Connecting Content with Literacy: Dynamic Strategies for Comprehension

(Grades 6-12) / Flex Course

PDI Course Number: 121T02 / UCSD Course Number: EDUC40398

Course Description

As a teacher in grades 6-12, do you struggle to incorporate literacy and comprehension best practices into your content-area classes? This online course provides teachers in grades 6-12 with a plethora of research-based strategies to tackle substantive literacy issues within their content-area classrooms. Teachers will learn how to incorporate vocabulary strategies within their content-area classrooms, and they will learn how to motivate students to read with cross-curricular reading strategies. Teachers will learn how to foster fluency within the content areas so that students’ speaking and listening skills are actively employed. Teachers will explore a variety of writing strategies that can be used during everyday content-focused lessons. Teachers will be introduced to the backwards planning process so that they understand how beginning with and always keeping the end result in mind helps ensure that literacy concepts are not left out of their content-area lessons. An overview of assessment will be shared, and teachers will learn a variety of strategies for assessing their students’ literacy skills, both formally and informally. By the end of this course, teachers will feel more confident and successful in their quest to implement research-based literacy strategies into their own teaching practices within the content areas. This course is worth 3 ⅓ semester units/5 quarter units (50 hours of training) from University of California San Diego (UCSD) Division of Extended Studies. For detailed information on university credit, click here.

"Excellent content and resources. I have enjoyed reflecting on my teaching and being able to add new strategies learned through this course." - Kerrie Busteed