S*N FRASER UNIVERSITY

0

Spring Semester 1999

?

Subjects: Elementary Language Arts

E01.00

Dr. K. Toohey

Office: MPX 8544

Tel: ?

291-4418

E-mail: toohey@sfu.ca

PREREQUISITE

60 credit hours

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Increasingly, Canadian classrooms enroll students from a variety of language backgrounds.

Participants in this course will investigate how elementary school teachers are able to meet the

needs of minority language background students within the regular classroom language arts

program. Designed for non-specialists, this course will acquaint participants with basic theory

about second language learning and participants will explore many practical ideas about how

curriculum activities and events may be best adapted for students of ESL.

TOPICS

• Assessing students' language development

• Supporting students' first language development

• Multi-ability grouping

• Whole language and ESL

• Collaborating with the specialist ESL teachers

EVALUATION

1. Learning log, reactions to readings - 30%

2. Classroom observation - 25%

3.

Term paper - 15%

4. Curriculum materials or Action research proposal - 30%

REQUIRED READING

Gibbons, P. (1991). Learning to Learn in a Second Language. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

ISBN 0-435-08785-1.

Paley, V. G. (1997). The Girl with the Brown Crayon. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.

ISBN 0-674-35442-7.

Toohey, K. (1998). Learning ESL in elementary school: A sociocultural perspective.

(Custom courseware package)