EDU-531 Assessment-Based Instruction I

This course provides an in-depth exploration of teaching methods and materials relevant to literacy instruction for the emergent and developing readers in today's diverse classrooms. This course will examine both the nature and function of formal and informal assessment processes in literacy instruction and best instructional practice that emanates from this assessment. In order to both design literacy instructional programs and to assess student learning, it is vital to be able to place students along a developmental continuum and identify students' proficiencies and areas needing strengthening. Awareness of the influence of culture, class, gender, and context on literacy acquisition informs the teacher's knowledge base when considering this developmental continuum. Language development and its relationship to literacy acquisition will also be examined. Teachers will learn a wide range of instructional practices, strategies, and methods to support reading and writing instruction. Teachers will also demonstrate competency in using a wide range of formal and informal assessment tools and practices that provide data used to craft appropriate teaching strategies for addressing student strengths and needs. Teachers will develop the skills necessary to insure that students experience developmentally appropriate growth in literacy skills. In addition, teachers develop skills to identify students who are not making developmentally appropriate growth, and also learn the appropriate strategies to recover those skills.