Competency 1: Foundations of Reading Instruction
The building blocks to effective reading comprehension begin in the primary grades with explicit instruction, modeling, and practice. Fluency, word recognition, vocabulary, oral and receptive language, the role of phonics and phonological awareness will include strategic instruction with multiple opportunities for planning and practice. Reading as an ongoing strategic process will be taught through knowledge and practice with fluency approaches, teacher modeling, guided practice, writing, listening, and speaking activities. Under this umbrella, participants will learn to design, teach, scaffold, and differentiate reading lessons and activities effectively using applied strategy that builds student capacity up through grade 5. Story structure, graphic representation, reciprocal questioning, oral retelling, summarizing activities, writing strategies, vocabulary strategies, balanced literacy and critical literacy are just some of the approaches under study. Problem solving strategies geared toward building student reading stamina, coupled with ongoing formative assessment approaches, will serve as catalyst to instructional planning and decision-making. Participants will receive a treasure trove of field-tested tools and resources for effective implementation with multiple opportunities for classroom implementation throughout the course.
Course Outcomes:
- Acquire and use new skills needed to effectively teach reading comprehension in primary grades with an understanding of the oral and written language that facilitates it through phonology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics as they relate to comprehending print.
- Understand the importance and function of receptive and expressive vocabulary instruction, semantics, domain specific vocabulary (academic vocabulary), and morphology as it relates to vocabulary development.
- Understand the role of vocabulary as it works into students’ understanding of word meanings, repeated practice, and comprehension of print through the use of context clues, explicit teaching, and the use of assessment data to make ongoing decisions directed to individual student needs.
- Apply strategy that builds student capacity through teacher modeling, guided practice, particularly as it impacts text readability, complexity, coherence, structure, and overall comprehension by understanding the interdependence among reading components and their effect on the reading process for native speakers of English as well as English language learners.
- Understand the impact that linguistic and cultural background has on English language learners’ comprehension, along with importance and role of home languages.
- Plan and prepare to teach using scaffolded strategy to move their students along a continuum of reading success as it builds comprehension.
- Plan and practice with numerous formal and informal assessment approaches for comprehension, using data to make informed decisions with which to meet the individual needs of students.
This course is 60 hours