Undergraduate Course: Primary Literacies 1: Developing literacy in the early stages (EDUA08097)
Course Outline
| School | Moray House School of Education and Sport |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 8 (Year 1 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | Primary Literacies 1 aims to provide students with knowledge, understanding and practical experience of how children learn to talk, listen, read and write, particularly in school. It is intended to act as an introduction to a range of issues within Language in Education for aspiring teachers and others interested in this field. |
| Course description |
Students begin the course by reflecting on their own language histories and current experiences as members of literate communities. Throughout the course, they relate these reflections to literacy practices in schools. Specific topics include:
* different approaches to teaching and
assessing speaking, listening, reading and writing in the early school years.
* supporting bilingual children.
* relationships between literacy and literature, including multimodal resources.
* academic literacy.
* the needs of learners with literacy difficulties.
Students have opportunities to examine, through educational artefacts, documents and multimedia sources, how different theories are reflected in teaching methods and resources.
Through academic reading and discussion, students are familiarised with educationally influential accounts of oral language development in children, including those who are acquiring more than one language.
Relationships between speech and written language are considered, as are relationships between language and thought. Theoretical models are related to explorations of contemporary and historical samples of variation and change in patterns of classroom discourse.
A focus on individual and group socialisation into language and education is paralleled by an examination of historical changes in language, geographical variation and social stratification. Students are encouraged to relate these aspects of language to their own individual histories and repertoires, and to implications for social justice in language and literacy policy.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | Please contact the secretary before enrolling students on this course. |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2022/23, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 10 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 20,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 20,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Placement Study Abroad Hours 12,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
144 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Formative Task
1) The reflective journal relating students' experiences and reflections to course content is used as the basis of discussion with small groups of students on issues which integrate personal experience, academic reading, and implications for practice. Students receive tutor and peer feedback on both their ideas and use of language.
2) Students are supported in designing a framework to support a critical reflection of the policy and approaches used in developing literacy in the early stages in their serial days and placement school.
Summative Task: Part 1 (20%)
Complete an audit and self-assessment of subject matter knowledge to demonstrate professional development in this area of literacy.
Submit a reflective commentary on student engagement with subject knowledge development as part of student's professional learning portfolio.
This assessment provides an opportunity to demonstrate evidence of success in course learning outcomes 1 and 2.
This part of the assessment will constitute 20% of the final mark for Primary Literacies 1, and must be completed satisfactorily in order to pass the course as a whole. Portfolios will be graded according to the University Common Marking Scheme.
Part 2 (80%)
Section A: A written assignment of 2000 words summarising and comparing different, but not necessarily opposed, stances towards an issue in early years primary Language and Literacy.
The assignment should demonstrate critical engagement with appropriate academic literature related to the issues in teaching and learning introduced on the course.
Section B: A 1000 word discussion of a classroom resource related to the area of language and literacy discussed in Section A. The discussion should comprise a concise description of the resource, a theoretically grounded rationale for its use, and an evaluation. The latter should be critical, but not judgmental, posing questions and suggesting criteria for its empirical evaluation. In formulating the rationale and tentative evaluation, the student should consider, in the light of course discussions and background reading, the implicit theories of language and literacy, learning and childhood embodied by the resource.
This assessment provides an opportunity to demonstrate evidence of success in learning outcomes 1, 2, 3 and 5.
Students must gain a 40% pass on all components of assessment.
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| Feedback |
Students are provided with oral feedback from tutors during workshop activities throughout the course. The reflective journal relating students' experiences and reflections to course content is used as the basis of discussion with small groups of students on issues which integrate personal experience, academic reading, and implications for practice. Students receive tutor and peer feedback on both their ideas and use of language.
During week 3, they participate in an academic literacy workshop in which they share feedback from a previous course assignment, and provide a brief summary of its implications.
During week 5, they participate in group presentations in which they summarise their progress in achieving learning outcome 1: the development of personal and professional knowledge about language and literacy in education. This forms the basis of summative assignment 1: reflections on personal and professional development. Written tutor feedback on this assignment acts as feedforward relating to both subsequent course engagement and summative assignment 2. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of key concepts and principles about language and literacy in education, with reference to both personal development and professional practice.
- Demonstrate the ability to apply these key concepts and principles to observations of classroom practices and resources.
- Offer a comparative evaluation of different approaches to the teaching and learning of literacy, supported by a well-informed theoretical rationale.
- Present evidence of reflective engagement with self- instructional and self-assessment online tools.
- Participate in gathering empirical evidence related to young learners¿ literacy development, and in collaborative discussion and analysis of this evidence.
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Reading List
Alexander, A. (2007) Towards Dialogic Teaching (3rd Edition). Cambridge: Dialogos.
Bearne, E. & Kennedy, R. (2012) Literacy and Community: Developing a Primary Curriculum Through Partnerships. Royston: UKLA.
Cremin, T. & Dombey, H. (eds) (2007) Handbook of Primary English in Initial Teacher Education. Royston: UKLA/NATE.
Cremin, T. & Myhill, D. (2011) Writing Voices: Creating Communities of Writers. London: Routledge.
Goodwin, P. (2012) The Literate Classroom (3rd Edition). London: Routledge.
Jajdelska, E. & Ellis, S. (2009) Comprehension and the Silent Reader. Arts & Humanities Research Council/University of Strathclyde.
Levy, R. (2011) Young Children Reading. London: Sage/UKLA.
Lightbown, P. M. & Spada, N. (2006) How Languages are Learned (3rd Edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Mercer, N. & Littleton, J. (2007) Dialogue and the Development of Children¿s Thinking. London: Routledge.
Trask, R. (2004) Language: The Basics. (3rd Edition). London: Routledge.
Reynolds, K. (2011) Children¿s Literature: A very Short Introduction. Oxford: OUP.
Stone, G. (2012) The Digital Literacy Classroom. Royston: UKLA.
Wood, M. (1998) How Children Think and Learn. London: Blackwell.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Generic cognitive skills: Students are required to provide well-informed and critical commentaries about professional practices and resources in language and literacy education.
Communication, ICT and numeracy skills: Students are required to demonstrate understanding of the course through clear spoken and written language. They are required to engage with online self-instruction and self-assessment tools; they are introduced to the quantitative aspects of literacy (e.g. the implications of reading ages and readability).
Autonomy, accountability and working with others: Students are required to participate in collaborative presentations (e.g. reporting back on school experience and self-study) and practical inquiries (e.g. shared analyses of children's reading and writing). |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Miss Fiona Bowie
Tel: (0131 6)51 6429
Email: |
Course secretary | Miss Lorraine Nolan
Tel: (0131 6)51 6571
Email: |
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