Literacy in the Early Years

Student Learning Outcomes, Goals, Objectives:

Students successfully completing this course will be able to:

• Understand the earliest forms of literacy learning.
• Become familiar with research on early writing, in particular, writing as a form of meaning-making
• Understand early reading as a meaning-driven enterprise, including children’s response to literature.
• Understand research and practice on learning to read words, including concepts related to oral language (e.g., phonemic awareness), concepts about print, and speech-to-print concepts.
• Understand perspectives on research related to phonics instruction, as well as research linking spelling, writing, phonics, and phonological awareness.
• Understand the relationship between the development of early literacy and the development of children’s social, emotional, and intellectual lives.
• Understand the role of play and early literacy development and practices.
• Understand research on children’s talk and literacy
• Understand perspectives on dyslexia and dyslexia-related policies on early childhood literacy.
• Become familiar with the role of literacy programs and assessment and the development of literacy in the early years.

Course Grading Information:

Activity/Performance Measure	Percentage/Points
Young Literacy Learner Book Log	20%
Mid-Term Exam	30%
Application/Experimentation Project	30%
Participation/Professionalism	20%

Attendance/Participation:

Students are expected to participate in discussions of class topics and course readings, 20% of final grade

Course Materials Purchased by the Students:

Already Ready: Nurturing Writers in Preschool and Kindergarten, Katie Wood Ray and Matt Glover, Heinemann, 2008, ISBN: 978-0-325-01073-1