ECED& 180 - Language and Literacy Development

Credits: 3
Literacy skills and teaching strategies are examined and defined at each developmental stage through the four interrelated areas of speaking, listening, writing, and reading. Topics include language acquisition, children’s literature, environment and curriculum assessment, and program planning.

Course Outcomes:
Students who successfully complete this class will be able to:

Explain the continuum of language acquisition and early literacy skills.
Develop evidence-based, appropriate environments and opportunities that support children’s emergent language and literacy skills.
Describe strategies for responding to children who are culturally, linguistically, and ability diverse.
Develop ways to facilitate family and child interactions as primary contexts for heritage language and English development.
Analyze images of culture and individual abilities reflected in children’s literature and other learning materials.
Utilize developmentally appropriate and culturally responsive assessment practices for documenting the growth of language and literacy skills.

Program Outcomes

Design, set up and manage safe, healthy environments, spaces, equipment and materials which invite learning.
Discuss the dynamics of family structure.
Involve parents and community agencies in early childhood development.
Develop, plan, and implement developmentally appropriate curriculum for early education.
Modify curriculum, instructional strategies and methods of assessment to meet the needs of exceptional, high risk, and special needs students.

College-wide Outcomes

Critical Thinking - Critical thinking finds expression in all disciplines and everyday life. It is characterized by an ability to reflect upon thinking patterns, including the role of emotions on thoughts, and to rigorously assess the quality of thought through its work products. Critical thinkers routinely evaluate thinking processes and alter them, as necessary, to facilitate an improvement in their thinking and potentially foster certain dispositions or intellectual traits over time.
Responsibility - Responsibility encompasses those behaviors and dispositions necessary for students to be effective members of a community. This outcome is designed to help students recognize the value of a commitment to those responsibilities which will enable them to work successfully individually and with others.
Written Communication - Written Communication encompasses all the abilities necessary for effective expression of thoughts, feelings, and ideas in written form.