Master of Education Curriculum and Instruction with a Specialization in Literacy: Language, Reading, and Writing Program (33 Credits)

The Curriculum and Instruction, Specialization in Literacy Program is designed to provide educators with a foundation in literacy learning and its application across populations and content areas. A Master of Education degree is awarded upon completion of 33 credit hours. Students who wish to pursue the Oregon CTL can do so by successfully completing three advanced professional seminars of one credit each.

Option to Pursue Oregon Continuing Teacher License (CTL): To qualify for the CTL, a student must hold an Oregon Initial license, have earned a Lesley Master's degree, have successfully demonstrated a minimum competency on the eight CTL standards of teaching excellence, and have completed at least two academic years of half- to full-time teaching. Lesley will recommend students for CTL to the Oregon Teacher Standards and Practices Commission upon successful completion of this program, including all requirements for CTL. Please contact Nancy Wolf for more information.

*Students seeking CTL will take 30 credits of required coursework and three Advanced Proficiency Seminars in place of the elective. Students who are not pursuing CTL will complete three credits in electives. One three-credit elective course will be offered at the end of the program for those students who do not transfer in appropriate elective coursework.

**To meet state-specific requirements, another Lesley course may be offered in place of ECOMP 5004.

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

EEDUC 6125 Dimensions of Learning and Teaching
Students identify and use resources available to support them in their learning, teaching, and reflection. They begin to examine their identity as learners and professionals and use what they learn to explore ways that educational practices and enduring educational controversies can be understood using multiple perspectives and the knowledge that people learn differently. They also begin to build a portfolio in which they reflect upon and demonstrate their expanding understanding and competencies.

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EEDUC 7111 Curriculum, Assessment, and Instruction: Assumptions, Relationships, and Design
Students work with several models and frameworks of curriculum development and their application to systems, classroom curriculum and instruction, and assessment. Models include standards-driven, integrated curriculum, portfolio, and performance assessment. Brain-based research and its impact on curriculum development and instruction are analyzed.

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EEDUC 6128 Dimensions of Equity
This course will examine the goals, assumptions, and strategies of multicultural and special education and prepare teachers to effectively apply theories of equity to classroom practice. Through a variety of cognitive and affective approaches, students will identify and analyze the cultural and structural factors that have led to unequal academic outcomes for diverse learners within the socio-political and historical context of the United States.

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EEDUC 5121 Literacy: The Integration of the Language Arts
This course presents fundamental principles of elementary reading and language arts. Focus is on students understanding the interrelationship of reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Students will also become knowledgeable about current materials, instructional strategies, and classroom-based assessment for emergent reading, beginning reading, and fluent reading.

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EEDUC 6101 Content Area Reading/Writing/Study Skills (4–12)
Reading curriculum is studied with emphasis on comprehension, content area reading, study skills, and readers with diverse needs in upper elementary, middle, and high school.

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EEDUC 6001 The Teaching of Writing (K–12)
This course promotes the thoughtful examination of writers and writing instruction. Throughout the course, students are introduced to strategies and skills they can use to enhance their own writing and the writing of K–12 students. Using a process approach, students learn how to communicate ideas effectively in a variety of genres and for a multitude of purposes. Based on the most current understandings in the field, this course explores such topics as writer’s workshop, conferencing, struggling writers, assessment, reading/writing connections, writing in the disciplines, revision and editing, the use of technology to support writers, and the management of writing instruction.

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EEDUC 6126 Classroom and School Inquiry
Classroom and School Inquiry focuses on the understanding and critical analysis of educational research and methods for accurately communicating this information to the public. As teachers participate in redefining their educational roles, decision-making and action-oriented classroom practice will be critical in promoting student learning. Both require problem-solving, which is enhanced by the forming and testing of hypotheses, gathering data that is then analyzed, synthesized, and evaluated, and generating solutions. This course will engage students in this process by acquainting them with the knowledge and techniques necessary for them to become lifelong teacher researchers, and to present the results of their research effectively and professionally to a variety of audiences. Note: This course is a prerequisite to EEDUC 6127.

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EEDUC 5104 Literature for Children and Young Adults
This survey of children’s books from preschool through the adolescent years identifies the characteristics of the various literary genres, develops criteria for evaluating children’s books, fosters an awareness and nurtures a consideration of how the developmental and diverse cultural needs of children affect their responses to literature, and shares strategies for integrating literature across the curriculum for enjoyment, learning, and classroom reading instruction.

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EEDUC 6102 Language and Literacy: Development and Diversity
This course examines diverse aspects of language acquisition and literacy development with emphasis on educational implications. The major theories and current research in first and second language acquisition are reviewed. Educational topics in language and literacy are addressed, including concerns for reading, writing, oral language, phonics, spelling, academic English, grammar, language assessments, and language-based disabilities. Linguistic and cultural diversity, bilingualism, and second language acquisition are considered throughout.

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EEDUC 6127 Action Research and Seminar
Students demonstrate their expanding understandings and competencies as teachers. They also collaborate with several classmates to design a research project that can have a direct impact on their school community, through which students may extend the research plan developed in an earlier course, EEDUC 6126. The six-credit option is designed to give students who completed a required induction experience or advanced education license an opportunity to demonstrate continued learning by applying that experience to their Lesley program and using their study to reflect on what they learned from their induction or licensure program. Prerequisite: Successful completion of EEDUC 6126 or an equivalent research course.

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EEDUC 6014 Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages — Theories and Methods
This course focuses on the theories and methods of teaching English as a second language and the effective classroom practices for English instruction in reading and writing, as well as literacy in the content areas. The cultural diversity of K–12 students on the site where the course is taught is examined as well as its influence on teaching and learning. The historical, theoretical, and philosophical underpinnings of bilingual education are addressed.

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EEDUC 6032 Exploring Nonfiction for the Elementary and Middle School Classroom
Utilizing children’s literature as its required reading, this specialized course closely examines the often overlooked genre of nonfiction and its rich potential for integration across K–8 curricula. This in-depth study emphasizes developing critical skills for evaluation, analyzing various types of nonfiction books, highlighting notable creators in the field, and sharing strategies that increase nonfiction reading and comprehension, as well as techniques for the researching and writing of nonfiction within the classroom setting.

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ECOMP 5004 Technology in the Language Arts Curriculum
Course participants will experience a variety of hands-on activities designed to integrate technological applications to students’ research, reading, writing, and publishing across content areas. This course surveys current research and best practice in teaching of language arts in combination with effective use of computers and other technology, especially the resources available on the world wide web. Participants will preview, evaluate, and discuss applications of a variety of reading software and storybooks, presentation software, writing programs, editing and grammar tools, and desktop publishing packages.

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EEDUC 7015 Advanced Proficiency Seminar I
This is the first part of three seminars designed to support working teachers through the process of acquiring their Oregon Continuing Teaching Licenses. The purposes of Seminar I are to: orient CTL candidates to the purposes and requirements of Continuing Licensure; facilitate their process of learning more about themselves as education professionals; and help each candidate to develop a plan for strengthening their content knowledge and professional skills according to the CTL standards.

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EEDUC 7016 Advanced Proficiency Seminar II
This is the second of three seminars that support working teachers in acquiring their Oregon Continuing Teaching Licenses. Candidates will: review standards for continuing licensure; learn about proficiency performance expectations; examine the centrality of documentation of student learning gains as evidence of advanced proficiency (including portfolio); and develop an action plan for gathering evidence of advanced proficiency, including classroom observations, student work, and work from their Lesley University program.

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EEDUC 7017 Advanced Proficiency Seminar III
This is the third in a sequence of three seminars designed to support working teachers though the process of acquiring their Oregon Continuing Teaching Licenses. Candidates will: compile and organize their evidence of advanced proficiency; share their portfolios in development and offer one another feedback, encouragement, and suggestions; assess their evidence of competency relative to the TSPC standards for Continuing Teaching Licensure; and plan individual candidates' final presentations for summative evaluation.

Lesley University reserves the right to unilaterally add, withdraw, or revise any course offering in the above-mentioned program of study, including policies, provisions, requirements, and fees.

Lesley University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity institution and does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, religion, color, creed, national or ethnic origin, sex, sexual orientation, handicap, or disability in its education programs, employment, or in admissions to, access to, or treatment in its programs or activities.