Secondary Education: Disciplinary Literacy Sec Schl

Theory and methods of disciplinary literacy for teaching in secondary schools. Focus on literacy skills and critical thinking across disciplines. Cultural contexts explored. Pre/co-requisites: EDSC 5207, EDSC 5209, EDSC 5216.

PACE students only, even after level restrictions removed; Degree students, register for EDSC 5215 A; Cross-listed with EDSC 5215 A. Total enrollment: 30

Reading in Secondary Schools explores the connections among language, literacy, learning and power. The goal of the course is to assist preservice teachers in their efforts to develop habits of mind and teaching practices that utilize language as a tool for understanding and constructing meaning. Students in this course will explore how language/literacy take on different forms and functions in different social contexts and academic disciplines. These socially influenced ways of using language (i.e. reading, writing, talking) reflect valued ways of thinking and knowing within a given academic discipline or school subject. The ways teachers use reading, writing, and discussion in their classrooms value and privilege specific ways of knowing and engaging in academic material. One of the goals of this course is to assist preservice teachers in making these practices visible through examination and reflection and use criticality to recognize inequities and begin to shift the power through their literacy practices. By illuminating these conventions, educators will be better prepared to make deliberative, reflective decisions that center the needs of their students and families.