B.Ed. (Learning Disability) (LD) Reading and Reflecting on Texts Syllabus - Mumbai University

Introduction

• One of the core areas that schools focus upon is age appropriate and fluent literacy skills. Hence, aspirant graduates who intend to make career in education must be good readers and good writers (in literally sense). Due to several reasons a student teacher like you may not have adequate skills, interest and motivation for reading and writing. Here is a skill based and activity oriented course designed to give you an opportunity to look at reading writing seriously, relearn it as a professional activity, apply it for students with special needs and enjoy it like never before.

Objectives

After completing the course the learners will be able to:

• Reflect upon current level of literacy skills of the self
• Show interest and begin working upon basic skills required to be active readers in control of own comprehension.
• Show interest and begin working upon basic skills required to be independent writers understanding adequate intent, audience and organization of the content.
• Prepare self to facilitate good reading writing in students across the ages.
• Find reading writing as learning and recreational tools rather than a course task.

Module 1: UNDERSTANDING LITERACY SKILLS

• Unit 1 a. Literacy and Current University Graduates: Status and Concerns b. Role of Literacy in Education, Career and Social Life
• Unit 2 Meta cognitive awareness of reading
• Unit 3 Understanding basic Braille skills and reflections on literacy concerns of children with specific disability
• Unit 4 Developing Good Reading Skills and Habits in Primary Level Students: Activities And Strategies
• Unit 5 Understanding writing as a process: i) Content (Intent, Audience and Organization) ii) Language (Grammar, Vocabulary, Spelling) iii) Surface Mechanics (Handwriting, Neatness, Alignment And Spacing etc)

Module 2: Project of Activities / tasks (preparation, submission and presentation of the journal) Students have to do ANY SIX practice tasks as a project out of the options given here (preferably 3 from A and 3 from B) Students are expected to submit journal and make presentation:

• A. PRACTICING READING SKILLS
• 1. Responding to recreational Reading Material (Narrations) by Retelling, Summarizing / concluding, Answering, Predicting, Commenting and Discussing (Any three)
• 2. Responding to School Textbooks (Description) by Retelling, Summarizing, Answering, Predicting, Commenting and Discussing (Any three)
• 3. Responding to Reports, Policy Documents And News (Expositions) by Retelling, Summarizing, Answering, Predicting, Commenting and Discussing (Any three)
• 4. Responding to Editorial, Academic Articles, Advertisement Copy, Resume (Argumentation) by Retelling, Summarizing, Answering, Predicting, Commenting and Discussing (Any three)
• 5. Practicing web search on a given topic
• 6. Practicing reading graphically presented information
• B. PRACTICING INDEPENDENT WRITING SKILLS
• 7. Practicing Self Editing And Peer Editing Of Sample Texts
• 8. Practicing Evaluating Students Writing Using Parameters: Productivity, Correctness, Complexity, Text Organization And Literary Richness
• 9. Practicing Writing: Picture Description/ Expansion Of Ideas / Essays / Stories
• 10. Practicing Daily Leaving Writing: Applications / Agenda - Minutes/ Note Taking
• 11. Practicing Converting Written Information Into Graphical Representation and writing book/movie review
• 12. Practicing Filling Up Surveys, Forms, Feedback Responses, Checklists

Module 3: Mid project interaction and feedback: Students are exposed to basic skills through workshops or subject seminars. They are grouped under the supervisors who review the progress of the practice and journal preparation by showing them role model responses. Students discuss and learn from each others. They improve the strategies and output on the basis of the feedback from supervisor and peers.

Module 4: Submission and presentation with reflections: Each student submits the journal and makes a presentation on reflections and learning. This presentation is to be attended by all supervisors and students – preferably also of first year and students from other disability.

Transactions

• It is highly recommended that this course reaches meta-level understanding of own reading process by the student teachers. Hence lecturers are suggested to float the theory bare minimum focussing more on ‘insights through practice sessions’. To keep the motivation high and complexity low the transactions must involve hands on activities based on the units of the course. The terminology used in units is more for the understanding of the lecturers than the student teachers since this is a newly introduced course in this revised syllabus. Experiential discussions, team tasks and internalising learning by doing are expected to obtain best outcomes. Evaluation must target process of reflecting upon own personalised insights into reading and responding to texts. Hence, entire internal assessment must focus on progressions through activities rather than written tests.

Essential Reading

• Soundarapandian, M. (2000). Literacy campaign in India. Discovery Publishing House: New Delhi.
• May, Frank B. (2001). Unravelling the seven myths of reading. Allyn and Bacon: Boston
• Tovani.C & Keene.E.O (2000).I Read It, but I Don't Get It: Comprehension Strategies for Adolescent Readers. Stenhouse Publishers
• McGregor.T(2007). Comprehension Connections: Bridges to Strategic Reading. Heinemann Educational Books
• Anderson, R., Hiebert, E., Scott, J., & Wilkinson, I. (1985). Becoming a Nation of Readers: The report of the commission on reading. Washington, DC: National Institute of Education and the Center for the Study of Reading.
• ASER report of 2015: Pratham Publication
• Collection of reading material locally collected by the college including articles, newspapers, surveys, files, portfolios etc

Suggested Readings

• McCormick, Sandra. (1999). Instructing students who have literacy problems.(3rd) Merrill: New Jersy
• Aulls, Mark W. (1982). Developing readers in today's elementary school. Allyn and Bacon: Boston
• Heller, Robert. (1998). Communicate clearly. DK Publishing: New York.
• May, Frank B. (1998). Reading as communication. Merrill: New Jersy
• Gallangher.K (2004).Deeper Reading: Comprehending Challenging Texts. Stenhouse Publishers
• Miller.D (2002).Reading With Meaning: Teaching Comprehension in the Primary Grades. New York: Stenhouse Publishers
• Baniel, Anat. (2012). Kids beyond limits. Perigee Trade: New York
• Pandit, Bansibihari, Suryawanshi, Dhyane Kute & Meena Prakash. (2007) Communicative language teaching in English: Nityanutan Prakashan: Pune
• Paul, Peter V. (2009). Language and Deafness. Jones and Bartlett: Boston
• Ezell and Justice (2005). Programmatic Research on Early Literacy: Several Key Findings. IES 3rd Annual Research Conference: American Speech Language & Hearing Association (ASHA).
• Frank, Smith (1985). Reading without Nonsense. New York: Teachers College Press, 10027.
• Luetke-Stahlman and Nielsen (2003). Early Literacy of Kindergartners with Hearing Impairment. High Beam
• Research The Gale Group, Inc.& GRIN Publishing Munich Germany.