Education 390

Reading Methodology for Specific Study Areas

Spring 2004

Dr. JoAnne Katzmarek                         Hours:  M 1-2

CPS 459                                                                      W 3:30-5

346-3292                                                                                                                                         And by appointment

jkatzmar@uwsp.edu

Texts:

1. Wood, Karen and Harmon, Janis, Strategies for Integrating Reading and Writing in the Middle and High School Classrooms.  Rental

2. Buehl, Doug, Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning. Required Purchase

The following texts are recommended and are available for purchase at the University Book Store:

3. Fisher and Frey,  Improving Adolescent Literacy.

4. Fulwiler, Toby, Teaching with Writing.

5. Smith and Wilhelm, Reading Don’t Fix No Chevys: Literacy in the Lives of Young Men.

6. Tovani, Chris, I Read It But I Don’t Get It.

Course Description:

In this course you will learn about and develop reading and writing instruction in your subject area. You will consider the integration of the other language arts in your subject  area as well: speaking, listening, viewing, and visually representing. You will also investigate supplementary materials and study strategies.

The course will focus on the following Wisconsin Teaching Standards:

4. Instructional Strategies: The student understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies, including the use of technology, to encourage children’s development of critical thinking, problem solving, and performance skills.

Knowledge

• The student understands current theories of reading/writing in the content area.
• The student can construct a definition of reading/writing in the content area.
• The student understands the role of learning and comprehension strategies using the language arts.

Skills

• The student evaluates how to achieve learning goals by integrating reading and writing and the other language arts when appropriate.
• The student uses multiple teaching and learning strategies to engage students in active learning opportunities.
• The student plans for various roles in the teaching and learning situation.

Dispositions

• The student values flexibility in the teaching process in order to adapt instruction to student responses, ideas, and needs.

6. Inquiry, Collaboration: The teacher uses effective verbal and non-verbal communication techniques, as well as instructional media and technology, to foster active inquiry, collaboration, and supportive interaction in the classroom.

Knowledge

• The student understands the role of language in learning.
• The student can describe various contexts that affect discussion.

Skills

• The student can select appropriate structures for creating discussions related to instructional lessons.

Dispositions

• The student recognizes the power of language for facilitating self-expression, identity development, and learning.
• The student is a responsive listener.

7. Planning for Instruction: The teacher plans instruction based upon knowledge of subject matter, students, the community, and curriculum goals.

Knowledge

• The student knows how to plan instruction that effectively bridges curriculum goals and students’ experiences.
• The student knows how to adjust plans based on student responses and needs.

Skills

• The student selects and creates learning experiences, both individually and with faculty teams, that are relevant to learners and are appropriate for curriculum goals.
• The student creates lessons and activities to meet the developmental and individual needs of all learners.
• The teacher creates short-range and long-range instructional plans.

Dispositions

• The student values planning as a collaborative activity.
• The student believes that plans may need to be adjusted and revised based on student needs and changes in the learning environment.

9. Reflective Teaching: The teacher is a reflective practitioner who continually evaluates the effects of his/her choices and actions on pupils, parents, professionals in the learning community and others and who actively seeks out opportunities to grow professionally.

Knowledge

• The student seeks out professional literature and resources to support plans for instruction.
• The student learns about teaching in collaboration with others.
• The student draws upon instructional experiences to evaluate and improve instructional plans and experiences.

Skills

• The student designs professional plans and instructional plans based upon professional resources and experiences.

10. Collective Cooperation: The teacher fosters relationships with school colleagues, parents, and agencies in the larger community to support pupil learning and well being and who acts with integrity, fairness, and in an ethical manner.

Knowledge

·        The student understands the rights of students and teachers.

·        The student values each child’s privacy and confidentiality of information.

Skills

·        The student participates in a collegial activity to create a productive learning environment.

·        The student establishes respectful relationships with children, parents, and families.

·        The student uses local resources to enhance learning opportunities.

Philosophy of Course:

This course should challenge you to reconsider traditional schooling that emphasizes the transmission of information from teacher to student. During class we will be using a student-centered, problem-solving model which emphasizes learning how to raise critical questions and how to pose and solve problems. Through our readings and discussion, we will use the following assumptions as the foundations to teaching and learning:

1.      Learning is a constructive process in which learners make sense of their environments by experiencing, exploring, hypothesizing, predicting, testing, and synthesizing.

2.      Language is integral to the learning process.

3.      Learning occurs in the social context.

I encourage your open-minded and critical response to all that we say and do. We will learn from each other and from the resources we use. Our discussions will be the focus of learning. When you teach secondary students, you will learn about teaching from them. Good teachers never stop learning about teaching and learning.

I will be asking you to know more about yourself as a reader and a writer and also will ask you to consider how your reading and writing might be an asset for your students.