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Adolescent Literacy Strategies


Course Outline


Course Description


Literacy skills are essential in order to participate in today’s increasingly global society and economy that demand the ability to effectively use literacy in multiple contexts for multiple purposes. Today’s adolescents have greater literacy demands placed upon them than ever before as they prepare to enter an adult world that requires their ability to read, write, and speak successfully. Today’s teachers face greater challenges than ever before in meeting the increasingly diverse literacy needs of their students in order to prepare them for success in the adult world. This course will prepare you to assist your adolescent students who struggle with literacy to achieve literacy success by providing strategies and techniques that you can incorporate into your secondary classroom in order to scaffold your students’ literacy development. In this course, you will learn to implement research-based instructional practices that scaffold adolescents’ literacy development in the areas of motivation, engagement, reading expository text, using prior knowledge, vocabulary, comprehension, writing, and studying. Additionally, you will learn to implement research-based assessment techniques that will allow you to monitor your students’ growth and adjust your instructional practices to foster their continued progress.

Objectives


  • Synthesize current issues related to adolescent literacy.
  • Evaluate local and national impact of current legislation regarding adolescent literacy.
  • Analyze school-wide approaches to improving adolescent literacy.
  • Examine the characteristics of adolescents who struggle with literacy.
  • Compare and contrast theoretical frameworks and research regarding adolescents' literacy learning.
  • Differentiate the factors that contribute to adolescent readers' interactions with text.
  • Examine elements of successful literacy environments for adolescent learners.
  • Integrate strategies that motivate struggling adolescent readers.
  • Implement lessons to scaffold the skills of adolescents who struggle with literacy.
  • Determine common reasons why students struggle to comprehend textbooks and other expository texts.
  • Evaluate instructional materials that are appropriate for your adolescent students who struggle with literacy.
  • Integrate strategies to improve the expository text reading skills of your struggling adolescent readers.
  • Distinguish the powerful role of prior knowledge in the reading process.
  • Implement strategies and create materials to assess, build, activate, and organize struggling adolescent readers' prior knowledge.
  • Interpret why vocabulary knowledge is essential for reading comprehension.
  • Assess the factors associated with effective vocabulary instruction and learning.
  • Integrate strategies to enhance the vocabulary skills of struggling adolescent readers.
  • Incorporate strategies to build vocabulary skills in the content area classroom.
  • Appraise factors that impact reading comprehension.
  • Determine comprehension strategies used by proficient readers.
  • Integrate strategies that scaffold the comprehension skills of struggling adolescent readers.
  • Incorporate strategies to support comprehension in the content area classroom.
  • Analyze reasons why adolescents struggle with writing.
  • Incorporate strategies to scaffold the skills of struggling writers.
  • Integrate strategies to incorporate writing into the content area classroom.
  • Evaluate the skills needed for adolescents to study and learn.
  • Incorporate strategies to assist struggling adolescent readers in developing and using effective study and learning strategies.
  • Distinguish the characteristics and functions of high-quality assessments.
  • Create and implement high-quality tools and techniques to assess struggling adolescent readers.
  • Synthesize assessment results in order to plan effective instruction.

Curriculum Design & Time Requirements


There are multiple instructional techniques utilized throughout the course that serve as a scaffold to support your learning of effective instructional techniques. The primary teaching tools are the course textbook and the student guide that contains guidelines, templates, assignments, and necessary background information on the course content. This is a forty-five hour, 3 credit graduate level course taught in the classroom.

Course Materials


The required textbook for this course is, Reading and the High School Student: Strategies to Enhance Literacy (2nd ed.). Boston: Pearson and Allyn Bacon. Irvin, J. L., Buehl, D. R., & Klemp, R. M. (2007). Additionally, students will need: a high-school level textbook for their learning activities during sessions four, five, and nine; a student writing sample of at least one paragraph in length for session eight; and a business size (#10) self-addressed, stamped envelope for session ten. Participants will also receive a student guide.

Session Outline

Session 1: Introduction to Adolescent Literacy
Contents:
  1. Attendance, course materials distribution
  2. Instructor introduction
  3. Class introductions
  4. Form working groups
  5. Review course requirements/overview
  6. Establishing class rules and expectations
  7. What is literacy and how is it used?
  8. What is adolescent literacy?
  9. Sharing/discussion of relevant issues
  10. Course registration

Session 2: Literacy and the Adolescent Learner
Contents:
  1. Review homework from session one (KWL chart)
  2. Adolescents who struggle with literacy: Characteristics, signs, and causes
  3. Literacy theories
  4. Factors influencing reading
  5. Creating conceptual models
  6. Summary/Closure

Session 3: Learning Environments and Instructional Practices that Support Adolescent Literacy
Contents:
  1. Review homework from session two (diagram of reader/text/ context)
  2. Factors that motivate adolescents to read
  3. Instructional strategies that motivate adolescent readers
  4. Instructional strategies that scaffold the literacy growth of struggling adolescent readers
  5. Incorporating instructional strategies in the classroom
  6. Summary/closure

Session 4: Expository Text Challenges for Struggling Adolescent Readers
Contents:
  1. Jigsaw activity reflection
  2. Struggling adolescent readers and informational text
  3. Selecting appropriate instructional materials
  4. Textbook analysis
  5. Expository text strategies
  6. Summary/closure
  7. KWL chart

Session 5: The Importance of Prior Knowledge in the Reading Process
Contents:
  1. Review homework from session four (textbook analysis)
  2. Importance of prior knowledge in the reading process
  3. Prior knowledge strategies
  4. Application of strategies
  5. Creating instructional materials
  6. KWL chart

Session 6: Enhancing the Vocabulary Skills of Struggling Adolescent Readers
Contents:
  1. Review homework from session five (prior knowledge strategies)
  2. Importance of vocabulary in reading comprehension
  3. Vocabulary simulation
  4. Obstacles to adolescent vocabulary knowledge
  5. Choosing vocabulary words for instruction
  6. Guidelines for effective vocabulary instruction
  7. Vocabulary strategies to increase adolescents' reading comprehension
  8. KWL chart

Session 7: Enhancing the Comprehension Skills of Struggling Adolescent Readers
Contents:
  1. Review homework from session six (vocabulary lessons)
  2. Factors that impact adolescent readers’ comprehension
  3. Comprehension strategies used by proficient readers
  4. Guidelines for planning effective reading comprehension instruction
  5. Instructional strategies to increase adolescents’ reading comprehension

Session 8: Supporting Struggling Adolescent Writers
Contents:
  1. Reflection on the use of skits as a strategy to increase reading comprehension
  2. Reasons adolescents struggle with writing
  3. Effective writing instruction
  4. Planning effective writing instruction (60 min.)

Session 9: Study and Learning Strategies for Adolescents Who Struggle with Literacy
Contents:
  1. Metacognition
  2. Skills needed for adolescents to study and learn
  3. Strategies to increase adolescents’ studying and learning skills
  4. Implementing strategies to increase adolescents’ studying and learning skills
  5. Assessing adolescents' study skills and learning habits

Session 10: Assessment Techniques for Teachers of Adolescents Who Struggle with Literacy
Contents:
  1. Defining assessment
  2. Types of assessments
  3. Characteristics and functions of high-quality assessments
  4. Implementing effective assessment tools and techniques
  5. The cyclical nature of assessment and instruction
  6. Creating assessment tools
  7. Complete KWLSD chart, complete course evaluation, and distribute TEI brochures

Grading


    Assignment Points   Grading Scale  
  Attendance & Participation   20      100 – 93 A
  Homework   50       92 – 85 B
  KWLSD chart   30       84 – 77 C
  Total Points 100    

Student Requirements


  1. Attend all class sessions for the requisite number of hours and actively participate in all activities.
  2. Complete all reading and homework assignments.
  3. Complete the KWL chart throughout the course and the S and D (KWLSD) columns at the end of the course.

Student Academic Integrity


Participants guarantee that all academic class work is original. Any academic dishonesty or plagiarism (to take ideas, writings, etc. from another and offer them as one's own), is a violation of student academic behavior standards as outlined by our partnering colleges and universities and is subject to academic disciplinary action.

Register


To register to take TEI's Adolescent Literacy Strategies course, go to the Course Registration page.