Foundations of Reading Instruction
LTCY 519

Dr. Pam Petty, Instructor
http://www.pampetty.com

Western Kentucky University

Instructor:  Pam Petty   Office:  Tate Page Hall 363
Office Phone:  270-745-2922  Home Phone:  615-735-9198
Campus Email:  pamela.petty@wku.edu Home Email:  pam@pampetty.com 
Course Calendar Homepage: http://www.pampetty.com 

Office Hours:  by Appointment
Electronic Hours:  Evenings 7:00 - 10:00 


Required Textbooks:

You have choice in the format for your text in this course.  You can order a hardcopy (see Amazon below) either new or used, or you can order an electronic subscription to the book from Coursesmart (see below).  With the electronic version the price is less and the delivery is immediate.  It is however, just for 180 days (well beyond the end of this course). 
 

How to Teach Reading to Elementary and Middle School Students: Practical Ideas from Highly Effective Teachers
(
by Robert B. Ruddell (Author)    ebook: Price to Student $28.60  (180 day subscription - expires in 355 days)
Electronic Version:  http://www.coursesmart.com/9780137005949?_instructoruserid=1209545

 

Hardcopy (Amazon - $43.44) http://www.amazon.com/Reading-Elementary-Middle-School-Students/dp/0205625428/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232300466&sr=8-1

 

504 pages

Publisher: Allyn & Bacon; 1 edition (September 19, 2008)

ISBN-10: 0205625428

You will need the text immediately when the course starts. 


Prerequisites: None

Course Description: Analysis of the reading and writing process with emphasis on the psychological and physiological foundations of the reading act.

Course Rationale: This course provides the graduate student in education a rudimentary study of the foundations of reading and writing instruction. This experience will expand students' understanding on the reading process.

Course Objectives & Outcomes

Course Disposition Statement(s)

The teacher recognizes her/his professional responsibility for engaging in and supporting appropriate professional practices for self and colleagues.

The teacher is committed to the continuous development of individual students’ abilities and considers how different motivational strategies are likely to encourage this development for each student.

The teacher is committed to using assessment to identify student strengths and promotes student growth rather than to deny students access to learning opportunities.

The teacher has a well-grounded framework for understanding cultural and community diversity and knows how to learn about and incorporate student’s experiences, cultures, and community resources into instruction.

The teacher is committed to continuous learning and engages in professional discourse about subject matter knowledge and children’s learning of the discipline.


All assignments must be typed. Use APA format for assignments. You WILL lose points if you do not use APA format.   (12pt font, 1 inch margins, double-spaced)

Heads up:  Do not submit papers in this course until they have been properly proofread, edited, corrected, proofread, and are free of grammatical errors.  Did I mention that you need to proofread??  Good. 


Summary of Course Requirements and Evaluation

  1. Professionalism, Participation, and Collegiality (20 pts.)
  2. Introductory Assignments (40 pts.)
    1. Personal homepage (10 pts.)
    2. Survey (5 points)
    3. Introductory Reading and Response Paper (20)
    4. Response to IRA Position Statement - (5 points)
  3. Lesson Plan Revision (75 pts.)
    1. Submission of initial lesson plan (5 pts.)
    2. Revised lesson plan and reflection paper (70 pts.)
  4. Response to Assigned Readings (240 pts.)
    1. Insert Marking System summary sheets (12 x 20 points each)
  5. Discussion Boards (100 pts.)
    1. Discussion board leaders on "expert" topics (2 x 20 pts. = 40 pts.) - OR Select ONE topic from chapters 5 - 13 and locate three TOP NOTCH websites that inform teachers (including research studies) - provide a 3-5 sentence description of website including URL and title of website.
    2. Responses and participation on Discussion Boards (5 x 12 pts. = 60 pts.) OR Select one topic from chapters 5-13 that is of particular interest to you and develop a PowerPoint presentation provides direct instruction for your students.
  6. WebQuest/Critical Performance (125 pts.)
    1. Your project (125 pts.)

Total = 600 points

A = 558-600 (93%-100%)

B = 510-557 (85%-92%)

C = 462-509 (77%-84%)

D = 420-461 (70%-76%)

F = 460 or fewer (69% or below)

Remember:  To receive a final grade in LTCY 519, you must upload the critical performance to your Electronic Portfolio.

There is ONE CRITICAL PERFORMANCE for this course:   WebQuest:  Technology Assignment (125 points)
This assignment MUST be posted to the Electronic Portfolio before a final grade can be given for this course.  This assignment need to be produced electronically either in MS WORD (doc), in Rich Text Format (rtf), HTML, or PowerPoint (PPT) so it can be uploaded to the Electronic Portfolio and opened by your instructor.  Submission of WORKS files or WordPerfect files is not acceptable.  You must upload the assignment to the
COURSE DOCUMENTS section of Blackboard AND to the Electronic Portfolio. 

You may need to register in the new EPS system before you will have access. 

http://edtech2.wku.edu/portfolio/


Course Requirements and Evaluations

Professionalism, Participation, Collegiality (20 points)

This course is being taught on-line. You are expected to be a fully participating member of this class. This includes participation, collegiality, effort, etc. All students are expected to contribute to this community of learners by being a positive participant in all class discussions on the discussion board in BlackBoard. This also includes any synchronous (live) chats that might be scheduled throughout the semester SKYPE or ooVoo.


    Follow the directions on the INTRODUCTION webpage for this course Due:  January 27, 2009

a.  Set up student homepage in Blackboard - Each student should create a homepage in Blackboard. (10 points) - DUE January 27, 2009 (https://ecourses.wku.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp).  After logging in to Blackboard, click on our course name (Foundations of Reading Instruction - LTCY 519) and click on STUDENT TOOLS.  The fill-in-the-blank form for making your homepage is listed there.  To view your homepage, click on Communication, then on Student Roster. This will be a very important venue for us to get to know each other and will count as part of our class participation score.  Information to include on homepage:


b.  Submit SURVEY from  INTRODUCTION (5 points) - DUE  January 28, 2009

c.  Introductory Reading and Response (20 pts.) found on the INTRODUCTION page DUE:  February 2, 2009

Please read chapter 1 and complete the self-survey on Shared Beliefs of Influential and Highly Effective Teachers about Teaching as found on page 4 of our text.  Instructions for a paper based on this survey are found on this webpage:  http://www.pampetty.com/519highlyeffective.htm.  See calendar for due date for paper. 

d.  Response to IRA Position Statement - (5 points) DueJanuary 31, 2009
On the
INTRODUCTION page read the International Reading Association's Position Statement on EXCELLENT READING TEACHERS:  http://www.reading.org/resources/issues/positions_excellent.html (click on FULL TEXT PDF). After reading, respond do the prompt in the space provided on that webpage (http://www.pampetty.com/519intro2007.htm).  (It is a VERY good idea to type your response in Word or WordPad and COPY and PASTE it in the textbox provided.) 
 


Revised Lesson Plan (75 points)
Initial Lesson Plan Submitted:  February 16, 2009 by midnight CDT

Revised Lesson Plan Due:  March 30, 2009 by midnight CDT

1.  Students will submit a lesson plan that they have taught or will design one to teach (preferably in the content areas of language arts, science, or social studies - math allowed only with prior permission from instructor).  No particular lesson plan format is required, but the lesson plan should include common elements of a formal lesson plan (KY standards being addressed, materials, procedures, methods, assessment, etc.).  The instructor will review this lesson plan and will ask students to review the lesson plan for comment and comparison at the END of the semester. 

2.  Students will revise the lesson plan to demonstrate learned content from this course and will submit the revised lesson plan and a response paper which includes explaining changes made in the lesson plan, pedagogy changes, etc. The revised lesson plan must reflect ACTIVE reading strategies (pre/during/post), "best practice" in writing instruction, as well as best practice in viewing, listening, and technology.  The plan must also include specific strategies and considerations for student diversity.

Scoring Rubric for this Assignment


WebQuest:  Technology Assignment (125 points) Due: April 27, 2009 by 12:00 midnight CDT
 

"A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented activity in which some or all of the information that learners interact with comes from resources on the Internet ..."  http://webquest.sdsu.edu/about_webquests.html

1.  Your challenge in this task is to develop a WebQuest focusing on aspects of ACTIVE reading strategies and supporting struggling and diverse learners. You can begin to read about WebQuests by clicking HERE.  If you work through the tutorial listed there and investigate the resources listed here: http://webquest.org/index.php you should be able to begin your own WebQuest easily. 

To begin your work on the WebQuest you need to review the training materials I put on-line: 

Upload your html, Word, or PPT files to the COURSE DOCUMENTS section in Blackboard.  I will get your files and publish them on the Internet for you.  If you have web space of your own or if you want to go get some free webspace so that you can continue to ADD to and EDIT your webquest (http://www.pampetty.com/techtraining.htm), then just email me your URL and I will link to it.

An alternate method of developing a WebQuest would be to do one as a PowerPoint presentation.  See examples from previous students on this page:  http://www.pampetty.com/519webquests.htm  (Warning:  Some of these are GREAT ... some are not so great ... I invite you view these to get ideas about format, it is up to you to be critical viewers to determine quality.) 

Scoring Rubric for this assignment.


Response to Assigned Reading - DUE:  Mondays as indicated on calendar (20 x 12 = 240)

Chapters from our text will be assigned each week.  Use the Insert Marking System as described to "code" the text as you read.  Students will use these summary sheets to write a 3-4 sentence "so what" or implications statement.  Submit a completed summary sheet for each chapter by the due date indicated on the calendar.  Submit the summary sheets in the COURSE DOCUMENTS section of Blackboard.  Based on your understanding of selected chapters and your interest in topics within those chapters, students will sign up to be Discussion Board Leaders (i.e., "experts") for those chapters.  See next section for those instructions. (NOTE:  A more user-friendly Insert Marking System Summary Sheet is located in the Course Documents section of Blackboard. That is the one you will want to use.)

ALTERNATE ASSIGNMENTS:
 

OLD

Points

NEW

Points

Discussion Board Leaders – 2 chapters required

20 per = 40 total

Select ONE topic from chapters 5 - 13 and locate three TOP NOTCH

websites that inform teachers (including research studies) - provide a 3-5 sentence description of website including URL and title of website.

If you have already received credit for being the discussion board leader for one chapter, do ONE of these (20 points).  IF you have NOT submitted a prompt and lead a discussion board, you need to do TWO of these (40 points). 

One or both due on:  April 13

Weekly Discussion Board participation

12 x 5 = 60

We have already done discussion boards for chapters 2, 3, and 4 = 15 points total

For the remaining 45 points:

Select one topic from chapters 5-13 that is of particular interest to

you and develop a PowerPoint presentation provides direct instruction for your students.  In other words, if the topic is "vocabulary development" you would develop a PowerPoint presentation that incorporates some KEY ideas from our text on how we learn new words.

Your powerpoint should include authentic (materials/content you currently use in your classroom) and demonstrate an exemplary practice related to your topic.  The audience for your PPT is your classroom - the activities should be geared for your students.

You may use this PPT within your revised lesson plan OR your webquest. 

45 points

 

Due on April 30

This information is included ONLY for those who are continuing to participate in the discussion boards and serve as leaders: 

Discussion Board Leaders  2 x 20 = 40 points = (see schedule on course calendar and schedule below).   Each student will provide a prompt and serve as a Discussion Board Leader in two chapters of their choice - a sign up list will be provided and students will submit their requests for particular chapters by email to Dr. Petty.  Discussion Board Leaders will use the Implications Statement from their IMS (Insert Marking System) summary sheets to build a prompt that is engaging and challenging to fellow students.  Discussion Board prompts will be due on Mondays by email to Dr. Petty. Dr. Petty will post the prompts in the Discussion Board prompts in Blackboard and all students will have until mid-night on Saturday of that same week to participate in the discussion.  Discussion Leaders are scored based on quality of prompt and quantity/quality of their continued conversations with participants.  Participation by non-leaders is described below:

Discussion Board Participation:  5 x 12 = 60 points

To facilitate students’ ability to become reflective educators, decision makers, and to construct meaning for an understanding of the interrelationships and application of educational theory into classroom practices, students will engage in Discussion Board entries responding to the assigned prompt and constructing tasks as responses to the assigned reading.  The purpose of this assignment is to allow students to reflect, explore and dialogue with the university instructor and with each other concerning topics and issues discussed in class or as these issues relate to the experiences of the student.  The discussion boards take place in BlackBoard (http://ecourses.wku.edu). This forum provides us with a means of communication and exploration of topics/assignments.  The textbook for this course will guide our discussions. Tasks in response to the assigned reading are submitted through the COURSE DOCUMENTS section of Blackboard -- the calendar indicates WHERE each assignment is to be submitted. 

 

Scoring for this assignment will be based on the following criteria:

  1. thoughtful insights
  2. all responses posted by DUE dates
  3. sharing of experiences specific to topic of discussion
  4. specific references to information from our text or other outside readings (references must accompany)
    • NO "drive-by," "hit-and-run" or "token" responses
  5. CAREFULLY follow the directions for what you are asked to do for each discussion board

Students may reply more than once - as in a class discussion or "grand conversation" on these topics. 

How to get the MOST from these readings and USE what you read to prepare you for the WEBQUEST and the LESSON PLAN REVISION:

1)  Keep notes on all references to pre-reading (schema activation, background knowledge development)
2)  Keep notes on all references to during reading strategies
3)  Keep notes on all post-reading strategies
4)  Keep notes on all vocabulary strategies
5)  Keep notes on all examples of technology integration
6)  Keep notes on appropriate assessment measures

 

Course Calendar

  


The Fine Print: 

It is expected that ALL assignments will be submitted on their due dates. Late assignments will be penalized 20% of their possible point value if submitted within two consecutive days of their due date. Further penalties will be assessed for assignments turned in beyond that point. During the semester a date will be announced in class stating the last day in which late work can be submitted for a grade in the course. This policy is instituted primarily to prevent students from becoming overloaded at the end of the semester.  All assignments must be submitted via the COURSE DOCUMENTS Section in BlackBoard and must be in the following formats:

The previously-stated policy on late work applies even in circumstances when the student is given an incomplete ("X") for failure to upload an assignment to the Electronic Portfolio System. Students requesting an incomplete for another reason must contact the instructor to ask for an incomplete, which may or may not be granted, depending on the instructor's judgment regarding the circumstances of the student's request. According to the catalog on Undergraduate Catalog p.28/Graduate Catalog, p.13, “A grade of ‘X’ (incomplete) is given only when a relatively small amount of work is not completed because of illness or other reason satisfactory to the instructor. “An ‘X’ received by a student will automatically become an “F” unless removed within twelve (12) weeks of the next full term (summer excluded). The grade of ‘X’ will continue to appear as the initial grade on the student’s transcript, along with the revised grade.

Keep copies of all assignments. If an assignment is lost, the burden of proof that you completed the assignment rests with you.  The WebQuest must be in html format. 

It is expected that you will read and reflect on required course readings. Selected course readings will help you develop the knowledge and theoretical base needed for teaching diverse learners strategies for reading in the content areas.  

Evaluation and Grade Assignment

Assessment will include written assignments, performance events, and evaluation of student plans for reading instruction. The student must achieve minimum competency, otherwise the course must be repeated.

Final grade LTCY 519 will be based on a 600 point scale:

                             Grade    Percentages          Points

                             A            93-100                558-600
                             B            85-92                  510-557
                             C            77-84                  462-509
                             D            70-76                  420-461
                             F            69 or less           419 or less 


Website Address: (for your resource file)

Teacher-oriented sites:

Kentucky Department of Education: http://www.kde.state.ky.us

International Reading Association: http://www.reading.org

Children’s Literature Web Guide: http://www.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown

ERIC Clearing on Reading, English & Communication: http://www.indiana.edu/~eric_rec/index.html

Booklist (reviews): http://www.ala.org/booklist/

Child-oriented sites:

Kids on the Web: http://www.zen.org/~brendan/kids.html

Jan Brett’s Home Page: http://www.janbrett.com

Ann Arbor District Library Kid’s page: http://www.anarbor.lib.mi.us/kidspg/kidspgw.html

K-12 English: http://www.ceismc.gatech.edu/BusyT/eng.html

English literature and composition resources on the Internet: http://www.iat.unc.edu/guides/irg-30.html

Pam Petty's Education Site:  http://www.pampetty.com 


Supplementary Resources:

http://www.stenhouse.com/pdfs/0082guid.pdf

http://www.stenhouse.com/pdfs/0072guid.pdf

http://knowledgeloom.org/practices3.jsp?location=1&bpinterid=1174&spotlightid=1174

http://www.reading.org/positions/second_language.html

http://www.reading.org/positions/adol_lit.html

http://www.stenhouse.com/pdfs/0310guid.pdf

Allington, R.L., & Walmsley, S.A. (1995). No quick fix. New York: Teacher’s College Press.

Atwell, N. (1987). In the middle: Writing, reading, and learning with adolescents. New Jersey: Boynton/Cook.

Delpit, L. (1994). Other people’s children: Cultural conflict in the classroom. NY: New Press.

Dewey, J. (1916 or 1966). Democracy and education: An introduction to the philosophy of education. NY: Macmillan.

Gay, G. (1994). At the essence of learning: Multicultural education. NY: Macmillan.

Gay, G. (2000). Culturally responsive teaching. NY: Teacher’s College Press.

Ladson-Billings, G. (1994). The dreamkeepers: Successful teachers of African American children. CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Oakes, J. (1985). Keeping track: How schools structure inequality. NY: Yale University Press.

Powell, R. (1999). Literacy as a moral imperative: Facing the challenges of a pluralistic society. Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield.

Roe, B.D., Stoodt, B.D., & Burns, P.C. (1998). Secondary school literacy instruction: The content areas. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Santa, C.M., & Alvermann, D.E. (1991). Science learning: Processes and applications. Delaware: International Reading Association.

Vacca, R.T., & Vacca, J.A.L. (1998). Content area reading: Literacy and learning across the curriculum. New York: Harper Collins College Publishers.



 
Plagiarism Policy:
To represent ideas or interpretations taken from another source as one's own is plagiarism.  Plagiarism is a serious offense.  The academic work of students must be their own.  Students must give the author(s) credit for any source material used.  To lift content directly from a source without giving credit is a flagrant act.  To present a borrowed passage after having changed a few words, even if the source is cited, is also plagiarism.

Disability Accommodations Statement:
"Students with disabilities who require accommodations (academic adjustment and/or auxiliary aids or services) for this course must contact the Office for Student Disability Services, Room 445, Potter Hall.  The OFSDS telephone number is (270) 745-5004 V/TDD.  Please DO NOT request accommodations directly from the professor or instructor without a letter of accommodation from the Office for Student Disability Services.