Rationale

Reading is an interactive process and forms the basis for all other areas of learning in education and hence its incorporation in the Primary Education curriculum is crucial. It is important to note that reading and literacy foundation skills develop at an early age in children. This tends to be before the school years; hence, children form the base for later competence and proficiency. This course aims to equip and prepare teachers with sufficient language skills in order to enable them to proficiently teach the language, to deal with young learners at primary school level and therefore to handle reading programmes in schools with the utmost importance they deserve. Of critical consideration in the course will include topics such as Early Literacy Development and Early Reading Skills. The importance of communicating, reading, and rhyme to literacy development as well as the identification of early signs of literacy difficulties and the role of parents in literacy development will also be examined. Students through this course will explore multiple reading strategies, and reading approaches in beginning reading acquisition including the facilitation of comprehension. Writing and reading are intertwined skills hence the inclusion of strategies for teaching writing will be included in the course’s highlights. Other key issues dealt with in this course include assessments in literacy development, preparation of classroom materials and creation of conducive classroom environments for literacy learning. Students will benefit more by reading widely research study material found on the university VLE library.

Learning Outcomes

At the end of the course students will be expected to:

(i)    Explain the crucial role of English as a medium of communication.
(ii)   Compare and contrast aspects of the traditional approaches of reading.
(iii)  Explain how early literacy development beginning from home helps the progress of children at school.
(iv)  Use the 4 language skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking with accuracy and fluency. 
(v)   Identify approaches and strategies to foster literacy development in young children and explain how to engage young children in writing.
(vi)  Explain how the different strategies can be used appropriately.
(vii) Identify the different strategies to encourage writing in the primary grades.
(viii)Identify the different kinds of classroom-based assessment for literacy learning in the primary grade.