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    Education 472 ?
    Language Arts
    Tnte p serrjr)fl -
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    Summer' 1'97.
    Instructor: Paul Clements
    This course is offered to people interested in developing a
    lively language arts curriculum for children at the elementary/
    intermediate grade levels.
    Through a series of mainly practical workshops, the course will
    explore the topics outlined below. Additionally, it can cover
    items of interest raised by students during course sessions.
    The work will be based on the assumption that children use
    language (write, talk and think) most effectively when they
    have something to say and someone to whom to say it. That
    'someone' need not always be the teacher, although it is the
    teacher who will invariably provide the stimulous for effective
    communication.
    The course will be concerned with the fostering in children of
    an enjoyment and excitement in the use of the language. In order
    to achieve this, teachers must discover their own enthusiasm for
    the possibilities of words. The course will stress, therefore,
    the development of the teacher's (or student teacher's) own
    resources, as well as providing opportunity for work in curriculum
    content, teaching methods and other practical classroom techniques.
    Although there can be no hard and fast rule for the division of
    time in each of the course sessions, it is expected that, overall,
    the course will be structured around three major blocks of activity:
    1:
    First hand student participation in the processes
    making up what we call language arts. This will
    involve work in writing, improvised drama, group
    discussion and
    so on.
    2:
    Study of specific topics related to the development
    of professional expertise
    in
    language arts - an
    individual (and quite possibly, tentative) philosophy
    of English teaching which will determine curriculum
    content and classroom practice.
    3:
    Work on individual or group projects and assignments,
    study sessions etc.
    The topics to be covered will include:
    CREATIVE OR PERSONAL WRITING
    Language, experience and the use of the imagination; stages in the
    process of creative writing, from idea to first draft and beyond;
    criteria for the evaluation of composition.
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    'CLEAN' ENGLISH
    Fostering clarity of thought and expression; the conventions
    of speaking and writing, including elements of usage, spelling,
    punctuation etc; receiving ideas and listening.
    DEVELOPMENTAL DRAMA
    What is it ? Relevance to child development; its possibilities
    in the classroom; techniques of teaching; related oral work.
    LITERATURE
    Most obviously poetry and prose for children; also, other
    experiences of language offered for children and other sources
    which investigate the ideas which lie between people - comics,
    television, movies, etc. Teacher as storyteller.
    DEVELOPMENTAL READING
    The act of reading; development of reading programmes; keeping
    abreast of the reading levels of individual children; teaching
    reading.
    GRAMMAR & USAGE
    What's 'correct' and why. The structure of language. The
    appropriateness of direct teaching of language.
    EXTRA-MURAL ACTIVITY
    While it is understood that each student's own commitments will
    determine how far he or she is able to participate in any extra-
    mural activities, it is hoped that through the course people will
    be able to attend together events such as theatre performances,
    exhibitions and other cultural (or even not-so-cultural) affairs.
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    There is no obligatory pre-reading but the following texts will
    be referred to and are warmly recommended:
    CLEGG J.D. (Ed) The Excitement of Writing
    Schioken, N.
    HOURD,. Marjorie The Education of the Poetic Spirit
    Heinemann, Lonaon, 1949
    MOFFETT, James
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    Teaching the Universe of Discourse
    Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1968
    MOFFETT, James
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    A Student-Centered Language Arts Curriculum K-13
    Hugton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1973.
    PENNER, P.G. &
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    Learning Language
    McCONNELL R.
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    MacMillan of Canada, 1977
    WAY, B.
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    Development Through Drama
    Longmans, London, 1967.

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