Syllabus

Master of Science in Education

EDU 748 Literacy for Inclusion – Fall A 2015

Credits - 3

Description

This course is designed to straddle the disciplines of regular and special education. With the movement to RTI (Response to Intervention) schools are taking on a more holistic approach to differentiation of instruction and support for intervention at all levels before a special education diagnosis is made for a child. As a result regular and special education teachers have been asked to sit at the same side of the table when assessing and planning instruction for all students. This course will emphasize this bridge between working with students in an inclusive setting. Special emphasis on literacy assessments and instruction will be the focus as well as how to differentiate in Tier One, Two, and Three levels of instruction.

Materials

Learning Objectives and Outcomes

• Students will understand the legal, political and social issues surrounding special education and RTI as well as theories of disability (medical vs. social model) and specific disability classifications and resources.
• Students will demonstrate understanding of the RTI Process as a formal approach to assessing, supporting and documenting student learning.
• Students will demonstrate the ability to assess a student’s learning strengths and challenges, and design a modified or differentiated lesson plan to leverage and support learning.
• Students will facilitate and participate in a collaborative inquiry group to more deeply understand a focal student and plan for instruction.
• Students will participate as active and contributing members of an academic learning community to learn new content and further understanding of teaching literacy in inclusion settings.

Assignments

The assessments in this course were designed to meet a number of objectives. First, some of the assignments are created to gauge your active participation in the course. Unlike face-to-face courses where we can visibly monitor your engagement- in this course we need to use things like discussion boards points to make sure that you are an active participant with this material. There are also some assignments that are created to give you an opportunity to synthesize what you are learning and create a new product to demonstrate this learning. The assignments in the class have been carefully constructed to match the content in the course and to grow your learning as a literacy professional.

 

Course Introduction (3 points)

• Write a brief introduction of yourself (or post a video introduction) and include your teaching experience in the past and your current role, where you live, your family, something you like to do, a picture of yourself, and any experience you have with RTI or teaching students with disabilities. Please take time to read each other’s introductions at the end of the week and comment on one.

Autobiographical Learning Story (20 points)

• For this assignment we would like you reflect on a time that you learned something new and found the process to be challenging. This can be a learning story from childhood or adulthood, and can include any topic, skill, or activity. Describe the learning process, the ways that others responded to your struggles (peers and/or teachers) and how this experience constructed your identity as a learner. Did the other people involved take a deficit approach or a strengths-based approach toward your learning, and how did this impact you? Connect your own experience to any of the readings done so far and to your own teaching practice. You will either write your story OR create a digital story and post it to Blackboard, and then comment on at least one other classmate’s story.

Introduction to Focal Student (3 points)

• By week 2, you will select a focal student for your RTI Project with whom you will work throughout the duration of this course at the Tier 2/ Tier 3 level, and post a short (1-paragraph) description of the student (using a pseudonym) explaining why you are choosing him/ her to work with and what you hope to learn about the student.

RTI Project (52 points)

• This assignment spans the duration of the course and requires you to select one focal student with whom you work or can meet with regularly. You should choose a student who would benefit from additional support in reading and/or writing, and you will go through a process of assessing, observing, and discussing the student with your colleagues in order to understand his or her strengths and areas of concern more deeply. You will then develop a goal for the student, create and execute a lesson plan, and develop a plan for progress monitoring. The 8-week duration of the course will not allow you to fully develop and implement an RTI plan for the student but we would like for you to engage in the initial steps of identifying student concerns and creating a plan to address them. A detailed description of the assignment can be found in the document: RTI Project Assignment.

Part I: Assessing the Student (24 points)

Part II: Collaborating with Colleagues and Developing a Support Plan (20 points)

Part III: Developing a Lesson Plan (8 points)

Threaded and Synchronous Discussions (3 Points each)

• One way that we can monitor that you are engaging in the information is through discussions. In this course there will be 1 threaded discussion via Blackboard and 1 synchronous small group discussion for you to participate in. Each discussion will be worth 3 points graded using a holistic rubric. Prompts for these discussions are provided in the weeks-at-a-glance section of the syllabus.

Final Paper (16 points)

• Your final project will bring all of your learning together. You will write a 3-5 page paper following APA Guidelines to synthesize some of the critical issues surrounding RTI, and to connect to what you have learned about teaching literacy in inclusion settings through your experience with your focal student.

Grading Policy

Your grade in this course will be determined by the following criteria:

Grade Breakdown

Assignment	Pointsn	Weighted Points
Course Introduction	3 points	3%
Autobiographical Learning Story/ Discussion	20 points	20%
Introduction to Focal Student	3 points	3%
Participation in Discussions (2)	3 points each	6%
RTI Project	52 points	52%
Final Paper	16 points	16%
TOTALn		100%

Grade Scale

Grade	Points Grade	Point Average (GPA)
A	94 – 100%	4.00
A-	90 – 93%	3.75
B+	87 – 89%	3.50
B	84 – 86%	3.00
B-	80 – 83%	2.75
C+	77 – 79%	2.50
C	74 – 76%	2.00
C-	70 – 73%	1.75
D	64 – 69%	1.00
F	00 – 63%	0.00