EL 356 Literacy Project (110 points) Spring 2012

Purpose or Goal
The purpose of this assignment is to enable you to articulate your educational philosophy
and integrate this into a literacy program that reflects your beliefs about how children
learn. Throughout this semester, you will be applying the course content in concrete ways
as you organize your ideas to teach reading and language arts to children at a given grade
level.

What are the benefits for you?

As part of this cognitive process, you will be able to speak confidently about your
understanding of the important features of a reading and language arts curriculum
program to principals, fellow educators, and parents.
You will work with a peer editor to revise and edit each part of the assignment.
As part of this writing process, you will receive support and feedback on
expressing your ideas more clearly and scaffold other peers in improving their
written communication.
This assignment is similar to the concept of project learningthrough interactions
with others, participants have opportunities to share and explore many ideas, and
make meaningful connections to develop a coherent literacy program as part of an
authentic real life activity.

There are 4 parts to this assignment:

Introduction to your philosophy of education and a discussion of your rationale
(reasons) for the literacy strategies and instructional program that you describe in
your literacy program. This is the thesis (purpose) of your paper. You will
include the Kansas State common core standards for your selected grade level for
reading, writing, listening, speaking and language.
Develop a plan for assessing the students literacy development
A description of the 4 strands for teaching reading & writing, listening,
speaking and language at this grade level (3A/B)
Conclusion and reflection of your vision for your literacy program. Use higher
level thinking skills as you reflect and write this final part of your assignment.

Critical Thinking Skills

Throughout this assignment, you will be expected to connect your curriculum ideas to the
common core standards for that grade level.
How will the strategies that you describe help your students to meet the content
learning standards?
Reflect on what you learned in your educational courses to help you develop and
clarify your ideas.
You are expected to cite scholarly references when you discuss your ideas (texts,
journals, class observations, discussions with educators, etc.). Spend some time
in Mabee Library finding scholarly journals with articles that support your
 curriculum strategies (Reading Teacher, Language Arts Journal, Literacy,
Reading Improvement and other journals or books on literacy topics)

This is not just a list of bullet points that you would include in a literacy program. You
will assess, evaluate and explain ways the literacy program you develop will help all
students meet the reading, writing and language arts standards for their grade level and
become capable, independent readers and writers.

Refer to directions for writing assignments. Review grading rubric for this assignment.

PART 1: Introduction (Thesis or purpose)

Select grade level

List Kansas State common core standards for selected grade level in reading,
writing and language arts
Philosophy of education and how children learn. Describe your understanding of
how students learnrelate it to learning the 4 language arts strands. Briefly
discuss how your philosophy of child learning influences the instructional
activities that you choose in teaching children to read and write.

PART 2 Assess students literacy development for your literacy program

(Supporting arguments that support your thesis)

Discuss possible pre-assessments

Discuss formative assessments: both informal and formal
Discuss possible summative assessments: i.e. at the end of a unit or course of
study, etc.
Discuss what your purpose(s) are for assessing your students. Are the assessments
appropriate for your students? Do the assessments measure what you will be
teaching?
How do you plan to use the information in your instruction and curriculum
development?

PART 3A: Developing a balanced literacy program: Strategies for teaching Reading
(Supporting arguments that support your thesis)

Choose the strategies and instructional procedures below that are appropriate for your
selected grade level. Discuss how you would integrate the strategies or procedures in the
reading process and language arts in developmentally appropriate ways. How will your
instruction address the 4 strands of language arts? Directly connect the instruction to the
common core standardshow will the strategies enable students in your class meet the
grade level content standards?

1. Guided reading (primary)

2. Literacy circles (upper elementary)
3. literature focus groups (grades 2-6)
 4. Shared reading (K-6)
4 Independent reading (K-6)
5 Fluency (K-6)
6 Language structure, language mechanics (K-6)
7 Phonics, word study, spelling patterns (phonemic awareness in K-1 grades)
8 Sight words (K-6)
9 Word wall (K-6)
10 Comprehension (K-6)
11 Vocabulary development (K-6)
12 Centers (K-6)
13 Story genre (fantasy, poetry, nonfiction etc) K-6
14 Technology use (K-6)
15 Read alouds (K-6)
16 Content reading/writing
Learning to read, write (K-2)
Reading, writing to learn (3-6)

17 Discuss ways to differentiate instruction for all children including those who
are achieving at high level, grade level and low level academically.
18 Discuss plans to adapt instruction for English language learners, struggling
readers and special needs children.

PART 3B: Developing a balanced literacy program: Strategies for teaching Writing
and Language Arts (Supporting arguments that support your thesis)

Choose the strategies and instructional procedures below that are appropriate for your
selected grade level. Discuss how you would integrate the strategies or procedures below
in the writing process in developmentally appropriate ways. How will your instruction
address the 4 strands of language arts? Directly connect the instruction to the common
core standardshow will the strategies enable students in your class meet the grade level
content standards?

1. Handwriting (K-4); Keyboarding

2. Writing Fluency (3-6)
3. Stages of writing process (2-6)
4. Phonics, word study, spelling patterns (1-6)
5. Language structure, language mechanics (K-6)
6. Writing genre (journals, double entry, reports, etc) (2-6)
7. Discuss ways to differentiate instruction for all children including those who
are achieving at high level, grade level and low level academically.
8. Discuss plans to adapt instruction for English language learners, struggling
readers and special needs children
PART 4: Conclusion and Reflection

Part 4 is a reflection of your vision for your literacy program. You will wrap up or
summarize the thesis statement and the main supporting ideas from parts 2, 3A and 3B.

Use higher level thinking skills as you reflect on your ideas to meet the learning needs of
all children and address content in common core standards. (1 page length).