Study of foundations in literacy learning and teaching as reflected by current and historical trends in research, including theories and practices of teaching, learning and development, assessment, diversity, and literate classroom environments. Examines literacy with traditional print and digital media.

Students examine the significance of family and community in literacy success, including the role of P-20 educators in interactions among families, communities and schools; relationships among oral language and literacy processes in home, community and school; existing family and community literacy organizations with their practical applications for educators.

This course provides foundations in digital and multimodal literacy practices. Students will gain an understanding of theories, currently practiced integration models, digital citizenship and evaluate digital tools and applications.

Provides an introduction to educational research and design in classroom literacy. Instruction focuses on qualitative research methods in teacher action research, and on reading and understanding existing quantitative and qualitative research reports.

Considers collection and evaluation of children's literature texts, and methods of organizing, teaching and evaluating a literature program. Examines issues such as censorship, multicultural literature, style analysis. Examines traditional print and digital formats and sources for texts.

Examines specific disciplinary literacy practices and authentic and instructional texts relevant to academic disciplines within an elementary setting. Examines both traditional print and digital formats for disciplinary texts within academic contexts.

Assist classroom teachers with children’s writing processes. Emphasis on: writing process; encouragement of process development; children’s growth in writing process; and recording, assessing, and reporting student progress. Examine applications of both traditional print and digital tools in writing processes.

Seminar course intended to prepare reading teachers, specialists, coordinators, and administrators for directing textbook adoption, curriculum development and issues, staff development, evaluation, and supervision of reading/writing programs.

Select and apply literacy assessments and interpret results for instruction. Apply understanding of the educationally disabled reader or writer. Explore appropriate diagnostic and instructional strategies. Required tutoring experiences.

Application of literacy leadership in collegial communication, reflective goal-setting for professional development, and literacy leadership. Examination of current and historical literacy policies and their impact on best practices in literacy teaching. Application of leadership principles in evaluating and directing curriculum decisions and program adoption.

Supervised clinical instruction of elementary, middle, secondary school disabled readers. Continued professional development, especially in the areas of collegial communications, reflective coaching, and leadership capacity. May be completed at each level.

Implementation of literacy research, including synthesis and assimilation of information gleaned from all courses in the Master of Arts in Reading Program, in the form of original action research. Student-selected topics from major trends in literacy education. Prerequisite: ELIT 623; Register in final semester of coursework for MA in Literacy program.