EDRD 314: Reading Instruction and Assessment for the Primary Grades
Pre- or Corequisites: EDUC 304 can be taken at the same time as EDRD 314.
Credit Hours: (3)
Students will learn developmental reading skills and abilities for emergent and beginning
readers. The course specifically focuses on teaching strategies and activities in
the areas of word recognition, decoding, spelling, fluency, and comprehension.
Detailed Description of Content of Course
Candidates will learn about:
- Phases in the typical developmental progression of oral language, phoneme awareness,
decoding skills, printed word recognition, spelling,
- How communication consists of listening, speaking, reading, writing, and viewing,
and how effective literacy instruction integrates these components,
- How the language systems (syntax, semantics, morphology, phonology, and pragmatics)
impact language acquisition and reading development,
- Components of explicit and systematic phonics and decoding instruction,
- Components of effective interactive read-alouds that build students’ vocabulary and
language comprehension,
- Assessments for spelling and phonological and phonemic awareness, and
- Virginia’s Early Learning and Development Standards and the Standards of Learning
for Language Arts
Detailed Description of Conduct of Course
This course includes, but is not limited to, lecture format with class discussion,
audio/visual presentations, guest speakers, lesson demonstrations, involvement in
online experiences, reading reflections, and limited participation in elementary school
classrooms. Students will develop a small group reading lesson plan and conduct an
interactive read-aloud with open-ended questions with a group of elementary-aged students.
Goals and Objectives of the Course
Upon completion of EDRD 314, students will:
- Demonstrate understanding of the content, knowledge, skills, and processes for teaching
Virginia’s Early Learning and Development Standards and the Virginia Standards of
Learning for English, including communication and reading,
- Use formal and informal assessments, such as screening, diagnostic, and progress monitoring
measures for the components of reading: phonemic awareness, letter recognition, decoding,
and spelling,
- Develop and assess primary grade students’ phonological and phonemic awareness skills,
- Apply knowledge of phonics patterns that inform the teaching of single and multisyllabic
words in English,
- Be proficient in explicit and systematic word recognition and spelling instruction,
including an understanding of sound and symbol relationships, syllables, phonemes,
word analysis, and decoding skills,
- Demonstrate the ability to foster an appreciation of a variety of literature,
- Select different types of texts according to instructional purposes and goals for
primary grade students (e.g., patterned text, decodable texts, grade-leveled texts),
- Understand the stages of spelling development, how to promote the generalization of
spelling study to writing, and be proficient in systematic spelling instruction, including
awareness of the purpose and limitations of “invented" spelling,
- Effectively demonstrates instructional routine for orthographically mapping high frequency
words,
- Plan and adapt evidence-based instruction related to pre-K/primary reading development
(i.e., concepts of print, phonological awareness, phonics, word recognition),
- Build accountable talk and ask open-ended questions during interactive read-alouds,
- Reflect on their ability to engage primary grade students in meaningful interactions
that encourage comprehension during a read-aloud, and
- Understand the characteristics of primary grade students with dyslexia and identify
evidence-based instructional practices that meet their needs.
Assessment Measures
Assessment Measures may include, but are not limited to:
- Final exam,
- Participating in class discussions and activities,
- Completing reading reflections,
- Designing, delivering, and reflecting upon a read-aloud for elementary-aged students,
- Designing small group reading instruction that targets students’ instructional reading
needs, and
- Scoring and analyzing primary grade students’ spelling inventories.
Other Course Information
None
Review and Approval
Revised April, 2009
May 10, 2024