Wednesdays and Fridays 12:30 - 16:20

Section: D3.00

PREREQUISITE

Educ 401/402

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Instructor: B Skobel

Office: MPX 8637

Tel: 291-3395

The course will focus on developing knowledge, skills and strategies to create a rich and stimulating language arts

program in the classroom. Issues in reading, writing, speaking and listening will be examined through current theory

and teaching practice. Language acquisition will be viewed as a holistic, integrated process through which children's

abilities develop naturally as they make meaning of their world.

You will have opportunities to examine your personal beliefs about children, the teacher and the curriculum; and to

explore the congruency between theory and practice. The course will provide you with a framework to examine and

reflect on your understandings about learning and teaching the language arts, and your role as teacher in engaging

children in communicating and searching for meaning.

The course will comprise a broad range of experiences. These will include professional readings, discussion and written

response, seminars, demonstrations, and individual tasks and small-group work threaded through cooperative learning

strategies. Upon completion of this course you should have an extensive repertoire of strategies and materials to use in

the language class.

TOPICS

• Language and the learning process

• The process of reading and writing

• Gift of Words -- discovering the magic of language

• The linking of reading and writing

• Research skills

• Assessment and evaluation

• Children's literature in the Language classroom

• Developing an effective Language Arts program

REQUIREMENTS

1.

Regular attendance and participation

2. Completion of assigned professional readings

3.

Completion of short written assignments

4. Completion of a project for a Research Fair

REQUIRED READINGS

Calkins, Lucy. The Art of Teaching Writing. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1986. ISBN 0-435-08246-9.

Lowry, Lois. The Giver. New York, NY: Bantam Books, 1993. ISBN 0-440-21907-8.

RECOMMENDED READINGS

Well, Gordon. The Meaning Makers. London, ON: Heinemann Educational Books, 1986. ISBN 0-435-08247-7.

Booth, David. Classroom Voices: Language-Based Learning in the Elementary School. Toronto, ON: Harcourt Brace,

1994. ISBN 0-7747-3151-6.

Atwell, Nancie. In the Middle. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1987. ISBN 0-86709-163-0.

(For teachers focusing on the teaching of reading and writing in the upper intermediate and secondary grades.)

PLEASE DO NOT

BUY

ANY

BOOKS