Instructor:         Susan Roberta Katz, Associate Professor
Times:               Thursday, 4:30-7:00 pm
Credit Hours:    3
Place:                ED 10
Office Hours:     Tuesday & Thursday, 2:00-4:00, or by appointment.
Address:             Education, Room 131
email:                   katz@usfca.edu
phone:                  415-422-2209
website:                http://www.usfca.edu/fac-staff/katz

Course Description:

This course focuses on the academic skills and practices that strengthen the reading, writing, listening, speaking and critical thinking abilities essential for functioning in an increasingly complex world. Academic literacy stresses the development of reading and writing proficiency for acquiring knowledge across all content areas. The course is designed for teachers in secondary multicultural classrooms.

Course Objectives:

The following objectives operationalize the CLAD competencies which a preservice professional should demonstrate.

At the end of the course the candidate will be able to:

1. Demonstrate a familiarity with the sources of information and research findings in the areas of language and literacy acquisition and their relationship to content-based instruction.
2. Recognize and put to use a variety of strategies in order to enhance the English language and literacy development of students with diverse language abilities.
3. Promote mastery of strategies designed to improve vocabulary development, reading comprehension and expository writing in content areas.
4. Recognize and employ a variety of language and literacy assessment approaches.
5. Integrate literacy development into a long-term curriculum unit in the content area.
6. Gain an understanding of students' language and literacy strengths and interests as well as learn how to build upon those strengths and interests.

 

10%     1. Organization of course materials.

During the semester, you will receive a multitude of handouts and materials on differing strategies designed to improve academic
literacy of students. Former USF students have found these strategies to be very helpful for student (and future) teaching.
Keeping these materials in an organized manner will facilitate their use. Therefore, you are required to compile them into a large 3-ring
notebook (with dividers) or file box (with corresponding folders).

You must bring this to the last class (12/7) for my review.  Include examples from all the following categories with a self-
assessment for each.

15%     2. Dialogue Journals.

Select a partner in your content area. Correspond with this partner weekly via email about the readings and/or class sessions about how
you can implement ideas from this course. Begin this dialogue on Week 3 and continue through Week 15.

15%     3. Critical Analysis of Text - Essay

Write a critical analysis of an idea(s) presented in one of the readings assigned for this class or during a class session. Feel free to refer to
your dialogue journals. Clearly state your opinion and back it up with evidence. Be concise (2-5 pages). You and I will both assess
this essay according to a holistic scoring rubric. DUE: 11/30.

10%     4. Lesson Plan

Develop a thorough lesson plan integrating at least one of the literacy strategies related to comprehension or vocabulary.
Teach this to your own students, if possible.
DUE: 10/12.

15%     5. Practice Teaching Strategies.

Demonstrate a particular literacy strategy along with another student for 20 minutes during one class session (Weeks 8, 9, 12).
Submit a joint lesson plan for this demonstration.

5%     6. Professional Development.

Attend at least one professional development session (eg. Bay Area Writing Project). Orally present highlights of this session to the class.
Submit a brief (one page maximum) summary.

20%     7. Unit Plan

I will evaluate your unit plan for academic literacy development.  (Guidelines will be distributed at a later time.)

ORAL AND WRITTEN PRESENTATION DUE: 12/7.

10%     8. Class participation.

Participate in class assignments, discussions, groups, and activities. Attendance is mandatory given the interactive
nature of the class.  Please notify me (via phone or email) if you must miss a class for illness or an emergency.

For your final grade, prepare a self-assessment of your performance in each of the above requirements, due at the final class on 12/7.
Criteria will be discussed later.

Required Textbooks:

1. Ruddell, M.R. (1997). Teaching content reading and writing.  Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
2. Schoenbach, R. et al. (1999). Reading for understanding: A guide toimproving reading in middle andhigh school classrooms.
3. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
4. Course reader of selected articles.

Textbooks are on reserve in Curriculum Center in School of Education.

Week One: August 24, 2000

Introductions to students, instructor, course.

Themes : What does it mean to be literate in an academic institution?

Writing In Class : Literacy instruction history.

Assignment Due Next Class : Prepare a presentation on your assigned
excerpt with one-two other students. Use visual prompts (overheads,
charts). Focus on author's definition of academic literacy.

Week Two: August 31, 2000

Theme : What is "academic literacy"? Is there a "literacy crisis" in the U.S.?

Reading Assignment :

1. READER #1-5, Pages 1-35.

Selections from Writing Lives: Exploring Literacy and Community.(1996). Edited by Sara Garnes, David Humphries, Vic Mortimer, Jennifer
Phegley & Kathleen R. Wallace. New York: St. Martin's Press.  (Readings by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Paulo Freire, bell hooks, Alan Bloom)
Additional selection by Lisa Delpit (Other People's Children, 1995).
2. READING FOR UNDERSTANDING, Chapter 1, 3-16.

 

Week Three: September 7, 2000

Theme : Literacy Processes: Thinking, Reading and Writing.

Reading Assignment:

1. READER #6, Pages 36-47. Pearson & Stephens.
2. TEACHING CONTENT READING. Chapter 2, Pages 18-35.
3. READING FOR UNDERSTANDING, Chapter 2, 17-42.

 

Week Four: September 14, 2000

Theme : Academic Literacy in Practice in a Multicultural Classroom.

Reading Assignment:

1. READING FOR UNDERSTANDING. Chapter 3 & Chapter 4, 45-73.
2. READER #7, Pages 48-75. Walker.

 

Class Activity:
Guest Speaker: Mark Salinas, Teacher, Thurgood Marshall Academic H.S.

Week Five: September 21, 2000

Theme : Comprehension Instruction.

1. READER #8, Pages 76-98. Duke & Pearson.
2. TEACHING CONTENT READING, Chapter 3, 36-89.
3. READING FOR UNDERSTANDING, Chapter 5, 74-98..

 

Week Six: September 28, 2000

Theme: Vocabulary Learning.

Reading Assignment:

1. TEACHING CONTENT READING. Chapter 4 (Vocabulary Learning in Content Areas), Pages 90-129.
2. READER #9, Pages 99-106. Curtis.
3. READER #10, Pages 107-116. Delp.
4. OPTIONAL : READER #11, Pages 117-126. Goodman & Goodman.

 

Week Seven: October 5, 2000

Theme: Bridges between Youth Popular Culture and Academic Literacy.

Reading Assignment:

1. READER #12, Pages 127-138. Mahiri.
2. READER #13, Pages 139-148. Morrell.
3. READER #14, Pages 149-153. Morrell & Duncan.

 

LESSON PLAN DUE NEXT CLASS (10/12).

Week Eight: October 12, 2000

Theme : Reading Across the Curriculum.

Reading Assignment:

1. TEACHING CONTENT READING. Chapter 5 (Reading Across the Curriculum), Pages 130-167.
2. READING FOR UNDERSTANDING. Chapter 6, 99-116.
3. READER #15, Pages 154-165. Santa.

Class Activity:
Demonstration of strategy (team of 2-3 people).

LESSON PLAN DUE . This lesson plan should integrate at least one of the literacy strategies related to comprehension or vocabulary. Teach this
lesson to a group of students, if possible. Evaluate its effectiveness.

Week Nine: October 19, 2000

Theme: Cooperative/Collaborative Learning

Reading Assignment:

1. TEACHING CONTENT READING. Chapter 9 (Cooperative/Collaborative Learning). Pages 268-303.
2. READING FOR UNDERSTANDING, Chapter 7, Pages 117-137.

 

Class Activity

1. Demonstration of strategy.
2. Literature circle in content area reading.

 

Theme : Literacy development through technology.

Reading Assignment :

1. READER #16, Pages 166-186. Vacca & Vacca.
2. READER #17, Pages 187-192. Cummins,& Sayers.
3. READER #18, Pages 193-196. Zipp.

 

Week Eleven: November 2, 2000

Theme : Literacy Instruction for English Language Learners.

Reading Assignment:

1. TEACHING CONTENT READING. Chapter 11 (Teaching Bilingual/Bicultural Learners), Pages 336-362. (Review)
2. READER #20, Pages 197-204. Lew.
3. READER #21, Pages 205-217. Scarcella
4. OPTIONAL: READER #22, Pages 218-227. Zamel.

 

Class Activity:

1. Guest Speaker: Ann Lew, Teacher, International Studies Academy.

 

Theme: Writing Across the Curriculum, Part I.

Reading Assignment:

1. TEACHING CONTENT READING. Chapter 6 (Writing Across the Curriculum), Pages 130-167.

Class Activity:

1. Demonstration of strategy.
2. Peer review of unit plan outline or first draft.

 

Week Thirteen: November 16, 2000

Theme: Writing Across the Curriculum, Part II.

Reading Assignment:

1. READER #23, Pages 228-265. Caplan.

 

Assignment Due November 30: Critical Analysis Essay.

Week Fourteen: November 23, 2000

NO CLASS: THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY.

Week Fifteen: November 30, 2000

Theme : Assessment

Reading Assignment:

1. TEACHING CONTENT READING. Chapter 7 (Assessment of Student Progress in Subject Area Reading and Writing), Pages 198-235.
2. READING FOR UNDERSTANDING, Appendix B,187-193.

 

Class Activity:

1. Guest Speaker: Strategic Literacy Initiative.
2. Holistic scoring of critical analysis essay (self-assessment).
3. Demonstration of strategy.

 

Week Sixteen: December 7, 2000

Theme: Presentations of unit plans.

Replicate an activity from your unit plan to present to the class.  Presentations will be coordinated with Wednesday C&I class.

Writing Assignment:

1. Written unit plan due. Follow guidelines carefully.
2. Self-assessment due.

For your Curriculum and Instruction course, you will be creating a long-term unit plan in your content area. For purposes of this course in Academic Literacy, I will evaluate your unit plan based upon the degree to which you incorporate the principles and strategies we have studied this semester which promote academic literacy development.
 

1. Make sure that your unit includes the use of text and involves your students in activities designed to engage them with that text.

 
2. Begin with a description of the students in your classroom. Focus on two students who are hardest to reach, two in the middle, and two who are the most engaged. Keep all of them in mind when you are designing your lessons.

 
3. Make use of the students' previous knowledge, their experiences and their cultural richness.

 
4. Incorporate computer technology into your unit plan. (For example, research on the World Wide Web.)

 
5. Afterwards conduct an evaluation (self-assessment and student assessment). Specifically consider how those students who were the hardest to reach responded to this unit. Pass out student evaluation forms to include as attachments to the unit.

 
6. Collect any writing samples and/or student products from this unit for use in your exhibition.

 
7. In order that I can publish all unit plans as a class anthology, prepare a clean, written version with sufficient margins (1-1/2" on left, 1" on right). Do not staple or bind to facilitate copying . Also, do not put page numbers anywhere on the page. Submit to me on last class session (December 7).