EDUT 513: Language Development and Emergent Literacy for ...



Language Development and Emergent Literacy for Diverse Learners Ages 35EDUT 513, EDSE 557, EDUT 413, EDSE 457Tuesdays 4:30 – 7:10 PMJan 27 - May 5, 2009 (& Exam date)David J. King Hall 1006George Mason University, College of Education &Human Development,Early Childhood Education ProgramInstructor: Peg Griffin, Ph. D; E-mail: pgriffin@gmu.edu Website: of class meetings: Johnson Center, Tuesdays before/after class by e-mail appointmentCourse Description:This course provides students with an introduction to language acquisition and literacy development, in a child’s first and additional languages. We address typical and atypical development. We study the various contexts in which children develop, the diversity of communication styles in families, communities, and cultures and the impact of being educated in a second language and/or negotiating schooling with a disability.Rationale:This course is offered as a required course in the Early Childhood Special Education program, a program designed to offer teacher licensure in Early Childhood Special Education and/or a Masters Degree in Special Education. It is also offered as one of the strands in the Unified Transformative Early Education Model in Early Childhood (UTEEM), an early childhood teacher training model providing an integrated approach to preparing teachers to work with diverse young children and their families. The College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) Syllabus Statements of Expectations: CEHD expects that all students abide by the following:Students will exhibit professional behavior and dispositions. See gse.gmu.edu for a listing of these dispositions.Students must follow the guidelines of the University Honor Code. Note especially problems involving inadvertent plagiarism of electronic sources in electronic postings. See for the full honor code. Students must agree to abide by the university policy for Responsible Use of Computing. See and click on Responsible Use of Computing at the bottom of the screen. Students with disabilities who seek accommodations in a course should notify instructor as soon as possible and should be registered with the GMU Disability Resource Center (DRC). See gmu.edu/student/drc or call 703-993-2474 to access the DRC. Note: To determine whether the campus is closed due to inclement weather, call 703-993-1000 or go to gmu.edu.Texts: (ordered at bookstore, copies also on library reserve)Burns, M. S., Griffin, P. & Snow, C. E. (1999). Starting Out Right: A Guide to Promoting Children’s Reading Success. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. (Required, available in bookstore & online)Paley, V.G. 1997. The Girl with the Brown Crayon. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press. (Required, available in bookstore)Genesee, F., Paradis, J., & Crago, M. B. (2004). Dual Language Development & Disorders. A Handbook on Bilingualism & Second Language Disorders. Baltimore MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing. (Required, available in bookstore)Snow, C.E., Griffin, P. & Burns, M.S. (2006). Knowledge to Support the Teaching of Reading: Preparing Teachers for a Changing World. San Francisco CA: Jossey-BassRecommended selections from the following optional sources (some provided in electronic form)Trawick-Smith, J. W. 2006. Early Childhood Development: A Multicultural Perspective (4th edition). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice HallHeath, Shirley Brice. 1983. Ways with Words. New York: Cambridge University Press.Dickinson, D. K. & Tabors, P. O. Beginning Language with Literacy. Baltimore MD: BrookesBerko Gleason, J. & Ratner, N. (2009). The Development of Language (7th edition). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.Delpit, L. 1995/2006. Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom. NY: New Press.Relationship to Program and Professional StandardsCouncil for Exceptional Children (CEC) StandardsFoundationsDevelopment and Characteristics of LearnersIndividual Learning DifferencesInstructional StrategiesLearning Environments and Social InteractionsLanguageInstructional PlanningAssessmentProfessional and Ethical PracticeCollaborationFor descriptions of each of the above standards, go to . National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) StandardsPromoting Child Development and Learning Building Family and Community Relationships Observing, Documenting, and Assessing to Support Young Children and Families Teaching and LearningBecoming a ProfessionalFor descriptions of the above standards, go to and click on NAEYC Standards for Professional Preparation.Nature of Course:Course work includes lecture and discussion, small group activities, web based activities, as well as observation and instruction of young children, reading and writing reports. Active participation is required in each class and all assignments.General Requirements:I assume you will complete all readings assigned for the course. You must keep timely with the readings and participate in class to make the most of the class for everyone.Class attendance and participation is important. If, due to an emergency, you will not be in class, you must email as soon as possible, suggesting ways to compensate for the lost class learning opportunities – from your perspective and that of the rest of us. We use the class electronic blackboard facility. There will be materials for you to print or download, and discussion board activities for you to participate in with the whole class or smaller groups.Pagers and cell phones should be on silent mode or turned off before class begins. Use of computers or phones for mail, messages, or web surfing during class should be restricted to matters relevant to the class that can be offered as a contribution to the rest of the class. I expect assignments will be turned in on time (usually, the beginning of the class in which they are due). Students, however, occasionally have serious problems that prevent the completion of work; email or speak to me about it in a timely fashion so we can work out a solution.Written Assignment ExpectationsAll written assignments will be evaluated for content and presentation as university-level writing.Address the question or topic and task demands specifically. Develop points coherently, definitively, and thoroughly. Present ideas in a clear, concise, and organized manner. Use correct capitalization, punctuation, spelling, and grammar. Refer to appropriate authorities, studies, and examples to document statements where appropriate.Avoid wordiness and redundancy. Avoid meaningless generalizations, unwarranted assumptions, and unsupported opinions. Do not refer to published works in a general way lest you imply that a whole book, chapter or article supports some specific point when in fact it does not; make specific the part of the work you are relying on.Proofread carefully -- have another person read your work so you can edit it more effectively. Look for the APA guide on the Style Manuals link on the GMU library website. .Course OutcomesStudents will demonstrate knowledge of contemporary views of language development & literacy learning relevant to children with various home languages & cultures & to children developing in typical & atypical ways.for language, they will become familiar with child development of receptive, productive, & meta-control acts,structures & processes in phonology, morphology, syntax & semantics,functions both pragmatic & rhetoric,vocabulary (breadth, depth & speed of access);for literacy, they will become familiar with children’s opportunities todevelop foundations for literacy & motivations to read & write based in language learning (conversation, phonological awareness, vocabulary), practice with the alphabet & the working of the alphabetic principle, use of varied purposes & forms of narrative, expository & poetic written language, & sustained, mature symbolic play,grow skills of printed word identification using spelling-sound patterns (phonics) & a sight word repertoire,increase text comprehension using background knowledge & vocabulary in a repertory of cognitive strategies as appropriate for varying domains & forms of written language,become fluent processors of written language (that is, speedy, accurate & coordinated word identification & comprehension),be provided with extra effective teaching if learning to read & write is a special challenge;Students will demonstrate understanding of the individual, social, cultural, affective & cognitive factors that play a role in early language development, second (or additional) language acquisition, & children’s emerging proficiency with learning to read & write.Students will acquire skills & dispositions to apply their understanding bycreating & using print & language rich environments for young children,designing, using, evaluating & modifying activities that promote language & literacy growth,selecting & using children's literature in meaningful & effective literacy activities reflecting cultural, linguistic, & ability diversity,developing & maintaining productive partnerships with children’s families, developing & maintaining effective collaborations with school & community colleagues for best use of resources,using technology appropriately for children’s learning & assessment.Students will develop their ability to recognize the language & literacy accomplishments of individual children as well as the difficulties a child may be encountering; students will be disposed to further the child’s best interests by communicating & cooperating with other professionals & with the family.Overview of course assignments beyond readings:AssignmentsPercent of Final gradeExperience with beginning language and/or literacy5Preambles (daily) & preamble negotiation teams (once)9Ongoing blog & summary for families: KWL about language & literacy15Instructional strategy project on literacy (1 of 2 assigned topics)15Instructional strategy project on buddy skills for language (group)14Quiz on literacy (in class, includes some lobby & vote)14On-line activity 1– your literacy and language team beyond the classroom14On-line activity 2 – acts & aspects of language by 3-5 yr olds14Total =SUM(ABOVE) =SUM(ABOVE) 100Specific Assignments:Experience with beginning language and/or literacyThinking about the first class & the first readings, write two short reports about learning to read and/or talk between the ages of three & five. A page for each short report is enough. You can write about yourself as a child or someone in your family or someone in a class you taught or helped to teach. You may want to ask your family about what they remember about your own early years involving language & literacy. One report should have to do with a child being in pre-school, Kindergarten or first grade. The other report should be about a child outside of school –before a child goes to preschool even or being at home before or after school, evenings or weekends.Part 1: Post each report in a separate message in a specially designated class discussion board.Part 2: (a week later) Read some of your classmates' reports & respond to at least one of the reports posted by at least one classmate. Your response can be a question or a comment on what they have reported.Preambles (daily) & preamble negotiation teams (once)Each class after the first will begin with a preamble topic to which students will respond. The preamble topic will draw on the new reading assignments as well as prior class work. Each student will write 1/3 of a notebook page about the preamble & then some will offer their responses to stimulate class discussion. The writings can be amended during the subsequent class but will be left so PG can review the understandings that are growing in the class.In addition, once during the semester each student will work in a team with one or two other students & me (the instructor) in order to negotiate a preamble topic for the date assigned to their team. To participate, you must read the new assigned material early & review prior course work so that you can suggest topics for prompts;post your first rough idea for a preamble by the Friday before the class;negotiate about the suggestions, posting at least four more well-thought-out responses or new ideas by Monday at 8 PM.Good preamble topics will take advantage of students’ recently acquired course knowledge & provoke them to express a choice, an opinion, a conclusion, or an example. The negotiation will take place on Blackboard (or if blackboard goes down, in e-mail).Students who make at least the required postings will receive at least 5 points; more points will be awarded depending on the care & cooperation shown in the responses as well as the quality of the ideas expressed. The teams & the date their preambles will be used will be determined in the first week of the class.Ongoing blog & summary for families: KWL about language & literacyIn the blog category of discussions on blackboard for this course, there's a separate topic for each student. In his or her blog, each student will post at least once a week--updating what she knows, wants to know, or have learned (KWL) about language & literacy in the week past. Everyone can read, comment, question within everyone else's blog space. Everyone can respond to comments in her own or anyone else's blog space! At semester's end, each student can review blogs to see what class members found useful to comment on about language & literacy in order to get inspitration about what to communicate to parents. Each student will make a newsletter, power-point for a community meeting, or a poster. The goal is to help families & community understand more about language & literacy among 3-5 year olds. The family information should include some news about & rationale for language & literacy activities taking place in preschool/school as well as some practical activities for families to engage in on their own.Instructional strategy project on literacy (ISP1) (1 of 2 assigned topics)Each student will plan, implement & write a report on his or her use of a research based instructional strategy. There are two strategies that students will choose between:Dialogic Reading (DR) – use the PEER & CROWD techniques with at least two children (ages 3-5); measure changes (understanding & engagement) before & after at least three sessions; report on fidelity of implementation, child differences/similarities & changes over time.Scaffolded Writing (SW) – use the technique (function for writing, plan the message content, draw lines for message form, write or scribble on lines, read back message, fulfill function) with at least two children (ages 4-5); measure fidelity of implementation, changes (content, form, engagement) before & after at least 3 sessions; report on child differences/similarities & changes over time.An introduction will be given in class & some class time will be available for peer problem solving & instructor coaching during at least two other classes. Materials (background information, forms) for each strategy will be available on the class blackboard.Each student will write an individual report for this project. Students will plan, implement & analyze separately but will discuss ideas & perhaps share materials with others doing the same project. Students will choose which instructional strategy to work on, but a lottery will also be used to insure that both strategies get worked on by a good number of students.Reports will be posted on blackboard & jigsaw groups will be convened so that students can learn about the strategies they were not involved with.Instructional strategy project on buddy skills for language (ISP 2 group)Groups of no more than six students & no less than three students will plan a buddy skills intervention, implement it & collaborate to write a report this research based instructional strategy. It has been shown to increase participation in peer conversations by children seldom so engaged in a classroom. Two articles will be posted on Blackboard:1.English, K., Goldstein, H., Shafer, K. & Kaczmarek, L. 1997. Promoting interactions among preschoolers with and without disabilities: Effects of a buddy skills-training program. Exceptional Children, 63(2)229-243. Posted on class blackboard as a pdf file "BuddyEnglishExceptionalChildren"2.English, K., Shafer, K., Goldstein, H. & Kaczmarek, L. 1997. Teaching buddy skills to Preschoolers. Innovations(9) 46 pp. Posted on class blackboard as a pdf file "BuddySkills"The group will read the basic description & implementation manual (2 above), role playing to be sure that all understand the procedures for implementing & measuring the operation/effectiveness of the strategy,identify a population of 3-5 year olds among which there are some children who are seldom engaged in productive interactions with other children;identify a student in need of more engagement & a peer or near peer who can be taught to participate as a buddy;take a baseline measure of engagement by the student in need of more engagement;teach the other student to learn about being a buddy partner;help the buddies to implement the intervention, re-teaching the pair the stratgey as needed,take measures during 5 sessions;analyze & evaluate the fidelity & effectiveness of this use of the buddy system;write a report on your group's buddy system use & its potential for other uses.An introduction will be given in class & some class time will be available for peer problem solving & instructor coaching. The report will be posted on Blackboard. Each group will also provide an oral “abstract” of their work to the rest of the class.Quiz on literacy (in class, includes some lobby & vote)An in-class quiz (some short answer, one essay question) taking 50 minutes of class time, based on class readings & discussion.On-line activity 1– your literacy and language team beyond the classroomThis activity is intended to focus attention on the resources beyond the classroom that are available to help the teacher working to improve literacy & language among young children. Students will locate certain resources on the web & will post & comment on their activity in the light of classrooms with three to five year old children. Full directions & resources (often including urls) for each part are posted on the class Blackboard in the special category & topics reserved for this activity.Part 1 Articles on social group diversity (2 posts minimum)Part 2 Research, practice & policy re: early childhood (2 posts minimum)Part 3 Individual differences related to special educational needs (3 posts minimum)Part 4 Language & dialect diversity (3 posts minimum)Part 5 Resources for preschool from universities (2 posts minimum)Part 6 Organizations/institutions/projects (2 posts minimum)Part 7 Television (3 posts minimum)Part 8 Are there on-line activities to help children achieve in literacy & language (2 posts minimum)Part 9 For you to look for on the web (2 posts minimum)On-line activity 2 – acts & aspects of language by 3-5 yr oldsThe on-line discussion goals are: to refine practical understanding of the acts & aspects of language represented by the intersecting language prisms used in class; to sharpen your use of concepts & terms during your observation of, analysis of & writing about language interactions involving children.There are 4 tasks for you to work on. You will write at least one message answering each task. In addition, you will read other peoples' messages. Post a response to at least four of the messages you read by another student. AND, you should respond to responses about your messages – at least 4 times. So, that means I expect to get at least 12 posts from each of you during this on-line discussion. For the tasks, you will supply annotated examples of language used by three, four or five year old children. Each task asks you to focus on a different aspect of language. For the basis of each example, choose an utterance (remember this is NOT about written language) used in an interaction which involved at least one child between the ages of 3 & 5 (& any other people of any ages). It might be something the child said or something he or she heard. You may choose your utterances from encounters in your own life, from children quoted in the Paley book or other texts from the course, or other material as long as you give the source & it isn’t fiction. If you have a recorded the interaction, it would be wonderful to use examples from that! Each utterance should be “notable” – something that differs from adult language, or something that seems precocious or less advanced than you had expected for a child of this age, or something that is unusual for this child (a newly acquired act or aspect of language, a contrast with the child’s other language proficiency). Say why you think your example is notable. You should supply enough context for each example so others in the class can make sense of what was happening & why you think it is notable. Tell about who was there & what was going on when the before & after the utterance. Include a “category” & possibly a sub-category (e.g., Syntax, multiple clauses) that you think the utterance fits in & explain why you think the utterance is notable in terms of the category you identify. Be sure you also say which act of language (receptive, expressive, or meta-control) the utterance exemplifies.For Task One: Examples of structures of language. You may have an example of a structure from phonology, or a structure from syntax, or a structure from morphology.For Task Two: Examples of functions of language. You may have an example of a pragmatic function that is interpersonal or private (intra-personal) language, or a rhetorical function.For Task Three: Examples of vocabulary. You may have an example of breadth, depth or speed of vocabulary.For Task Four: You will post a short transcript. There should be at least 10 "turns" taken by the participants. Choose a segment of talk that will allow you to bring up some interesting observations or questions about language used by children between the ages of 3 & 5.Following are guidelines:Include the child & at least one other person (you, another adult, another child/children);The interaction should last at least 10 minutes;Identify the context of the event -- is it unusual or a routine (for example: dramatic play, toy play, literacy, a field trip, a meal, transition time or center time in school), was it planned for the essay or serendipitous, what is the location, who are the people, what is the mood, what preceded & followed it, etc.Record it electronically (audio or video), or in detailed field notes, or with an instrument;Report using the concepts & terms in class readings & discussion of the aspects & acts of language, giving specific examples of the categories you use, providing summaries concerning what language was used/almost used/misused; append a written form (for example a transcript) of at least part of the raw record the interaction.A grid of the potential different examples of language will be provided in class & students & the instructor will produce apt examples of the language that would fit in each cell in the grid. Special attention will be given to meta-control acts & the issues of language & culture diversity that may be confused with misuse or failure to use an aspect of language or to perform an act of language when expected.Tentative Schedule: details to followDateTopicJan. 27Course overview: Main ideas, Resources, Tasks;Discussion: Experiences with learning language &/or literacyGood Night MoonAssignment: Part 1: Experience with beginnings (post by Feb. 1)Feb. 3Alternate icons for early literacy conceptsLiteracy foundations: environment, conversations, play & phonological awarenessBlue and Yellow and From Head to Toe and Moo, Baa, La la laAssignment: Part 2: Experience with beginnings (post by Feb 8)Readings Due: Paley (complete), SOR 1-41; KTSTR: 17-21; 123-136Feb. 10Literacy at 4 & 5: Comprehension (meta-cognitive monitor, reader response changes); Motivation & engagement; Diversity of purpose & form; Vocabulary (depth, breadth, speed access); Read alouds, Estimated writingAnimals and Are you a … Poky Puppy,Assignment: Introduction to Instructional Strategy Project 1Feb. 17Literacy at 4 & 5: Printed word identifications, Fluency, AAEAssignment: Choose ISP1 and startFeb. 24Team around teachers – on-line activity 1Mar.3Literacy wrap up: Table of big ideas by activities; Pillar/tree/braid review; Teaching cycle: plan/do/assess/ evaluate/modify/repeatMar.10 no class because Spring Break March 9-15Mar.17ISP1 due & strategy jigsaw QuizMar.24Language overview: acts & aspects of language; dual language development; atypical language development; begin ISP2Mar.31Language: Vocabulary; Functions: pragmatics & rhetoric [class time ISP2 work]; languages & culture diversityApril 7Examples of child language aspects & acts (other vs. meta-control acts)preparing for on-line activity 2Apr.14Language Structure: Morphology & Syntax; dialect, additional languages & culturesApr.21On line activity 2Apr.28Language Structure: Phonology; Assessment Language Benchmarks: various aspects; various sources; brainstorm for essayMay 5Language Structure: syntax & semantics; Benchmarks & interventionsExam dayWrap-up: present handbooks, on-line activity 2 commentary and buddy project outcomes ................
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