Percell

TCH 306: Literacy and Technology Across Middle Level Disciplines

Section 005
Spring 2015
MW 2:00 pm 3:15 pm (clinical)

Dr. Jay C. Percell
jpercel@ilstu.edu
(309) 438-0274

Office Hours: DeGarmo 222
M & W: 10:00 am 11:00 am
and by appointment

Our Essential Questions

What is literacy?
How will you practice literacy in your content area?
What role does technology play in the 21st century classroom?

Catalog Description

Literacy and Technology Across Middle Level Disciplines 3 sem. hrs.

Study of early adolescent literacy learning and instruction. Includes satisfactory completion Clinical
Experiences: 20 hours. Formerly Early Adolescence Literacy Learning.

Realizing the Democratic Ideal: Teacher Education at Illinois State University

Illinois State University has a historic and enduring commitment to prepare teachers and other
school personnel who will be responsive to the ethical and intellectual demands of a democratic
society. To teach in a democracy is to consciously take up the challenge of improving the ethical and
intellectual quality of our societal dialogue by including in it as many educated voices as possible.
This course contributes to this mission by providing pre- service teachers with opportunities to
explore current and critical issues and practices in secondary education through readings,
discussions and field experiences. For more information about ISUs Conceptual Framework.
Please visit: http://www.teachereducation.ilstu.edu/councilforteachered/democratic-ideal.shtml

Required Textbooks and Software

Wedwick, L., Seglem, R., & Meyer, B. (2012). Broadening the lens of literacy in the content areas.
Kendall Hunt.
(If you have not done so, access Broadening the Lens of Literacy online at:
http://www.grtep.com/ and click Purchase an Access Code.)
One YA novel, either: Code Name Verity, or Secrets, Lies, and Algebra
Other selected readings as assigned throughout
Live Text Software

Critical Reading
It is expected that you will come to class having read the assignments and prepared to investigate
and put to use the ideas in the texts. The ways you prepare for class are essential for what we can
accomplish when we are together. When you read the texts in this course, endeavor to apply

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principles of critical literacy. Reading critically, put simply, is reading beyond surface impressions
and easy conclusions. As you read, ask yourself the following kinds of questions:

What meanings and messages in this text seem to be most important to the author, and by
what evidence can I judge the authors conclusions? Do I find the message believable or
compelling? Why or why not?
Who is the intended audience for this text and how do I know?
How should the social, cultural, political and historical contexts of the text influence my
reading? How might different readers in different societies at different times understand this
text?
Whom has the author left out or ignored in the text and why? What version (or part) of what
larger story is told by this text? What does it emphasize, where are its gaps, and about what
does it remain silent?
Whose knowledge does this author appear to value?
Whose knowledge is marginalized, devalued, or left out and why?
How does my race/ethnicity, social class, gender or other identity features affect my response
to this text?

Equal Access for Individuals with Disabilities

Any student in need of a special accommodation should contact 438-5853 (voice) or 438-8620
(TDD).

In addition, students in need of special assistance or an accommodation regarding any of the course
requirements are advised to notify me as soon as possible. We will meet privately to discuss
appropriate support. Confidentiality will be maintained regarding your special needs.

Course Objectives
Through a variety of performance events, each student will apply her or his knowledge of and
competency with the course content. Class activities will be centered on the acquisition of course
objectives listed below. Students will:
1. explain the significance of literacy instruction in the content areas while understanding the
relationships among cognitive processes, cultural conditions, personal characteristics, and
effective reading and writing; (IRA 1.1; ISBE 1.1A; NMSA: 4K1, 4D4, 4P5; RDI: EC1, EC4,
IC2)
2. identify and present learning strategies to teach literacy in content areas in the middle
school environment as an active process of constructing meaning; (IRA 2.2, ISBE 3.3B;
NMSA: 1P10, 3D2, 3D4, 5D6, 5K9; RDI: IC3)
3. develop and demonstrate a range of content area instructional strategies that support
literacy growth among students from a range of backgrounds, needs, and levels of success;
(IRA 2.2; NMSA 3K10; RDI: EC1, IC1, IC2, IC3)
4. examine the reading process as an extension of language and cognitive development; (IRA
1.4; RDI: IC1)
5. realize the types of learning environments that motivate students to read and learn; (IRA
4.4; RDI: IC3)
6. explain the relation between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension, as well
as strategies for developing; (IRA 1.4; RDI: IC1, IC3)
7. understand the role of prior knowledge in reading and strategies for building and accessing
background knowledge; (IRA 1.4; RDI: IC1, IC3)

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8. reflect upon ones instructional behaviors; (NMSA: 5K6; RDI: EC3, IC4, IC5)
9. design, plan, and implement instruction based on assessment data; (IRA 3.1, 3.3, 4.1; ISBE
2.2C; NMSA: 1K3, 1K2, 5K2; NMSA: 3P1; RDI: EC4, Ic1, IC2, IC3, IC4)
10. read, evaluate, and discuss literature for adolescents. (IRA 4.3; RDI: IC5)

Grading Procedures

Learning to make professional decisions and to examine their impact on your teaching and learning
are central goals of this class. Assigning letter or number grades does not improve your learning,
just as a principal telling a teacher he or she is doing a poor jobwithout an explanation as to
whydoes not make him or her a better teacher. Thus, letter grades will not be used to assess
individual assignments and daily work in the course, and there will be no points.

Instead, I have set up this class so that you can achieve the learning outcomes through informal and
formal feedback on your work in progress, and all of your work will be considered in progress until
we mutually agree that you have gotten the most out of each assignment given our time and
resources. Feedback is the assessment emphasis for this course because it is feedback and not
grades that help you achieve your potential as a teacher. Feedback may come from me or it may
come from your peers. My hope is that this freedom from grades will provide you with the
opportunities to take risks in your assignments, while also providing you a forum to re-envision,
revise and refine your submissions.

A final course grade will be based on earning badges. These badges serve as benchmarks to help
you track your progress toward accomplishing learning outcomes. A badge will be awarded once
we agree that you have successfully mastered a specific learning quest. There are a total of 16
available quests. Everyone must successfully complete four required quests (to be described in the
next section). You may choose the additional quests from the remaining 12 options. At a minimum,
to earn a badge you must provide enough detail to address all aspects of the quest and demonstrate
how the quest is applicable to teaching and learning.

To successfully pass the course, everyone must:
actively participate in the weekly discussions
earn a badge in the four required quests
successfully complete the epiphany project.
In addition to these requirements, the number of quests that successfully earn badges will
determine final grades:


A =
7 or more badges

B =
5-6 badges

C =
3-4 badges

D = 1-2 badges

Please note that a poorly designed epiphany of learning or untimely clinical blog posts may
result in the reduction of your final grade by one letter grade.

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Required Tasks

Online Textbook Activities and Weekly Discussions

You will be interacting directly with the textbook online by completing activities associated with
each chapter and/or topic. You will post your responses directly in the textbook online, and I will
check that you have completed the activities through the online system. Your interaction with these
activities is instrumental in preparing for class and extending your thinking related to literacy
teaching and learning.

You will also be asked to participate in weekly discussions about course readings. You will be
expected to be fully prepared to participate with the appropriate materials and tools and
demonstrate your willingness to engage and learn from me, your peers, and your experiences. This
expectation MUST be successfully completed in order to pass the course.

Required Quests
Literacy Analysis Project
The purpose of this assignment is to examine the variance in reading and literacy practices
across texts and disciplines and to help you think about reading as a complex activity of
making meaning from text. To do this, you will participate in three different literacy events:
1) a comparison of the reading experiences across different types of texts; 2) a personal
literacy practices content analysis; and 3) a day of shadowing a middle school student. Upon
the completion of these events, you will create a reflection that captures what you learned
about reading and literacy from these three experiences.

Case Study of Content Specific Literacy Practices
You will be given a collection of data that reflects a middle level students content-specific
literacy practices. Using this data, you will assess the students strengths and challenges and
create a plan to help foster the students literacy development in the content area.

Text Set
This assignment will require you to develop a set of texts to be used in your
multidisciplinary unit. You will assess the texts for their effectiveness for meeting curricular
goals you have set and for meeting the literacy needs of your students.

Multidisciplinary Unit Plan and Reflection
Upon reading a young adult novel that has multidisciplinary themes, you will design a unit
that features this novel as a centerpiece to the unit. Lessons will be designed for language
arts, social studies, science and math. You will also provide a written reflection that
demonstrates the thinking behind your decisions and the goals you hope to accomplish.

Additional Quests
These quests will be detailed fully on the course wiki. Each is designed to help you consider
different aspects of literacy and technology. You may select the quests that interest you the most or
that you feel will have the most direct impact on your development as a teacher of content area
literacy. These quests can be completed in any order.

Epiphany of Learning
The Epiphany of Learning is a leap of understanding in the process of learning. It is an ah-ha
moment or an aesthetic experience that leads to your own personal growth and broadening of

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horizons. Create a presentation with a technology tool that is new to you in order to express an
epiphany that synthesizes information that you have learned in the course.

Clinical Field Experience (20 hours)

This course requirement will be completed through a clinical field experience in a local school that
incorporates elements of collaboration with a mentor teacher as well as teaching, instructing, and
assessing students in a classroom setting.

Course Policies

Submitting Your Work

All course work will be submitted to the course Wiki. Using and learning technologies (such as
wikis) is a central goal of this course. Please maintain a detailed an organized Student Page, where
all work will be submitted. In the event that your assignment exists outside of the wiki (like your
blog) you should provide a link to it on your student page. Please note: emailed assignments will
not be accepted for submission.
Additionally, as we are submitting assignments in a very public forum, and files of the same name
can possibly be overwritten. To avoid this, please use a naming protocol for your files that is
specific to yourself, such as: Assignment_Last Name_Date of Submission.docx ex: Percell_Epiphany
of Learning_1.12.15_docx. (Note that you may make the titles of hyperlinks whatever you want, but
make sure the files that you upload are named specifically to yourself.)

Revising Your Work

Should you at any point in the semester make revisions to your work that you would like me to look
over please do the following:
Retitle (to reflect date change and resubmit)

Maintain my comments or those made by your peers in the margins (Do not delete!)

Highlight changes you have made

Make note of any deletions

I would recommend that you use track changes if you are working in Microsoft Word. By using this
feature, any changes you make are automatically noted, making it unnecessary for you to go back
and highlight your changes.

Open Communication

I look forward to getting to know each of you. While I do not schedule set office hours, I am always
open to finding time to meet with you. Please make an appointment to meet with me in my office
DeGarmo 252. While I make every effort to respond promptly to emails, please allow 24 hours for a
response. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours, feel free to email me again because there
is a chance your email is buried in my inbox.

Professional Behavior

Since this course is a part of the professional preparation core for teacher candidates, students are
expected to behave in a manner consistent with standards for professional environments. This
means:
Communicating in an open, positive, respectful attitude with peers, field site mentors and students,
the course instructor, faculty, staff, and administration. Communication in this course and clinical
field experiences includes spoken, nonverbal, digital, written, and electronic media. Appearing in
professionally accepted attire that reflects a commitment to the profession of teaching when

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working in school settings, conducting school/field experience duties, and during formal
presentations/class leading activities.

Being a professional takes practice! You are expected to communicate with me and your peers as
you would communicate with administrators and teachers. In written communication, specifically
in email and any other electronic communication, show respect by addressing the individual as you
would in a formal written letter. Use titles like Mr., Ms. or Dr. until directed otherwise. Use a subject
when sending an email.
In the body of the email, use clear language and avoid IM abbreviations and spelling errors.

Academic Integrity

Academic Integrity is expected in all classroom endeavors. Students are expected to be honest in all
academic work. A students placement of his or her name on any academic exercise shall be
regarded as assurance that the work is the result of the students own thought, effort, and study.

Plagiarism is the unacknowledged appropriation of another's work, words, or ideas in any themes,
outlines, papers, reports, or computer programs. Students must ascertain from the instructor in
each course the appropriate means of documentation. Submitting the same paper and/or
presentation for more than one course is considered a breach of academic integrity unless
prior approval is given by the instructors.

Online Behavior

Students are expected to behave in a manner consistent with being in a professional environment.
Open discussion and disagreement are encouraged in a respectful manner. Open hostility, rudeness,
and incivility are discouraged and will result in appropriate action.
Students acting in an uncivil manner may be dismissed from the class. If necessary, referrals may be
made to Community Rights & Responsibilities for violations of the Code of Student Conduct.

Our Course and Research on Teaching
As a scholar of education and a reflective educator, I study my own teaching practice. This means I
will be looking closely at the effectiveness of specific assignments, my delivery style and your
engagement styles, holistic effects of curriculum change, and the use of particular texts or
assessment processes. My reflections on our class activities and discussions could become data in
my research. Your anonymity will be protected. Consent for use of your coursework specifically will
be requested through regular institutional review board process and requires documentation of
your agreement. Your consent or refusal to participate in research will in no way influence my
evaluation of your performance in this class.

The Fine Print

Please Note: the instructor reserves the right to alter this syllabus or course schedule at any time
throughout the semester.