills such as decoding and comprehension with instructional modifications for bilingual students of varying backgrounds and language proficiencies, and to appropriately assess dual language literacy development.
Prerequisite(s): READ 500 or READ 501 or instructor's permission. Students learn about the history of literacy and media from early sign-making systems, to the printing press, to broadcast media and education, to the internet, and across ancient, modern and post-modern eras. Students also learn the history of a range of literacy educational initiatives from Dame Schools and tutor systems, to literacy "readers" in schools, to national policies that shape education, and more. In learning about the history of literacy and media, students engage with issues concerning dominant literacy discourses in education and wider society, children's and youths' literacy practices and the extent to which these are built upon in schools, and the relationship between literacy policies and classroom practices over time.
Students examine multiethnic children's literature as aesthetic forms and pedagogical tools. Students analyze the social, political, and education implications of this literature and its use in P-8 classrooms. Students are encouraged to introduce powerful, well-written and illustrated, and engaging literature into their classroom teaching across a range of subject areas as they explore important topics, such as race, ethnicity, and democracy; processes such as critical thinking and critical media analysis; and issues of power and privilege. Students learn to use this literature effectively and confidently within a range of curriculum and assessment structures.
Within this course, students examine a range of theoretical, methodological and practical approaches to identifying and understanding new literacies. In particular, students engage with sociocultural approaches to understanding and exploring new literacies that focus on literacy in connection with social practices. Students also evaluate popular literacy and technology uses in classrooms, and develop their own strategies for bringing together literacy learning and digital technologies in well informed and forward-looking ways in schools.
Students have the opportunity to learn about current literacy-related issues, developments, pedagogies, policies, and so on within this course. Each workshop is topic-specific and designed by faculty on a course-by-course basis. Students within the program are encouraged to request that this course be offered to target a specific topic they themselves find timely or pressing.