The reading minor is intended for elementary, secondary, or K-12 teacher certification candidates who wish to have a recognized area of strength in the teaching of reading and other language arts.

Expected Student Outcomes

As a result of successfully completing the reading minor, the student must be able to:

• Recognize, describe, diagnose, and teach all the generally accepted concepts, strategies and skills in the areas of oral language, reading readiness, emergent literacy, word recognition, comprehension, interpretation, literary appreciation, reading for information, critical reading and thinking, reference skills, study skills, oral reading, listening, speaking, English language usage, syntax, grammar, punctuation, capitalization, creative and informative writing, spelling and penmanship;
• Describe the role and importance of the child’s self-concept, experience and culture, home language and dialect, stages of growth and development, and success and familiarity with literature as factors in motivating growth in reading and the language arts;
• Plan lessons and teach effectively using a variety of grouping techniques, including whole class, individual, ability, and cooperative;
• Locate and use a variety of materials to teach reading and the other language arts. The materials include textbooks, basal readers, trade and library books, teacher-made materials, computer programs, student-generated texts, centers, newspapers, and children’s literature;
• Diagnose student reading levels and specific strengths and weaknesses, organize instruction to provide for the needs of the class and individual special students, adapt instruction in content areas to promote content learning, and develop reading and writing growth for all students;
• Recognize common causes of reading and writing difficulties and administer and interpret the scores of a variety of informal assessment techniques such as reading miscue inventories and norm-referenced standardized tests;
• Assess writing samples for diagnosis and prescription in expression, organization, fluency, sentence and paragraph development, theme, spelling, penmanship and fluency in work processing; and
• Explain the need to collaborate with parents, librarians, drama and other teachers to provide an effective language arts program.

Outcomes Assessment Activities

Assessment activities conducted for the Reading minor include the following: a review of:

1. Scores on standardized tests of content knowledge related to literacy;
2. Ratings of proficiency on program based on performance documented for standards in Goal 2 of students’ eportfolios; and
3. Self-evaluations/ratings of proficiency on program outcomes by program completers and graduates one year after teaching.

Specific Program Requirements

Students must complete the reading core with a GPA of 3.00 or better and complete the reading electives with a cumulative GPA of 2.60 or better. The minor requires completion of a minimum of 21 hours, 14 from core courses and 7 hours chosen from available electives with consultation with an education adviser. Many electives are available only in summer sessions.