S

MON FRASER UNIVERSITY

I

Summer Semester 2000

EDUC 473 - 4

Kirsten Nowak

Designs for Learning: Reading

Office: TBA

(K-12)

Phone: 222-4430 / 291-3395

E-mail: knowak@sfu.ca

Mondays 17:30 -21:20

E01.00

PREREQUISITE

EDUC 401/402

COURSE DESCRIPTION

The French Philosopher Jean-Jacques Rouseau wrote, in his Confessions: I do not know how I learned to read. I only remember

my first books and their effect on me; it is from my earliest reading that I date the unbroken consciousness of my own existence.

This course will examine various approaches to the complex process of reading. It will focus on the place of

reading in a balanced literacy program, and it will explore some of the major methods, strategies and techniques

of reading instruction. Participants will learn about and practise essential elements for establishing a classroom

environment that promotes literacy acquisition throughout the grades.

TOPICS

• How we learn to read

• The cues and strategies readers use

• Models of reading

• The teachers role: linking practice to theory

• Strategy teaching

• Reading and writing connections

• Guided reading

• Literature as the content of instruction

• Helping the struggling reader

• Classroom organization

• Assessment and evaluation

REQUIREMENTS

Participants will actively involve themselves in course readings, discussions of the readings and group activities.

ASSIGNMENTS

1.

Reading Circle: reading, reflecting and responding to course readings (25%)

2.

Comparing readers: a Child Study (30%)

3.

Strategy demonstration: small group presentation (20%)

4.

Individual Project for Reading Fair (25%)

REQUIRED TEXTS

May, Frank. (1997). Reading as Communication (5th ed.). Toronto: Maxwell Macmillan Canada.

ISBN 0-13494683-9.

British Columbia Ministry of Education. (1994). Evaluating Reading Across the Curriculum: Using the

Reading Reference Set to Support Learning. RB0034.

Plus ONE

of

the following

supplementary texts:

Primary and Intermediate grades:

Cunningham, P.M., & Allington, R.L. (1999). Classrooms That Work: They Can All Read and Write. Don

Mills, ON: Addison Wesley. ISBN 0-321-01339-5.

Fountas, I. & Pinnell, G. (1996). Guided Reading: Good First Teaching for All Children. Portsmouth, NH:

Heinemann. ISBN 0-435-0863-7.

Late Intermediate and Secondary grades:

Ruddell, M.R. (1997). Teaching Content: Reading and Writing (2nd ed.). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn &

Bacon. ISBN 0-205-26563-4.