Faculty of Humanities and Education (Postgraduate) - The University ...

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POSTGRADUATE REGULATIONS & SYLLABUSES 2012 - 2013
THE FACULTY OF HUMANITIES & EDUCATION
YEAR:
SEMESTER:
COURSE CODE: EDRL 6003
COURSE TITLE: TEACHING READING IN THE CONTENT
AREAS
NUMBER OF CREDITS: 4
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course, Teaching Reading in the
content Areas, is essentially about models and strategies for
delivering reading instruction to students at the secondary
level. It is also about ways of judging the match between
students, texts and contexts, as well as about methods of
guiding content area teachers toward fostering environments
in which both struggling and non-struggling adolescent readers
can thrive. It is delivered partly through lectures supported by
online delivery components and partly through workshops
supported by online delivery components. Its purpose is to
equip participants with the knowledge and skills necessary for
using diagnostic information in planning and implementing
instructional strategies, assessing the outcome, and providing
feedback to students to facilitate the improvement of contentarea
reading competence.
Prior to taking this course, participants must complete two
(Semester 1) courses in reading: Theoretical Foundations of
Reading and Reading Diagnosis, Intervention, and assessment,
both of which provide the content basis for the application of
the technologies in the current course.
CONTENT
Content is comprised of content-area reading foundations and
Strategy workshops.
Foundations
The following topics will be addressed:
Background to content area reading instruction
Key abilities in dimensions of content area reading ability;
factors accounting for differences in ability
Assessment in content area reading
Instructional models
Strategy workshops
The following topics will be addressed:
• Global planning; frames and units
• Pre-reading strategies – activating prior knowledge;
interest and motivation; active reading
• Pre-reading strategies – word identification; meaning
vocabulary
• Guided strategies during reading – comprehension (text
organization; visual summaries/graphic organizers); metacomprehension;
active reading strategies (questioning
and answering strategies); metacognition (monitoring and
fix-up strategies)
• Group interactions and text – jigsaw; reciprocal teaching
• Post-reading strategies – reinforcing and extending
• Study strategies – fostering independence
• Developing curriculum-based assessments (CBAMS).
General Objectives
In order to achieve the course goal, the participants will:
1. formulate a sound rationale for weaving reading instruction
into content area teaching/learning.
2. readily apply useful instructional models, strategies, and tools
for developing and fortifying reading skills while fostering
the development of content area reading expertise.
3. apply a variety of instructional configurations in delivering
reading instruction.
4. use appropriate research-based tools to determine students’
content area reading level and to determine appropriacy of
content area reading materials for specific groups.
5. provide appropriate professional development and support
for content area teachers.
6. locate or devise tools for monitoring content area teachers’
level of implementation of reading strategies and practices
in the regular classroom.
Course Assessment
Coursework will be worth 40% and will comprise
• A discussion forum (on aspects of reading instruction or the
reading process) (5%)
• Displays of creations that support different aspects of reading
development (10%)
• Three article reviews (15%)
• Group presentations on a unit of 5 lessons in a content area.
(10 %).
The final examination will be of 3 hours’ duration and be worth
60% of the total marks. The questions will address links between
theory and best practice and will also address contributions to the
development of best practices in particular areas of reading.
Resources
Biancarosa, G., & Snow, C. E. (2006). Reading next A vision for action
and research in middle and high school literacy: A report to
Carnegie Corporation of New York (2nd ed.).Washington, DC:
Alliance for Excellent Education.
Dobbs, O. (2003). Using reading strategies to reduce failure
rate in the content area. ED479208. Retrieved from
http://eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_
storage_01/0000019b/80/1b/47/3b.pdf
Mckenna & Robinson. (2009). Teaching through text: Reading and
writing in the content Areas. Allyn & Bacon:
Moats, L.C. (2001). When older students can’t read. Educational
Leadership, 58(6), 36-40.
Moore, D. W., Readence, J. E., & Rickelman, R. J.. (2003). An historical
exploration of content area reading instruction. Reading
Research Quarterly, 18( 4), 419-438.
Neufeld, P. (2005). Comprehension instruction in content area
classes. The Reading Teacher, 59(4), 302-312.
Vacca, R.T., & Vacca, J.L. (2007). content area reading: Literacy and
learning across the curriculum. Allyn & Bacon:
Tierney, R.J., & Readence, J.E. (2004). Reading strategies and practices:
A compendium (6th ed.)
The Wilson Company (2002). Reading and writing in the content
area. Educational Leadership, 60(3).
Tompkins, G. A. (2010). Literacy for the 21st century: Teaching
reading and writing in grades 4 through 8. Allyn & Bacon:
Troia, G. A. (2006). Meaningful assessment of content-area literacy
for youth with and without Disabilities, 31(69). Retrieved
December 17, 2008 from http://aei.sagepub.com/cgi/
content/abstract/31/2/69. Journals