TESL 524—Reading and Writing in the ESL/EFL Classroom Spring 2014 Class Meetings: Location: Instructor: Office Hours:

January 16-May 1; Thursdays, 5:30-8:00 p.m. Letts Lower Level Conference Room Sarah Young ([email protected]) Thursdays, 3:30-5:30 p.m. (Appointments preferred)

Course Description: This course offers an overview of the underlying concepts and practical skills that are needed for ESL and EFL students to acquire literacy in English. Students will learn methods and strategies for planning, implementing, and assessing reading and writing instruction for all ages and levels of ESL/EFL students, from pre-literacy to academic skills. Special emphasis will be put on ensuring academic success for English language learners (ELLs) in U.S. grade K-12 schools and beyond. Specific topics will include reading comprehension, content-based instruction, vocabulary development, beginning reading skills (phonemic awareness and phonics), reading fluency, academic literacy, the writing process, and reading and writing assessment. Note: Students are required to tutor at least one English language learner (of any age or proficiency level) in reading and writing each week throughout this semester. Course Standards and Learning Outcomes: This class will address the following TESOL/NCATE Standards: Standard 1.a. Describing Language  Apply knowledge of phonology (the sound system), morphology (the structure of words), syntax (phrase and sentence structure), semantics (word/sentence meaning), and pragmatics (the effect of context on language) to help ESOL students develop oral, reading, and writing (including spelling) skills in English. Standard 1.b. Language Acquisition and Development  Help ESOL students develop academic language proficiency and effective language learning strategies. Standard 3.b. Managing and Implementing Standards-Based ESL and Content Instruction  Incorporate activities, tasks, and assignments that develop authentic uses of language, as students learn about content-area material. (3.b.2)  Provide activities and materials that integrate listening, speaking, reading, and writing. (3.b.3)  Provide standards-based reading instruction adapted for ESOL learners. (3.b.7) Course Goals: By the end of the course students will be able to:  Analyze and integrate a variety of approaches to the teaching of L2 literacy.  Explain linguistic, sociocultural, and individual factors that influence the literacy development of students of different ages and educational, cultural, and L1 backgrounds.

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Utilize and evaluate a variety of materials and techniques for L2 reading and writing instruction in language- and literacy-focused instruction, as well as content-area classes. Plan, prepare for, and implement standards-based L2 reading and writing instruction effectively. Assess L2 reading and writing using appropriate classroom assessments. Course Texts:

Required: Birch, B.M. (2006). English L2 reading: Getting to the bottom. Mahweh, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers. [BIR] Ferris, D.R., & Hedgcock, J.S. (2014). Teaching ESL composition: Purpose, process, and practice (3rd edition). New York: Routledge. [F&H] Gunderson, L., D'Silva, R., & Odo, D. (2013). ESL (ELL) literacy instruction: A guidebook to theory and practice (3rd edition). New York: Routledge. [GUN] Recommended: Day, R.R. (Ed.) (2012). New ways in teaching reading, revised. Alexandria, VA: TESOL. Nation, I.S.P. (2008). Teaching ESL/EFL reading and writing. New York: Routledge. Supplementary materials will be made available as needed on Blackboard. Attendance and Participation Requirements: Attendance is key for course success, as is active class participation. You are required to complete all assigned readings before class. Assignments have varying due dates as described below. All work must be submitted by email (unless otherwise stated) to [email protected] by the due dates established; late work may receive a grade reduction. Please let me know as soon as possible if you have a problem with an assignment submission. In all of your assignments, make your best effort to incorporate information from the readings, class discussions, and your TESOL classroom and tutoring experiences. Academic Integrity: You are subject to the Academic Integrity Code of American University. Please see this website for more information: http://www.american.edu/academics/integrity/. All work you submit must be your own or must be properly documented. In addition, collaborative work and work already submitted in other classes must be approved in advance by the instructor. Assignment Descriptions: Tutoring Posts (10%)  Every two weeks, you will post a brief response to a prompt about your reading and writing tutoring experiences on our discussion board in Blackboard. These prompts will ask you to reflect on how you are applying concepts from our course to your tutoring experiences, and will ask you to identify and discuss your successes, 2

challenges, and “lessons learned.” ***Note: There are six postings listed on the Course Schedule, but you only need to complete a total of five postings. Reading/Writing Activity Demonstration (10%)  Each student will choose a reading or writing instructional technique from the list provided, and will demonstrate it in front of the class. You will submit a short explanation of the technique with appropriate support from the literature (approximately 3 paragraphs), also including the TESOL standard addressed. In class, introduce the technique (approximately 5 minutes) and demonstrate it (time depending on the technique; maximum 15 minutes). Also, provide some take-away material for your classmates. The possible techniques are listed in the course schedule. Reading and Writing Activity Responses (40%)  Using the template provided, you will complete four Activity Response logs (two for reading, two for writing). Please bring your completed logs to class on the day they are due, in order to share and compare them with a classmate. ReadingA-Z.com Lesson Plan (10%), Unit Plan (20%), and Microteaching (10%)  Over the course of the semester, you will gradually develop a coherent contentbased mini-unit consisting of three consecutive reading and writing lessons. You will be encouraged to base the unit on a text that you identify from www.readingaz.com; however, you may choose another source of thematic reading and writing material if you prefer. After receiving feedback on the initial lesson plan (10%), you will revise and extend the initial lesson into a three-lesson unit plan (20%). You will teach a portion of your unit plan during our last class (10%). The chart below shows an overview of all assignments and due dates. Assignments Percentage of final grade Tutoring Posts (5 posts total, on Blackboard) 10%

Reading/Writing Activity Demonstration Reading Activity Response 1 Reading Activity Response 2 Writing Activity Response 3 Writing Activity Response 4

10% 40% (10% each)

ReadingA-Z.com Lesson Plan Unit Plan Microteaching

10% 20% 10%

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Due date(s) 1/30 2/13  Choose 5 of 2/27 these 6 dates to 3/20 respond 4/3 4/17 See sign-up sheet

2/6 2/20 3/27 4/10 3/20 5/1 5/1

TESL 524 Spring 2014 Course Schedule (Assigned readings subject to change, with advanced notice) Date

Topics/ Activities

Readings (done before that day’s class) *Readings with (*) are available on Blackboard  GUN, Chapter 2  BIR, Chapter 2  *Bell (1995)

Assignments due (for that day’s class, unless otherwise noted)

Activity Demo (by sign-up)

1/16

Language as a written system

L2 Reading: Is it really a passive/ receptive skill?

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*Brown (2007) Chapter 20 *Burt et al (2003) BIR, Chapter 3

Reading Inventory Log (posted on Bb by 1/22)

Language Experience Approach

1/30

Emergent literacy and stage models of reading development

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BIR, Chapter 5 BIR, Chapter 7 Choose one: GUN, Chapter 5 OR GUN, Chapter 6

Tutoring Post #1

Phonics instruction

2/6

Background knowledge and vocabulary in L2 reading

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BIR, Chapter 9 *Lane & Allen (2010) * Helman & Burns (2008)

Reading Activity Response 1

Graphic organizers for pre-reading: Lama

2/13

Reading skills and strategies: What do efficient and effective L2 readers do?

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BIR, Chapter 10 *Fisher & Frey (2007) *Burt et al (2005)

**Special talk by Dr. Terry Wiley – Location TBD**

2/20

Reading to learn while learning to read

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GUN, Chapter 7 GUN, Chapter 8 *Furr (n.d).

Reading Activity Response 2

Jigsaw reading: Molly

2/27

Designing L2 reading instruction and selecting materials

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*Stoller, Anderson, Grabe, & Komiyama (2013) *Aebersold & Field (1997) *Brandl (2002)

Tutoring Post #3

Reading fluency activities: Louise

Literacy and L2 acquisition 1/23

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Tutoring Post #2

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Date

Topics/ Activities

3/6

L2 reading assessment: It’s not just about reading comprehension!

3/13

No class – Spring Break!

3/20

The L2 readingwriting continuum

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F&H, Chapter 4 *Lee (2012) *Grabe & Zhang (2013)

Tutoring Post #4

Approaching L2 writing: Beyond product vs. process

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F&H, Chapter 3 *Cotterall & Cohen (2003) *Brown (2007) Chapter 21

Writing Activity Response 3

Pre-writing activities: Helen

L2 writing tasks and materials

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Tutoring Post #5

Creative writing activities: Anna

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F&H, Chapter 9 (review F&H Chapter 4) *Fernández Dobao (2012) *Ahlquist (2013)

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F&H, Chapter 7 *Reid (2006)

Writing Activity Response 4

Peer response activities: Sarah

4/17

Teacher and peer response in L2 writing Corrective feedback and assessment of L2 writing

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F&H, Chapter 6 F&H, Chapter 8

Tutoring Post #6

Editing activities: Eda

4/24

Digital literacies

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*Warschauer, Arada, & Zheng (2010) *Kessler, Bikowski, & Boggs (2012) *Vinogradova, Linville, & Bickel (2011)

3/27

4/3

Readings (done before that day’s class) *Readings with (*) are available on Blackboard  GUN, Chapter 3  * Lyutaya (2011)

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4/10

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5/1

Assignments due (for that day’s class, unless otherwise noted)

During and postreading strategies: Emily

Reading A-Z.com Lesson Plan

Presentations

Dialogue journals: Khadijah

Make Belief Comix (www.makebeliefc omix.com)

Unit Plan Microteaching

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Activity Demo (by sign-up)

Bibliography of Assigned Readings Available on Blackboard Aebersold, J., & Field, M. (1997). Chapter 10: Planning the reading lesson. From reader to reading teacher: Issues and strategies for second language classrooms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ahlquist, S. (2013). ‘Storyline’: A task-based approach for the young learner classroom. ELT Journal, 67(1), 41-51. Bell, J. S. (1995). The relationship between L1 and L2 literacy: Some complicating factors. TESOL Quarterly, 29, 687–704. Brandl, K. (2002). Integrating Internet-based reading materials into the foreign language teaching curriculum: From teacher- to student-centered approaches. Language Learning & Technology, 6(3), 87-107. Brown, H. D. (2007). Chapter 20: Teaching reading; Chapter 21: Teaching writing. Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy. White Plains, NY: Pearson. Burt, M., Peyton, J. K., & Adams, R. (2003). Reading and adult English language learners: A review of the research. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics. Burt, M., Peyton, J.K., & Van Duzer, C. (2005). How should adult ESL reading instruction differ from ABE reading instruction? Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics. Cotterall, S., & Cohen, R. (2003). Scaffolding for second language writers: Producing an academic essay. ELT Journal, 57(2), 158-166. Fernández Dobao, A. (2012). Collaborative writing tasks in the L2 classroom: Comparing group, pair, and individual work. Journal of Second Language Writing, 21(1), 40-58. Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2007). Implementing a schoolwide literacy framework: Improving achievement in an urban elementary school. The Reading Teacher, 61, 32-43. Furr, M. (n.d). Why and how to use EFL literature circles. Available at http://www.eflliteraturecircles.com/howandwhylit.pdf Grabe, W., & Zhang, C. (2013). Reading and writing together: A critical component of English for academic purposes teaching and learning. TESOL Journal, 4, 9–24. Helman, L., & Burns, M. (2008). What does oral language have to do with it? Helping young Englishlanguage learners acquire a sight word vocabulary. The Reading Teacher, 62(1), 14-19. Kessler, G., Bikowski, D., & Boggs, J. (2012). Collaborative writing among second language learners in academic web-based projects. Language Learning & Technology, 16(1), 91-109. Lane, H., & Allen, S. (2010). The vocabulary-rich classroom: Modeling sophisticated word use to promote word consciousness and vocabulary growth. The Reading Teacher, 63(5), 362–370. Lee, H. C. (2013). The reading response e-journal: An alternative way to engage low-achieving EFL students. Language Teaching Research, 17(1), 111–131. Lyutaya, T. (2011). Reading logs: Integrating extensive reading with writing tasks. English Teaching Forum 49(1), 26-34. Reid, J. (2006). Chapter 13: Preparing to respond to student writing; Chapter 14: Responding to student writing; Chapter 15: Final drafts: Getting reading to evaluate/assess student writing. Essentials of teaching academic writing: English for academic success (pp. 108-134). Cengage Learning. Stoller, F., Anderson, N., Grabe, W., & Komiyama, R. (2013). Instructional enhancements to improve students’ reading abilities. English Teaching Forum, 1, 2-12. Vinogradova, P., Linville, H., & Bickel, B. (2011). “Listen to my Story and you will know me”: Digital stories as student-centered collaborative projects. TESOL Journal, 2, 173–202. Warschauer, M., Arada, K., & Zheng, B. (2010). Laptops and inspired writing. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 54(2), 221-223.

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