Class Syllabus: Nurturing Your Young Reader
|  | |
|
Office Hours: |
by appointment
|
|
Course Meeting Times: |
self-paced; no formal meeting times
|
|
|
Course Description
Hey parents and child care providers! Want to give your preschooler or young child an extra boost in reading before the coming school year?? You don't have to be a certified teacher to provide your youngster with an edge in reading. There are many simple tricks and games that you can begin to use right now to raise a reader. Whether your child is two or six or somewhere in between, come to class to discover hands-on specifics to help build pre-reading and reading skills. Nurturing Your Young Reader offers parents, care givers, and teachers of young children information about the process of learning to read. Each lesson includes activity and game ideas to try with children as well as information about different aspects of the early reading process. The class should be helpful to parents/care givers of children between age three and seven or so. If you have an older child who is struggling with reading, you may want to check out my other class, 'Help for Your Struggling Reader', course number 2596. Course Requirements
1. Read the lessons.
2. Complete and turn in the assigned homework for each lesson.
3. Visit associated weblinks for each lesson.
4. Satisfactorily complete tests/quizzes for each lesson.
5. Participate in the message board discussions at least 12 times.
6. Participate in the poll questions.
Course Goals
The goal of this course is to help parents/teachers/caregivers of young children improve their understanding of the process of learning to read and develop a collection of activity ideas to nurture literacy in the children in their care.
Course Objectives include:
1. students will demonstrate understanding of lecture content by completing assigned quizzes/tests.
2. students will apply knowledge of concepts with children in their care by completing homework assignments and turning in completed written work.
3. students will create a resource file that includes at least ten activities they will try/have tried with their children.
4. studetns will explore outside resources, including printed books, articles, and related websites.
Reading Materials
(Please note that these are not mandatory texts, but rather may be helpful tools for people who wish to further expand their knowledge).
GAMES FOR READING: PLAYFUL WAYS TO HELP YOUR CHILD READ
Peggy Kaye. Pantheon Books, NY, 1984.
GET READY TO READ: A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO TEACHING YOUNG CHILDREN AT HOME AND IN SCHOOL
Toni S. Gould. Walker and Co., NY, 1988.
BEGINNING TO READ: THINKING AND LEARNING ABOUT PRINT
Marilyn Jager Adams. MIT Press, Cambridge, MASS., 1990.
Grading Policy
Student grades will be based on satisfactory completion of tests/quizzes, completed homework assignments (pass/fail), participation in message board discussions, and participation in polls. Certificates will be awarded for attendance, participation, and quality work.
Course Outline
I. The Process of Learning To Read
-->Language underpinnings of reading
-->When is my child 'ready'?
-->Motivation for reading
-->Skills acquisition
-->How adults can help
II. Language, Language, Language!!
-->Language connection to reading
-->Picture connections
-->Language experience and story telling
-->Riddles and jokes
-->Language games and activities
III. Building Vocabulary
-->The importance of vocabulary
-->What kinds of words?
-->How children learn new words
-->Vocabulary games and activities
IV. Reading Aloud
-->The importance of reading aloud
-->Choosing quality books/fun books/variety books
-->Read aloud guides
-->Read aloud games and activities
Readiness Skills
-->What are 'readiness skills'?
-->The foundational skills that your child needs
-->Readiness games and activities
Alphabet Skills
-->Learning the ABC's
-->Forms of print
-->Sound/symbol connections
-->Alphabet games and activities
VII. Memorization
-->Importance of repetition
-->Memorizing rhymes, songs, and poems
-->Spoken/printed word connections
-->Memorization games and activities
VIII. Comprehension Skills
-->Giving meaning to print
-->Active involvement
-->Expectation of meaningful language
-->Recall, retelling, summary
-->Prediction, inference, evaluation, and synthesis
-->Comprehension games and activities
IX. Sight Vocabulary
-->Definitions
-->Sight vocabulary lists
-->Basal readers and controlled vocabulary texts
-->Teaching sight words
-->Sight word games and activities
X. The Role of Phonics/Word Analysis
-->Definitions
-->Why teach these skills?
-->Phonics and word analysis games and activities
XI. Strategies for Building Independence
-->The Goal
-->Choosing books independently
-->Noticing when meaning breaks down
-->Use of context clues
-->Use of dictionary
-->Asking for help
-->Independence games and activities
XII. Putting It All Together
-->The goal of nurturing your young reader
-->Motivating your reader
-->Monitoring progress
-->Watching for trouble and responding
Other Related Classes in Literacy - American Literature Review Reading and learning about American literature is synonymous with understanding the history and culture of a nation that has undergone dramatic social, economic, and cultural change in its relatively short history. This course is a reveiw of the literat...
- Autism 101 Autism Isn't… A result of inadequate parenting Nor is it a learning disability. And a diagnosis certainly needn't be viewed as a life long sentence to mediocrity, emptiness, dissatisfaction or lack of either fulfillment or productivity. Auti...
- Babysitting 101 This course is designed to provide beginning babysitters with advice and tips for caring for kids of all ages. Parents want their children to have the best babysitter they could find. This course is written to allow a first time babysitting to know how t...
- Behavior Management 101 When E.F. Hutton talks, people listen. A television commercial announces that this particular investment company is so respected, so knowledgeable, so everything-that-an-investment-company-should-be, that everyone lends an ear when the company makes ...
- Building Children's Reading Skills This course will provide the learner with a better understanding of the underlying concepts needed to improve the reading skills in children and adults. Through readings, lessons, quizzes and independent explorations, the learner will leave the course w...
- Child Psychology 101 This course introduces the methods, theories and main concepts used by psychologists to develop a real insight into the world of children. Child psychology is extremely important for a number of reasons, not the least of which is being able to understan...
- Creative Writing 101 'Creative Energy-Flow and the Written Word' is an attempt to capture what cannot be held in hand or thought--the elusive riddle of human creativity as we find it in our writing. Here we look at various forms and genres (books, dramas and plays, poetry, e...
- Creative Writing Workshop Do you dream of writing poetry, short stories, or novels? Have you ever watched a movie or a play and felt the desire to write a script of your own? Or have you already done some writing but want to find ways to bring more creativity, more originality,...
- Early Childhood Development Research shows that the early years set the stage for all future development. We know more now than ever before about how young children learn, think and grow. All children are born eager to explore their world and master their development. From birth to...
- Grammar 101 This self-paced online course will provide a review of the grammar and writing skills necessary when taking any high school or college test, or with your everyday work-related writing and correspondence. Divided up into twelve easy-to-understand lessons...
- How to Improve Your Concentration Concentration is a part of our daily lives. We concentrate on our work and our life situations, either consciously or subconsciously. Is focus the same as concentration, and if not why are the terms often used so interchangeably? Why can some of us re...
- How to Start and Run a Daycare Service Finding quality daycare these days is not always easy. Working parents are constantly seeking educated and experienced childcare providers to meet the needs of their children. There has been and always will be a need for home daycare settings for childre...
- How to Teach Reading Fundamentals Reading is the process of absorbing the written word. Whether in English or another language, reading is an essential part of communication between human beings. Reading comprehension is the ability to process, think through and connect ideas that are ex...
- How to Write a Short Story 101 If you're a reader and thought you might like to try your hand at short story writing but just don't know how to get started, this course will help! We'll take you through the entire process…preparing your mind, getting ideas on paper, and he...
- How to Write Short Stories for Children 101 Do you long to write but feel like you're too busy? Writing for children can be the answer. Children's stories are generally far shorter and simpler than stories for adults. You can draft an 800 word children's story during a couple of lunch hours or d...
- Humor Writing 101 Humor Writing There's no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you. (Will Rogers) Laughing- the salve of the soul. When we feel at our lowest sometimes the only thing that can turn our mood around and lift ...
- Memory and Concentration Techniques Memory, concentration, focus, communication, problem solving and relationships all interconnect and interact to give us the information we need to function properly in the everyday world. T his course will focus on these topics and explore how memory wo...
- Poetry Writing 101 This poetry course is created for the lover of poetry who wants to learn how to appreciate the art even more. It is also for student poets who want to improve their craft. This course is thorough in teaching all students everything they need to know abo...
- Punctuation and Grammar 101 Do you need a refresher course in basic punctuation and grammar? Is your business writing, school writing or personal writing a disaster and you're tired of stressing over mistakes? Improper grammar and punctuation is a sign for some people, right or w...
- Speed Reading 101 Speed reading provides you with the tools and information you need to improve not only the speed that you read, but your comprehension and concentration as well. Speed reading will also provide you with effective tools that you can use when you're in a p...
- Unit Studies 101 This is a two-part class, the purpose of which is to provide you with the tools necessary to develop your own unit studies course for either homeschool or classroom purposes. Part 1 walks you through the process of building your own unit study course in...
- Writing Basics 101: Spelling, Grammar, Punctuation, Writing Structures Most of us learned spelling and grammar in elementary school and brushed up on the rules occasionally in junior high or middle school. Once we entered high school, it was assumed we knew and remembered all of the essentials -- and slowly we discovered t...
- Writing Improvement 101 We know that effective writing will help students in their coursework but it's equally important to write well in the workplace. If a job interviewer is considering two qualified candidates, the candidate who can write well will have the edge. If you're ...
| | | |
| |
| |
