Program Descriptions

Pre-requisite Courses

7500C Emergent to Fluent Literacy (for B-6th Certification):Emergent to fluent literacy acquisition for students with diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds and students with special needs; assessment of semantic, syntactic, phonic and phonemic awareness.15 hours of fieldwork.

7600C Fluent to Experienced Literacy (for 5th – 12th Certification):Balanced literacy instruction for fluent readers and writers from a diversity of cultural and linguistic backgrounds and needs. 15 hours of fieldwork.

Foundational Literacy Courses

7510 Literacy Strategies & Resources Across the Curriculum (for B-6th Certification): Strategies for teaching B-6th grade content-area literacy, differentiated instruction, multi-modal texts and children's literature.

7610 Literacy Strategies & Resources Across the Curriculum (for 5th – 12th Certification): Strategies for teaching 5-12th grade content-area literacy, the use of popular multi-modal texts young adult texts, and the negotiation of regents exams.

2000C First & Second Language/ Dialect and Literacy Acquisition:Current research and application building on language strengths and connecting oral and print literacies.8 hours fieldwork.

1700G Home-School Partnerships for Literacy:Theoretical and practical approaches to build equitable home-school partnerships to support children's literacy development. 8 hours fieldwork.

2700C Literacy Instruction for Struggling Readers & Writers: Creation of high standard literacy instruction for struggling learners.8 hours fieldwork.

1700/1E Critical Use of Technology: Examination of relevant technological resources. 8 hours fieldwork.

1300/1E Negotiating Curriculum: Standards, Children's Inquiries, and Appropriate Multicultural Materials: Developing successful curriculum design.20 hours fieldwork design and implementation.

1400E Writing for Teachers: Scaffolding creative and academic writing

Literacy Research Sequence

7801C Beginning Literacy Research Seminar 8 hours fieldwork.

7802C Literacy Research Seminar II

7803C Literacy Research Seminar III

7804C Literacy Research Seminar IV

The Transformative Literacy Project (TLP) – Practicum Sequence

The Transformative Literacy Project is a cluster of three courses that all students take in their final two semesters of the program. It is designed as a culminating experience within the Transformative Literacy Program that allows students to gather what they have learned in other classes and apply it to their work with children in the two literacy practicum.

During the first semester students take Assessment, Teaching and Learning (1500 or 1501) and one of the two practicum (1600E/1601E or 1600C/1601C).In the second semester students take the second part of the practicum.

1500/1C Linking Literacy Assessment, Instruction, and Learning: In this seminar students learn how to use different forms of observation, formative assessment and ongoing evaluation to support student learning, and how to build on, critique and transform traditional assessment practices.

1600/1C and 1600/1E Literacy Inquiry Practicum and Small-Group Literacy Inquiry Practicum: In these practicum, candidates work with either one or two students and support the student(s)' literacy development. Candidates support students in developing an inquiry project where they learn about some subject of interest in the process of developing their literacy skills and talents. Key components of the practicum are:

  • supporting the student's development as a reader and writer
  • developing and implementing an expansive notion of literacy that includes not only reading and writing but also all the ways that people use multiple sign systems to make sense and meaning out of the world
  • focusing on inquiry based learning that emphasizes the central role of the learner in constructing knowledge and the ultimate goal of transforming the horizon of what is possible and what is true
  • emphasizing a culturally responsive pedagogy that makes bridges between the literacy practices that the child brings to school and the academic literacies that the child is expected to master
  • sustaining the child as an active agent in the world who can both read and interpret the "word-world" and write and rewrite the culture and the texts that make up the culture that shapes who they are

The culminating activity of the Transformative Literacy Project is a Readers Writers Celebration where students share with their teachers, families, and the wider community the inquiry projects they have been working on and what they have learned.

Last Updated: 12/16/2019 10:36