Conceptual Framework
The Literacy Studies Department is dedicated to the preparation of literacy teachers who are scholar-practitioners ready for a future of challenges and opportunities in teaching reading and writing in public schools which are changing and growing in complexity.
The degree and certificate programs in the Literacy Studies Department are designed for graduate students of exceptional promise who are certified teachers and who want to become scholar practitioners in the field of Literacy Studies.
Graduate students in masters programs as well as in professional diploma and doctoral programs work closely with faculty on research projects which they are encouraged to publish in scholarly journals and present at national and international conferences.
Students participate in degree programs which are epistemologically interdisciplinary. Their course work provides them with the opportunity to explore: [1] cultural historical perspectives of literacy; [2] literacy learning and pedagogical practices; [3] literacy as a language process; [4] sociopolitical perspectives of literacy; and [5] literacy, literature and the imagination.
They take courses which are participatory and democratic, in which shared governance is valued, and anti-biased pedagogies are the ideal.
Graduate students study the relationships between oral and written language from a variety of perspectives: [1] anthropological; [2] educational; [3] linguistic (phonological, pragmatic, semantic, syntactic); [4] neurological; [5] psychological (situated cognition, psychoanalytic); philosophical; [7] political; and [7] social.
Students are encouraged to view reading and writing as language processes from both linguistic and cognitive perspectives. They study miscue and retrospective miscue analysis as they focus on the importance of revaluing readers.
They study "student advocacy approaches to instructional assessment," developing biographic literacy profiles based on surveys and interviews, analysis of existing test data, home literacy practices, collection of literacy artifacts from home and school, miscue analysis, writing analysis, retrospective miscue analysis, and cloze procedures. Students then develop instructional strategies and interventions based on their analysis of the documentation.
Graduate students engage in the critical explorations of: [1] literacy practices in schools; [2] local and vernacular literacies of families and communities; [3] the relationships between literacy and difference, including issues such as social class, ethnicity, race, gender, sexual orientation, poverty, language of origin and disability. This work builds on the understanding that all students bring a rich language and literacy background to school that serves as a resource for all learning.
Students work closely with the faculty in the exploration of language, literacy and pedagogical practices which provide opportunities and possibilities for the development of more just and caring communities. [Insert graphic]
They join with faculty in a critical exploration of the ways in which their students are taught to read and write in schools in urban, suburban, and rural communities.
Graduate students work with the faculty in their courses on research projects which take place in home, school, and community contexts that lead to the development of culturally responsive literacy curricular practices that are meaningful and life-affirming for the students in the schools in which they teach.
Graduate students are engaged in ongoing evaluation of the conceptual framework and assessment of their own learning in classes, international principals of the schools in which they teach, learning logs, surveys, portfolios which reflect on the courses that they have taken, and focus meetings which take place after they have graduated.