RLR 514 Lenses on Literacy and Linguistics

This course explores the multiple perspectives, or lenses, on English language literacy learning and its purposes within the U.S. Candidates learn about cognitive, sociocultural, and critical literacy perspectives on English language literacy acquisition, understanding key distinctions among these perspectives and how they may overlap and work together to provide a more meaningful understanding of learning to read in English. Candidates also gain insight into the principles of English language linguistics and how these inform the language and literacy of emergent bilingual students and native English speakers of all dialects. Candidates will utilize the information in this class to better understand conflicting notions of literacy development, including current issues around the "science of reading" and "balanced literacy", and the impact on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). They will develop their own theoretical perspective and philosophy of language acquisition and literacy learning across grade levels. Pre-requisite(s): None. Co-requisite(s): None. 2 semester hours