READ 519: Language Study for Teachers, K-12 (3 cr)

COURSE
DESCRIPTION

This course will provide foundational knowledge in linguistics important for literacy teachers. Topics include fundamentals in:

Phonetics and phonology

Morphology

Syntax

Semantics

Pragmatics and language use in society

Classroom discourse

PREREQUISITES

There are no required prerequisites for this graduate-level course. However, learners are assumed to have experience working with elementary and/or secondary students.

COURSE
STRUCTURE

Fully online delivery using D2L. No face-to face interactions. Course readings, discussion board, threaded discussion, providing responses on selected topics and exercises to share with one another.

STANDARDS

This course supports the following International Reading Association's 2010 Standards for Reading Professionals:

1.1	Candidates understand major theories and empirical research that describe the cognitive, linguistic, motivational, and sociocultural foundations of reading and writing development, processes, and components, including word recognition, language comprehension, strategic knowledge, and reading-writing connections.
2.1	Candidates use foundational knowledge to design or implement an integrated, comprehensive, and balanced curriculum.
2.2	Candidates use appropriate and varied instructional approaches, including those that develop word recognition, language comprehension, strategic knowledge, and reading-writing connections.
4.1	Candidates recognize, understand, and value the forms of diversity that exist in society and their importance in learning to read and write.

PRACTICAL
APPLICATIONS

Teachers will gain important background knowledge to facilitate their instructional planning and delivery in phonics instruction, vocabulary development, sentence structure, word meaning and choice in comprehension, questioning strategies, and textual structure.

CORE/ELECTIVE

This graduate course can be used as a core or elective course in the Literacy Foundations thematic area in the 24-credit Reading Endorsement program, as 3 elective credits for those in the 12-credit Literary Education program, or as a stand-alone course.

INSTRUCTOR

Fran Verbruggen is a doctoral student in the Graduate School of Education at Portland State University, where her research interests include instruction for struggling readers and writers and English language learners. She currently holds an early childhood/ elementary teaching license with a reading endorsement, and has taught reading at both the elementary and college levels. Her educational background includes coursework in literacy development, language acquisition, and communication sciences and disorders. (BA in Spanish: University of Maryland Baltimore County; MA in teaching French: University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana; MAT: George Fox University, Oregon.)

TARGET
AUDIENCE

This course is designed as an overview of linguistics fundamentals for preK-12 teachers.

TIME
COMMITMENT

Students should expect to spend approximately 9 hours per week for 10 weeks in course-related activities (e.g., reading the text and course materials, posting to discussion forums, completing written and teacher's classroom-based assignment). This course is online and does not require in-person attendance. Assignments are completed on the learner's time schedule and are due as posted.

TEXTBOOK

A textbook is required for this course. Please check with PSU's ReadOregon program.

COST

No course in the ReadOregon curriculum will cost more than $359 per credit, including all fees, for students in the ReadOregon program.

CONTACT(S)

For more details on this course, please contact Frances Verbruggen or Elizabeth Snyder at Portland State University.

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