Supporting Literacy Development in Lower Elementary Classrooms

Supporting Literacy Development in Lower Elementary Classrooms

Course Syllabus

Catalog Description

In this course, participants will explore how new technologies can support emerging literacy development in kindergarten through second grade. Participants will investigate tools that can help build phonemic awareness and word recognition. Participants will also explore strategies for integrating reading and writing with meaningful project-based activities, and learn about software tools for publishing student work and creating class books. Participants will develop ideas for a technology-enhanced lesson plan, and collect a number of resources for immediate classroom use.

Prerequisites

This is an introductory course for teachers, technology specialists, curriculum specialists, professional development specialists, or other school personnel. Participants are expected to have regular access to computers. In addition, participants should be proficient with using email, browsing the Internet, and navigating to computer files.

Goals

This workshop will enable participants to:

1. Develop a technology-enhanced lesson plan that addresses national and local curriculum standards

2. Learn how new technologies can support emergent, beginning, and transition readers

3. Learn how new technologies can support the writing process

4. Develop a personal collection of web-based resources for curricular use

5. Develop strategies for the ongoing assessment of students’ literacy development

Assessment and Course Requirements

Each session includes readings, an activity, and a discussion assignment, which participants are required to complete.

Course Products

As a final product, students will develop a sample technology-enhanced lesson plan for their classroom using the template provided below:
Template for Planning a Technology-Enhanced Lesson (http://www.edtechleaders.org/documents/lowlit/planningtemplate.doc)

Discussion Participation

Participants will be evaluated on the frequency and quality of their discussion board participation. Participants are required to post a minimum of two substantial postings each session, including one that begins a new thread and one that responds to an existing thread. Postings that begin new threads will be reviewed based on their relevance, demonstrated understanding of course concepts, examples cited, and overall quality. Postings that respond to other participants will be evaluated on relevance, degree to which they extend the discussion, and tone.

Required Readings, Activities and Assignments

Session One: Introduction
In this session, participants will explore several web-based resources focused on literacy. In the discussion, participants will consider strategies for getting the most out of what the Internet has to offer, while avoiding “information overload.”

Readings:

· Using the Internet and Children’s Literature to Support Interdisciplinary Instruction by Rachel Karchmer
http://www.readingonline.org/electronic/RT/9-00_Column.html

· Early Literacy: A Telecollaborative Project
http://www.earlyliterature.ecsd.net

As an activity for this session, participants will explore and evaluate the web sites recommended in the above readings and think about what types of information and resources are “out there” on the Internet, that they can incorporate into their classroom practices. They will keep track of the resources they explore and they will critically evaluate one of the websites using an evaluation guide provided in the session.

Session Two: Using the Internet to Build Emergent Reading Skills
In this session, participants will learn about some ways that teachers can use the internet to help emergent readers and writers, and they will explore several web sites with fun activities to build phonemic awareness and word recognition skills.

Readings:

· Phonics from Technology and Teaching Children to Read: What Does the Research Say?
http://www.neirtec.org/reading_report/report.htm#phonics

As an activity, participants will explore web sites that contain free, interactive phonemic awareness activities that teachers can use in the classroom. They will explore these sites and think about how they could use them to help students build their phonemic awareness.

· PBS's "Between the Lions"
This web site has many fun activities for children to practice phonemic awareness and word recognition skills.
http://pbskids.org/lions/index.html

· Starfall
The Starfall learn-to-read website is offered free as a public service and it includes several interactive activities to build phonemic awareness.
http://www.starfall.com/

· BBC Words and Pictures
This website accompanies a BBC children’s program called Literacy Hour. The interactive activities are a lot of fun and easy to learn.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/index.shtml

Session Three: Building the Literacy Skills of All Learners with Software and Assistive Technologies
In this session, participants will explore some assistive technologies and software programs that can help teachers address the unique needs of every student. Most of these programs were designed to help students with disabilities but these technologies can be used to build the literacy skills of all emergent readers and writers.

Readings:

· Helping Students with Disabilities Become Writers, Educational Leadership, 1994, 51(7), 62-66. by J. Zorfass, P. Corley, and A. Remz,
http://www.edtechleaders.org/documents/literacytwo/Literacy2a.htm

· Reading and Writing Tools from T.H.E. Journal
http://www.thejournal.com/magazine/vault/A4610.cfm

As an activity for this session, participants will visit links from The Assistive Technology Training Online Project (ATTO) which provides information on AT applications that help students with disabilities learn in elementary classrooms. Many of these technologies would benefit beginning readers and writers as well as students with disabilities.

· Using the Computer for Reading:
This module identifies software features and programs that enhance independent reading opportunities.
http://atto.buffalo.edu/registered/ATBasics/Curriculum/Reading/index.php

· Using the Computer for Writing:
This module, identifies specific software features and programs to enhance writing opportunities.
http://atto.buffalo.edu/registered/ATBasics/Curriculum/Writing/index.php

Using the menu on the left-hand side of the page, participants will look through some of the various technologies designed to help build literacy skills. Then they will reflect upon how they might be able to use these technologies with students in their schools or districts.

Session Four: Planning for Technology Integration in Your Literacy Program
In this session, participants will learn about how they can use technology to enhance teaching and learning in their literacy curriculum. They will also begin bouncing ideas off each other to begin planning their own technology-enhanced lessons.

Readings:

· Technology: It's Primary by Barbara Bray and Gail Lovely
http://www.techlearning.com/db_area/archives/WCE/archives/primarbb.html

· Technology and Early Literacy: A Recipe for Success by Dara Feldman
http://www.pbs.org/readytolearn/resources/2005_summer_institute/Feldman_Success.pdf

· How Do You Integrate Technology into the Language Arts Curriculum (Instructional Module from the George Lucas Education Foundation)
http://glef.org/modules/LASS/how.php

As an activity for this session, students will examine a sample lesson plan that takes advantage of available technologies and they will begin to plan their own technology-enhanced lesson.

Session Five: Publishing Student Work
In this session, we will explore online venues for publishing student work, and discuss strategies for sharing students’ work with peers, families, and local or Internet communities.

Readings:

· Author, Author! by Julie Wood
http://teacher.scholastic.com/professional/teachtech/author_author.htm

· Encourage Student Writing -- Publish on the Web! By Glori Chaika
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech042.shtml

As an activity for this session, participants will read step 6 of the Sample Lesson Plan (http://www.edtechleaders.org/Resources/Readings/LowerElemLiteracy/SampleLesson_Introlel.htm#outline), and write down publishing ideas on their Template for Planning a Technology-Enhanced Project (http://www.edtechleaders.org/documents/lowlit/planningtemplate.doc). Finally, they will explore some web sites where students can publish their work.

· Kids on the Net, httpm://kotn.ntu.ac.uk/index.htm

· English On-line Writers’ Window: http://english.unitecnology.ac.nz/writers/home.html

· Young Author's Magazine Program: http://www.youngauthors.org/

· KidsBookshelf: http://www.kidsbookshelf.com/index.asp

Session Six: Assessment Strategies
In this session, we will discuss assessment strategies for technology-enhanced literacy projects. We will also complete drafts of our lesson plans and share them with other participants for feedback.

Readings:

· 6+1 Traits of Writing: Connections to Primary Writers
http://www.nwrel.org/assessment/beginningwriters.asp?odelay=1&d=1

· Beginning Writer’s Continuum
http://www.nwrel.org/assessment/pdfGeneral/BWC.pdf

· Electronic Portfolios in the K-12 Classroom by Mary Daniels Brown
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech111.shtml

Participants will complete a rough draft of their lesson plan and post it in the online discussion area. They will also review and comment on the ideas presented by at least one of their fellow participants in the course. Participants will also share the assessment strategies they plan to use for the technology-enhanced literacy lesson that they developed in this workshop.

Using New Technologies to Supporingt Literacy Development in Lower Elementary Classrooms Syllabus Page 4 of 3

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